Shropshire Farming Talk: How Harper Adams helped start-up business

BSc (Hons) Agri-Food Marketing and Business student, Zoe Legg contacted us in 2021, wanting to get her foot through the door in the health supplement world – while backing the UK’s dairy farmers - with her Better On British Whey brand.

The AGRI Project, which is part funded by the European Regional Development Fund, is a partnership between Harper Adams University and Aston University, providing free business support to eligible small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the agri-tech and food and drink sectors based in the Shropshire and Telford and Wrekin regions.

Our multi-disciplinary team works closely with budding entrepreneurs, like Zoe, providing bespoke and tailored support to help bring new products to the market.

Better On Ltd was developed by Zoe, after she found it difficult to increase her protein content for fitness, due to food intolerances. The initial idea began in the covid pandemic, as she uses a high protein diet to support her mental and physical health.

She wanted to promote this through the brand to others – but couldn’t find suitable British whey producers.

The support we give businesses like Zoe’s is divided into two stages, Innovation Review and Innovation Support – the goal is to provide tailored support to allow for innovative, productive and efficient results.

For Zoe, her Innovation Review was 12 hours of support, and identified local cheese producers that could supply Better On with liquid whey for developing the product. The team also researched how to process liquid whey into powder form and identified the best method to do this for the business, in terms of ease and cost.

Her Innovation Support stage – a minimum of 60 hours – looked at a pilot production trial. This could provide samples for market research, identify manufacturing issues early and help optimise processes before the product is produced on a larger scale.

We helped with nutritional analysis on whey from a local supplier and identified the percentage protein content, to find out if the local suppliers’ whey was suitable. The first time, it wasn’t – but we helped Zoe find alternative companies to contact – helping boost her research.

By 2022, Zoe had also secured support from the Prince’s Trust with building and launching Better On and received funding for creating recyclable packaging. She had also sourced suitable British whey for the product, had it manufactured by a British company and used a local designer for the packaging and logos.

She officially launched the product in December 2022 at the Harper Adams University Christmas market.

Better On now sells online, in shops in Newport, and in gyms in Zoe’s hometown of Exeter. It’s been great to work with her to develop a product from her initial idea through to market – and we wish her every success!

Article by Melissa Sambrook works for the AGRI Project, which provides free business support to the agri-tech and food and drink sectors, as a Project Officer