Keith Abel talks new markets, making mistakes and mangetout

Guy has a lively conversation with the ebullient Keith Abel, founder of organic veg box trailblazers Abel and Cole, and, since 2014, Chairman and investor in Freddie's Flowers, a business which enjoyed exponential growth during 2020 and is accelerating plans for major expansion across the globe. After failing his Bar exams, Keith started selling potatoes door-to-door in south London and grew Abel and Cole into a business worth nearly £40m in 2007. He sold a stake to private equity firm Phoenix that year, but profits plunged and, in 2010, control of the business was passed on in a debt-for-equity swap. He bought back in shortly after and managed to turn the business around again, before going on to lend Abel and Cole alum Freddie Garland £10k to start his eponymous flower box delivery business in 2014. Keith’s is a rollicking tale of highs and lows, and his conversation with Guy is packed with invaluable learnings, from the value of door-to-door and face-to-face marketing versus digital and social, to exploiting a highly-engaged customer base to raise investment and grow a business, and how to convince someone that they simply have to have a product they never thought they needed.