VBT 085: Interview with Tammy Fry of The Fry Family Food Company

In this episode I interview Tammy Fry, marketing director at her family business The Fry Family Food Company.

A born vegetarian since 1981 in Durban, South Africa, Tammy inspired her father Wally Fry – a meat-eating animal farmer – to go vegan. Together with his wife and Tammy’s mother Debbie Fry, also a lifelong vegetarian, they created The Fry Family Food Company. Sold in retailers throughout Australia, the UK, South Africa, and soon to be in the US, Fry’s provides tasty, plantbased alternatives to meat.

An avid crossfitter, 5th Dan karate practitioner and many times South African national champion, self-defence coach, surfer and current Australian Open and Queensland Karate champion, Tammy is passionate about health and wellness.

She joined the family business (which currently employs six family members) in 2001 after gaining her degree in marketing and economics to raise the profile of the Fry’s brand of all-vegan products internationally.

A popular public speaker and director of Meat Free Mondays Australia and South Africa, Tammy is keen to raise awareness of unsustainable food choices, global warming and the cruelty involved in factory farming. She also shares recipes, lifestyle tips and plant-based advocacy ideas at her blog, Seed.

In this interview Tammy talks about:

• What to consider when selling your products internationally (and how Fry’s grew differently in the UK to how it did in Australia)

• The challenges the company has experienced with major supermarkets and how they dealt with them

• The problem of ‘zombie brands’ that use clever branding to mislead consumers and disadvantage truly ethical businesses

• How they balance running the business and family relationships

• The marketing strategies the company uses to create organic growth

• The company’s use of the word ‘vegan’ in its branding and marketing and how it differs for different countries

• How the company decides which countries to sell their products in and when

• And much more

Visit The Fry Family Food Company website
Check out Tammy Fry’s blog Seed

Brands mentioned in vegan business news roundup:

Plant Power Fast Food
HANX
Unicorn Goods

Vote for Vegan Business Talk in the Unicorn Goods’ Best of Vegan Awards 2017, in the Vegan Media Category (voting is open 1-30 September, 2017: http://unicorngoods.com/vote

RESOURCES:

My Online PR Course for Vegan Business Owners & Entrepreneurs: Vegans in the Limelight

My book Vegan Ventures: Start and Grow an Ethical Business

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