The Solution for Home Workouts - Guest Feature with Huel

Home work outs are a highly marketed category and one we’re increasingly seeing major brands link to their national and international marketing campaigns to this. It is true that exercise has truly become a fixture at home, whether your customers are a fan of the gym and looking to replicate a workout fix at home or because they're stuck at home and need some release to avoid climbing the walls. 

Sometimes, life is too busy for us to care about what we put in our bodies. Between work, commuting, and other responsibilities, setting aside time for meal prep can feel daunting, especially when you're planning on a home work out.With this, demand for convenient yet nutritionally complete foods are rocketing. So, just how can Retailers make the most of this important opportunity? To help explain more, here's expert category and trend insight thanks to Brian Hopkins, Head of Sales at Huel.

The Link Between Health and Convenience 

The multiple benefits to mindful eating align brilliantly with snack-enthusiasts looking to live a healthier lifestyle and enjoy a delicious treat guiltfree. Providing convenient mindful snack options can help your customers to reduce binge eating, choose food with tasty ingredients, and distinguish between true hunger and non-hunger triggers.

Huel contains all the essential nutrients that are needed by the body. Each bottle is the perfect balance of carbs, fibre, fat and protein and also contains all 26 essential vitamins and minerals. Now the leading complete nutrition brand in the world, Huel plays to the macro trends of healthy eating, convenience and plant-based.

How Has the Huel Brand Developed?

We have continued to see rapid global growth in 2020. Despite only launching in 2015, Huel has now sold over 125 million meals across 80 different countries. Huel launched into retail in 2019 and is already in over 3,000 stores thanks in part to Epicurium, and including many national multi-site operators.Huel is now bigger than the whole Kombucha and Kefir category combined in the UK*, showing just how big the trend already is. Huel was recognised twice in 2020 as being the fastest growing Food and Beverage brand in the UK, by Sunday Times Fast Track and Alantra. (*Huel website sales + IRI total market data March 2020).

Why is it different to other options available? Huel is a convenient, vegan, grab and go meal solution – so it is perfect for urban convenience stores and petrol forecourts where consumers are looking for something quick and healthy. Huel is the only complete nutrition brand in UK retail and will therefore bring something completely new to the shelves of any independent retailer.

We'll be spending over £20m in marketing in 2021. Most of that is adverts on social media marketing which will be seen by millions of consumers in the UK, driving awareness to your consumers. We’re a digital brand and now have over 400k followers on social media.

We’re seeing that when consumers are out and about, they want an alternative to something which costs a lot and is unhealthy. Huel is an affordable, healthy, nutritionally based meal solution. In recent years, Convenience Stores have led the way in healthy, high protein snacks and they have benefited as a result. These are the same consumers who are likely to grab a Huel for a meal and therefore there is a real opportunity for the convenience market to lead in this future category.

If 2021 can see a return to normality and a lifting of restrictions, then we can expect a very busy year where Healthy and convenient meal solutions will be more important than ever. One lasting impact of the pandemic will be a focus on health and making sure we are hitting our vitamin and mineral requirements.

Wholesale Healthier Solutions with Epicurium

Having a wider selection of meal solutions like Huel, not only begins opening existing customers to a wider selection of options, but also help to attract a new audience to your business and helps you become a real go to destination.

Key to achieving this success is the ability to react quickly to trends, keeping stock levels nimble and finding the right mix of popular challenger brands and niche new finds. If you're interested in keeping up with the latest health trends for 2021, then we are the ideal partner to work with.

To discover more about the world of meal solutions browse our website or alternatively get in touch with a member of our team to discuss how to integrate new ranges into your snack and drink mix.