Our next feature on clients past and present is our most delicious to date as we look at popcorn innovators Propercorn.
Throughout the western world, popcorn is a comforting and loved snack, bringing consumers a nostalgic feeling that takes them back to eating popcorn as they watched their favourite childhood films. The popcorn industry has grown exponentially in recent years with sales in the UK reaching £129M in 2015, a sharp increase from the sales figures of £50M in 2010. While popcorn consumption in the UK is increasing, we still lag far behind the consumption rates of our counterparts across the pond with the average American consuming popcorn at triple the rate of the average Briton (15 kilograms worth)!
While popcorn is a staple in many homes, the manufacturing process has failed to evolve over time, the old processes meaning that consumers are still subject to harmful and unhealthy additives. While many leading popcorn brands have taken steps to minimise saturated fat content and calorie counts, popcorn is still fried in huge amounts of oil.
Propercorn, founded by Cassandra Stavrou and Ryan Kohn in 2011, after Cassandra quit her job at an advertising agency to begin experimenting with popcorn, a product that held special significance after her late father gave her a vintage popcorn maker as a gift. SInce then, Propercorn has shaken up the snacking world, with their healthy popcorn made using only natural ingredients, cutting down on harmful additives while retaining texture and taste, and experimenting with interesting and unique flavours, such as Peanut Butter & Almond, Sweet Coconut & Vanilla and Sun-Dried Tomato & Worcester Sauce. Since its beginnings as a product in London’s Google HQ cafe, where it quickly became the most popular of the available snacks, Propercorn has become a mainstay of the UK snacking industry, selling millions of packets a month, supplying tens of thousands of stockists and gaining an increasing amount of traction in the continental European market.
Propercorn have placed a special emphasis on ensuring that their products are healthier and less harmful for consumers. While popcorn is traditionally made in large amounts of oil, Propercorn have work to minimise their use of oil, only using a small amount of rapeseed oil before tumbling their popcorn in their natural flavouring combinations to ensure the popcorn doesn’t sacrifice flavour. Another health concern Propercorn have been working on innovating and mitigating is the prevalence of sugars and calories in our favourite snacks. Statistics show that UK citizens across all age groups currently consuming in excess of twice the recommended daily limit for sugar. Propercorn have worked to minimise the amount of sugar in their sweet flavoured popcorns.
To learn more about Propercorn and how they’re changing the flavour of the snacking industry, check out their site here.