Recipe for Greatness
Recipe for Greatness
Disrupting the Cereal Industry: How Holie's are Building a Low-Sugar Revolution
Valentijn van Santvoort, co-founder of Holie's cereal, shares how they've disrupted the traditional breakfast category by creating genuinely healthy, sugar-free alternatives that challenge industry giants through transparent, fearless marketing.
• Background as a brand strategist for major agencies like Nike and IKEA before getting tired of selling average products with cool stories
• Co-founded Wunderbrief, a digital nomad platform, before joining Holies in 2019
• Uncovered how 80% of supermarket food is unhealthy, with cereal brands hiding sugar through misleading marketing
• Developed the "Challenger Brand Playbook" - directly comparing their products to competitors on packaging
• Implemented a differentiated marketing approach featuring founders in bathrobes to build authentic connection
• Built an in-house creative team rather than using external agencies to maintain creative control
• Grew to become #2 cereal brand in Netherlands and #4 in Belgium
• Recently expanded to UK market via Ocado with plans for wider retail distribution
• Focuses on creative content marketing through Instagram and TikTok while enabling product sampling
• Emphasizes the importance of focus and fearless creativity in building successful challenger brands
Check out Holies' Protein Crunch Granola on Ocado for a genuinely healthy, delicious breakfast option that proves you don't need added sugar for great taste.
3, 2, 1, 0, and liftoff Liftoff. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Recipe for Greatness podcast. I'm your host, jake Greenwood, and in this podcast, we interview the founders behind some of the best food and drink brands in the UK to tease out the knowledge and skills that they've used to grow their business. Today on the podcast, we are joined by the Valentine van Sandervoort co-founder of the Holies, the cereal brand Launching in 2018,.
Jay Greenwood:Valentine and his team started Holies with a vision to disrupt the traditional cereal market by offering a product that was not only good for the consumer, but also for the planet. Holies has rapidly grown to become a significant player in the Netherlands and Belgium and is now making strides in the UK, launching an Ocado. Known for his previous roles in strategy and marketing with leading agencies, valentine leveraged his experience to craft a brand that stands out in the crowded food sector, with his clear commitment to no added sugar and eco-friendly practices. Valentine, welcome to the podcast. It's such a pleasure to have you on and I wanted to start this conversation and understand about your first steps in your career and how you got into strategy and marketing.
Valentijn van Santvoort:Yeah, thanks a lot for having me um.
Valentijn van Santvoort:So basically, like during college, I always, uh, yeah, were interested like in in pop culture and in commercial brands and how they, yeah, are, are being part of a lot of people's lives every day, and how people people use brands in their lives to kind of shape their identity and uh so always had a at a yeah, interested for that and I I also really love like building commercial things and and doing entrepreneurial stuff. And that's how I kind of, yeah, landed in the advertising industry in amsterdam. Um, so after college I moved there and uh, yeah, really uh, jumped in headfirst and um started out as a copywriter, so on the creative side of things, but pretty fast moved on to brand planning or a strategy and done that for, I'd say, a little bit of over a decade, working with all kinds of brands, kinds of brands like ranging from IKEA to Nike, red Bull, klm and everything in between, and yeah, really enjoyed the industry, because you work with creative people at the core and that always delivers a lot of fun and interesting projects.
Valentijn van Santvoort:Uh, and uh, yeah, I really enjoyed that, that whole industry a lot and uh, that's why I think I stuck around for around 12 years before I, yeah, jumped into the entrepreneurial uh space I wanted to touch on that now because you co-founded a company called I hope I'm pronouncing it right but Wunderbrief, and I'm curious about what you sort of saw at that time, what insights or signals that made you think that what Wunderbrief was identifying as an opportunity, and then maybe what was the catalyst for you to take a leap and actually say like, leave that career you had and actually go start that entrepreneurial venture.
Valentijn van Santvoort:So maybe give a context of what Wunderbrief was and sort of how the sort of signal and how it all came around. Yeah, well, that's a fun question like wonder. Brief basically was really like a self-fulfilling prophecy. So, after working at big agencies like media monks and vice uh and havas limbs, I really wanted to have more freedom in my work. So I quit my job and I became a freelance brand strategist and I really enjoyed that lifestyle because you could really create your own projects and work with a lot of different people and work from anywhere. Basically that you wanted Around. That time it was, I'd say, like 2013 to 2016,.
