‘I get hate from both sides – vegans and carnivores’: James Collier on UPFs, emotional eating and why he created Huel
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His meal-replacement business is worth hundreds of millions, but Collier’s rise to the top has been far from easy. He discusses bodybuilding, bullies and why nutrition is more polarising than politics. When James Collier got married to Melanie nearly 10 years ago, his dad paid for the honeymoon. Collier’s businesses weren’t exactly booming, but he had a good feeling about a new venture. “I was on the beach checking my emails, and I said to Mel: ‘I think this is going to do all right, this one.’ And that was an underestimation.”.
![[Meal-replacement powder Huel]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/8a3f7ebafd06628172e185da67083e0836c41a5e/0_338_7360_4414/master/7360.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
It certainly was. Sales of Huel, the meal-replacement brand Collier launched in 2015, topped £214m last year. Pre-tax profits tripled to £13.8m. Huel – a product mainly made of oats, pea protein and flaxseeds, which comes in powder, drink, snack bar and meal-pot forms – is sold in 25,000 shops worldwide, including 70% of UK supermarkets. The company was most recently valued at £440m, but has since had investment from Morgan Stanley. Just how rich is Collier now?.
![[Collier during his time as a bodybuilder, aged 21.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/ab8fb692cbd82191ef98e18418e31c63ef517015/0_0_1178_707/master/1178.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
“I’m among the low multimillionaires now, but there’ll be more. You know the valuation we had in 23? Morgan Stanley aren’t going to settle for that.” You’re absolutely loaded then? “Yeah. But that’s the boring bit!”. Collier, 52, is clearly keen to get off the topic of money and on to food. He has just written a book, Well Fed: How Modern Diets Are Failing Us (And What We Can Do About It), and feels “almost a moral obligation” to get his message out. (“I realise how that sounds,” he says apologetically.) First, though, I’m fascinated to hear how his life has changed since Huel went stratospheric. The couple still live in the same house in Corby, Northamptonshire, but “we have more holidays; we have no mortgage”. Any flash cars? “I had a flash car even when I couldn’t afford one!” The biggest difference, he says, is his mindset. “The knowledge that things are going to be all right is proper life-changing.”.
![[A Huel vending machine at Heathrow Airport]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/bd6defd5eda25805d41291dc4dadd51430674c76/0_97_3512_4390/master/3512.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
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