We all know the plant-based sector is hot right now.
However, this begs the question: How hot?
Today we look over data from SPINS, who is a wellness-focused data technology company.
Are product sales of plant-based products actually growing? If so, in which categories?
More importantly, how is the ready meal market doing?
As this brand-new plant-based ready meal issuer is establishing a foothold in the plant-based sector with their own brand of ready meals, we need to look over some data to see just how ready the world is for these meals.
Here at Edge, we make realistic predictions on disruptive businesses based on concrete data. Continue below to get the full report on how the plant-based sector is performing, as well as the ready meals sub-sector behind it.
Breaking It Down
While these figures are showing growth percentages, instead of actual sales, it is important to note that animal-based product sales for the most part are higher than plant-based product sales. However, the staggering rate of growth in comparison shows that this difference in sales between the categories could very well change in the future.
Being in the hyper-growth phase of the plant-based retail market is the sweet spot as far we are concerned. We feel good about taking interest in a company like Boosh, who is selling ready meals in grocery stores. The sales of plant-based products in grocery stores is growing too fast to be settling in to the mature growth phase anytime soon.
It seems that the business model of Boosh goes hand-in-hand with the industry they participate in, has the ideal balance of being in a mature enough sector to not be speculative, but early enough to be experiencing massive growth. This is an archetypal area in which we love to be involved.
Ready, Set, Meal
Ready meals have been around for quite some time. However, many of them are meat-based classics. The concept of having vegan ready meals is new to the market, especially ones that are gluten-free, which further opens up the possible consumer base.
With just 3% of ready meals in 2019 being plant-based, to a whopping 16% currently, that figure alone proves that we are in the high-growth phase.
Now we all know that ready meals were historically based on comfort food classics. Many are made to please the taste buds of consumers with hearty meals. However, according to recent studies, 46% of consumers believed ready meals that were traditionally meat-based to be unhealthy.
This may be due to the increasing awareness and consciousness of where the meat people consume comes from. The trend in grass-fed and free-roaming animal products can perhaps be to blame for people edging away from eating meat in pre-packaged formats.
On the contrary, 12% of consumers are actually purchasing plant-based ready meals weekly. This high number is attributed to many supermarkets launching such products branded with the name of the supermarkets themselves.
The percentage of all households that purchased plant-based foods was at 53% in 2019, which is already impressive. That open-mindedness among households (many of these households buying plant-based products also consume meat) is up 4% to 57% this year, a steady rate of willingness to try new food products.
The taste, and health-boosting benefits of plant-based foods were found to be the two main reasons for this increase.
Going back to grocery stores, the numbers seem to be climbing on all kinds of products, not just ready meals. Since April of 2020, the sales of plant-based products from grocery stores have increased 27%. This puts the total at U$7 billion as of recent.
Disclaimer: Boosh Foods is an Edge Investments communications client, and we own shares in the company.Â