Kurt Wilson launched Fuel Station, then called Fuel Shakes, with brother Jay in 2012 and since then its smoothies, juices and meal preps have become a hit – with a range of supplements and bars now on the way. Tony McDonough reports
Since its launch in 2012 Liverpool-based Fuel Station’s range of healthy smoothies, juices and meal preps have proved a hit with professional athletes and celebrities.
Now the business, started by former BBC TV The Apprentice contestant Kurt Wilson along with his brother Jay, is set to start selling UK-produced supplements and bars.
Originally called Fuel Shakes, Kurt and Jay opened a shop in Liverpool city centre because as they had found it was “almost impossible” for either of them to get a healthy nutritious meal that supplemented their exercise regimes.
Tough start
And Kurt claims it was the first of its kind in the UK. He explained: “We designed every shake to the needs of our customers – so if a customer wanted to lose weight, we would lower the carbohydrates and use the right types of fats in their shake or meal.
“At first it was pretty tough as it was such a new concept that we needed to educate the public as well as sell.”
After about a year, Fuel Shakes started attracting local celebrity clients helping to build awareness and the customer base. Kurt added: “Our start was very humble and we sold our cars to fund it, but once we started to build some repeat customers we knew we needed investment.
“We started pitching to potential investors and after 12 months, we eventually raised £125,000 in early 2014 to drive the business forward.
“This was probably one of my proudest achievements as there were plenty of knocks along the way but I quickly learnt what the investors were looking for and managed to find a group interested in the health and fitness industry.”
He is also keen to give something back and pledges that for every performance meal sold to a customer, Fuel Station will donate a meal to people in need via pledgeling.com
Online success
Kurt launched the online business Fuel Station in late 2014 and successfully sold its products across the UK as well as in Europe and the US.
Also key to Fuel Station’s development was its introduction to athletes and professional sports teams and they now look after meal plans for elite athletes including for example, Premiership footballers, world champion boxers, rugby league teams and world-leading cyclists.
Kurt says the support of his family has been one of the main factors in influencing the growth of the business.
“The early days were extremely difficult as I had to basically survive on zero wages. I now have a little boy with another baby on the way, so the support from my partner Joanna has been imperative as the running of the business is never 9-5 and supporting our family is also a full time job,” he says.