WE FIND WHY NATURELLY IS GREAT FOR DELICATESSENS, THE NATURAL JELLY!
Delicatessens are discovering the delights of Naturelly.
When Dean & Joanne Dempsey found themselves in times of troubles, instead of turning to Mother Mary as The Beatles suggested, they turned to Mother Nature.
Many parents suffer the ill-fated journey home from nursery or school where energy-spent children are looking for a snack to fill them up until their next meal, and refusing this seemingly vital snack could be very dangerous to ones ears!
To address this problem, the family behind Naturelly: husband and wife Dean & Joanne ably assisted by Liam Dean’s brother and their daughters, knew they needed to create a fulfilling refreshment, but one which was also healthy.
After a lot of thinking, they came up with a jelly juice, but they then needed to investigate how to make this product healthy enough to give to their own children, let alone others too.
Firstly, they discovered a special gelatin free jelly made from Lile plants called ‘Gellan Gum’. This clever yet simple jelly helps to fill little tummies in between meals, but because it’s a natural dietary fibre they found that mixing it with real fruit juice created a refreshing snack that also fulfills sweet cravings!
By adding only freshly squeezed juice, and no further sugar, artificial colourings, flavours or preservatives, Naturelly was ready to be put to the test.
These pouches would make for a great item to stock in any shop, a healthy squeezy pouch with enough inside to bring temporary fulfillment but without having to turn to an unhealthy alternative.
Editors Note
After meeting Dean and Joanne at the IFE exhibition last month, Dean kindly gave me a few pouches to try with my own children on. One didn’t make it home as I snaffled this in the car & and thoroughly enjoyed it!
My rather excited children consumed the others. I waited for an opportune moment when they wanted snacks before their evening meal, and then pounced with these rather fun looking pouches of happiness.
What was a real pleasure to see (and hear) was a few minutes of silence, watching my children enjoy the fruity drinkable jelly, and much happier faces when they were finished! They have often asked me for more of these when they are peckish, which is surprising considering the vast array of snacks available to them in our cupboards.
THE PRODUCTS
Summer Fruits
The taste of summer and outdoor adventures in an easy-squeezy pouch.
Totally Tropical Fruits
Slurp up a little sunshine for a totally tropical taste with pineapples, apple, passion fruit and orange.
Apple & Blackcurrant
Crisp, juicy apple goodness straight from the trees the kids have climbed with blackcurrant.
To find out more click here
Dietary Facts
- Free from gelatin, gluten, wheat, dairy and other allergens
- No added sugar or sweeteners
- Low in calories (36 Kcal per pouch)
- No artificial colours, flavours or preservatives
- Only 7g (1.5 tea spoons) of naturally occurring sugar
We Interviewed Dean and Joanne to find out more about their rather unique and wonderful products!
Q: So, can you tell us a little more about how the brand came about?
Naturelly is a family business, me, my wife Joanne and my brother Liam. Trying to find healthy snacks was always challenging for us; especially when on days out or picking our girls up from school and nursery. Tears and tantrums would follow. We needed an on the go refreshment that would fill them up just a little, until dinner time. So, we put all of our crazy brains together to find out the stuff our kids loved and this led us to the idea of creating Naturelly. Jelly + Juice, simple!
Q: How has the reception been from the retailers including delicatessens you already work with?
The biggest trends in the retail sector are naturalness, healthy snacking, free from allergens and products low in sugar, we tick all the boxes consequently we have been very well received by specialty retailers through our partners Cotswold Fayre.
Q: We’ve featured some other genuinely better for you products in this issue; do you feel there is a sudden realisation by parents of how much sugar their children are actually consuming?
Parents are definitely looking for healthier products for their little ones to consume but for us it’s about making sure it’s fun for children as well as healthy. There is also a lot of confusing messages out there on other products. Naturelly is sweet by nature with nothing naughty added. No added sugar or sweeteners, no added colours, flavours or preservatives, only 36 kcal per pouch and it’s rich in vitamin C.
A lot of other so called healthy products may say no added sugar but they are full of artificial sweeteners (which just carry on the sweet tooth cravings) or just as terrifying have 5 cubes of sugar in them!!! (Naturelly is only 1.5 cubes of naturally occurring fruit sugar)
Q: We love working with husband and wife teams here at Delicatessen Magazine, however we feel we always need to ask the question: How do you manage the dynamic of working and living together?
Being able to work with my wife everyday is amazing. (she told me to say that!). It’s great because we are usually both there for the kids in a morning and after school. Joanne is genuinely brilliant at what she does (I’m not sure what that is exactly) and I’m like many husbands pretty much useless so we compliment each other perfectly.
Q: What gave you the idea of a slurping jelly?
Dean used to own a creative agency in London and back in 2009 and worked on a project for large FMCG brand that was launching a sports gel with green tea targeting cyclists. During that time he did a lot of research into the Japanese market and over there jelly or gels in pouches are big business, they have all sorts of weird and wonderful flavours including coffee jelly!
Then, after my wife and I had kids and starting looking into healthier snacks for them we discovered this special gelatin free, wibbly jelly and natural dietary fibre made from Lily plants called Gellan Gum and the idea came back to me.
Q: Obviously, this is a product that has children in mind, however at IFE we saw many adults enjoying these too. How will you move the brand towards being applicable for both?
Naturelly was initially designed for nursery and primary aged children, but after feedback from mums telling us they liked them too and the kids weren’t getting a look in, we decided to remove “for kids” from our packaging. Today Naturelly is enjoyed by health conscious adults, high school kids and fitness enthusiasts as a refreshing post sports or after the gym treat due to it be so low in calories. The product is also vegetarian society approved as well as being vegan friendly so big kids can enjoy them too.
Q: If we ran your brand, we’d spend all day slurping down Naturelly! Do you guys manage to sneak in a few when it’s a little quiet in the day?
Me and my brother have them all the time, my wife enjoys them after the gym and the kids and their friends love them after school and at birthday parties. Our children are the chief tasters as we are always experimenting with new flavours for future ranges.
Q: We saw you at IFE show a few weeks a go in London and every time we came to say hi the stand was packed with people! Was the show a success for you?
Yes, we were very busy and yes it was a huge success thank you, we offer something different, something fun which definitely captures the imagination plus the all the health benefits that come with it, we are certainly not a ‘me too’ brand.
To read the full April issue of delicatessen magazine, click here
