The choice that changes everything

Tough going: Craig Sams battled inertia and skepticism to create organic success stories.

Pioneer isn’t a label that Craig Sams feels comfortable with. The man who is synonymous with so many innovative brands in the organic sector simply chuckles when I describe him as a trailblazer of the movement.

So, put his modesty aside for a moment and consider his record. He was the owner of London’s first macrobiotic restaurant, Seed, which was frequented by John Lennon, Yoko Ono and the Rolling Stones, as well as many other sixties icons; he founded Whole Earth Foods; created the first British Fairtrade product, Green and Black’s maya gold chocolate bar; and has been the chairman of the Soil Association since 2001.

Throw in other titles such as author, ambassador, grower and baker and you start to get a picture of the man who is now putting all his energies into a smaller enterprise, Judges Bakery, in Hastings on the UK’s south coast.

“It was very difficult in the beginning,” recalls Craig. “We were marginalised in the extreme, as we weren’t just pushing the organic message – it was about macrobiotics, too. When I launched my first business with my brother in the late sixties we thought it would be a matter of years before the whole world swung around to our way of thinking because it made such perfect sense not to poison the environment and not to damage your own internal environment. The combination of healthy eating and healthy farming was a no-brainer.

“We were young and had no idea of the vested interested of big business and general human inertia. People like their burgers and chips and you can’t just tell them to stop eating them. It turned out to be a much longer, harder slog than we could have imagined.”

It was health problems that Craig, now 65, suffered while travelling as a young man that prompted him to pursue a life without chemical nasties. “While I was in India I became very ill, so much so that I actually could conceive of my own mortality for the first time. While I realised that immortality wasn’t possible I certainly treasured life enough to live it as healthily and as long as possible. I never wanted to feel as awful as I did in Delhi again,” he says.

“To me eating a healthy diet of food that I really enjoyed was an obvious path forward. What I fail to understand is that most of my contemporaries haven’t had that eye-opening experience – like every other teenager they felt like nothing would ever wither them. I’ve realised that it’s quite hard to persuade perfectly healthy people that changing their diet makes a difference.”

He admits that although he has been largely successful at getting the message out to the general public, he still doesn’t have all the answers. “It is the greatest mystery of my life,” he says. “It is nothing to do with race, sex, education or income – some people get the healthy and organic message and some people don’t. What I do know is that people who go organic never go back. It is the single most effective choice you can make to make the world a better place - you can do yourself, the planet, society and the economy good all at the same time.”

There is no doubt that Craig Sams is a successful businessman. For example, his recent sale of his stake (20 percent) in iconic organic chocolate brand Green and Black’s to Cadbury Schweppes is believed to have earned him and his wife, beauty journalist Josephine Fairley, around £4 million.

However, this success has not come easily, as the man himself attests when he talks of having many sleepless nights over cashflow problems in the nineties. But his entrepreneurial spirit has driven his career forward. Matched with a strong ethical and health stance, it has seen product innovations such as fruit juice sweetened jams, organic peanut butter and the organic herbal energy drink, Gusto, as well as the runaway success of Green and Black’s (the name represents the green of organic and black of the dark chocolate).

“The history of my business career to date has been an innovation, a period of monopoly and then aggressive competition. I was the first to do fruit juice sweetened jams, organic peanut butter and Fairtrade chocolate,” Craig says. “The great thing about the chocolate was that it was very hard for anybody to compete with us because we built the business on our relationship with cocoa growers. We had farmers who produced the best quality cocoa beans and so that particular niche lasted a lot longer.

“Sometimes you realise that you’ve taken the brand as far as it can go and it’s time for a bigger company to move in. That’s what happened with Green and Black’s and Whole Earth Foods, and in both those cases we sold to people who had huge respect for the brand and took it further than we were able.”

His businesses have always been a family affair. He began Whole Earth Foods in 1967 with his brother Gregory, set up Green and Black’s with his wife and is helping his son Karim with his own organic fruit juice smoothie enterprise, Soma.

It’s no surprise then that Craig admits he enjoys working with his family, citing his partnership with Josephine as a particular highlight. He also observes that working with family enables small businesses to grow “organically”, as family members tend to have the muck-in attitude that is needed to make the business work. “The advantage of a family business is you have people outside of the legal requirements of working hours and the minimum wage. Getting a business like this off the ground means that the whole family becomes involved and there are huge commitments and sacrifices to be made. The benefits come much later.”

In addition to being proud of his achievements with organic brands, Craig is equally satisfied with his involvement with the Soil Association. As chairman he has overseen an intense period of growth within the organisation and the recognition by public figures of its important role in food and farming policy.
“It has been gratifying that now people not only hear when the Soil Association speaks but also feel obliged to address the comments we make. We have put food and farming on the agenda and I’m thrilled about that.”

While he is coming to the end of his tenure as chairman, he will continue to be involved with the organisation that is so close to his natural values. Having recently published Sweet Dreams, an account of how he and Josephine created Green and Black’s, Craig is happy to keep expanding Judges for now. I wonder if there are any more innovations in the pipeline? “Well, I am working on a new technology project,” he says. “But that’s a whole other story.” Maybe next time.