Fife entrepreneur's company named among Scotland's fastest-growing businesses
Fife-based entrepreneur Donnie Maclean has seen his company Eat Balanced recognised as one of the Fifty Fastest-Growing Businesses in Scotland by the UK Fast Growth Index 2025 — a programme celebrating the most dynamic and rapidly expanding firms across the UK.
Founded and led by Donnie from Kinghorn, Eat Balanced first made headlines in 2012 with the launch of the world’s first nutritionally balanced pizza. After early supermarket success and a challenging period that almost saw the business close, Donnie rebuilt the company from the ground up — this time with a renewed purpose: to help children eat better through his “Health by Stealth” approach.
Today, Eat Balanced supplies over eight million nutritionally balanced meals every year to schools, family restaurants, and theme parks across the UK — helping children get the nutrition they need, often without even realising it.
The UK Fast Growth Index identifies 350 high-performing companies across seven UK regions that collectively increased turnover by £7.7 billion between 2022 and 2024 — a remarkable growth rate of 182%.
Professor Dylan Jones-Evans OBE, Founder of the UK Fast Growth Index, said: “The UK Fast Growth Index demonstrates how a small number of fast-growing firms such as Eat Balanced can make a substantial contribution to the UK’s economic landscape, providing real examples of how innovation, enterprise and sheer hard work can make a real difference in all sectors.”
Reflecting on the recognition, Donnie Maclean, Founder and CEO of Eat Balanced, said: “This means a lot because our journey has been anything but straightforward. We’ve had the highs of launching in supermarkets, the lows of nearly losing everything, and then the hard work of rebuilding from scratch. But through it all, the mission has stayed the same — to make healthy eating accessible to everyone. The fact that we’re now helping millions of children eat better every day is the achievement I’m most proud of.”
Eat Balanced’s continued growth highlights the increasing demand for healthier, science-based food options in schools and the wider public sector — and puts Fife firmly on the map as home to one of Scotland’s most forward-thinking food businesses.