Quorn Foods is to work with fledgling brands in the UK to improve its offer sold to foodservice customers.
The meat-free supplier will distribute the products of “emerging brands” in the country’s foodservice sector through a new unit called QuornPro Distribution Partners.
“Brands benefit from our foodservice expertise and access to a market that can be tricky to get cut through in, we get to provide our customers with even more meal solutions, and our customers benefit by being able to deal with one point of contact to meet multiple requirements,” Phil Thornborrow, who has the role of director of global foodservice within the group’s QuornPro division, said.
UK free-from business Good It’s Gluten Free has signed a deal to push its product through Quorn’s foodservice distribution network.
The company, set up in 2021, sells into foodservice channels including schools, as well as into UK grocers including Tesco and Asda.
Daly said the deal “has opened up an incredible opportunity for our brand”.
He added: “Foodservice has been a key target growth opportunity for us, and now backed by the power of QuornPro’s incredible sales, culinary and marketing teams we can take Good It’s Gluten Free to the next level.”
Just Food has approached Quorn for more details on the nature of the deals it is looking to sign through its new division.
In the statement announcing the establishment of the unit, Thornborrow said the tie-up with Good It’s Gluten Free will first centre on the education sector.
“We’ve focused on our heartland in schools with the first partnership where we have become the go-to alternative protein experts,” he said.
Thornborrow added: “The ultimate vision for QuornPro Distribution Partners is to be able to suggest complete menus to our customers, and then be able to supply them with every single ingredient.”
Last month, Quorn owner Monde Nissin said it had continued to witness “softness” in meat-alternatives, although the second-quarter sales decline it reported was less pronounced.
Monde Nissin’s comparable second-quarter sales in meat-free fell 2.7% to 3.37bn pesos ($59.7m), in comparison to a 4% decline in the opening three months. The metric was adjusted for a change in accounting standards in the final quarter of last year.
In June, Quorn said it was supplying its fungi-based mycoprotein for use in products containing meat that are available in the UK.
The company, one of the most prominent meat-free businesses in the country, is working with the UK’s National Health Service, which has put the so-called ‘blended’ products on menus.
