Lotus Bakeries hits cereal start-up Holie’s with lawsuit

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”.

The 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.

Just Food approached Lotus for comment.

Holie’s 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.”

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 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.

“Lotus Bakeries hits cereal start-up Holie’s with lawsuit” was originally created and published by Just Food, a GlobalData owned brand.

The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.