Grocer Gold Awards 2022: specialist online retailer of the year

Winner: Mindful Chef

Mindful Chef built on a record-breaking 2020 to continue strong growth and an expanded retail offering last year. Sales of its nutritionally balanced ready meals jumped 32%, with the range now including healthy breakfast cereals and desserts.

The brand also boosted its grocery presence with the launch of a new recipe box partnership with Waitrose in late 2021, and the expansion of a chilled meals range in 2022.

This was all made possible by a significant expansion of its operational and supply chain capacity, which gave the brand the wherewithal to sell products into other major retailers like Planet Organic, as well as grocery delivery services including Ocado, Deliveroo and Getir.

The result was a jump in year-on-year turnover of 39% to £67m in the company’s first full year under Nestlé’s majority ownership.

Shortlisted:

• Abel & Cole
• Field&Flower
• HelloFresh
• The Ethical Butcher