A UK protein shake maker has announced it has reached the £50m+ turnover milestone as it continues on its 11-year positive growth trajectory.
Runcorn-based Protein Works operating under Class Delta Ltd has now seen double-digit revenue growth for a fifth consecutive year.
Despite various macroeconomic pressures facing UK businesses, Protein Works has reported an +18% increase in revenue, reaching £50.7m for the fiscal year ending August 2024. Profit before tax has grown a stunning 36% to £8.8m. Revenue growth from its domestic UK market has been strong at +21% with brands’ premium Protein Shakes and Meal Replacement Shakes driving category growth. Thanks to its end-to-end ownership of Operations & Supply Chain, the business also continued to shrug off the challenges of cross-border trading to deliver consecutive annual revenue increases in its strategic EU markets, which landed an aggregated YoY revenue growth of +42%.
Protein Works’ in-house teams have been particularly effective at growing the “PW” consumer base, with new customers up 17% on the previous fiscal year. Consumers are citing their recognition of the brands’ renowned service, premium quality and market-leading flavours, coupled with affordable pricing as reasons for buying. Something the business calls “extreme value for money”. These strategic pillars are also appealing to a larger ‘addressable market’, with the brand citing growth in a more discerning customer base with higher disposal income outstripping the sector’s traditional younger, performance-focused audiences***.
Talking about the results, CEO of Protein Works, Laura Keir said “After over a decade of back-to-back growth, the team creates pressure for itself to perform and we work relentlessly to achieve our goals. So chalking up another year of double-digit growth is great. We now have a 5-year CAGR of 24% which is a testament to the resilience of our strategy. Of course, hitting the +£50m milestone, and amassing a growing base of 2 million customers, makes things even sweeter as we close the year. We have an undisputable record of delivering for our customers and investors and we will continue to be hyper-focused on gearing up for growth across our teams.”
As Protein Works continues to build momentum in 2025, the company will move into its £10m new facility dubbed “PW Campus” in Speke, Liverpool City Region. This self-funded investment will bring all the company’s vertically integrated functions of food manufacturing, supply chain, logistics, marketing, technology and data, back under one roof, creating a solid platform for future growth and scale. The business is about to achieve the epic milestone of selling 400m shakes worldwide and is locked in on achieving revenues of £100m in the next few years.
CSCO Stuart Baber said, “2024 was an exciting year for Protein Works as we cemented our place as one of the most exciting brands in the functional foods space. But we rarely look back. We’re wired for growth. As we push into 2025, and the launch of our new PW Campus we’ll look to become one of the most exciting brands to work for too”
David Bell of YFM, the PE backers of Protein Works for the last 5.5 years said “We’re exceptionally proud of the C-Suite Team at Protein Works who have led their teams through some significant macro challenges and subsequently delivered significant business milestones over our journey with them. +£50m is of course a nice milestone, though capping off a 5th year of double-digit growth is exceptional.”
For more information about Protein Works and its products, please visit www.theproteinworks.com
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