Moo Free is a family-run business that has been leading the charge on dairy-dodging chocolate for over a decade. In the last year, it has become B-Corp Certified, achieved a BRC AA accreditation and awarded the King’s Award for Enterprise: Promoting Opportunity. With strong ethics at its core, Moo Free champions a number of great initiatives to reduce the impact on the environment and provides equal opportunity for its employees.
All of Moo Free’s chocolate creations are free from dairy, soya and gluten and are suitable for those who are free from and vegan. The company, which is based in Devon, is led by founder, Andrea Jessop, who set up the company with her husband, Mike, back in 2010 when they struggled to find free from chocolate for their son. Her mission was to ensure that no child – no matter what their allergy, should be left out from enjoying great tasting, ethical chocolate.
How has the free-from chocolate category been performing over the last year?
The free-from market has seen significant growth in the last fifteen years and is now a core category in wholesale and grocery. From 2020 to 2022, the value of the category soared nearly 50 per cent – from £37.6m to £55.2m1 and is forecast to grow a further 15 per cent in 2023. Supermarkets and major retailers are giving the category more space in all formats of stores which is positive news for the free-from chocolate category, and the growth of Moo Free. This will inevitably filter through to independent retailers who will be turning to wholesalers to provide stock in this category.
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The number of consumers choosing a vegan or flexitarian diet are also increasing which is another market for free-from chocolate to appeal to. For example, this year saw a record number take part in Veganuary, with over 700,000 people signed up, surpassing last year’s total of 629,0002. This ever-increasing annual figure highlights the popularity of this rising trend, which is having a growing impact on the free-from chocolate space.
How have Moo Free’s sales been performing?
Moo Free is the UK’s number one privately owned free-from chocolate manufacturer. We reported a record year end for 2022 with annual sales for 2022/23 up 18 per cent on 2021/22. We had a fantastic Easter with sales up 45 per cent up on 2022.
The business has gained new retail distribution in recent months with listings in Sainsbury’s for our Easter range, and deepened retail distribution in other major grocers including Tesco, Asda and Morrison. We have also secured listings for the rebranded Choccy Rocks range that launched in April in Morrisons and Tesco. As distribution continues to deepen, this is a great opportunity for wholesalers to stock recognisable brands, like Moo Free, who continue to go from strength to strength.
To what do you attribute the brand’s growth?
More than ever people are becoming more aware of the food they eat and its impact on the planet. They are looking for easy and convenient swaps to make a difference, but taste is still a key factor. With our award-wining range of delicious free-from chocolate, Moo Free is perfectly placed to meet this need. We have spent the last ten years perfecting our free-from ‘milk’, white and dark chocolate recipes. Made from Rainforest Alliance cocoa and/or organic cocoa from the Dominican Republic, Moo Free addresses the need for ethical, safe and tasty chocolate that doesn’t aggravate food intolerances, and is produced in the most sustainable way possible.
Our innovative Moo Free range increasingly includes something for every customer – from our Everyday Choccy Bar (original “milk” and white), to the fun Choccy Rocks snack-packs range (Moofreesas and Bunnycomb), Mini Bars and our seasonal Easter Egg and Christmas creations that are updated every year.
We have also deepened our retail distribution and secured new listings making our chocolate accessible to more potential customers.
What are the biggest trends in the free-from chocolate market?
Shoppers are seeking out brands who they can trust to operate ethically and sustainably. This is particularly prevalent in the chocolate industry, for which the importance of ethical sourcing for cocoa has been well documented.
Allergies are becoming more recognised in the UK and people are starting to act as they educate themselves on the effect certain foods may be having on them. There are also new allergies appearing, which, although quite common, aren’t officially recognised yet, such as coconut, so it’s important to be sensitive to these. It is the case that those who are lactose intolerant usually suffer with other allergies as well.
For wholesalers, as the free-from chocolate category continues to grow, shoppers will expect to see more free-from versions of standard confectionery and will be looking to retailers to stock broader ranges, so wholesalers should prepare for that.
