Situation

• Our client, a European meat-free business asked FSA to support in developing insights into the challenges and opportunities in the meat-free category, focusing on competitor strategies, financial and commercial performance metrics, and market dynamics to determine whether to invest or disinvest in the UK frozen and chilled meat-free segments

What We Did

To support our client, we:

• Conducted interviews with Senior Executives from 20 competitors, representing ~64% of the UK meat-free market and ~38% of the wider European meat-free market. This allowed us to glean an insight on competitor performance and challenges, financial metrics and appetite to invest in marketing
• Conducted scan data analysis of UK frozen vs. chilled meat-free to understand:
  • Recent growth of the market in the UK
  • Winners and losers from a brand and product perspective
  • Pricing developments
• Analysed Kantar panel data to assess underlying trends and understand key drivers of decline
• Developed scenarios for meat-free market development
• Commented on the achievability of the client’s business plan
• Outlined FSA view of strategic priorities and enablers for the client

Results Delivered

• The client was pleased with our work and found significant value in the competitor insights to validate that the meat-free market was challenging for all players. Our report helped to validate their business plan and challenged the client to consider growth in the away-from-home segment outside of retail