Nurture Brands, the UK food and drinks maker, has let go of another asset with the sale of the vegan confectionery line Doisy & Dam.
Fresh on the heels of Nurture Brands’ disposal of Indie Bay Snacks to Kestrel Foods last month, the company is offloading Doisy & Dam to Food Thoughts, an ethical organic ingredients business.
Based in Reading, Berkshire, in south-east England, Food Thoughts supplies organic cocoa and cacao powders to retail and foodservice, along with vegan ‘chocolate’ chips made with oat and rice milk and dark chocolate chips.
Doisy & Dam also operates in the ethical chocolate space, producing the plant-based brands D&Ds, Ballers, Good Eggs and Clusters.
The London-based business, founded by Richard Wilkinson and Ed Smith in 2012, was acquired by Nurture Brands in 2022. It bought the company out of administration for an undisclosed sum.
Financial terms behind the Food Thoughts deal for Doisy & Dam were also not revealed.
In a statement provided to Just Food, Nurture Brands’ managing director Adam Draper said that following the twin disposals, the London-based business will now focus on its brands of Emily crisps, and in drinks, the Rebel Kitchen and Jax Coco coconut water lines.
Speaking to Just Food last month, Draper said the sale of Indie Bay Snacks allowed the company to “focus on bigger parts of the business”.
Nurture Brands has enjoyed a “run-rate” turnover of “close to £11m” ($14.2m) over the last three months, representing growth of 17%, Draper said. In the same period, Rebel Kitchen has seen sales jump 42% and Emily snacks sales have grown 39%.
The business remains “marginally loss-making”, Draper added, but he expects the company to become profitable next year.
Food Thoughts, meanwhile, is owned by Fairtrade Ltd., which is based in the town of Stockport in north-west England.
Filings with Companies House show Mark Gould was appointed a director of Fairtrade in August, while Fiona Esom was terminated as a director.
Food Thoughts emerged from an Oxfam initiative more than two decades ago and then came under the ownership of the marketing agency Product Chain, later to become Fairtrade owned by the Esom family, according to Gould.
Gould told Just Food that Fairtrade, including Food Thoughts, discreetly came on the market earlier this year and he bought the business. The ingredients brand is stocked in Sainsbury's, Waitrose and on Ocado, he confirmed.
Ms Esom is now a director and consultant with Esom Enterprise, according to Companies House.
In the statement provided by Draper, Fairtrade MD Gould said: “Doisy & Dam is synonymous with great tasting, ethical plant-based chocolate and is a brand with a loyal consumer following across the UK and EU.
“Adding Doisy & Dam to our ethical cocoa powder brand, Food Thoughts, provides us with an exciting plant-based chocolate proposition across snacking and home-baking.”
The Doisy & Dam brands are sold online at Ocado, Amazon and Planet Organic, and also in retail with Boots and Holland & Barratt.
Draper said: “As Nurture Brands consolidates its resources around Rebel Kitchen, Emily and Jax Coco, I am delighted to see Doisy & Dam go forward and become an important part of Fairtrade Limited, and I wish Mark all the best.”
