Skye Jackson (Ampol)
Olympia (Goterra)
Tom Dusseldorp ( All G Foods)
Allen Zelden ( Future of Food Advisor – Kilara Capital)
In the alternate protein landscape, simply creating a product is not enough. In this panel session we uncover the roadblock businesses face. For the prior session, click here
Skye opened the event with the investment Ampol Foodary had made into plant-based pies and sausage rolls. Unfortunately, the launch was not successful. We thank her for sharing this openly with the audience. When these incidents occur any mainstream business will tread carefully about adopting more plant-based options.
Allen highlighted the distribution and manufacturing challenges faced by many of the plant-based brands.
Tom from All G Foods, the maker of Buds burgers, shared how everyone wants fast growth, but that's not how markets work. It takes time for consumer adoption to pick up.
Products need to be exceptional and consistent and respecting this will make a sustainable category.
PWP: We completely agree. So many early alternate protein products were really not good enough. They would have turned off people from the category.
Olympia from Goterra,(insect protein), also uses insects to reduce the waste in food supply chain. She shared that the ecology of our planet will not allow slow traditional growth.
PWP: We completely agree. with Olympia. The planetary issues means we cannot wait.
Venture capital investors are looking for faster growth because that's why they are on board. They want ten times growth, and they need to produce returns within their seven-year investment window.
PWP: We suspect many big label retail & petrol and convenience brands in Australia created plant-based offerings after seeing the success of Gregg's Sausage rolls in the UK. Gregg's bakery was not doing so well.
After launching their vegan range, the sales significantly recovered, and their share price took off.
Pie Face is another brand similar to Gregg's, which has successfully held onto its plant-based offering. While other petrol and convenience like 7-11 also entered the market and implemented successfully.
We are deeply embedded in the plant-based space. Some brands may not have 'nudged' their consumers to take up the purchase amongst flexitarians and reducetarians.
Further, did these brands activate the plant-based communities? For example, the plant-based communities shared the 7-11 offers in their tribes.
Finally, the vegan market in the UK is more mature than in Australia. So the general public have a more receptive audience of flexitarian and reducetarians.
In our assessment, to create a new product and range activating the evangelical fans and those are wanting to adopt the range is critical. How would you like to activate the community? Reach out us about the keynote about, Drivers Accelerating a Plant-based World, to really appreciate now just why, but how the shift is going to take place and how to take the lead in your category.