Innovation and enterprise blog

The British Library Business & IP Centre can help you start, run and grow your business

26 May 2015

Welcome to Paul Lindley - our new Ambassador

Paul Lindley founder of Ellas Kitchen and products
Photo source: Ella’s Kitchen

Here at the British Library Business & IP Centre we are excited to announce Paul Lindley, Founder of Ella’s Kitchen, as our new Ambassador. Our Ambassadors come from a diverse range of business sectors and bring a variety of specialisms to their roles in helping to raise the profile of the Business & IP Centre services on a national and local basis. We are excited to have Paul speak at our next event, 'Inspiring Entrepreneurs: Going Global' in Liverpool on 22 June.

Prior to being a big business owner Paul started as Ella’s dad and like many parents had trouble getting his daughter to eat. To encourage Ella he used games at dinner time to make food fun and he also got to work in the kitchen creating food that was not only healthy but tasty too. And thus the idea for Ella’s Kitchen formed and started Paul on his journey from dad to entrepreneur to successful business owner.

Today Ella’s Kitchen is the biggest baby food business in the UK, turning over circa $100m last year, with products sold in over 30 countries around the world. Paul’s vision driving Ella’s Kitchen is to improve children’s lives by giving them a healthier relationship with food. Children are at the heart of everything they do - rather than aiming their products at parents, they make them appeal to the children themselves. Everything from the packaging and recipes to the names of products are directly influenced by children. 

Ellas Kitchen products image BigTastes
Photo source: Ella’s Kitchen

As a dedicated dad and business man Paul is now focusing on a new start-up, Paddy’s Bathroom, a range of fun natural and organic toiletries for toddlers named after his son. Similar to the idea behind Ella’s Kitchen, Paul’s new venture also has a social message at the core of the business model - for each drop of water a child uses to wash him/herself a village in Rwanda gets a drop of clean water too.

Here at the Business & IP Centre we were keen to connect Paul to other socially driven entrepreneurs. In February of this year we invited him to speak to over 350 small business owners at our Inspiring Entrepreneurs event. Paul gave invaluable tips and advice to other entrepreneurs looking to scale up. 

 

In fact, Paul had used the Library himself at the early stages of researching Ella’s Kitchen. Since then the Library has expanded its business and intellectual property resources and service to include a wide range of practical workshops, webinars, 1:1 advice sessions and networking events, delivered by Library staff and business experts. To date, over 400,000 people have used the Centre, with research showing that over a third of them are driven by making a social and environmental impact – just like Paul. 

Paul had this to say about his new role: “I’m honoured to become an ambassador for such a game changing organisation.  The British Library’s Business & IP Centre has the credibility, assets and potential to fundamentally improve the likelihood for any British entrepreneur to succeed.  It’s open, assessable and of such quality to aspiring entrepreneurs that I’ll be humbled if acting as an ambassador can help spread awareness and its use.”

Paul Lindley giving a talk at Inspiring Interns

Roly Keating, CEO of the British Library, is pleased to welcome Paul as an Ambassador; “We are proud and delighted to welcome Paul Lindley as a Business & IP Centre Ambassador. He’s a great advocate of entrepreneurship as a force for good. Paul’s expertise and experience will help us to continue to champion entrepreneurs and small business owners from all walks of life, helping them to launch and develop their businesses."

Join us in Liverpool, on 22 June 2016, to hear Paul tell his story of starting and growing a successful global business. 

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