Piper invests in premium, natural Food-Grown® supplements brand Wild Nutrition

Piper, the leading specialist investor in fast-growing consumer brands, has invested £5m in Wild Nutrition, the natural health supplements brand that has disrupted the UK’s £20bn health and wellness market.

Wild Nutrition supplements are ethically and sustainably formulated by an in-house team who source the highest quality, fully traceable ingredients to provide solutions to common health needs – including pregnancy, fertility, immunity, energy, gut health, sleep, stress and anxiety and hormonal health. The brand has transformed the lives of customers through its highly effective Food-Grown® formulations and online expert nutritional consultations.

Founded in 2013 by husband and wife team Henrietta and Charlie Norton, Wild Nutrition was born out of Henrietta’s desire to find a solution for her ongoing battle with endometriosis. A bestselling author and highly regarded nutritional practitioner, she previously worked for some of Europe’s biggest food supplement brands where she discovered the extent to which products relied upon artificial and synthetic nutrients. Seeking a natural alternative, she conducted her own extensive research and Wild Nutrition was born.

The supplements market is a dynamic and fast-growing industry. 34.7m people in the UK (66% of all consumers) take supplements, a figure that is rising 9% annually. With more than 30%* of the public now taking a food supplement for the first time since the pandemic hit, the popularity of the vitamin and supplement market shows no sign of slowing down.

Food-Grown® is Wild Nutrition’s core formulation principle. More than 50 independent scientific studies have confirmed Food-Grown® nutrients’ marked superiority in terms of absorption and retention when compared with more mainstream synthetic alternatives. The company owns the trademark for Food-Grown® supplementation in the UK, US, Australia, EU and parts of Asia.

Led by CEO Chris Dodson, who joined from Google, Wild Nutrition’s run rate sales have grown impressively on the back of an industry-leading client satisfaction Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 82. The current Chairman is Steve Clark (founding investor), who is on the board of global jewellery brand Monica Vinader and Chairman of Bremont Watch Co. Steven Schapera, co-founder of BECCA Cosmetics and Chairman of ASX-listed Crowd Media, is also a significant shareholder and serves as an NED.

Wild Nutrition employs 28 staff and is based in Lewes, East Sussex. The brand has an impressive footprint in premium high street retailers such as Planet Organic, Wholefoods, Harrods and local health food stores around the UK. It also has seen huge growth through its own website, with online sales increasing by 124% over the last year, especially via monthly subscriptions.

Piper’s investment will allow the business to invest in strengthening the team, bring out a range of innovative new products, drive online growth in the UK and expand internationally.

It is the tenth investment from Piper VI, its £123m fund, and fifth in the digital wellness space, having also invested in leading wellbeing brand Neom Organics, smart indoor cycling brand Wattbike, healthy recipe box brand Mindful Chef and group exercise fitness brand Frame.

Henrietta and Charlie Norton, Founders of Wild Nutrition said: “We’re incredibly excited to have partnered with Piper for the next stage of the Wild Nutrition journey. They are very much aligned with our ongoing mission to transform the lives of our customers through better nutrition. Together with their fantastic team we will further drive the business in supporting consumer health by providing the very best products with expert nutritional advice.”

Libby Gibson, Founding Partner at Piper, said: 

“At Piper, we know that consumers want to take more control over their health, increasingly online – a trend that Covid has accelerated. In a market filled with poor quality products, Wild Nutrition’s Food-Grown® supplements are a unique way of delivering efficacy while remaining completely natural, sustainable and ethical. It’s been great to hear their customers talk about just how life-changing their supplements have been and how strongly they believe in Wild Nutrition as a brand, describing it as caring, reliable and honest and as a result well placed to help look after the whole family at every life stage.”

About Piper
Piper is a leading UK private equity firm specialising in investing in fast-growing consumer brands. Established by entrepreneurs in 1985, it has an enviable record of building iconic brands. Its investments have included Bloom & Wild, Mindful Chef, Wattbike, Orlebar Brown, Monica Vinader, PROPER, The Thinking Traveller, Loungers, Flat Iron, Boden, and Neom Organics. For more information, please go to www.piper.co.uk

About Wild Nutrition
Wild Nutrition aims to transform the lives of our customers through better nutrition. Its pioneering Food-Grown® natural supplements are backed by over 50 independent scientific studies and its own uncompromising standards. It uses only the most effective ingredients in unique formulations that work in harmony with the body. And all products are supported by expert advice from its team of qualified nutritionists. https://www.wildnutrition.com/

*Health Food Manufacturers’ Association (HFMA) https://www.healthfoodbusiness.co.uk/hfma-data-reveals-rise-in-supplement-use-during-covid-19-pandemic/