In a market completely dominated by vast, multi-national corporations, how do you make yourself stand out if you are a small start-up company? In the food and beverage world at least, it helps if you produce something which is completely unique. That is certainly the case for One Good Thing, who produce a range of energy bars which have a really intriguing selling point – they have an edible wrapper. We chat with company founders Mike and Daniel Bedford to find out more.
Depending which set of statistics you believe, the UK energy bar market was valued at just under £180 million (€214 million) in 2023. That’s a heck of a lot of money and the marketplace is fiercely competitive. According to research by Mintel, the production of energy bars is dominated (in terms of volume sales) by vast multi-national companies such as Mondelēz International (who own Cadbury, Oreo and Toblerone) and General Mills (who own brands including Nature Valley, Häagen-Dazs and Cheerios), but there are also hundreds of smaller brands, each one trying to carve out their own niche among the giant players.
Mike and Daniel - OGT's founders
"“I was tired of seeing discarded gel wrappers all over the countryside, so I decided to do something about it.”
Many cyclists will have experienced littering which is obviously sport related while out on our bikes. Gel wrappers or empty energy bar packets are perhaps being the most common and can be found littering roadside verges every time a group of riders get together. It’s possible you stopped and picked one/some-up or maybe you joined an organisation like Trash Free Trails. But is there something else you could do? If you’re an environmentally-minded entrepreneur like Mike Bedford, then you decide to find a different solution to the problem – come up with an energy product which has an edible wrapper. No wrapper, no mess. Simple? Fortunately, Mike’s son Daniel (now the CEO of One Good Thing) had just graduated from university with a shiny zoology degree (which included elements of biochemistry). So they set about researching, designing, prototyping, customer testing and the myriad of other jobs which form part of launching a new product.
A big part of their job before they could start making their own products was to see what else was out there in the marketplace. Daniel gave us some insight “We did a huge amount of research and testing into existing products, everything from protein bars to snack bars to energy/nutrition bars. The key aims were that we wanted our bars to be tasty, natural, nutritious and very uncomplicated. We found that a lot of the existing natural bars lacked in taste. The synthetic bars that tasted “better’ used lots of chemical sweeteners, which we wanted to avoid. We looked across the market in terms of price, ingredients and macros [the facts and figures of the finished bar]. Where we ended up was around 150 calories per bar, 24-25g of carbohydrate per bar, but with all natural ingredients to reduce gastric discomfort. We also wanted to avoid ‘flavour fatigue’, so we use only ‘real food’ ingredients.”
Image courtesy of The Gralloch/Angus MacKinnon
We asked Mike for some background into the genesis of OGT. “We started out with some rough ideas. We made a little prototype. And then we spent ages researching the next step. We wanted to do some consuming testing, but we didn’t know if was it legal to go out onto the street to hand out samples to the public? Our two closest local councils weren’t able to come up with a conclusive answer, so in the end we just went and handed out some samples anyway. Right from the get-go, people were amazed.” He continued with the story. “My initial thought was can you make a digestible plastic to wrap our bars in? There is a vast amount of existing research which has been undertaken into this topic, but nothing commercially viable has emerged. The scientists that I initially engaged with are still trying to figure this out! There are lots of potential problems with a plastic coating – if it’s digestible it won’t have the appropriate barrier properties that you need for example. Of course ignorance was bliss. If we had known at the start what we know now, we might well have never started (although I think actually we would have still gone for it.) Our task seemed almost impossible at times. Not only were we having to build the brand, with all the additional messaging that this new idea required, but we’re also having to invent the machinery to create the coating and manufacture the bars. We’re currently in the process of patenting our technology for the machinery that makes the bars, as well as the bars themselves.“
"Mike had this amazing idea to get plastic out of the countryside and we now have this fantastic product that actually does that.”
Daniel gave us some more insight into the research that OGT did before they launched. “In Harpenden where I grew up, there’s a science park nearby which specialises in nutrition and agricultural research and it turned out to be the perfect place to collaborate with scientists. I graduated with a zoology degree, but wanted to get into ecology & conservation. I quickly learned however that the kinds of careers that come out of that aren’t the cut-throat business that I grew up around thanks to my dad. I had that fire in my belly and wanted to do something impactful, so was keen to get involved with my Dad’s idea of producing a wrapper-free bar.” Daniel continued “People have been trying to crack edible coatings for more than 30 years. We tried a huge number of things include polysaccharides, polypeptides, lipids, algae coatings, seaweed coatings. Eventually where we ended up was a natural beeswax-based coating, which is remarkable. It’s less than 0.25mm in thickness. It has barely any taste. It gives our bars this amazing characteristic where they don’t need a wrapper, which means they don’t use any plastic. Mike had this amazing idea to get plastic out of the countryside and we now have this fantastic product that actually does that.”
