Yahoo Finance People are tired of vegan food, says plant-based burger chief
Diners have become “fatigued” with low-quality vegan products, the chief executive of a British plant-based burger chain has said.
Zack Bishti, co-founder and chief executive of Neat Burger, said companies had launched too many products too soon in an effort to tap into the “hype”.
However, a flood of poor-quality items put many diners off and now risked doing lasting damage, he warned.
Mr Bishti said: “You get one shot. There’s some people that have been diehard meat eaters their whole life, and they’re open to it.
“But very often, they’ll have a bad experience and then they’ll write it off for a long time.”
The comments come as a number of companies back away from the vegan market, blaming poor sales.
Yorkshire-based sausage maker Heck said last month it had cut its range of vegan sausages from around 15 to just two because of weak demand.
Nestlé has axed products including its Garden Gourmet range of meat-free mince, sausages, and burgers, and its pea-based milk alternative, Wunda. The company said the brands were “not viable” in current market conditions.
In the US, McDonald’s dropped the McPlant burger, which utilised a Beyond Meat plant-based patty, after a lack of interest among diners during a trial run.
Mr Bishti did not name specific businesses but said of the industry generally: “I think a lot of these companies have not been thoughtful and sometimes too heavy handed.
“Every big [food] company in the game had some sort of board meeting and they were like ‘okay, right, we need to go big on plant-based’.
“They just launched 1,001 products. And I think consumers saw fatigue.”
Sales of meat-free products in supermarkets fell by £37.3m over the year to September 2022, according to NielsenIQ figures published in The Grocer.
Tesco, Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose have all cut back on the number of vegan products they stock in recent months after overestimating the scale of demand.
Mr Bishti said: “People let hype lead the way.”
However, he said the prospects for the market long term remained positive despite the missteps by some food manufacturers.
He said: “We really are talking about a big shift in consumer habits, it’s bound to be a bumpy road.”
Despite over-exuberance in the vegan market, Mr Bishti said his business was performing strongly.
Neat Burger, which is backed by investors including Lewis Hamilton and Leonardo DiCaprio, serves fast-food style burgers made from mung beans, quinoa, and chickpeas. Sales rose by 20pc over the first quarter of 2023.
The chain has raised $18m (£14.5m) from investors including the Formula One star Mr Hamilton, who is a vegan, to fund expansion in North America.
Mr Bishti said restaurants in North America did not face the same kind of pressures as in the UK. Inflation is currently running at 4.9pc in the US, compared to 8.7pc in Britain.
He said: “If all goes well, it will definitely be a bigger opportunity for us and we’ll be able to open up more sites.”
