Speaker Giles Brook -at KGC

Speaker Giles Brook

Presumably about retaiing in the food industry

JK

GILES BROOK

Giles Brook is a renowned serial start up CEO, entrepreneur & investor and has been a leading factor behind the success of flag ship challenger brands such as innocent, BEAR, Vita Coco &  Pip & Nut. 

Giles has just relinquished his role as CEO of Vita Coco EMEA which he launched in Europe over a decade ago and has built to £60m in retail sales across the EMEA region. The leading coconut water brand tells one of the biggest global success stories in non-alcoholic drinks over the last decade. Giles remains an advisor to the founders and main board.

Giles is also heavily involved in several start-up businesses such as BEPPs (Snacking), Dalstons (Healthy Soda), Mindful Chef (Recipe Boxes, partially acquired by Nestle), Sir Kensington (condiment brand sold to Unilever in 2018) Edgard& Cooper (Pet), Cudoni (Luxury & Premium Goods Resale), Presto (Direct to Consumer Coffee), Neat (sustainable household cleaning), Bio & Me (Gut Health)  as examples and Giles was founding partner in Urban Fresh Foods Limited, whose brand, BEAR is the UK’s No.1 fruit snacking brand & kids lunchbox item. Urban Fresh Foods Limited has appeared twice in The Sunday Times Fast Track 100 list. The brand was acquired by Lotus Bakeries in 2015. Prior to running his own businesses, Giles was Commercial Director & General Manager for UK & Ireland at innocent Drinks Ltd where he spent 4 years helping take the business from £17m to £120m during that time.

Giles’ unrivalled experience in the food and drink industry was recognised by winning the first ever ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ award at The Grocer Gold Awards. He was the highest-ranked individual on the list outside of global and multi-national CEOs  in the last edition of The Grocer’s ‘Food & Drink Power List’ & No.6 in the recent 2020 Innovation Power List from The Grocer. 

Giles is dedicated to helping start-up businesses and regularly takes time out

of the office to guide and mentor entrepreneurs and business students whilst life outside work is all about family and triathlon where he represents GBR and races worldwide in Ironman events.