Life is sweets! Jamie Laing says building his Candy Kittens brand has brought his boyhood dreams to life - and that making them 100 per cent vegan was a 'no-brainer'

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'Sweets were like currency at school', Jamie Laing tells FEMAIL, as he reflects on how he and his fellow pupils would trade 'whatever we had' to get their hands on their favourite treats. 

What was his top trade? 'Back then sherbet lemons were my favourite - I just loved anything sour-ish, it was my absolute jam'. 

Laing, who shot to fame on Made in Chelsea in 2011 and has appeared on numerous TV shows since, says his parents, dad Nicholas Laing and mum Penny Baines, kept sweets to just one day of the week - Sundays - but his school swaps and weekend reward ignited a lifelong love affair: 'I wanted to live in a world made of sweets'. 

The 34-year-old, who wed fellow reality star Sophie Habboo earlier this year, has spent the last 11 years making that childhood dream a reality, via his 'no nasties', gourmet sweet brand Candy Kittens.

New research carried out this month by the company ahead of Halloween - £777million is set to be spent on October 31st treats by UK consumers* - found that 67 per cent of British sweet eaters are unaware that popular brands of sweets contain meat products including pig skin, bone and cartilage.

Sweet taste of success: TV's Jamie Laing first launched Candy Kittens while studying in Leeds and says he tests new flavours as if he were 'tasting a fine wine'

From the outset, Laing has been clear that his business would 'contain zero nasties: zero palm oil, zero animal products and zero artificial flavours.'

When the company was founded in 2012, he was already a rising TV star, and also studying theatre and performance at Leeds University - but a trip to the Big Apple kick-started an idea that would put him on the path to sweet success. 

'I went to a candy bar in New York - part of a US chain of boutique sweet shops - and it left me desperate to do something similar in the UK.' 

He came home with grand plans to be the next Willy Wonka: 'I wanted to open a sushi-style restaurant but with cupcakes and sweets on a conveyer belt.'

New research carried out this month by Candy Kittens shows that 67 per cent of British sweet eaters are unaware that popular brands contain meat products including pig skin, bone and cartilage (Laing pictured camouflaged this month into a new billboard commissioned by the brand that highlights its sweets are 100 per cent vegan)

Making a good vegan sweet has been crucial to the brand's success, says Laing. Recent research by the company found that nearly a quarter of sweet eaters say awareness of hidden nasties and less vague ingredients is enough to make them turn vegan (Laing pictured being made up for the billboard)

Laing says the brand, which launched in 2012 and has become one of the most popular sweet companies in the UK, strives to create an emotional connection with its colourful treats, which come in flavours such as Eton Mess, Wild Strawberry and Sour Watermelon

However, after teaming up with co-founder Ed Williams, who had a background in design, the pair decided to focus on selling packets of gourmet, vegan sweets that would appeal to adults instead. The shop would have to wait. 

'Ed's background was in design. My strength - and I didn't really know it at the time - was marketing. We were the perfect match'.

The duo resolved to make sweets that appealed to grown-ups and spent 18 months creating a product without what he calls 'the nasties' found in many other brands. 100 per cent vegan, there's no gelatine or palm oil in any of Candy Kittens' products. 

'Not a lot of sweets brands do it because it's very hard to make a good vegan sweet. We wanted to create the best sweet possible. If you can remove meat from your sweet, why wouldn't you?' 

The brand, now sold in major supermarkets, has had pop-up shops - and Laing's dream of opening a Wonka-esque store could yet happen   

How much of young Jamie is in the current Candy Kittens range? 'If the company and range had to reflect a human being, it would be me!' he laughs.

He's now quite the master confectioner; Laing compares testing new flavours - best-sellers include Sour Watermelon, Eton Mess and Wild Strawberry - as like wine tasting. 'You go to the factory, chew on them and then spit them into a cup. I love it.'

What can't he get enough of right now?  'It's like asking me to choose my favourite kid!' he anguishes before saying he's a big fan of the Shox range. 

'They're our first ever vegan gourmet sour and a mix of two flavours; sour apple and sour strawberry. I'm a sucker for sour sweets and they really pack a punch!'

