Charlie Fermor, Co-founder, Freddie’s Farm, says: “ It’s just been such a long time getting to this point. Having previously lectured at several agricultural colleges and performing the Sheepdog displays I am used to group speaking as well as having the background and experience from our own farm. The healthy confectionery brand offers fruit and veg snacks for kids made with British produce, sourced from the founders’ orchards and fields in Kent.

We look forward to being by their side and seeing Freddie’s Farm continue to boom in the months and years ahead. They are a brilliant example of South East businesses’ sustainable growth ambitions, with everything produced in the orchards and fields surrounding their family farm. Being on the show has hugely increased our visibility on the market, so we’re not complaining at all! We need to look at ways to make everything more efficient – and to meet our ever-increasing demand,” she said. Hearts melted as the nation was given an insight into Charlie and Laurie’s life at Bramley Mount Farm and their son Freddie, 6, after whom the snacks are named, and his sister, Ottie, 3.Laurie Fermor, Co-Founder of Freddie’s Farm, which also employs two factory staff, said: “Our business idea, inspired by our taster-in-chief Freddie and now his baby sister Ottie, has come a long way in a short space of time, and recognition from a name like Aldi marks the latest exciting milestone for us. The British fruit and vegetable grower fought off tough competition on the TV programme from manufacturers of fava bean snacks, kimchi and even camel milk. As a result, we have lower free sugars, which help prevent kids getting sugar highs and crashes, which we certainly like to avoid with our two at all costs! Co-founder, Laurie Fermor explains how the healthy snacks came about: “When Freddie [now 6] was little, we didn’t like the snacks that were out there in the market so we came up with Freddie’s Farm.

Multiple Retailer of the Year [1], Aldi, is slashing the cost of its best-selling Costellore Prosecco Spumante DOC (75cl), just in time for Halloween celebrations. Last night was the turn of healthy and wholesome food and drink producers and Freddie’s Farm fought off tough competition from manufacturers of fava bean snacks, kimchi, and even camel milk, to secure a space on Aldi’s shelves.With the judges following a very rigorous scoring criteria, Laurie – along with her husband and co-founder Charlie – impressed them from the start with the taste of the fruit snacks, eco-friendly paper packaging and health credentials. Actually during the show we’d convinced ourselves we hadn’t won, but when Julie announced our name it was crazy.

Everybody’s products were amazing and deserved a place on the shelves, and we had totally convinced ourselves that we had lost,” said Laurie, adding that they were up against some “seriously stiff competition”. By signing up to receive the Business Leader newsletter you will receive breaking business news, exclusive interviews and original content three times a week to your inbox. All produce is grown, dried and packed on the couple’s farm, which meant that Freddie’s Farm low carbon footprint also appealed to Aldi, which has tough sustainability targets and has been a carbon-neutral business since 2019. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Now the fledgling business has fought off competition from hundreds of other hopefuls to be named Aldi’s Next Big Thing and landed a contract with the national supermarket chain, as televised on the Channel 4 series in November.When Freddie was little, we were looking at the other snacks that were out there and available for kids and they just weren’t good enough,” said Laurie, talking about how the business started. Wrapped in paper packaging and using only fresh fruit and veg (never concentrates or purees), the items feature no added sugar and benefit from a special patented process which results in lower ‘free’ sugars than any other kid’s fruit snacks on the market.

Charlie Fermor is a fourth-generation, multi-British Farming Awards-winning farmer, and his patented process of preserving the bond between natural sugar and fibre in preparing the products is key to them providing children with the best possible nutrition.In spring 2021, it became the first UK kids’ snacks company to launch 100% recyclable paper packaging.