Whitley Bay protein brand from Dragons' Den raises supermarket profile with Scaleup North East

Regional snack brand Oatein has sealed partnerships with major UK outlets.

The founders of Oatein, Andy Dixon and John-Paul Gardner have signed up with UK multiples following support from multi-million-pound programme Scaleup North East.

RTC North is delivering Scaleup North East in conjunction with the North East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and is part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

Scaleup partner, Craig Huntingdon supported the pair through their scaleup journey.

He said: “What brought Oatein to Scaleup North East was their desire to develop their UK presence. Despite a really healthy international footprint, they were struggling to gain market penetration at home.

“I am happy to say we’ve been able to help Oatein enter a notoriously difficult sector by developing sales opportunities with large national retailers and navigating the challenges of supplying supermarkets.”

The programme is aimed at supporting North East-based businesses able to demonstrate the potential needed to achieve high levels of growth.

Oatein joined the programme in November 2018 after featuring on Dragons’ Den and accepting an offer from Peter Jones.

Currently selling in 55 countries, the company’s UK market and high growth led them to join the Scaleup North East programme.

Oatein founder, Andy Dixon, added: “Craig played an instrumental role in getting our foot through the doors of some of the biggest UK supermarkets and healthy food stores, providing invaluable guidance and advice to both John Paul and myself.

“By getting onto the programme, we were able to tap into Craig’s knowledge and expertise, and what we found extremely helpful in particular was the fact that he is extremely approachable and always on the other side of the phone when we need him.”

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