Rude Health has aspirations to grow the healthy breakfast cereal category and make it more accessible, but it is not alone. It faces stiff competition from players such as Dorset Cereals, Alara, Nature's Path, Doves Farm and Mornflake, to name a few.
Alara, for example, takes a similar approach to Rude Health by packaging its mueslis in utilitarian brown paper bags. Its products also contain goji berries and the company is even launching an initiative that allows consumers to customise their own muesli for home delivery.
Dorset Cereals offers probably the biggest challenge, however.
Since its relaunch in 2005 the company has successfully raised the profile of muesli and porridge through a combination of slick packaging and high-quality ingredients. It, too, has recognised spelt as the next growth area and launched its first spelt-based cereal on to the market last month.
The company is also in the throes of going mainstream, according to managing director Peter Farquhar.
"We started in muesli, then moved into porridge, but we now have our eyes on the wider category," he says.
Doves Farm is another relatively small player that has already taken on the larger cereal companies with its range of organic and often gluten-free versions of mainstream cereals, including cornflakes, chocolate stars and wholewheat cereal biscuits, which are designed to compete with Kellogg's and Weetabix.
And the larger players haven't been idle either. Jordans recently stepped into the superfoods market with a range of porridge, breakfast flakes, muesli and granola that contain blueberries, pumpkin seeds and cranberries.
However, Nick Barnard, Rude Health's MD, claims that his products contain double the percentage of quality ingredients of its competitors' products and that this puts his brand at an advantage.
"Most mueslis are inexpensive and mundane but ours have complex blends of ingredients. People will buy them despite them being more costly."
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