“Chlorinated chickens are likely to be a bit of a red herring”
While food standards are undoubtedly important to protect public health, consumers are increasingly rejecting low quality, overly cheap food
Wylde Market runs the UK’s online farmers’ market, connecting the UK’s best independent food producers with consumers across England, Wales and Scotland
The model gives great food producers accesses to a national market. Producers set their own prices and Wylde arranges delivery
8/5/25, Twickenham, London: Food entrepreneur Nick Jefferson, the co-founder and CEO of online famers’ market Wylde, comments on news that the US and the UK have reached an outline trade deal.
“Talk of trade deals with the US always comes with worries about US food imports, and the debate often turns to chlorinated chickens and the like. But I think that chlorinated chickens are likely to be a bit of a red herring,” Jefferson said.
“In my experience UK consumers aren’t demanding even more commoditised and industrialised food – because that’s easy to get hold of already. If anything, consumers are becoming increasingly aware of the implications food industrialisation has to their health and the health of the planet.”
“An increasingly large amount of the market is moving towards higher quality, ethically produced food with less of a footprint. And much of this is produced by the UK’s many small suppliers. Unfortunately, they find it hard to deal with supermarkets. That’s where Wylde comes in. We’ve created a national market for the best small producers who set their own prices and aren’t beholden to the supermarket distribution system,” Jefferson said.
“While US farmers will undoubtedly be keen to ship their produce over here, UK consumers are likely to be less keen to buy it,” he said.
Wylde was launched in September 2023 by entrepreneurs Nick Jefferson, 48, and Ella Cooper, 29, with a mission to revolutionise the UK’s food distribution system by making the country’s best regenerative, organic and biodynamic produce available by direct delivery to consumers nationwide. And all in one box.
Wylde works with scores of farmers, fishermen, foragers, hunters, artisan producers, brewers, bakers, wine importers and many more. Wylde lists food and drink on its online marketplace and delivers aggregated customer orders anywhere in Great Britain, apart from the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.
“Our goal is to put great food on people’s tables, but really, we are trying to disrupt Britain’s dreary supermarket-dominated food distribution system by creating a national farmers’ market that gives small producers a country-wide reach,” Jefferson said.
Last month, Wylde’s founders Nick Jefferson and Ella Cooper, were shortlisted for the British Library’s Food Season prestigious inaugural Food Hero award.
This is what the Library said in its award citation:
“What makes Wylde stand out … is how Wylde is challenging head-on the food system status quo. Wylde is fearless in questioning the role of supermarkets and showing how a reliance on them is damaging to the food system, health and the environment.”
The business launched to the public in September 2023 and has demonstrated strong growth. The number of producers on the market has more than tripled, from 20 at launch to more than 60 now. At launch, customers’ average order value was £55. It now stands at over £95. Meanwhile Wylde Market has already done a great job of reaching customers. A year after launch in September 2024, the business had 10,000 subscribers. That’s more than doubled to 25,000 today.
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Notes to Editors
· Wylde is the UK’s online farmers’ market connecting customers directly to farmers, fishermen and artisanal food producers. It offers products that are fresher, more sustainable, and of higher quality than those found in the supermarket.
· The market is all online. Customers can shop from their phone, tablet or laptop and everything arrives in one convenient box on Fridays with nationwide delivery.
· Producers can access new customers across the UK and, because they set the price of the produce, they get a fair price for what they farm, catch or make.
· As the business holds no stock and, at its core, puts producers in touch with consumers and arranges delivery, it is highly scalable. 80% of sales are generated from outside of the M25.
· The UK online grocery market is worth £22 billion and is set to grow by 22% in the next five years. The UK organic food market is now worth £3 billion.
· Wylde Market’s founders Ella Cooper and Nick Jefferson were named in Delicious Magazine’s feature 15 food heroes making a change in 2025.