Our Story
Our Story
We’re on a mission to reinvent the health food industry.
My Personal Struggles with Breakfast
My name is Ella and I am the founder of Nutribuddy.
I’ve always struggled to eat breakfast in the morning.
Throughout my time at school and university I would sleep to the last possible minute and grab whatever I could to eat on-the-go, be that a chocolate chip cookie (healthy, right?) or stale croissant (yuck!).
As ridiculous as it sounds, my weird morning habits were not an isolated occurance. See, 20% of people regularly skip breakfast.
That’s me!
Rebelling Against The Shake Industry
Meal shakes claimed to be the answer to my breakfast problems. They are quick and supposedly nutritious. Perfect, right?
Except they were anything but perfect.
I grimaced as I read through ingredient lists which contained dozens of chemical-sounding names which I had never heard of.
What on earth is Xanthan Gum? Maltodextrin doesn’t sound healthy. Isn’t Potassium Chloride a plant fertiliser?
Many sources site artificial additives as questionable for our bodies. For example, maltodextrin causes blood sugar spikes and harms helpful gut bacteria.
It baffled me how there wasn’t a shake on the market which was free from these additives.
That’s when an idea came to me.
I could create my own natural shakes and shake-up the shake industry!
Myself with my own natural shakes!
I Dropped out of Uni to Set-Up Nutribuddy from my Kitchen
I had only been at university for a term when I made the decision to drop-out.
I started Nutribuddy in my home, creating shakes in my kitchen and packaging them up for Royal Mail to collect.
Before long, Nutribuddy quite literally took over.
I was huddled in a tiny spare room whilst boxes of product overflowed in my old bedroom and living room.
I had to employ people to come to work from my home as the work-load quickly became too much for myself and my partner to complete on our own.
There was no space. There was no privacy. But I told myself it was worth the discomfort to create products which would make a difference to people’s lives.
My kitchen, filled to the brim with orders for Royal Mail to collect!
The ‘Packing Room’ in my old bedroom! This is where we’d put orders into packing boxes and prepare them for Royal Mail.
Setting Up Our Eco-Factory Powered by Renewable Energy
2018 was a big year for Nutribuddy. It had finally outgrown my home!
We found the perfect site for our eco-factory and moved in.
Evenings and weekends were spent tirelessly setting up the factory.
We didn’t have the money to employ builders so we created the factory ourselves.
We ordered custom-made machines, specifically designed to handle our natural products.
Regular machines need additives added to products in order for the products to flow through them smoothly.
We made the decision to power the factor via 100% renewable energy, determined to keep our carbon footprint as low as possible.
Our first premises! There was a lot of work to do to turn it into an eco-factory…
After tough months of working through weekends and evenings, our facility was finally ready!
Continuously Innovating
Launching Nutribuddy was only the start of our exciting journey.
Since our launch, we have continuously innovated, striving produce better and better products and reduce our carbon footprint.
In 2019 we switched to using cardboard boxes which are manufactured down the road from our factory in Manchester.
In 2020 we phased out single-use plastic scoops, changing to stainless steel reusable scoops.
In 2021 we launched our reusable packaging scheme with the aim to role it out to all our products by the end of 2022.
We are excited to take you on our journey with us!
