Australian plant-based food company Fable Food Co has notched up another major market as part of its international expansion, recently launching into vegan restaurant Beatnic in New York City. It marks the brand’s entry into the US with its meaty mushroom product expected to intrigue New Yorkers at the brand’s eight locations across the city, as well as visitors to its restaurant in Boston, Massachusetts. For Fable Food co-founder Michael Fox, who spent four years living in the US, it’s a
s a partnership that’s close to his heart.
“I first went vegetarian when I was living in LA and I travelled to New York quite a bit. I used to eat at Beatnic whenever I would go to New York. Their food is excellent and it’s all plant based,” Fox told Inside Retail.
Recently, Fox reached out to the restaurant to thank them for helping him cut meat out of his diet and offer them some Fable samples to try.
“They loved it,” he said. And they’ve since added two Fable dishes to their menu, Loaded Shroom Nachos and Magic Mushroom Salad.
International growth
The US is the latest in a long list of international markets tackled by the Sunshine Coast-based company in the last 12 months. The brand’s long-standing partnership with acclaimed chef Heston Blumenthal is helping Fable gain notoriety in the UK, in particular.
“We launched into premium restaurant chain, Leon, which has around 70 stores in the UK. There were 10 weeks of promo and the product sold out in three and a half weeks. We’re also in a vegan chain over there called The Vurger Co, and we have more UK launches in the pipeline,” Fox said.
The company has expanded its UK team with the addition of sales personnel and the appointment of Dan Joyce, former general manager EMEA at computer software company SafetyCulture, as chief growth officer.
In Asia, Singapore is a key market for Fable, thanks to the strong consumer demand for plant-based products.
“Singapore is a bit of a hub in the meat alternative space,” Fox said. “We’ve got quite a few investors and food industry partners there.”
The brand has launched into a number of restaurants in the famed Marina Bay Sands Hotel and, in recent weeks, made its debut with premium salad chain Salad Stop, which has 13 stores in the region.
Local demand
Back in August, Fable Food Co raised $6.5 million in a seed funding round backed by Blackbird Ventures, Silicon Valley-based AgFunder and a major Singaporean food distributor, to support research and development, as well as to expand the company’s manufacturing capabilities in Australia and overseas.
As the trend towards plant-based food continues to grow in Australia, the brand has aligned with major food industry giants including restaurant chain Grill’d, supported by Heston Blumenthal, Mexican restaurant chain Guzman y Gomez and meal kit provider Marley Spoon.
The brand has also built up a strong presence across the nation’s major supermarkets offering its ready meals products created in partnership with Blumenthal, as well as its base product, for home cooking, at Harris Farm Markets, independent grocers and select Coles supermarkets.
And while demand in retail is strong, Fox says food service remains a key focus for the business.
“Retail is really good, but we’re more focused on food service because it’s simple operationally for us,” he said.
“Working with the culinary teams at Grill’d, Guzman y Gomez and Marley Spoon, they can take our product and make really amazing food with it, so when customers try our products they are trying it in a dish that is amazing and delicious.”
New competitors enter the market
Just this month, Impossible Foods, a leader in the plant-based space launched into Australia to much acclaim. But rather than fearing competition from Impossible, Fox is excited to see more players enter the space.
“The global meat industry is worth US$2 trillion and is 2.5 per cent of global GDP. It’s one of the world’s largest industries. Our mission at Fable is to help move that to meat made from mushrooms and plants rather than animals, and we won’t be able to do that alone, so it’s great there are other companies like Impossible Foods also operating in the space,” he said.
Impossible and Fable have very different approaches to plant-based products and both have their place in the market, Fox explained.
“Impossible aims to replicate everything about meat, including making it turn from red to brown as it cooks and making it bleed. That’s a great approach for many consumers and they’ve had great success with this. Our approach at Fable is to replicate meat, but do it using whole food, agriculturally grown mushrooms as the base ingredient, then a short list of all natural, minimally processed ingredients,” he said.
“We’re seeing that there’s a great segment of the market that wants this too.”
