Giuseppe Baidoo & Claudio Owusu
Güsto Snacks, a sustainable food company called ‘Wonky’ was started in December 2020, by Barking & Dagenham alumni, Giuseppe Baidoo and Claudio Owusu. Giuseppe studied Product Design and Claudio studied Business, and in his final year, Giuseppe started to think about innovative ways to reduce food waste, after being encouraged by his teachers to enter a sustainable businesses competition.
Güsto utilises so-called ‘wonky’ food that would otherwise be thrown away and is an air-dried fruit crisp product and is now being stocked in Selfridges, Budgens and Costcutter.
Their first product was a juice made from wonky fruits and in 2017, they won the Shell LiveWIRE sustainable competition. In June 2022, Virgin selected Güsto Snacks as one of 2022’s Most Exciting Sustainable Start-Ups, bagging the founders free mentoring and advice. Autumn 2022 see’s Adidas in collaboration with Güsto, during its London Fashion Week activities, at its flagship London store. They are also sponsoring London Fashion Week with their sustainable snacks.
“What I learnt at college has really helped me to get my ideas on paper and put my imagination down into something that I can then pitch as a business idea. The foundation degree was so good, we were encouraged to take part in business competitions and were taught high-level presentation skills which are, of course so vital when you are looking to pitch your business ideas to investors!”
“Giuseppe and I met at college and our focus at the time was on studies, little did we know that we would eventually form an award-winning business 3 years later. My exposure to entrepreneurship started while studying for a BTEC in Business. We were tasked by our tutor to come up with a business idea and were encouraged to put it forward for a national competition, giving us a taste of what is possible.”
The company is now in a growth phase with investment capital being raised to ramp up production. You can check out their products at www.snackgusto.com.
