We've been following the Romanian brand, DOZZ since last year and have been really excited to watch them develop. As a new entrant to the UK they're doing something different, not just in their product offering but in the innovation behind the packaging too. With Starbucks and Ocado already on board, they're proving there's real appetite for canned soup.

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DOZZ is being described as the UK's first canned chilled soup. How do you explain the product to someone who's never heard of it, and what's the reaction usually like?

“That's the challenge, and the opportunity. When people first hear "cold soup in a can," there's usually a moment of confusion. Is it a food or a beverage? Do you eat it or drink it? The reactions we've seen at trade shows are priceless. The scepticism quickly disappears once people try it. DOZZ is a smooth, ready-to-drink chilled soup made from vegetables, designed for convenience and nutrition. The easiest way to explain it is as a savoury vegetable smoothie rather than a traditional hot soup. Most people are familiar with fruit smoothies, so that comparison helps them immediately understand the format. Once they taste it, the feedback is overwhelmingly positive, and many people quickly see where it fits into their busy lifestyle.”

Cold soup in Starbucks is not what consumers might expect. When a brand like that backs your product, what does it change about how you think about where DOZZ belongs?

“Having DOZZ stocked in Starbucks is a huge validation, not just for our brand but for the category itself. Starbucks understands changing consumer habits better than most, so their decision reinforced our belief that there is a growing demand for convenient, nutritious food that fits into busy lifestyles. It also changed how we think about where DOZZ belongs. Traditionally, soup sits in the lunch or dinner aisle, but Starbucks showed us that consumers are increasingly looking for healthy, grab-and-go options throughout the day. DOZZ can be a breakfast, lunch, snack, or post-workout option depending on the consumer and the occasion. More than anything, it confirmed that we're not competing with traditional soups. We're creating a new space between food and beverage, offering the convenience of a drink with the nutrition and satisfaction of a meal.”

The packaging is a big part of the DOZZ story, a recyclable aluminium can with a four to eight month chilled shelf life. How much of the innovation was the product itself versus figuring out how to put it in that format?

“It took us two years to create DOZZ because we weren't willing to compromise on our mission: making genuinely great-tasting, healthy food convenient. The convenience drives the first sale, but the quality drives repeat purchase, and we knew we had to get both right. One of the biggest barriers to fresh, healthy food is shelf life. Retailers face challenges with waste, forecasting, and supply chain complexity, which is why convenience often comes at the expense of quality. We wanted to prove there was another way. By achieving a four to nine month chilled shelf life, we've effectively bulldozed one of the biggest obstacles standing between consumers and real food. What makes DOZZ different is that our Head of Product Development is a chef, not a food scientist. Every recipe was developed in what is essentially a scaled-up kitchen, with taste leading every decision. The innovation wasn't just the soup or the can, it was bringing them together without compromise.”

Most convenient food has had to compromise somewhere, whether on ingredients, taste, or format. How did you think about solving all three at once with DOZZ?

“The one question that kept our founder and inventor awake at night was: why? Why does convenient food have to compromise? Why does healthy food have to be inconvenient? Why does great-tasting food have to come with a short shelf life? He didn't like the answers, so he spent two years proving it could be done differently. From day one, our goal was to prove that consumers shouldn't have to choose. We wanted to create something made from real food ingredients, developed by a chef, that tasted great and was genuinely convenient. That's probably why we're a little different. Our Head of Product Development is a chef, not a food scientist. DOZZ wasn't born in a laboratory, it was created in kitchens. Every ingredient we use is available in a supermarket, and most of the equipment we use can be found in a kitchen at home. Ours is just a little bigger. As for exactly how we solved all three at once... well, if we told you, we'd probably have to kill you. What we can say is that it took two years of development, countless trials, and a refusal to compromise on our standards.”

You've just landed on Ocado. What does that listing mean for DOZZ in the UK right now, and what does it unlock going forward?

“Landing on Ocado taught us an important lesson: there's often a difference between what you think your biggest opportunity is and what the market sees. To be honest, Ocado wasn't initially at the top of our priority list. As a brand built around convenience and grab-and-go consumption, we naturally focused on retailers with strong lunchtime and food-to-go missions. But the Ocado buyer saw something we hadn't fully appreciated. They had a challenge: how do you offset the seasonal drop in soup sales during the summer months? That's where DOZZ came in. Because we're served chilled and consumed cold, we don't follow the traditional soup category rules. We give consumers a way to enjoy the nutrition and convenience of soup all year round. For us, the listing is validation that DOZZ isn't just a product innovation, it's a category innovation. Sometimes retailers see opportunities before brands do, and this was one of those moments.”

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