With some well-timed funding from SWIG Finance, husband-and-wife entrepreneurs Simon and Helena Hills have taken TrueStart Coffee from their garden shed to a supermarket shelf near you
When husband-and-wife entrepreneurs Simon and Helena Hills launched TrueStart Barista Grade Instant Coffees in Bristol in 2015, their mission was “to make the world healthier and happier, one cup at a time”. Given that an estimated 67m cups of TrueStart were imbibed in 2025, you might consider that mission well and truly accomplished.
But TrueStart shows no signs of stopping, entering 2026 with the announcement that JamJar Investments – run by the founders of innocent smoothies – and DLF Venture had paired with TrueStart in a multi-million-pound investment deal. “It’s such validation,” says Helena. “We started a thing we really believed in, then we became completely obsessed with it, and with challenging the system to create a better default option – changing what ‘good’ looks like in a normal weekly shop.”
in 2015, budding triathletes Simon and Helena Hills set out to create top-quality coffee with a stable caffeine hit and no crash.
It’s all a far cry from when budding triathletes Simon and Helena set out to create top-quality coffee with a stable caffeine hit and no crash. “We were drinking loads of coffee to keep us going, and it just wasn’t doing the job,” recalls Helena. Initial marketing strategy was simply to hand it out to shivering athletes at sporting events (they still do this, with last year’s 25k Bath-to-Bristol Railway Race a case in point).
Having initially employed Simon’s mum as bookkeeper when starting out, TrueStart now has “a rocketship team” of 12, helped along the way by a cash injection of £158,000 from SWIG Finance in 2024.
Things stepped up several notches in 2025. TrueStart’s tenth anniversary year began with a concerted effort to conquer the nation’s supermarkets. Having launched in the Co-op in 2022, they set their sights on Ocado, Costco, Morrisons and Asda, and now have more than 5,000 supermarket distribution points across the UK.
In 2022, TrueStart’s Barista Grade Instant Coffee and Decaf Instant Coffee launches in 1,500 Co-op stores across the UK.
In TrueStart’s trademark style, the Asda launch in March was marked by a colourful flashmob in Asda at Longwell Green in Bristol (close to their HQ) and a vintage milk float to surprise customers around the city to celebrate launching into Morrisons. “That was a different kind of day,” laughs Simon. “We’ve always aimed to create videos and viral moments, and this was a big one – all the supermarket staff got involved.
“Everything we do is about doing things differently to our big-name competitors. You don’t see them doing flashmobs – it’s not on-brand. We need to be disruptive – show up, be exciting, show people what our coffee is about and how it makes you feel, not just tell them.”
TrueStart is certainly doing that. Check out their social media feeds, which are rammed with feel-good events – field marketing executive Paul Mummery did the Frome Cobble Wobble in brand colours, a “bright yellow Bradley Wiggins” – and one milestone achievement after another.
TrueStart’s coffee range spans instant, ground, beans, bags and cold-brew. A ground-breaking Lightly Caffeinated product, launched as instant format in 2023, was bolstered by beans and coffee bags in June 2025, and supported by a 400,000-reach influencer campaign.
In 2023, TrueStart launches its ground-breaking Lightly Caffeinated product.
“Our delicious decaf launched five years ago and has always performed well, much better than the normal category average,” says Simon. “It’s all about being better-for-you coffee, and our Lightly Caffeinated product is unique in the market for people who want to cut down on their caffeine intake while drinking more coffee in the afternoons.”
October saw a huge marketing push. Identified as the 24th fastest-growing, profitable independent business across all sectors, the company was one of a handful to be selected by ITV Ignite for media investment, enabling national reach at a reduced cost. This resulted in TrueStart’s first ever TV ad, to be shown in commercial breaks during breakfast programming (Helena and Simon even had a cameo).
The campaign was backed up with billboards going live across London and Bristol – its biggest Out-of-Home (OOH) campaign to date; handing out 5,000 coffees to passers-by during commuter hours and lunch breaks to hammer the message home and put smiles on faces; and a full page ad in The Grocer to show the major players that TrueStart had landed.
The results speak for themselves. Simon estimates around eight million households were exposed to the ad over a week, plus 12 million views online and around seven million billboard impacts across the two cities. It all adds up to a 7% nationwide increase in brand awareness, an uplift in sales of over 200% in some retailers, and a spike in organic search of 82%.
