Founder of plant-based bacon and sausage firm THIS says vegan food is having a ‘craft beer moment’

The British love affair with fake meat was more of a fleeting romance, as consumers turned their backs on it as quickly as they fell for it.

It has been claimed that the vegan market could be worth as much as £50 billion globally by 2030, but sales in Britain appeared to have leveled off.

This may have been exacerbated by the cost of living crisis – vegan products are typically more expensive than meat and dairy products – as well as an oversaturation of the market.

Much like the craft beer market, which has boomed over the past decade but retreated in recent years, you could argue that plant-based foods have peaked.

For Andy Shovel, co-founder of fake meat brand THIS, it’s all part of the process.

THIS has taken the market by storm, growing by more than 50 percent in the past year, and has recently launched a glitzy advertising campaign, namely a TV advert featuring food critic Grace Dent and posters around the London Underground network.

Armed with a team of scientists, Shovel believes its patented Fat 2.0 technology has the potential to shake up a market that, for the most part, has become stale quite quickly…

From meat lovers to launching THIS

When you walk into THIS office – an old aircraft factory in West London – you’re met with a ping-pong table, whiteboards galore and blasting music.

You’d be forgiven for thinking you’d stepped into a tech startup.

That is, until you see the refrigerator full of fake meat, an employee cooking THIS bacon, and cardboard cutouts of two women, Anya and Jo.

They are, I am later told, THESE typical customers. Shovel tells me, “Anya is a vegan in her mid-twenties. She is a young professional, she is busy, has no children and lives with friends.

“She misses the taste of meat, but she doesn’t want it because she doesn’t want to be cruel to animals.”

‘Jo is a busy mother with two children. She is a flexitarian, but is trying to reduce her meat intake for climate reasons. She cares about the environment, but doesn’t want to compromise on taste.’

The cardboard cutouts may be a bizarre feature, but they indicate the changing demographic fake meat brands are trying to appeal to.

Once the preserve of hippies wearing socks and sandals, veganism and flexitarianism have gone mainstream.

“Flexitarians are our main target… because we think that’s where the big societal shifts can happen,” Shovel says.

In fact, Shovel and its co-founder Pete Sharman weren’t even committed vegans when they launched THIS. They launched and sold their own hamburger delivery company, Chosen Bun, in 2016.

Since THIS launched, they have become avid vegans, although he says this is not a criteria when hiring staff.

After selling Chosen Bun and taking some time to travel, the duo brainstormed ideas for their next venture and ultimately settled on plant-based food, following the success of the likes of Beyond Meat in the US.

‘When we came up with a good idea, we would stress test it with a financial model and then meet with people from the industry to find out the facts.

“We kept trying to find a reason not to do it. When we did that process for plant-based foods, we found no reason not to do it.”

Shovel and Harman put in £150,000 of their own money to develop a number of prototypes and draw up a business plan, until they secured funding from investors.

Fat 2.0

THIS was not launched into a completely new market. The likes of Quorn and Linda McCartney had been in the market for decades, but Shovel and Harman thought they could go one step further.

‘We wanted more realistic products, so that people could experience the experience of meat without the disadvantages. The taste, the juiciness, the smell.

‘We also wanted to improve the brand. The brands did not appeal at the time (meat eaters), it was a very for us, by us atmosphere.

“They were unrecognizable, holier than thou, come and join the club. It wasn’t very outward looking.

“I decided early on that it doesn’t make people hungry to be hypocritical, to lecture them.”

Where THIS differs from the competition, Shovel says, is that instead of calling factories to request a vegan nugget or burger, the company has an internal innovation team of about twenty scientists employed full-time.

‘We are a vertically integrated mini-research center. We have applied for ten patents for all the innovations we have created around fat systems or texture improvements.’

The Fat 2.0 technology is made from olive oil and water and although it looks and cooks like meat, the fat content is minimal.

“You’re misled into thinking it’s juicy and fatty, mainly because of a lot of water and a little oil,” says Shove. “It’s a way to give the experience without making it super unhealthy.”

The main criticism of many vegan alternatives is that they are full of nasty preservatives.

The growing awareness around ultra-processed food (UPF) means brands are coming under fire for claiming to be a healthy alternative.

Shovel quickly brushes this off: ‘The most important thing is that you make fair comparisons.

‘I think people often compare our plant-based bacon or sausages to aubergines or salads and say they are not a complete food.

“We’re not trying to replace eggplant, we’re trying to replace bacon which is processed, unhealthy… with a lot of cruelty and emissions.”

THIS claims the bacon contains 95 percent less saturated fat and half the salt, but for health food enthusiasts the ingredient list will still be too long.

THIS bacon contains twenty ingredients, while real bacon usually contains seven.

‘The vegan market gold rush is like craft beer’

Recent figures suggest there is less demand for vegan alternatives, with some analysts predicting we have reached the peak of fake meat, after major companies rushed into the market.

‘Big and small brands are faster than quality.

‘You mainly have large brands that supply products that are objectively terrible, but they put them on the shelves because the retailer has given them the space and therefore the earning potential.

“The problem is that it’s now coming back into the category.”

This year, Beyond Meat reported a 33 percent loss in sales, while British brand Meatless Farm went bankrupt in June.

Shovel is unfazed by this and predicts that the ‘gold rush’ of big brands entering the market will only lead to consolidation, which he hopes will benefit THIS.

“What is happening is extremely un-exotic and happens whenever there is an over-proliferation in the category.

‘It happened with craft beer.

“There was a big explosion, people saying we had reached the pinnacle of craft beer and then it started to consolidate from, say, 20 brands to five.

“It happened in the mid-2010s with smoothies.”

Shovel seems to think the vegan market is in a period of correction, but he’s not worried about DIT, which has grown 55 percent year-on-year and is expected to reach a turnover of £22 million this year.

Shovel is also confident THIS will become profitable next year, although he admits combining this with growth will be a challenge.

The iPhone of veganism?

In addition to achieving profitability, Shovel says, “The plan is to pioneer the next form of protein… I’d like to see us be the iPhone-like step forward.”

Shovel says he plans to develop plant-based food that “doesn’t look like meat and is unlike anything that came before it. “Imagine if tofu were invented in 2023, what would it look like?”

It’s a bold ambition and one that could alienate the customers THIS aims to entice, but Shovel is confident the category will eventually offer a whole food alternative.

THIS astronomical growth is largely due to its appeal to meat eaters and its successful replicas of refrigerator products.

The move to ‘Protein 2.0’ may be a step too far for some, but if there is a substantial change in consumption habits, Shovel hopes to be at the forefront.