14 Jan 2021 Aussie sugar-free ice cream business Denada grows into massive success

When pastry chef Charlotte Haygarth went sugar-free for a few months, she couldn’t turn back after seeing the positive effects. Curious to figure out how she could continue making treats sans sugar, she got experimenting in the kitchen which led to an invention that was nowhere to be seen on the market.

She created a sugar-free ice cream from all natural ingredients that still tasted like ice cream, going beyond the high protein, low calorie ice creams that had hit supermarket freezers.

“As a pastry chef, I was curious about coming up with products and started exploring new recipes,” she said. “Halo Top had just entered the market but funnily enough there were no sugar-free options. There was low cal, high protein, but none were sugar free.”

Denada was born in late 2017 when Charlotte shared her new recipe with her friend Jayde Taylor, a former pro-athlete who had recently retired from professional hockey and was curious about the keto diet – and her next career move.

When Jayde was all in, Charlotte asked her old school friend Sophie Lawrence, who worked in brand communications, if she could come up with a way to market the ice cream. Soon enough, the three realised they had an innovative product that could fill a gap in the market.

Getting the recipe right

In under three years, the trio have flipped the sugar-free ice cream category on its head, being the only all-natural, sugar-free ice cream on the market.

“Running a relatively lean business we have managed to achieve a healthy profit in year three of the business, considering we have a premium-priced but low-margin product,” she said.

While the tub of ice cream can go for around $12 or $13 – unless they’re on special at Coles – Sophie added that “all natural sugar-free ice cream is expensive to make”.

“People don’t understand how expensive it is to make,” she said. “It’s at a premium price because to make a delicious sugar-free ice cream it is really expensive. We’ve managed to get it at the same price as a tub of Ben and Jerry’s of the same size.”

But the pricepoint isn’t stopping customers from paying good money for the sugar-free product.

Launching with three flavours, they’ve expanded the range to six different varieties of sugar-free ice cream, including two plant-based, dairy-free options, after careful and innovative experimentation.

One of the coveted new flavours, Caramel Choc Flake – which took Charlotte months to perfect – sold out immediately.

Charlotte added that “ice cream is not the easiest product to make sugar-free“.

“It takes us months and months to develop new flavours and make sure they taste amazing but also stick to our core principles,” Charlotte said.

“Caramel is typically made from just one ingredient, sugar. We found it nearly impossible to make a sugar-free caramel flavour that actually tastes good so we are super proud of this release.”

Denada uses a natural sugar alcohol – xylitol – as a sweetener instead of blood-sugar spiking sugar.

“I landed on using xylitol. With ice cream, xylitol, we think, is the only option, whereas erythritol and stevia makes ice cream going icy.”

The sugar-free ice cream growth path – from 0$ to millions

In early 2018, Denada launched in a few local stores in Perth – starting with Peaches in South Fremantle – with a small manufacturer and “doing all the leg work” including running the distribution themselves.

With no business experience, Jayde said it was a learning process and confessed they “had no idea what we were doing”.

The business grew rapidly in the first year, despite investing $0 in marketing. “We went from eight stores in Feb in WA to 450 by September 2018 nationally,” Jayde said.

In the first year alone, they saw growth of more than 850 per cent, relying only on word-of-mouth and social media.

“It got to the point where it was too big,” Jayde said.

The trio bring it down to being “the right product at the right time” with a demand for sugar-free foods growing as Australians look for low-sugar options at the supermarket.

“The keto movement was taking off in Australia and the keto community are so active online,” Charlotte said.

“We’ve only just started going into the influencer marketing space – it’s another way to generate word-of-mouth and social sharing.”

www.news.com.au: for the full story, read more HERE – and see more at www.denadaco.com