Rosie Brown, the boss of Cook, never planned to be a chief executive. First, she trained as a nurse, then tried her hand at politics; then banking. But having struggled at first to find her niche, Brown now leads a ready-meal business ranked as the country’s best place to work in food and drink, and is looking to help others find their way in the world of work.
Last year, the co-CEO of the ethical frozen food business took over from shoe-mending-chain boss James Timpson as chair of the Employment Advisory Board network, a government-backed programme started by Timpson which works with more than 90 prisons.
She says she “grew up thinking it was entirely normal to employ people with barriers to employment”.
Brown’s parents were entrepreneurs who employed ex-addicts in their small cafe and bakery business. So when she joined Cook in 2000, three years after it was set up with one shop in Farnham, Surrey, by her brother Ed Perry (her co-CEO) and his chef friend Dale Penfold, she wanted to find a similar way to “make an impact” and approached three local prisons.
“There’s great talent in prison, and great people. There’s a lot of trauma and difficult backgrounds and difficult lives that have led people into prison in the first place. The rates of reoffending are too high, and employment is the best way to stop [that]. So it’s great for society. It’s great for communities. It’s great for everybody, if we can do this.”
She wants the government to incentivise more businesses to bring in ex-offenders through tax breaks, such as on employers’ national insurance contributions (Nics) or using apprenticeship levy funds to support extra training. “At the moment, companies that are doing it, like us, are doing it out of our own back pocket,” Brown says.
Cook has recruited 250 people through a scheme called Raw Talent, which Brown launched a decade ago to help people into work after prison, homelessness or other challenges. Filling jobs in Cook’s shops and kitchens in Sittingbourne, Kent, the scheme’s graduates make up about 5% of Brown’s workforce.
Helping ex-offenders is just part of the family-owned business’s ethical stance, which also includes sourcing all its meat in the UK, providing discounted food for community events, paying the real living wage (which it has done for a decade), offering a profit-share bonus to workers, and even providing access to a holiday home in nearby Deal.
Not only is the company certified as a B Corp, but Brown’s other brother – James Perry, who is also chair of Cook – co-founded the UK movement behind the scheme, which requires businesses to meet ethical and environmental standards.
“We have a very strong independent streak,” says Brown as she nibbles on flapjacks at the company’s headquarters.
The group does not sell through supermarkets, preferring its own chain of about 100 shops. It also puts its own freezers in more than 1,200 independent outlets, sells online, and is pursuing new ideas such as vending machines for hospital workers. It plans about eight new shops this year and at least 100 more concessions, as well as expanding its online subscription service, which includes meal boxes for new parents – a key way of winning new fans.
Brown says a shift to employee ownership one day has not been ruled out, but for now “the business is primarily owned and run by family, and there’s no plans to change that”. While they do have a few outside shareholders, they are not just focused on “delivering that number in the bottom right-hand corner of the spreadsheet”.
Still, there is plenty to be pleased about on the spreadsheet at the moment. Business boomed during the pandemic as Cook benefited from the sudden surge in interest in home-delivered food. While other similar businesses have struggled since, Cook managed to draw in a whole new set of customers.
Sales rose almost 13% to about £120m in the year to the end of March 2024, while pre-tax profits jumped to £2.5m – up almost 80% when excluding a hefty insurance payout linked to a cyber-attack in the previous year. The company’s shareholders, half of whom are the Perry family and the rest outside shareholders, paid themselves a £1.25m dividend.
Last year, growth continued with sales up by about 10% again, according to Brown. The target for next year is to hit revenues of £150m.
The meals are not particularly cheap, with a fish pie for two costing £11.50, slightly more than the Charlie Bigham equivalent – although you do get 125g extra from Cook. Cheaper options include a £7.60 vegetarian cottage pie or £4 Korean-style chicken wings, and there are deals such as 10% off for new parents. Still, the company has put up prices in the last two years, with the possibility of more increases this autumn.
Brown admits the going is getting tougher, with cost increases on labour and ingredients, including a surge in the price of beef which will cost the business £1.1m more this year. Costs are also rising for eggs, lamb, cocoa and butter.
Brown says that people are right to be concerned about the “state of British farming” and that she would “like to see more government leadership on the issue”.
“I think food is pretty foundational to a healthy society. So, I would definitely love to see it getting more energy and focus,” she says.
She adds that “the chancellor has made life a lot tougher for business and growth. They’ve said they want growth, but they’ve actually put a lot of barriers in the way of [it].”
Brown says Cook won’t stint on the ethical sourcing of its ingredients or the wages of its workers, who stir up great vats of cheese sauce, hand-finish sausage rolls, and ensure every fish pie has the right mix of ingredients. However, the group is rising to the challenge of looking at how it can use more automation in its kitchens.
“What we won’t compromise on is the handmade, skilled artisan bit. But there are bits, in sealing and packing, or wherever, where I think we could get more efficient.”
The business has already survived tough times, including the “white-knuckle ride” of the pandemic, the cyber-attack, and the 2008 financial crisis, when sales fell 10%. “We squeezed our way through that,” Brown says. “We got really good at cash-flow management.”
“I think it just focuses the mind,” she says of the current pressure from cost rises. “We don’t want to pass it all on to customers. We don’t want to take [them] for granted, so we’re having to get smarter.”
Age49FamilyHusband; three sons aged 20, 18 and 15. “Dad lives with us too.” Two dogs, two cats.EducationMonkton Combe school.Last holidayGirls’ skiing break with cousins.Pay“We have a pay differential of no more than 12 times [higher than] the lowest paid.”Best advice she’s been given“Great relationships at work require three things: a shared goal, clarity on who is doing what, and appreciation for each others’ view and contribution.”Biggest regret“There are people issues I would deal with differently now I’m a bit older and wiser.”Phrase she overuses“Let’s look at the org charts!”How she relaxesWalking the dogs, writing a journal, TV and theatre, friends and family.