Secret Leaders

Would you go back to save the business you started, when you’d already walked away?  Renée Elliott had to fight for her business, Planet Organic, right from the start. Two years after they launched in 1995, her then-business partner tried to force her out, which culminated in a High Court battle. Renée won and along with her husband Brian who came on as Managing Director, took back control of the business. They ran it together for ten years.  Then, in 2009 they decided to step away from the business to raise their children. They moved to Italy, then returned to the UK, where Renée started a coaching and wellbeing business, Beluga Bean. Nine years after she stepped back from the business, Renée sold the majority of her shares in Planet Organic.  She'd done it, achieved the entrepreneur's dream, built a business, sold it and could now relax… or that’s what everyone thought.  In May 2023 Renée made headlines when she led a bid to buy Planet Organic after it was announced the company was going into administration