Winter holidays give food-and-drink retailers and brands the chance to maximise their sales more than at any other time of the year. In fact, Christmas is the most lucrative period for food-related businesses, with the celebration revolving largely around multiple festive feasts.
For businesses looking to target the ever-growing number of consumers eating plant-based products, engaging with Christmas should be integral to your Q4 strategy.
Understanding festive food choices
ProVeg International has recently published an infographic that focuses on why and how you should use Christmas to boost your plant-based product sales.
Among these pieces of advice is understanding festive food choices, and using this knowledge to tailor your offerings.
Animal meat, whether fish, poultry, or other, tends to be a large aspect of Christmas dinners around the world, though the type of meat varies depending on the country. Knowing the various national preferences for the different types of meat eaten at Christmas time is vital in order to tailor your plant-based offerings for flexitarians by country.
In the UK, America, South Africa, Spain, France, Canada, and Nigeria, turkey or goose is traditionally the food of choice, while in Sweden, fish is the main component of Christmas meals; in Australia, BBQs with lobster and an array of meats are eaten, and in Finland, they tend to eat baked ham.
However, as the flexitarian, vegetarian, and vegan populations increase globally, we are starting to see more consumers opting for plant-based options at Thanksgiving and Christmas meals – and producers and retailers need to take note.
Indeed, in the UK, Tesco’s Annual Christmas Report recently found that a quarter (25%) of British households will be catering for vegan (6%), vegetarian (14%), or plant-based (5%) guests this year. Though, among 18-to-34-year-olds, the number of people catering to these guests has risen from 33% to 37% in the last year. Last year, research by The Vegan Society found that one in five Brits incorporated vegan dishes and desserts into their Christmas dinner, with vegan meat alternatives coming out on top as the most popular.
When developing your plant-based Christmas offerings, keep in mind the favourite Christmas foods of your target audience’s country, to ensure you produce alternatives that match the foods they would traditionally eat.
To learn more about how to maximise your plant-based sales, click here to read the full infographic. If you are interested in developing your retail strategy and increasing your plant-based profits, you can get in touch with ProVeg International at [email protected].
