Wessanen UK Media Backgrounder

Summary
Wessanen UK is a natural and organic food company, with a portfolio of pioneering, healthy and ethical brands in expanding market segments. Its mission statement is ‘Healthier Food, Healthier People, Healthier Planet’, and its product ethos is to make fabulous tasting, healthy products that consumers love.

Wessanen UK is a natural and organic food company, with a portfolio of pioneering, healthy and ethical brands in expanding market segments:

Wessanen UK’s mission statement is ‘Healthier Food, Healthier People, Healthier Planet’, and its product ethos is to make fabulous tasting, healthy products that consumers love.

In 2014, Wessanen UK’s turnover was £57m and its key brands grew as follows:

  • Clipper +6%
  • Kallo +27%
  • Whole Earth +12%
  • Almond Breeze >+100%

Wessanen UK operates in all Channels of Trade (Grocery, Health Food Trade, Convenience, Food Service, Discounters), in five core categories:

  1. Savoury biscuits
  2. Stock & gravies
  3. Hot beverages
  4. Spreads
  5. Milk alternatives

Wessanen UK is also active in two smaller categories:

  • Cereals
  • Soft drinks.

Some key dates and achievements

2001: Wessanen acquired Kallo, which was formed in the 1980s by an entrepreneur who began to distribute and sell Rice Cakes into the Health Food Trade. Over the years, the range and variety of products increased and Kallo now trades in the Grocery, Discount, Health Food Trade and other channels.

Kallo has a number of notable achievements, including:

  • 1st to introduce chocolate coated rice cakes
  • 1st to introduce coated and topped rice cakes
  • #2 rice cake brand
  • Brand leader in plain rice cake segment
  • Brand leader in topped rice cake segment
  • Manufacture 15 million rice cakes each year

2002: Wessanen acquired Whole Earth, best known for its peanut butter, from Craig Sams (who then went on to found Green & Blacks).

Whole Earth has a number of notable achievements, including:

  • 1st to introduce organic peanut butter
  • 1st to produce organic corn flakes
  • 1st to produce organic cola

2012: Wessanen acquired Clipper Teas, which began in 1984 when a couple who wished to make the best tasting cup of tea in the UK started blending tea in their garage.

Clipper has a number of notable achievements, including:

  • 1st Fairtrade Tea (in 1994)
  • 1st Green Tea in the UK
  • 1st to introduce unbleached bags
  • #1 organic tea brand
  • #1 white tea brand

In the UK, Wessanen employs around 130 people, split across two sites:

  • Camberley, Surrey - where the majority of office-based roles are located
  • Beaminster, Dorset – Wessanen UK’s centre of excellence for tea production, and the home of Clipper Teas.

Wessanen UK is CarbonNeutral certified and, either directly or through its subsidiaries, accredited by or a member of a range of industry bodies and associations including: the Fairtrade Foundation; the Soil Association; the UK Tea & Infusions Association, and the Organic Trade Board.

Wessanen UK’s parent company, Wessanen NV, was founded in 1765 and is now 250 years old, making it Europe’s longest-standing food company.

Contact details

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