Healthy candy brand bringing back favourite childhood treats
Made in Vancouver is a collaboration between Vancity and Daily Hive. Together, we’re turning the spotlight onto local businesses, organizations, and individuals who are helping to create a healthy local economy.
Attention all sweet-tooths! this candy company is bringing back all your favourite childhood treats, but healthier.
Healthy Hippo is offering vegan, all-natural, and delicious options for candy lovers everywhere.
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Vancity has been supporting people in our communities since 1946, like local entrepreneurs. As part of our Made in Vancouver series spotlighting local businesses, we talked to Ashley Paterson, CEO and founder of Healthy Hippo, about how her company is bringing her passion for health to her work. Learn more about what Vancity is doing in your community at vancity.com
“I’ve always been passionate about health in moderation, and in the forms that work best for you. That extends to candy and all the other indulgences that we love in life,” she said in an interview with Daily Hive.
She was inspired to start the brand because of her childhood memories with certain candies.
“Becoming a new mom has only boosted my interest in developing candies that bring back the joy from my childhood, but with all the healthier qualities I want for myself and my daughter.”
Also, Ashley was always watching her entrepreneurial mother succeed with vegan CPG Big Mountain Foods and has always been involved in the business development of plant-based foods.
As a life-long candy lover, she started Healthy Hippo in Vancouver to replicate the pure simple joy of childhood candy but with a better-for-you flair.
“Healthy Hippo is all about bringing back the simple joys of childhood candy-eating that we’re so nostalgic for. The brand keeps itself colourful and 90s-fun to keep the nostalgia train going,” she said.
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Their candy options are low sugar and high fibre but also avoids the stevia aftertaste by using monk fruit as the natural sweetening agent.
Healthy Hippo has three product lines out right now which include hippo gummies, sour hippo gummies, and sour keys. They also expect to push out two new delicious flavours before 2022.
“Healthy Hippo now aims to bring all the joy with eating candy, with all the health priorities we value now, all in one sweet sweet package,” said Paterson.
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She hopes to become the go-to candy for the low-sugar community and says that her support system has been great to help her get where she is now.
“Honestly, it would be my support system that really helped me be honest with myself and persevere. Starting a business is a beautiful, chaotic, horrible and incredibly rewarding process. Almost nothing goes right at the beginning, and everything feels like a test,” she told us.
“At the end of the day, you have to remember why you’re doing this and push through. Don’t be afraid to acknowledge when things suck, or that you’re having a rough day – being honest with myself has helped me push myself and the business into where it needs to be.”
She also said they have a great team with the right mix of CPG and capital markets experience.
“We know how to run a great company, and how to create long-term shareholder growth in going public. We want to ring true with the origins of making companies public – as we grow, we want our believers to grow with us.”
Check out more of their mouth-watering products on their website, and Instagram.
“We’re here for the right reasons. It’s all about the product quality, and the joy we can bring to our community – not just our profit margins” said Paterson.
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