Richard Reed

Fee Band

  • Conference Speakers£10k to £25k
  • Reputation, Branding & Marketing, Customer Service & CRM, Social Responsibility

Richard left advertising to set up a fresh fruit juice business; Innocent went on to achieve huge growth before selling to Coca-Cola. Richard now works with a new wave of entrepreneurs, investing in and advising a range of online and food and drink startups. In speeches he argues for a simple mission, emotional appeal, and work on the small details such as ‘enjoy by’ instead of ‘use by’ dates. Recruit entrepreneurial types with a ‘yes’ mentality, show zero tolerance to those with conflicting values, and borrow ideas from anywhere and everywhere.


Biography

Richard Reed is the co-founder and former co-CEO of Innocent. Challenging conventional business methods the company effectively created a mainstream market for smoothies and fruit drinks. They developed their own unique brand identity, and went on to dominate (at one point with over 70%) the sector across Europe before selling the company to Coca-Cola. It also set new standards by running everything on green energy and giving 10% of profits to charity. Richard and his fellow co-founders then took their expertise into venture capital and have invested in businesses from Deliveroo to new energy company Bulb to What3Words.

The initial Innocent plan was simple. With £500 of produce Richard and friends set up a stall at a music festival. Two bins, labelled YES and NO, were placed next to a poster that read ‘Should we give up our day jobs to make smoothies?’ By Sunday evening the YES bin was so full they immediately resigned. Since those beginnings the combination of an natural product and a slightly anarchic but very human approach helped Innocent gain huge profile and respect. Richard and his team were voted EY Entrepreneurs of the Year, and invited to Downing Street to offer advice on creating the right environment to encourage new businesses.

Having grown a company from nothing to a global brand which has influence a large sector of the food and drink industry, Richard has become one of the country’s best-known business leaders. He presented the BBC Three series Be Your Own Boss and wrote If I Could Tell You Just One Thing...Encounters with Remarkable People and Their Most Valuable Advice. Now the co-founder of a venture capital firm he applies his experience to a new generation of entrepreneurs and businesses.

Richard and his co-founders sold their stake in Innocent to Coca-Cola and set up JamJar Investments, supporting, advising and funding a range of startups. Many of the companies JamJar have worked with share Innocent's mindset of building a brand on values, doing things differently, and creating an emotional appeal. Richard’s business mantra centres on simplicity, caring deeply about the product and the wider picture, involving the workforce, focusing on detail, listening to criticism - and letting image look after itself.

Videos of Richard Reed

Conference Speaker Richard Reed on Customer Feedback

On Recruitment and Plump Nuns

On starting a business

JLA+ Stream: Build Back Better

More Details

Book

Book written by Richard Reed CBE

Contact us about Richard Reed

We’re on hand to help you find the perfect speaker, presenter or performer for your events. Call or email our London office and use our agents' experience to expertly match you with the right person for your programme!


From time to time we send out emails announcing new speakers and free tickets to our showcase events including Speakers Breakfasts and the JLA Real Variety Show. Please tick the box below if you would like to receive these emails.

Don't miss anything!

We will never share the data you submit here with a third party. Information is stored in a database in order to service your enquiry, but is deleted once it is no longer required. You may request to have this data removed at any time.

JLA Presents

Click to view details of our event
Event - - Date TBC

Speakers Breakfast

Racing to High Performance with Guenther Steiner and Paul McKenna

Speakers
Paul McKenna and Guenther Steiner

Date TBC.  We will be looking at high-performance and mindset with our two excellent speakers.

Location

Bishopsgate Institute, 230 Bishopsgate, London EC2M 4QH

WATCH
Risk Speakers Breakfast event image.
Event - 17/09/2024 - 09:00

Speakers Breakfast

Navigating Risk and Chaos – Strategies For Coping With An Uncertain World.

Speakers
Clive Myrie, Sabrina Cohen-Hatton, Rt Hon Lord Parker of Minsmere, and Robin Niblett

On Tuesday 17th September we had the pleasure of hearing from a remarkable panel of keynote speakers, who shared their expertise on the challenges of managing Risk in a chaotic world.

Location

87 Barts Close, 87 Bartholomew Close, London, EC1A 7EB

WATCH