Pretzels have been twisted into shape in Europe for well over a thousand years, but it took a British medical-school dropout selling olives from a market stall to turn them into one of the UK's fastest-growing snack launches.
From European monasteries to British snacking
The pretzel itself is one of the oldest snack shapes in Europe, with monastic bakeries on the continent credited with the knotted shape centuries before it became a supermarket staple. Most pretzels sold in Britain historically came from German and American brands. Olly's took that long-established shape and repositioned it as a lighter, "better-for-you" alternative to crisps for the UK market.
From an olive stall to a snack brand
Olly's was founded by Olly Hiscocks in 2016, who dropped out of medical school to start an olive stall in a West London market, launching the business as Olly's Olives with unpasteurised olive snack pouches. It was a narrow, single-product start — a long way from the multi-category snack brand it would become.
The pivot to pretzels
When the pandemic hit in 2020, Olly's diversified out of olives and into wider snacking, launching nut mixes, chocolate-covered pretzels and pretzel thins through 2020 and 2021. The pretzel thins launched in two flavours, Original Salted and Multi-seed Sesame, each containing fewer than 100 calories per pack and, according to the brand, up to 80% less saturated fat than potato crisps. At the start of 2021, the business rebranded from Olly's Olives to simply Olly's to reflect its broader snacking range.
Fastest growing in the category
The bet on pretzels paid off. According to Nielsen data, Olly's was the fastest-growing pretzel brand in the UK in 2022, a rapid rise for a company that started out on a single market stall just six years earlier.
Frequently asked questions
Who founded Olly's Pretzels?
Olly's was founded by Olly Hiscocks in 2016, who dropped out of medical school to start an olive stall in a West London market under the name Olly's Olives, before the brand expanded into pretzels and other snacks.
When did Olly's launch its pretzels?
Olly's Pretzel Thins launched in 2020-2021 as the brand diversified beyond olives during the pandemic, arriving in Original Salted and Multi-seed Sesame flavours.
What makes Olly's Pretzels "better for you"?
Each pack contains fewer than 100 calories and up to 80% less saturated fat than potato crisps, positioning the pretzels as a lighter alternative within the UK snacking category, where Olly's was named the UK's fastest-growing pretzel brand in Nielsen's 2022 data.