Bryan Meehan
Bryan Meehan is an Irish businessman and formally the executive chair of Blue Bottle Coffee Company. He also created Fresh and Wild organic markets in London, and then founded the all-natural skincare beauty line, Nude with Bono and Ali Hewson. Meehan is now focused on climate related projects including Dromgarriff Rainforest in Glengarriff, Ireland and since 2018 has served on The Global Sustainability Board at Nestle. His investments and philanthropy are heavily focused on projects that are positively impacting climate change.
Blue Bottle Coffee Company
[edit]Meehan led a major investment of Blue Bottle Coffee in 2012.[1] Blue Bottle Coffee Company is a US coffee roaster and retailer headquartered in Oakland, California and considered a major player in third wave coffee. The company was founded by James Freeman in 2002. Blue Bottle currently has stores in the San Francisco Bay Area, LA, New York, Cambridge, Boston, Miami, & Japan. In 2015, the company raised $73,000,000 in a round led by Fidelity Investments.[2] Other investors include Jared Leto, Tony Hawk, Chris Sacca & Bono.[citation needed]
Fresh & Wild
[edit]Meehan developed the idea of bringing organic stores to the UK after seeing the Whole Foods Organic Supermarket concept while living in Boston and studying at Harvard Business School[3] and Trinity College in Dublin. Meehan came back to London in 1998 and set up organic Fresh & Wild stores with Hass Hassan (founder of Alfalfas/Wild Oats in US).[4]
Meehan and Hass built the Fresh & Wild chain to seven stores, the largest chain of natural and organic food supermarkets in the UK. Widely popular with high-income earning Londoners, the stores amassed over 40,000 shoppers a week. In 2004, they sold the business to US-based Whole Foods Market.[5]
Nude Skincare
[edit]Meehan launched 'Nude Skincare' in 2007. Using his experience with organic food, Meehan spent two years learning about skincare, building a careful understanding of ingredients and clinical testing.[5]
Good friend Ali Hewson is the inspiration, investor and 'muse' of the brand and supermodels Christy Turlington and Helena Christensen are keen devotees.[6]
References
[edit]- ^ "Ownership of Blue Bottle Coffee Changes Hands". 17 October 2012.
- ^ Bradshaw, Tim (4 June 2015). "Blue Bottle Coffee turns from start-up to upstart with $70m deal". Financial Times.
- ^ O'Donovan, Donal (15 September 2017). "Irish entrepreneur sells hip US coffee chain in $500m deal". Irish Independent News. Retrieved 15 February 2018.
- ^ "ES Magazine interviews Nude Founder Bryan Meehan". Nudeskincare.com. Archived from the original on 3 September 2009. Retrieved 20 January 2010.
- ^ a b Caesar, Ed (24 May 2007). "The eco-capitalist bringing ultra-natural skincare to the masses - Green Living, Environment". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 1 August 2009. Retrieved 20 January 2010.
- ^ "Friends united Ali Hewson and Bryan Meehan". The Times. London. 24 January 2009. Archived from the original on 15 June 2011. Retrieved 20 January 2010.
External links
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