The Solihull sports nutrition start-up Grenade has fulfilled a £150,000 order in the UAE and expects sales to the country to total £5m over the next five years.
Founded by husband and wife team Alan and Juliet Barratt, the brand was launched during the recession in 2009 with just £27 in the bank.
However, their hard work and vision paid off as in 2017 the couple sold a majority share in the company for £72m to Lion Capital.
Today the brand is enjoying strong growth in more than 100 countries around the world.
However, it is only recently the business has seen a steady growth in sales to the UAE since it first entered the market there last year.
The company say support from the Department for International Trade (DIT) helped the business during the Coronavirus pandemic after officials negotiated for the UAE’s strict labelling rules to be relaxed.
Typically, all imported products require Arabic labelling, which at the time was an additional expense many companies could not afford.
To alleviate this additional logistical step in the exporting process, DIT officials in the UAE lobbied for and secured an Arabic labelling exemption for all UK food and drink exports until the end of June 2020 and have since requested an extension.
Toufic Safi, UAE general manager at Grenade said: “Without DIT’s support, we would not have been able to get our products to market in the UAE so swiftly during lockdown. Having established a strong presence there, it was extremely important to us that we continued to quickly and safely service our customers throughout the pandemic.
Toufic continued: “Overseas sales account for 20% of our annual turnover and we are hoping to see that figure continue to rise as we break into the Australian market.”
Online sales for Grenade are up 294%, as the company experiences its best year of e-commerce sales to date, having already surpassed 2019 sales.
HM trade commissioner for the Middle East, Simon Penney, said: “As the UK’s largest export market in the Middle East, the UAE is bursting with opportunities for UK businesses to explore.
“To keep trade flowing DIT officials in the UAE have been supporting businesses like Grenade throughout the Coronavirus pandemic and it’s great to see their hard work paying off.”
Grenade is now preparing to enter Australia after securing a deal with supermarket giant Woolworths and is set to launch across Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and Scandinavia in the coming months.
With thanks to Solihull For Success for information in this article. For more information please visit: www.solihullforsuccess.com
Pic Credit: Grenade