Images courtesy of The Gralloch/Joe Cotterill
Mike and Daniel soon realised they needed to go out and meet their audience face-to-face, as it was much easier to convince potential customers of the benefit of OGT bars if they were able to try it first-hand. Mike explained how they went about it “Our early customers have been people who like to exercise outdoors and who care about the outdoor environment and who want to see positive change. Generally people who like outdoor spaces, they’re often open minded people, who embrace new ideas. We are very lucky in that we’ve found our early adopters in the gravel and road cycling communities (among others). We’ve been invited to get involved with a huge number of sporting events, everything from road cycling sportives, to The Gralloch to the London Marathon. All of these events have a big problem in terms of litter. Event organisers love the fact that our products don’t leave any trace. This year, the organisers of the London Marathon bought around 6,000 bars from us and invited us into the Green Zone at the event village. Around a hundred different companies and businesses have a stand there, where they display products relating to the Marathon. Our stand was absolutely mobbed from the moment it opened at 9 a.m. until the show shut at 8 p.m. When we were doing farmer’s markets at the start of the life of the business we experienced something similar, albeit on a much smaller scale. Most of the visitors don’t initially want to engage, but when we told them we had produced the world’s first wrapper-free energy and nutrition bar, people stopped in their tracks and are engaged. The great thing with being in front of the public is that they get a chance to ask us questions about things that they don’t understand when they see us on social media."
“What we’ve ended up with in this business is a beautiful combination of science and engineering."
We chatted next about the complexity of the manufacturing process. With no off-the-shelf machines available to help with the ‘wrapping’ of their bars, Mike and Daniel had to design their own equipment. Mike told us more “What we’ve often said to people is that we’re building the machinery to build the factory to build the brand to bring this product to your pocket. It’s super difficult, but has been made a little easier by the amazing public reaction to our products.” Daniel added “What we’ve ended up with in this business is a beautiful combination of science and engineering."
Image courtesy of The Gralloch/Joe Cotterill
Alongside product development and manufacturing, marketing is key to the success of any new start-up business. Daniel gave us some insight into how they went about it and what they learned during the process “You hear many companies and events ‘banging on’ about sustainability, but the problem is that truly sustainable things are very difficult to make. Sustainability generally isn’t the main reason that a consumer will buy something. When we first launched, our marketing strategy focused on the fact that we were a very sustainable brand and we really tried to leverage the plastic-free angle. But what we learned very quickly is that within the food and beverage space, although customers often say that want to buy sustainably made products, there’s a big “intention-action’ gap. In the food and beverage world, as a manufacturer you need to meet three key points – convenience, taste and price. If you don’t meet those, your product will be a non-starter. To be honest, we launched with sustainability being a primary message and we fell flat on our faces. It made us go back to the drawing board to figure out exactly what is the problem that our product is solving. We realised that for cyclists and runners, the main selling point for our bars should be convenience. Wrappers cause all sorts of problems – dexterity in winter or when you’re riding with gloves on for example. With a traditional energy product like a gel, you probably tear open a packet with your teeth and you get left with a little bit of spare plastic and then a sticky wrapper. If you can remove the wrapper, the user can focus on their chosen sport instead."
“In the future, I’d love consumers to be able to buy our bars in a supermarket in the same way that they buy loose fruit and veg at the minute, but we’re not at that point yet.”
When you create a product as ‘disruptive’ as a wrapper-free energy bar, there are bound to be few hurdles to clear in terms of customer perception. We asked whether this was the case and Mike told us “We’ve had people talk to us about concerns they have about the hygiene of our bars and we explain it using the analogy of an apple. Our beeswax-based coating is waterproof, so it keeps the contents safe and if you really wanted to, you could rinse it before you ate it. We’ve deliberately chosen to sell our bars in cardboard and paper packaging. There’s still a mindset among some consumers that something edible needs to be individually wrapped, generally in plastic, in order for it to be ‘safe’, but hopefully over time this will change.” Daniel chips in here “In the future, I’d love consumers to be able to buy our bars in a supermarket in the same way that they buy loose fruit and veg at the minute, but we’re not at that point yet.”
