Popular UK brand Squeaky Bean is set to launch its new Roast Chicken Flavour Slices, following a recent survey from the British Sandwich Association, where chicken was voted the UK’s favourite sandwich filling. The survey found that more than 43,000 tonnes of chicken are consumed every year in the UK sandwich market alone.
The new product was developed as a result of strong demand for Squeaky Bean’s existing range of Pastrami and Ham Style Slices and follows a sequence of success in 2020. In June, it launched vegan Thai chicken pieces at Tesco, and in May the brand launched a plant-based home delivery box to customers during the lockdown. The Squeaky Bean existing portfolio includes vegan ready-to-eat Chicken Style Pieces, Sandwich Slices, Tortilla and Pancakes, quick-to-heat Fishless Fingers, Nuggets and Kievs.
As we reported in June, the brand’s chicken style pieces are being stocked in the meat aisle in Co-Op stores, as retailers around the world begin to re-address the positioning of animal and plant proteins together in the supermarket aisle.
Co-founder Sarah Augustine said to vegconomist at the time that this is a “huge breakthrough for plant-based products because it puts us on an equal playing field. We’re reducing the risk for new non-vegan customers who are tentative to try the brand for the first time, and making it clear that plant-based products can be an equivalent price to their meat, rather than more expensive.
“Shelf space within the plant-based category is highly sought after – in fact, almost one in every four new product launches in the UK last year was plant-based. However, branching out into parent categories enables us to bring even more products to market.”
Squeaky Bean products are already available from Coop, Tesco, Waitrose, Ocado, Sainsbury’s and Asda, and the new chicken product will launch into 221 Sainsbury’s stores on 21 September, as well as 155 Waitrose stores on 30 September.
