The Turmeric Co.

The company

The Turmeric Co. founded by former Welsh international footballer Thomas “Hal” Robson-Kanu, sells cold-pressed turmeric and functional shots out of the UK. The brand grew from a personal recovery product after Robson-Kanu's knee surgery into a national functional-beverage business, with sport-partnership deals across Leicester Tigers, Brentford FC, British Gymnastics, Everton and Sale Sharks.

The problem

By 2021, the brand was scaling fast and needed a finance function that could carry it through hiring, retail launches, international expansion planning, and a multi-year fundraise arc, all at once. The team didn't need a full-time hire; they needed a CFO operation that could plug in immediately and stay in for years. Most fractional CFO engagements last six to eighteen months. The Turmeric Co. needed someone for the long arc, through to a strategic outcome.

What we did

Matt led the engagement from April 2021 through November 2025. The work spanned every function a finance team owns:

• A financial model that ran through 140+ versions as the business changed
• Monthly board packs delivered to the directors for ~2 years
• Weekly EOS Level-10 leadership meetings facilitated end-to-end
• Hiring plans and salary modelling through every team build-out (Ops Director, controllers, raw-materials manager)
• Trade-spend and listing-fee modelling for the UK grocery rollout into Sainsbury's nationwide, Boots high-street stores, and Holland & Barrett's UK network
• VAT, HMRC and EIS liaison alongside specialist advisors
• A 15+ lender debt stack sourced, negotiated and refinanced across the working-capital crunches that come with scaling a physical-product brand

The headline piece of finance work was the investor-grade financial model, built and rebuilt alongside the company's external advisors at BDO LLP, that supported the strategic investment process culminating in AG Barr's £15m deal for a 50.1% stake, announced 29 July 2025. Eightx also supported the sell-side due diligence through the AG Barr process, working alongside BDO to prepare and defend the financial information that backed the deal.

What changed

• From premium-independent to national grocery. The brand built a UK-wide retail footprint across Sainsbury's, Boots, and Holland & Barrett over the engagement window, each rollout supported by trade-spend modelling, working-capital planning, and listing-fee analysis.
• A public, strategic outcome. AG Barr, the FTSE-listed maker of Irn-Bru, took a 50.1% majority stake at a £15m initial consideration, with Robson-Kanu continuing as CEO and AG Barr's CEO and CFO joining as directors. The model that carried the diligence was built and maintained by Eightx alongside BDO.
• Four and a half years of continuous CFO leadership. Through grocery rollout, international expansion planning, multiple controller transitions, and the entire fundraise arc.
• A finance function that survived succession. When The Turmeric Co. brought in an interim CFO in mid-2025, Eightx handed over a fully operational system, not a black box.