It’s Halloween, which means spooky snacks, creepy cakes, and other alliterative autumnal treats.
In this article, we’re exploring the UK’s top snack and confectionery companies according to investment raised. In addition to this, we break down the industry’s performance by region, the amount it adds to the local and national economy, and uncover which funds are investing most in Britain’s sweet and savoury treats.
Let’s get into it.
Investment trends in snacks and confectionery companies
Investment figures
Since 2011, when we started tracking investment figures, snack and confectionery companies have raised over £316m in total. The industry has seen growth in investment almost every year, with a small handful of exceptions, most notably 2020 — for obvious reasons — and 2024.
In fact, this year is on track to see the lowest figures in both numbers and value of fundraisings since 2015. This stands in stark contrast to 2023, where over £110m was invested in the sector — that’s over a third of the industry’s total investment, all in one year.
So what’s behind this huge uptick in growth, and why is 2024 lagging behind? The UK may be a nation of shopkeepers, and enjoy our fair share of sweet treats, but at the heart of these numbers is a huge Huel-sized elephant in the room.
Huel raised £82.5m in October 2023 — on Halloween no less — which accounted for around three quarters of last year’s total investment. The company also secured £19.6m in 2022, following its huge £20m injection of cash in 2018. These represent the three largest raises ever in the sector and, as we see in the table above, account for the spikes in 2018, 2022, and 2023.
Let’s now examine the funds that are the most prevalent investors in snack and confectionery companies.
Biggest investors in snack and confectionery companies
Crowdfunding is a key source of investment funding for early-stage snack and confectionery companies in the UK. When we look at the figures, Crowdcube and Republic Europe (formerly Seedrs) top the number of fundraising rounds with 44 and 25 rounds respectively.
From here, there is a notable drop off with the next most prevalent investors being Dragons’ Den, SFC Capital, and UK Steel Enterprise, all with just three rounds each.
The picture is slightly different when we assess the total value invested by funds. US-based investor Morgan Stanley tops the table with £82.5m invested, following last year’s Huel deal. In second place, Highland Europe has invested £39.6m in the industry. This is then followed by Republic Europe (£29.0m) and Crowdcube (£8.53m) due to their volume of activity in the sector.
Investment by region
According to our data, 172 active companies operating in the snacks and confectionery industry have received equity investment, with the average valuation across these companies sitting at £5.95m.
Unsurprisingly, almost 46% of these companies are based in London, whilst the South East (17.4%) and the East of England (7.6%) make up the top three. And as one might expect, the majority of investment goes to companies in those regions too.
However, we’ve also measured the average amount of investment in the UK’s regions, by dividing the total investment with the number of companies operating there. This arguably tells a more interesting story.
The East of England, thanks to that 2023 Huel deal, sees an average of £10.6m invested per company, but once we look beyond that, the following regions include the West Midlands (£1.7m), London (£1.4m), and the North West (£951k).
Top 10 Confectionery Companies in the UK
Here, we’ve ranked the UK’s top snack and confectionery companies according to equity investment raised.
Our methodology requires the companies listed to be headquartered in the UK, meet our industry classification of Confectionery and snacks, and be listed as ‘active’ on Companies House. We’ve excluded companies listed under Collection and delivery to ensure that only manufacturers make the list, whilst companies with absolute parent companies already featured in this list are also excluded.