Valentijn van Santvoort:The whole digital nomad movement was really on the rise. So nowadays it's pretty normal to work remote, but back then it was really the dream right to work from a hammock in bali or somewhere in south portugal and work anywhere you want, where you would travel the world. And me and a really good friend of mine, mark he was a colleague at one of the agencies I work with thought okay, what if, if we can work anywhere and use the world as our office, basically, and we started doing that ourselves and then we got a lot of requests from fellow creative freelancers in the space, in the Netherlands, but also across Europe, like, hey, we want that too. How do you guys do this? Right and um. So we felt the demand for a business proposition there and we set up this platform for digital nomads, basically, in which we facilitated the lifestyle, and that ranged from uh, remote, uh work job boards up to like a more community-driven tool that, if you would be working in in cape or Bali or Barcelona, that you would never be alone and you could meet fellow creative freelancers there.
Valentijn van Santvoort:And we did that for a couple of years and, yeah, really enjoyed the whole lifestyle freedom. But in the end also, yeah, that gets old traveling around the world and it's not really sustainable, although we did a lot of long stays. So, we, we really tried to reduce our travel kilometers, um, but I really do want, yeah, to build something new and uh, also, I missed friends and family in in amsterdam and like a home base, and that's how I kind of ventured into, uh, into holies around 2019, which, which was my second entrepreneurial venture in my career and so what sparked your interest in the food and drink world again sort of going back to kind of I guess um one, um wonder brief, where you sort of saw you identified something that you wanted and you basically created that for yourself and so on.
Valentijn van Santvoort:So how did holies come around? Was that a similar sort of approach? Or how did you look at that opportunity and how did you decide? Like, this is what I'm gonna spend my time on yeah, so holies really starts.
Valentijn van Santvoort:Uh started with the story of my co-founder, uh, merrick schouten, and he worked at the leading retailer in the netherlands and uh he did a traineeship there and was also category manager for several categories and he witnessed like firsthand that if you look at the supermarket uh landscape in the netherlands but also across europe, 80 of the food in the dutch supermarket is uh unhealthy and also in the categories that he worked in. So he also worked as category manager for the cereal category. He saw a lot of like legacy brands who were dominating that category for decades with products that weren't necessarily the most healthy, and he saw this dynamic of a lot of big brands pretending that they offer a healthy product but if you look a little bit closer you see that they're like stuffed with all kinds of hidden sugar, like honey, date syrup, fructose and such. And he saw a white spot there to really create a really healthy for you product without sugar added and without sweeteners.
Valentijn van Santvoort:And he really had an entrepreneurial dream and he co-founded the company together with Mark, who was a food technologist, around 2018. And they started creating the first product, the first granola, without added sugar or sweeteners. And we knew each other from college, and the real story is that we organized a bachelor party for a really good mutual friend around 2018. And that was the same time that holy was founded and um, yeah, I I think what they missed in the founding team was really the pillar of of brand and brand strategy, marketing, um and pr, and that's where I could really uh close the gap and um, and, and so we, in in december 2019, we decided to uh to join forces and embark on this adventure together.
Jay Greenwood:I'm curious because you've had amazing experience in sort of brand planning. You had an amazing career. What was it about the pitch or them that really resonated with you? You thought this is what I want to invest my time in. Was it something they said or did, or was it just the product resonated? What was it that captured your interest to invest your time in this?
Valentijn van Santvoort:yeah. So what really captured my attention was that it was a product with product intrinsics that were really adding value to people's lives, and in my advertising career, I've worked for a lot of brands that weren't necessarily taking the health of people or planet really serious, right. So so a lot of times in the advertising industry you work with a lot of talented and passionate people, but you spend a lot of time working for brands that are not adding real value to the world or to people's lives. So they're selling average products and they ask agencies to create cool stories to basically sell more stuff. To create cool stories to basically sell more stuff.
Valentijn van Santvoort:And that, yeah, that led to a sort of like cynicism in my life that I wanted to really like add value to people's lives and also use my talent and time as a force for good, right.
