CHUCKLING GOAT: Healing the KEFIR way 

This year the small firm expects a £3.5 million turnover, is supplying customers in 56 countries and has been hailed by Parliament’s sages as a fine example of how to run a business. Success has also meant 22 precious new jobs in rural south west Wales where it is based as well as help for thousands with problem skin and gut conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome and diabetes as well as those coping with depression and anxiety. Yet although kefir had long been revered throughout the Russian region for its  powers promoting well-being and longevity, when farming couple Shann Jones and her husband Richard made their first batch on their kitchen table in 2014, it was barely known in Britain.

The healing properties of goats’ milk were recognised however among Wales’s rural community and when the Jones’ young son Benji struggled with bronchitis and eczema the family bought a goat, making kefir with the surplus.

They also used it to help Richard to recover from a post-operation MRSA super bug infection. “This taught me how kefir helps both the gut and skin and I learned how to infuse our drinking kefir into soaps and lotions,” says Shann.

Now 7,000 litres of goats’ milk a week go into the Jones’ end-to-end chemical-fee operation where everything, from making the products to bottling, labelling and despatch, is carried out on site. 

Their 50 goats cater for their skin care ranges while milk from their partner St Helens Farm Dairy makes the kefir.

By developing Chuckling Goat’s own grain bank of live cultures that help repopulate the gut’s good bacteria, this has strengthened the products’ efficacy and uniqueness, explains Shann. 

“Not all grains are of equal quality. We have grown our own, we don’t sell them and have created our own unique bio profile. Our products are therapeutic grade and are accompanied by dietary and nutritional information. That has distinguished us as more suppliers enter the kefir market.”

Investment began modestly with Richard selling his motorbike to find the first supplies. But Shann, an enterprising Californian to her core, then self-published books about gut health and Chuckling Goat’s evolution that caught the attention of Reid Tracey, chief executive of self-help titan Hay House, who lobbed in £100,000. 

Their strategy of direct selling online has been so successful it’s made the entrepreneur couple rule out any bricks and mortar channel. 

“But the human element is hugely important,” says Richard. “Instead of automating our processes we have kept everything handmade and hired more local people.”

A new brown-rice based vegan kefir is planned for this summer and further development of new services.

The home microbiome testing kits Chuckling Goat sells so people can check their gut flora health are being reinforced by a team of certified nutritional therapists available on demand for customers. 

“Now the market is changing with evidence-based demand growing and we are responding to that,” says Shann. “Our growth has come from being so many people’s last resort.”

www.chucklinggoat.co.uk

source: express.co.uk