Healthy eating trend drives sales growth at Designer Habitat

Kitchen and homeware firm Designer Habitat has managed to double sales of its VonShef brand of health-led gadgets over the last half year.

The Manchester-based company, which sells in-house brands VonShef and VonHaus, has attributed much of the growth to the ‘clean eating’ trend led by celebrity chefs and advocates such food blogger Deliciously Ella.

Designer Habitat saw a 129% increase in sales of pressers, blenders, juicers, whisks and smoothie makers between July 2015 and January 2016, in comparison to the same period the year previous. Additionally, the number of units sold across the categories leapt by close to 160%.

The firm’s co-founder and CEO, Mark Januszewski, said: “Traditionally, retailers like us see a spike in health-led products in January, when the ‘new year, new you’ mantra is in full swing after the Christmas blow-out.

“However, 2015 was particularly interesting as we noticed a consistently high number of sales being processed for juicers, blenders and smoothie makers.

He continued: “This surge in popularity is not only down to the increased desire among consumers to keep their health in check, but also the ever-growing trend to ‘tweet and eat’ – preparing and sharing a smoothie recipe is a staple of many a social media account, for example.

“It’s also become very fashionable and cost-effective to stock your kitchen with the latest time and money-saving gadgets, as it far outweighs the price of purchasing healthy snacks on the go.”

News of Designer Habitat’s sales increase follows new data from market research firm Mintel revealing that, nationally, kitchen gadget sales have increased from £635m to almost £900m over the last five years, a rise of 41%.

Founded in 2009 by Mark Januszewski and Craig Foster, Designer Habitat today supplies its products to retailers across the UK and Europe, in addition to selling direct to the consumer through Amazon, Tesco Online and its own ecommerce site, Domu.

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