With Mother’s Day fast approaching, we caught up with our founder, Andrew Newlands, and our co-founder, Pam Bateman, to learn more about their dynamic as business owners as well as being mother and son.
Celebrating Mother’s Day with our Founder and Co-Founder!
Q: How long have you worked together?
Pam: We’ve worked together for over 20 years, and in actual fact, it’s probably about 22 years wouldn’t you say? There was an immediate synergy and it was just apparent to us both that there was a formula here that was really working and remarkably we’ve been working together ever since!
Q: 3 words to describe each other…
Andrew: Confident, inspiring, powerful.
Pam: I was going to say inspiring! Eloquent, passionate and high-energy.
Q: What do you enjoy about working together?
Andrew: Communication for me.
Pam: That was exactly what I was going to say!
Andrew: You know how satisfying it is just being able to talk clearly, plainly, honestly, openly without all the baggage that comes from, I suppose, not being related. It’s just really simple, and being able to just be really honest about a situation and get nothing but honesty back. There’s no better way to improve really than if you have your harshest critic present…
Pam: Speed of communication is what I was going to say, because you know how sometimes you can go around and around in circles… yet for us, it’s like, in, done, out! And we’re both the same in that regard, so we achieve what we need to achieve but we don’t waste a lot of time.
Q: What do you both love most about your job?
Andrew: The most enjoyable aspect of my job is creating new products. I have the privilege of being able to work with some really creative people, and bringing ideas together of flavour and design and structure and even the commercial aspect is incredibly satisfying.
Pam: Mine is building relationships, I absolutely love it – whether it’s internal or external, that’s what I’m entirely about. So for me, it’s been a hugely enjoyable part of what I do.
Q: Do you have a stand-out moment since working together?
Andrew: In the early years of the business, Mum and I pitched for our lives – a tremendous opportunity with a new supplier, and getting it right meant that we would break into a brand new area of the confectionery market, and we were a small team – very, very small. So the two of us went out to Italy, where the supplier was based, and pitched in front of their board. We won, and knowing that we had been successful as we left, and then returning home in that wonderful, glorious moment of triumph – I’m never going to forget that.
Q: Andrew, which Monty Bojangles product would you gift to Pam this Mother’s Day?
Andrew: Our Magnificent Truffle Selection box! It’s absolutely beautiful, a wonderful gift. It’s magnificent by nature which is appropriate, and it has nine flavours so it has all of the variety that your eclectic personality implies is appropriate!
Pam: If I could choose, I have an absolute passion for the tins, I totally love them – the kit-tins in particular.
Andrew: That’s been fun, right?
Pam: That was really fun.
Andrew: Happy Mother’s Day!
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