Full Power Cacao achieves supercharged sales with support from Recipe4Succcess

A Manchester-based business selling cacao products has passed the milestone of £100k in sales in just over a year with the support of the Recipe4Success programme from GC Business Growth Hub.

Full Power Cacao founder Liam Browne was inspired to set up his business after a trip to Guatemala where he learned about the mental and physical health benefits of cacao, which is a natural anti-depressant, aids digestion, reduces tiredness and contains 15 times more antioxidants than blueberries.

Initially he began on a small scale, importing cacao to share with friends and selling at his cacao ceremonies before attempting to find a place for Full Power Cacao within a niche market in the UK.

Liam said: “We’ve become already one of the major players in the UK, I think, in terms of sales. Which has all been pretty much totally organic, through social media, promoting what I do, the ceremonies, the yoga retreats, the facilitator training and all that.“I think people buy into the energy that I and my partner put into it and the name Full Power, which kind of does exactly what it says on the tin. Our brand is incredible. The two sides of the business, the selling of the cacao and the ceremony and training side, they feed into each, and complement each other.”

Looking to take the business to the next level, Liam’s business coach recommended that he contacted GC Business Growth Hub, applying for its Recipe4Success programme, which is a comprehensive programme of support for Greater Manchester-based SME food and drink businesses with the aspiration to grow.

Working with programme lead Marc Appleton, he quickly started to get more inspiration for how to improve Full Power Cacao’s business offer: “What I got from the programme were ideas. Ideas on where I can improve, where we can generate more sales, where we can, for instance, get better e-mail marketing,” said Liam.

“All the way through the sessions I was constantly writing, constantly messaging my PA, just to say right, we need to do this, make a note of this. The sessions really sparked a lot of ideas and actions, which was amazing and really valuable.

“It was also an opportunity to be in a room with 10 people and educate them about cacao and its benefits. Not a lot of people know about it. And then it was just very good getting the vibe of other people being passionate about what they’re doing.”

Full Power Cacao has already achieved great things, with Liam explaining that he has some lofty goals in sight: “We hit £100,000 worth of online sales at the beginning of this year, which is pretty incredible in just over a year. That was just solely through the website. Obviously, there is a lot of other sales events and festivals that I sell in person and that is not accounted for in that calculation.

“The bigger picture for us is to is to have a movement where we’re taking over from coffee within 10 years. Not necessarily just Full Power, but to be the leading light within that. I talked about all this at the first session with Recipe4Sucess and you know everybody, Marc included, looked at me like I was a nutter when I said it’s going to take over from coffee within 10 years, but I think the more they’ve got to know me and the more they’ve seen the progression of what I do, I think a few of them are going, you know, this could actually happen.”

Marc Appleton, Recipe4Success programme lead, said: “Liam’s passion for the benefits of cacao is infectious, so we’re delighted to see how much he has already achieved. He has taken the learnings from the programme to heart and the impressive sales figures show that there’s a market for Full Power Cacao and he has the energy and drive to even give coffee a run for its money.”

You can find out more about Recipe4Success at https://www.businessgrowthhub.com/recipe4success.

Businesses looking to access specialist support can visit www.businessgrowthhub.com for more information about the organisation’s extensive range of services. This and other GC Business Growth Hub projects are part-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the GM Business Growth Hub project designed to help ambitious SME businesses achieve growth and increase employment in Greater Manchester. The Hub is also supported by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and Greater Manchester local authorities.