Tewkesbury-based Grandbar Snacks has been awarded a £25,000 Start Up Loan from the British Business Bank to relaunch its innovative snack bars for elderly people.
Grandbar Snacks is the brainchild of former teacher and nutrition consultant, Mary Merheim, who created Grandbars while supporting her elderly father through appetite loss in 2018.
Mary's research found that disinterest in food is fairly common in elderly people, partly due to conditions like dementia and the medications used to treat them, but malnutrition can have serious consequences, such as frailty leading to falls; slow wound healing; and longer and more frequent hospital visits.
While there are a variety of high-calorie cake bars on the market, most of them are aimed at gym users, children or those trying to lose weight, so Mary invented Grandbars using an original recipe tailored specifically to the tastes of elderly people, packed with natural ingredients like nuts, flaxseeds, coconut oil, dried fruit, honey, chocolate and oats, finely ground to aid with swallowing and digestion.
Mary said: 'I was very conscious that my father, in his 90s, was heading towards sweet foods rather than savoury, which is also common in the elderly due to the deterioration of taste buds. Making Grandbars sweet was playing into natural preferences — like parents hiding vegetables in spaghetti sauce.'
Mary's late father acted as chief taster and subsequently regained his interest in food, pushing Mary to start selling her bars at festivals and events — then when he passed away, she used her inheritance to launch the business in 2022, winning best start-up at the Gloucestershire Foodie Awards the following year.
Suzy Lowe at SWIG Finance — the British Business Bank's Business Support Partner for the south west — supported Mary's Start Up Loan application, saying she had 'invested a great deal of time, energy and exceptional culinary skill' to create a product that 'has so much potential' and can provide 'peace of mind for family and carers when encouraging loved ones or patients to achieve a balanced and nourishing diet.'
Mary added: 'Suzy at SWIG Finance was an absolute delight. She bought into what we were doing and why — and was incredibly supportive. We already believed in ourselves and it was nice to have her backing us. It was a very positive experience and I would absolutely recommend it.'
The £25,000 loan from the British Business Bank will fund a Grandbars relaunch with a redesigned website, as well as new packaging and an expanded product range — including a new coffee-flavoured bar due later in 2025.
