"If you are losing faith in human nature, go out and watch a marathon". That’s a quote from Kathrine Switzer, the first ever woman to run the Boston Marathon. I have a feeling, it’s one Pip Murray, founder of Pip & Nut, and The Grocer Gold Award Winner for Entrepreneur of the Year 2024, might agree with.
As The Grocer points out, “Purpose has been the driving force behind Pip & Nut right from the beginning…Murray started making her own peanut butter in 2013 to fuel her marathon training.”
“Pip & Nut emerged out of my love of running,’ Murray told The Telegraph, “…whenever I was training…peanut butter was what I ate on toast after a run.”
Palm oil is often cited as a major driver of global deforestation and Murray couldn't find a palm-oil-free peanut butter. This clashed with her own strongly held principles on sustainability . Her faith, if you like, in her own nature. So, she decided to create one.
That was eleven years ago. “Today,’ says The Grocer, “Pip & Nut is the fastest-growing brand in UK nut butters, having amassed more than 45,000 stocking points, including all the major grocers.”
Every new consumer sector startup quickly discovers they have embarked on a marathon, not a sprint, and the ‘Grocer Gold Winner’ has some sage advice for would-be founders: “You need to be able to stand in front of a buyer and, hand on heart, say your product is better than your competitors, so spend time refining your recipe and create a brand that really stands out on shelf,” she told The Telegraph
True to Murray’s sustainable principles, Pip & Nut invest in projects across the world to offset its emissions. That, according to The Grocer, includes “the Rimba Raya Biodiversity Reserve in Indonesia, which works to preserve endangered species pushed to the brink by palm oil plantations.”
In 1967, the indomitable Kathrine Switzer, had to fight before her race had even begun. Just to be allowed to run the Boston Mathon as a woman. Switzer’s personal best time was 2:51:37. Can Murray beat it? That seems unlikely. But Pip & Nut turned over £10.9 million last year. And she’s only 37. In business terms, her race only halfway run.