Tideford Organic Foods

Diana started Tideford Organics in the summer of 1996, before organic and plant-based food were the mainstream they are now, with a single product: fresh basil pesto. Organic soups followed soon after, sold at first in kilner jars, and the company registered with the Soil Association from day one under a simple rule - if it isn't organic, it doesn't go in the pot. A Waitrose listing in 1998 gave the business the sales growth it needed to move into the Totnes factory on the industrial estate that's still home today.

The range has grown well beyond soup since then: fresh unpasteurised miso pastes made from Nagano-region Japanese ingredients, meal pots and cooking ingredients, all organic. The company has gone fully vegan alongside its existing gluten-free and nut-free lines, betting early on a shift toward plant-based eating that's now caught up with it. Soups and other Tideford products are stocked in Sainsbury's and Tesco and sold online through Ocado, alongside the factory-door trade in Totnes itself.