Fighting Food Waste and Winning Fans – Meet Gusto’s Upcycled Fruit Snacks
Gusto Snacks is a London-based snack brand that uses clever guerrilla marketing tactics to successfully step into the limelight and stay there.
10 March 2025
Share this exclusive content from Saladplate
Photo Credit: Gusto Snacks
When you look at Gusto’s small snack packets, you probably don’t realise the big impact that they are making on food waste. The fun packaging might also distract you from their serious objective of creating healthy and impactful snacking to improve consumer habits and the environment. Gusto Snacks is making waves and getting noticed for all the right reasons. Today, the brand is valued at £1.2m, and its products are available at major outlets around the UK, such as Selfridges and WHSmith.
Most recently they are also available in Germany through Amazon.com.
Gusto Snacks is an ethically focused company that rescues wonky fruit that would otherwise be rejected because of its imperfections. These “bad” apples are transformed into healthy air-dried fruit crisps with natural fruit juice flavouring. The brand is reducing food waste and creating a sustainable and more profitable environment for farmers at the same time. Their manufacturing processes use 100% of the fruit including skin, cores and pips, wasting nothing.
Apart from ticking all these sustainability boxes, Gusto’s products are vegan, gluten-free, high in fibre, low in calories and have no added sugar. Consumers can enjoy these snacks worry-free as they come in controlled portions of 20g and contain less than 80 calories per bag.
Founded by friends Guiseppe Baidoo and Claudio Owusu, Gusto has progressed since its 2018 inception. They secured initial funding through university grants. After years of product research, competition wins, networking, and raising venture capital, Gusto officially launched in 2020. Currently, there are 5 flavours: dark chocolate and salted caramel, chilli, mango, passionfruit, and coconut. Baidoo announced new products planned for launch by the end of the year 2025.
The brand’s knack for gutsy and clever guerrilla marketing has undoubtedly helped push them towards success. Their collaboration with Selfridges in 2021 boosted not only their brand credibility but also impressive sales. It was also the first time we got a taste of the brand’s clever storytelling tactics. The founders conducted street campaigns with handmade cardboard signs bearing slogans like “Our marketing budget is as low as our calories – buy our snacks so we can do better.” These innovative efforts resonated on social media, significantly increasing the brand’s visibility when they went viral.
Photo Credit: Gusto Snacks
Photo Credit: Gusto Snacks’ Instagram
Gusto’s latest campaign to get into Tesco, one of the largest supermarket chains in the world with stores across the UK, Europe and Asia, is another example of their unconventional marketing. Baidoo created an actual giant, oversized letter and aims to hand deliver it after he collects at least 30,000 customer signatures voting to get his products into their stores. They have 2,500 signatures to date, which seems like a long way from 30,000. However, Baidoo is unfazed. He recently pitched this campaign to Simon Squibb, a highly successful British entrepreneur known for his mission to support aspiring businesses. Squibb’s endorsement to his 3M followers could be a win for Gusto’s “Road to Tesco” campaign.
Gusto’s journey is not without bumps in the road. When corporate giant Holland and Barret (H&B), allegedly started to produce their brand of dried apple chips after meeting with Baidoo at a trade fair, instead of fighting them conventionally through legal channels, Baidoo channelled his energy into reclaiming the narrative and converting it into a marketing campaign. Dressed up in a robber costume holding yet another cardboard sign that read ‘Snacks so yummy, they copied in a hurry”, Baidoo took to the streets outside an H&B store, inviting consumers to taste test both brands of chips. This modern David and Goliath performance-type marketing battle, coupled with Baidoo’s bravery and tongue-in-cheek approach, paid off with the campaign going viral again and the brand inevitably winning even more hearts.
Photo Credit: Gusto Snacks’ Instagram
Born and raised in Italy to Ghanaian parents, both Baidoo and Owusu moved to London and launched their business in a country they knew nothing about. This determination and resilience endear them even more to their fans. In 2024, Gusto made its debut on the Startups 100 index, a list comprising the 100 fastest growth UK startups that have demonstrated heavy-duty market potential. They are also ranked #37 in the global top 100 next generation companies of 2024.
In today’s complex world of social media, where content is often flashy, created by artificial intelligence or both, it is increasingly difficult to know what is real. Every brand has its own story and its own way of telling it. Gusto’s strategy involves total transparency. Baidoo states, “Our journey is real, it’s not just about the wins, being honest is a good thing.”
Photo Credit: Gusto Snacks
Photo Credit: Gusto Snacks
Author: Li may Loo
Limay is a freelance writer, a passionate storyteller, and a dedicated foodie who has spent the past 20 years living in China, with the last 12 years immersed in the rustic charm of Dali countryside. A city girl at heart, she balances the quiet rhythm of rural life with a deep curiosity about people, places and flavours.
