Most food businesses start with a plan. Market research, consumer testing, financial projections, a launch strategy. Anna Gorman did none of that — and built a nationally distributed brand anyway. Because she created a product people really want.
Plantside’s vegan Yorkshire puddings now sit in independent retailers across the UK. Customers post their roast dinners on social media without being asked. Influencers with tens of thousands of followers share the products without any formal partnership. The business has doubled in size every year since launch.
And it all started because Anna wanted to keep herself busy during lockdown.
From hospitality to accidental food manufacturer
Anna spent 20 years in the pub and restaurant industry, learning every role from the ground up before opening her own venues. She pivoted to vegan event catering and opened a small café to use as a base. The timing couldn’t have been worse, though. The café opened two weeks before the first COVID lockdown.
With the doors closed and time on her hands, Anna decided to tackle a challenge that had frustrated vegan cooks for years: making Yorkshire puddings that actually rise without eggs. After seven weeks of trial and error — and eating a lot of failed attempts — she opened the oven to find perfect Yorkshire puddings staring back at her.
They were meant for the café’s 30-seat roast dinners. Nothing more. But customers had other ideas. They started asking to buy extra portions to take home. Then friends of customers started emailing from around the country, asking if Anna could post them some.
A partnership with Mighty Plants gave the products their first proper stockist. Orders doubled month on month. Independent shops started getting in touch. Before Anna had written a business plan, she had a business.
The moment she nearly walked away
Growth wasn’t without its doubts. At a packaging trade show, she felt completely out of her depth. Some exhibitors wouldn’t give her the time of day because the business was small. In a panel session, she asked Jo Fairley, founder of Green and Black’s, if she’d consider investing. The answer was a polite no.
Anna was almost ready to quit. Then a stranger called Carol Carson, who worked in the beauty industry, came over for a chat. She offered encouragement, a few contacts, and the simple message that Anna could do this. That one conversation changed everything. Anna left the trade show with the confidence to keep going.
What you’ll learn in this episode
Anna joined the How to Grow a Food Business podcast recently, sharing the unfiltered story of building Plantside including the wins, the frustrations, and the decisions she’s still wrestling with. Tune in now to discover what happens when you create a product people really want:
- Why she uses “plant-based” instead of “vegan” on the packaging, and the psychology behind consumer reactions to both terms
- How a simple email led to a brand collaboration with TH!S sausages
- The challenge of convincing non-vegan chefs to stock products their vegan customers desperately want
- Scaling a handmade product without losing quality
- The ethical tension between pursuing supermarket listings and protecting the independent retailers who supported her from the start
- Why she’s never done any formal marketing – and whether that needs to change
Whether you’re building a food brand, thinking about starting one, or just curious about how products go from kitchen experiment to shop shelves, Anna’s story is refreshingly honest about what it actually takes.
Listen to the full episode of How to Grow a Food Business now.
