![]() | |
Graze | |
Industry | |
Founded | 17 October 2007 ![]() |
Founder | Graham Bosher |
Headquarters | , United Kingdom |
Key people | Joanna Allen (CEO) |
Products |
|
Owner | Unilever [1] |
Number of employees | 500 |
Website | graze |
Nature Delivered Limited, [2] trading as Graze (stylised as graze), is a United Kingdom-based snack company which is owned by Unilever. [3] Graze offers over 200 snack combinations [4] through snack subscription boxes, an online shop [5] and retailers. The company distributes thousands of snack boxes per day across the UK. [6] Graze expanded operations to include the United States in 2013, [7] launching snacks into US retailers in 2016. [8]
Graze includes sweet and savoury snacks. Many of the products are suitable for vegans.
Graze was launched in 2008 by seven friends brought together by Graham Bosher, the founder of LoveFilm. [9] [10] The company began delivering snacks including nuts, small puddings, and porridge across the United Kingdom. [11] In November 2012, The Carlyle Group purchased the majority stake of Graze. [9] [12]
Graze opened a distribution center in New Jersey in January 2013 to begin beta trials in the United States. [6] [7] [12] Graze officially expanded into the United States by late 2013 and has offices in Jersey City, New Jersey and Manhattan, New York. [13] [14] By the end of 2014, Graze had generated £68 million in revenue. [15] In February 2017, Graze reported £75.8 million in revenue for the year. [16] As of September 2017, Graze was available in 7,500 stores across the United States. [17]
Graze announced the launch of a line of snack products to UK retailers including Sainsbury's, Boots UK, and WHSmith in July 2015. [18]
In 2015, Graze was listed as a member of the Sunday Times Fast Track 100, [19] the list of Britain's top 100 fastest growing companies.
In 2016, Graze launched an online shop [20] for one-off purchases, outside the snack subscription model, and began selling a range of their snacks in Walgreens stores across the US. [8]
In February 2019, Graze was acquired by Unilever.
In August 2019, Graze subscribers in the US were notified that delivery on their subscriptions would end in September. As of September 2019, the Graze website store showed no products available for sale and no pending orders and by December 2019 it had reverted to a UK only website. The company has made no public announcement of why they have ceased business operations in the US.
In early 2024 they stopped their classic subscription box which fits through the letterbox and launched the new monthly subscription box in April 2024 [21] , containing 8 snacks but no longer tailored to individual preferences.
Graze used an algorithm called DARWIN (Decision Algorithm Rating What Ingredient's Next) to customise snack boxes based on the preferences subscribers entered on the site. [13] [22] Graze develops its own recipes that do not include genetically engineered ingredients, artificial flavors or colors, high fructose corn syrup, or trans fats. [23] The old variety boxes contained four snacks and could be delivered weekly, biweekly, or monthly. [24] Larger sharing bags and multipacks are available to buy ad-hoc on graze's online shop [5]
Since 2023, graze has donated a portion of its profits to City Harvest, [25] a London-based charity that redistributes surplus food to help tackle food poverty. Before this, graze supported the graze School of Farming in Uganda which helped over 400 families gain the skills and experience needed to feed and support themselves.
Boxing Day is a holiday celebrated after Christmas Day, occurring on the second day of Christmastide. Boxing Day was once a day to donate gifts to those in need, but it has evolved to become a part of Christmas festivities, with many people choosing to shop for deals on Boxing Day. It originated in the United Kingdom and is celebrated in several Commonwealth nations. The attached bank holiday or public holiday may take place on 28 December if necessary to ensure it falls on a weekday. Boxing Day is also concurrent with the Christian festival Saint Stephen's Day.
Tesco plc is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. The company was founded by Jack Cohen in Hackney, London in 1919. In 2011, it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in the world measured by revenues. It has shops in Ireland, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia. It is the market leader of groceries in the UK.
Marks and Spencer plc is a major British multinational retailer based in London, England, that specialises in selling clothing, beauty products, home products and food products. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
Wm Morrison Supermarkets Limited, trading as Morrisons, is the fifth largest supermarket chain in the United Kingdom. As of 2021, the company had 497 supermarkets across England, Wales and Scotland, and one in Gibraltar. The company is headquartered in Bradford, England.
Waitrose Limited, trading as Waitrose & Partners, is a brand of British supermarkets, founded in 1904 as Waite, Rose & Taylor, later shortened to Waitrose. It was acquired in 1937 by employee-owned retailer John Lewis Partnership, which still sells groceries under the brand. Its head offices are located in Bracknell, Berkshire.
