A North Tyneside entrepreneur and fitness enthusiast didn’t have too look far for inspiration when he decided to launch a nutritionally balanced food delivery business for gym-goers.
The Three Hungry Bears owes its name and distinct persona - including health goals and personality - to Dan Oliver's trio of teenage sons, Tom, Bob and Ben, with each boasting their own menu that matches their fitness goals.
Dan, who lives in North Shields, said: “My youngest son, Ben, was always known as The Bear and it’s a nickname that has stuck with him. In fact, all of my sons have grown up to be big guys – between 6ft 4in and 6ft 10in. So the bear metaphor works well on them!”
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Dan spotted a gap in the food delivery market during the recent lockdowns. An avid fitness enthusiast who trains most days of the week, he says he needs nutritionally balanced meals to get the best from his workouts. But like countless people he struggled to keep his diet on track when the Covid pandemic hit in early 2020 and the UK was plunged into a series of lockdowns and regional restrictions in a bid to tackle the virus and its variants.
He said: “Trying to balance training for muscle gain with a career, while raising three teenage sons is hard. It was even harder, however, when gyms closed during the pandemic.
“Like many families, we got into the habit of turning to takeaway food to keep everyone happy when we were too tired, or too busy to cook. But the one thing I have learned since then is that you can’t outrun a bad diet on a treadmill, you need the right diet and exercise.”
Dan added that one of his main frustrations was with the choice of takeaway food, which is often limited to pizzas, kebabs and curries.
He said: “While there’s nothing wrong with a treat now and again, we all knew we would never hit our fitness goals being so reliant on this kind of food. With body-building and weight loss, 50% of your results come from exercise, but the other half comes from what you eat.”
Dan came up with the initial menu based on shredding, bulking and cheating during lockdown. He explained: “The idea was to offer a healthy alternative for busy families who might have training or diet goals but want to eat well together. Three bears representing three menus that support different goals.”
Dan has invested £25,000 of his own money to set everything up and has since created eight jobs. Tongue firmly in cheek he said: “The bears were able to sell some spare honey they had, that raised about 45p in funds. Director Investment has been our other source of finance.”
Each bear menu has a very distinct back story. Cutter bear’s menu has dishes that are low in calories, carbs and fat to support with weight-loss goals. Gainsley bear’s menu has lots of food that’s high in protein to support muscle development. Meanwhile, the Treats’ menu is pizza, burgers, wings and burritos that are optimised for flavour.
Dan said: “We want to help people to eat better because you can’t live on takeaway food. We have worked hard to find ingredients and recipes that mean our customers can still enjoy fun, tasty food and hit their calorie, carb or protein goal. On our menu, you’ll find rice dishes, skinny curries, steak, bear-itos, lean burgers and even pizzas.”
Customers place their order via Just Eat or Uber Eats, and can check out the calories, carbs and protein levels in each dish. The delivery service is open from Wednesday to Sunday, 1pm to 9pm and delivers across Newcastle, Gateshead and North Tyneside.
Dan is now looking to build relationships with gyms and personal trainers in the area.
He said: “The ultimate aim for us is to set up a franchise operation and branch out across the North East and UK by the end of 2022.” To this end, Dan has already been joined by directors Mollie and Callum Casey who deal with finance and marketing respectively, and Dalton Straughan, who heads up the operations side.
