Quorn

Our assistance in the USA helped Quorn become the fastest-selling brand of meatfree products.

The issue

Marlow Foods make Quorn food, the world’s best-selling brand of meat-free foods. Its big issue was how to build the brand in the land of the hamburger – the USA. Marlow Foods was confident the Food and Drug Administration would authorise the sale of mycoprotein, the key ingredient in Quorn products, and turned its attention to building a business plan.

Flexibility was of prime importance to Marlow Foods, particularly in the initial testing and launch phase. Partnering with FFB North America allowed them to tap into Food from Britain’s marketing expertise without making large fixed investments in the market.

What we did

We provided an incubator environment for the brand: office services for Marlow Foods’ US General Manager, plus ongoing consulting advice, and access to the information resources and general market expertise of the FFB North America team. Work completed for Quorn has included consumer research, packaging design, trade show management, website design, evaluation of sales data and the management of Quorn Food’s finance and logistics functions.

The brand was subsequently launched and the business has grown to the point that three FFB North America personnel are devoted full-time to the brand. Our Riverside office, for example, has a SAP link into the Marlow Foods’ UK operation.

The result

Quorn is now the fastest-selling brand of meatfree foods in the Natural Food sector in the US, beating even giants such as Kraft Foods (Boca) and Kellogg’s (Morningstar/Natural Touch). Future plans include gradually extending the brand into upscale grocery supermarkets in selected areas such as Boston, New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Los Angeles.