Young entrepreneurs dominate Go Green Expo

The growing trend of healthy and sustainable food has given start-up companies a kick-start into the business industry.

Soul Boul and Real Rad Food have recently surfaced into the business world, and with the help of Instagram are making waves within the healthy and vegan food environment.

22-year-old Hannah Mellsop started her business ‘Real Rad Food’ a year ago and has 15,500 followers on her Instagram.

Real Rad Food specialises in raw vegan slices and cakes which are dairy, gluten, soy and refined sugar-free.

Ms Mellsop says, “I saw a gap in the market for someone to be specialising in raw cakes and wholesaling them to cafes who didn’t have the resources or time…”

Soul Boul is another booming health food business, which is run out of food truck by 23-year-olds Alex Bell and Stacey Horton.

Ms Bell says, “We have been running for a year and a half. We started off in Raglan…and now we are based in Mount Maunganui, and travel for events.”

Their smoothie bowl business was inspired by Bali, “I went over and fell in love with healthy eating and the whole smoothie bowl culture,” says Ms Bell.

Ms Bell put their successes down to having a huge support-network through friends, family and social media. She says, “Instagram is huge in growing our brand and our personality.”

The small start-up businesses both attended the Go Green Expo last weekend in Auckland.

The expedition showcased a range of diverse companies doing their bit to support the environment and sustainability.

Damien Hochberg, Operations Manager at the Go Green Expo says, “It is great exposure for the likes of Soul Boul and Real Rad Food as they are reaching out to a clientele who want their products and can see the benefits of them.”

Ms Mellsop says, “It was really good, it was the most well put together and organised event... We ended up selling out at two o’clock on Saturday, and on Sunday we sold out before lunchtime.”

Soul Boul was also in hot demand and sold out of everything by Sunday.

Ms Bell said, “It’s the best customer base for us, it’s our target audience seeking out healthy foods and sustainable living.”

It is still only early days for the small businesses, although Ms Mellsop agreed that the industry she is in is not vanishing anytime soon.

She says, “It is definitely a growing trend and I don’t think it’s going to disappear anytime soon I think the industry that I am in is one of the best industries to be in; it’s a positive thing for the environment, it’s a positive thing for your health.”

Ms Bell is excited to see where Soul Boul will take them in the future.

She says, “It’s so exciting that there are so many options for us, because we jumped into the deep end so early and made shit happen!”

Real Rad Food is going to continue to work hard to distribute the raw cakes nationwide:

Ms Mellsop said, “I am going to work it out as I go and I’m sure I’m going to find lots of things that don’t work… but hopefully going to find that thing that does.”