Gü

This article is about the dessert company. For other uses, see Gü (disambiguation).

Gü

File:Gü puds logo.jpg Gü logo
Company type	Gü. (Subsidiary)
Industry	Dessert
Founded	London, United Kingdom (2003)
Key people	James Averdieck (Founder and ex director)
Website	www.gupuds.com www.gudesserts.com

Gü is a range of deserts, sold in Germany, France, Australia, New Zealand and the UK, made in the UK and created by James Averdieck: the "Gü Meister".

The beginning of Gü

While studying a BA in Economics (1988), at Durham university James Averdieck sold shoes to workers in the City of London. He became a strategy consultant, worked for Safeway and became a marketing manager. He then worked for St Ivel, who sent him to Brussels to launch Utterly Butterly. He came up with the idea for idea for a premium desserts business while working in Belgium and fell in love with the local patisseries and their chocolate. .

“struck by the fact that if I could recreate the artisanal approach of the patisserie to  produce a high-quality pudding
that could be sold in a supermarket, it would be a winner” 

He then met Perry Haydn Taylor, from creative design company big fish, to help him brand the company. He planned to call his new business “The Belgium Chocolate Company".

James “walks to their offices to be shown a brand that creative director Perry Haydn Taylor had located in Scandinavia.
Called ‘Gü’ it had an exotic continental ring, it’s onomatopoeic spelling was just right and the design looked just
right for upmarket yummie-mummies. James was devastated; someone somewhere had had HIS idea.  Heartbroken he hardly
heard Perry release him from his misery and tell him that if he wanted it the idea was all his.” 

They developed the idea of marketing themselves as "chocolate extremists" and developed a positioning around the idea that these were “puds so indulgent they were strictly for grown-ups”. They were put in the “striking black boxes” designed “to give the products shelf standout in the brightly coloured chilled desserts sector and as a short-hand for prestige”. Once the product was prepared they hid some Gü sample boxes on the shelf of a local supermarket.

“I gave myself ten minutes in Waitrose to see the response to my product on the shelf – someone picked it up and put
it in her basket and on the back of that, I launched my business" 

Gü’s launch

Gü launched in 2003 with three products: two chocolate mousses and a chocolate soufflé in glass ramekins, , developed through a joint venture with a patisserie company in London. They has a seed capital of £65,000.

Gü was able to diversify in 2005 into fruity puddings with Frü but in In May 2010 the two brands joined forces under the name of Gü. . In 2007 alone, Gü launched 24 new products, selling in 2,000 stores and it is estimated that a Gü pudding is eaten somewhere in the world every two seconds.

In 2010, James Averdieck collected about £9 million after selling Gü to Noble Foods for £32.5 million. Recently rebranded it for the international market. and has acquired a controlling stake in a small Essex-based maker of coconut-based desserts called Bessant & Drury.

Gü Products

After dark ramekins

• After dark raspberry and white chocolate mousse
• Gü-zillionaires’ pud
• Gü york cheesecake
• Mango & passionfruit cheesecake
• Chocolate & orange melting middles
• After dark black forest gateaux
• After dark morello cherry bakewell puds
• Chocolate banoffees
• Chocolate mousses
• Lemon cheesecakes
• Hot chocolate melting middles
• Key lime pies
• Hot chocolate soufflés
• Chocolate & vanilla cheesecakes

After dark sharing puds

• Chocolate & pecan brownie pud
• Gü-ey chocolate torte

Anytime mousses

• Chocolate mousse

Mini puds

• Zesty lemon mini puds
• Chocolate & orange mini puds
• Chocolate ganache mini puds
• Mango & passionfruit mini cheesecakes