Genius Foods has unveiled a clean-label range of gluten-free breads following three years’ development.
The Naturally Genius range will debut next month with a quartet of sliced loaves, priced at £3.25 – Five Seeds, White, Brown and Toastie – plus a duo of Artisan Bloomers, at £3.75 – Tiger and Ancient Grains & Seeds.
Genius teamed up with reality TV star, bestselling cookbook author and diagnosed coeliac Megan McKenna to develop the range, which is free from artificial preservatives, flavourings and emulsifiers.
It will hit Sainsbury’s on 1 September, followed by Morrisons, Tesco, Waitrose and Ocado in the following weeks.
For one year, Genius will donate 5p to Coeliac UK for every pack sold of the two artisanal bloomers: Tiger Bloomer and Ancient Grains & Seeds Bloomer.
The range is baked at Genius’ gluten-free bakery in Bathgate, West Lothian, where £1m has been invested to fund the installation of a “state-of-the-art” Vemag dough depository machine and advanced metal detection technology, as well as “enhancements” to its bread line.
”What we’ve developed is essentially a proprietary step in our process, which enables us to take the nasties out and vastly reduce our ingredient deck,” Genius CEO Stephen Hann told The Grocer.
“The typical gluten-free bread has up to 30 ingredients – average, I think, is 24. They contain added emulsifiers and artificial additives… But we know it’s a tension point for consumers, because we’ve asked them.”
Hann added that some competitor products on the market contain so many artificial ingredients that they smell “like swimming pools”.
“What we’ve developed is a range of bread where one of our products has got 15 ingredients, so versus a lot of the breads in the market, it’s anything from 25% to 50% fewer ingredients, and the ingredients that have typically been less pleasant have been replaced with pretty natural alternatives.
“Ultimately, what we’re trying to do is create a new benchmark in a category,” added Hann.
Gluten-free growth
According to recently filed accounts, Genius Foods remained in the red in 2024 but was making “clear progress” toward it being “a more resilient, margin-led business”.
A continued withdrawal from European markets to allow greater focus on the UK led to a 19.3% fall in revenues to £23.9m in the 12 months to 31 December 2024.
Hann has insisted the Naturally Genius rollout will buoy the company’s sales.
“Responses to this have been phenomenal, and we are getting unbelievable support across the trade,” he said.
What’s more, the launches will be backed by a “multimillion-pound” campaign, “one of the biggest marketing plans I would imagine the free-from category has seen for a long time”, Hann added.
You can now secure your tickets to the New Product & Packaging Awards 2025!
Join us on 7 November at Wembley Stadium to celebrate the latest and greatest product and packaging innovations.
See this year’s finalists and book your seat here.
No comments yet