As childhood sweethearts, Amy Moring and Jeff Webster would have found it hard to believe a simple jar of mayonnaise could take them from “council house” kids to the founders of a £6.5 million ($8.3 million) business.
And yet, it’s done exactly that.
Back in 2017, the pair found themselves frustrated by the highly-processed condiments filling supermarket shelves and set about creating a healthy alternative, a 100% Avocado Oil Mayonnaise, from their small kitchen table in Dagenham, London.
“When all mayonnaise at the time was laden with sugar, chemical preservatives, and over 70% inflammatory seed oils, we challenged this convention,” Moring recalls. “Now, this product is one of our best sellers!”
Satisfied with the results of their health food experimentation, they decided they would sell it as Hunter & Gather (a name – and brand – inspired by the health benefits of ancestral eating), then aged 25 (Webster) and 24 (Moring).
The product that started it all: Hunter & Gather’s avocado oil mayionnaise
“In the first 12 months, both Jeff and I were still working day jobs,” she says. “Overheads were very low and we were able to test and learn.”
Using credit cards to get the business off the ground, they were soon accepted into the Mission Ventures [previously Grocery Accelerator] training and mentoring programme, receiving an initial investment round of £17,000 ($21,000) and an introduction to SFC Capital — a firm that would become strong supporters and investors in the Hunter & Gather over the six years thereafter.
“We brought a solid dose of naivety, desire and determination to the table back then, but over time we have also evolved into the areas that we are strongest in,” says Moring.
Today, Jeff serves as COO, overseeing operations and finance, while Amy, as CEO, working with a strong focus on sales and marketing. “Jeff brings a lot of ideas on how the business could evolve, and I am a real project manager who likes to get things done,” she explains. “The balance has really helped in creating a fast-growing, stable business.”
And boy, has it grown. Today, Hunter & Gather’s product range includes oils, dressings, sauces, bovine and marine collagen, real food supplements, and more, contributing to an enormous expansion for the business – and its revenue.
“We grew just shy of 80% last year and are expecting to do the same again this year, so it’s constantly evolving the business,” she says. “Every 6 months the business seems to change in its requirements.”
To keep up, Hunter & Gather now forecasts every month and commits a total business “re-forecast” on all spend every three months.
It became especially clear they’d need to do this post-Covid, when the popularity of “clean” and “ancestral” eating sent demand through the rough. “Thankfully, we were already an online business and had the infrastructure, such as outsourced manufacturing and warehousing, so that we could scale quickly,” she continues.
They also felt it was the right time to bring on a team (now eighteen strong), move to an office and raise a significant investment round to support further growth.
“We opt for an MVP [minimum viable product] mentality and continue to tweak and improve both recipes and packaging as we gather feedback from customers.”
As a B CORP business, they’ve made significant steps to treat the business’ environmental impact with the same regard as they do the products’ physical impact, too. In addition to using “wonky” or otherwise discarded avocados to make their best-selling oil mayos, the company uses paper/cardboard-based packing materials as well as fully recyclable pouches, bottles and glass jars.
While 80% of its revenue still comes from online sales, Hunter & Gather has been gaining rapid traction offline, too, with product listings in Ocado, Holland & Barrett, Whole Foods and, as of last month, the UK’s largest supermarket chain, Tesco.
“In a weird way it feels pre-determined,” Moring continues. “We both felt like we had this path ahead of us and we just needed to take it step by step.”
The steps show no sign of slowing down, either, with new product launches, in new categories, already scheduled for the Summer.
“We try to celebrate successes as they happen but also not to be held back by where we came from, as well as having the belief that we are going to positively impact the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, if not millions, in the UK alone,” she says. “This pushes us forward every day.”