Spencer Craig
California dreamers
Spencer Craig, 26, from London, and Greg Castle, 26, from New York, opened Pure California, a Soho-based sandwich, salad and smoothie outlet with a healthy slant, in June 2005.
What gave you the idea for Pure California?
![Greg Castle [left] and Spencer Craig](/static/uploads/news_and_features/ambassadors/images/spencer_craig.jpg)
There wasn't one, single, 'eureka' moment, as such; I'd just been a bit fed up with eating the same, boring kinds of sandwiches for lunch every day, and a bit concerned about how they weren't necessarily that healthy.
My friend Greg, who's from New York, showed me how easy it was to find nutritious and healthy things for lunch over there. We were sitting in a park last May, and I was talking about my frustrations. We'd talked in the past about trends, and business ideas, and so that prompted a chain of thought.
What were you doing at the time you had the idea?
I was working for a company called FreshMinds [company directors Caroline Plumb and Charlie Osmond are MYM campaign ambassadors] a sales and account manager, and Greg worked for Bloomberg.
What was the first thing you did to try and make the idea happen?
We looked at possible markets, and did a lot of research, first. A lot of people we knew worked in offices, and had the same complaints about healthy eating.
I visited New York to get an idea of what was available, and came to the conclusion that if we associated with the healthy, sunny, Californian lifestyle, that would be really appealing. Plus, 'Pure California' sounds better than 'Pure New York'!
We also looked at potential competition – we sampled a lot of smoothies and wraps, as well as experimenting with our own recipes. Going out to buy sandwiches and coming back home to weigh the contents was a bit weird, but necessary! Once we were convinced that there was potential, we quit our jobs.
Who helped you, and how?
Friends and family helped a lot, initially, and gave us a lot of advice. They also put us in touch with one of our investors, who is in the restaurant business. No one specific person helped in particular, but different people told us about lots of different things, eg brand integrity, where to source suppliers, etc.
One organisation we found really useful was Centa, a business consultancy in London. They helped us fine-tune a business plan, and put us in touch with HSBC, who helped fund us.
When did the idea start looking viable, ie that it was going to happen?
Once we'd decided we were going to go ahead and do this, there was no going back!
The idea looked viable from that moment onwards. When we officially opened our first branch on Beak Street in Soho, London, all we hoped for was that it was a success, initially.
Then we hoped that it would start to grow. Four months in, it was looking healthy, and ten months later, we were showing definite signs of growth, so it's working out as we hoped.
What obstacles did you encounter along the way?
The main obstacle was getting the funding. We went to around 10 bank managers, and were rejected outright by seven of them, which was fairly dispiriting. It did mean that we refined our business plan over and over, so by the time we visited the last three, we got offers from all of them!
The other difficulty was finding the right property to trade from. We had to find the right size, for the right price, and convince a landlord that we were a mid to long term prospect.
When did the idea officially get up and running?
We opened in June, 2005, so we’re nearly a year old now.
Future plans for the idea?
We want to move into three more sites over the next 12 months, and possibly open a juice/smoothie bar or kiosk in a major shopping centre or station.
However, the short term aim is to colonise the West End of London! We also hope to get through to the UK finals of the Shell Livewire Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards.
Advice to anyone else who wants to make their idea happen?
My advice would be to ask a lot of questions, of as many people as possible. And not to hide your idea away. Also, trust your instincts. Get as much good advice as you can, and then go for it!