Lotus Bakeries, the Belgian snacks major, has taken Dutch cereal start-up Holie’s to court in an advertising spat.
The owner of the Nakd and Trek brands has taken exception to advertising from Holie’s that highlights the levels of sugar in cereals and snack bars.
Holie’s has devised a “sugar score” that ranks products with a score of A to C based on the sugar content listed on packaging.
A stands for products containing 0-5% sugar, B for 5-10% and C for more than 10% sugar.
The Holie’s campaign highlights brands including Nakd and Trek.
Holie’s acknowleged the score is “not an official nutrition label” but described the ranking as “our own initiative to help you make more conscious food choices”.
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By GlobalDataThe company added: “We’ve selected the top five best-selling supermarket cereals and bar products from each A-brand in the Netherlands and Belgium, based on 2025 NielsenIQ data. Then we rated them all using Holie’s Sugar-Score.”
A preliminary hearing took place in Amsterdam last week. According to Lotus, Holie’s is engaging in misleading comparative advertising and has breached marketing regulations.
Lotus expects a verdict to be announced later this month. “Holie’s self-created sugar score looks only at total sugar content, representing this as sugar cubes, without distinguishing between sugars that are naturally occurring and added sugars. That is misleading,” the company said. “It also ignores other important nutritional factors like fibre and protein, which creates a skewed picture for the consumer.”
Amsterdam-based Holie’s was set up by Merick Schoute and Valentijn van Santvoort in the Netherlands in 2018.
Holie’s markets cereals it deems are healthier than other competitors in the sector, being free from added sugars and sweeteners and high in protein and fibre.
The business added: “A product that contains 5g of sugar per 100g or less (0–5% sugar) is officially classified as ‘low in sugar.’ Therefore, this was a reasonable and honest range for the A classification. Logically, B then covered 5–10%, and C, 10% or more.”
The company has more than 20 SKUs sold in retail in the Netherlands and Belgium and booked €13.4m ($14m) in annual revenue for 2024.
In January, the group launched in the UK market through online retailer Ocado.