Images courtesy of The Gralloch/Joe Cotterill
Seeing as OGT have managed to create a product the rest of the food and beverage industry are really interested in, we asked if they had been contacted by businesses interested in licencing their coating technology? Daniel filled us in “Yes, big time! As soon as we launched our product range in The Grocer [the trade press in the UK for the food and beverage industry], we had interest straight away from the some of the big multi-national companies. What we’re currently doing in the background is creating a next generation of manufacturing and coating technology, which will have a far wider applicability in the food industry. I can’t go into details for obvious reasons, but there are a lot of businesses which currently produce huge amounts of plastic which could be replaced with our coating technology, but done in a way where the consumer experience isn’t negatively affected. We’ve been awarded an Innovate UK smart grant, which are notoriously hard to get – the latest round had a 2.6% success rate among applicants, but we were one of the small number of successful companies.“
We moved next onto talking about some of the practical details of the OGT bars. OGT currently offer five flavour options. How did Mike and Daniel come up with them and did they have anything new in the pipeline for the future? “Customer feedback about the flavour has all been positive, but customers seem to experience it differently. " Daniel told us. He went on "Some found it to be subtle, whereas others described it as quite strong. This really emphasises the need for us to be in front of customers – it’s the only way to get a broad range of feedback. We started off with fourteen flavours, but then after extensive customer research, we rationalised this down to the current five. It’s really easy to fall into the trap of trying to be something to everyone and we wanted to avoid that. We chose the top five from the customer feedback and decided to really ‘nail’ those flavours. We had a few flavours that we tried that really polarised opinion – we had a tropical one which had mango and passion fruit which I really loved but no-one else did! We’ve done some customer research about the possibility of savoury flavours and it never does very well, but this is something that we’re working quietly on in the background. We work on a subscription model and one of the benefits that we offer our subscribers is access to limited edition flavours."
"We work on a subscription model and one of the benefits that we offer our subscribers is is access to limited edition flavours."
Next was texture. OGT bars are quite different from some of their competition. We asked whether this was a deliberate choice or due to the manufacturing techniques? “Our bars currently have a uniform mouth feel, but we’re working on some subtle changes for future recipes. One of the changes is to reduce the homogenous texture of the bars and introduce a little more variety. It’s a real balance because we don’t want to make them too nutty or overly textured, because then the bar is less digestible on-the-go. But we’ve taken customer feedback on board and so the new recipes will have more variety in the texture than the current ones.”
OGT’s promotional materials are noticeably free from too much scientific data about their bars. Was this ‘keep-it-simple-stupid’ marketing at its finest? Daniel gave us the low down. “It is a deliberate choice for us to avoid competing with the hyper-technical sports nutrition landscape. There is of course a time and a place for these kind of products, but our main mission for our consumers is to keep things simple. Our thinking is that our products taste great and give consumers a natural source of decent carbs, while being simple and convenient to eat. Plus of course it will sit well on consumers’ stomachs as it’s a natural product. We want to make our product accessible.“
As they don’t have the traditional hermetically sealed plastic wrapper, what kind of shelf-life do OGT bars have? Mike told us “Our bars are currently given a four month shelf-life, but this is a very cautious figure. We will soon be announcing changes to our product range which will have a six month shelf life, but to be honest I’ve had some sample boxes sitting in my garage for significantly longer and they’ve been fine.“
Image courtesy of The Gralloch/Angus MacKinnon
Finally we moved on to talking about the future. If they gazed into their (wrapper-free) crystal ball, what did they see? Mike“We would like to change the public perception of things like hygiene. We initially made our bars with a rice paper coating under the wax which had a barcode on it. We wanted to be able to have our products for sale at retailers sitting in a bowl, with the bar code visible. That’s not going to happen for a while, but we hope that one day it might. If we get to the point where all fresh fruit and veg comes out of cellophane, then hopefully the same will happen for OGT. “
"Our overriding mission is to fundamentally change consumer behaviour and try and get rid of as much plastic from the food industry as possible. If in the future one of the big players in the industry wanted to partner with us to help with our aim, then we wouldn’t rule that out. That will be much later in the journey though and we definitely won’t be selling out."
Daniel jumped in next “I can’t talk too much about it at the minute, but we’re going to be bringing out a second product range which is really well suited to cyclists, runners etc. We’re working on new recipes, with different flavours and a new texture. We have a top secret flavour that we’re hoping to launch to fit with the start of the Tour de France this summer. We’re planning to reintroduce our protein bar range in the future too. We would advise fans of our products to watch this space. OGT is a passion project for us and we’re in it for the long haul. Our overriding mission is to fundamentally change consumer behaviour and try and get rid of as much plastic from the food industry as possible. If in the future one of the big players in the industry wanted to partner with us to help with our aim, then we wouldn’t rule that out. That will be much later in the journey though and we definitely won’t be selling out. “ Mike chips in here “Our ambition really is to do something with the mainstream. Once a community is saying ‘this product works and we’re using it’, then there’s some other obvious wider markets – hikers, fisherman, golfers. But why not kids lunchboxes? Once you start to get more touch points within the general public then hopefully one day you’ll see OGT products for sale in the major supermarket retailers. We’ve had this vision and ambition from when we first started. But of course this kind of growth needs funding and probably somebody external coming in to help us get to the next level.
If you would like to find out more about the range of wrapper-free bars that One Good Thing produce, please head over to their website.