Tesco scales back plant-based meat growth target amid shifting consumer tastes

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1. https://www.just-food.com/news/tesco-rows-back-on-300-plant-based-meat-growth-target/ - Please view link - unable to able to access data
2. https://www.reuters.com/business/beyond-meat-withdraws-annual-forecasts-targets-q2-sales-below-estimates-2025-05-07/ - Beyond Meat has withdrawn its annual sales forecast due to ongoing macroeconomic volatility and high inflation in the U.S., which have worsened already weak consumer demand for plant-based meat products. The company had previously projected $320 million to $335 million in revenue for the year. Its first-quarter revenue dropped by 9.1% to $68.7 million, falling short of analyst expectations. Weak performance was particularly noticeable in the U.S., with retail and foodservice revenues declining 15.4% and 23.5%, respectively. The company’s stock, which has declined for four consecutive years and is down 33% in 2025 alone, fell 5.5% in after-hours trading following disappointing quarterly results and a weaker outlook for the second quarter, projected at $80 million to $85 million against a $93.5 million estimate. CEO Ethan Brown cited economic uncertainty and reduced household budgets as key contributors to slowing demand. Meanwhile, Beyond Meat’s international segments in both retail and food service showed growth. The company also reported a wider-than-expected first-quarter loss of 69 cents per share and announced a $100 million debt financing agreement with the Ahimsa Foundation. Packaged food giant Unilever is similarly facing challenges with its plant-based brand, Vegetarian Butcher.
3. https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/unilever-faces-battle-reduce-plant-based-meat-exposure-2025-02-25/ - Unilever is struggling to attract buyers for its plant-based meat business, the Vegetarian Butcher, amid declining consumer interest in processed vegetarian products. Despite hopes of replicating the success of Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, Unilever's brand has been hit by a shift towards fresh produce and criticism of plant-based meats as 'ultra-processed.' The market's decline has led Unilever to consider selling the loss-making Vegetarian Butcher, which generates around €50 million in annual sales. However, industry experts suggest it may struggle to fetch an attractive price. Both Unilever and Nestle, which also faces similar challenges with its plant-based products, are focusing on fewer, more profitable brands. The decline in valuations for plant-based food brands, compounded by price sensitivity among cost-conscious consumers, presents further difficulties. The U.S. market for meat substitutes has shrunk, and investor confidence in the potential of meat alternatives remains challenged by their pricing relative to animal protein products.
4. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/oct/13/quorn-maker-supermarket-sales-marlow-foods-beyond-meat - The maker of the meat alternative Quorn dived £15.5m into the red last year amid soaring costs and a slowdown in sales at supermarkets. Middlesbrough-based Marlow Foods said sales to supermarkets and other retail outlets slid 4.3% last year, while total sales rose only 1.3% to £228m because of higher sales to takeaway groups and restaurants after the end of Covid lockdowns. The growth was well behind inflation, indicating that the volume of items sold fell. Quorn is the latest meat-free producer to reveal financial difficulties as the cost of living crisis and return to office working, university lecture halls and schools have shifted buying habits and burst the fake meat bubble. The volume of Marlow’s Quorn and Cauldron items sold in supermarkets plunged almost 11% and 23% respectively in the year to 15 July, according to Nielsen IQ data published by the Grocer trade journal in its latest report on the sector. In August, Beyond Meat, whose plant-based products include burgers that appear to bleed and imitations of sausages and meatballs, lowered its annual revenue forecast after quarterly sales slumped by almost a third. The vegan specialists, including Meatless Farm of Leeds and Lincolnshire-based Plant & Bean, which supplied companies including Quorn and Tesco’s Wicked Kitchen, called in administrators earlier this year as they battled lacklustre sales and hefty cost increases. Meanwhile, Sweden’s Oatly, the Swiss food company Nestlé and the London-based Innocent Drinks, which is owned by Coca-Cola, are among those that have pulled vegan products from sale in the UK this year. Marco Bertacca, the chief executive of Quorn Foods, said there had been “huge changes in consumer behaviour and turbulence in the global economy” last year, with inflationary pressure on costs, particularly on energy, glucose and egg albumen needed for its products, having “a significant impact” on the company.
