The Gym Kitchen has spent 10 years building brand equity, growing from a ready meals launch into a business now spanning 10+ categories, chilled, frozen and ambient, all carrying the same protein forward mission. We caught up with Segun on category discipline, NPD speed and what's next.

Check out The Gym Kitchen: Website - LinkedIn - Instagram

The Gym Kitchen started in ready meals before it became a multi category business. What did the early traction there teach you about what shoppers actually wanted?

“We started in ready meals as there was a lack of healthier available to customers within that fixture. Whilst the market was evolving the category wasn't, we saw sport nutrition products being sold, meal prepping becoming the norm and a rise in quick serve restaurants being trusted to deliver quality health.

The Gym Kitchen launching within the ready meals category was the perfect test that our customer wanted more from meals. We delivered something that is genuinely satisfying to eat, filling people up whilst feeling good about being nutritionally sound.

It's the same lesson we've carried into every category since: solve an everyday eating occasion first, let the protein credentials be the reason people stick with it, not the reason they try it once.”

How do you know when it's the right time to move into a new category? Is there a specific signal, retailer demand, a gap you spot, shopper data?

“It's rarely one single signal, but a few things we work towards. We are in constant dialogue with our customers, regularly finding out what occasions they want to see us show up in and why.

We work closely with our retail partners to assess gap on shelf, where health hasn't been done well, or done at all. Then we look hard at whether we genuinely bring something better to that category. We're wary of chasing a category just because it's trending, the test is whether there is true differentiation and longevity. Of course we have to try and fail fast too.”

You're now competing in categories against brands that dedicate their entire business to just that one space. How have you managed to hold quality and credibility across so many categories at once, without spreading yourselves too thin?

“The honest answer is we don't think of ourselves as being in lots of categories, we think of ourselves as one proposition applied consistently, real food that's high in protein and genuinely tasty.

Every range goes through the same non-negotiables on taste, nutritional standards and quality before it earns a place on shelf. We keep the team and decision-making tight rather than building out separate category silos, which forces consistency rather than letting each range develop its own standards.

And, just as importantly, we say no a lot. We've walked away from categories that looked commercially attractive but didn't let us hold that same bar, because credibility is harder to win back than it is to build.”

Your NPD pipeline moves super fast. Walk us through what a product's journey looks like from first idea to hitting shelf, and how you decide what's worth pursuing versus leaving behind.

“Once we have worked out a market gap, it goes into kitchen development fast. Nutritional profiling runs alongside taste development, not after it.

A product has to hit our protein and quality bar and taste genuinely good, not one or the other. Cost and pack format get tested early too, since a great recipe that can't scale or price competitively never makes it further.

What survives goes to retailer listing conversations, then trial. What doesn't clear the taste, macro or cost bar gets killed early and without sentiment. We work quickly, but the speed only works because we're disciplined about what we know performs.”

Looking ahead, what does the next chapter for The Gym Kitchen look like, another category, international expansion, or doubling down on the categories you already own?

“The priority is depth before breadth. We've built real distribution and trust across chilled, frozen and ambient, and there's still headroom in the categories we already own, expanding listings and widening range within those fixtures. We also want to push further into occasions.”

Check out The Gym Kitchen: Website - LinkedIn - Instagram

Hit reply to this email if you want to be featured.