From figure skating to fermented milk, meet the founder behind UK's No.1 kefir brand

In an alternative life, Natasha Bowes may well be discussing a career dedicated to the tough world of figure skating instead of the rising popularity in the UK of kefir, the fermented natural dairy product.

But, after growing up on the drink in her native Russia and then putting education over skating, Bowes came to the UK over 20 years ago and, following a decade in finance, is now dedicating her life to Biotiful Gut Health. The brand she launched in 2012 now has over 50% market share in a kefir category worth around £100m.

“In figure skating, it's rather single-minded and either you are world number one or it doesn’t matter. It makes you very clear in your vision,” says Bowes.

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“I started training aged four and all of us were drinking kefir growing up. We didn’t even have a term for stomach bugs. I only learned the expression when I moved to the UK.”

Legend has it that a few thousand years ago in the Georgian mountains, shepherds took milk in leather pouches and discovered the drink by accident. Different bacterial cultures had formed with what is now called kefir grains, cauliflower-looking clusters that live and eat up the natural milk sugars and digest the milk proteins.

“Because you start with the milk, you start with the most balanced nutritional base and it balances almost perfectly the three key macronutrients: protein, carbohydrates and fat," says Bowes. "Then, at a temperature that aligns with our internal systems, diverse live cultures are added which ferment the milk naturally.

“Stress, lack of sleep, alcohol, eating habits – all of this impacts on our digestive system and this is where replenishing gut flora with healthy, naturally fermented products helps us. They support rebalancing our microbiome and help us feel more comfortable and energetic."

Biotiful is certainly seeing the commercial benefits of building the Kefir category across UK retail.

The company, which employs nearly 50 staff in London, embarked on a recent £1m advertising project, with Bowes admitting that it has taken time to “crystalise the message” of what Biotiful stands for as a natural gut health brand to consumers, one with no chemicals or added supplements. “We just have the 2,000-year-old recipe at its heart,” she says.

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From early kitchen samples, Bowes made Biotiful’s first production-quality drinks herself for nine months in a small organic dairy in West Sussex. She funded the start-up herself having left her finance career with first KPMG then Barclays Capital and was regularly putting in 21-hour days with the lengthy fermentation process.

For nearly three years she worked solo. As well as production she did marketing, operations, finance and risk management. As Biotiful hit around £5m in revenue, the firm still only had eight employees.

“It was less of a calculation, more of a passion, which I’m sure will resonate with a lot of founders,” she says of starting alone.

The trigger point was when she looked at the contents of the 'growing-up' milk she purchased for her daughter. “I felt I wouldn’t change the world overnight but I felt I could give the UK market a natural option for their kids and adults alike,” she says.

“As a former athlete, healthy dairy has been at the forefront of my mind. I tested out the potential of what I felt was scaleable on the basis that the dairy products that I was seeing on the supermarket shelves weren’t natural, on average, and too heavy on sugar. I felt we could do much better.”

Entrepreneurship has come naturally to her thanks to having two scientist parents. “Dad nurtured that sense of responsibility in me from an early age,” says Bowes.

“Making my own decisions, everything is possible and anything is achievable if you put sufficient effort and focus into it.”

The supposed immune benefits of kefir, which means “feel good” in old Turkish, led Biotiful, which served more than 6 million customers last year, to partner with football and rugby clubs.

According to research, 72% of UK consumers have become aware of the importance of gut health while, says Bowes, less than a quarter know what to do about it.

Bowes had no such issues, given her grandmother would tell her to drink it every day. “That’s how significant the impact is,” she believes.

“It is such an important part of the overall healthy, natural nutritional diet. Without it, you couldn’t train seven hours a day, seven days a week.”

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Bowes trained as a figure skater for over a decade and was top 10 in her year group, before a decision was made to focus on her schooling when she was 14. More than 30 years later, Biotiful was this month listed as the fastest-growing brand in yoghurt.

“Figure skating is a combination of athletics, ice skating and ballet," she says. "You have to believe you want to be the Olympic champion in order to dedicate the first quarter of your life to it.

"I have no regrets, yet I am so grateful to have that at the start of my life to influence my personality and determination today.”

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