Amazon's young entrepreneur of the year started his million pound smoothie business in a shed

Luke Johnstone, 27, co-founded frozen smoothie kit company PACK’D less than three years ago
Naomie Ackerman23 December 2016

A Londoner who built up a business while living in a freezing, spider-infested shed in his parents’ garden has been named young entrepreneur of the year.

Luke Johnstone, 27, co-founded frozen smoothie kit company PACK’D less than three years ago. It is now set to make a £1 million profit, with its products selling in supermarkets across the capital.

Mr Johnstone, from Herne Hill, won the accolade at the Amazon Growing Business Awards.

He said: “I grew up on quite a tough estate, but I got plucked from there a bit like Billy Elliot to do a tennis scholarship. Then when I was 15 I got a bad sports injury so had to give up tennis — but I took the nutrition knowledge with me.

“Playing tennis five times a week with a personal nutritionist it was easy to stay healthy and fit, but working crazy hours at a desk it was much harder, like it is for all Londoners.

“I was making these smoothies with frozen berries and about 10 ingredients. I realised I had no idea how good these mixes are, there was no nutritional quality information. So I saw a gap in the market.”

He set up PACK’D with his schoolfriend Alex Stewart, 27. He said: “When I quit my BBC job at 24 to start the business I had to move home and I lived in a shed at the end of my parents’ garden for two years. They had turned my bedroom into an office, which was fair enough, so we just put heaters and a bed in the shed. This was not a cool converted shed. It was freezing — there were so many spiders.”

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After a year of weekends spent at market stalls in Hackney, and weekdays devising and testing recipes, the duo received training and investment from the Prince’s Trust. In October last year, PACK’D frozen smoothies debuted in Whole Foods, and within six months the business had secured 800 other listings including Tesco Express, Sainsbury’s, Costco and Planet Organic.

Each pack contains natural, whole ingredients and superfoods, such as wheatgrass, chlorella and guarana, “to provide a targeted health hit”. Mr Johnstone said: “The key thing we are trying to offer is targeted nutrition, not just a label or gimmick. Bottled smoothies are full of sugar and pasteurised.

“I’ve gone from the shed to living with my girlfriend and her family in Cricklewood. We’re not able afford to rent yet, as even though profit is going to be over £1 million this year, it is all tied up in stock. But next year, if things go well, I would love to be able to rent or buy in somewhere like East Dulwich.”

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