The company has been awarded B Corp certification. What standards did it have to meet to gain the certification?
The B Corp certification recognises that a company meets the highest standards of social and environmental performance, public transparency and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose. There were numerous factors that contributed to Moo Free gaining this status – none of which had to be retro fitted to achieve it, we were doing them already.
The Moo Free business was built on caring about the planet, acting in a humane way, keeping Moo Free’s family feel, and providing an inclusive environment that gives opportunities to people who need them. For example, we are dedicated to using only ethically sourced ingredients and recyclable packaging, and our dairy-free factories send zero per cent waste to landfill. The wonderful team includes several amazing people with autism and all the cocoa we use comes from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms to help support sustainable farming. All of these factors are some of the things that contributed to us gaining the B-Corp certification.
What plans does Moo Free have to gain further listings?
We are always on the lookout for new trends whilst building on feedback from our customers, retailers and wholesalers to create new product innovations that will appeal to the free-from and vegan audience. This continual innovation and NPD have led to us deepening our retail distribution in major grocers this year and secure new listings.
We are also very excited to be launching in Ireland imminently, and are looking forward to bringing our range to Irish consumers.
Is the packaging going to be rebranded? What is the aim of the rebranding?
Yes, we are rebranding our packaging during 2023. We have done this very carefully so that it continues to appeal to both our core customers and extends our reach to parents with older children/teens, teens themselves and young adults. With a new fresh look and cleaner branding, we hope it will widen our appeal with this audience without alienating our core customers, and in turn ensure they can continue to enjoy Moo Free products over their lifetime.
As part our commitment to looking after the planet, we are also going to trial paper laminate film to reduce the amount of plastic we use in our flow wrapped chocolate bars.
Tell us about what Moo Free does for charity, the local community and the planet.
The Moo Free business was built on caring about the planet, acting in a humane way, keeping Moo Free’s family feel, and providing an inclusive environment that gives opportunities to people who need them. As part of this commitment, we offer genuine workplace opportunities for autistic people giving them equal salaries, treatment and the opportunity to grow skills, confidence and thereby increase employment and social opportunities. As a result of this, we have recently been awarded the King’s Award for Enterprise: Promoting Opportunity. We also work with the government’s Kickstart Scheme, and have hired six employees through this initiative, two of which are autistic and will become full time employees.
We are committed to supporting our local community. This has seen us work with Seetec Plus and North Devon Business Plus since 2015, and Shaw Plus since 2016.
We also ensure all our ingredients our ethically sourced and that we operate in the most sustainable way possible. For example, we recycle 100 per cent of our cardboard, which is sent to a local plant, and all of our redundant waste plastic film is converted into damp course membrane for the UK building industry. All food waste is segregated and sent to an anaerobic digestion plant that is situated less than a mile away. This waste is cleverly converted into two products. One is fertiliser that is high in nitrogen, potassium and phosphate – all of which are vital for plant growth. The other is biogas, which is stored and used to generate electricity and exported to the national grid. The business has also moved its energy supplier to all renewable sources.
Do you have any NPD to talk about?
For Easter we used popping candy to give flavour makeovers to our White Mikey Bunny character with the addition of lemon fizz, and Hammy the Chocolate Orange Hamster with orange fizz. We also launched our first Caramel Mini Eggs – a pioneering product in the free-from space and created the Moofreesas Ball with Moofreesas snack pack – a delicious alternative to an Easter egg.
To liven up our everyday chocolate range, we have launched a fun new range of fizzy bars in orange, cola and lemon, that build on the trend for popping candy. We also have some really exciting launches coming for Christmas. We can’t say too much for now, but we know our customers will love the new innovations that our team have been busy creating!
How will the brand be supported this year?
To increase Moo Free’s visibility, we are investing in a PR, social and marketing strategy, which aims to help expand our loyal fan base and increase purchase frequency. We will be running advertising across our digital channels, as well as media partnerships to help market the Moo Free range during the coming year ahead.
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