Meet the founder turning wonky veg into one of Britain’s tastiest new businesses
Sometimes the best ideas come out of the most unremarkable of activities. Where most people only see leftovers as they scrape their uneaten food into the bin Jenny Costa saw a business opportunity.
Back in 2012, she began reading articles about the sheer amount of perfectly good food consigned to waste – sometimes even before reaching the shelves. Costa started Rubies in the Rubble that same year, a sustainable food producer which repurposes everything from wonky veg to chickpea water into everyday staples.
It all makes sense in hindsight – Costa grew up on a farm in Scotland, with childhood memories of long days spent in her mother’s vegetable garden – but owning her own business wasn’t always the plan. In fact, she left her west coast home to pursue a master’s degree in maths.
So how does one find themselves running a sustainable-minded and supply chain-friendly business after studying the art of numbers throughout university?
“I think there was always a passion, I loved the whole process of creating something and seeing other people love it,” she said.
Her mother is an artist, and her dad is a farmer: “We’ve always been very practical and everyone’s always inventing or creating something new.”
Like most ambitious entrepreneurs, Costa had to start small, and build big.
Kicking her journey off by spending early mornings searching for surplus foods in local markets — namely Borough and New Covent Garden — and long evenings spent cooking up family-born recipes in her kitchen, Costa had to adapt to ever changing circumstances.
The life of an entrepreneur is never one-size-fits all, and Costa had to quickly accept the fact that the conversation around food-waste wasn’t yet in full swing.
Growing the business
Although many of her local market days were spent trying to get consumers on board with the trend of sustainable food production, she realised she needed to ensure her business model appealed with taste first.
“You can have all the will in the world of doing the best thing, but if no one’s going to buy your own product, it’s not going to be sustainable.”
Jenny Costa, founder of Rubies in the Rubble
“You can have all the will in the world of doing the best thing, but if no one’s going to buy your own product, it’s not going to be sustainable,” Costa says.
A third of all food is wasted, Costa noted, and Rubies’ mission is still to “make it normal practice to value and utilise everything” whether that be chickpea water, carrot pulp, or wonky veg.
Expanding from her family-made chutney recipes to making what is now their famously-loved condiments, like their “hero product” ketchup, her business grew to a point that she could no longer make everything in her own kitchen.
A daunting task for her, she outsourced her production and has since been on her way towards a globally scaled business venture.
“We’ve grown organically but also intentionally,” Costa said. “Our mission to fight food waste through an award-winning brand has never faltered.”
Since the company started, some 350,000 kilograms of wonky fruit and veg has found its way into delicious condiments; Rubies is stocked by major supermarkets including Sainsbury’s and Waitrose.
Rubies is now led on a day to day basis by chief exec Nick Turner. “It’s really helped us,” Costa tells me.
Given that the family-recipe inspired business is near and dear to Costa’s heart, it was important for her to find the right partners – and she’s confident that Rubies is well set for the future.