The former labourer set to make £400m from Huel sale: Founder of Idris Elba-backed protein shake maker who once dug up roads for a living sells firm to French food giant Danone
A former labourer who left school at 16 with two E grades was today in line to become a multi-millionaire after selling his drinks company Huel to Danone for £860million.Julian Hearn is set to make more than £400million after the French company behind Activia yoghurts and Evian water agreed a deal for Huel, which he founded in 2015.Just 11 years later the serial entrepreneur, whose first job as a teenager was digging holes in roads in his native Buckinghamshire, is selling his entire stake in the firm.Mr Hearn, 54, owns just under half the Hertfordshire-based business which targets health-conscious millennials, commuters and those too busy to cook meals.While working as a labourer, Mr Hearn's then-girlfriend said he was 'too bright' for such a job – so he went back into education, studying at Bournemouth University.Achieving a 2:1 degree in marketing, he went on to work for Starbucks, Tesco and Waitrose before setting up creative agency Mash up Media, which he sold in 2011.By 2015, he set up Huel from his garage to provide nutritionally complete food products, aimed at reducing meal times and providing essential nutrients.Mr Hearn worked on the protein shake products - whose name comes from a combination of 'human' and 'fuel' - with former NHS dietician James Collier. Julian Hearn is set to make more than £400million after Danone agreed a deal to buy Huel Huel chief executive James McMaster with actor Idris Elba, one of the firm's celebrity backersThe brand has rapidly grown in the years since, expanding into retail stores and growing its product range to items including powders, snack bars and drinks.Huel's main product remains its meal replacement drink, which it proclaims is a 'nutritionally complete' serving, but it has also expanded into instant pasta pots.The business has grown to post annual profits of about £14million and is sold in more than 25,000 stores and supermarkets around the world.In 2022, Luther star Idris Elba, 53, and his wife Sabrina, 36, backed Huel in a £20million fundraising – and they now also stand to cash in from the sale.The celebrity-backed funding round valued Huel at more than £400million, with other investors including broadcaster Jonathan Ross and influencer Grace Beverley.Steven Bartlett, presenter of the Diary Of A CEO podcast, also holds a small stake. He resigned as a director last year, according to filings at Companies House.But in 2024, adverts for Huel, in which Bartlett praised its products' health benefits, were banned by the Advertising Standards Authority.The watchdog said the social media promotions were 'misleading' as the brand had failed to disclose that Bartlett, who is also a star on Dragons' Den, had a financial interest in the business. Julian Hearn, pictured holding one of his products in a Sainsbury's supermarket in 2019 Steven Bartlett, presenter of the Diary Of A CEO podcast, also holds a small stake in the firmHuel chief executive James McMaster will remain in charge of the company.He said: 'We've grown into an omnichannel business with a strong direct-to-consumer foundation, an expanding international footprint and a retail business that's scaling quickly.'With Danone, we will now have the infrastructure, distribution and R&D capability to go further, into new markets and to more people, as demand for convenient, complete nutrition continues to grow.'We're so proud of what the team has built and excited about what comes next.'The deal comes amid efforts by Danone to expand further in the 'functional nutrition' sector.Danone chief executive Antoine de Saint-Affrique said: 'We are delighted to welcome Huel and the Huel team into the Danone family.'What they have achieved in the fast-growing complete nutrition space fully resonates with Danone's mission of delivering health through food.'Combining their range and best-in-class digital capabilities with Danone's global reach and deep nutritional expertise offers exciting opportunities into the new and fast-growing nutritionally complete space, in line with our renew Danone strategy.'
