Nice Rice, the British challenger brand redefining how rice is grown, sourced, and enjoyed, today announces a major rebrand – marking the next stage in the company’s growth journey.
Building on the momentum achieved since launch, the rebrand represents a strategic evolution from sustainability-led messaging to a quality-first positioning designed to unlock further growth in one of grocery’s most overlooked categories.
Centred on the new brand promise, “Extraordinary Rice for Everyday Cooking”, the rebrand introduces a refreshed visual identity, redesigned packaging and a sharper consumer proposition. Together, these changes are designed to elevate perceptions of rice, encouraging consumers to think differently about the category and the role it can play in everyday cooking.
Leading the next wave of premiumisation
Over the past decade, shoppers have steadily traded up across everyday staples such as coffee, olive oil, tea, and chocolate, driven by growing interest in provenance, quality and craft. More recently, even categories like beans have seen a quiet “glow up”, with brands reframing them with premium, quality-led products rather than commodity tins.
Yet rice – one of the most widely consumed foods in the world – has remained largely untouched by this shift. It is still dominated by anonymous blends, unclear origins and price-led competition, with limited differentiation at fixture.
Nice Rice is set to change this.
“Food culture is now mainstream – people care more than ever about the quality of what they cook,” said founder Fergus O’Sullivan. “Rice has been left behind. We see a huge opportunity to bring the same care, sourcing standards and excitement to rice that consumers now expect from other pantry staples.”
The rebrand positions Nice Rice at the forefront of that opportunity.
A shift driven by customer insight
Since launching in 2023, Nice Rice has built its early identity around the environmental case for better rice farming. But as the business grew, a clearer truth emerged: customers weren’t buying Nice Rice because it was more sustainable – they were buying it because it was better quality.
“When we spoke to our most loyal customers, they all told us the same thing: they’d never realised how good rice could taste,” said Fergus. “That was the turning point. We realised we were limiting ourselves by talking primarily about sustainability rather than talking about what customers already valued most – quality.”
The rebrand reflects that shift, moving Nice Rice to a quality-led positioning while retaining sustainability as a core pillar of how the business operates.
Raising standards in the rice aisle
Nice Rice uses a single-origin, single-variety approach to sourcing, selecting individual basmati varieties based on quality and cooking performance for each of their products.
Sustainability is fully embedded in the business model as 100% of Nice Rice growers are certified to industry-leading sustainable farming standards, and the company is a certified B Corp. Product-level climate footprints are published on-pack across the dry rice range, increasing transparency and helping raise awareness of the relationship between everyday food choices and the climate crisis.
Through the Nice Rice Foundation, the brand also supports the expansion of more sustainable farming practices across smallholder rice-growing communities.
Built for growth
The rebrand comes as Nice Rice enters a new phase of retail growth. The brand has continued to scale, delivering 70% year-on-year growth on Ocado.
The dry rice range will launch in Tesco stores nationwide from 6th of July, joining existing listings in Booths and independent retailers across the UK.
Further foodservice and brand partnership announcements are expected later this summer.
Early recognition
Since launch, Nice Rice has gained early industry recognition, including:
Winner, Future of Food Competition 2024
Four Great Taste Awards
Finalist, The Grocer Startup of the Year 2025
Winner, The Grocer Gold New Product & Packaging Award
Won Gold in the Farm Shop & Deli Awards
A bigger ambition
For Nice Rice, the rebrand is not just a visual update, but a category ambition.
“We want to help shift rice from a commodity to something people actively choose and enjoy,” said O’Sullivan. “That starts by showing consumers that better rice exists, and once expectations change, the category changes with them.”
