As an increasing number social media influencers launch brands that are disrupting the FMCG sector, we take a look at some of the most recent products to hit the supermarket shelves.
The Sidemen
Earlier this week, The Sidemen’s Cereal brand Best made its retail debut in Tesco.
Priced at £2 for a 375g box, the HFSS-compliant products were developed by cereal manufacturer Mornflake and are available in flavours Choco Crunch and Caramel Gold.
However, it is not the first time the social media group, which includes influencers KSI, Miniminter, Zerkaa, Behzinga and Vikkstar123, has launched a grocery product in supermarkets.
In 2022 Morrisons began stocking The Sidemen’s XIX Vodka in over 300 of its stores, while last October the product also rolled out in Tesco stores across the UK. The premium alcoholic beverage quickly sold out within minutes of first dropping online.
Deliciously Ella
Ella Mills, née Woodward, first launched plant-based brand Deliciously Ella in 2016, following establishing herself as a clean eating blogger in 2012.
The brand was initially stocked in Waitrose and Whole Foods Market with its debut products Cacao and Almond and Cashew and Ginger flavoured energy balls in August 2016, before rolling out to retailers like Ocado, Planet Organic and Selfridges in the October.
Deliciously Ella has since launched a range of other clean-eating centred products including muesli, granola and oat bars, as well as variety recipe books stocked up leading supermarkets.
In January the brand completed its full supermarket sweep with listing in Asda and Co-op, and now boasts a portfolio of almost 50 nutrition focused products.
Last year Mills, who has hit over 2.4m followers on Instagram, was praised for buying food manufacturer Green Ways Food’ factory out of administration and rescuing 27 employee’s jobs at the Milton Keynes site.
As of January this year, the entire Deliciously Ella empire is thought to be worth an approximate £60m, with the company reporting a profit of £1.2m in the full financial year to 31 December 2022.
Thomas Straker, All Things Butter
Last month, organic British dairy brand All Things Butter made its supermarket debut in Asda and Sainsbury’s, as it sets itself on a mission to disrupt the butter industry.
The brand was first launched in November 2023 after the social media series ‘All Things Butter’ took off across chef and co-founder Thomas Straker’s TikTok account.
Straker explored unique ways to bolster recipes using butter, which saw the channel gain over 43m likes and 2.2m followers.
The brand then initially secured pre-seed funding of over £530,000, attracting investment from Hollywood as the co-founders of Lucky Chap Entertainment, Josey McNamara and Thomas Ackerley, who produced 2023’s Barbie the Movie and comedy thriller Saltburn, were among investors.
All Things Butter has since launched in other major grocery retailers including Ocado, Planet Organic, Gopuff, Zapp, Getir and Modern Milkman.
All Things Butter Salted is available for (RRP) £3.15, while Garlic & Herb and Chilli are both available for £3.00.
Jamie Laing, Candy Kittens
The vegan sweet brand Candy Kittens was co-founded by reality TV personality turned podcast host Jamie Laing in 2012, with its launch featuring on the E4 reality show Made in Chelsea in which he starred.
Since then, Candy Kittens has boomed in popularity, securing listing in all but one of the Big Six supermarkets and sporting a portfolio ranging from bags, bundles and gifts, in a variety of different flavours.
Brand sales jumped 25.7% to £10.7m in the year to 10 September 2022, making Candy Kittens Britain’s 16th-biggest confectionery brand.
The brand, which became fully vegan in January 2022 after reformulating its Eton Mess sweets, launched a £1m social media campaign to help drive further growth and awareness of its vegan credentials.
The brand has also collaborated with Netflix to create limited edition Sex Education branded sweets, and with BrewDog for an Eton Mess New England IPA.
Its latest collaboration has seen it release a limited edition co-branded bundle with fellow start-up, cereal brand Surreal.
KSI and Logan Paul, Prime
Despite only launching in January 2022, Prime Energy – the viral drink founded by YouTubers Logan Paul and KSI – became the fourth best-selling sports drink in the world.
The drink made over £308m ($377m) in sales in 2023, as sales surged 1,676% year on year.
Prime comes in a variety of flavours, including regular limited edition drops such as Strawberry Banana which was released last week.
Such is the success of the brand that retailers had to implement purchase limits over the last two years when stocking the drink with launches creating huge queues in stores.
In fact, KSI said early last year that Tesco would not stock Prime due to the extra security costs needed to “protect shoppers” from the carnage of customers rushing to buy the drinks.
The YouTuber claims the Big 4 grocer is “waiting for demand to go down”.
It appears that has happped as just this week Prime bottles were seen in a reduced bin in Tesco, to be sold for only 39p.
Shoppers took to social media to post photos of Blue Raspberry and Strawberry Watermelon Prime Prime bottles in the supermarket giant’s “reduced to clear bin”.
Mr Beast
Last July, global YouTube and social media star MrBeast secured listing for his viral Feastables chocolate bars in grocers Asda and Spar, in response to the strong demand he saw when selling directly to consumers.
The confectionery product launched in an initial 400 Asda stores in 60g tablet format and 35g bars, while Spar was chosen as the brand’s exclusive convenience partner.
The new brand follows on from the social media star’s previous brand of chocolate bars called ‘MrBeast Bars’, which reportedly achieved £7.3m ($10m) in sales.
Last month Mr Beast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson and has an social media following of over 245m on YouTube alone, “apologised” to his fans for the chocolate treats selling out, and promised he was “doing everything I can” to ramp of future production.
Feastables’ individual chocolate bars start at £1.
Grace Beverley, Shreddy
Vegan-friendly fitness supplement brand Shreddy was launched by entrepreneur, social media star and Tala clothing founder Grace Beverley.
Beverley, who made her name as social media fitness influencer ‘GracefitUK’, launched her own supplement brand after searching the market and not finding one “that did quite what we wanted”.
The brand’s product range include probiotic dietary supplement powders, pre-workout powder and flavoured protein bars – and is available in retailers such as Sainsbury’s and Superdrug.
Relatively new, the brand has not published its full year results, but in late 2022 Beverley posted an Instagram video with the caption claiming that Shreddy had “sold 33,000 protein bars in their first five days and outsold the nationwide bestseller in Superdrug”.
The protein bars cost £28 for a pack of 15, while the powders start at £22.
Spencer Matthews, CleanCo
Jamie Laing isn’t the only Made In Chelsea alumni to become a brand owner. Spencer Matthews founded CleanCo, the non-alcoholic spirits brand that aims to “not preach about alcohol consumption, but to give you a choice when mixing a drink”.
Created by Matthews, after looking for alcohol alternatives when starting his sober journey, in 2021 the brand successfully secured £7m investment taking its total investments to £9.1m since its launch in 2019.
With investors including Uber board member and Diageo former executive Ursula Burns, CleanCo experienced an increase in sales of 580% in 2021 as drinkers ditched alcohol for Dry January.
CleanCo Clean G 70cl is available for £16 in Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Morrisons, Waitrose and Asda.
