Quorn have announced that they are investing £7 million into a new research and development facility, following the rise of veganism. The new site, based at their North Yorkshire headquarters will pave the way for the development of more goods, which is in demand more than ever before.
Quorn uses mycoprotein as the main source of their products and egg is used in most of their items, however, a number of them are suitable for vegans. The company has reported a 12 per cent rise in sales to £112m in the first six months of the year, and chief executive Kevin Brannan spoke about some of the innovative products we can expect to see from the brand.
‘Bleeding’ burgers are becoming commonplace in supermarkets around the world, with the concept still fairly new in the UK. Brannan announced that Quorn are working on their own version of a ‘bleeding’ burger in order to meet the demand for innovative products.
Brannan said: “Nobody can yet produce the array of products available at such high quality and we want to keep that advantage.” Quorn have been making meat-free products for 33 years, and remain the UK’s most popular meat-free brand.
The investment is being made to benefit ‘generational growth,’ as Brannan called it, as more people are switching to a plant-based or meat-free diet. The global meat-free category is growing by around 10 to 20 per cent each year, and the UK market is seeing an annual increase of 15 per cent.
Speaking about this, Brannan said: “All over the world we have seen a real step-change in the way people are eating. Young consumers are really starting to have concerns around meat from a health and sustainability point of view. It’s not that younger consumers are all turning vegan or vegetarian but they are eating substantially less meat.”
Brannan believes that streaming services such as Netflix are accountable for seeing a boom in meat-free diets, with numerous documentaries that discuss the food industry and the health implications of certain diets.
In response to the new facility, Quorn are expecting to take on 100 new staff at the new site, which will be built alongside their current fermentation facility in Billingham, Teesside.
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