Richard John Reed, CBE (born 13 February 1973) is a British businessman, entrepreneur and public speaker. He is the co-founder of Innocent Drinks (founded in 1999 ),[1][2][3] an international company producing fresh fruit smoothies and vegetable pots sold in various outlets around the world, and of Jamjar Investments (founded 2012).[4] He pioneered "wackaging" – quirky messages on packaging – of products such as smoothies.[5][6]
Richard Reed | |
|---|---|
| Born | 13 February 1973 Kirkheaton, West Yorkshire, England |
| Alma mater | St. John's College, Cambridge |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Known for | Co-founder of Innocent Drinks and Jamjar Investments |
| Awards | |
| Website | |
Biography
editRichard Reed was born in 1973 in Kirkheaton, West Yorkshire, and grew up in Mirfield.[7] He attended Batley Grammar School and went on to study geography at St John's College, Cambridge (1991–94),[8] after which he worked as an account manager in an advertising agency for four years.[1] In 1998, with fellow Cambridge graduates Adam Balon and Jon Wright, he set up a smoothie and drinks company called Innocent Drinks, initially operating from a market stall. Reed said in an interview with The Financial Times: "After we left our jobs, we had no cash – just one month's salary each that we tried to eke out for two months. We each ran up debts of about £15,000 from overdrafts and credit cards.... It took us four years before we were back to earning £40,000 – the same salary that we had left."[1] Their brand over the years grew to become the biggest in Europe and in 2013 was sold to Coca-Cola.[7]
Reed is involved with various charities, and is the founder of Art Everywhere[9] and co-founder of the Innocent Foundation and in 2012 of JamJar Investments.[4] He also presented the BBC Three television series Be Your Own Boss.[10][11]
He is the author of If I Could Tell You Just One Thing...Encounters with Remarkable People and Their Most Valuable Advice (Canongate Books, 2016, ISBN 978-1782119227),[12][5] donating the author's profits from the book to five mentoring and social inclusion charities.[13]
At the 2016 Queen's Birthday Honours, Reed was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to the food industry and to charity.[7][14]
Reed resides in West London.[15]
References
edit- ^ a b c "My First Million: Richard Reed of Innocent Drinks", Financial Times, 1 July 2011.
- ^ Bennett, Asa, "Innocent Drinks’ Richard Reed Talks Entrepreneurship, Dragons Den And Hollywood", HuffPost, 26 July 2013.
- ^ "Richard Reed, Innocent Drinks", Business – BBC News, 15 October 2010.
- ^ a b Ruthven, Hunter, "Innocent Drinks founders invest in child car seat though Jam Jar fund", Real Business, 31 May 2015.
- ^ a b Lewis, Tim (23 October 2016). "Richard Reed: 'Will wackaging be my contribution to the species?'". The Guardian.
- ^ Nicola, "The Rise of Wackaging", Edible Geography, 23 October 2016.
- ^ a b c Glover, Chloe (19 October 2016). "CBE for Innocent Smoothies co-founder Richard Reed". The Huddersfield Daily Examiner.
- ^ "Richard Reed". LinkedIn. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
- ^ "Art Everywhere", Art Fund.
- ^ "Behind the book", If I Could Tell You Just One Thing website.
- ^ "Richard Reed", Be Your Own Boss, BBC Three.
- ^ If I Could Tell You Just One Thing... at Canongate.
- ^ "The charities", If I Could Tell You Just One Thing website.
- ^ "Queen's Birthday Honours 2016: Full list of great and the good awarded for services to their country", Daily Mirror, 11 June 2016.
- ^ Sheppard, Sophia Sleigh, Owen (25 May 2018). "Innocent smoothie tycoon enrages neighbours with basement plan". Evening Standard.
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