Austrian supermarket chain BILLA has opened a new superstore featuring an area called “PFLANZILLA Welt” (PFLANZILLA World), which is dedicated entirely to plant-based products. The chain has also revealed that a further 20 of these areas are set to open in other stores across the country.
The news comes just weeks after BILLA opened its second fully plant-based store, BILLA PFLANZILLA, in Graz. The 100m² store offers around 2000 vegan products, and follows the success of the original BILLA PFLANZILLA store that opened in Vienna last year.
The new PFLANZILLA Welt area will feature 150 products, many of which were previously only available at BILLA PFLANZILLA. The concept will help to bring a wide range of vegan options to areas without a dedicated plant-based supermarket.
A recent study of ten European countries found that Austria has the highest proportion of vegans and vegetarians, with more than half of participants from the country having reduced their meat consumption since 2021. 5% said they do not consume any animal products at all.
“Plant-based pioneer”
Over the past year, BILLA has been “pursuing a comprehensive plant-based strategy”, and now claims to offer Austria’s largest plant-based range with over 4,000 certified vegan products. This includes the chain’s own-brand plant-based range, Vegavita, along with groundbreaking products by other brands such as Juicy Marbles and Wunderkern.
BILLA also reports that its online plant-based range has doubled over the past three years, now featuring 2,300 products. Furthermore, the chain recently announced it would be cutting the prices of many Vegavita products to make them as affordable as their animal-based counterparts. It follows similar moves by other European supermarket chains such as Lidl, Kaufland, and Aldi Süd.
“As one of the largest food retailers in Austria and a plant-based pioneer in the industry, we naturally perceive the increasing demand,” said Verena Wiederkehr, BILLA’s head of plant-based business development. “For some time now, we have been pursuing a comprehensive plant-based strategy in order to respond to the needs of our customers. They want versatile products and ingredients with which they can prepare enjoyable plant-based dishes. We at BILLA are happy to support this climate-friendly and varied diet.”
