Globally, snacking is now eclipsing meals when it comes to the amount of snacks someone consumes versus meals per day – 59 percent of consumers prefer to eat smaller meals throughout the day.
This figure goes up to 70 percent when it comes to millennials, while 66 percent of people in the developing world make health a top priority.
With this in mind, Dubai-based Freakin’ Healthy was launched in 2018 to revolutionise the UAE’s snacking market.
Today, the company is one of the fastest growing F&B brands in the healthy snacking sector in the GCC, with global expansion plans well on the way into major European cities, and the imminent expansion into the US and Canadian markets.
Here, Arabian Business talks exclusively with Freakin’ Healthy founder Roy Koyess.
AB: When did you come up with the idea of Freakin’ Healthy or realise there was a gap in the market for the business?
RK: I’ll have to go back to 2015, when I was in the tail-end of my corporate career. At that time I was always looking for tools or hacks that were at my disposal to help me stay at peak performance. The side effect was that I was seriously burning out, to the point that I would end up with some sort of flu or cold every other week.
A few things had to change, but primarily it was my eating habits and my mental approach to stress. I started looking at my diet a little deeper and took a decision to cut out certain food groups based on some research and through the process of elimination (to test how my body and mind felt).
Part of the issue was the snacks I consumed, all of which (much to my surprise) were preservative laden and highly processed. This left me inflamed and gave my severe sugar crashes. Consequently, I found there was a lack of clean and tasty options in the market, plus the labels were confusing and often misleading. That’s when I decided to launch Freakin’ Healthy®, a brand that is fiercely transparent, and delivers on quality and taste.
AB: What is your business plan?
RK: Apart from our financial business goals, we’re striving to deliver a complete healthy F&B solution to consumers. Our goal is to bring that segment of the market that has every intent of living a healthier lifestyle into the healthy living segment. We’d therefore need to be ubiquitous. Ultimately available not only in multi-channels, but also at arm’s reach for the consumer. We’d provide F&B solutions for consumers in their pantries, refrigerators, freezers and for their daily meals.
AB: Is the company bootstrapped or have you raised capital from investors? Can you take us through your funding journey?
RK: The company has been in a strategic business alliance with BMB Group since the early days. They brought tremendous value to the relationship in terms of their expertise and efficiencies in production, procurement and sales channel network. Above all, we share a burning passion for the healthy F&B segment and see a big opportunity to make a difference in the category by offering consumers delicious healthy snacks with a clean label brand promise.
AB: How big is the healthy food market in the region?
RK: It’s hard to be precise, but I estimate the Health and Wellness segment to be around AED15 billion, but it’s definitely on a growth path. One tell-tale sign of the state of the healthy food market in the region, is the number of brands entering the segment over the past three years. Dozens of local and international brands have entered this space which tends to indicate market/consumer demand. In fact, the Middle Eastern consumers’ increased health awareness has been the major driver as they are increasingly making healthier choices in the supermarket aisles, in restaurants and online.
Granted that’s still a very minor part of the overall F&B segment, but it has been growing steadily for the past five years.
You also see regional governments promoting the importance of staying fit and keeping healthy habits with initiatives like Dubai’s Fitness Challenge (DXB 30×30) and passing regulations to curb consumption of unhealthy drinks (etc…), as in the case of KSA’s sugar-sweetened beverage tax (Which was the highest SSB tax increase globally).
AB: Where would you like to see the company in the next five years?
RK: Let’s look at the next three years. I see Freakin’ Healthy® on a truly global platform where we are driving the healthy F&B segment with innovation and product solutions. In addition, as a natural brand evolution, we are becoming more of a lifestyle brand, we will continue down that path and really integrate into consumers’ day to day healthy habits.
AB: What is the best advice anyone has ever given you?
RK: It wasn’t really advice given to me, it was more of a blog post I read a few years back, by Kevin Kelly, called “1,000 True Fans”. There are some real nuggets in this post, which talk about simply needing 1,000 true fans or as Kelly puts it, superfans, to run a sustainable business. Some of the financial models will change based on your industry, but the key takeaways are to turn 1,000 (or so) consumers into superfans. It’s about customer-centricity and not taking your eye off the real company objective by creating a customer base that would do practically anything for your brand.
AB: If you could go back, what would you have done differently with the company?
RK: Not much really. One thing that I would rethink is the fallacy of building a business purely on ‘scratching your own itch’, from a market demand perspective. At the initial stages of a product or service concept, it’s always great to create something that you yourself would use and are in need of, but at some point you need to think about crossing the chasm and in order to do that you must meet the bigger market’s needs. Which for all intents and purposes might be slightly different than the founder’s profile, likes, dislikes, etc so adapting your offering to consumer needs is vital for scaling, and that can sometimes feel uncomfortable.
AB: What is your vision for the company?
RK: Our vision is to inspire, educate, convert and ultimately create advocates of healthy balanced living, through better eating habits and lifestyle changes. We truly believe the sky is the limit with Freakin’ Healthy.
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