How did Graze grow? The Grazing Revolution

by Craig Cochrane December 30, 2024

When a group of friends became a little fed up with the breadth of healthy lunch and snack options in the local area. They decided it was time to do something about it.

At the time in 2008, the direct-to-consumer model was seemingly taking off. A niche was therefore apparent for a subscription based direct-to-consumer snacking service…They called it Graze. In this article we answer the question How did Graze grow? By considering the key decisions that led to their success.

Chapter 1 – Personalisation

Graze offered consumers the ability to personalise healthy snack boxes. Which would then be sent via post to a location of their choice. Many customers chose to have these sent directly to their offices and snacking on their boxes drew interest from colleagues creating a seamless organic growth.

Chapter 2 Product innovation and feedback loop

To maintain momentum Graze launched new products every few weeks and used technology integrated with its social media channels to garner consumer sentiment and focus its marketing and website design around those snacks that customers rated highest. This data driven approach led to significant success and Graze were able to double down on what worked.

Chapter 3 Multichannel diversification

With the plethora of data harnessed. Graze was able to diversify into a multi-channel offering with shops and supermarkets willing to stock already proven high conversion products.

In 2019, the founders of Graze secured a successful exit by selling their thriving business to Unilever. Today, Graze operates in thousands of supermarkets across both the US and UK. Whilst exciting European expansion plans are already on the horizon.

How did Graze Grow? – Lessons from Graze

Research the market dynamics – Graze were lucky that they had Graham Bosher onboard who had previously founded Lovefilm and knew a significant amount about the direct to consumer model and importantly how the Royal Mail services worked. It was no coincidence that the Direct to consumer model took off in 2008 with a tweak in Royal Mails pricing model to allow small heavy items to be posted more economically (a 74% reduction). Try to look out for these tweaks in the market dynamics as they can often present significant opportunity.
Know the trends – At the time healthy eating was gaining traction in the UK with the Governments 5 a day. This coupled with a growing desire from consumers for convenience helped to fuel the growth of graze.
Make use of the data – Graze made excellent use of its customer feedback and tracked the popularity of customer choices. Such data then allowed them to create viable business cases to retailers and pushed their product from online only to being in many of the major retail chains.