Page 44 - February 2023

WORK/LIFE

My 9-to-5 The best part of my job is…
I like meeting new people. The push for
sustainability is great to see. There are
The founder of Musselburgh-based lots of companies who manufacture
S’wheat, Jake Elliot-Hook, shares their products in China and have noticed
his daily life and career path. delivery delays, so it has been beneficial
for us that people are choosing UK-based
manufacturers.
Where do you call home?
I live in Tranent but work in Musselburgh. My most memorable career moment
It’s only five minutes on the City Bypass. The is…
benefit of having an office in Musselburgh We recently had our biggest order with
is that our printers are across the road from Aston Martin – they used our bottles for on
us. We work with companies who buy our and off-track events because they found About Musselburgh
bottles with their company logos on it and attendees were coming with single use Musselburgh is located on the south
hand them out at events. plastics and leaving them there. shore of the Firth of Forth in Scotland at
the mouth of the River Esk, approximately
My day starts with… After work I… six miles east of Edinburgh. It is East
My alarm goes off at 7.05am and I go to the Go to the gym which helps me relax as it’s Lothian’s biggest town and is a good base
gym for an hour before work – the gym is a stressful job and you’re always looking for people who want to live near the city,
across the road from the office. I then head for the next big order to come in. I also but also want easy access to countryside
to the office for a 9am start. My day mainly like cycling and going for walks – there’s a and coastline. Activities in Musselburgh
consists of meetings and talking to possible lovely walk along the Esk River. include one of the busiest racecourses in
clients, and making digital mock-ups of Scotland, for both National Hunt and Flat
bottles with company logos on them. If I wasn’t the founder of S’wheat I’d meetings. The town also has its own rugby
have been… club, BMX track and two golf courses.
I got my job… At university I studied psychology so I
I started the business in my last year of my classmates had reusable bottles that they would probably be working within that £237,639 average selling price
university with my co-founder Amy. Lots of replaced every few weeks and I wanted to make field. Lots of my classmates went into
a truly circular bottle with plant-based materials teaching so I might have gone down that
so it can biodegrade in landfill. The wheat straw path or become a counsellor.
we use for the bottles is left over from farms so 105.9% of Home Report valuation
there’s a zero-waste element to it. What’s the best piece of career advice attained
you’ve been given?
Since I was just out of university, I had no money It’s important to make mistakes. Lots of The median time to under offer is
to start the business. We launched a pre-sale people are scared to fail. We did everything 16 days
Crowdfunder with a goal of £10,000 in 30 days. ourselves. as we had no funding. We didn’t
We managed to double the funding goal and outsource and had to learn new skills
raised £22,000 which got us off the ground. We ourselves.
then got our first office which was behind an (Figures are based on properties marketed and sold
Aldi in Tranent. It was freezing and very small, through ESPC. Home Report valuations relate to
properties where the Home Report was available on
but we packed up our first orders there. We espc.com. Figures relate to the three-month period
moved out of there and to Musselburgh two You can find S’wheat on swheatbottle.com or ending on 31/01/2023).
and a half years ago. @swheatbottle on Instagram.

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