Valentijn van Santvoort:And then I saw this brand Holies, that actually created a product that was challenging the big food industry, and that was something that really resonated with me because I always had the dream of building my own challenger brand from scratch. So, on the one hand, doing all the stuff that would die in the boardroom and that would die in the brand management department of all these brands that I work with in the brand management department of all these brands that I work with, but at the other end also, uh, yeah, really really create a really like good product that actually adds values to people's lives and that, that, uh that combination, uh really, yeah, I was really intrigued by that opportunity. So, after some conversations uh with mer, pretty fast we decided, like shit, we should do this together and and and what if we would do that? Like, how far can we take this dream? And I think that was a really good decision looking back, but at that time it was a leap of faith.
Jay Greenwood:And Holies has had significant growth. In Netherlands we mentioned before we came on number two, so serial brand in Belgium number four, Going back to 2018 when it just launched. How did you start to see that growth across, particularly maybe the Netherlands? How did you start from just a product to growing it to where it is today?
Valentijn van Santvoort:Yeah.
Valentijn van Santvoort:So I think, as a starter, we really invested a lot of time in developing a good product, because I think marketing is interesting and it's necessary, but if the product doesn't sell itself purely based on being on shelf, with a good, differentiating packaging design and with a really relevant and differentiating proposition, then you're nowhere right.
Valentijn van Santvoort:So I think in the first year we didn't have a marketing budget at all, so we put a lot of time in creating the product and an outstanding packaging design, which was our most important marketing asset and still is, because thousands of people pass it every day when they pass it on shelf. We started with a really good product and when we saw traction, then we started using marketing tools, but it was a zero-based marketing budget. So we really rolled out the classic Challenger brand playbook, and what does that mean? Is that we really picked an enemy and that we really basically an enemy and that we really, um, yeah, basically created all sorts of marketing which we certainly knew the big legacy brands would never do, uh, because they would be scared to do it or it would be legally challenging to do it. Um, so that combination of a solid product with, with differentiating challenger marketing was yeah, was, I think the reason for the initial traction that we got in the Netherlands.
Jay Greenwood:And can you give us an example of that controversial marketing you're talking about that? Maybe the bigger legacy brands wouldn't be able to touch?
Valentijn van Santvoort:Yeah. So one of the examples is that from day one, we really challenged the competition on the pack. So when you look at the backside of our packaging, you see an us versus them and we compare basically the product that you have in your hand with the average of the category. And what do we compare? We compare the three most important food macros for us, which are protein, fiber, but the most important one, sugar, and by being fully transparent about how much sugar, protein and fiber is in the product, but also the average of the category, we really put the power back to the consumer to make an objective decision when it comes to buying a certain product of Holies.
Valentijn van Santvoort:That is one thing we did on-pack, but off-pack. When you look at social media, which is, for us, really the heartbeat of our marketing, we also challenged from day one. So we weren't afraid to compare, like a chocolate flavor with a chocolate of a competitor with a chocolate flavor that we have, and really call them out for their misleading marketing claims and really call them out for their sneaky ways of adding sugar. And that is something that is still up to this day resonating really well with the community and with the end user, that we're not afraid to speak the truth, but always in a playful way.
Jay Greenwood:Yeah, it's crazy. So until you look at the back of half these products, you realize just how misleading some of their claims are. It's actually insane, that's it. Yeah, and I want to talk about actually now a contrast between, sort of um, your other company wonder brief, which is more of a digital product, so they're now selling a physical product. Uh, what's the sort of being the challenges compared, uh, with both of those, one being sort of just purely digital, now one actually having a physical, manufactured product. So that's changed, sort of how you approach things, or the principle is still the same so, yeah, it's an interesting question.
Valentijn van Santvoort:I think what we did with wonder brief was we were basically building a tech platform there. Uh, so really building a platform that is facilitating a certain digital nomad lifestyle and obviously holies is a completely different proposition. We're in consumer branding, like packaged goods is a physical product that is in in people's hands, in people's kitchens, uh, on the breakfast table in the morning and, um, I think the similarities there and also learnings that I took from building wonder brief is that in the end, it all comes down to to, to, to storytelling and doing that in a really authentic and transparent way. Um, uh, and really playing the cards, that that that you have versus the competitors, right, and uh, well, like, what does that mean for us? Like, looking at Holies nowadays is is that we are building a really transparent product which is really community driven, uh, and we really show also the story behind holy.
