Food products Hero takes over British food brand Deliciously Ella

The Aargau-based food group Hero is making a purchase in the UK. It is taking over the Deliciously Ella brand founded by well-known food blogger Ella Mills. The company did not disclose the purchase price in a press release on Monday.

Deliciously Ella sells vegan bars, granola, nut mixes and crackers, among other things. Hero hopes that the takeover will enable it to enter the British snacking market. However, the UK is not new territory for the Swiss group: it is already present in the country with Organix, a brand for baby food.

The Deliciously brand has seen "rapid growth" since it was founded in 2016. The takeover will now enable the company to reach "millions more customers around the world". Food blogger and entrepreneur Ella Mills and her husband Matthew, CEO of the company, will reportedly remain with the company and "lead the next stage of growth".

Ella Mills, who was still called Woodward at the time, started a blog with plant-based recipes in 2012 after changing her diet due to illness. This was followed by her first cookbook in 2015, which, according to an article in Forbes, became the best-selling debut cookbook of all time in the UK and made the blogger instantly famous.

A year later, the first snacks followed, which were sold at coffee chain Starbucks and supermarket chains Whole Foods and Waitrose, among others. According to the company's website, Deliciously Ella products are now available in over 10,000 stores in the UK and Europe, including Switzerland since 2021.

SDA