Member Article

Major Retailers Devour Real Handful Snacks

Cheadle Hulme based start up, Real Handful (www.realhandful.com), has had its range of delicious, nutritionally balanced snacks snapped up by a duo of major retailers.

Holland and Barrett is stocking the products in 330 of its stores across the UK, and the snacks are also set to be listed by online giant, Ocado. This news comes hot on the heels of a successful round of fundraising, which saw Real Handful scooping over £100,000 in angel investment. The money will be ploughed into recruiting a team on the ground and supporting the roll out of Real Handful’s ambitious launch strategy. Founder, Joe Taylor, said: ‘We’re going to be working incredibly hard to make sure each of customers has a successful launch. We’re particularly excited to be starting with Holland & Barrett: being stocked by such a respected name in the health and wellbeing space brings real credibility.

’‘Distribution on this scale means anyone across the UK can get their hands on a pack of Real Handful, so there’s a whole new audience for us to introduce the brand to.’’

Holland and Barrett will be stocking three lines from Real Handful’s 2016 six-strong range of fruit and nut blends with added yummy stuff: Mochaccino, Mixed Berry Crunch and Go-Go-Goji Berries.

Ocado is listing four products: Blood Orange & Dark Choc, Mochaccino, Go-Go-Goji Berries and Blueberry Blitz.

Getting the mix and quality of ingredients spot on has been a major focus over the last year for Joe, who has collaborated with product developers who have experience working for the likes of PepsiCo and Marks and Spencer. Together they have developed a winning combination of flavours and blends, maintaining an element of fun in each snack.

’‘We set out to really add value to the healthy snacking space. The final range has been built following extensive consumer testing. The message was loud and clear: people are looking for more healthy options but they are not willing to compromise on taste. In addition they’re looking for a more sustained energy boost and the nuts in our mixes help to deliver this too.’’

Launching Real Handful has been a rollercoaster of a ride for Joe and wife and business partner, Carly, who set up the business in May 2015 from their kitchen table. Joe, who gained experience of launching new brands whilst working at innocent drinks, was inspired to start Real Handful following a trip to the Grand Canyon, where trail mix kept his energy levels high. Realising that there was a real gap in the UK market for a healthy, balanced but enjoyable snack, Joe set about shaking up the status quo and offering consumers something new. With more deals on the table for a further round of national stockists this year, to add to the Holland and Barrett and Ocado listings, Real Handful has come a long way from an idea sparked whilst on a hike in the Grand Canyon!

‘We’ve got great ambitions to make Real Handful available in as many places as possible so of course working with the big boys is something we’re preparing for, but our independent customers will always remain important to us,’’ said Joe. ’’In fact our first ever stockist, ‘Create It’ in Cheadle is one of our favourite places to pop in for a visit and a chat, and we love doing business in that personal, face to face way.’’

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sam Williams .