Interview with Johan Bülow - Founder of LAKRIDS BY BÜLOW

This week we interviewed Johan Bülow to talk about what inspired him to create LAKRIDS BY BÜLOW, his mission to elevate liquorice into a gourmet experience and much more.

1. What inspired you to start LAKRIDS BY BÜLOW, and why did you choose liquorice as your focus?

As a child, I grew up in what you could call an entrepreneur community. Close to my childhood home was a micro-brewery, a chocolate factory, an ice cream factory, a sweet factory, and a glass-blowing workshop, meaning I was surrounded by entrepreneurial spirits. My mother holds an incredibly entrepreneurial mindset. At just 16, she borrowed money from her father to start a grill bar in Denmark. She then threw her interest into glass-blowing, and is now involved in bead production in Ghana.

From a young age, my mother always told me: “If it feels like work, you are doing it wrong”. She has inspired the love of entrepreneurship as a way to live out one’s childhood play and dreams.

In my early 20’s, I travelled to Bornholm with my now wife, Sarah, to visit my family and see my uncle’s new sweet shop, where he cooked and sold handmade sweets. I saw how tourists were intrigued by the smell, encouraging them to come inside the store and taste the products. It was fascinating, the way the consumers interacted with the product and how the experience affected their curiosity. This inspired me to create LAKRIDS BY BÜLOW.

I always loved liquorice but felt that there was so much more that could be done with the unique flavour. Initially, I threw my attention into making a slow crafted version using only high-quality ingredients. I spent an entire year, tucked away in my mother’s kitchen trying to perfect the ultimate recipe. As someone who loves to challenge the status quo, I set myself a mission: to elevate liquorice into a gourmet experience.

2. What sets LAKRIDS apart from other confectionery brands in the market?

I am always testing new products. Our Head of Product Development, Francisca, brings new experiments to my desk every day, and I give my input for small tweaks. This is something I love about our product development process at LAKRIDS BY BÜLOW and I believe sets us apart from other confectionery brands, as we are constantly innovating and coming up with bold new flavours. We experiment with everything from taste, colours, shades, crunch, texture, bite and so on.

My aim has always been to focus on uncovering what our customers want, before they even know it. We always try to push the boundaries of what is possible with liquorice, launching innovative products such as our SLOW CRAFTED range and unique flavour combinations such as SOUR STRAWBERRY, FROZEN MINT and SALT & PEPPER. Furthermore, I am passionate about trusting our customers' opinions. We never fear trying something new and innovative, as we have developed our trusty tasting panel, LAKRIDS LOVERS, featuring more than 130,000 members. The panel was developed in 2021 as a way to get even closer to our incredible community of liquorice lovers and give them a chance to be part of our product development.

As a LAKRIDS LOVER, you receive exclusive flavour samples with every purchase - small-batch creations that we are currently testing in our Creative Lab. Each sample includes a QR code to give feedback on the product. But more than that, LAKRIDS LOVERS is about creating a deeper connection with those who share our passion and want to help us on our mission to make the world love liquorice. We have a passion for craftsmanship at LAKRIDS BY BÜLOW and our customers appreciate the quality that comes through our brand heritage.

3. How do you convert skeptics of liquorice into fans?

We know that traditionally liquorice is deemed a very polarising flavour, which is why at LAKRIDS BY BÜLOW we are on a mission to make the world love liquorice, one liquorice hater at a time. We truly believe that the timeless and recognisable taste of our Danish gourmet liquorice can convert even some of the biggest haters. It took me an entire year in my mother's kitchen to perfect the recipe and now we have a factory with stores all over the world. We are proud of our authentic approach to the production of liquorice - this is the reason we exist and can strike at the quality we have.

Together with our Production Manager Tage, we developed the idea of coating gourmet liquorice with chocolate. The concept of covering liquorice in chocolate was already a known practice in Iceland, but we wanted to take the idea to the next level.

It is all about creating the perfect combination of the right chocolate with the right type of liquorice, and today we explore the magic that dark, milk, white, and dulce chocolate can create with liquorice. I challenge anyone who believes they hate the taste of liquorice to try our products, perhaps they will find themselves joining the ever growing community of liquorice converts.

At LAKRIDS BY BÜLOW, our greatest asset is the power of taste. The moment someone tries our gourmet liquorice, everything changes—they fall in love with the rich, bold flavours that make our products truly one of a kind. That’s why tastings are at the heart of what we do. We don’t just sell liquorice; we invite people to experience it and convert sceptics into liquorice lovers. We are so confident in our tastings that in 2024 we conducted the world’s largest liquorice tasting, with over 1 million samples tried. For us, it’s simple: one taste is all it takes to turn skeptics into lovers.

4. What’s your favourite flavour from the range, and why?

My favourite flavour in the entire range is, overall, all our organic & SLOW CRAFTED variants. My absolute favourite is very simply the DARK TRUFFLE. It embodies the core DNA of our brand. It is simple yet incredibly thorough. Simplicity always works best for me, but at the same time, it is the hardest to achieve.

5. What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs who want to

redefine a traditional product?

To anyone wanting to start a business in the Food & Business industry, I recommend focusing on uncovering what the consumer doesn’t yet know they want, instead of simply catering to their existing desires. I believe the key to my success is that I have always strived to anticipate future needs and trends. Aim to redefine what is delicious and utilise real, quality ingredients to create superior products.

Furthermore, trust your customers, after all, they are the ones buying your products. Never underestimate the power of consumer feedback.

6. If you had one day off in London, where would you like to visit/explore?

If I had one day in London, I would start by watching football at Brentford's home ground, the Gtech Community Stadium. There are several Danish players, and the atmosphere is said to be both local and fantastic! To eat, I would visit a small Iranian restaurant called Berenjak. My wife is Iranian, and I absolutely love their cuisine. Finally, I would stay at the Chiltern Firehouse with my kids.

To find out more or to order LAKRIDS BY BÜLOW visit https://lakridsbybulow.co.uk