SRSLY ditches the high street to focus on exports

SRSLY-ditches-the-high-street-to-focus-on-exports.jpg
(L-R) Founder Andy Selch and NPD manager Colette Warren

Low-carb bread and ready meals firm SRSLY is pivoting away from the UK high street to prioritise direct to consumer and export markets after failing to drum up interest in physical stores.

Founder Andy Welch said some of the focus of 2024 would be on honing the business’s priorities and ‘resetting its compass’, after failing to make a strong foothold in British bricks and mortar stores in 2023.

“Despite a few very near misses it soon became clear that we’d moved too soon to court a traditional retail environment that’s not quite ready to embrace a low carb mindset,” Welch explained. “Fortunately, the same however cannot be said of a number of progressive overseas markets. 

Export potential

“Already in 2024 SRSLY has reported a significant doubling of orders from North America, signalling a strong and accelerated presence within this bustling low-carb savvy marketplace. 

“Today SRSLY is now better placed than ever to reclaim its presence within the 14 EU countries it was servicing before the Brexit banana skin temporarily put pay to its bold export ambitions.”

To support its growth plans, SRSLY has entered into a ‘mutually beneficial’ alliance with a multi-region logistics specialist with operational bases in the UK, the Netherlands and Salt Lakes City.

Growing pains

“Yes, there have been inevitable growing pains,” Welch added, “but it was imperative that we seamlessly integrated our business-to-business and business-to-consumer operations to maximise the growing demand for credible low carb meal solutions.”

Founded in 2019, SRSLY produces a range of low-carb foods that it sells direct to consumers via its website.

“In 2024 we’re launching low carb dry pasta (a £21m mainstream category) and low carb noodles (a £51m mainstream category) because if spiralling obesity is ever to be reversed it’s imperative that growing numbers of businesses champion tasty, nutritionally savvy alternatives to the over-processed carb laden ‘everyday essentials’ that remain at the epicentre of Western diets,” Welch concluded.

Meanwhile, SRSLY was one of the many food and drink firms were named on the Startups 100 list for 2024, an annual index of the UK’s best small companies.