Firepot founder, John Fisher goes to Greenland with an old school friend — his first big multi-day trip. Equipped with 60x very early Firepot prototypes, he ends his 120 mile hike at Sisimiut airport and gives a total stranger their leftover pouches. The same man emails three months later asking to buy more.
John leaves his London-based web business to seek new opportunities in Nepal, working — among other things — to restore the house Edmund Hillary stayed in after he made his Everest ascent, in the foothills of the Himalayas.
Having moved back to Dorset in the summer of 2016, the seed had been sown and a first round of funding secured to bring Firepot to life from John's home kitchen.
We install a kitchen in a 15th century thatched barn in Dorset's Marshwood Vale, hire a local chef and move in. We would only be there for six months before outgrowing our space.
Ten minutes after the phone line is connected, we get our first call from climber, Leo Houlding asking us to make enough food to take to the world's remotest mountain in Antarctica by kite-ski.
Within the year, we move into a new kitchen in an 18th century thread mill. Here, we expand the team and introduce a new range of vegan recipes for a growing market.
Two British mountaineers — Simon Richardson and Mark Robson — make it to the top of a gully on Mount Hulya in Greenland for the first time in history. They name it 'Firepot Couloir' after the breakfast that fuelled their ascent.
The brand goes yellow. Moving away from our fussy orange and blue pouches, Firepot re-brands, coming in with a bolder look —
the one customers know and love today.
After paddleboarder, Sian Sykes approaches us about fuelling a plastic-free SUP expedition around Wales to raise awareness of plastic pollution, we introduce the industry's first compostable packaging option.
While the business was growing, John was meticulously designing and building prototypes so we could dry food using our own technology. In November 2018 we successfully dry 50kg of potatoes overnight — a real turning point in the development of our dehydation technology. John slept next to the dryer in a sleeping bag that night as a fire safety precaution.
Firepot's range of healthy expedition food is included as part of the Duke of Edinburgh award's official kit list, fuelling young people's DofE expeditions at Gold, Silver, and Bronze level.
Having launched in America, we expand again into an old dairy farm outside Bridport. This means a new kitchen, more dryers, and finally some warehouse space. In the coming months, we move from a manually operated packing machine to being fully automated, which marks a radical change in production.
We are asked to provide food for Team GB's 18 athletes at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing.
While on holiday in the Mongolian steppe, John bumps into a man bouldering, who has a Firepot in his bag. This feels like a huge personal milestone, proving beyond all doubt that Firepot has now gone beyond a cottage brand.
Following some early popularity in Benelux and Norway, we launch in France, Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Canada, Denmark and New Zealand.
Firepot becomes the widest ranged expedition food brand in UK retail.
We host an inaugural 'Firepot Firsts' weekend — an annual fully-guided two-day workshop to provide nature-based learning for kids who don't have the opportunity to spend time the outdoors.
We introduce a pouch recycling scheme for customers who wish to return their empty packaging so it can be repurposed.
After a blind taste test, the first of Firepot's new snack range is awarded a Great Taste Award — the 'Oscars' of the food industry.
