In 2012, Julian Hearn was mixing various powdered ingredients together in his Aylesbury kitchen. The results of those experiments have led to an annual turnover of more than £100m, with products that boast some of the most passionate and engaged customers of any nutrition product on the market. His own culinary upbringing, however, was a distant cry from what he would one day create for the masses.
“I grew up in a time when people did a lot more home cooking, you’d maybe have a takeaway once or twice a year back then,” says 50-year-old Hearn. Growing up, his favourite meal was his mum’s Sunday roast followed by homemade trifle. Today, he is co-founder and chief marketing officer at Huel, leading the way in converting new customers to the brand’s vegan, sustainable and nutritionally complete meals.
Realising there was demand for the benefits of a nutritionally balanced diet without the hassle of having to cook, for months he worked with nutritionist and Huel co-founder James Collier to create the company’s original formula: a powdered meal that contained the perfect amount of protein, fat, fibre, carbs and essential vitamins for the body to thrive. You just had to add water, shake, then drink. But just like cronuts, kale and craft beer, not everyone was sold on the idea when Huel first launched.
The people who get it are incredibly passionate
“The main feedback was that it was a very polarising product,” says Hearn. “We’ve been raised and taught that food should look or be a certain way, and people couldn’t get into their heads that the primary purpose of food is nutrition.”
Once launched in 2015, Huel quickly garnered attention – not all positive. “It was called ‘the Matrix diet’ and ‘gloop’ and all sorts of negative things,” says Hearn. “But lots of people read between the lines.” It was this divided reaction that highlighted to Hearn how crucial media – social and traditional – would be to the brand’s success.
Though some people laughed, Hearn found that more were actually interested in the product. “Loads of people got in touch on social media afterwards, saying they’d heard about Huel, saw the benefits and wanted to become customers.
“The people who do get it and do like it are incredibly passionate,” says Hearn, who has previously worked for some of the UK’s biggest consumer brands, including Tesco, Waitrose and Starbucks. “We have some of the most engaged and passionate customers I’ve ever seen at any brand I’ve worked for.”
Huel has now sold 200m meals in more than 100 countries, and has expanded its product range from Powder into Ready-to-drink, Hot & Savoury, Complete Protein and Bars, all linked by the commitment to complete nutrition.
“We realised that people wanted to be connected to the brand, they wanted to be more involved, and they were proud to be a customer.” And what did this incredibly passionate fanbase want? Clothing (or, at least, more of it).
The clothing industry has lots of fundamental problems
Since its launch, Huel has sent a free T-shirt out with every first order. The black and grey tops bear the company’s logo on the chest and have become something of a uniform for fans of the brand – collectively known as “Hueligans” – who have been long hoping for an expanded range. Now, Huel has its sights set on solving other sustainable problems, taking its ethos of “minimal impact on animals and the environment” into your wardrobe.
“The more we looked into expanding the range, the more we saw just how much people wanted it,” says Hearn. “But the clothing industry has lots of fundamental problems with how it’s structured and the harm it does to the environment.” So a years-long project began to investigate how Huel could answer customer demand while staying true to its sustainable ethos. The result is Huelwear.
The initial collection comprises classic Huelwear T-shirts, alongside denim, hoodies, joggers and performance wear, all made sustainably.
“It’s not just the fabric, it’s the way the factories are selected. It’s not just the design of the clothing, it’s the longevity you can get out of it. There are lots of elements that combine to make it a much more sustainable product, rather than just a tick-box exercise that some other brands do.”
And Huel is indeed going much further than most other brands. All products are traceable back to the mills that produce the fabric, which have been selected for their ethical working practices and labour standards. All Huelwear products have been vegan-verified by Intertek, a multinational assurance, inspection, product testing and certification company, which certifies all Huelwear products as being animal-free at every point in its supply chain. Longevity is also ensured, with each product in the line backed by a five-year guarantee. If something goes wrong, customers can send it back to Huelwear to either repair or replace it, free of charge.
Hearn hopes that Huelwear will inspire people to think beyond micro trends and the fast fashion churn they demand. “There’s definitely lots of areas across the board where we, as a society, have to be more sustainable. Unfortunately, sometimes the incumbents in an industry don’t think that way, so there has to be someone new to come along and do it differently.”
Shop Huelwear’s sustainable clothing collection here
