Wild Oats

As long-term Essential customers and one of Bristol's most successful independent health stores, Wild Oats has been successfully expanding since the 1980s.  Essential have enjoyed a great relationship with all the staff at the Redland-based location and we are delighted to have our products in their store. 

We asked Marketing Manager Jordan Clements to tell us a little about the history of the business and what's happening now.

Thoughts on the market

The future of health and wellness looks bright, which is good news for us! More and more people are taking time to look after their mental health and physical health; they are taking supplements and ensuring they follow a healthy diet. There’s more of an understanding that what we put into our bodies really affects things like our immunity, energy levels and mood. We have two physical stores in Bristol and we have strong ties with our local community. However, we want to ensure as many people as possible have the opportunity to live a healthy lifestyle from the inside-out. That’s why we’ve expanded our product offering online with many of our items available for nationwide delivery.

History of the business

Over forty years ago we began our journey, turning our shelves over to sustainable, natural produce.  Wild Oats was born in 1981 out of the passion that founders Mike and Loes Abrahams had for the wild and wonderful world of healthy wholefoods. There were few shops of its kind around in those days, but the demand for healthy wholefoods was growing rapidly. The shop with it's increasing knowledge and pioneering foodstuffs quickly grew from strength to strength.

By June 1987, the shop had doubled in size and offered more product lines than ever. Today, Wild Oats continues to pave the way for independent health stores and sets a wonderful example for others to follow. From a store where grain was sold from sacks on the floor, Wild Oats now houses one of the Bristol’s most extensive ranges of quirky wholefoods, supplements and natural remedies. The management team collectively have decades of experience in the industry, so it’s worth paying a visit and soaking up their knowledge.