A rapidly rising North East snack brand which scooped investment on Dragons鈥 Den has sealed a lucrative deal to launch a new vegan bar in supermarket giant Aldi.

The founders of Oatein, Andy Dixon and John-Paul Gardner, launched the Whitley Bay-based firm four years ago as part of moves to disrupt the healthy snack market.

Their growing range of snacks, including protein bars, brownies and flapjacks are already big sellers overseas through hypermarket chain Carrefour and speciality health outlets in more than 60 countries worldwide, helping exports to account for 90% of all sales.

Last year the company made moves to grow its 海角视频 sales, appearing on BBC鈥檚 Dragons鈥 Den to secure a 拢50,000 from entrepreneur Peter Jones, which soon after resulted in its bars going on sale in Holland & Barrett.

Now Oatein鈥檚 newest product, the vegan Millionaire Crunch, has been sucessfully launched in supermarket retailer Aldi, where it has gone on sale as part of Aldi鈥檚 support for Veganuary.

Oatein are launching a new range which will include vegan variants
Oatein are launching a new range which will include vegan variants

The Millionaire Crunch takes a gluten-free and zero-sugar twist on the traditional millionaire鈥檚 shortbread, with the recipe proving suitable for both vegans and vegetarians, and it is now available in 830 stores countrywide in one of Oatein鈥檚 biggest listings to date.

The Oatein directors said they received a huge boost when they appeared on Dragons鈥 Den, where discussing the industry鈥檚 move towards veganism with Dragon Deborah Meaden ultimately led to the creation of the Millionaire Crunch.

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John-Paul Gardner, director at Oatein, said: 鈥淭his is a fantastic opportunity for Oatein and is part of the next step of growth for our brand, as one of the fastest growing high protein snack brands in the 海角视频 this couldn鈥檛 come at a better time.鈥

The firm is also in discussions with a number of other 海角视频 supermarkets and hopes it will reveal new partnerships soon.

Oatein has also received support from multimillion-pound programme Scaleup North East.

RTC North delivers Scaleup North East in conjunction with the North East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and is part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), with the aim of supporting North East-based businesses that can demonstrate both the hunger and potential to achieve high levels of growth.