Grenade boss: From illicit playground cakes to the UK's biggest protein bar brand

In fact, they ended up creating a brand that's sold in over 80 countries and was valued at £72 million in its latest private equity deal with Lion Capital in 2017.

So how did it all begin?

As a child, Alan was the first generation of the Barratt family to fall out of line and opt not to go into the family’s heavy good vehicle business.

But it was still his family business, in a round about way, which helped him to discover his entrepreneurial passion 31 years ago, aged 11.

“My dad did maintenance on some of the big Mr Kipling and Cadbury lorries which meant they were left with us for several weeks. They would often have left over stock in the back which they told us to just eat or throw away.​

“So I took them to school and sold them off, which I nearly got expelled for.”​

It was at the age of 14 that his interest in sports nutrition was set in motion.

“While all my friends were playing rugby and football and cricket, I had no interest in any of those things. ​

“But I would watch movies and at this time, in the late 80s, all the male icons were big muscly men and I was always skinny so I wanted to find a way to get bigger.”​

He bought a barbell set from Argos and started going to the local gym and became fascinated by all forms of weight training and interested in the idea of diet supplementation.

The career begins​

It wasn’t long before he became bored of the regime of the schooling system and he dropped out of his A-levels to work at a gym which just so happened to neighbour an office for the supplements firm Biocare.

“The guy that owned the company used our gym and I often chatted to him about supplements and eventually he started making protein shake supplements for me and he was giving me enough to sell on aswell.​

 “So I had supplements but no customers. Then I spoke to a gym owner who had customers but no supplements and it was from there that I set up my first company Fusion, importing and distributing sports nutrition supplements for gyms.”​

It was in 2003, whilst running that business, that Alan met Juliet at a gym.

She was head of education at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents at the time but it was only a couple of years before she left her career to join his business.

“By 2007, we had fallen out of love with the business. We were distributing other people’s products and we wanted our own,” ​Alan explains.

They sold Fusion Solihull in 2009 for £400,000 and launched Grenade in 2010, selling Thermo Detonator fat burning pills, which are still an important part of the line-up today, sold in a hand grenade shaped bottle.

They soon expanded their range with a pre-workout blend, a creatine, glutamine, and protein and casein blend.

But Alan knew the line-up wasn’t mainstream enough for the business to reach the masses.

“It was in 2014 that I said ‘let’s become a food business’ and we started making protein bars.”​

The team spent two years creating the first protein bars with the aim of creating something so mainstream that they would become ‘the Red Bull of sports nutrition’.

And they could argue they’re already there. With Grenade bars found across health stores, garages, convenience stores and coffee shops. 

In fact, the brand outsells all other chocolate bar brands in UK supermarkets with the exception of Kinder Bueno (IRI Marketplace Total GB &NI Supermarkets, Protein Bars & Chocolate Singles at brand level, value sales, 12 weeks to 19/05/19).

Dominating the demand​

So why are the bars so popular? Alan says it’s a mix of many things, not least the huge range of channels, with the business securing a game changing listing with Costa Coffee just last Thursday.

This incredible distribution network has helped the brand to claim 86% of the value sales growth in the protein bar category (IRI Marketplace, Total GB Market, Protein Bars at brand level, Value Share Of Growth YA, 19/05/19).

“It’s also our excellent reputation,” ​adds Alan. “Two thirds of our products are bought on recommendation from a friend.”​

He also argues the popularity comes simply from the great flavour of the bars and the fact the bars are never made with anything ‘off the shelf’.

“You’ll never find our bar in another wrapper, like with some other sports nutrition bars.​

“Our bars are also very consistent. Whereas other brands might copy other ideas that work and end up with a confused range of products we’ve been consistent in what our products offer.”​

Alan also believes the brand’s 50/50 split of male to female shoppers is a sign they’ve got branding on point.

“I think many sports nutrition brands have got it wrong when they make a separate range of products for women, which are usually just smaller and wrapped in pink. It’s patronising and consumers don’t want to buy something patronising.​

“One of the first chocolate bars to do well was the Yorkie bar, which was marketed as ‘not for girls’. The majority of consumer of that bar were female. And that’s because they were all saying ‘sod you, I’m buying one’.​

“We just have one range of bars which are aimed at men and women alike.​

“For a brand called ‘Grenade’ we don’t take ourselves too seriously. We have fun with the brand and we remain approachable to all consumers.”​

Mentor messages​

With reams of startup success tips to share, the couple are now mentors for the Virgin Startup Programme.

Alan says a big keys to their success if their work ethic.

“We’ve kept our agility, even as we’ve gotten big and we have a tremendous work ethic. If we are awake, we are thinking about the brand and how to improve it as we are our own biggest critics.”​

As such, Alan is careful never to feel he has won or that he has reached success.

“We don’t consider ourselves successful as we are always striving for more.​

“People say to me ‘your brand is everywhere’. That’s not true, we’ve still got like 48% distribution left to concur in the UK so we aren’t everywhere yet.”​

Alan and Juliet were named the overall winner of the Midlands and South West Entrepreneur of the Year Awards, run by financial services firm EY, in June. Alan says this doesn’t mean they’ve done enough, it simply means they have to carry on working as hard as they have been in order to remain on top.

What’s next​

Increasing exports and distribution is high on Alan’s agenda. He has just returned from the Grenade offices in Rhode Island where he was working towards giving Grenade a bigger presence in convenience channels across the US and making it as big there as it is in the UK.

Seems a reasonable aim considering the man in charge.