THIS™ Launches Chicken Pieces Into the Freezer
The UK’s fastest-growing food brand, THIS™, is launching their best-selling chicken-style pieces into a frozen format.
Named the UK’s fastest-growing food or beverage brand, THIS™, is launching one of its most popular products, THIS™ Isn’t Chicken Pieces, into its frozen food range which was introduced mid-last year. THIS™ Isn’t Chicken Pieces (250g, RRP £3) are, from 26th March, available in Sainsbury’s stores nationwide with further retail listings to be announced soon.
A league of its own
The product uses the same award-winning combination of ingredients as its chilled version, using soya and pea protein. The chilled version of THIS™ Isn’t Chicken Pieces have, since its launch, been one of the brand’s most consistent best-sellers. At 23g of protein per 100g, THIS™ Isn’t Chicken Pieces are the highest in protein out of the top 5 best-selling plant-based chicken brands in the UK. Creating a frozen version of this product in a convenient bag format, alongside their existing sausages, nuggets, and tenders, aims to answer the demand for a wider variety of convenient and high-quality plant-based options in the freezer.
As a brand THIS™ over-indexes with younger pre-family consumers. And while the frozen category has traditionally been led by families and slightly older audiences, recent data suggests increasingly more pre-family generations are buying in frozen with over a quarter of 16-24-year-olds buying more frozen equivalents of their regular fresh purchases. A third of which are trying newer frozen foods such as meat substitutes, so this has been a very natural extension of the brand.
Andy Shovel, Co-Founder of THIS™ says; “The overall growth of frozen meat-free has been pretty level the last few years. But when you look at how Gen Z-ers are taking to it and how our brand resonates with them it felt like a no-brainer to expand our frozen range. Plant-based products like ours can help provide a long-term boom for frozen food.”
About THIS™
THIS™ was founded in June 2019 by ex-meat fanatics Andy Shovel and Pete Sharman as a plant-based food brand for meat-lovers. Following two years of extensive research and development with a team of world-leading food scientists and flavourists, they created hyper-realistic meat alternatives. Its award-winning pork, chicken, and lamb products are available nationwide at major supermarkets, restaurants, and cafes. The range is specifically designed to replicate the taste and texture of popular meat products.
The further roll-out into frozen follows the launch of THIS™ Isn’t Streaky Bacon in Veganuary, which has quickly become the fastest selling plant-based bacon (IRI, 3 w/e 22nd January 2023). 6 months ago, THIS™ also announced that it became the first UK-based plant-based meat brand to have earned the B Corporation™ certification.
The author
This post was written by Pia Werzinger
As Viva!'s Food and Cookery Digital Media Manager, Pia is keeping you up to date on the latest recipes and vegan food news.