Stroud-based food company, Kitchen Garden have taken a number of their vegan products off the menu.
The Salmon Springs based company, who own and manufacture the brand Wolfy’s Porridge, have made the decision due to declining sales.
Wolfy’s have removed their Vegan Poppy & Lemon Porridge and Curry Couscous lines from their range. It comes after several brands saw a large reduction in their vegan-based sales volume. Last year, The Grocer reported that the Tofoo Co saw a 42% reduction in volume along with The Vegetarian Butcher being another major casualty seeing over 31% of it’s volume decrease.
(Source: https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/plant-based/meat-free-growth-tailing-off-as-retailers-shrink-ranges/677580.article).
James Horwood, joint-owner of KG Foods said: “The vegan market continues to stagnate, and over the last year or two we have seen a decline in demand for our vegan products. Because of this we made the commercial decision to de-list some of our vegan lines, despite good company growth.”
“There was a huge shift towards people being encouraged to try plant-based alternatives a few years ago and very quickly the market was absolutely saturated with vegan products – this was good news for vegetarians and vegans wanting something new, but I think that rapid increase in product range has now stopped and is, at least anecdotally, in reverse. We still have some vegan products in the range, and they sell well enough, but I feel the vegan market is somewhat stagnating”
Wolfy’s have had vegan lines listed in Waitrose, Coop, Ocado, Amazon and many other outlets in the past, but is now deciding to focus on new non-vegan lines to bolster its year-on-year growth such as their very successful Protein Porridge which recently received a listing with easyJet.
“We’ve launched two new flavours this year – Chocolate Porridge with Orange Marmalade, and Raspberry & Vanilla porridge – these products have already been well received with immediate listings with Ocado & Booths as well as many independents. This helps bolster our year-on-year growth, and with capacity filling up, we can focus on more profitable lines.”
Explaining his thoughts on why the vegan market could be in decline, James said: “Our vegan porridge uses only natural ingredients but I speculate that part of the reason for that stagnation is perhaps people can see how heavily-processed some of these vegan alternatives are and maybe they’re deciding they’re not as healthy as first thought. Or maybe consumers feel that going plant-based is not the answer to the climate-crisis, as touted by some. Exactly why vegan products are no longer as in-demand as before isn’t exactly clear right now and we need more data on that, but we have seen the effects within our sales and that’s why we have to say goodbye to some vegan lines to make way for some exciting new products later this year and early 2025.”
Established in 1989, KG Foods is owned by James Horwood and James Moinet – they own and manufacturers the Wolfy’s, NAFF, & Kitchen Garden brands as well as manufacturing for many other well-known brands.
