Passion into Profit.

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 640.

READING

IV. Read the text and find out when these things happened

- Harry Cragoe lived in California

- Harry Cragoe and Patrick Folkes founded PJ Smoothies

- Cragoe and Folkes imported Smoothies from America from 19.. to 19..

- They started production in the UK.

(1)Harry Cragoe first tried a fruit Smoothie in California in the early 1990s. He had no idea then that he was on a road to a corporate success. Now he heads a multi-million-pound company – and it's all because off his passion for healthy eating.

(2)“When I arrived in Los Angeles I rented an apartment near the beach,” he remembers. “I was very English, very white and overweight. Everyone was focused on looking good and being healthy. There were juice bars that sold drink called smoothies and I loved them.”

(3)When he returned to Britain he found they weren't available. “All you could find were cartons of apple and orange juice, I could see there was a real opportunity.”

(4)Cragoe sold his car, flat and investments and flew back to California. He returned with a cool box packed with frozen drinks and persuaded his friend, Patrick Folkes, to help him import and sell them.

(5)They found PJ Smoothies in 1994. Initially, the firm imported frozen smoothies from America, but the business grew quickly and they didn't have a stock to meet demand. “Up to then we just imported the finished product,” Cragoe says. “If a store ordered 200 bottles we began defrosting.”

(6)In 1996 Cragoe decided to set up production in Britain. He found a factory side in Nottingham, equipped it and began production. Since then, PJ Smothies has gone from strength to strength. The company now is Britain's market leader in the fresh drinks sector, controlling just under 50% of the market. Cragoe sells more than 250.000 drinks a week in summer to big supermarkets.

(7)There have been problems along the way. Cragoe lost $30.000 when his distributor went bankrupt, leaving him with hundreds of boxes of juice to distribute. But he has never lost confidence in his concept.

(8)“Most of all, you've got to have fun,” he says. “You must feel really passionate about what you're doing.”