Faraz is also the Founder of Lean Kitchen Network, a food and beverage builder that creates and scales food IP across thousands of locations UK-wide. So it's super exciting to see him building a brand of his own, especially one launching straight into retail. We sat down with him to talk through it’s all been going with HIDE.

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When you first set out to build HIDE, what was the problem you felt wasn't being solved in the convenience food category, and why was now the right time to launch?

"The stat that really crystalised it for us: nutritious food costs around £9 per thousand calories versus £3 for ultra processed. We tell people to eat better, eat clean…but the affordability gap is real, and the access gap is real. That was the pain point we wanted to target. There were people doing great work in performance nutrition; high protein, low price, but taste wasn't a priority, and there were a lot of nasties in the food. And on the other end, healthy meant premium meal kits most people can't afford or can't be bothered with. The mainstream ready meal fixture hadn't moved in twenty years. We built HIDE to sit in neither camp. Credible nutrition standards, serious cooking with taste above all…at a price point that is accessible for millions of people."

A few months on from launching into Tesco, how has it been?

"It's been amazing to see the positive messages about how HIDE has landed, genuine love for the mission and the products. We sold over half a million meals in the first few weeks, which we're really proud of. The data is also showing a younger age skew, shoppers engaging with HIDE who weren't previously buying in this category. Recruiting new consumers into the fixture, not just competing for the same basket. That's really exciting. But some products are working better than others, and we need to face into that, stay on top of things and trends, and keep iterating. That's the job."

What's been the biggest lesson or surprise since launch?

"The category moves fast and we're only three months in! We developed the range based on what we knew, the competitive set, the consumer mood, the whitespace. By the time we launched, the comparison set looked radically different. Brands that didn't exist when we were in development were on shelf. Positioning we thought was distinctive had been partially claimed. Price architecture had shifted. The lesson isn't that we got it wrong. It's that you can't develop a range, lock it, and assume the world stays still. The brands that win in this category will be the ones that treat their range as a live document, listening constantly, iterating fast, and staying close enough to the market to move before the window closes. We're building that muscle now."

You've brought together Dr Rupy Aujla, Flight Studio, and Grace Beverley. What does having that mix of expertise enable you to do differently?

"Building credibility from scratch in food takes years. The right people accelerate that, but only if they're genuinely embedded, not just lending their name to it. The people around HIDE create real friction in the best sense: marketing instincts tested against scientific guardrails, flavour ambitions challenged by nutritional standards. That tension produces better decisions than any one of us would make alone. We have an incredible group of strategic advisors engaged in helping us make HIDE better each day."

Looking ahead, where do you see the biggest opportunity for HIDE?

"People are more interested in eating well than ever before, and we think there's a way of doing that without compromise. That's the opportunity. Flavour, nutrition, and convenience in the same product, at a price that works for everyone. From there the ambition is clear: more categories, more retailers, more countries. The proposition travels. Clean eating that doesn't feel like health food is a universal problem, not a British one. We're focused on proving the model here first and then taking it further. That's what gets us out of bed."

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