Amelia Christie-Miller: the queen of beans with a bold ambition

Changing perceptions, though, is what the Bold Bean Co is all about. Since launching in 2021, the brand has been on a mission to educate people on the benefits of beans, from their green credentials to, in Christie-Miller’s words, “how the hell do you cook with them?”.

“That’s why our cookbook and our recipe content has been so pivotal to our success,” she says. “We’re combining: we’ve got an amazing product, but here’s also what you do with it. So I’ve always wanted to do something that makes eating beans more convenient. And of course, baked beans then becomes so obvious.”

It’s bold move considering how synonymous the product is with Heinz. Last year, the market leader’s Beanz racked up £223.1m in grocery, despite a 16.8% decline in volumes [NIQ 52 w/e 30 December 2023]. It’s roughly five times larger than nearest rival Branston.

Christie-Miller, though, sees a gap in the market. Many home workers who had previously relied on the likes of Pret or Itsu are now finding themselves indoors without the time to cook lunch, she says, pointing to research from Mintel.

“And there really aren’t many options, unless you’ve been super organised,” she says. “So we thought, we need something that’s store cupboard. We debated: Do we do pesto beans? Chilli beans? Puttanesca beans?”

During testing, it became apparent that even Bold Bean’s foodie consumers would be unsure exactly what to do with those options. “And consumers need to know exactly what they’re doing. You’ve only got five seconds that they’re shopping the category, and you don’t want them thinking: What am I going to do with some pesto beans?”

The decision was thus made to stick with the classic baked bean. Three flavour varieties – Classic, Smoky Chill and Rich Tomato – are available now from Sainsbury’s, Ocado and the Bold Bean Co website.

She admits “people might think it’s bonkers” to enter such an established category, but the aim is to create something “for people who love baked beans but feel like they’ve grown out of it”. Advice from a Sainsbury’s buyer revealed that many people leave the category once they become an adult, before reverting to buying baked beans if they have kids.

“So, we thought: How do we get that adult shopper? And I think people love baked beans, but it reminds them of being a kid or of being a student. They think: ‘I’m better than that now; I’m buying meals from M&S.’ But what’s so heartbreaking about that is that baked beans are an amazing food. They’re shelf stable, low waste, vegan and they’re really healthy.”

Clean beans

Bold Bean Co’s will be healthier than most, too, with a clean label containing celery, onions, carrot, apple cider vinegar and even tamarind. “We’re very much trying to replicate that nostalgic hit of what you think of as baked beans, but more refined,” says Christie-Miller.

She’s aware that more refined concept has been attempted before, without success. A brand named Proper Beans – later rebranded Masons Beans – came and went in the mid-2010s. Its founder Ben Mason gave some frank advice on the idea: “Don’t do it.”

Yet Christie-Miller believes her beans have an all-important difference. “We’re not trying to premiumise the baked bean category. We’re just trying to make people love beans. I feel like now it’s less about the premium journey and more mission-led.

“So, hopefully we can come in with a more authentic standpoint of: ‘We’re not just trying to premiumise and get you all to trade up,’ because we’re genuinely not. I don’t think that’s where the opportunity is. We’re trying to get people to come back to baked beans, because it’s something we should be really proud of as a nation.”

There are challenges for a premium product, which comes at a decidedly premium price of £3.50 for a 325g jar. In the throes of the cost of living crisis, shoppers moved away from brands like Heinz – which has pushed through some hefty price rises – to cheaper own label lines.

“I’ve always wanted to do something that makes eating beans more convenient”

As a result, own label volumes grew 12.7% last year, while brands fell 14.7% [NIQ 52 w/e 9 September 2023].

However, Bold Bean has previous at commanding a premium. While price is very much “front of mind”, Christie-Miller is bullish about the brand’s prospects.

“The data shows that, in the retailers we’re listed at, people are trading down into own label, but then they’re also trading up to us – we’re actually taking customers from own label.

“And I think that’s because, being really honest, beans and pulses have been commodity categories for so long, the own label and the brand are virtually the same, they taste virtually the same. But we do taste radically different. The trade up we’ve done in our existing category has been proven.

“And we’re trying to do exactly the same with baked beans – when you try them, they don’t look or taste anything like Heinz. We’re not trying to mimic the syrupy texture, and even the actual bean we’ve gone for is a slightly bigger bean, because we want that to be a point of difference. We’re not trying to compete.”

It would be brave to bet against Christie-Miller, given her success to date. After winning the Grocer Gold Startup of the Year award last year, Christie-Miller appeared on Dragons’ Den in March, when she secured a £50k investment from Deborah Meaden.

This year, the brand is forecast to sell over two million units, up from one million last year. Both value and volume growth is tracking at above 400%.

To capitalise on such figures and “become a mainstream brand”, Bold Bean recently launched smaller 520g jars of its core range at an rsp of £3.20, compared with its standard 700g jars, priced at £4. The hope is that “if you compare a £3.20 jar of beans to a packet of chicken, suddenly it’s not expensive”.

If the brand can go on to expand the £360m-plus baked beans market, all the better, says Christie-Miller. “Honestly, I see success as adding to the category. In the next two years if we could grow it by 10% that would be amazing – and I do think we can do that. The data’s showing we’re bringing in a younger shopper, and that’s our goal – to bring incrementality.

“The challenge we’ll have against someone like Heinz is secondary space, listings, the money they have to basically command ownership over baked bean key words,” she points out. “But when it comes to the product range, I know people might laugh, but I really don’t see us as competitors.”

“I see our competition as a shop-bought soup or a Pret sandwich, even avocados. I see competition from elsewhere, not from Heinz.” With that ambition, Bold Bean Co is certainly living up to its name.