Member Article

UK’s favourite free-from brand continues exceptional growth

Kirsty’s, the UK’s favourite free-from brand, has continued its meteoric rise with turnover increasing 11.5% during 2021.

The brand has seen exceptional growth in a range of lines with sales of desserts increasing 59% YOY, pizzas rising 29% YOY and meals climbing 10% YOY.

Kirsty Henshaw, who started the business from humble beginnings at her kitchen table, isn’t resting on her laurels despite the success and has set her sights on continued growth.

Kirsty comments: “This year has been incredibly challenging for me personally, my wonderful colleagues and the business in general. However, our drive and determination to continue to be the UK’s number one free-from food brand has shone through.

“We’re delighted to have increased turnover and sales of key lines this year and by 2024 we’re aiming to achieve an annual turnover of £25M, which we will secure through investment in production, new product development and new routes to market.”

Kirsty’s investment in the business has continued, despite facing the challenges that the pandemic has brought, with 25 new jobs created during 2021 with potential for a further 25 new jobs to be created in 2022.

This year, Kirsty’s new product development has seen the brand launch gluten and dairy free Chinese and Indian chilled ready meals designed to cater for the estimated 18m people in the UK with a food allergy or intolerance.

The range launched with two of the nation’s favourite dishes, Chicken Tikka Masala and Sweet & Sour Chicken, in an effort to make up for a £2.7M undertrade in free-from Chinese and Indian chilled ready meals.

Kirsty continued: “New product development is at the heart of our business. Our desire to make the UK’s most popular meals that caters for millions of free-from consumers is what continues to drive us forward.

“We’re excited to have introduced what we anticipate will be popular meals to our current and new customers and we can’t wait to see where our new product development takes us in 2022.”

During this coming year customers can expect to see several other new products developed by Kirsty’s on the shelves and these new introductions will include further vegan meals that have already proven popular. In January last year, Kirsty’s Lentil Cottage Pie outsold it’s classic counterpart by 15% as people looked to reduce their meat consumption in easy ways.

This was made possible after Kirsty’s invested £2M in a state-of-the-art factory in Harrogate that has continued to help the brand focus on new product development and achieve their exceptional growth.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Alex Duckett .