Vegan Products Are ‘Transforming’ British Brands, Says The Guardian

Vegan products are ‘transforming British brands’, according to a report by The Guardian.

The piece, titled The vegan halo: how plant-based products are transforming British brands, cites a number of companies which have seen sales soar since launching animal-free alternatives.

Greggs

A focus of the article is high street bakery Greggs – which launched its vegan sausage roll in January this year in around half of its stores, instantly selling out, and creating mainstream media headlines as well as going viral on social media.

“The launch of the Greggs vegan sausage roll felt like something marketing experts and cultural commentators would be pulling apart for years to come,” says The Guardian.

“What is certain is that it was good for Greggs: its profits leaped more than 50 percent, to £40.6m, in the first six months of 2019…queues were forming at Greggs branches up and down the land and the Quorn factory in Darlington, where the filling is made, was going into overdrive.”

Vegan products

Due to the success of the vegan sausage roll, Greggs recently revealed it is working on vegan versions of all its bestselling products.

In an interview with LBC radio station, Greggs’ chief executive, Roger Whiteside said the company’s innovation team has plans for a new product he said will be as big as the vegan sausage roll – though refused to say what it is.

“We are working away to see if we can come up with a version of all our bestselling lines because people want vegan options,” Whiteside told LBC host Nick Ferrari.

“If we can produce something that tastes just as good as the meat version, then that will sell very successfully. That’s what’s been shown with the vegan sausage roll.”