Free-From Breakfast with Mainstream Appeal

. . . lynchpin within the flourishing £350m ‘free-from’ arena an ‘organic only’ advocate, an ancient grains pioneer and a breakfast cereals specialist.

Yes its true, Nature’s Path today is a brand with a supermarket following however what people often forget is that this is an independently-owned family business that feels most at home in the fine food and health food arenas because this is exactly where Nature’s Path first made its name. Unlike some of the other gluten-free propositions in the marketplace, this is a brand with real heritage, a Vancouver-based business that first made friends in the UK back in 2004, a company that’s specialized in gluten-free cereals since 1985.

Down an aisle increasingly packed with young, look-at-me offerings that eagerly jumped on the gluten-free bandwagon a few years back, Nature’s Path is a breakfast cereal portfolio that took the time and trouble to build lasting relationships with a resurgent independent food sector, with brand stalwarts like Mesa Sunrise and Crispy Sunrise being a key part of any well-informed breakfast shelf.

In 2010 our new relationship with Coeliac UK encouraged us to think about kids gluten-free, an often neglected sector where producers failed to appreciate that children were craving great- tasting cereals with mainstream appeal. Os in particular has blazed a trail in recent years as a buoyant kids’ brand whose appeal extends to as many parents as it does children.

In 2011 Mesa Sunrise winning the inaugural best breakfast cereal gong at the free-from awards which is when everything started to go a tad stellar!  In 2012 Maple Sunrise showed gluten-free cereals’ more reckless side, with an indulgent maple syrup twang that has made it our fastest growing cereal for the last two years.

In 2013 along came our two Nice & Nobbly granolas, our most indulgent breakfast offering yet, a two-strong range that goes to the March 2014 free-from awards in fine voice after a flurry of kind words and column inches made it our most successful new launch ever.

This takes us to this Spring where we’re be introducing the final two pieces to our free-from breakfast jigsaw, a hot porridge multi-pack (Hot & Steamy) and 2 on-the-go snacking bars (once again under our Nice & Nobbly banner).

Hot & Steamy consists of an original a heart-warming spiced apple and a particularly flamboyant maple, whilst our granola bars consist of a chewy Trail Mix (loaded with almonds, cranberries, flax, pumpkin seeds, peanuts and coconut) and an equally addictive fairtrade choc chip.

According to Ian Hills, Nature’s Path’s Head of UK marketing, ‘From the very outset we were keen to learn the lessons of organic’s foods rise, fall and return to favour. In short the realization that it was brand specialists, (e.g. Yeo, Green & Blacks & Rod & Ben’s) not the brand generalists fighting down too many aisles that lasted the distance. In other words surely I’ts better to be amazing at one thing rather than alright at a few?’