Pot Noodle is a brand of instant noodle snack foods from the United Kingdom, available in a selection of flavours and varieties. This dehydrated food consists of noodles, assorted dried vegetables and flavouring powder. It is prepared by adding boiling water, which rapidly softens the noodles and dissolves the powdered sauce.
The Very Group Limited is a multi-brand online retailer and financial services provider in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Its head offices are based in the Speke area of the city of Liverpool, England. The brand was established in November 2005 as a result of the merger of the former Littlewoods and Shop Direct companies. The retailer was known as Littlewoods Shop Direct Group until a corporate rebranding to Shop Direct Group in May 2008. In 2013, the company rebranded to Shop Direct, dropping the 'group' from its name. Shop Direct rebranded themselves to The Very Group in 2020.
HMV is a music and entertainment retailer, founded in the United Kingdom in 1921. As of February 2024, it is currently operating in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Japan and Belgium, as well as having concessions at Toys "R" Us locations in Canada.
Primark Stores Limited is an Irish multinational fast fashion retailer with headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, with outlets across Europe and in the United States. The original Penneys brand is not used outside of Ireland because it is owned elsewhere by American retailer J. C. Penney.
Majestic Wine is a British wine retailer based in Watford, England. The company employs more than 1,300 employees nationwide, and operates more than 200 stores across the United Kingdom.
Walkers Snack Foods Limited, trading as Walkers, is a British snack food manufacturer mainly operating in the UK and Ireland. The company is best known for manufacturing potato crisps and other snack foods. In 2013, it held 56% of the British crisp market. Walkers was founded in 1948 in Leicester, England, by Henry Walker. The Walkers family sold the business in 1970 to American food producer, Standard Brands. In 1989, Walkers was acquired by PepsiCo, owners of US snack brand Frito-Lay.
Leon is a fast food chain based in the United Kingdom, established in 2004. The company had around 70 outlets when it was bought by EG Group in 2021. Since October 2023, most of EG Group's former UK and Ireland business, including Leon, has been owned by the supermarket chain Asda.
Gousto, a trading name of SCA Investments Limited, is a British meal kit retailer, headquartered in Shepherd's Bush, London, founded by Timo Boldt and James Carter. Gousto supplies subscribers with recipe kit boxes which include ready-measured, fresh ingredients and easily followed recipes.
Eat Natural is a cereal bar, toasted muesli and granola maker founded in 1997 in Epping, Essex. In 2005, a journalist said they were "the fastest growing cereal brand in the UK", with between 70,000 and 100,000 bars produced daily, which were distributed to 13 countries. The company now produces nearly 100 million bars a year at its 'Makery' in Halstead, Essex, and exports to 37 countries worldwide.
A dark store is a retail outlet or distribution centre that exists exclusively for online shopping. A dark store is generally a large warehouse that can either be used to facilitate a "click-and-collect" service, where a customer collects an item they have ordered online, or as an order fulfillment platform for online sales. The format was initiated in the United Kingdom, and its popularity has also spread to France followed by the rest of the European Union and Russia, as well as to the United States.
Subscription boxes are a recurring delivery of niche products as part of a marketing strategy and a method of product distribution. Subscription boxes are used by subscription-based ecommerce businesses, referred to as "subcom" for short, which follow a subscription business model. They target a wide range of customers and cater to a variety of specific needs and interests. It is estimated that there are 400 to 600 different kinds of subscription boxes in the United States alone and more overseas. Subscriptions vary in both cost and frequency, making them more accessible to a greater range of customers with different socioeconomic backgrounds. Subscription boxes tend to range from $10 to $100.
SimplyCook is a subscription-based recipe box service based in London. The company provides a monthly box containing four recipes and four nonperishable ingredient kits that are then added to fresh ingredients the subscriber purchases from the supermarket. SimplyCook was founded by Oliver Ashness in 2014. SimplyCook's recipes have been featured in Woman’s World, Daily Express, and The Independent.
Amazon Prime is a paid subscription service of Amazon which is available in various countries and gives users access to additional services otherwise unavailable or available at a premium to other Amazon customers. Services include same, one- or two-day delivery of goods, and streaming music, video, e-books, gaming, and grocery shopping services. In April 2021, Amazon reported that Prime had 200 million subscribers worldwide.
Boxed, Inc. is an American online and mobile membership-free wholesale retailer that offers direct delivery of bulk-sized packages via the Boxed app or the website. Boxed product offering has been compared to that of Costco. It is based in New York City and was founded in August 2013 by Chieh Huang, Jared Yaman, Christopher Cheung, and William Fong.
Robomart is an American technology company headquartered in Santa Monica, California that builds autonomous smart shops for cafes, ice cream parlors, and quick-service restaurants. The company’s white label platform gives retailers the option to expand their footprint at a significantly lower cost than traditional brick-and-mortar real-estate.