Meat alternative market will bounce back, says founder of firm behind Meatless Farm and VFC

US-based Beyond Meat also cut its revenue forecast last year after its sales dropped by almost a third.

Matthew Glover, co-founder and chief mission officer of Vegan Food Group, however, has said that he believes the market will bounce back, as the firm looks to scale its revenues beyond £100m.

He said: “There have been some particular reasons why plant-based has plateaued and seen a slight decline in the last year or so. The cost-of-living crisis has meant not just the plant-based market has been suffering, but a lot of other categories as well.

“There has definitely been a decline in meat alternatives, but looking at the category data, it's looking promising going forward. The rate of decline has slowed considerably.

“I think it's more of a blip if you look at it over a ten year period. I’m convinced that, once the economy picks up, that plant-based will get back into significant growth year-on-year.”

Vegan Food Group was built out of York-based meat alternative firm VFC, after the company acquired Leeds-based Meatless Farm last year.

The group is backed by vegan-focussed investment fund Veg Capital, which was also co-founded by Mr Glover.

As well as Meatless Farm, the company also acquired vegan bakery specialist Clive's Purely Plants in October of last year, and German tofu manufacturer TOFUTOWN in February of this year.

Mr Glover, who also co-founded the Veganuary movement, said that Vegan Food Group is currently on course to achieve around £70m in revenue this year.

Mr Glover added that he believes oversaturation of the market had also led to a decline in sales for meat alternatives in recent years.

He said: “There were probably too many brands, as well as too much investment and too much new product development. I think what we’re finding now is that the supermarkets are cutting the long tail, so in other words, there were new products developed that just haven't been selling very well, that maybe weren't good enough.

“So they're going to get cut, and what's going to be left is the better quality products, the ones that are selling with a high rate of sale, the ones that consumers do like.

“I think that's quite healthy, and I think we’ll be left with a better range than we had in 2019. The products on the shelves in 2024 are going to be a lot better because of this.”

Mr Glover added that Vegan Food Group is also actively looking to make further acquisitions.

He said: “From an acquisition perspective, there are some great brands out there that have managed to get some traction, and have maybe just run out of cash because of the funding environment. So if we can do like we did with Meatless Farm, and bolt those brands into our existing infrastructure, with all the economies of scale we have, we see ourselves being in a really good position.”

Mr Glover co-founded the Veganuary movement in 2014 with Jane Land. The project received 12,800 sign-ups the following year.

Speaking on the founding of the movement, Mr Glover said: “I had taken part in Movember and quite enjoyed that campaign and wanted to do something for animals.

“I wanted to get people to eat vegan for a month - that seemed obvious - and January seemed like an obvious time to me. We have launched in multiple countries now and launched into Spain this year. We’re currently trying to crack the rest of the world with that campaign.”

The movement also helped to inspire the founding of VFC.

Mr Glover added: “One thing that stands us apart from the competition is that we set this business up to try and provide alternatives to meat so that we could remove animals from the food system. That's why I do it. I feel deeply about the cause.”