Ella’s Kitchen; Adding Innovation to the Organic Baby Food Market

Baby food brand Ella’s Kitchen has revolutionised the UK organic baby food market and is now going global.

Organic Baby Food Market

 

Stocked in Norway, Sweden and the USA, Ella’s Kitchen is also the UK’s number 1 baby food brand. In fact, £1 in every £3 spent on wet baby food in the UK is spent on Ella’s Kitchen. The company may hold a 20% share of the UK baby food sector with a global turnover of $100 million but there’s more to the story than just staggering success. With Innovate UK’s help, Ella’s Kitchen has managed to achieve a far more personal goal.

 

 

 

A Personal Story

“I was doing my weekly shop and I just couldn’t find anything that didn’t have loads of additives. I set up Ella’s Kitchen because I passionately believe that Ella, my daughter, along with her generation, should have the opportunity to eat better food and also to discover that healthy food can be fun, tasty and cool.”

Paul Lindley, company founder, explains that at home with his children things worked better if children were approached in the right way. Fun packaging, unique recipes and organic ingredients were the key to the brand’s success.

 

Good for Your Child, Good for the Environment

Ella’s Kitchen does more than just make good food for children. The company try their best to help the environment and local community wherever possible. Paul explains that the brand’s dream is to ensure all materials and services are audited as ethically and sustainably sourced by 2024. The brand has even introduced drop off points for old packaging at playgroups, shops and nurseries around the country in their Ellacycle movement.

 

Academic Knowledge Partnerships

To ensure they had the very best knowledge behind their plan, Ella’s Kitchen took part in three Knowledge Transfer Partnerships with the University of Reading. This was key to furthering new skills and bringing a level of academic understanding to their approach.

The first of these looked at the way children react better to veg if they encounter it away from mealtimes, using all their senses. This led them to develop non-food products to assist parents. They even sourced the help of Rachel Stevens to record an album of nursery rhymes reimagined with vegetable lyrics.

The second Knowledge Transfer Partnership looked at changing the way the company sourced raw materials. This helped them to keep quality high and costs low.

With the third, Ella’s Kitchen are hoping to improve their food packaging. This will give them an advantage and an innovative edge over the competition.

 

If you’re interested in hearing more success stories like this one, head over to Innovate UK’s YouTube channel. Don’t forget to subscribe.

You can also follow @InnovateUK on Twitter here.

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1 Comment

  1. January 9, 2017 / 9:56 am

    Mini Me absolutely loved Ellas Kitchen when she was younger and as a mum I was totally reassured by the brand – fantastic news that they are taking the world by storm! Sim x

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