I’m incredibly proud to announce that RED-Scue has been named one of Small Business Saturday’s Nation’s Favourite Businesses for 2026.
As a female-founded, athlete-led small business, this recognition means an incredible amount.
RED-Scue began with a very personal experience.
Before starting the business, I spent years training and competing at a high level, including representing the Spanish National Track & XC Team. I loved the sport and pushing myself to see what my body was capable of.
But alongside those experiences came injury after injury.
A ruptured Achilles. A meniscus injury. Long periods away from training and competing, trying to find my way back to the sport I loved.
Eventually, I had to take a step back and look at the bigger picture.
Getting back from injury wasn’t just about rehabilitation or getting physically stronger. I also had to rebuild my relationship with food and fuelling and learn to feel confident eating enough to support the training I was asking my body to do.
I started looking for convenient ways to get more quality carbohydrates into my day and around training.
But I often felt caught between two extremes.
On one side was preparing food myself. On the other were gels, chews, powders and highly manufactured sports nutrition products.
And RED-Scue was never about trying to compete with the big sports nutrition businesses by creating another version of what already existed.
I wanted to create something in the middle.
Natural, carbohydrate-first fuel that was convenient enough to take with me before, during and after training, while still being rooted in quality food ingredients.
That is where ingredients such as cassava and plantain came in.
I wanted to create the kind of convenient, natural fuel I had been looking for myself — something that made it easier to get quality carbohydrates around training, without feeling like my only options were to prepare everything from scratch or rely on gels, chews and heavily manufactured products.
And I wanted something that suited me and my stomach.
When I couldn’t find what I was looking for, I decided to create it.
That idea became RED-Scue.
But as I started speaking to more athletes, I realised I wasn’t the only one having these conversations.
So many people were dealing with confusion around nutrition and fuelling. Not knowing what or when to eat around training. Feeling unsure about how much they needed. Struggling to balance eating enough with the messages they had heard about food. And for many, gut struggles were another important part of the conversation.
Those conversations helped shape what RED-Scue has become.
What started as a very personal attempt to create the kind of fuel I needed — and something that could support my own return to sport, physically and mentally — has grown into something much bigger.
Community has been everything.
From our first pop-ups, races, and run club events to meeting athletes in person, hearing their experiences and receiving messages about the difference the bars have made to their fuelling, those conversations continue to shape everything we do.
There is something incredibly special about hearing that a product created from my own experience has helped someone else feel more confident about fuelling, find a convenient carbohydrate option they enjoy, or simply make eating around training feel a little easier.
Because RED-Scue has never simply been about creating another bar.
It is about making a difference to the way people fuel — making quality, natural carbohydrates more accessible, creating convenient fuel for the moments athletes actually need it, and listening to what people are genuinely looking for.
Ultimately, it is about helping people feel more confident in fuelling their bodies and creating a space where fuelling without fear feels possible.
To be recognised as one of Small Business Saturday’s Nation’s Favourite Businesses is an incredible honour, particularly as a growing independent, female-founded, athlete-led business built from lived experience.
Thank you to everyone who has supported RED-Scue so far — whether you’ve purchased a bar, visited us at a pop-up, shared our story, sent a message or simply followed the journey.
This recognition belongs to the community that has helped us get here.