5. https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/plant-based/meat-free-growth-tailing-off-as-retailers-shrink-ranges/677580.article - The number of meat alternative lines in the traditional big four and Waitrose fell 10.9% during the six months to 20 March. Meat-free ranging in the major mults has shrunk by over 10% in the past six months, in a sign of a category slowdown. The number of meat alternative lines on sale in the traditional big four and Waitrose fell 10.9% during the 26 weeks to 20 March, analysis of Assosia data by The Grocer has revealed. Bearing the brunt of this rationalisation was The Tofoo Co, which suffered a 42.9% decrease in range volumes. Unilever’s The Vegetarian Butcher was another big casualty, losing 31.6% of its lines in six months. The Tofoo Co’s owner and MD, David Knibbs said, ”at the end of 2022 we took the tough decision to reduce our range of Tofoo products and we have temporarily come out of frozen to concentrate our focus and energy on our core SKUs”. He emphasised that the range reduction had not had a “detremiental effect” on performance but in fact the brand was in growth.
6. https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2024/09/25/Alternative-meat-producer-Quorn-s-2023-profits-slump - Marlow’s losses exceeded £60m as the business continues to restructure in an alternative and plant-based meat market that’s only recently lost its sales spring. It's last pre-tax profit was in 2021, when £7.1m was generated. Revenues dropped 6.9% to £204.9m for the year to 31 December 2023, with sales plummeting to a near six-year low. International sales also slumped by 7.9% to £43.7m, driven mostly by a poor performance in Europe, where they dropped 6.9% to £28.7m, while the rest of the world was down £15m. Marlow Foods is owned by Philippines-based Monde Nissin and makes and sells Quorn products across the UK, Europe, Australia, South East Asia and the US. Quorn's profits up in foodservice Foodservice, a division recently renamed Quorn Pro, meanwhile, offered hope as sales rose 4.7% to £27.9m. The business would focus on such growth areas, including its burgeoning Marlow Ingredients division, which supplies mycoprotein as an ingredient to other food makers and created £300k of revenue for the period. Supermarket retail sales were a big sting in revenues, slipping 8.6% to £170.7m. Though Marlow would redouble efforts and focus on growing its retail market share, which has crept up in the past two years. Its global quick service restaurant arm would also remain a priority, despite revenues down 11% to £6m. Marlow already counts Pizza Hut, KFC, Costa Coffee and Greggs as QSR customers, though a recent order reduction from Greggs hit performance and was only slightly offset by KFC’s take-up of Marlow’s vegan chicken. A frozen food first with Quorn's Cheesy Nacho Nuggs.
7. https://www.foodnavigator.com/Article/2024/04/02/consumers-aren-t-swapping-plant-based-meat-for-meat - The cost-of-living crisis is contributing to the plant-based slowdown. As consumers tighten the purse strings, they’re less likely to splash out on plant-based meat alternatives – which often come with premium price tags. So what are they eating instead? When consumers are trying to cut costs, are they throwing cheaper meat-based products in the shopping basket instead? That’s not what retail insights suggest in the UK. The last ten years have seen the plant-based meat market surge, in both product volume and sales. In the UK, this trend aligns with consumers cutting down on meat consumption for predominantly health and environmental reasons. But that upwards trajectory started to slow around 2021. There’s been ‘pullback’ from meat-free as an alternatives category, explained Nathan Ward, business unit director at data and insights consultancy Kantar. The trend is not specific to the UK alone. Globally, plant-based meat players – even category pioneers such as Beyond Meat – have been suffering. That is not to say that amid cost-of-living pressures consumers are swapping out plant-based meat for meat. Kantar’s consumer data suggest that consumers are continuing to remove meat from their diets, they’re just going about it a different way. The plant-based meat market is generally almost as expensive, if not as expensive as meat products, Ward told us during FoodNavigator’s recent Positive Nutrition Digital Summit. “Consumers are seeing that and putting different things into their [basket]. “A great example of this would be consumers dropping meat from a pasta dish and just using a sauce or adding cheese to that dish. They’re moving away from having a meat alternative with it and having a more meat-free meal that doesn’t…contravene quality.” Ward continued: “We are seeing people eat differently, and the cost-of-living crisis has been a big driver.