Mentoring: For Aisha

For Aisha won the 2020 Onboard Hospitality Mentoring Award for its halal baby food products. Here we catch up with founder Mark Salter

Like many businesses, 2020 has been a big year of change for us,” says Mark salter, founder, For Aisha. “Demand for baby food is as strong as ever, online ordering has increased significantly and the demand for halal food in particular continues to rise.

“The For Aisha brand has won numerous awards this year, including the Onboard Hospitality Mentoring Award and we believe this was due to our innovative recipes and relevant packaging for the travel sector.”

Spreading the word

“This year we invested heavily in digital marketing, social media and working with key parent influencers, as well as running advertisements on Islam Channel TV throughout Ramadan. This investment ensured that millions of Muslim families frequently saw the For Aisha brand.

“We moved much of our manufacturing operations to the UK, which enabled us to gain HMC (ESMA approved) certification. With that certification and new multilingual packaging, the brand has been able to expand its business internationally for the first time.

We’re now working on two brand new product ranges, which will be ready to launch in early 2021.”

Expert advice

As part of their prize package, For Aisha were put in touch with Mike Pooley of

The Hayward Partnership and the Onboard Hospitality Mentoring Network to advise on breaking into the inflight market.

“Mike is a fantastic mentor,” says Mark. “He has a wealth of knowledge and senior experience in the travel sector. He navigated For Aisha through the routes to market in the travel sector and helped us to understand how the buying programmes work and the type of questions we could expect from buyers and service operators.

“He also offered to help with logistics and supply chain needs if required and always found time for broader topics such as the travel industry dynamics and politics, the influencers, and the need for patience!” •