A little article I wrote for Bath Student Impact newspaper this month..!

My interest in business all started when I met Will, Arctic Farm's co-founder, in the school playgrounds of Ripon back in 2000; we were eleven and selling sweets to unsuspecting classmates. Thankfully our new venture is a bit healthier than that and we’ve tried a few other things in between, but I think we’ve always known we would go into business together at some point.

Arctic Farm, our frozen yogurt company (which is now available in the SU shop) originally started back in December 2007. Will and I were freshers in Mendip and looking for something to do, having sold some t-shirts and enjoyed one Neighbours episode too many.

Frozen yogurt was something we had considered to have vast potential. I know a lot of people have never tried it or heard of it, which is a shame, as it’s a tremendous product in general. Imagine a fruit smoothie whipped with creamy yogurt, which is frozen to produce an ice cream-like, yet healthy indulgence.

That’s Arctic Farm. No added sugar, nasties or nonsense, just a way of making healthy food exciting and tasting good (apparently half the population don’t think plain yogurt is tasty).

Arctic Farm has provided us with a lot of challenges (and highs) thus far and will continue to do so. It’s been a project that has been our semi-reason for existence for the last two years and to say we’ve not scratched at the surface is an understatement. Our main achievements include designing the most simple frozen yogurt recipe we can find (a challenge heightened by our lack of culinary precision) and being stocked in the world’s greatest department store, Harrods. Oh, and not forgetting the SU shop.

However, commercially we’ve got a long way to go and drinks aren’t on us quite yet, I’m afraid. To make it in food manufacturing involves dealing in big numbers and that’s something we are working towards, but haven’t yet achieved yet, having only started trading in mid-August. Our road to achieving our objective of getting frozen yogurt into every supermarket in the country, as well as the social goals that we have at Arctic Farm, has only just begun and it’s certainly going to be a tough.

If you have an ambition to create a venture or start a company, I can only advise that you go for it, right away, whatever your current situation is. It’s a tough slog to get anywhere, we had to ring Harrods every day for 3 months for them to take our call, but as you make progress, it all becomes worth it. There’s no better place than here on campus by getting involved with BANTER the Entrepreneurs Society, you’ll learn a lot or possibly get your first break through them, as we did.

Visit them at www.bathstudent.com/banter and take a look the all the activities going on this year to help make your idea a reality!