Superfoods with Barney Mauleverer, co-founder of I Am Super

Could you quickly describe to us what the I Am Super brand represents?

Owned and developed by Food & Drink specialists Fresh Marketing (owners of FUEL10K breakfast brand), I Am Super Foods launched in 2015 to challenge the status quo in the ambient tinned category with a fully-loaded, naturally high in protein soup range called I Am Souper.

Aimed at a younger, more modern, active consumer, I Am Super Grains is the latest range extension under this brand.

The high profile media focus on reducing excessive sugar and their demand for healthier products is pushing younger consumers to be more discerning when looking for fast and nutritious meal time solutions – one thing they are looking for, more and more, is protein with fewer calories, less sugar and less fat. I Am Super Foods speaks to people with active lifestyles as individuals by providing them with easy, nutritious choices that help them to stay fuller for longer.

I Am Super Grains is bang on trend – high in protein, low in fat and bursting with wholesomeness. It’s also free from artificial additives and uber convenient, arriving in handy pouches that are easy to open and can be eaten hot or cold.

The I Am Super brand is primarily targeted towards a young, active, health-conscious market

Tell us about the major supermarket deals you have recently secured. How did you convince them that the I Am Super brand was an attractive investment?

ASDA is the first to offer I Am Super Grains.  We are currently presenting to other supermarkets, so hope to announce further listings soon.

We have a strong relationship with ASDA through our FUEL10K breakfast brand and are becoming “well known” further up the echelons of their business.  When we presented the I Am Super Foods range, they were happy to listen to our ideas.

Fresh Marketing is a flexible business, so we can deliver more modern and relevant products to market at pace.  And we have made it our mission to work with the retailers to bring tasty nutritious innovation to help turnaround flagging categories.

For example, the long life soup category has been in free fall for the last four years and none of the big boys are doing anything about it. The consumer is aging and the young seem to be bored. With I Am Souper, we can make long life soup that not only tastes great but in new cartons, we can set about appealing to the nutrition seeking millennial consumers that have grown out of Pot Noodles but can’t afford New Covent Garden!

The I Am Super Grain flavours are intriguing and immediately grab your attention. How did you come up with the four choices?

My wife Sophie, as well as being a partner of Fresh Marketing, also runs a small catering company called Secret Chef in Dorset.  She made a quinoa salad for a work party for supper. They thought it was wonderful and we spent much of evening planning what we could do with it.

We found the category to be ripe for new products and we wanted to build on the protein trend with a mix that was both healthy and tasty.

My wife’s salad is now one the recipes in I Am Super Grains. The other flavours were developed in-house by our head of product development, Jason Kerr who took inspiration from the famous Israeli-born British chef, Yotam Ottolenghi, whose restaurants are famous for their lovely salads (we love his food).

What are the future plans for this exciting brand?

We have some great new products in the pipeline focused around the long-life aisles where we have a chance to innovate over the tin can.  We want to make this area more interesting, more relevant, more modern, and healthier with products that are easier to store.

Some fantastic innovations in beans are coming soon as well as a new spin on dehydrated products that just require hot water.