Hello Plant Foods, a Spanish company specialising in the production of vegan foie gras, has announced that it expects to sell more than 110,000 units of its vegan Hello Fuah! during the coming Christmas season. This is almost four times the sales figures of last Christmas, when upon the launch of the product it managed to reach the figure of 30,000 units sold in one month.
Throughout the Christmas campaign, Fuah! will be available in around 1,000 points of sale across various supermarket chains, distributors, specialised shops and restaurants. Following significant retail success in its domestic market, this year Hello Plant Foods has begun a process of international expansion and in recent months has managed to penetrate 3 key markets: Germany, France and Poland, and is in negotiations with another 10 countries.
The founder of Hello Plant Foods, Javier Fernández Álvarez de Carrizo, explains that “70% of our public is carnivorous. They are customers who have heard about our products on the recommendation of their family and friends and, once they try us, they become loyal consumers, because they see that our Fuah! is an incredibly delicious vegetable alternative, at half the price, sustainable and that avoids unnecessary animal suffering”.
Recently, the company has received two important awards for the quality of its Fuah! product, the first prize for best Plant-Based 2023 Product of the Year at the Barcelona Vegan Awards, and the award for best innovation in plant-based alternatives to animal products at the Green Revolution Awards of Lantern, which develops the most important plant-based report in Spain.
An investment round and an ambitious goal
With its sights set on ambitious expansion, Hello Plant will launch an investment round this December, with the aim of reaching 10,000 points of sale in 40 countries in the next two years. “If we have done this with two people and without resources, what will we do with resources?” says Fernández Álvarez de Carrizo.
Hello Plant Foods is made up of a small structure led by co-founders and partner, María Curbalán and Javier Fernández Álvarez de Carrizo, together with several external collaborators.
In January 2023, despite the need for funding, the founders decided not to accept investments that were not fully aligned with the vision and potential of their company and preferred to work independently to demonstrate the company’s capacity for expansion in a competitive market. And so it was: 10 months later, the company has grown from 200 outlets to almost 1,000 in four countries, without bank support, investment, industry contacts or marketing.
In July of this same year, the company managed to expand its distribution in the north of Spain thanks to its distribution in 170 Alimerka supermarkets.
