MIGHTY M.LK is a Leeds based company with a big mission – to switch one million people to plant milk. The company, which was founded by brothers, Tom and Nick Watkins in 2018, has gone from strength to strength.
The dynamic duo has been working hard with their team to produce the tastiest, healthiest and most sustainable M.LK possible. In just 3 years, the company has managed to get their products in over 5,000 stores in 12 different countries. But they are not done yet. They are exploring new ways to help more of us to make small changes to our diet so that we can have a mighty impact on the planet.
MIGHTY was founded in 2018, with the aim of shaking up the plant-based milk market, bringing in a more nutritious and sustainable product. MIGHTY M.LK has a low impact on the environment and, unlike many other plant-based milks, is big on flavour and has a solid nutrition profile.
The company began in Nick’s basement in Batley. The brothers had grown up drinking plant-based milks owing to intolerances, but were fed up with the poor taste and even poorer nutrition profile. “We were fed up with what was out there. Most of the plant-based milk options tasted terrible and were not great nutritionally. We decided to make a product that we wanted to drink and we wanted to give ourselves the challenge of showing people that a plant-based milk can taste good, so we decided to make pea milk. Yellow split peas are full of goodness, which means that making milk from them results in a product with more protein and calcium than regular plant milk, and they have a small carbon footprint, so the milks are sustainable too.” After the first attempt didn’t turn out very well, the brothers took advice from experts. “We really wanted to develop the product, so we worked hard, and by 2019 we launched MIGHTY M.LK in Sainsbury’s.“
After a successful launch, the brothers kept on working, with the aim of switching one million people to plant milk. And in the 3 years since then, they’ve come a long way and come up with lots of products, with lots of different executions. The most recent product to launch is M.LKOLOGY. ” M.LKOLOGY is here to help people make the switch to plant-based milk easy. It is made from biomass fermentation instead of soaking, and it means that the M.LK produced is much more like milk. We wanted to make it an easy swap from dairy to plant-based milk. We have made semi and whole M.LKOLOGY products and they are very similar to dairy milk in taste, texture and how they can be used. Milk-ology is the latest evolution of plant based milk to come to market. It’s the 3rd generation where we are seeing ‘like milk’ products coming to market. We have seen a similar thing happen with meat substitutes.”
In terms of popularity, “It might be a bit early to say, but it does seem that milk-like products are where the best-selling products will be. It’s looking like M.LKOLOGY will be popular. But, outside of M.LKOLOGY, our unsweetened milk is popular, especially amongst parents who have children with dairy allergies or intolerances.” Tom told me he loves the whole milk M.LKOLOGY product because it tastes great, whilst Nick’s favourite is the barista milk: ” It works really great with the Biscuit flavour Yorkshire Tea.”
Whilst some may see plant based milk products as being quite niche, when asked about their customers, they explained that “It’s a broad church because we have so many products. A big one is parents of children with allergies. Because our products have protein and nutrients, doctors recommend it. When children can’t have cow’s milk, parents can really worry, but our products help to make an easy switch. For example, we got a message from a lady who was moving to Rome. She filled two suitcases with MIGHTY M.LK because her children didn’t drink anything else. It was a little thing but it really cool to see.“
Nick: “Milk-ology will expand our audience. Because it is so similar to dairy milk, it will help us to engage with everyone. Even people that have been dairy drinkers all their lives. Also, our subscription service has just launched. We designed it so that it would be like a traditional milk man. It will make getting our M.LKs even easier and may help to expand our customers even more.“
Although MIGHTY is a young company, they have big plans for the future. The brothers told me: “We are always looking to the future. We have a big sign up at Elland Road, which says, ‘The future is MIGHTY’ and that is true. Our Milk-ology products are the 3rd generation in plant based products and we really want to make this work and take off. But we are only 3 years old and so anything could happen. Dairy consumption is a big choice that impacts the environment; people are focussed on what they can do personally. And dairy alternatives are helping people to make the switch. And we want to keep doing more so that we can make this possible.”
“We’re not preachy. We don’t want to force people to make a swap from dairy to plant-based M.LKs. Instead, we believe in our products and know that people will like it. When people try the M.LK and they say that they like it, then you can tell them about the benefits. We just ask people to try it.”
Nick: ‘In addition to our M.LKs tasting good, our products are also sustainable. They have all had a lifecycle analysis. We know what impact on the environment they have. We want to push this because by swapping to plant milks, which is even easier with M.LKOLOGY then they can have an environmental benefit.
We are really proud to be in Leeds and to have our centre of operations here. We love Leeds and are glad to see that lots of people here are trying out M.LKs.“
To find out more about MIGHTY, head to their website: https://www.mightydrinks.com/
Feature photograph: Tom and Nick Watkins.
