How Loving Foods built the UK’s biggest organic fermented brand

From long fermentation to international exports, the strategy behind scaling an organic brand in a growth market.

Loving Foods’ founders (L-R Mendel, Faye, Adam) enjoying kombucha

Loving Foods don’t just make fermented products, they make organic fermented products & they’re the biggest in the UK. They put a lot of energy into sourcing the most nutritious raw ingredients & ferment those for up to 6 weeks. That’s often much longer than other brands who might only ferment a sauerkraut for 1-2 weeks.

The extra fermenting time is a high cost but Loving Foods take the view that it’s what makes the product nutritionally rich & most healthy for your microbiome & health.

Loving Foods current product range

The story started when Mendel trained as a nutritional therapist & started making his own fermented foods. Gut health was hardly on anyone’s radar back then in 2007 but by introducing good quality fermented foods Mendel was able to overcome his eczema as well as help others with their own health issues like IBS & collitis.

On the strength of that very positive feedback he set up a stall at a farmer’s market with his sister, Faye.

In 2016 things really started to take off when Faye’s husband Adam saw the potential, joined the business & started by building a website. Even before doing any SEO, the orders started coming in.

Loving Foods are one of the few ferment businesses who export from the UK. Since Brexit there’s a huge amount of bureaucracy but they’ve found a way & export across Europe & Internationally as well.

The current range consists of ferments like sauerkrauts & kimchis including versions for dogs & kids! But also drinks like kombuchas, jun kombuchas & ferment juices.

Loving Foods aren’t looking to NPD any time soon, as there’s still plenty of room for sales growth in the industry with a projected 53% growth over the next 5 years to 2031 & kombucha is projected to grow even more impressively with 88% growth from 2025 - 2030.

Watch the full conversation below to hear how Loving Foods scaled without compromising on their values or product quality.