Valentijn van Santvoort:So if you look at our social media feed or at our bigger brand campaigns, they always feature me and merrick, uh, in robes. That's kind of our visual device. We dress up in morning lacking gowns and we get out there and challenge the competition and um, it's, it's, we hope at least and we also get that back from our fans is that it's a really authentic way of telling the story and really taking people along the adventure that we're on of challenging the food industry for the better, and that is those like dynamics and that kind of storytelling and brand marketing is definitely stuff that I also learned from my previous adventure at wonder. Brief is that people, people like to be part of an adventure and they like to be part of a story. Um, and, and, and, and, and. That is something that, uh, yeah, I really took from that that entrepreneurial ride, uh, into this one.
Jay Greenwood:Um, yeah, I'd say yeah and you've worked for some massive companies, some great companies. You've had a lot of experiences or brand planning, storytelling. What are some of the big mistakes maybe you see, maybe startups doing or maybe even bigger brands doing when it comes to sort of like brand element of getting that story across, it's the only thing that really stands out to you is, you see, key mistakes people making yeah, so what?
Valentijn van Santvoort:I think one thing is really important one and and it's a mistake that we also still make, sometimes it's human is that a lot of brands I'd say the majority of the brands they are stuck in a competitive mindset so they compare themselves continuously to the competitor, like if a competitor airline, or competitive automotive or competitive alt milk drink has a new feature, they want that too.
Valentijn van Santvoort:Or if they do a certain brand campaign with a certain influencer or in a certain style, they try to copy it and innovate. And then you, you basically continuously comparing yourself to other brands, and that is not a good spot to be in. And um, I'd say you should always be in the creative mindset where you never compare yourself to other brands or to other people, but really focus on your own game and utilize your own creativity and your own differentiating DNA to really bring that story across and to do it in a style that nobody can copy and that will allow you to really take the brand where no one else can follow. And that is still a lesson that we apply every day to Holi is to stick in that creative mindset, focus on ourselves and never compare yourself to others and how do you do that?
Jay Greenwood:is that by just being so ingrained with sort of the core principles of the formation of the brand? Is that sort of how you basically stay away from looking at other people, just understand so deeply what your company's doing, or is it something else to basically stay in that sort of natural, creative, unique sort of strategy?
Valentijn van Santvoort:Yeah, I think for us, it really comes down to having creativity at the core of the business. So we never work with external advertising agencies and we do everything in-house. So we're basically building an in-house agency floor, our creative department. So we're basically building an in-house agency floor, our creative department, which is filled with makers and thinkers, right? So we have videographers, editors, we have our own in-house studio where we shoot all the content for social media photography and video, and when it comes to bigger brand campaigns, we also ideate and produce them all in-house.
Valentijn van Santvoort:And when you have that creativity at the core of your business, then it becomes a daily thing, right, that when people walk in, even from the finance department or a sales department, they really experience that creativity that's going through the company every day as well and that kind of fuels into this creative lens, that that that you can use to use, uh, to look at your own business, and and, and, and yeah, to really do do stuff that makes us smile and we think, if it, if we think it's cool or funny, then we, we, we hope that other people think it's cool and funny and and and yes, there will be people that, that, that will look at our brand or experience our brand packaging or, or, or mark digital content marketing, and they will experience.
Valentijn van Santvoort:This is not for me, and and and and I don't like it, and that's okay, you know, um, but luckily, there are a lot of people, uh, that do like what we're doing, um, and, and yeah, we try to keep the focus on ourselves, um, but yes, we're human and when a competitor comes with a new product proposition or a really cool campaign, obviously we also think like, hey, shit, we should have thought of that, or uh, let's take inspiration from that, and uh, but yeah, it's a struggle, right, but it's it's a really important daily reminder for us.
Jay Greenwood:And are there any channels that you find more effective than others? I guess is it sort of more social, Is it more sort of Google-based what's the most for you guys, the most effective sort of strategy that you've had reaching people?
