Little Moons has put the troubles of its 2024 leadership change and factory closure behind it as it rebounded to profitability last year.
Fresh accounts for the frozen mochi maker showed it jumped to a £940k operating profit last year, after the closure of a new factory in Kettering had pushed the company to a £50.8m loss in 2024.
Underlying profits were even healthier, with EBITDA climbing to £3.2m from a loss of £5.7m in the prior year, according to Companies House filings, though interest payments pushed the company to a £4.4m pre-tax loss. Gross margin improved 3.8 percentage points to 49.5%.
“Everyone has been delighted with the turnaround and it shows the foundations of the business were strong – there were just operational challenges for which we needed to correct course,” CEO Joanna Allen, who joined in early 2024 to lead a turnaround at the company, told The Grocer.
On arrival Allen made the “difficult decision” to close the newly opened 50,000 sqft Kettering factory at a cost of 200 jobs and a £31m impairment charge on its accounts.
The company, she explained, already had “plenty of capacity” at existing sites in London, where the company’s staff had built up considerable experience in making its “very artisanal” products.
“It wasn’t an easy decision, but when you see the profitability and margin improvement in 2025 it’s testament to that [existing manufacturing] team,” she said.
The brand also posted 6% sales growth in the year to 2 January 2026, with revenue of £56.6m.
“It’s a really positive set of numbers because it isn’t just a profit turnaround, but revenue growth as well,” said Allen, adding a “big shout out” to her team.
“We’re seeing the business become more cash generative. The position we’re now in is strong and we have sufficient cash generation to cover interest on our long-term loan facility. From a financial foundation and stability perspective, the business is in much better shape.”
A growing category
While the UK’s growth has been “more subdued” thanks to the entrance of major players like Magnum into the frozen snacking category, Little Moons has won growth abroad as it steps up sales into markets like Germany and Australia.
“The UK market is more mature in frozen snacking and we’re definitely seeing more competitors come into that space,” Allen said. She explained that in 2025 and the first half of 2026 the company had seen distribution constrained or reduced, with a number of tail SKUs coming out of the portfolio.
“That’s not surprising. Retailers have seen the potential in frozen snacking and they have looked at range rationalisation,” she said.
Little Moons has turned to innovation to keep driving penetration into the growing category, with the UK launch of its smaller Mini Moons products in early 2026.
“It’s bringing a huge amount of incremental shoppers into ice cream. So 40% of the sales on Mini Moons have come from people who didn’t shop in the ice cream category – and it’s a younger audience,” she said.
Allen added that the growing competition in frozen snacking was an encouraging sign of the category’s growth.
“Frozen snacking is addressing headwinds in the wider ice cream category,” she said.
“Snacking is less seasonal: retailers like that because they don’t want an aisle that only gets decent footfall in the summer. It’s definitely bringing in a younger shopper base, which is super important for the future of the category. And it’s less tied to a traditional meal. We’re grazing more.
“So [competition] may have impacted us in the short term in the UK, but I think ultimately it will be a good thing for us.”
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