Sausage company Heck is reducing its range of plant-based meat-free products, citing lack of consumer appetite, stated recent reports.
The Yorkshire-based firm is shelving production of most of its vegan range of sausages and burgers, stated BBC, with its co-founder Jamie Keeble saying that shoppers were “not there yet” when it came to buying its vegan products.
The company will now make just two plant-based varieties – chipolatas and burgers – down from its original range of 10. Heck’s decision comes against a backdrop of waning interest in meat-free lines at other firms.
Heck said it would continue its production of 90,000 vegan sausages per day. UK consumers still wanted to replace meat with “something that reminds them of meat”, Keeble said.
“I think [demand] will come back around,” he added. “We had pulses and grains in the products. It was really nutritional but the public wasn’t really there yet.”
Heck is not the first maker to retreat his steps on plant-based production. Beyond Meat, which makes a plant-based range including burgers, sausages and chicken, suffered a slump in sales last year, blaming obstacles with consumers around taste, perception of health benefits and price.
Nestle also said in March it said it would stop selling its Garden Gourmet plant-based vegan brand in UK retailers less than two years after it first appeared on shelves.
However, market and consumer data provider Statista states that the meat-substitute market in the UK would grow annually by 17.53 per cent over the next five years.
The Vegan Society blamed cost-of-living crisis for this change in trend as inflation in the UK was having a “big impact” on people’s purchasing choices. However, it said falling sales of plant-based substitutes did not reflect a broader rejection of vegan options.
“Where there has been a drop in sales, it is not due to a decline in interest in veganism but rather a change in people’s spending habits,” the society said.
“Many people may be replacing both meat and meat-substitutes with more budget-friendly vegan options in a bid to make savings on their weekly shops,” it added.
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