Patchwork fashion and bean-to-bar chocolate: meet the entrepreneurs shaking up Yorkshire's shopping habits

The Guardian

a day ago

'My family thought I was mad leaving my comfortable graduate job to start a chocolate company at 21 years old – and rightly so!' recalls Max Scotford, the founder of Yorkshire's first bean-to-bar chocolate company, Bullion. But as it turns out, his hunch that craft chocolate was about to become the next big thing, was spot-on.
Now in his ninth year, Scotford, memorably titled chief chocolate officer, runs Bullion from a factory in Sheffield's Kelham Island, as well as the hot chocolate cafe Chocolate Bar in the prominent Heart of the City redevelopment, and a sister company Dough Boy (a bakery). Employing a total of 20 people in the local area, he says his success was expedited significantly thanks to help from his old university, Sheffield Hallam, where he graduated in events management in 2015.
'I was working in an events management role after university when the idea for a chocolate company came about,' he says. 'Food has always been something I've been passionate about – I'd gone to catering college and trained as a chef in a restaurant.'
It was after a TV show about craft chocolate caught his attention that the idea really took hold. 'They were making chocolate from scratch and, at the time, not many people were doing it. Coincidentally, I'd been making it at home, for fun. It was dubbed the next craft coffee or beer, which felt really exciting.'
An unexpected payday saw Scotford take the plunge. 'When I was 17, I'd briefly thought about making protein yoghurt and bought the trademark for 'Pro-Yo'. I quickly realised that I didn't have the infrastructure to make it happen, but just as the chocolate idea was taking hold, I was contacted out of the blue by one of the biggest yoghurt manufacturers in the country, making me an offer for it.' Scotford agreed to sell the trademark. 'I figured if ever I was going to get a chance to run my own business, it was now.'
With money but lacking the business knowhow, Scotford turned to his former university for help through its Enterprise Scheme. 'Returning to Sheffield Hallam meant I was stationed with 12 or so other businesses in a co-working space [The Hallam iLab] for about two years,' recalls Scotford. 'In those early days of setting up, you're completely green and full of questions. The university provided not just a place I could turn to, to hold my hand through that tricky first stage, but a group of like-minded peers to work alongside, too.'
There, Scotford made use of the facilities available, from a business mentor and networking groups, to office space and IT services. Help with ongoing funding was another advantage to the scheme, with Scotford winning the university's first ever Enterprise Award in 2017, securing him £5,000. The support via his mentor proved especially valuable and helped Bullion land its first retailer. 'My mentor really understood my vision, helping me make crucial connections and tap into the network and support I needed.'
As well as helping him raise initial funding, his mentor's insight made a huge difference later when cashflow became an issue, says Scotford. 'A chocolate business is very seasonal – we'll make a lot of our income at Christmas and over the summer it's more challenging. But summer is typically when we make Christmas products and need to buy packaging, for example. My mentor was incredibly helpful in helping me manage that. Without him, that sort of thing could easily send a new business under. We still speak every month now, nine years on.'
He is one of many students tapping into the expertise offered by university incubators. In the three years to 2028, an estimated 27,000 startups will be established with their support, according to Universities UK, which represents the bulk of UK universities.
Helen Armitage is the associate director of student futures and employability at Sheffield Hallam and oversees the university's careers, employability, enterprise and business incubation service. It's a service that offers support to current and former students through various channels, from 1:1 appointments and workshops to support in gaining work experience and sandwich-year placements. 'At 18 or 19 years old it takes a lot of confidence and self-belief to develop a business idea,' says Armitage. 'So doing it in a safe environment where failure can happen (because it will) and there's a support network of experienced staff and mentors to look at what went wrong and ask: 'How could we do this differently going forward?' is invaluable.
'Developing an entrepreneurial mindset is vital whether our students go on to run their own business or not, and having a strong peer support network and mentors are key to supporting progress in their working life. This is something we've been able to do, and the impact on our students has been fantastic.'
When asked why supporting entrepreneurship is such an important focus, she adds: 'We shape futures and prepare our students for whatever they choose to do in their career journey. Progressing into self-employment and entrepreneurial paths is an avenue any of our students may pursue – either while studying with us, or beyond. So ensuring we – as a university, an enterprise and business incubation service – can enable that means we know our students have the support needed to positively progress into their future.'
It's that kind of encouragement which helped make BA fashion design graduate Sarah Thompson one of Sheffield Hallam's success stories. She launched her sustainable fashion brand, TOM-O after graduating in 2021. TOM-O, which takes unwanted fabric and clothing to create bespoke patchwork pieces – all with sustainability at the forefront – secured a five-week pop-up at Selfridges flagship store on London's Oxford Street shortly after its launch.
She credits Hallam's support ('it was like a little family there') as being instrumental in those early days. 'During my time there, I had access to a wide range of equipment and facilities, which helped enhance my learning experience,' she says. 'We had numerous opportunities to apply our learning, such as workshops, projects, placements, events, field trips and guest lecturers. I took an internship year too, which was hugely valuable. All the technical skills I developed there have been crucial in creating clothes for my brand, from pattern cutting to sewing. Thanks to my time at Sheffield Hallam, I feel well-equipped to tackle whatever comes my way.'
Scotford wishes more people knew help of this kind was available. 'So many people finish university and it's incredibly competitive to find a job and know what to do. If graduates have an idea of doing their own thing and knew this kind of support was out there, maybe they'd be up for giving it a go – which would be fantastic, wouldn't it?'
Find out about careers, employability, enterprise and business incubation services at Sheffield Hallam