Valentijn van Santvoort:Yeah, I'd say well, I'll say like, content marketing is really the heartbeat of everything we do and it's predominantly on Instagram and TikTok. We're really building, yeah, like an engaged community for content that basically entertains right agency as well, or a publisher media, publish publishing agency. And I think you should look at at the lens of marketing really. Yeah, look at it as as being an entertainment company where it's the battle for attention and you're not competing with other serial brands, but you're competing with, yeah, like uh, viral clips of of of cats doing weird things or, or last night's soccer match, uh, and and, and that's the battle for attention we're in. So you should be able to put a smile on people's face or to really add some value to their lives through content marketing, and that is a really important channel for us.
Valentijn van Santvoort:But another one is like brand in hand. So we really want people to experience the product as well. So we always look for experiential marketing in the offline, real world as well, through either collaborations with gyms or with universities, and really be there, where our target audience is and our end consumer is, and let them experience the product, because we've learned that if people taste us and then go back to their old sugar-coated cereal product. They really experience that. They have been eating cookies basically for breakfast, so the proof is really in the taste. So for us, it's a combination of primarily digital marketing combined with offline brand experience in terms of experience of the product. We're a food company, so people should taste it and that's when we can win their hearts.
Jay Greenwood:And last year you launched in the UK. What was the logic behind expanding to the UK? Because you've got Europe, you've got Netherlands, belgium doing really well. Why did you decide that the UK would be of the next place you guys to come to?
Valentijn van Santvoort:yeah, so it's. It's a good question, like. For us, the uk was a really logical choice because the uk is a cereal culture, right? Uh, you grew up with porridge, with oatmeal, um, and it's also, um, obviously, a market which is, uh, fully in english. So from day one, uh, we've built holies as a, yeah, as a global brand, uh, or brand communication is in english, um.
Valentijn van Santvoort:But the uk was a good like business decision as well, because we see that in the uk market there are the same dynamics as the benelux, and what do I mean by that? If you look at the uk uk cereal market and the in-between market snack market, we see that this category is being dominated by legacy brands that have been ruling for decades, and they are selling products that pretend to be healthy but they're actually not. And at the same time, I think 65% of Brits are overweight and diabetes type 2 is a big problem in the UK as well, and one of the solutions to that problem is making sure that the supermarkets, together with the brands, create a really healthy offering on shelves. And when you look at those categories of breakfast cereal and in between, that is not the reality at this stage. So we really saw the white spot of coming to the category and disrupt it for the better with a really low sugar alternative and a really like cheeky challenger brand, like Tony Cioccoloni's did in the category as well.
Jay Greenwood:Really disrupted for the better with a healthy product in our case, but a really cheeky challenger brand that can disrupt the status quo over there, and do you find there's any difference in the approach to the messaging you need to do in the UK versus Europe, or is it still the same?
Valentijn van Santvoort:I'd say it's the same. I think the zero added sugar proposition is something that resonates really well in the Benelux and also we started out at Ocado last summer and the initial traction we have there is really good. We're already outperforming legacy brands but also some challenger brands, which is for us really a proof of concept and also really like a good test that the demand is there and that people are open to a low sugar alternative in the UK market as well, and can you talk me through how a card came along, because it's a huge uk online retailer.
Jay Greenwood:How did that conversation start? Was it easy for a overseas brand in europe to sort of approach them and talk about? Were there any hurdles you had to come across to convince them that you guys would do as well over here as you did in europe?
Valentijn van Santvoort:Well, I'd say that Ocado and our contact there they were really open and welcoming from day one.
Valentijn van Santvoort:I think Ocado is also a challenger in the market, obviously challenging offline traditional retail, and they have the right DNA, I think, to also give a platform to challenger brands entering the market. So our experience has been really good with them so far and, um, I think for us it was relatively, uh yeah, a smooth ride and a good experience to to get on their digital shelf because we already had a lot of proof of concept from the battle locks. So, um, like you said, we're the number two brand in the Netherlands, we're the number four and moving into the top three position in the Belgian market. So there was a lot of traction and credibility that we could leverage in these conversations as well, which also gave Ocado a lot of trust to give us a shot, and I think they're really happy now that they did, because we're building a really nice track record there and adding a lot of extra value to the category, I'd say, in the last six months. So that's really cool.
