With sustainability at its core, Pip & Nut has grown from market stall to national success
As the UK’s fastest-growing all-natural nut butter and snack brand, Pip & Nut creates delicious nut-based products with healthy and sustainable ingredients. Although officially founded in 2015, Pip & Nut’s journey began over a decade ago with a personal story from the founder and CEO, Pip Murray.
“Whilst training for a marathon in 2013, I was increasingly frustrated by the array of peanut butter options on the shelves that contained palm oil – a leading cause of deforestation and a cause of potential adverse health effects,” she begins. “I started making my own peanut butter, and my friends and family loved it, which led me to start selling my nut butter at London’s Maltby Street Market to test what genuine customers thought. 
“However, taking a product from market stall to national retail is not easy; I had to work out how to scale the product and brand. After nine months of research, I found a manufacturer willing to make my recipes at the high quality I demanded. I left my job shortly after and began developing the packaging and recipes, raising £120,000 in just two weeks via a crowdfunding campaign to kickstart production.
“The first Pip & Nut jars launched into Selfridges stores in London in January 2015, and later that year, we launched in Sainsbury’s,” Pippa recalls. “The journey continued from there; today, Pip & Nut is stocked in more than 3000 stores with over 40,000 distribution points across the UK. We’re best known for our nut butters; our peanut butters are made with the finest Argentinian peanuts, and our almond butters are made from carefully selected almond varieties. They are vegan, full of protein and fiber, sustainably sourced, and most importantly, delicious!”
Sustainable snacking
Aside from nut butters, Pip & Nut produces nut-butter cups made with Tony’s Open Chain cocoa. The business has also recently expanded into the realm of snacking with peanut butter stuffed oat bars, which come in a variety of flavors and contain plenty of natural ingredients like wholegrain British oats and plant-based protein and fiber. “Inspired by our community of Pip & Nut lovers who regularly enjoy peanut butter on oats for breakfast, we wanted to create a product that allows consumers to enjoy snacking on the go without compromising on sustainability or health,” Pip elaborates.
From its inception, Pip & Nut has embraced sustainability and environmental responsibility as intrinsic to its success. “The brand’s creation was rooted in my desire to avoid unsustainable and damaging palm oil, and we have continued to commit to that ever since, while also further extending our sustainability and ethical supply chain commitments,” Pip explains.
“Pip & Nut was certified as B-Corp in 2019, entrenching our promise to always put people and the planet before profit. This was an incredible milestone for the business, making us the UK’s first nut-butter brand to achieve accreditation, and we’ve since recertified in 2023 with a 20 percent increase to our score.
“We’ve committed to 100 percent transparency with single origin nuts, working with partners across the supply chain to ensure our almonds are single sourced with traceability to processing level. This commitment is also set to be achieved for our peanuts by 2025. We were the first nut-butter brand to join the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative platform, the gold standard food and beverage value chain accelerating the adoption of regenerative agricultural practices.
“We recently became the fourth British brand, and the first UK snacking brand, to join the Tony’s Open Chain initiative, demonstrating our commitment to supporting sustainable cocoa sourcing,” she reveals. “We’re sourcing cocoa from suppliers with a proven track record on human rights and ethics, which includes rigorous sourcing standards, robust traceability, paying the Living Income Reference Price for cocoa, and building long term partnerships with cooperatives to support farmers and develop thriving cocoa communities.”
Ethical enterprise
As our conversation ends, we ask Pip what advice she’d give to other budding entrepreneurs. “Take the leap of faith, however small it may start,” she shares. “Although it sounds clichéd, I appreciate the difficulty associated with starting a business from scratch, but it truly does pay off. In my case, having the courage to begin selling my products at a small market stall on the weekend led to more than I could ever have imagined.
“I would also encourage aspiring entrepreneurs to build their business around commitments to sustainability and ethical practices. Not only is it the right thing to do, but it is becoming ever-more important to consumers in the landscape in which we work – and it has certainly been a driving factor of Pip & Nut’s success. I couldn’t be happier to do something I love every day, and I am immensely proud of how Pip & Nut has grown into a commercially successful and ethically responsible enterprise.”
Turning our attention to Pip & Nut’s future, Pip concludes: “Nuts are our passion. We’re dedicated to sharing their incredible taste and versatility with everyone. From expanding our snack range to ensuring every UK kitchen has a jar of our nut butter, we’re committed to making nuts a staple. Our growth is fueled by sustainability, ethical sourcing, and building a thriving, inclusive team. We’re investing in the future of nuts and aiming to be the go-to brand when you think of them.”