Market entry strategy for plant-based meat in Europe

Project request

A €100B+ multinational food ingredient company (Food Co*) with a small division in plant-based meat analogues (PBMA) saw a growth opportunity in Europe's rapidly expanding PBMA market. Food Co’s PBMA business unit operated like a start-up within the overall company, with only a handful of products for sale. The business unit’s presence in Europe was minimal, and the management team was looking for regional expertise.

The Managing Director of Food Co's plant-based business unit engaged BGP to evaluate "where to play" and "how to win" in Europe. As Food Co approached internal resource allocation discussions for the upcoming year, the Managing Director planned to use BGP’s strategy work to justify investments in her business unit.

Our methodology

Bright Green Partners' methodology for where to play and how to win involves creating a detailed fact base of internal capabilities and market opportunities, leveraging BGP's proprietary global Expert Network of over 2,500 experts.

Bright Green Partners detailed the market for 5 key countries by channel and customer type. In addition, BGP benchmarked the performance of 6 leading competitors per product and customer type, see the illustrative figures.

Figure 1: Retail market breakdown (A similar view was created for the out of home channel)

Figure 2: Competitor benchmarking on the key purchasing criteria

Project deliverable

The project enabled the Managing Director to secure the required resources for the business group despite ongoing company reorganizations. The where-to-play strategy identified quick-service restaurants and private-label retail as key channels needed to achieve the €250M revenue target. The how-to-play strategy included a "must-win" list of key customers, identified the key product categories per country and provided a high-level overview of the capabilities and budgets needed to achieve the targets.

At the end of the project Food Co had clarity on their competitive performance and was ready to embark on the journey to grow their business unit.

*The client’s name has been changed to protect their confidentiality

For more information on our services and how we can support you on informed strategy decisions, schedule a call with our Managing Partner, Floor.

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