Brexit broke their biggest deal. Then 20 million tourists saved them

Husband-and-wife Matt and Hayley Hunt set up OLOVES Olives in 2007. It has subsequently sold over 70 million bags to airlines, trains and supermarkets across the UK, North America, Australia and Europe. Eight years later, the duo were at a trade show in the US and noticed the growing focus on protein.

Rather than creating a bar, they opted for a different USP and thus The Protein Ball Co was born. Over a decade later, the company is stocked in 15 countries and has sold over 180 million balls. The business is split into three parts: its own brand, private label offering and its export arm.

As a business leader who looks out for over 30 employees, Matt Hunt describes the last five years as a game of snakes and ladders: “We take a couple of good ladder movements forward, then we hit a snake that we didn't see and we slide back down two or three levels.” Brexit has been a part of that board game.

The first snake

Two months after the referendum, and not long after penning a deal with a large European supermarket chain, The Protein Ball Co had lost 30 to 40 per cent of its business.

“We were trying to deliver during the Brexit period,” Hunt recalls. “Each time we were a day late, we were being fined. After our third delivery, our fines were greater than the cost of the product. We're talking a hundred thousand bags that we couldn't deliver because the truck was being held in customs due to the new Brexit paperwork. We started to realise quickly the damage that Brexit had and would do to a lot of British businesses, especially small businesses like us.”

Whack-a-Mole became the next game: “I've found over the last few years that not all European countries are using the same kind of regulations. So to enter France can be a challenge, to enter Spain can be next to impossible and we haven’t managed to enter Portugal. To enter Holland and Germany seems to be a little bit easier; however, you still have additional costs.”

Despite this, around 30 per cent of the company’s revenue comes from Europe, a feat which has been achieved without government support. “I haven't found any support in the 11 years that we've been operating,” says Hunt.

The workers who left

The Brexit hangover has affected operations in its factory in Worthing, 11 miles west of Brighton. “Post-Brexit, we lost a lot of very good Italian, Spanish and Polish workers,” says Hunt. “I think some felt that they weren't welcome in the country anymore, which was something that we heard a lot.” Coupled with the high cost of living that the country’s south coast is known for, The Protein Ball Co often struggled to fill job vacancies.

Brexit was followed by the Covid-19 pandemic, then an escalation in the cost-of-living crisis, war in Ukraine, US tariffs and conflict in the Middle East – all bringing their own challenge and hits on a growing company’s cash flow. Especially considering that the United States accounts for 40 per cent of the company’s sales.

“We’ve had so many hurdles,” says Hunt. “You have to just think, ‘we will get through it and we will find a way’. Potentially, there's a loss coming up but you just keep going with resilience and determination and with a sunshine of optimism that one day it's all going to be okay.”

The Protein Ball Co began to search for untapped markets elsewhere and uncovered a gem in an unlikely place: the Mediterranean Sea. “We met a distributor in the Balearics,” recalls Hunt. “We looked at the population of Mallorca, Ibiza and Formentera, and it was quite small.

“But what we didn't account for is having almost 20 million tourists going through the country. All of a sudden, that has become a wonderful new account and we didn't expect it. We also had the same experience in Iceland.”

What does this mean for founders?

Don’t treat ‘Europe’ as one market: Regulations differ country by country. They may be manageable in Germany and the Netherlands, but near impossible in Spain and Portugal. Plan entry market by market, not bloc by bloc.

Look where the people are, not where the residents are: The Balearics became a strong account on the back of millions of annual tourists, not the local population. Demand often hides in places the headcount data misses.

Keep opening new fronts: With the US at 40 per cent of sales and a decade of serial shocks, survival came from finding fresh accounts. Diversification isn’t a one-off, it’s a habit.