Plant-based meat is mushrooming - and retailers need to beef up.
US plant-based meat-maker Beyond Meat has been hitting the headlines in recent weeks as it headed towards a massive IPO, showing the growing appetite for new plant-based meat alternatives.
With investors betting big on beef-free burgers, it’s the latest sign that these types of products are going mainstream - and that retailers need to be getting in on the action too.
The Beyond Meat ‘burger’, which is meant to look, taste and even bleed like the real thing, was first created in California 10 years ago, but is now making its way to Europe.
The product was introduced to UK supermarkets at the end of last year in a deal with Tesco, while Ahold Delhaize brought it to stores in the Netherlands and Belgium in recent weeks, and Coop introduced it to Switzerland.
The concept has even reached the discounters, with Lidl pledging to commence stocking the burgers from the end of May.
Sales Growth
Last year, retail sales of plant-based meat substitutes were up by more than 23% to $760 million in the US, according to Nielsen, but it’s also a growing segment on this side of the Atlantic.
British bakery chain Gregg’s reported last week that sales have risen by 15% since the start of the year, boosted by demand for its new vegan sausage rolls, which were launched in January. Meanwhile, forecourt operator Applegreen recently introduced its own meat-free version in Ireland, perhaps signalling the start of a sausage-roll revolution.
But as most consumers in Europe make their food decisions in the supermarket aisles, what new options are retailers planning to give their shoppers?
Supermarket Trends
Veggie burgers are not a new sight on our supermarket shelves, and brands like Quorn and Linda McCartney Foods have been a staple for many vegetarians over the last few decades.
But recently there has been a shift to a new generation of plant-based products that taste and feel more like the real thing. A lot of the newer innovation has been coming from startups like Beyond Meat and rival Impossible Foods, but big brands are also starting to take note of the trend.
Nestlé is rolling out its new plant-based burgers in Europe over the next few months, in what the company called its “its biggest move yet into the meat-free market”. Elsewhere, even meat companies like Tyson and ABP are looking to get in on the action.
Flexitarian Movement
Earlier this month, UK supermarket giant Tesco announced that it will start selling plant-based alternatives in the meat aisles of its larger stores, including products from Heck, Dutch brand Vivera, Beyond Meat and Vegetarian Butcher.
The retailer described this as a response to changing eating habits in the UK, where around 3.5 million people now identify as vegan or vegetarian, and an increasing number of ‘flexitarians’ are cutting down on the amount of meat in their diets.
“The rise of eating more plant-based food and people becoming flexitarian is having a massive effect on the way many people shop and as a result the retail industry is having to adapt,” said Derek Sarno, Tesco’s director of plant-based innovation.
“Plant-based alternatives in general have become so high in quality that most life-long meat eaters are now including these foods as part of their diet. It makes sense to range them next to each other in the same aisle and bring a wider breadth of options available to choose from.”
Private Label
Nearly a quarter of European consumers say that they are trying to reduce their meat intake, according to Euromonitor, so there’s a huge potential market for retailers to tap into with new plant-based products of their own, via private label.
Many European retailers have focused on bringing out more vegetarian and vegan options in their private-label ranges, using ingredients such as beans, lentils, chickpeas, tofu, mushrooms, or jackfruit.
However, few have delved deeply into the world of plant-based meat alternatives in the same way as specialised startups and big-brand competitors.
But with consumer demand continuing to rise, there should be plenty of space in the market for more competition.
So if retailers can jump on the bandwagon, and create products that deliver when it comes to both taste and cost, they may be able to take a bigger slice of the one of the latest major food trends.
© 2019 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Sarah Harford. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
