Gluten-free Italian food specialist White Rabbit has invested £500k on a ‘unique’ state-of-the-art pizza oven at its Oxford site alongside recipe improvements and a brand refresh.
The supplier, which secured a £1.1m investment from Guinness Asset Management in 2022 to fund market expansion, said its latest upgrade was set to bring the “holy grail of uncompromising taste to the gluten free category”.
The new oven has been specifically designed for optimum cooking of gluten-free sourdough, now crafted with a flour blend that includes gut-healthy ancient grains, the firm said. New recipes are to be rolled out this month for chilled lines of pizza, focaccia, and flatbreads, as well as frozen pizzettas and dough balls. Other recipe updates have been made across its entire range including gnocchi, ravioli, and tiramisu.
In addition, the White Rabbit Chilled Signature 24-hour Proved Sourdough Pizza will increase in size from 9 to 10 inches, which it noted would deliver better value for money for consumers. The rebranding, meanwhile, was said to have been developed to dial up White Rabbit’s “handcrafted foodie credentials” and its position as a Top 10 pizza brand.
Its products are currently stocked by Sainsbury’s, Ocado, Waitrose, Morrisons, Co-Op, Wholefoods, Amazon Fresh, and Booths, and are also served at The White Rabbit pub in Oxford where co-founders Nick Croft-Simon and Matteo Ferrari first met before launching the brand in 2015.
White Rabbit said it was looking to deliver a truly authentic taste experience to an estimated seven million gluten-free consumers in the UK (Mintel 2023 data). It claimed to be growing six times faster that the total gluten free market with 70% of shoppers staying loyal to the brand (Retailer X, Gluten-Free Pizza Cross Shop, 52 w/e 16 Nov 24).
“From the beginning, we have been on a journey to remove the gap in taste and quality between gluten free food and its best-in-class main fixture equivalents,” commented co-founder and CEO Croft-Simon. “We have put over 10 years of knowledge and experience as a dedicated gluten free brand into making this happen, and not only have we now reached the promised land with this latest investment into our technology, but we’ve done so at an incredibly exciting time for the category”.
Croft-Simon asserted that gluten free was driving growth in Free From, despite retail fixtures largely focussing on the 4% of consumers that are both gluten free and plant-based. “We’re seeing the opportunity emerge for purely gluten-free solutions, growing at 4.8% year-on-year versus the declines of plant-based segments at 2.6%,” he added, citing Nielsen Grocery Mults data for 52w to 21 September 2024.
“We have ranges spanning meat, dairy and plant-based dietary requirements, which is the real recipe for gluten free growth, and we have the knowledge and capability to support our retail partners in taking the category to the next level.”
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