Richard Reed
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CBE Richard Reed |
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|---|---|
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| Born |
13 February 1973 England |
| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater | St John's College, Cambridge |
| Occupation | Businessman, investor, entrepreneur and public speaker |
| Known for | Investor and co-founder of the Innocent Drinks and Jamjar Investments companies |
| Net worth |
 GBP £50 million (2016) |
| Awards | |
| Website | |
Richard Reed, CBE (born 13 February 1973) is an English businessman, investor and entrepreneur. He is the co-founder of Innocent Drinks (founded in 1998), an international company producing fresh fruit smoothies and vegetable pots sold in various outlets around the world, and of Jamjar Investments (founded 2012). He pioneered "wackaging" — quirky messages on packaging — of products such as smoothies.
Richard Reed was born in 1973 in Kirkheaton, west Yorkshire, and grew up in Upper Hopton, Mirfield. He attended Batley Grammar School and went on to study geography at St John's College, Cambridge (1991–94), after which he worked as an account manager in an advertising agency for four years. In 1998, together with fellow Cambridge graduates Adam Balon and Jon Wright, he set up a smoothie and drinks company called Innocent Drinks, initially operating from a market stall. As Reed said in an interview with The Financial Times: "After we left our jobs, we had no cash – just one month’s salary each that we tried to eke out for two months. We each ran up debts of about £15,000 from overdrafts and credit cards.... It took us four years before we were back to earning £40,000 – the same salary that we had left." Their brand over the years grew to become the biggest in Europe and in 2013 was sold to Coca-Cola.
Reed is involved with various charities, and is the founder of Art Everywhere and co-founder of the Innocent Foundation and in 2012 JamJar Investments. He also presented the BBC Three series Be Your Own Boss.
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