German retailer REWE has opened its first purely plant-based supermarket in Berlin, offering more than 2,700 vegan SKUs.
The store is the first vegan outlet for REWE Group, which operates more than 3,800 stores, and offers everything from organic vegetables to cheese and meat alternatives.
The chief operating officer of REWE Group, Peter Maly, said that the store shows "how varied and large [REWE's] selection of vegan products is. We have been recognised several times in the past as vegan pioneers in the food trade, and the strong response from our customers also encourages us.”
Regular REWE stores usually offer up to 1,400 vegan SKUs, with milk alternatives and fresh convenience products particularly popular among shoppers.
The vegan store, located on the Warschauer Brücke, in the Friedrichshain district, spans 212 square metres of sales area.
Private-Label Presence
The store offers products from the grocer’s own brands: REWE Bio + vegan, REWE Bio, REWE Beste Wahl, and Vivess.
The assortment includes oat drinks, smoked tofu, and falafel balls from REWE Bio + vegan, among other products.
The company also offers products from Rügenwalder, Oatly and Alpro, as well as new companies, including organically-certified sweets, dips and sauces from Not Guilty and vegan meatloaf and köttbullar (meatballs) from Greenforce.
The plant-based store also features a selection of more than 50 items from the brands Bedda, Bettr and Koro, as well as exclusive products from BioVegan, ranging from baking mixes to dressings and pasta toppings.
Organic chips from Heimatgut, cornflakes from Wholey, and bowls from Goodbank are sourced directly from Berlin, REWE added.
Elsewhere, the product offering includes vegan eggnog from the Berlin spirit manufacturer Mampe.
The store also houses an ice-cream machine, allowing customers to try soft plant-based ice cream.
The outlet has three self-checkout cash registers, while it also offers the ‘Scan&Go’ service, allowing shoppers to scan their groceries as they walk along the shelves, using a hand scanner or smartphone.
