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Rob Brown

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As seen in: The Independent (UK), University of Oxford, Weight Watchers Magazine (UK), The Grocer, The Morning Advertiser, Property Week, Enterprise Nation, VMblog.com
Covers:  Business, food & drink, health & fitness, running, retail, healthcare
Freelance journalist - business, food, drink, retail, health.
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Rob Brown’s Journalist Portfolio

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Artificial sweeteners: Cure for obesity of dirty secret?

Artificial sweeteners: Cure for obesity of dirty secret?

The Grocer — Aspartame, ace K and sucralose have helped cut 30,000 tonnes of sugar from soft drinks. But as health concerns mount and the WHO pens new guidance, there are plenty of questions to answer...
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Lighting up off-grid Africa

Lighting up off-grid Africa

The Oxford Said Review — Off Grid Electric, a start-up launched by Oxford Saïd MBAs Erica Mackey and Xavier Helgesen, is powering a brighter future for households in sub-Saharan Africa...
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Sports nutrition: The rise of heroine chic

Sports nutrition: The rise of heroine chic

The Grocer — Size zeros might still rule the catwalks but a new ideal is emerging in gyms and on social media: tanned skin, rippling abs and thighs that would make a racehorse jealous. It’s now in fashion to be fit. How can grocery cash in?
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Flatpack to the Future

Flatpack to the Future

Property Week — Rob Brown reports on how Landsec is pioneering more efficient construction methods at 105 Sumner Street...
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How to find what moves you

How to find what moves you

WeightWatchers Magazine — Whether you're looking to fall in love with exercise for the first time or put the spark back in your schedule, here's our guide to getting active, finding a workout you love and making fitness a habit...
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Is there such a thing as green milk?

Is there such a thing as green milk?

The Grocer — The dairy industry has a problem: the 270 million dairy cows on earth burp too much. About 6% of methane emissions from human activity come from cows’ belches. So consumers are switching to milks made from crops such as soya beans (described by Greenpeace as the ‘leading cause of deforestation’ in the Amazon). Are these milks any greener? And which is best?
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Scaring the giants

Scaring the giants

The Grocer — As smokers switch to vaping big tobacco is scrabbling to invest while Trump moves to ban certain devices...
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Do what you can't: Running the Marathon des Sables with type 1 diabetes

Do what you can't: Running the Marathon des Sables with type 1 diabetes

diabeticdadruns.com — In April 2019, I became one of only a handful of type one diabetics runners to have completed the Marathon des Sables, a gruelling 140-mile race across the Sahara Desert. Here's my account of the run of my life...
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Grocery data explained: how do Kantar, Nielsen and IRI work?

Grocery data explained: how do Kantar, Nielsen and IRI work?

The Grocer — Question: what’s worth £99.2bn a year according to one trusted source, £117.8bn according to another and £147bn to another? Answer: the UK grocery market, as measured respectively by IRI Market Measurement, Kantar Take Home Grocery and Nielsen Scantrack, the big three grocery market analysis services most often quoted here at The Grocer...
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It's good to share: The benefits of group exercise for diabetics

It's good to share: The benefits of group exercise for diabetics

Balance Magazine — Exercise can be daunting for people living with either type of diabetes. The risk of hypos, raised blood glucose levels and injury puts many off. But the rewards of getting active are huge, and taking part in group exercise can help reduce the risks. Rob Brown looks at the benefits of group exercise for people with diabetes...
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Video: Can The Grocer create its own craft gin brand?

Video: Can The Grocer create its own craft gin brand?

The Grocer — Gin has contributed more to the boom in spirits than any other drink, according to Kantar. Of the sector’s £108.3m rise, £47m of it came from gin [52 w/e 19 June 2016], as the big brands splash out on NPD and marketing and the supermarkets stock up on so-called ‘craft’ brands. But what’s caused this renaissance for Mother’s Ruin? And how easy is it to create your own craft gin brand? We sent Rob Brown to find out…
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Will pond slime make it on to our plates?

Will pond slime make it on to our plates?

