UK manufacturers including Exploded Sweets and The Sleep People are turning to Temu to grow sales, cope with rising input costs and maintain affordable prices for customers.
UK manufacturers are turning to new sales channels such as Temu to drive additional demand as the cost of materials and fuels continues to rise. Input prices rose 6.1% in the year to August 2026, compared with a 3.7% increase in producer output prices, according to the latest Office for National Statistics figures.
Nottingham-based Exploded Sweets, a freeze-dried confectionery manufacturer founded in 2022 and parent brand of You Jelly? is feeling the impact directly. The business says packaging and fulfilment are currently among its biggest cost pressures, with the price of some packaging items rising by around 75% and others by an average of 18%.
“As a small manufacturer, increases like that have a real impact because they’re multiplied across every product and order we produce,” said Rhys Sandford, Head of Marketing at Exploded Sweets.
The company has sold through its own website and other ecommerce platforms, but found that reaching customers at scale could require significant advertising spend. It joined Temu in February 2025 and received more than 1,000 orders in its first few weeks. Exploded Sweets now has around 300 products available on the platform and has recorded more than 150,000 sales.
For the manufacturer, increasing sales volumes is also helping it achieve greater efficiencies as it scales and has become part of its approach to managing rising costs.
“Temu has given us another route to market and helped us reach customers we may not have reached through our own channels without significant additional advertising spend,” Rhys said.
“That extra volume is particularly valuable for a manufacturer like us because increasing production volumes helps us use our staff, machinery and purchasing power more efficiently, which in turn helps us remain competitive despite rising costs.”
The company has also been reluctant to pass rising costs directly on to customers.
We’ve tried to absorb as much of the increase as possible rather than simply passing every additional cost on to customers. We’re very conscious that consumers are facing their own cost pressures, so keeping our products affordable is important to us.
Rhys Sandford, Head of Marketing at Exploded Sweets
Yorkshire-based The Sleep People provides a larger-scale example of a manufacturer using an additional sales channel to reach new customers as input costs rise.
The mattress manufacturer, founded in 2014, produces more than 1,400 mattresses a day and has annual turnover of more than £20 million. The business says rising prices for raw materials are adding to the cost of manufacturing its mattresses.
“Raw materials, particularly foam and springs, are a big pressure for us. As an example, in May we were advised of a further 25% increase by one of our foam suppliers,” said Sarah Norbury, Operation and Performance Director at The Sleep People.
After launching on Temu earlier this year, The Sleep People said sales increased by 27% within three weeks. Following the increase, the company has added staff in Yorkshire and begun developing a new training and jobs programme for armed forces veterans.
The additional orders have helped the business spread its manufacturing costs across more mattresses, while sales from Temu and its new customer base have helped it keep prices steady for longer.
“Alongside reviewing prices, we work on supplier negotiations, reducing waste and improving production to help manage the extra costs,” Sarah said.
The company has ultimately had to increase prices on selected products as raw material costs have risen, but says it has sought to limit the extent to which those increases are passed on to customers.
Against a backdrop of rising input prices, finding additional demand is one way for manufacturers to respond without relying solely on price increases. For Exploded Sweets, increasing sales volumes is part of its efforts to control costs and maintain affordable prices.
“It means we’re constantly reviewing packaging, production efficiency and margins behind the scenes so that increasing our retail prices is a last resort rather than the first response. As we grow, the aim is to use that additional scale to become more efficient and continue offering customers strong value.” Rhys said.
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