Jay Greenwood:And was Ocado just an easier way to test the UK market? Because, being an overseas brand, you have to have operations. How are you managing having set point of sales in the UK and also having operations in Europe? How do you guys manage that and how are you tackling that at the moment?
Valentijn van Santvoort:Yeah, so Ocado was a really conscious decision because, like you say, it's an online-only retailer, and for us it was a really good starting point because we really want to learn from the UK customers what do they prefer, what do they like.
Valentijn van Santvoort:And then it also helps that you work together with an online retailer that can share a lot of data and that wants to work together with you to really make sure that you create a portfolio of SKUs that is really adding extra value to the category there and that is also really going to help us to create the perfect pitch for the UK retail landscape. And that is also what we've been doing for the last couple of months is really learning and trial and error, and that has been really helpful. So, yeah, that was a really solid first step for us to also set up the whole, like you say, supply chain in the UK, and now everything is ready and it's rolling and we're ready to scale into the retail landscape in the UK from there on. So that's the next step for us is really moving from Ocado beyond that retailer, into the full retail world over there, from the big retailers to the independent channels as well.
Jay Greenwood:So that's next up for us and looking back on sort of the journey of Holies, if you had to sort of take a moment and reflect on things you've done well or things you would change, is there anything that stands out that you had maybe wish you'd done more of, or maybe something you hadn't done in sort of that growth journey sort of maybe get you somewhere quicker, is there anything that stands out at all?
Valentijn van Santvoort:Well, I think there's no shortcut to success.
Valentijn van Santvoort:Uh, I think you we're now in it for, let's say, seven years and I think you really need those first couple of years to to fail, to test, to learn to do stuff, to make mistakes, uh.
Valentijn van Santvoort:But there comes a point that you really have to focus and and that would be like a lesson looking back that that you really need to do one thing well, at the point that you feel that you have traction with a certain proposition, uh, in terms of product and and and brand proposition.
Valentijn van Santvoort:Um, so, yeah, that that will be a lesson like, yes, do a lot of different things, but also, at one point, stick to one uh strategy and really do one thing well, um, and and the second thing is is kind of leaning back into what we've discussed earlier, which is a really important one for us as well is that maybe in the beginning, you, you, you care a lot and you think a lot about what other people will think or other brands, or maybe also the people around you is that you have a certain sense of fear when getting out there and representing your brand and doing like creative marketing and, looking back, maybe we could have started giving less about what other people think a little bit earlier on in the process, because I think the last couple of years we are truly being fearless in terms of brand marketing and storytelling and the way that we build our business and brand, and in the early days you're starting out and you're still testing the waters and always a little bit scared of what others will say, and I think we're now in the mindset and position that we truly don't give a shit anymore and we really do creative stuff that we really like and think is cool and funny.
Valentijn van Santvoort:And that is something that we've really grown into. And, looking back, maybe we could have started doing that a little bit earlier and, yeah, really steer away from safe harbor and getting out of your comfort zone and doing that creative stuff that other people will look at and will think, hey, that's a ballsy or yeah.
Jay Greenwood:I think that is a lesson. And one final question for you what is your go-to holies product? What is the one for you that you're loving right now? The one do you think people should go?
Valentijn van Santvoort:go and try yeah, I think the the granola protein crunch is is is my all-time favorite. Uh, it's a really delicious crunchy product, but also high in protein, high in fiber and that's my go-to, so you should check it out.
Jay Greenwood:Amazing. Well, I want to thank you so much for coming on the podcast to share the story and also, it's just such a great thing because, like I say, it's not until you read the back of these products you realize how much rubbish is in some of these stuff. So for a company to come along and actually have a great tasting product that's doing all the right stuff, it is amazing. So, uh, just yeah, hats off for uh sort of taking that challenge on and doing such a great job. So such a pleasure to have you on and share that story thanks a lot.
Speaker 3:I really enjoyed it as always, guys, thank you so much for listening, really appreciate the support and if you guys like it and you're enjoying what you're listening to, please like and subscribe and write a review. We really appreciate it. Again, we'll be back doing this weekly and, yeah, if you want to know more about starting a food business, head to wwwjgreenwoodcom. But, guys, as always, thank you and be great.