Ones to Watch: Holly Thallon Steenson
As part of Family Business Week 2023 we are profiling a series of future family business leaders who are ‘Ones to Watch’.
Holly Thallon Steenson
NextGen Co-Owner, Viridian Nutrition
Holly Thallon Steenson jokes that she was a good fit to work in the business her mother set up because she was “born with a clipboard in my hand”. But the skills she brings to the company, a producer of wellness supplements, are much more than organising and managing things. She brings to Viridian Nutrition her passion to see the family ethics put into practice.
Her mother Cheryl started Viridian Nutrition in 1999, when Holly was just four years old. At the time, Cheryl was supplying 24 supplements to 100 specialist health stores, but since then the business has grown tenfold, with a range of 230+ products through more than a thousand distributors. The business now employs 53 people and turns over £12 million p.a.
It’s a big job to take over managing that business, but Holly is well on her way. In addition to the clipboard she was born with, she has obtained a degree from Leeds Beckett University, she had been working in event management until the Covid-19 pandemic brought that line of work to a standstill.
Though her current job title is “NextGen Co-Owner”, she is essentially a Managing Director in training until her mother [Cheryl] retires. Until recently, Cheryl had said she would never retire. But after a Cranfield course led her to start thinking about her legacy, she was grateful when Holly came to her and said she wanted to join the business.
Holly has been full-time with Viridian since February 2021, taking on additional training such as pursuing a mini MBA in business management. She’s been engaging with various business organisations such as the local Chamber of Commerce… and of course Family Business UK.
As she’s got stuck into the business, her aspirations continue to grow. Future plans include enhancing the company’s digital presence and expanding its geographic reach. While currently working a thousand independent health stores across the UK and Ireland plus 27 other countries, Holly hopes to expand more internationally in order to “spread the health and happiness”.
Environmental impact is high on Holly’s list of concerns, reflected for example by achieving Greenleaf certification for Viridian’s eco-friendly approach to packaging and shipping. The reliance on easily-recyclable glass is also good for quality – protecting against light, air and moisture from getting into the product. “And we’re constantly questioning what can we do better”, Holly says.
One recent example of this featured a warehouse team member picking up a bottle and shaking it. He was curious: why is that so? Turns out that there really wasn’t a good reason why the bottle was bigger than it needed to be, so the business moved to using a smaller size, and is saving 12 tonnes in glass per year. It’s the sort of improvement that Holly loves to celebrate.
Relationships with the valued retailers that distribute the Viridian range are hugely important to the business, so a lot of Holly’s effort goes into maintaining those relationships, for example through store visits, trade shows and a yearly international conference that Viridian hosts. “Physically seeing people face to face is key”, she says. “In an industry that is mainly owned by the large corporates such as Nestle, Proctor & Gamble etc, being family-owned and independent means a lot to our customers.”
The same applies to her relationship with the Viridian team. “We know every single person who works for us… We are one big family and here to support each other.”
Throughout, she is driven by the company purpose: “We have a strong moral compass and absolute clarity on our mission – to help people to greater health and happiness”.
Holly seems confident as she prepares for taking over as Managing Director from her mother. “The business was my mother’s baby… But then, that makes Viridian my sister!”
Read more from about our ‘Ones to Watch’ here.