Vegan brand Deliciously Ella sold to Swiss food group Hero
‘It seems amazing now but no one was selling avocado on toast back then’
Ella Mills Deliciously Ella founder
Deliciously Ella, the plant-based food brand started by the food blogger Ella Mills, has been sold in a move that means its oat bars and energy balls will be sold all over the world.
Although the price paid by Swiss food group Hero has not been disclosed, Mills and her husband, Matthew, are expected to bank millions after turning the website she started in her parents’ kitchen, aged 21, into a healthy eating empire.
Deliciously Ella was initially all about Mills, who is a member of the Sainsbury food dynasty, herself. The blog, started in 2012 to share the vegan meals and snacks she was eating after suffering a health crisis, snowballed into a bestselling cookbook and, by 2016, a supermarket food range.
The takeover by Hero brings Deliciously Ella under the same umbrella as the Organix brand, which – with its “melty carrot puffs” and “strawberry weaning wands” is a favourite with middle-class parents.
“What started as a small recipe website and a cookbook has become something bigger than either of us could have imagined,” the couple said in a joint statement confirming the sale. “We have had numerous approaches to sell or partner with other food companies over the years, but only this one felt right.”
They added: “Hero has brands all over the world and a proven track record in helping brands reach much greater scale. This is a transformational moment in bringing our natural, plant-based ranges to more people, both in the UK and abroad.”
Although by 2017 there would be a backlash against the type of “clean eating” regime Mills was seen to espouse, it did not hold back the success of the vegan food brand.
With her husband – son of the late Labour cabinet minister Tessa Jowell – as chief executive, the business has grown rapidly. Revenues grew to £24m in 2023, according to the most recent accounts at Companies House.
Available in most supermarkets, Deliciously Ella has shifted more than 100m of its cereal bars and granola packs to date and “sells a product every second”. Its products are seen to fit the bill at a time when Britons are keen to make healthier food choices.
In a recent interview Mills suggested that over the past decade the brand had helped bring food traditionally found in health food shops to the mainstream. “A lot of [health] food had very little flavour and a holier-than-thou cardboardy feel to it,” she said. “It seems amazing now but no one was selling avocado on toast back then.”
The key to Deliciously Ella’s success has been a large social media following, which at 4 million is said to be the biggest of any vegan brand. The eponymous app boasts of 1.4m recipe downloads, and Mills’s seven cookbooks have shifted nearly 1.5m copies worldwide.
Hero, based in Lenzburg in Switzerland, said the deal would enable it to enter the UK snack market with a brand that “shares a similar way of thinking, values and mission”.
Last year it had a turnover of 1.2bn Swiss francs (£1.1bn).
The Swiss group bills itself as being on a “mission to delight consumers by conserving the goodness of nature”, selling “natural, healthy food to consumers”, said Rob Versloot, Hero’s chief executive.
Deliciously Ella “is a perfect fit for us”, he added.
After the sale is completed, 70 employees will join Hero, including the Mills couple.
Matthew will stay on as chief executive and Ella will be in the role of “founder/brand ambassador”. They are tasked with leading the “next stage of growth”, which in the short term includes an assault on the US market, where their oat bar range is set to go on sale in the Whole Foods chain.