A north west based healthy snack business is on track for a predicted 300 per cent year-on-year growth after launching into major retailers.
Real Handful, a trail-mix brand co-owned by husband and wife duo Carly and Joe Taylor, has predicted retail sales value in excess of £1.5m after the brand launched in Asda, Tesco and Waitrose this year.
The idea for the business, founded in 2016, came about when Mr Taylor was trekking across the Grand Canyon and was offered trail mix as a snack.
“Trail mix in America is massive, that’s just the way they snack,” Ms Taylor, who joined the business this year, explained.
She said: “He was training to do an Iron Man, so he was actually having to eat quite a lot of what we call functional foods, so those gels or high protein bars, which never taste very nice.
“So the trail mix idea was born out of that, that healthy doesn’t need to not taste nice and it can be accessible for everyone.”
The duo have seen the number of stores stocking the brand increase from 750 in 2018 to 2,500 in the first six months of 2019.
The business, which started with four trail mix products in smaller bags, has increased its range to include two further smaller bags, two protein bars, two share bags and a new kids range called Bundlz.
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The snacks also underwent a rebrand to help the products stand out as previous branding was “quite functional” and targeted at “people who were outdoors and on the go”, Ms Taylor said.
“The new brand is much more fun, it’s much more about what the brand is all about, it’s a lot brighter and it stands out a lot on the shelf.”
Ms Taylor says the business is now looking to raise funds for the next stage of growth.
She said: “There’s lots of different directions we can go with fruit, nuts and seeds.
“The share bag is a really interesting format for us and we’ve only got two flavours in that at the moment, so we’re looking at extending that range and new flavours of our protein bars.
“We’re also attending lots of events and improving our brand awareness because we feel like we’ve got the right product range now, so it’s just about people understanding about trail mix, the benefits and eating in a slightly different way.”