{"id":1199,"date":"2023-05-05T08:21:26","date_gmt":"2023-05-05T08:21:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpdev.bigredstar.uk\/?post_type=resources_content&p=1199"},"modified":"2026-01-06T15:26:36","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T15:26:36","slug":"keep-on-trufflin-the-story-of-trupig-vegan-and-building-a-chocolate-business-from-scratch","status":"publish","type":"resources_content","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.keylink.org\/?resources_content=keep-on-trufflin-the-story-of-trupig-vegan-and-building-a-chocolate-business-from-scratch","title":{"rendered":"Keep on Trufflin’: The Story of Trupig Vegan and Building a Chocolate Business from Scratch"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Keep on Trufflin\u2019: The Story of Trupig Vegan\nand Building a Chocolate Business from Scratch<\/b><\/span><\/p><\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Fr<\/span>om the outside looking in, a roller-derby-playing barista\/musician and a civil servant trading in their jobs in favour of opening a vegan chocolate business in Sheffield\u2019s ex-industrial quarter, Kelham Island, seems a little too fantastical. While it may sound like the plot of a British feel-good film you might see on channel 4, this is actually the tale of Trupig Vegan and how they built their chocolate business alongside a loyal vegan community.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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by Michael Rodber<\/p>

12 May 2023<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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How Trupig Vegan Began<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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We caught up with Lily, who runs and owns Trupig Vegan with her husband, Ian. In the early days, she used to pick up her then-small orders directly from our warehouse. Now, with award-winning chocolate and sell-out stock-drops, their community continues to grow alongside their passion and love for the art of chocolatiering.<\/span><\/p>

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With a story like theirs, the beginning seems like a perfect place to start. \u201cWe started what was then \u2018Truffle Pig\u2019 in 2016. It was Christmas time, and I like to say I enjoy making presents for people at Christmas, but it’s actually because I was quite cheap and skint and so I was making truffles for family and friends\u201d she says through a smile. \u201cI worked as a barista at a cafe, so I got to use their kitchen to experiment and make truffles. I think by March time I\u2019d quit my job; there was such a market for vegan chocolate – at the time, you couldn’t get it in the supermarket and especially not handmade stuff.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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For many, taking the leap to commit to running their business can take time, and can be daunting. Surrounded by positive and supportive communities however, the transition to running Trupig Vegan full-time came with minimal stress and setbacks. \u201cI’d always had three or four jobs at once, so being able to do this on the side was pretty easy. I play roller derby and that was where our first community was built from because I’d have stalls at games and events, and a lot of people at roller derby are vegan anyway\u201d Lily recalls. \u201cSo it had a ready-made market, as it were, where everyone’s really supportive. So that’s kind of what grew Trupig, and got the word out in the first place – we’d go and play different teams and then they’d hear about it and they put in orders too\u201d.<\/span><\/p>

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For Ian on the other hand, transitioning to committing fully to Trupig came with a little more complication, being a Civil Servant at the time. \u201cFor Ian, it was way harder because he had a real job with a pension and stability, and he’d done it for 20 years; that was like a difficult process\u201d, reflects Lily. Chocolatiering became a positive outlet for Ian, who talks openly about mental health through their platform, as Lily goes on to mention. \u201cIan had been off with anxiety and depression for about 18 months, and it was a really long road to get any redundancy and be able to get what he was owed. So we didn’t really know what we were doing at that time and Trupig became a helpful outlet for him to be able to help pack the orders and have our own space.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