The Grocer — Strange but true: pond slime could hold the key to feeding the planet. That’s according to the growing number of companies cultivating fresh and saltwater microalgae for use in food and drink. Such operators are multiplying like, well, algae in the hot sun right now...
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Bridging the gap

Bridging the gap

The Oxford Said Review — Avery Bang, CEO of Bridges to Prosperity and Oxford MBA graduate, is shaping the world through physical connections that help communities out of rural isolation...
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Cosmos for the people: How cocktails are being democratised

Cosmos for the people: How cocktails are being democratised

The Morning Advertiser — It's enough to make the Sex and the City gang choke on their Cosmopolitans. For cocktails are no longer the preserve of hip young urbanites. Cocktail culture is going mainstream, with sales through pubs up 9.5% in the past year. What's driving this?
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High-street shops sever links with discount firm Webloyalty

High-street shops sever links with discount firm Webloyalty

The Independent — Debenhams, Asda, Thomas Cook, HMV and B&Q have severed or suspended their ties with one of the UK's biggest "pop up" internet discount groups, Webloyalty, after the scheme prompted a wave of complaints.
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Revealed: Daniel Craig is the booziest Bond ever

Revealed: Daniel Craig is the booziest Bond ever

The Grocer — I spent eight years crunching sales figures to reveal changes in the way Britain eats, drinks and shops. In 2015, with the Bond franchise teaming up with Belvedere vodka, I put my data analysis skills to another use: I revealed which Bond was the heaviest drinker...
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Why I'm not sorry for sending insulin to a stranger in the US (again)

Why I'm not sorry for sending insulin to a stranger in the US (again)

diabeticdadruns.com — A while back I was accused of ripping off the NHS for sending insulin I'd been advised to stop taking to a stranger who needed it in the US. I was told the US ‘foams at the mouth’ at the thought of social healthcare, I should have sent it somewhere more deserving and with Brexit looming, I should be stockpiling my insulin, not giving it away. I thought about all this long and hard, then I did it again. Here's why...
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Agents of change

Agents of change

The Oxford Said Review — What skills will the leaders of tomorrow need to thrive? McKinsey Senior Partner Dominic Barton shares his views...
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Employees with type one diabetes: Insights employers need to know

Employees with type one diabetes: Insights employers need to know

Enterprise Nation — Call me disabled because I have type one diabetes and you'll get a response that’s frostier than a polar bear's toenail. Yes, diabetes was a death sentence until insulin was first used to treat the condition in 1921, but today I can live a life as full and long as anyone else. Yet under UK employment law I am deemed disabled. What does this mean for employers?
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The death of the sugary soft drink?

The death of the sugary soft drink?

The Grocer — The soft drinks sector is facing unprecedented challenges: as the sugar levy bites, sales of classic fizzy pop are tanking as drinkers switch to lighter options or leave the market altogether. And, with public focus turning to plastic, the sector needs to clean up its environmental act. But how?
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Why leaders need the 'Love Quotient'

Why leaders need the 'Love Quotient'

The Oxford Said Review — Forget IQ. In this age of AI, leaders need to tap their LQ ('love quotient') to stand out from the bots, says Apple Senior Retail VP Angela Ahrendts...
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Video: Why I'm running 186 miles for T1International

Video: Why I'm running 186 miles for T1International

diabeticdadruns.com — Without insulin, you die. Yet it's estimated that half of the world's type one diabetics live without adequate access to the hormone most of us take for granted. That's why I'm about to run 186 miles in three days for the charity T1International...
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The great life juice scandal: Why I paid to ship insulin across the world to a stranger

The great life juice scandal: Why I paid to ship insulin across the world to a stranger

diabeticdadruns.com — Last week, I shipped a two-month supply of insulin from the UK to the US to a stranger I’d met online. We’d been talking after I offered to donate insulin I no longer needed on a Facebook group. She needed it, but couldn’t afford the $15 shipping, she said. So, I paid. Here’s why…
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How could mobile phones boost your bottom line?

How could mobile phones boost your bottom line?

The Morning Advertiser — Cash is king no more. In 2006, 62% of payments made in the UK were with cash. A decade later, that figure had fallen to 40%. By 2026, just 21% of transactions are expected to be with cash. Now, the technology that dethroned cash - first chip & pin and then contactless cards - is being usurped by another: mobile phone payments. What does this mean for the pub trade?
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