Henrietta Norton founded Charlie Wild Nutrition with her husband in 2013. Photo: Wild Nutrition
Henrietta Norton is one of the UK’s leading nutritionists and nutritional supplement experts. She co-founded Charlie Wild Nutrition with her husband in 2013 and is now a leader in natural nutritional supplements that support health, including fertility and pregnancy through to menopause and stress.
In 2021, Wild Nutrition was one of the few companies to achieve B Corp certification and the Best Places for Work for Women award. It also secured a £ 5 million ($ 6.7 million) investment contract with Piper to raise awareness in international markets. The company has retail partnerships with Planet Organic, Whole-Foods, Harrods, Selfridges and leading independent health food stores across the UK.
Margo Marrone was a trained pharmacist and decided to take a different path. The more she understood how human physiology and pharmaceuticals work, that taking drugs has so many side effects, the more she wanted to learn about nutrition.
She had opened a very integrated pharmacy – The Organic Pharmacy – on King’s Road in Chelsea in 2002, paving the way for a more integrated high street approach. She was and is a big hitter in the wellness industry, and that’s where I got my first job as a nutritionist; Advice on the shop floor and holding appointments.
Since the pharmacy was a start-up, I stacked products on the shelves, went behind the cash register, and did an inventory. The lesson for me about working in a startup was to get your hands dirty and basically do anything.
Margo was great at delegating responsibility rather than leading the company on its own. She got everyone involved and credited everyone when they did something right. That really supported me.
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Margo was doing something new and different – in 2003 the world of nutrition and healthy living was significantly different than it is today – and very quickly celebrities like Donna Air, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow came to us for health advice.
The story goes on
Her husband also worked with her in terms of design. From an inspiring point of view, I had seen firsthand how someone else would start from scratch and turn it into a successful business. The pharmacy eventually had stores across London, was founded in Los Angeles and has a cult following.
In 2021, Norton’s company secured a £ 5 million investment deal with Piper to raise awareness in international markets
Margo was small, born in Iran, and fiery. This fieriness also gave her a sense of confidence and determination. She wouldn’t hold back from telling you if we did something wrong, but there was always something to learn from her.
At the time, I didn’t dream of owning my own supplement company. But I got an idea early on how exciting it is to do something your own way. I also got a deeper understanding of their integrated approach, not just an Orthodox one, and the ability to combine the two.
Then, since I continued to develop in my own practice prior to founding Wild Nutrition, my early experiences made me confident of providing more advice than just nutrition. She definitely piqued my curiosity.
I stayed for 18 months until 2004. One day a journalist from the Evening Standard came to the pharmacy for a blind consultation. Little did I know she was a journalist, and she ended up writing an article called “The Top 10 Health Gurus You Need On Your Speed Dial”. I was featured on the front page and my own bookings suddenly skyrocketed.
There were moments, especially at the beginning of the “Wild” journey, when I looked back on those days at The Organic Pharmacy and looked back on the stresses Margo must have felt with owning a company.
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She fired people on the left, right and in the middle and fell out with a lot of people, but she must have been under a lot of pressure from the start. But Margo was a game changer.
Wild Nutrition was named one of Great Place to Work’s Best Places to Work for Women in 2021
She was one of the pioneers in making alternative medicine cool instead of finding products in healthy stores and languishing on dusty shelves. Her pharmacy wasn’t grumpy, her own range was a great brand, and the store had a great layout.
Today we run Wild Nutrition with my husband Charlie – we started in our garden shed in Sussex in 2013 – and we have always had the determination and passion to build the business.
We were also stubborn enough not to let that stop us from starting the company. It’s been quite a journey.
Wild diet launched its Vegan Protein + Superfoods Blend Specially designed for those who tackle the twists and turns of everyday life.
