The Right Ingredients - Episode 12 - Early-Stage Growth Inside an Ingredients Startup скачать в хорошем качестве

The Right Ingredients - Episode 12 - Early-Stage Growth Inside an Ingredients Startup

Welcome to the Aston Chambers podcast, “The Right Ingredients”, hosted by Aston Chambers. We are a specialist executive search firm focused on the flavours, fragrances, and speciality ingredients industries. In each episode, we dive deep into the world of recruitment, offering expert advice to both candidates and hiring managers. We cover everything from interview preparation and standing out in a competitive market to providing an exceptional candidate experience. In this episode, we go inside early-stage growth in a speciality ingredients business and look at what it really demands once the science works and the market starts paying attention. Growth at this stage is rarely about headline revenue. It’s about building momentum, proving repeatability, and creating the internal capability to deliver what customers expect, at pace, without losing control of quality, operations, or focus. I’m joined by Bertrand Martel, CEO of cReal Food AB. Bertrand joined cReal around six months ago, bringing a deep background in senior commercial strategy, pipeline leadership, and P&L roles within large global ingredient organisations. He’s now applying that experience in a much smaller, faster-moving business where the rules are different and the margin for error is smaller. We talk about what “growth” actually means in practice when you’re still scaling production and building demand at the same time. Bertrand explains why the opportunity pipeline becomes the most honest indicator of progress, what he looks for in project phases, and how you avoid misalignment between customer timelines and manufacturing readiness. We also explore the shift from internal focus (plant, systems, procedures, people) to external focus (customer expectations, application performance, packaging, logistics, and proving value in real-world use). We dig into the commercial capabilities that become critical as traction turns into scale, including sales excellence, decision-maker mapping, and managing time and attention against the right opportunities. On the R&D side, Bertrand shares how the role evolves from leading the company through industrialisation to listening to the market and shaping the next wave of product development, plus how cReal bridges commercial and R&D through a “technical engagement” role designed to connect the dots and prevent customer feedback from getting lost internally. Finally, we get into the people side of early-stage growth: when to hire versus develop, what qualities matter most in a lean team, and the mindset required to thrive when everyone is stretched and priorities shift weekly. If you’re leading, joining, or supporting a growing ingredients company, this conversation gives a practical view of how to turn early wins into repeatable, scalable progress. Don’t forget to like, comment, share, and subscribe for more recruitment-focused conversations from The Right Ingredients. 👉 www.aston-chambers.com