March 2018
Guy McLelland persuaded me that his new venture was going to be staggeringly successful. It was certainly expensive: offices in Grafton Street, branding by Saatchi – even the Vitari brand cost an enormous amount of money to brainstorm, develop and register courtesy of Novamark. The product itself was ahead of its time – all natural, dairy free, no added sugar. Vitari was a frozen dessert made 99% from fruit juice and fruit puree plus a little vegetable gum. As well as a product that resembled frozen ice-cream there was also a soft-serve variant. Much of the development had been done at the Food RA in Leatherhead, my alma mater. Sadly the technical brilliance of the product was equalled only by the financial dodginess of the company and Guy McLelland was last seen in the pages of Private Eye in connection with a currency exchange scam. I had jumped ship well before then.
