Rebellyous announced today a new formulation for its plant-based chicken as well as the addition of patties and tenders to its product lineup. The company also said it is officially kicking off its retail program starting with stores across the Pacific Northwest U.S.
I spoke with Rebellyous Founder and CEO, Christie Lagally by phone this week to find out more about the company’s new formulation. Basically it’s a new ratio of soy and wheat structured in a way that shreds more like actual chicken. Lagally said the breading on the outside is new as well, a deviation from the crumb-y texture of its previous formulation. The new breading will make Rebellyous’ chicken more akin to what you would find at QSR.
Rebellyous is also officially launching its foray into retail today. The company was originally more of a B2B play, selling to places like school and hospital cafeterias as well as restaurants. When the pandemic hit last year, however, many of those outlets shut down, forcing Rebellyous to divert the product it had made into retail.
With its trio of new products, Rebellyous is now going to retail intentionally, complete with a comprehensive marketing plan. “This is our official CPG rollout,” Lagally said.
Rebellyous products will be available starting this week at 20 different store brands throughout Washington and Oregon, as well as at a number of select restaurants in the Seattle area (where Rebellyous is headquartered). The MSRP for each product is $5.99. Per package, there are 15 nuggets, six tenders and three patties. By comparison, Incogmeato’s plant-based nuggets from MorningStar cost $5.27 for 16 nuggets at a Pacific Northwest Walmart.
While the pandemic may have forced Rebellyous into retail prematurely, that may wind up being in the company’s favor. Sales of plant-based meat have grown over the past few years and shot up during the pandemic. “There is just a lot of demand for these products,” from retailers, Lagally said.
As such, Lagally said that Rebellyous is ramping up production, and will go from making a couple thousand pounds of product a week to 40,000 pounds a month over the next few months.
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