Grocer Gold Awards 2024: Entrepreneur of the Year

No comments

Pippa Murray

Pip & Nut started life in 2013 as a DIY post-race refuel snack by keen marathon runner and company founder Pip Murray

Winner: Pip Murray, Pip & Nut

Purpose has been the driving force behind Pip & Nut right from the beginning. Founder Pip Murray started making her own peanut butter in 2013 to fuel her marathon training.

It was a move borne out of frustration that nut butters all contained unnecessary artificial additives and were packed with palm oil – an ingredient synonymous with deforestation.

Following a successful trial selling her home-made lines at a London street food market, Murray launched her brand into Selfridges in 2015, and snared a Sainsbury’s listing soon afterwards.

Ever since, Murray has been shaking up the category with her range of all-natural nut butters and snacks – and most recently, confectionery lines.

Today, Pip & Nut is the fastest-growing brand in UK nut butters, having amassed more than 45,000 stocking points, including all the major grocers.

Alongside prioritising taste, sustainability has always been central to the B Corp brand’s ethos. An annual impact report outlines the work done to sustainably source peanuts and almonds, while a 2021 move from plastic to glass jars led to the business being certified as carbon neutral in 2023.

The brand also invests in projects across the world to help offset its emissions footprint as part of its mission to be net zero by 2040. That includes the Rimba Raya Biodiversity Reserve in Indonesia, which works to preserve endangered species pushed to the brink by palm oil plantations.

Murray is equally a force for good outside of her own brand. She joined the B Lab UK board of trustees in 2023 and this year formed Jedi Matters – a collective with a vision to use the power of SMEs to deliver a more Just, Equitable, Diverse & Inclusive society.

She is also working to drive better representation for women in business: 80% of her leadership team is female.

In 2023, Pip & Nut achieved record national brand awareness thanks to savvy PR initiatives such as its popular advent calendar and eye-catching collaborations with the likes of coffee brand Grind and ice cream maker Hackney Gelato.

Not only did it overtake Sun-Pat in terms of market share, but it was the only nut butter to buck wider category declines – thanks to increased distribution in the major retailers.

Judges agreed Murray was a “very worthy winner”.

“Pip is an exceptional all-round founder,” one judge said. “She’s very commercial but also very purpose-led.”

Another judge added: “What she’s done in nut butters is phenomenal, and she’s also working hard to prove the brand outside the category.

“She’s done an outstanding job in propping up a category in decline, with most of the meaningful growth in recent years coming from Pip & Nut.

“Pip has also done phenomenally in retaining loyalty with consumers during a cost of living crisis, when there are cheaper own-label alternatives. There’s a reason why customers are willing to still pay a premium for the brand.”