How 300 jars of mayonnaise launched a £10m 'real food' business

The co-founders of British food and supplements brands Hunter & Gather once called themselves a pair of ‘eager beaver’ under-30 food disruptors.

Now in their early thirties, Amy Moring and partner Jeff Webster show no sign of slowing. They have built a rapidly scaling company, launching in 2017 with a punt on 300 jars of mayonnaise to one now forecast towards £12m in revenue.

“We wanted to create an ancestry-inspired lifestyle brand with food at the starting point of education,” says Moring. “We are just passionate about people living and eating healthier.”

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From creating 'real food' and supplements that avoid refined sugar, grains and inflammatory seed oils, Hunter & Gather’s mission also champions quality and taste for its ‘tribe’ community.

The two founders can certainly claim to be brand leaders in their field; the first avocado mayo range in Europe, first with an unsweetened source range, the same with launching recyclable pouched collagen in a move away from tubs and, latterly, entering organ supplements (a beef liver capsule format) into the UK market for the first time.

“We had a clear vision of what we wanted to be, which was different from the norm back then [in the food category],” admits Moring. “We had a vision of being an omni channel where we could talk to the consumer and bring the education piece through.

“If you are trying to do something different in business, if you have a clear vision you can start building a strategy behind it. Without that it's easy to be swayed and spending all your time looking into grocery, when it wouldn't have been right for us.”

Moring and Webster met as mid teens in east London at a Romford ice rink. While Webster, who later ran his own building business, suffered from eczema and acne, Moring is also a lifelong coeliac. It wasn’t long before the pair started researching the types of healthy food they should be eating, as well as keto and paleo lifestyles.

“We were in this underground world and we could see how bad the food system was becoming,” recalls Moring.

The childhood sweethearts say their first product occurred organically. “It didn't overly matter in our minds,” says Moring. “It was about where we were going with the education piece, the lifestyle, content and marketing which was different to food brands of its time.”

Realising there were no seed oil free mayos on the market in Europe, they began contacting manufacturers and hit upon one looking at innovation — despite previously being told trial mayo runs wouldn’t work without sugar.

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They passed the product tests with their 300-jar run, but took “baby steps” in the business plan.

They sold their first batch within weeks, while a Whole Foods Market listing came within two months of launch. The pair kept their operation lean, with low overheads by working from their kitchen table and garden shed to prove the concept. It was, says Moring, a side hustle for three years as both kept their full-time jobs.

“The earlier you go for equity, the more expensive it is in the long-term and difficult to get the equity back,” admits Moring. The duo today own more than 50% of the company. “It shows to investors that we are really motivated and that we have a lot of skin in the game,” she adds.

Not consigned to one category, Moring, a keen horse rider away from the day-to-day rigours of running a business, says Hunter & Gather can evolve into non-food.

“We could get into ice baths and wearable tech,” she adds. “We have set the business up with that flexibility. We don’t just sit still. We have a saying, ‘Strong beliefs, loosely held’."

Four years into launch, Hunter & Gather was named ‘Best of British’ at Ocado’s Rising Stars Awards, while the co-founders — Webster also takes their two rescue dogs to agility competitions — were placed on the Forbes 30 under 30 list for retail and commerce.

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“Growth continues to climb, especially when you are growing are you are in the £10m plus stage,” says Moring.

“We see the monetary figure where a lot of people get egotistical over a number, which is easy to do as it is seen as a mark of their success.

"But really it is a mark of a consumer and market fit and there are people who are repeat buying.

“For us, it shows a shift in the health and wellbeing of the nation. We want that revenue to increase as it means we are impacting and helping more people.”

Behind the brand: Co-founder Amy Moring on…

How to be a successful start-up

“I was a founder in my mid twenties. To absorb and learn as much as I did then hadn’t really prepared me for the learnings that are coming now.

A lot of start-up businesses get bogged down in making the product themselves and posting it. It’s just not scalable.

We had a lean team for quite a while and were profitable in year two and three, which you don’t hear very often in the food industry.

For any start-up business, you have to be quick to evolve and not put yourself into one pigeon-holed area where you can’t move out of.”

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