8 min.
April 4, 2022
The goal is to get VEGETABLES all over the world
Text:
Casper Hindse
Photo:
Lasse Jacobsen & Jannick Børlum & Malthe
They didn't think about whether the wall was load-bearing or not. Lasse Skjønning Andersen and his friends were hammering away at a wall in a small print shop in Jægersborggade in Nørrebro in Copenhagen. They wanted to create space for the world's first porridge bar.
Lasse was in his early 20s and had just officially dropped out of an undergraduate music program in London. His family was not enthusiastic about the idea of porridge. Only his uncle thought the entrepreneurial adventure sounded exciting - but suggested combining porridge with sushi.
In the midst of the construction chaos and hustle and bustle, the friends were interrupted. An engineer knocked on the window and entered the sunken rooms.
No manual
Today, GRØD is a small empire in the Danish food market with 10 stores, a webshop and products in stores such as 7-Eleven and Føtex. Lasse Skjønning Andersen has even published a cookbook about his passion.
While eating GRØD's own 'Chicken Congee', he talks about the journey:
- I was 21 years old when I started GRØD, and I had barely had a job before. No one in my family or my network had gone the entrepreneurial route before. My father is a professor of sociology and is still trying to get me to get an education.
However, Lasse believes that it has been an advantage for him that he hadn't spent many years in self-employment school before he started his porridge project:
- There is no manual for opening a restaurant. You can learn Excel at business school, but there are no guidelines for converting an old print shop into a porridge bar.
When most people hear the word 'porridge', they probably first think of a fluffy oat mix with some greasy fruit or sugar on top. But GRØD has changed that perception. Lasse Skjønning Andersen started with oatmeal himself - a lot of oatmeal.
His interest arose when he decided to change his lifestyle at the age of 15. He was caught by the police while painting graffiti. After some self-reflection, he decided that diet was the easiest thing to change.
- I was lazy and weighed too much, and I decided that a physically healthy life would change me. Porridge sounded simple and nutritious, but quickly turned out to be boring.
He started experimenting with flavors and immersed himself in the history of porridge. Porridge became a special passion for me.
- I lost weight and felt better. So I became more and more addicted to exploring porridge. In a way, I created my own little porridge education. No one my age could relate to it, but I was really happy with what I learned.
I want to steal a lot of McDonald's customers so we can all start living a little healthier.
- Porridge shouldn't just be a hipster product in the big city, but something healthy and nutritious for everyone. That's why the retail part is important, but I honestly encountered a wall of complexity and new knowledge when I had to understand how we expanded on this front," says Lasse Skjønning Andersen.
Fortunately, he got help from GS1, including an online course on barcodes. If there was something he couldn't figure out, he took the phone out of his pocket and called, so products could be created in the system quickly and efficiently.
- It was great to be met with pragmatism and understanding. I'm really surprised that there is a user-owned non-profit organization that can help. Without GS1, we probably wouldn't have been able to realize the retail project at the pace we did.
Changing the food culture
Lasse Skjønning Andersen is not a man who makes plans many years into the future. But when it comes to GRØD, his ambitions are high.
- The goal is to get GRØD all over the world. "We're about to open a restaurant in Oslo, and I'm really looking forward to that. After that, I dream of having restaurants in five international cities within a few years," he says and takes a mouthful of porridge.
He sees 2024 as the year when GRØD will be on par with the restaurant and retail side, but the long-term vision is clear:
- I hope that in 10 years we will be an international brand. I want to steal a lot of McDonald's customers so we can all start living a little healthier.
