Exclusive: Wild Thingz confectionery aims to make its mark with healthier option ranges
Fliss Newland has high hopes for her better-for-you gummy confectionery brand, Wild Thingz. Pic: Wild Thingz
Seeking to forge a dynamic confectionery company that not only produces great tasting sweets, but ones that are better for you and vegan friendly is a challenge that Fliss Newland is engaging with wholeheartedly. Editor Neill Barston speaks to her about her company, Wild Thingz and its fast-rising prospects
Forging a new confectionery brand bursting with imagination, creativity and market relevance is something that is far from an easy task to accomplish in an especially crowded product space.
But this is exactly the quest that Fliss Newland, the UK-based creator of plant-based sweets company, Wild Thingz, is on with her ambitious better-for-you business. Notably, it is aiming to bring some much-needed product excitement, as well as healthier profiles to the nation’s sweets and snacks aisles.
As she explains to Confectionery Production, “creating joy without the junk” is the enticing mission statement for newly-emerged organic gummy manufacturer.
Its core proposition is based upon a belief that it’s entirely possible to develop tasty confectionery with around just half the sugar of convention ranges. So, in a eye-catching opening marketing campaign, Fliss, a former Mondelez International marketing executive, is challenging some of the biggest businesses in the sector to join her in seeking to bring about product development change in terms of improving ingredient formulation.
As the refreshingly down to earth graduate explains, she’s “still waiting” for a response from her direct call to those very same brands including Haribo, Mars and Nestlé on how they might up their game in devising healthier options designed for children, but she is undeterred.
Significantly, the 30 year-old London-based entrepreneur is setting about rewriting the confectionery rules in using bold flavours, wacky shapes, and natural ingredients for her new range that is available on Amazon and TikTok.
As she explains, for far too long, the sweet aisle has been a battleground for parents, torn between their kids’ demands for treats, and their own concerns about sugar, additives, and artificial ingredients.
With the UK’s overall confectionery market said to be worth around £16 billion in 2025, there’s clearly a space for inventive new businesses with a sense of purpose.
“We’re very excited about starting the company, especially with my background of working for Mondelez, which owns Cadbury and Maynards Bassetts. I loved my time with them, and just love the category itself, which is absolutely flying.
“What we are doing with Wild Thingz is creating a ‘sweet with the ingredients of a saint,’ being organic and half sugar, and nothing artificial. But it has the vibe and kid appeal, fun and attitude of sinners – all those sweets that people’s children are begging them for. They have the same level of excitement and play, but with a sweet that parents are really proud to give their kids, as they are a better for you alternative to mainstream players,” explains Fliss, who says its first customer orders have gone out before Christmas, and are fast gathering pace into 2025.
Fliss challenges major brands to follow in her sugar-reduced brand’s footsteps…
As she enthuses, it’s particularly inspiring to be part of a ‘nostalgic and joyful’ British confectionery market that’s presently worth in the region of £1.4 billion and rising fast.
While she is under no illusion of the hard graft required to drive forward her venture with several female colleagues, she demonstrates no shortage of invention and creativity on her part.
As she reveals, the starting point for Wild Thingz came in taking an existing niche recipe that had targeted the vegan market. This was used as the basis for creating a more mainstream series that holds all the properties of conventional sweets, yet with a healthier profile.
Organic revolution
In its view, having half the sugar of traditional brands and based around plant-based ingredients, the company has plenty to offer parents looking to offer children a healthier treat. Moreover, as its creator explains to our publication, the company’s inception was delivered in the wake of research commissioned by Wild Thingz with YouGov reveals that parents are caught in a sweet dilemma.
Of those surveyed, 64 per cent are “Reluctants,” hesitant to buy sweets due to worries about sugar and additives. Meanwhile, 32 per cent are “Rejoicers,” happy to let their kids indulge, and four per cent are “Rejectors,” saying no to sweets entirely. Wild Thingz is designed to help “Reluctants” feel good about saying yes — because these sweets tick all the boxes.`AstheWildThingsteamnotes,the family friendly collections that bring bold flavours and wacky shapes to life. With vibrant colours, organic ingredients, and no artificial anything, each creepy crawly gummy is crafted to delight kids and reassure parents.
Notably, as Fliss adds, her career experiences to date are proving invaluable in helping form a strategy for the company, after accruing some crucial sector insider background knowledge.
After studying for a degree in business management and marketing at Exeter University, she spent a year in industry working for the Lidl group, which she describes as a great grounding point in the wider industry. From there, the chance to work for Mondelez came up, and it offered a brilliant gateway into the confectionery world, with the business having such a huge array of snacks and treats across its portfolio.
“I loved my time there at Mondelez, and I joined as part of a three year graduate scheme for sales and marketing, learning the ropes across all commercial functions in London.
“So, after five years with them, I went out with the company to Malaysia to set up its e-commerce business there, which also covered Singapore, and it was just an amazing time covering mostly chocolate and sweets markets, and I learnt so much from being out there.”
Intriguingly, she says it offered an invaluable chance to flex her digital skills, and understand how the company’s flagship Cadbury’s brand operated in the region, which she said felt much more akin to a small-to-medium sized enterprise than a major corporation.
But, having gained so much experience at a young age, perhaps it was inevitable she would wish to spread her wings and take on a challenge of her own. Following a brief spell working for a plant-based milk brand in the region, she seized the chance to return home after the end of the Covid-19 pandemic to begin setting up her very own brand.
“I’d always had a hankering to do something that was purpose led, and I am a vegan myself, so I am passionate about the rise of the vegan movement, and there’s also a gut feeling about some of the additives like gelatin and sugar that are in sweets, and I just knew there was a demand for a shake up in the market,” she says of what spurred her on to the next level of starting up her own venture after the experience of a lifetime out in South East Asia.
As she acknowledges, the past year in getting the business off the ground has been something of a whirlwind adventure. From examining the packaging, ingredients and design of products, through to devising some striking marketing has offered up plenty of satisfying, yet demanding challenges for her and the small, highly dedicated team at the heart of this aspiring British brand.
In terms of manufacturing, she explains that this is being done through a respected third party operation, which the company founder explained had proved a solid platform from which the business can grow. It certainly doesn’t appear to be having any issues in that department, and it is literally bursting with creativity, as its latest campaign has proved – in getting the most direct feedback possible through a group of aspiring future confectioners.
As Fliss reveals, an enterprising team of young fans of the company are being ‘hired’ to brainstorm new flavours, test recipes and offer some youthful insights into what exactly makes a great better-for-you star sweet series.
Its future marketing crew may not actually have been hired, they’ve been exploring the company’s London HQ, and, according to the business, they have already
made quite an impact with some of their observations on the next super sweet treat.
Among some of their top suggestions, their favourite new potential creations include: Zesty Pests: Tangy Lemon Maggots and Cherry Spiders for a citrus punch, Fruity Flyers: Red Apple Butterflies and Blackcurrant Ladybirds bring fruity fun, as well as Gummy Grubs: Cola Snails and other wild flavours make snack time an adventure for good measure.
“We want to bring some fun to the world of sweets while highlighting that we’re all about creating treats kids actually enjoy. This campaign is a playful representation of that ethos — while keeping it firmly in the realm of imagination,” concludes Fliss of her enterprising venture that is making a tangible breakthrough. While there’s fierce competition out there, Wild Thingz has what it takes to survive the confectionery jungle.
