Vegan pizza pioneer One Planet Pizza is undeniably the king of the collab in the UK’s plant-based business space. In recent times the father and son duo has worked alongside industry names for new product launches such as Derek Sarno, THIS, and VFC to name just a few.
We caught up with Co-founder Joe Hill to find out OPP’s highlights of 2021 and thoughts on the year ahead in vegan pizza.
“Let’ support each other to help fix the broken food system and shape the future we want to live in”
What were your personal highlights of 2021?
Firstly, I think we all deserve a pat on the back for simply surviving this year! But for us at One Planet HQ, we have been hugely fortunate to be able to continue growing and developing this year with some incredible and life-changing events. Our personal highlights have to be:
Mike and I were on national television in front of millions of viewers! We appeared on BBC2 and Channel 4 in the same week. One Planet Pizza featured on Mary Berry’s new show ‘Love to Cook’ where we showed Mary how easy and tasty vegan food can be. clips were also shown on the hugely popular ‘Gogglebox’ the following evening to millions of viewers. We’re now working on securing that spin-off cookery show ‘love to cook vegan’ with Mike and Joe.
Launching our epic NEW ‘Thin & Crispy’ range with our new brand (logo and all!). We recognised that our consumers’ preferences had shifted over the past few years. The growing majority of pizza lovers in the UK are looking for proper Italian style stone-baked bases to enjoy authentic restaurant quality pizzas at home. We think we’ve managed to capture this magic without compromising on health or cost. In fact, our new range of pizzas are now even lower in salt and sugar and have 30% less fat than regular meat and dairy pizzas. they’re also about £1 cheaper, coming out at a surprisingly affordable £4–4.50 per pizza.
We attended the Plant-Based World Expo – after a long break away from seeing our customers it was amazing to be back and see so many amazing vegan brands under one roof. Pssst, we also met the actor who played Draco Malfoy in Harry Potter – can you believe he’s a fan of pineapple on pizza?!
Which milestones can your company reflect upon throughout the last year?
We celebrated our 5th Birthday (and Joe’s 30th). In 5 years we’ve taken this company from Mike’s garage to being an international brand sold in stores across Europe (and even as far as the Middle East!)
Our direct sales becoming a significant driver of our business. Partly due to the pandemic and partly due to a big marketing push, we have recruited and retained thousands of new ‘Crustomers’ and offer the UK’s ONLY frozen vegan pizza delivery service.
Where can interested parties meet the company in person in 2022? (Trade fairs/events)
We will definitely be at the Planet Based World Expo next year and on the consumer side, we are looking forward to being at The Vegan Camp Out. You will also see us at a few other trade shows, but we are still in the process of selecting which ones are most relevant for our plant-based audience.
What kind of challenges lie ahead in 2022?
As well as online and in independent retail, our Crustomers really want to be able to buy us in their local supermarket and we are seeking a mission-aligned partner in this sector. The HFSS regulations that come in next year are having a large impact on the range review process making it difficult to plan any range changes in the first half of the year. Luckily our whole range is HFSS compliant but we will still be affected by the mass changes the supermarkets will need to make for these regulations.
Carbon transparency will be key for all brands next year. We are stepping ahead of this and working to certify our products with a Carbon rating. Working with MyEmissions, we will also work to make sure our business is heading towards being Carbon Neutral as soon as we can.
What are your plans for 2022?
Our mission is to make it as easy as possible for pizza lovers to swap their regular pizza for an epic tasting plant-based version. To do that, we need to be available and affordable across a range of channels to meet all need states. As well as further broadening our availability through the wholesale and foodservice sectors, we will be working with at least one major retailer to bring our ‘pizzas with purpose’ to our widest ever audience in 2022.. watch this space.
Having just hired our brand new marketing manager, Michelle, you will see new and exciting things from our brand – from product developments, to brand stories and new faces. We will be looking to widen our scope of customers and make sure we are showing everyone how wonderful plant-based food can taste, as well as how good it is for health and our wonderful planet.
Any personal message to the PB business world?
Let’ support each other to help fix the broken food system and shape the future we want to live in. At One Planet we are passionate about making a positive difference for the planet and future generations and we need to work together to achieve this. We are all in this together. If any other plant-based brands need advice or support on their growth journey please feel free to reach out and we will do our best to help you where we can and let’s collaborate!
