How Joanna Allen got Little Moons back in control after fast and furious freefall

Don’t let Joanna Allen’s smile fool you; her first year at Little Moons has been far from easy.

The mochi ice cream maker – once a viral TikTok sensation – was in the midst of a consultation process with employees to close its two London manufacturing sites when Allen joined last summer. But it was also struggling to recruit at its new larger factory in Kettering. And it had lost both its CEO and international sales director.

With costs soaring, Allen needed to be bold. Within five months she performed a u-turn on Little Moons’ consolidation plans, closing the Kettering factory and retaining both the London sites. In the process, the mochi maker also defaulted on its loan terms, borrowing a further £5m from its shareholders in December to get the business back on a “solid footing”.

“It’s been a fast and furious 12 months,” Allen concedes. “I had to make sure the business was really clear on what the priorities were, had the right operational set-up for us to be able to be successful, and was not overburdened with cost.

“My reflection was: this is an artisan product in terms of how it’s made, and that takes skills, which take time to build. We’ve got the benefit of people in Little HQ who have been with the business for over five years.”

While retaining that artisanal feel to production, small investments – “we call them ‘little quick wins’” – have enabled Little Moons to be more efficient. As a result, the “dedicated, passionate team” of Park Royal workers “have been beating their output every week” over the summer.

Another important milestone was achieving B Corp certification in February 2025, which has “driven real engagement”, adds Allen.

The Willy Wonka of snacks

Allen has also sought to reposition the Little Moons brand. “I want us to be a snacking business, more than a mochi ice cream business,” she explains. To signal this, Little Moons unveiled a “new brand world” in June, including a packaging overhaul, which aimed to bring “its quality ingredients to the fore”, while still communicating its “playfulness”.

“Ultimately, the pack is the thing that gets into more people’s hands than anything else. That should be on the front foot of portraying how you want the brand to show up in people’s lives.”

An “ex-marketeer by trade”, including nine years at The Coca-Cola Company, Allen is confident Little Moons has the brand power to rival some of the leading brands in snacking. In focus groups she’s sat in on, “people referred to it as ‘the Willy Wonka of snacks’… their ‘little stress ball’… that’s magical language, and it shows there’s so much potency in the brand.”

With strong distribution in all the supermarkets these days, the main challenge for the UK business is getting “more people to consider the freezer as their source of snacks”. That’s why she’s bolstering Little Moons’ core lineup and “making sure we’ve got good representation in some of the core flavours you would expect” from biscuits and confectionery.

This rationale inspired Little Moons’ newest mochi ice cream variant, Brown Butter Caramel, which launched in July, and the creation of Chocolate Fudge, which will hit freezers later this year. “When we looked through the portfolio, we just felt like there was an opportunity to upgrade the offerings.”

Allen has also expanded the brand into new categories. Last September, Little Moons added a trio of bite-sized frozen cheesecake desserts: Caramelised Biscuit & White Chocolate, Strawberry & Mascarpone and Belgian Chocolate & Salted Caramel (rsp: £3.75/4x30g). There are more “irons in the fire” but Allen is keeping tight-lipped on the details for now.

Exaggerated experience

While some of its troubles could be seen as self-inflicted, Allen feels Little Moons has also been a victim of its earlier successes. While “there are very few businesses that are totally immune” to growing pains, “Little Moons probably had an exaggerated experience of that because of the TikTok momentum”.

At the peak of the trend, sales of the treats skyrocketed by as much as 1,300% in Tesco. marketing director Ross Farquhar described it at the time as a “perfect storm” of shoppers being bored during the Covid-19 lockdowns, being unfamiliar with the mochi format, and Little Moons engaging with shoppers’ content.

It was a blessing and a curse as Little Moons continually struggled to keep up with demand. But the phenomenon is still seen as the gold standard by fmcg startups hoping their own products will go viral.

More Big Interviews

• How Katie Secretan is steering Nisa to its new life as Co-op Wholesale

• How NFU president Tom Bradshaw took over the baton from Minette Batters

• How has Tesco changed under Ken Murphy in the past five years?

• Maria Chong on why fun is key to Lee Kum Kee’s evolution

“I was talking to Kris [Boger], who’s GM of TikTok in the UK a couple of weeks ago, and we were talking about how both brands have the other brand in their folklore,” says Allen.

And although Little Moons is unlikely to hit the same level of virality ever again, “I still think there’s a key role for us to play on that platform”, she insists.

Under Allen’s leadership, Little Moons is now taking a much more structured approach to its TikTok strategy, “primarily through partnering with creators” like Great British Bake Off finalist Sandro Farmhouse, who “has a bit more of a millennial appeal”.

“The reason why I feel really good about the business is it’s portion-controlled,” says Allen. “It’s about having good care around what you’re eating – and we definitely want to work with creators who have got that affinity with our philosophy and values.”

Crucially, despite its growing pains, sales are still positive, proving that Little Moons and mochi balls are not just a fad. UK sales are up 3% to £27m, on volumes 5.1% higher [NIQ 52 w/e 12 July].

And international sales are flying. “Germany’s got enormous momentum. We’re expanding availability and doing some really great work, particularly in Hamburg and in Berlin, to activate the brand.”

She’s similarly encouraged by the Middle East, “particularly UAE, where there’s a young, thriving consumer base who have a real desire for premium international brands”.

One year in, it’s too early to claim victory. But Allen is quietly rebuilding the magic.