Ballsy by nature: The bold brand taking clean protein worldwide

Matt Hunt co-founded The Protein Ball Co. with his wife Hayley 11 years ago after spotting the now meteoric global clean protein trend.

Today, the business employs 40 staff in its own production facility in Worthing, East Sussex, operates a £5 million turnover and exports its healthy protein balls to 14 countries worldwide, with the US as one of its key markets.

How it all started

The couple's first entrepreneurial journey began in 2007 with O Loves, an olive business predominantly supplying the airline industry – and a firm they still operate.

Matt says:

"We started it on a real shoestring, buying one barrel only of olives at a time from a company in Córdoba in Spain and packing it in Zaragoza by hand.

"And it really quickly grew, producing 30,000 to 50,000 bags per month. Olives are big business around the world."

The business expanded rapidly and moved production to Seville, which, according to Matt, is the olive capital of the world.

"It seems such a simple idea and, looking back on it, we've had lots of ups and downs.

"But we've sold over 70 million bags, and that was our real introduction into import and export branding, trade shows, logistics, taking on employees. That was how it all started."

Outliers in our modern economy

Since 2010, services have dominated export growth in the UK. While goods exports have increased by just 7% in real terms, services exports have grown by 63% over the same period.

Unlike with the olives that are grown and packaged in distant places (currently Greece), the in-house production unit of The Protein Ball Co. allows the couple to oversee and manage the process completely from end to end.

This year, the business is set to hit £5 million turnover and is "comfortably" on track to hit £8 million in 2026.

Much of that success is down to a big investment the couple made in a full rebrand after COVID significantly damaged the company's profits.

Matt explains:

"I think COVID hit us so hard because we weren't big in supermarkets. Our sales tanked because we were predominantly in "on the go" outlets – cafés, gyms, delis and train stations. And they were all closed.

"After 10 years, we decided to rethink our strategy. We sat down with a top branding agency and went through a process that showed us our brand was dying. They asked us to write down what we should've done and could've done to have made it better.

"It was cathartic and a real eye-opener. For me, the real thing we'd neglected was branding. So, we worked hard to turn things around.

Matt continues:

"Our messaging was never strong enough and I don't think our look was bold enough to jump off the shelf. It was a really good process to go through.

"We all decided we needed to be ballsy and also focus on the fact that our ingredients are clean. And that's when we came up with the catchphrase "ballsy by nature".

"When it comes to our marketing and wording and tone of voice, we try to be ballsy in everything we do. But it always comes back to nature, and we only use the best ingredients. And that's now what we're telling our buyers."

Growing demand and re-entering the EU

With clean ingredients like dates, nut butters and seeds, The Protein Ball Co. is capitalising on growing demand for natural alternatives to heavily processed protein bars.

With the branding on point, the business's products are now stocked in high-volume offices of tech giants like Google and Facebook, where the emphasis is on clean, high-protein snacks.

Matt is also looking to re-enter export markets in the EU, after Brexit forced them to withdraw. Until now, the company's main overseas market has been the US. Now, a volatile currency and restrictive US tariffs are driving a strategic pivot back to Europe.

"Because of tariffs and the dollar falling, we're not receiving the money we thought we would. The margins are being eroded.

"With Trump and the US administration, things could change overnight. They're completely out of our hands, so we need to diversify."

Constantly changing shipping costs are only compounding the export challenges. Container prices can surge from $2,500 to $9,000 when global conflicts emerge.

Matt says:

"As soon as something happens across the world, we notice all our shipping costs go through the roof, and there's nothing you can do about it.

"We have to hedge and look at different markets. If one continent or strategy isn't working, we can move everything somewhere else."

The company is now signing deals with supermarket chains in Holland, Scandinavia and Germany.

"Business is about being flexible, being able to adapt, being able to move around. If there's a block, you have to find a different way."

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