EXCLUSIVE: Meal Replacement Maker Huel Ventures Into Fashion
LONDON — Huel, the Hertfordshire-based upstart that offers vegan, lactose-free, and soy-free meal replacements, is entering fashion with the launch of Huelwear, a range of apparel that’s aimed at “slowing the fashion cycle,” WWD has learned.
The first drop of the collection will feature 19 season-less pieces, priced between 25 to 120 pounds. It will be launched globally on Huel’s website in April.
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Featuring simple and functional black, white and gray workout essentials made with organic cotton and recycled nylons, such as pullover hoodies, joggers, T-shirts, fleece jackets, beanies, caps and sports bras, Huelwear will offer sizes from XXS to XXXL, and a five-year guarantee on each garment sold.
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Julian Hearn, cofounder and chief marketing officer of Huel, believes that he can bring his problem-solving approach in the food industry to fashion. He believes fashion is “another industry that needs to change dramatically if we want to protect the environment that we all have a stake in.”
The company said every product has been analyzed by Green Story, a platform that measures the environmental impact of products and offsets carbon footprints, to provide assessments that will be displayed on every product page.
A circular initiative will be launched later in 2022, Huel also revealed. It will allow end-of-life and second-hand products to be resold or entirely recycled into new garments.
Huel may be just getting into the fashion business, but it’s no stranger to branding and marketing.
As an incentive, new food customers get a Huel logo T-shirt at checkout. The Huel T-shirt and the water bottles have become badges of honor for younger, fitness-focused consumers to identify their own clan in the gym and on social media.
“Huelwear is a natural step for us. We’ve been making clothes for years, and the feedback from our customers has always been really positive. But we’re an ethically minded business and we want to do better…All we’re looking to do right now is create something that creates 100 true fans. Then hopefully they love Huelwear enough to tell their friends, and we reach more people. Our focus is purely on making the best product that we possibly can because we only want to put our name on something that we really believe in and are proud of,” Hearn told WWD.
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Following the surge in business during the pandemic, the company is reported to have hired Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan to advise on an initial public offering in London, according to Financial Times.
Huel has been described as one of the U.K.’s most promising start-ups, offering meals such as cinnamon swirl drinks, which claim to include 22 grams of protein and are naturally sweetened, and Thai green curry instant meals.
The group reported a turnover of 71.6 million pounds for the year ended July 2020, up from 50.2 million pounds a year earlier, according to Companies House filings. Operating profit during the period was 700,000 pounds.
More than half of Huel’s sales come from outside the U.K., mainly from the U.S., Japan and European nations including Germany, France and Spain.
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