Tony Stone (entrepreneur)
| Tony Stone | |
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Tony Stone in 2015
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| Born |
16 September 1979 Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | CEO, Stoats Porridge Bars |
| Years active | 2005–present |
Tony Stone is a British entrepreneur in the food industry. Tony and his friend Bob Arnott founded the porridge firm Stoats.
Tony Stone was born in Edinburgh. He was educated at George Heriot's School.
From a young age, Tony had wanted to run his own business. However, he wasn't sure what sort business, but was constantly talking about ideas.
After graduation, Stone worked in a Cameron House Hotel in Loch Lomond and the Crown Plaza Hotel in Edinburgh. Next he went to do marketing for a boutique 40-bedroom hotel.
Stone returned to Edinburgh to engage in his own business. He started porridge producer Stoats with his friend Bob Arnott. Their original vision was to sell porridge in the centre of Edinburgh in a large café bar. Stone and Arnott recognised that it would be difficult to fund this venture, but undeterred and with help from the The Prince's Trust, they set off to provide hot food to UK music festivals and farmers' markets in a converted hot dog cart named the "Stoats Porridge Bar".
The Edinburgh food company progressed from the porridge trailer to marketing porridge oat bars. Waitrose, a supermarket chain was looking to expand in Scotland and started stocking Stoats porridge oat bars. Stone said "Our porridge bars have been a huge hit in Scotland so we're really happy to that Waitrose shoppers across the UK can now buy our products."
Stone's intention was to modernise porridge recipe, with a recipe to make it lighter and fluffier with a much better texture. Stoats now sell a range of oat based products including porridge, quick porridge, porridge oat bars and oatcakes.
Initially based in Scotland, Stoats gained national listings in both Tesco and Waitrose.
Furthering Stone's mission to take "porridge to the people", Stoats provided 10,000 porridge bars to runners in the 2007 New York Marathon and 26,000 bowls of porridge to athletes at the 2012 London Olympic Games.
In 2007, weighing in at 81.2 kg, Stoats broke the Guinness World Record for the largest bowl of porridge ever made. This huge breakfast was sufficient to fill 2000 normal sized bowls of porridge. The event was staged at the Castle Street Farmers' Market in Edinburgh.
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