If you’d told me (Daisy, Founder) back in 2014 that my little kitchen experiments would one day be sold in over 400 stores…
I would’ve laughed, grabbed another spoonful of cacao, and kept rolling snacks in my tiny kitchen.
Fast forward 11 years - I’m still making our snacks by hand.
Still experimenting.
Still sneaking goodness into snacks…
But with a story most people don’t know.
Back then, I was a head chef and studying fitness - which meant I lived on protein bars.
Like… all the protein bars. If it came in a wrapper and promised energy, I probably ate it.
Our pantry looked like a supplement store aisle (thanks to my now-husband David working in the industry). But the protein bars? Let’s be honest - they tasted like highly sweetened and flavoured cardboard.
I’d eat them and feel bloated, foggy, or hungry again in half an hour.
You know that feeling when something is “healthy” but your body is like…
No thanks, try again.
So I did. I made my own. I still remember walking into Kakulas Brothers in Perth - grabbing cashews, dates, cacao, dried fruit, spices… piling them into brown paper bags like someone on a mission
Then I threw everything into the food processor. Buzz. Blend. Taste. “Well… that’s actually delicious.” And that tiny moment? That was the spark that became Sneaky Wholefoods.
From farmers markets to 400 stores (and why that didn’t feel like “success”)
By sharing my creations on Instagram and Facebook, Sneaky grew faster than I ever expected. One post led to a message. One message led to a market. Markets turned into cafés… then local stores… and by 2018, Sneaky was stocked in over 400 retailers.
From the outside, it looked like everything was going well. But behind the scenes?
It was relentless. At the time, David and I were both still working - him full-time, me part-time - while building Sneaky around early mornings, late nights, and weekends. Every spare hour went into making snacks, packing orders, delivering stock, or standing at a market stall.
We were producing tens of thousands of snacks by hand, powered by three Breville food processors, sore arms, tired eyes, and a lot of caffeine. There was no large factory machines, just manual automation and recipes taped to the wall. Every growth spurt meant longer days, later nights, and more pressure to keep up. And while Sneaky was growing on paper, we were feeling stretched thin.
As we expanded into distribution, we slowly lost control over parts of the business that mattered deeply to me. Snacks sat on shelves longer than they should. Communication was patchy. Decisions were made without us, but we were getting our snacks out into the world, so we should have been over the moon. But in reality watching others make more from our snacks than we did - snacks we poured our time, energy, and bodies into - was hard. Really hard.
We were often encouraged to change our recipes, chase low-carb, low sugar labels, and follow whatever was “selling” fast in the market at the time. But those were the very kinds of snacks I’d stepped away from years earlier - the ones that didn’t leave me feeling good, and the reason I started making my own in the first place. Sneaky was never built to follow trends. It was built to taste good, feel good, and stay true to the values it began with.
So when we chose not to bend, some distributors moved on slowly. At the time, it felt like a setback. Looking back, it was the moment Sneaky started finding its way back to itself. Because I realised this truth: Being in lots of stores doesn’t equal success. Being in the right stores does.
This also allowed me to bring the right people into Sneaky, including Steph, who qualified as a Nutritionist earlier this year, and now helps me protect the care, consistency, and values behind every snack we make.
When COVID hit in 2020, everything changed.
It pushed us to focus more on YOU - our online community and it changed the entire direction of our brand. Today, we still do wholesale… but intentionally.
We proudly work with one boutique distributor who truly gets us.
They:
✔ check in
✔ communicate honestly
✔ actually care about how our snacks are treated
✔ respect what Sneaky stands for
Over the past 6 years in particular, since that shift in 2020 we’ve focused on creating snacks that feel good to eat, are made with intention, and are given the time and care they deserve.
For you, that means snacks that haven’t been rushed, stripped back, or changed to chase trends. It means choosing quality over shortcuts, and staying small enough to protect what makes Sneaky, Sneaky.
You’ve trusted us to sneak a little goodness into your day, and that trust is something we hold and protect fiercely.
Daisy
Founder, Sneaky Wholefoods
