18. Bio&Me: the granola brand that’s earned its space on the shelf

Founders: Dr Megan Rossi and Jon Walsh
Year founded: 2019
Website: bioandme.co.uk

It’s fair to say that the UK is in the midst of a gut revolution. COVID-19 shone a spotlight on immunity and gut health like never before, and faster than you can say ‘overnight oats’, gut-friendly foods such as yoghurts and teas began to fill the nation’s supermarket shelves. 

Then came the backlash. Some brands contain preservatives that wipe out protective gut bacteria. Others claim to be good for your gut with no credentials at all. Among all this digestive disinformation, who is telling the truth?

If you can trust anyone, it’s Dr Megan Rossi, AKA ‘The Gut Health Doctor’. As a top research fellow at King’s College London, she had the guts and the brain to jump on the tum trend. 

Add in marketing expert Jon Walsh (the heart) and they had the perfect recipe to build Bio&Me; affordable gut-friendly porridges, cereals, and yoghurts that don’t compromise on science or taste (a must if you’re going up against the titans of Kellogg’s and Nestle).

“We had to meet Megan’s strict gut health standards but also deliver on taste — all while hitting an affordable, mass-market price point,” the team tells us. “To win as a challenger brand you have to be the best to earn your place on the shelf.”

Did they do it? Walk into any grocery chain today and you’ll know the answer. Since appearing in our Index in 2024, Bio&Me now sells in over 38,000 retail outlets, including all of the Big Four supermarkets: Tesco, Asda, Morrisons, and Sainsbury’s. 

We had to meet Megan’s strict gut health standards but also deliver on taste.

This achievement is all the more impressive given that Bio&Me only had its first media campaign last year, celebrating the launch of its new kefir live yoghurts. Among its loyal, day one fanbase (and the 100 trillion bacteria that live inside their digestive systems), Bio&Me can count England men’s football captain Harry Kane, who is also an investor in the brand.

To Rossi and Walsh, though, their biggest success in 2024 was being able to give their workforce a hefty salary increase; a reward for years of steadily climbing the cereal charts. 

Good gut health belongs to the world. And Bio&Me is hoping to bring it to them by expanding internationally next year. Spoons at the ready folks! 2025 brings big things for Bio&Me.