Delivering three lines to UK kids—Multivitamin, Biotic+, and Greens + Superfoods—Hiya hopes its ‘clean’ and ‘dietitian-formulated’ products will help make healthy habits fun and engaging for UK kids.
The brand is marketed as a zero-sugar alternative to traditional kids gummy vitamins which fathers and co-founders Darren Litt and Adam Gillman were shocked to discover would sometimes each contain a teaspoon of sugar.
“Many children’s vitamins are basically candy in disguise — often filled with a teaspoon of added sugar, artificial ingredients, and other gummy additives that can contribute to cavities,” said Darren Litt, co-founder and CEO.
Litt explained why the UK was Hiya’s ‘natural step’ for international expansion.
“We identified a significant market irony: while UK parents are more health conscious than ever, retail shelves remain dominated by vitamins made with sugar, dyes, and gummy additives,” he said. “There is a clear overlap in the nutritional challenges facing families in both the US and UK, specifically the over-consumption of sugar through products positioned as ‘healthy’, including traditional children’s vitamins.”
Officially launched in 2020 before being acquired in 2024 by USANA Health Sciences for $260m, Hiya’s product line-up includes Hiya Kids Daily Multivitamin, a chewable multivitamin designed to help fill common nutritional gaps, providing 14 essential vitamins and minerals to support immunity, growth, and development.
Aiming to provide a chocolate milk ritual with a healthy punch, Hiya Kids Daily Greens & Superfoods blend is a chocolate-flavoured powder created to help picky eaters to consume more veggies. It contains more than 55 whole-food derived ingredients including quinoa, pumpkin seeds, broccoli, turmeric, carrot, spinach, ginger, and brussell sprouts, to support children’s growth, digestion, and brain health.
And offering a daily digestive support formula, Kids Daily Biotic + features three kid-targeted bacterial strains: Lactobacillus rhamnosus (GG), Lactobacillus paracasei, and Bifidobacterium lactis (ATCC SD5219), selected for their ability to support gut balance and digestive health.
Discussing why the portfolio includes chews, as opposed to gummies, Lott explained: “We made a deliberate choice to avoid gummies because they often include sugar, syrups, or gummy-based fillers that offer questionable health benefits.
“From a technical standpoint, the chewable format also allows us to focus on ingredient stability and precise dosing compared to the gummy format. This ensures we deliver a clean, sugar-free product while still making it enjoyable for children to take daily.”
The products come in refillable jars with collectable stickers to encourage personalization, ownership and continued use.
They are also independently third-party tested for quality, purity, and heavy metals, to ensure compliance with UK and European safety standards.
“Bringing Hiya to the UK is an important milestone for our team”, said Gillman, co-founder and president. “From day one, we’ve built the business around rigorous quality standards, trusted manufacturing partners and third-party testing to ensure every product meets the highest levels of safety and consistency.”
