Grenade's co-founder on building a disruptive brand

Juliet Barratt founded the protein bar maker Grenade with husband Alan Barratt, which launched in the UK market in 2010. When the couple built their self-funded business in their spare bedroom, they had no idea that their hobby-turned-business would make them millionaires.

In 2021 Mondelez acquired Grenade for £200 million – a 40x multiple on the company’s 2019 profits of £5 million.

With SKUs in 80 countries, Barratt said there was much to learn from each region and all the unique challenges that come with them.

“Everything we did was UK-focused to start off with. So 70% of our sales were in the UK but we always wanted to be a global brand so it was a difficult learning curve. So we needed to make sure that not only were the products correct for that particular market, but the ingredients were all in compliance, and we also needed to make sure that the marketing was right as well. So, we had to use different looking athletes, we had to change our tone of voice and use different imagery. So it was difficult and we were trying to drive this from the UK since we didn't have a team on the ground in the US or the Middle East to start off with," said Juliet.