SWEET TASTE OF SUCCESS

A SUGAR-FREE BRAND IS A WINNER FOR THIS MOTHER AND SON DUO

- Emma Levett

Sometimes the best ideas come from the least expected places. Eight years ago, Julie Pillon was working on the concept of a lunch that could be delivered to people’s desks when she started looking for a drink to be packaged with it.

“Water was the only thing out there that was really healthy, but we wanted something fizzy, fun and exciting,” Julie, now 66, tells WHO. “I thought, ‘Well, I’ll have to make something.’”

Fast-forward nearly a decade and Julie and her son and business partner, Michael, are now the king and queen of sugar-free fare. While the lunch concept fell by the wayside, their natural and sugar-free soda brand, Famous, catapulted into supermarkets, making millions and plugging a gap that consumers desperately needed filled.

“It took about two years and many, many tastings to get the product right,” Julie says. “Customers are only going to come back if it tastes really good and it’s hard to make a sugar-free product with no preservatives.”