Susan and I didn't know anything about the food industry when we started.  She had been a Lawyer in the City and I had been a Psychotherapist. We both wanted a change and a challenge. 

Much tea was drunk as we sat around her kitchen table throwing ideas back and forth without coming to a conclusion.

Susan also had a pressing problem. Her younger son, Henry had gone off to college as a new vegan. Like many young adults, he was not experienced in catering for himself and the added newness of living animal product-free meant he was relying on easily accessible vegan foods.

He understood that a vegan diet could have health benefits, as well as being in keeping with his ethics. He therefore assumed that all vegan foods would be healthy and good for him. He didn't check the packs for what they contained and was only interested in the fact that they did not contain any animal product. His health began to suffer, his hair was turning grey and falling out and he had no energy. 

Susan got involved when he was home on breaks and was horrified at the ingredient lists of most of the easily available vegan products. They were ridiculously long and packed with additives and chemical sounding items. 

She approached me to turn our desire for a change and a challenge into a way of redressing this. 

And so, our back and forth of ideas and swigging of tea reached it’s conclusion and a plan started to form.

We were going to become food entrepreneurs! We would make something that was vegan and nutritious, a product that you could absolutely trust was packed with only the simplest, purest, healthiest of ingredients.

And so the seeds of what would become Pep & Lekker were sown!