Saturday, October 12, 2024

Serious Sweets expands reach with fresh acquisition

The Serious Sweets Company (SSC), a Harrogate-based independent confectionery business, has acquired the share capital and branded interests of Nom Bites Ltd, and with it the Lexi’s range of mallow and protein bars for an undisclosed sum.

Founded in 2020 by Alexei Khatiwada, who set out to ‘create a range of delicious, healthier, allergy-friendly treats’, Lexi’s is an award winning supplier of mallow crispy rice treats and protein bars, with availability across D2C, Ocado, Amazon and Foodservice channels.

SSC manufactures and supplies premium own-label treats to all major retailers in the UK together with a successful international business, and has established SSC Brands to manage its branded interests.

In 2022, SSC acquired Mighty Fine, the premium honeycomb brand, and Mr Stanley’s, the quintessentially English gifting confectionery brand to its stable. Earlier this year it also acquired Mallow & Marsh, the UK’s leading marshmallow brand, and the wholesale manufacturing arm of John Bull, now renamed the Real Candy Co.

Rob Whitehead, cheerleader and MD at SSC, said: “We’re delighted to bring Lexi’s into our family and continue the journey that Alexei and Shama have brilliantly led.

“Gluten, dairy and nut free bars fit perfectly into our stable of current brands, enabling us to offer customers a combination of indulgent treats and more healthy treats, ideal for customers with specific dietary needs, or those looking for a healthier snack.

“We will be sharing the range with our customers over the next few months and look forward to developing Lexi’s alongside all our brands over the next few years.”

Alexei Khatiwada, founder (‘Captain Crispy’), said: “This acquisition marks an exciting milestone for Lexi’s, as we capitalise on the growing demand for our award-winning treats.

“I’m proud that Lexi’s has helped deliver more inclusive treats to a mainstream audience and it’s been a pleasure to see the growth of the brand, which started in my home kitchen and has now sold millions of treats across the UK. I’m delighted to see SSC’s ambition and desire to grow the brand further and continue this exciting journey.”

A committed food industry lifer, Rob Whitehead has had a successful career buying, developing and growing several food businesses for the last 25 years.

In 2014, Rob realised that the crafted food movement was in full swing, not just at farm shops and independent retailers, but increasingly through major supermarkets in many food categories. At the same time, he felt premium sweets were missing from this growth opportunity.

Driven by memories of wonderous childhood treats yet huge frustration with the ‘unacceptably miserable face of boring sweets’ dominating so many shop aisles, Rob set up SSC. His aim was twofold – to retain craft skills and small batch passion which are the hallmarks of quality English confectionery, and bring investment for new thinking & innovation back into the market.

Adding Lexi’s to this stable now enables SSC Brands to offer customers a broad range of treats, from the purely indulgent to the more healthy snack, meeting a full range of consumer needs.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our news site - please take a moment to read this important message:

As you know, our aim is to bring you, the reader, an editorially led news site and magazine but journalism costs money and we rely on advertising, print and digital revenues to help to support them.

With the Covid-19 pandemic having a major impact on our industry as a whole, the advertising revenues we normally receive, which helps us cover the cost of our journalists and this website, have been drastically affected.

As such we need your help. If you can support our news sites/magazines with either a small donation of even £1, or a subscription to our magazine, which costs just £31.50 per year, (inc p&P and mailed direct to your door) your generosity will help us weather the storm and continue in our quest to deliver quality journalism.

As a subscriber, you will have unlimited access to our web site and magazine. You'll also be offered VIP invitations to our events, preferential rates to all our awards and get access to exclusive newsletters and content.

Just click here to subscribe and in the meantime may I wish you the very best.
















Latest news

Related news

By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. more information

The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.

Close