Nice Rice this week unveiled a major rebrand as it looks to reposition rice from a commodity staple to a more premium pantry product.

The refresh includes new packaging, a redesigned visual identity and a sharper brand proposition centred on “Extraordinary Rice for Everyday Cooking”.

The brand is preparing to launch its dry rice range into Tesco stores nationwide from 6 July, adding to existing listings with Ocado, Booths and independent retailers.

Nice Rice said the rebrand marks a shift from a primarily sustainability-led message to a more quality-focused positioning, after customer feedback showed shoppers were buying the brand because they felt the product tasted better.

Founder Fergus O’Sullivan said rice had “been left behind” by the premiumisation seen in other everyday grocery categories.

“Food culture is now mainstream — people care more than ever about the quality of what they cook,” he said. “Rice has been left behind. We see a huge opportunity to bring the same care, sourcing standards and excitement to rice that consumers now expect from other pantry staples.”

The brand said categories such as coffee, olive oil, tea, chocolate and more recently beans had benefited from shoppers trading up, while rice remained dominated by price-led competition, anonymous blends and limited differentiation at fixture.

Nice Rice is seeking to change that through a single-origin, single-variety approach to sourcing, selecting individual basmati varieties based on quality and cooking performance.

O’Sullivan said the decision to reposition the brand came after conversations with loyal customers.

“When we spoke to our most loyal customers, they all told us the same thing: they’d never realised how good rice could taste,” he said.

“That was the turning point. We realised we were limiting ourselves by talking primarily about sustainability rather than talking about what customers already valued most — quality.”

Sustainability will remain part of the business, with all Nice Rice growers certified to sustainable farming standards. The company is also a certified B Corp and publishes product-level climate footprints on-pack across its dry rice range.

The brand also runs the Nice Rice Foundation, which supports more sustainable farming practices across smallholder rice-growing communities.

Nice Rice said the rebrand comes as it enters its next phase of retail growth, with the business delivering 70 per cent year-on-year growth on Ocado.

Further foodservice and brand partnership announcements are expected later this summer.

Since launching in 2023, Nice Rice has picked up several industry awards, including four Great Taste Awards, The Grocer Gold New Product & Packaging Award and gold at the Farm Shop & Deli Awards.

O’Sullivan said the wider ambition was to change how shoppers think about the category.

“We want to help shift rice from a commodity to something people actively choose and enjoy,” he said. “That starts by showing consumers that better rice exists, and once expectations change, the category changes with them.”

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