Morris Annie - Spoon: simple and nourishing breakfast bowls that can be enjoyed any time of day

Like with many start-up stories, Spoon Cereals began from a passion, in my case aborderline obsession, with breakfast cereal. Luckily I was addicted to the healthierranges of cereals, including muesli and granola.

At work, my old creative partner learnt pretty quickly not to launch into conversationuntil Id had my morning x a fresh bowl of muesli and granola, often mixed togetherwith fresh fruit and a thick dollop of yoghurt or a splash of milk, all washed downwith a strong cup of coee. This resulted in an energised and happy me in the morning.It was this passion that ignited my idea for a place that other hungry and grumpycommuters could pick up a fresh and healthy breakfast bowl on their way to work andenjoy al desko. The concept that had been stewing in my head at the time was Londonsrst breakfast cereal pop-up.

Due to the way the market for a healthy breakfast was heading, I knew that otherswould have similar ideas, so it didnt take too much thinking time before I decidedto quit my job in advertising and launch Spoon Cereals at a small food fair in south-westLondon. A month or so beforehand, it was at a family barbeque that I shared my ideawith Jonny, who like me was looking for a new adventure in life and was keen to enterinto the food start-up world. Jonny would soon become not only my business partnerbut my brother-in-law too

When we rst started out making cereals in 2013, the thought that someday we wouldbe supplying retailers nationwide seemed a pipe dream: it was a concept that we wantedto test.

For the rst market we attended, we prepared our granolas in the small kitchen ofmy London at. We had built up to our rst outing as Spoon Cereals by testing ourgranolas on friends and family and asking them for their favourite recipes, whichwe tweaked until we had something we knew was delicious and dierent. That rst dayselling at Barnes food fair in south-west London was great fun and we got some amazingfeedback. More importantly, we sold out of granola and there was a lot of interestfrom a whole host of people, including a local shop, which later became our veryrst stockist.

Suitably encouraged by our rst foray into the world of food, we continued to tradeat several markets all over London, from the river at Richmond to St Pauls cathedral.We oered fresh bowls of cereals with a variety of yoghurts, milks, compotes andother toppings, along with bags of our homemade granola for customers to take homewith them. It soon became clear that there was an opportunity to establish ourselvesas a manufacturer, selling to local stores in the rst instance. Our rst kitchenwas a shared space, but as things started to get busier we soon moved into our ownspace. It was tiring work, as we were doing it all from buying ingredients andcooking to packaging and selling. We would start just after 4 a.m. and drive to thekitchen to pick up supplies before heading to a market to set up our stall. We wouldsell all day and then head back to the kitchen to bake more granola, sort out ouronline and shop orders and pack everything up for the next day. It was a grind butwe both really enjoyed it.

Things started to feel surreal when we had a call from BBC Television inviting usto audition for their prime time investment programme Dragons' Den. We had assumedthat our application had gone unnoticed, but now found ourselves pitching to theDragons', high-prole investors who were going to help take our business to thenext level. After securing investment, we are now established on shop shelves allover the UK and couldn't be more excited for the future.

In this fast-paced, digital age thats full of distractions, keeping things simpleis something we value very highly. Simplicity ows through everything we do: theingredients we use, the way we make our granola, how we present it on the shelvesand the way we run our business. It also denes how we aspire to go about our day-to-daylives.

Living simply for us starts with breakfast; a comforting bowl of granola, mueslior porridge. With the growing trends of brunch and healthy eating that we see developing,breakfast as we know it is often enjoyed at any time of the day.

The greatest pleasures in life are often the most simple. We look forward to long,drawn-out brunches with family and friends on the weekends, as much as the quickoat porridge topped with our favourite fruit, nut or seed toppings before rushingo to work. There's something rewarding about enjoying a Bircher muesli that hasbeen carefully prepared the night before a busy day. And we just as happily tuckinto a perfectly sweet breakfast bowl as a healthy dessert in the evenings or asa nutritious late-night snack before we head to bed.