How entrepreneur Andy Shovel went from a beefy burger chain to completely plant-based substitutes

Chicken burgers were out, plant-based substitute was in. Shovel had sworn off meat but wasn’t averse to its taste and so THIS was born, writes Andy Martin

The label of a THIS tikka product (THIS)

Can a leopard change its spots? Can an old dog learn new tricks? I’m inclined to think anything is possible, since speaking to Andy Shovel. This is not just a case of an enthusiastic carnivore turning veggie, at 33 he has gone from setting up Chosen Bun, a “premium/ultimate” but definitely beefy burger chain, to co-founding THIS, a plant-based meat-substitute company.

When Shovel left Nottingham University in 2009 with a degree in business and geography, he had £300 and a laptop. He noticed, in the midst of the financial crisis, that there were a lot of graduates looking for work, so he set up a graduate recruitment company.

He says: “I saw myself as relatively unemployable. So I had to run my own business.” He sold it for enough to buy a used Porsche.