It doesn’t taste particularly nice; it looks like light-brown sludge; and it’s mostly sold as a “just add water” powder. But the drinkable “complete meal” made by Huel – a British company based in Tring, Hertfordshire – is a huge success.
Only four years old, Huel is now selling 50 million meals a year, in more than 80 countries; customer numbers grew 150 per cent last year, for an annual turnover of £40m. Every month, around 1.5m people are now buying and consuming Huel. It’s not because Huel is a culinary delight – regardless of whether it comes as a powder, a read-mixed drink or a granola bar.
Instead, Huel claims its customers prefer its convenience, alleged healthiness and even celebrate its vegan origin. Veganism “is one of a handful of important things” that make people buy Huel, says the company’s chief executive James McMaster. “Huel sort of ticks a lot of boxes: it’s a nutritionally complete food, convenience, affordability – and the fourth one is having minimal impact on animals and the environment. Veganism is sort of one of four areas within Huel.”
Not everyone may agree with the nutritional benefits of Huel, launched in 2015 by serial entrepreneur Julian Hearn – and especially with its taste. However, the company has managed to grow despite the continued sales of Silicon Valley’s favourite meal replacement drink Soylent, which launched in the UK in autumn last year.
It’s not just the drinkable meal alternatives that are rapidly growing in popularity; anything that replaces traditional dairy products is on a tear, with a whole raft of lactose-free and plant-derived ‘milks’ seemingly taking over the world. The annual sales of Oatly, the Swedish producer of oat milk, have surged from 180m Swedish krona (£15m) in 2012 to 1.2 billion Swedish krona (£102.5m).
In 2018, the company recorded 80 per cent growth; this year it is on track to more than double its business. Oatly chief executive Toni Petersson says that “the rise of people moving towards plant-based alternative products can be attributed... to young people and consumers in general becoming more environmentally conscious when it comes to the products they buy.”
These food choices come at a price. Generation Z – people born after 1996 – spend £338 more a year on food than their much wealthier parents, according to research commissioned by Oatly. Petersson believes that it’s an indication that younger people are willing to spend more money on food that promises health benefits and helps to protect the environment.
It’s an easy choice to make for a generation that is claimed to be driven by “values,” says McMaster. If you want to fight global warming, “the single biggest thing that you can do is reduce your meat and dairy intake.”
Still, both Huel and its main rival Soylent have cult-like followings. McMaster says the group call themselves Huelians and number 250,000. "There's a lot of conversation going on, and we've got about 30 people in our team around the world who are constantly in communication with our community," McMaster says. Its consumer base is 65 per cent male and 35 per cent female, the company says, with and average of between 25 and 45.
Then, there's the fact that Huel is a direct-to-consumer brand. "We've gone global much quicker, and e-commerce is a big driver of how to the store has grown globally," McMaster says. First-time customers receive a Huel t-shirt, and spread the message wearing it, he adds. Over the last year, the brand has increased its advertising output. At the end of 2018, it experimented with TV adverts for the first time as it looked to break out of its traditional audience.
Read more: I drank Huel and Soylent for a month. This is what happened
It’s not just niche players that hope to secure a share of the rapidly growing vegan market. Distinctly non-vegan brands like McDonald’s and Domino’s Pizza now have vegan food options on their menu. Retail giants such as Aldi and Walmart have also introduced plant-based cheeses to their shelves; more than 200 vegan cheese companies have entered the market during the past three years. Even the hotel chain Hilton is getting in on the act, with a recently unveiled “vegan suite” at its five-star hotel on Bankside, London.
It’s market forces at work, with brands responding to changing consumer attitudes. According to a survey in the United States, two-thirds of Americans are trying to reduce their meat consumption. It’s a trend that is going global, with more and more mainstream media discussing the pros and cons of vegan diets.
Companies like Soylent and Huel, of course, claim that their meal drinks are nutritionally “complete”. They argue the products aren't designed to replace every meal a person eats. "It's £1.30 per meal, so Huel is a way to save some money on the meal that you don't care about as much, which are often the the rush meals, Monday to Friday, usually during the working week," McMaster says.
More importantly, veganism is also underpinned by the sustainability argument. People are becoming more aware that their food choices have an impact on the environment, and vegan diets are seen as part of the solution. A recent report argues global farmland use could be reduced by more than 75 per cent if we stop consuming dairy and meat. Meat and dairy account for just 18 per cent of calories and 37 per cent of protein consumed, the study says – but use 83 per cent of farmland and generate 60 per cent of agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions.
With a global population set to soar from seven billion people right now to more than 10 billion by 2050, the question of how much land we need to feed them all gets “really important,” says Peter Scarborough, a professor at Oxford University, who researches nutrition and sustainability. “Livestock production has knock-on effects in terms of deforestation, and deforestation affects carbon emissions.”
It’s a trend, but not a mass movement yet. In the UK, there are now around 600,000 vegans. But what may have more impact are the estimated 22m flexitarians, people trying to reduce their meat consumption. “The single biggest thing that you can do is reduce your meat and dairy intake,” says McMaster.
Many Huel customers are interested in affordability, nutrition and convenience, and the fact that the product is fully vegan could be a cherry on top, adds McMaster. “You're also allowing it to reduce my meat consumption – fantastic. It's an easy way of doing it.”
Huel arguably rides a trend that goes way beyond veganism. “You can buy sustainable fabrics, and shoes and brands focusing on ethical footwear,” says McMaster. Think Allbirds, a sustainable shoe start-up that – although not vegan – makes trainers from materials like eucalyptus and ethically-sourced wool, which have become ultra-popular in Silicon Valley and are now gaining ground in the UK.
“We're still really early in creating a new category – asking people to think about food in a different way: nutrition first, taste a close second. And I think for me, if you look at the bigger picture of society that we definitely need to be more thoughtful about food choices in general,” McMaster says. And as for flavor and taste, Huel has just launched a range of chocolates in the US; the UK will follow soon.
Updated July 17, 2019 17:30: The headline on this article has been changed
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
