Quorn Foods to Invest £150 Million in UK Facility
Quorn Foods, the UK-based meat alternative grocery brand, has announced a £150 million investment in its production facility at Billingham in Northern England, leading to the creation of hundreds of jobs in the Teesside and North Yorkshire regions over the next five years. The £150 million investment will make the company’s Billingham plant the largest of its kind in the world.
Quorn was launched in 1985 by Marlow Foods and is owned by Monde Nissan Corporation of Japan. The company currently employees 650 people and exports to 15 countries around the world, including the USA, South Africa, Australia, Holland and Switzerland.
Kevin Brennan, chief executive of Quorn Foods.
The investment announcement follows unprecedented interim results from Quorn Foods, which achieved 15% growth in the UK market in the first half of this year, with an overall growth rate of 19% globally. The sustainable and healthy protein product, which is exported globally, is expected to become a billion dollar brand by 2027.
“We are proud to be contributing to the UK’s export drive and to be investing in a British innovation that is vital to addressing the future need for protein across a growing global population,” says Kevin Brennan, chief executive of Quorn Foods. “Our growth will continue as expected, regardless of the Brexit deal that is reached. In fact the investment is indicative of our confidence in becoming a billion dollar brand in the next 10 years.”
Growth has been strong in the EU, where Quorn Foods continues to invest. The company has however, driven aggressively outside the EU. The US business is up 40%, Australia 35% and Asia, a new market for Quorn Foods, is also succeeding.
The company’s billion dollar potential is rooted in the fact that a ‘flexitarian’ diet is not merely a trend or food fad, but a genuine move to reduce the over consumption of meat and instead choose foods including protein sources that are healthier for you and for the planet. The global population is in desperate need of protein sources that are healthy and sustainable. Quorn Foods is a business that is meeting the needs of a growing demographic who are switching to alternative sources of protein to meat for health or environmental reasons.
Quorn uses Mycoprotein which is low in saturated fat and produces fewer GHG emissions; in fact Quorn mince contains 90% less saturated fat than a meat spaghetti bolognese and 90% lower GHG emissions than beef.
