Finnish grocery retailer S Group has reported a significant increase in sales of plant-based products following a successful campaign in January.
This year, the group expanded its collaboration with Vegaanihaaste (the Vegan Challenge) to all its grocery stores, including S-market, Prisma, Sale, and Alepa. The challenge reportedly attracted a record number of participants.
As a result, sales of plant-based milk and cheese products increased by more than 10 percent in January compared to a year ago. Meanwhile, sales of fava protein brand Härkis and alt dairy brand Oddlygood were up several dozen percent.
Demand for fresh vegetables, frozen vegetables, and plant-based cooking products also rose compared to January last year; this was encouraged by the “Alle euron hevi” concept, which highlights produce that costs less than a euro per kilogram, per package, or per piece.
Encouraging more diverse foods
The figures indicate progress towards S Group’s goal of making 65% of the food it sells plant-based by the end of 2030. The retailer is a founding member of Plant Based Food Finland, a business association launched in late 2023 to increase the share of plant-based foods in the Finnish food system.
The association recently told vegconomist that it had grown from 17 to 33 members in just over a year, explaining that it conducts advocacy to influence policies and takes a hands-on approach to identifying and addressing market bottlenecks.
“The collaboration and price campaigns clearly spoke to our customers, regardless of the chain, and in January we successfully increased the demand for plant-based products from last year,” said Hans Backström, Sales Director of S Group’s Grocery Trade. “We want to lower the threshold for trying plant-based products and help them become part of everyday life. It was a pleasure to see that customers bought more diverse foods in January and more and more people started trying plant-based products.”
