Monthly Maidstone Spotlight – Perfectly Pulled

A solid business background coupled with a passion for elevating an underrated ingredient proved the perfect recipe for Royston Starling’s food business. Here he shares how customer insights, embracing change, and, of course, a fantastic product are the keys to success.

Royston, you started Perfectly Pulled in 2025 – is your background in food?
I’ve always enjoyed cooking in my own kitchen but I’m actually from a corporate background. I spent 20 years working in product leadership, mainly with financial services businesses such as Direct Line Group, RVU Group and Natwest.

As a director, I knew I could bring products to life, but I found I spent most of my time and energy creating presentation slides and attending seemingly endless meetings. It was incredibly frustrating so, eventually, I decided to take a different direction to speed up acting on decisions and actually delivering something tangible much more quickly.

Around this time, my twin brother moved back to the UK from Singapore. There’s a thriving culture in Asia of socialising and eating out in large food courts – or ‘hawker centres’; people tend to start in the early evening and continue into the night. So, when my brother was here, I decided to take him to the closest equivalent, which was the food court at Lockmeadow. While we were there, we saw an opportunity. My brother used to make a delicious pulled pork at home for guests and it was his recipe that formed the basis of Perfectly Pulled.

You started out with the name Perfect Pulled Pork 11 months ago but the business has quickly evolved – tell us about that.
Pork was the original focus; it’s often thought of as a cheap meat but that it can be dry, boring and lacking in flavour. We wanted to change that mindset and show that it can be incredible.  Typically, it’s cooked for around four hours in a slow cooker or oven but ours is cooked for 24 hours in a sous vide so it’s really succulent and tasty. That was the original hero product, but I saw opportunities to expand our menu and now our most popular item is beef brisket. It’s cooked even longer, 36 hours, and is just amazing – we keep getting great feedback.

We’ve also added chicken to our menu, and we sell everything from wraps to nachos and burgers. So, we’ve recently dropped the ‘pork’ from our name and are tweaking the branding.

The essence of what we do is the sous vide method of cooking and recipe – the only items I fry are the fries. As such, some of our dishes are also incredibly healthy – we’re proving popular with gym-goers at Lockmeadow, as well as some of the Maidstone United football team. For example, I recently worked with an expert on the nutritional information for our burrito bowl and it provides 90g carbs, 50g protein and 10g fibre, all in around 750 calories, which is pretty impressive, so we’re pushing that hard.

What do you like about being based at Lockmeadow?
A food court like this in a premises owned by the council at reasonable rates is a great incubator hub for new businesses. It’s a fairly low-level commitment in that you’re not signing a five-year lease with huge outlays, which would worry most start-up owners. If Lockmeadow was not an option, I would’ve had to think about using a van and finding somewhere to pitch and do events, which would’ve been far more complicated and can add a level of uncertainty and risk.

It’s also presented some great opportunities for networking and linking up with other businesses. For example, bike shop Cycles UK recently opened in Lockmeadow and I’ve provided some catering for them as well as inviting them to use the food court for a meeting, which is great for promotion. I’ve also catered for businesses just across the river from Lockmeadow – I often joke that it’s a ‘moat’ as some people think of us as being far away from the town centre and don’t want to cross it, but we’re actually just a 7-minute walk. I want to do so much more to help reach out to other businesses and drive footfall, which is why I’ve also been very active with One Maidstone – and I’m really excited to be joining their board.

How has MBC supported you?
When I started the business, I feel my corporate background meant I had strong entrepreneurial skills; I knew how to create a business plan and demonstrate an idea was viable, for example. But I didn’t know how to tap into a network that opened doors financially. So, I was very fortunate to be introduced to Chris Lyle, the business adviser at the Business Terrace. In fact, I was signposted to her by someone at the Job Centre as after leaving my job, I was unemployed and briefly claiming benefits. Chris invited me to some seminars, and one happened to be all about financing.

I managed to secure a loan at a very favourable rate and some of the grants available were interest free. The financial element was what was missing from my ability to bring the business to life and MBC really helped me with that.

What has been your biggest challenge?
I think it’s being crystal clear about what we set out to achieve from the beginning and making sure the whole team was aligned. When we started, I had a very clear understanding of the market, the competition, what customers wanted and how our product fit into all of that.

For my brother, the aim was more about turning his hobby into a business. He wasn’t keen to diversify away from pork, but I knew we had to because my research was telling us that people only buy that particular meat once a month, so our repeat custom was limited. My brother chose to step back from the business, and I’ve continued to drive it forward. I have a great team supporting me though. There are five of us; two A-level students, and two part-time ladies, one who works around school hours, the other in addition to another part-time job, so we’ve been able to find perfect balances and flexibility.

What advice would you give to other start-ups?
If you’re thinking about an idea that you’d love to try, just talk to some other small business owners – they would probably love to help.

Be clear about why you’re starting up but don’t be afraid of making changes if necessary. Listen to your customers – not just the vocal ones – and make sure you understand what they’re telling you. A huge part of my corporate background is data analytics and market research and I understand how important it is to put all that information together: it’s what led me to add beef and chicken to our menu. You must be prepared to pivot.

What are your plans for the future?
My ‘small’ plan is to continue to test and challenge my menu and make sure it delivers what customers want. Something to watch out for is the addition of a one-month Easter special of pulled lamb. I’m working with a local, young female farmer who rears her own sheep so I’m excited to add that to our menu in April and support a local farm.

My broader ambition is to open more venues. In fact, I’m in talks with Lockmeadow about using a vacant unit next to mine for a new food project aimed at kids, of all ages. When my girls were younger, we used to recreate healthier versions of fast food at home for them with great ingredients and they loved the experience of building their own menu. Inspired by that, I’m aiming to provide an engaging, good quality food experience for kids, at a great price…watch this space for more info!

Find out more and follow Perfectly Pulled:

https://www.perfectpulledpork.com/
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