100. Cuckoo

Founders: Anna Mackenzie and Lucy Wright
Founded: February 2013 (Launched December 2013)
Website: www.cuckoofoods.co.uk

Anna Mackenzie came up with the idea for Cuckoo muesli while at university, when finding a healthy and tasty breakfast to take to the library proved difficult. While back for summer and eating the bircher muesli her mum prepared at home, she found it tasted far better than anything in the shops – giving her that ever elusive lightbulb moment.

Alongside school friend Lucy Wright, she set up Cuckoo: a brand that currently makes five unusual flavours of premium on-the-go Bircher muesli pots including elderflower & cranberry with blueberry & blackcurrant, and choco sour cherry with madagascan vanilla. Having first launched in Selfridges, Daylesford and Waitrose in August 2014, the brand is now available nationwide in selected Tesco stores and via Ocado. The young business also went on to win a Great Taste award – an accolade it claims to hold alone amongst bircher muesli brands.

In at number 100, Cuckoo has ambitious growth plans for the next year, with aims to grow the brand within its current retailers to take advantage of the customer base it has already built up and to gain new customers in other areas of the industry. In a relatively short time, Mackenzie and Wright have built up a successful brand, achieving nationwide distribution within a notoriously tough market – long may they continue.