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The Trupig Vegan Community<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Starting out from their spare room, Trupig have since moved into a space in Kelham Island in Sheffield, a former industrial village turned cultural hub for the likes of music, food, and craft beer. While Trupig has no shop front, their business thrives through a dedicated following online, and if you head over to their Instagram, it isn\u2019t hard to see why. Their passion for politics, animal welfare, and of course, chocolate, is on full display with each post – you might even forget you\u2019re looking at the profile of a business and not a close friend. It\u2019s this sincerity and authenticity (as well as their delicious chocolates) that have allowed Trupig to build such a dedicated community and fan-base.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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“The business grew really organically on Instagram, so we’re really lucky to have built a community from that\u201d, says Lily. \u201cI think the biggest thing for us has always been authenticity. It’s really obvious when a company starts selling vegan products and they’ve got absolutely no hat in the ring. It’s great that they\u2019re promoting veganism and it’s growing the awareness of it, but because the community is built on dedication and ethics, it’s clear when people aren\u2019t doing it for the right reasons. So I think just being an authentically vegan company in the first place is quite alluring to people that want to be part of that community\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Tru to their word, Lily and Ian have worked with multiple charities, raising money through their business. \u201cWe did the Dean Farm Trust chocolate bar, that was fun. We gave the profits to Dean Farm and then they actually invited us to go see them in Wales. So we went for our honeymoon! We\u2019ve also partnered with One Kind, which is a charity based up in Scotland, and they’re running a campaign at the minute around fox hunting. They sent us leaflets and badges and things and we’re doing a raffle with them\u201d, notes Lily. \u201cThe charity work is always something we’ve been super passionate about anyway. We’re in a privileged position of having some kind of platform and being able to profit off something that we love doing. If our values are based around the vegan community, then we should be able to raise money and give part of our profits to causes that we passionately believe in\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCheck out Trupig Vegan<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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From Truffle Pig to Trupig Vegan<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Another draw to Trupig is their offering of vegan alternative to mainstream chocolate brands, such as Kinder Bueno and Mars Bars. And while these tasty treats catch the eyes of many unfamiliar with Trupig, those in-the-know can\u2019t get enough of their chocolates, truffles, and fudge. \u201cWhen we first started making the bars, like the vegan version of Bueno, the Truno, there was no other available product like that. Then, when other companies began bringing them out too, we began trying other things. So then we did the hand-painted bonbons, which are really popular, we delved into fudge, depending what the market is dictating and what people want, we can get that out really quickly\u201d, says Lily. \u201cI think because we’re smaller, we’re able to adapt and grow with demand\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

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In 2022, due to a trademarking issue, Truffle Pig Vegan became Trupig. While the lead-up to the change was a stressful and difficult period for Lily and Ian, the change-up brought with it opportunity and hope in the re-brand, cementing their mantra – \u201cKeep on Trufflin\u2019\u201d. \u201cWhen we changed our name, the \u201cKeep on Trufflin\u2019\u201d mantra really stuck with us. Because it is just the two of us. We’re really lucky that we can just work week-to-week, and we\u2019ll carry on doing it for as long as we can. This is what we want to do, even if it’s just on the side, even if we can’t do this forever, but it’s still a passion project so even if do other things, we want to keep this going\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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You can find out more about Trupig Vegan on Instagram<\/a> and on the Trupig Vegan website<\/a>. If you\u2019re interested in the work of Dean Farm Trust<\/a>, \u00a0or One Kind<\/a>, you can visit their websites. <\/span><\/p>

And finally, if you\u2019d like to explore Keylink’s range of vegan chocolate products<\/a> you can use the filters on any page to see all items suitable for vegans.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Michael is a Marketing Executive with a penchant for punk rock, cheese, and indoor bouldering.<\/em><\/p>

His favourite chocolate is Valrhona Tanariva<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Keep on Trufflin\u2019: The Story of Trupig Vegan and Building a Chocolate Business from Scratch From the outside looking in, a roller-derby-playing barista\/musician and a civil servant trading in their jobs in favour of opening a vegan chocolate business in Sheffield\u2019s ex-industrial quarter, Kelham Island, seems a little too fantastical. While it may sound like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1199","resources_content","type-resources_content","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.keylink.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/resources_content\/1199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.keylink.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/resources_content"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.keylink.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/resources_content"}],"version-history":[{"count":81,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.keylink.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/resources_content\/1199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29270,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.keylink.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/resources_content\/1199\/revisions\/29270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.keylink.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2F&parent=1199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}