Free-from snack brand Crave has won a contract with Aldi after winning the Store Cupboard round of its Channel 4 TV show ‘Aldi’s Next Big Thing’.
Crave’s allergy-friendly Pickled Onion Monster Feet and Smokey Bacon Streakers crisps will be rolling out across the discount grocers stores from today, (18 November).
“My inspiration for Crave was seeing that so many free-from foods were either bland and boring or firmly focused on health, I wanted to shake things up, bring bold flavour and a bit of fun,” Crave founder Rob Brice said.
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Founded in 2020, Crave’s product portfolio includes its two crisp flavours, as well as its gluten free, milk free, vegan and lactose free chocolate bars in ‘Kitchen Sink’ and ‘Rocky Road’.
Speaking of his time on the show Brice added, “the whole filming experience was surreal and unreal. As a start-up brand we were pinching ourselves to even have this opportunity and potential exposure on TV. It’s a money can’t buy sort of thing for us.”
Having fought off competition in the initial assessment rounds of Aldi’s Next Big Thing, Crave was invited to the grocery retailers HQ to present its products to Aldi’s managing director of buying, Julie Ashfield.
Once announced as a finalist, the brand had two weeks to come up with its new product, Wots’inits as an 80g share bag and smaller multi pack option along with a packaging design.
“The listing in Aldi for us is huge, our biggest order to date and we hope the start of a beautiful relationship. The Aldi team have been great to deal with and we like to think they get Crave, what we’re about and what we’re trying to do.
“It goes to show that vegan and free-from can be mainstream. Julie and the team loved the fact that Crave is all about delivering those normal food products that people may be missing out on, they loved our cheeky tone of voice and what we do.”
