Aldi Introduces Private Label Brand of Vegan Products

Growing grocery chain, Aldi, has launched a line of private label vegan products in its stores. The products, under their new Earth Grown brand, contain no animal products, eggs, dairy or honey.

This is the second private label launch the grocery chain has announced since the 2016 debut of their Little Journey baby line. Earth Grown products include veggie and black bean burgers, vegan cheese, chickenless tenders and patties as well as meatless meat balls. All items can be found in Aldi’s frozen or refrigerated food sections.

The company is already known for supporting veganism in their stores. They even went as far as providing a vegan consumer guide for their stores online. This allows vegan consumers to see Aldi’s entire selection of vegan products, making it easier and more appealing to shop there.

The market for plant-based foods has grown 8.1 percent over the past year according to a report by the Plant Based Food Association and the Good Food Institute. According to the Neilson commissioned data, the total market for the plant-based foods sector reached over $3.1 billion in sales. This data includes sales in grocery stores, drug stores, mass merchandisers, club stores, dollar stores and military stores including Whole Foods Markets.

Aldi’s move to accommodate this increasing trend allows the company to benefit from future growth in this category. Data from HealthFocus shows that 17 percent of consumers between the ages of 15 to 70 claim to have predominately plant-based diets. Over 60 percent of consumers report to be cutting back on meat products, with 55 percent of these people claiming this dietary change is permanent and 22 percent saying they hope it is permanent.

These results are promising for companies investing in more plant-based selection in their stores. Retailers like Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Costco and Wegmans are following this trend as well.

Second to Germany, the United states was one of the leading countries for developing new vegan products in 2016. America accounted for 17 percent while Germany accounted for 18 percent of new vegan-product launches globally. Germany leads the vegan-product sector with numerous all-vegan supermarket chains and a variety of stores offering private-label vegan goods. The UK and France came close as the third and fourth leading countries, respectively.

Having won many awards for their private label brands, German-based Aldi stands out in the grocery sector for their quality-meets-value proposition. The chain’s low-prices are also a big differentiator in the market. Aldi plans on expanding to have over 2,500 stores in the US in the next few years, which will offer stiff competition for other grocery chains.