Laing says he struggles to pick a favourite in the range but loves Shox - as it's the first truly sour sweet the company has made and is an irresistible mix of sour strawberry and sour apple 

Since launching, Candy Kittens has gone further; the company's mantra is 'do good for people and planet' and the brand became the first UK sweets brand to gain an eco-friendly B Corp certification in 2022.

More than a decade on, Candy Kittens is one of the country's leading sweet brands.

In fact, Candy Kittens sales have doubled in UK grocers since 2021 and their products are now listed in all major grocers across the UK. 

There's even a range of spin-off products online including advent calendars, collaborations - there's a Raspberry & Guava BrewDog vodka - and 'plant power' tote bags. 

He's hugely proud of being a British business owner but there have been plenty of learning curves along the way, says Laing. 

'Naivety had a big part to play in our early success...we didn't go into it thinking it was going to fail. We had a no-nonsense attitude that the business was always going to succeed.'  

Life lessons: running a British business has been both hugely rewarding and with its share of lessons. Says Laing: 'It's made me very self-aware. When you're managing people you realise what you feel and think isn't always right - and patient'

Ahead of Halloween, research finds 67 per cent of Brits are clueless about the hidden meats in sweets

Research carried out by Candy Kittens this month, ahead of October 31st has revealed that 67% of Brits are unaware that they will be picking up sweets that are more trick and less treat** – with the most popular sweets containing ingredients made from pig skin, bone, and cartilage.

In 2022, an estimated £550 million was spent on sweets for trick or treaters***, with the average person spending £18.60 on Halloween treats – despite most being oblivious to the hidden nasties that are found inside them.

Transparency: The British business owner says: 'Our research clearly shows that shoppers aren’t fully aware of what really goes into their sweets and they’re not making informed decisions on what they’re actually eating.' (Pictured: Laing this month promoting the brand's 'no nasties' mantra)

Shockingly, the study found that only 11% of people always read the list of ingredients before choosing a snack and only 1 in 10 (10%) think ingredients on snack packaging is very clear. With 9 out of 10 (90%) shoppers admitting that companies should be more transparent about what goes into their products.

Gelatine is made by the prolonged boiling up of skin, tendons, ligaments, and bones, usually obtained from cows or pigs, with water. It’s used to stabilise and thicken ingredients. These are the most common ingredients that are often not clearly labelled on the back of packaging.

Jamie Laing, co-founder of Candy Kittens said: 'Our research clearly shows that shoppers aren’t fully aware of what really goes into their sweets and they’re not making informed decisions on what they’re actually eating. 

'As many more Brits begin to stock up on their Halloween treats, we believe that all brands should be 100% honest about their ingredients. We promise that our whole plant powered Candy Kittens range contains zero nasties: zero palm oil, zero animal products and zero artificial flavours. 

'We’re made better, so we taste better.'

Has being a business owner changed him? 'Oh my gawd', he says, 'It's changed me in many ways. It's made me much more patient - as you can imagine I am not patient at all! 

'It's made me very self-aware. When you're managing people you realise what you feel and think isn't always right.' 

He jokes that the early days were all about marketing - 'Let's get Jamie to sit naked on a camel, wouldn't that be fun?' - but says he's learned that being an entrepreneur requires long-term hard work. 

Both he and Ed have been 'brutal and persistent' in getting the brand off the ground, he says.

Is that Willy Wonka-style shop with conveyor belts that he always dreamed of still in the pipeline?  

'We've had pop-ups and I would absolutely love to have a sweet shop. I just remember going to sweet shops as a kid felt like the greatest thing on earth.'

The future's bright and, well, sweet. He says global domination would be nice, but for the moment, growing the business on home soil is the company's biggest focus. 

'There's a mentality in the business world to build a brand and then sell it on. We want to keep going, we're 11-and-a-bit years in but it feels like we just started.'

Click HERE to shop the full Candy Kittens range.

*https://www.finder.com/uk/halloween-statistics

**Research conducted by OnePoll on behalf of Candy Kittens and surveyed 2,000 adults 

***Hellnic National Nutrition and Health Survey