“The implications are huge,” says Simon. “It got everyone talking about us and gave us a real feeling of being on the map. That’s immeasurable. And it’s the kind of thing your mum gets excited about: ‘You’re on TV!’”
In 2024, the workforce doubles with the help of a £158,000 loan delivered by SWIG Finance.
Collaborations included a coffee-flavoured ice cream with fellow South West B Corp Marshfield Farm; and a bright yellow, limited TrueStart edition of De’Longhi’s barista-grade La Specialista Arte coffee machine. Mutual connections had led to TrueStart using De’Longhi machines and co-branded vehicles at events, while the Italian coffee titan uses TrueStart coffee for UK sampling events. Having their own machine “amplified that we are a real coffee brand now”, as well as generating over three million impressions and boosting organic search by 60%.
In November, TrueStart was ranked among the top coffee brands by Ethical Consumer, thanks to factors including B Corp certification, a carbon negative approach and working with charities including Rewilding Britain and Cycle of Good, whose team of seamstresses combine used hessian coffee sacks with old bike tyres to make stylish shopping bags.
Simon was more than happy to be in the company of fellow conscientious companies: “There are lots of good smaller coffee companies out there doing really good things, but they are not our competitors,” he explains. “Our aim is to take more market share away from the industry giants and challenge the status quo.”
On a personal level, Simon and Helena moved house with their two young children, finally leaving behind the garden shed where their business was born. The team had moved into new premises – “a slightly larger shed” – the year before, but it was nevertheless a “quietly emotional” moment.
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Simon pays glowing tribute to the role SWIG Finance, especially lending and markets director Nicola Parker, has played in enabling business to upscale.
“SWIG helped us immensely, in a word. When we were about to launch into Asda and Costco, we needed money to buy stock and make the most of these huge opportunities. We drew a blank with the traditional banks at the time, due to the risk appetite of their algorithms.
“In contrast, Nic came to see us in our garden shed and said, ‘This is the kind of business SWIG Finance likes to help.’ She looked beyond the algorithm and ‘computer says no’, could see the vision, and got us the money within two or three weeks because she believed in it.
“It’s a funny thing when you’re trying to scale up – you can see the opportunities, but you’re constrained by finances. We needed to be able to just go for it, and we’ve multiplied the business eightfold thanks to the cash injection we received from SWIG Finance, which was absolutely the right partner for us.”
In 2025, supermarket reach extends into Ocado, Morrisons, Asda and Costco. In partnership with ITV Ignite, TrueStart produces its first TV ad which beams into eight million homes over breakfast in October.
For her part, Nicola adds: “Simon and Helena are as tenacious as they are inspirational, which is a strong combination. It was clear when I first met them that they had a passion and a strong vision for the future, and the opportunity for SWIG to be a part of the growth was exciting.
“Hearing the successes and challenges of the business to this point, I could tell they had a clear picture of what was coming next and that they understood what they needed to demonstrate to obtain support for the loan, as well as the benefits of an ongoing relationship as the business developed.
“It has been a pleasure to see the continued growth and development of the strong team they are building around them for the future. I look forward to seeing what comes next!”
By 2026, JamJar Investments – run by the founders of innocent smoothies – and DLF Venture join TrueStart in a multi-million-pound deal.
That can be summed up in one word: MORE. That’s more retail, more team members (at the time of writing, there were six vacancies waiting to be filled) and more product sampling. “It’s really exciting, and rather surreal,” Simon admits. “It’s ultimately still me, Helena and the amazing people around us, taking on some of the biggest food & drink companies in the world. It’s not easy, it’s a massive rollercoaster with ups and downs. But we love a challenge – we live for it.
“It’s humbling when someone excitedly sends you a photo of a tin of your coffee on a farm shop shelf in the middle of nowhere. Hundreds of people message us to say they are drinking our product and it’s making them feel better. We might not be changing the world, but we are making millions of people feel happier and healthier – making them feel good. Like so many great people, SWIG Finance is part of that project.”
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SWIG Finance is a people-based lender that provides loans and support to help smaller businesses in the South and West Country grow. We base our lending decisions on potential rather than collateral, which means that we can often support businesses when others can't.
We’re growing every year. In 2024/25, we lent £14.8m to 501 businesses, helping to create and secure over 1,272 jobs and generate £75.7m in social impact. Download the report here.
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