‘Sell kimchi to Korea? Why not?’ Nick Vadasz on being a pickle ambassador

As you can probably tell, I’m not Korean,” laughs Nick Vadasz. This may be true, but the ebullient founder knows his way around a batch of kimchi – and numerous other zingy pickles and ferments.

“My dad’s Hungarian, so that’s where I get my love of all things sour and pickled,” says Vadasz, who himself hails from near Maidstone in Kent. “I was brought up eating sauerkraut, and I approached making kimchi in the same way. We don’t really make it in a traditional way – but it tastes great, and people love it.”

That enthusiasm was evident when Vadasz started his eponymous chilled pickles and ferments brand in 2011, selling from huge jars at markets in London. “I saw people doing this new thing called ‘street food’,” he chuckles. “But I thought: ‘I could do it better.’”

Vadasz was an early adopter of kimchi, the fermented cabbage dish from Korea that has since taken the UK by storm. Word spread. The queues got longer. And in 2016, Vadasz really achieved lift-off with an approach by Matt McAuliffe, innovation and product development director at The Compleat Food Group.

“I didn’t really have a strong vision of where the brand was going,” remembers Vadasz. “I said to Matt and the team at Compleat: ‘I need to scale up, and I don’t know how to do it. I need help.’”

Compleat finally bought the brand in 2019. Vadasz arrived in Waitrose the same year, and neither party has looked back. “I didn’t want to just sell up and go sit on a beach or something. It’s got my name on it, so I wanted to see it through,” Vadasz says. “I’d say I’m the ambassador. So, I do interviews, go on TV occasionally, and I do product development with Compleat.”

The brand is now stocked in all major UK supermarkets, apart from the discounters, and Vadasz says its retail sales value is “fast approaching £17m” [NIQ]. “From where we were in 2022, when the RSV was just under £6m, the growth is incredible,” he adds.

The brand’s rise has coincided with the gut health trend – though Vadasz points out his customers were aware of its importance in his early 2000s market days.

“It’s just gone mainstream now. You know when I’m on This Morning with Cat Deeley or whatever that it’s reaching the masses,” he says. “People like Tim Spector have really helped, pointing out in a scientific way that you should be eating three portions a day.”

Vadasz isn’t just winning favour with scientists, either. The brand also has an excellent recent record in The Grocer’s awards, scooping the prestigious Food Brand of the Year at the Grocer Golds in 2024, and a string of New Product & Packaging Awards.

Vadasz’s Smacked Cucumbers line was named champion in the condiments category in the 2025 ceremony, held just six days before this interview, while its Kimchi Shot picked up the same accolade in juices & smoothies. Vadasz is grateful to receive the accolades.

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“By the look of some of the other people around the tables, it’s definitely better to win!” he laughs. “It’s extraordinary. I still have to pinch myself sometimes. Especially when I talk to my dad, who’s 87 now, and how proud he is. Because it all started with him and his love of food and our shared interest in pickles.”

These accolades point to Vadasz’s prowess in nailing NPD. The Smacked Cucumber and Kimchi Shot joined products such as Pineapple & Turmeric Sauerkraut and Kimchi Ketchup on the brand’s roster, while it also introduced a trio of live cultured, naturally fermented dips in September.

“I’m very lucky because I can be totally in mad creator mode, and that’s the best way: to just make whatever it is however you want, and then you can pick at it and make it factory ready,” Vadasz says. “The most important thing for me is that it tastes bloody amazing. If it doesn’t, it’s not a Vadasz product.”

Sometimes, of course, the nature of NPD has to be more prosaic. Vadasz kimchi will soon be available in smaller tubs of 275g, he reveals, while the brand is also looking into squatter packs to maximise shelf space.

This is all in service of “the most important thing” – getting the hero product, kimchi, “to as many people as we can”. After all, Vadasz admits, “our penetration is still tiny. We’ve still got a long way to go in terms of getting it out to every supermarket.”

Whole pickles and chilled focus

He’s pleased the brand launched into “over 1,000” Co-op stores last month. But, naturally, this NPD maestro also wants Vadasz to continue creating.

The brand is currently working on whole pickles, he reveals. However, it will resist the temptation to move into ambient. The chilled section is “our thing, and I live and die by the mantra that fresh always tastes better”, Vadasz stresses.

What’s more, the chilled section has gone through some much-needed change since Vadasz hit supermarkets in 2019. “There are lots more interesting, innovative things going on with dips like guacamole and houmous, but there’s probably too much of certain things,” he says.

So he still sees room for improvement. “Some of the retailers could possibly lose a couple of olive SKUs, or dips, or even some cheese. It’s great to have choice. It is. But we need more space for pickles and ferments. In fact, we need a whole section.

“You asked me what my dream is. It’s a branded Vadasz fridge, filled with all our products. Then, further down the line, I’d love to sell pickles to the Americans. Or kimchi to the Koreans,” he smiles. “Why not?”