How Fancy Plants took plant-based snacking mainstream

As more consumers embrace healthy eating, demand for plant-based foods has surged. John Foss, owner of The Chia Co, seized the moment, launching another brand, Fancy Plants.Inside FMCG interviewed Foss about the brand’s story and how he broke through the $2 million sales barrier within six months. Inside FMCG: Tell us about how Fancy Plants started.John Foss: Fancy Plants is an evolution of The Chia Co, a business I started back in 2003 that focuses on positively impacting global health by making the nutrition in chia available to everyone, every day.At the end of 2018, we were at a real crossroads in our business. As a pioneer in plant-based foods I had the desire to take our 16 years of expertise and learnings in plant-based nutrition and develop a broader portfolio of plant-based snacks that could easily keep up with changing consumer desires and capitalise on food trends.While chia-specific products and snacks had succeeded with a product-led positioning under The Chia Co brand, this broader plant-based offer required a unique and differentiated brand that could connect with consumers.We spent over two years creating the Fancy Plants brand and a portfolio of snacks that would make eating plant-based an easy option for consumers by addressing the barriers to a plant-based diet being taste and texture, health credentials and price. With Fancy Plants, we’re focussed on delivering plant-based eating that is both accessible and delicious and we have invested significantly in the development of a bespoke plant-based stabilising system. Mainstream adoption of plant-based options comes when taste and texture is as good as the original product, and we have achieved a “dairy-like” mouthfeel, which is unique in this space.  All Fancy Plants products also provide a positive source of nutrition such as prebiotic fibre, calcium and plant-based Omega-3. Plant-based, taste, texture and nutrition are the pillars of the Fancy Plants brand. We were also careful to ensure an accessible price point to remove one of the key barriers to mainstream plant-based eating.  John Foss, founder of Fancy Plants.You launched the company last year during a pandemic. How did you manage to achieve $2 million in retail sales in 150 days? We positioned Fancy Plants as an inclusive brand and have created a range of snacks that meet mainstream taste and nutritional needs and as a result both plant and dairy lovers alike are choosing Fancy Plants. Our retail partners such as Coles, Woolworths and independents really got behind Fancy Plants as they saw us as credible and trustworthy suppliers of plant-based products after supplying them for years under The Chia Co brand. Australian retailers recognise the growth potential for plant-based options and we align with their strategic objectives. This gave us the opportunity to launch a full range of snacks nationally across Australia.  To date, our marketing has targeted the Millennial and Gen Z audiences, who have really adopted flexitarian and plant-based diets. Recent retail insights demonstrate that we are successfully bringing this shopper to a section of the chiller that traditionally has been shopped by budget-driven and retiree shoppers.Our packaging and shelf presence, and our bold pink-and-green colour blocking, set us apart from other brands and our engaging personality tempts consumers to the plant-side through social media. We are kicking off our larger launch campaign this month after having to postpone much of our activity due to Covid restrictions and we are looking forward to finally being able to share Fancy Plants with the masses and prove that eating plants really can be easy – and delicious.  After getting stocks into large supermarket chains like Woolies and Coles, which companies do you plan to target next?Our goal is to become the number one plant-based snacking brand in Australia by the end of this year. To achieve this, we will focus on increasing customer penetration across our current range in Australia and increasing brand awareness. That being said, our team of plant innovators is always working on future innovations whether it be different nutritional benefits, pack formats or product types, which we hope to launch in Australian supermarkets in the next 12 months. We will also look to grow into new geographies at the end of this year and into 2022. Before you founded The Chia Co you had a background in farming. How did those experiences help you with Fancy Plants?A lot of lessons from over 16 years of business with The Chia Co were drawn upon when we created Fancy Plants. We have learned how to effectively recognise gaps in the market for nutritious, ready-to-eat, chilled plant-based snack options having done so in the past with Chia Pod, a world-first innovation in chilled snacking. Combining the nutrition of chia seed with coconut milk and fruit, Chia Pod was hugely successful among health enthusiasts around the world, but was unable to make the leap to mainstream as it did not deliver on the taste and texture that mainstream flexitarian consumers expect. With the launch of Fancy Plants, our plant innovation team stopped at nothing to ensure all our Fancy Plants snacks had an incredible full bodied, rich mouthfeel that consumers wouldn’t believe was plant-based. We also improved the taste and texture of the Chia Pod and relaunched under Fancy Plants to encourage mainstream adoption. When naming our new brand, we were careful to choose something that enabled us to use a wider portfolio of plant-based ingredients, while at the same time remaining huge supporters of chia. Fancy Plants really resonated with us as a brand name as we really do make plants fancy by creating products that combine great taste with added positive nutrition. Why did you choose to target the flexitarian market?A huge number of consumers are turning to a plant-forward diet. In fact, according to recent reports, 45 per cent of Australians identify as flexitarians. Modern consumers are concerned about the impact their food decisions have on not only their own health but also the health of the planet and choosing plants first helps ease people’s climate anxiety. It is also in line with our vision to help create a world where people and the planet thrive and where more people are actively choosing plant-based foods because they are better for them and the planet. Encouraging flexis to make small changes to the way people eat regularly, our potential for positive impact is great. How big is the plant-based snacking industry in Australia?Australia is the top flexitarian country in the world, followed by the UK and the US. We have found that consumers are moving away from a traditional three-meals-a-day eating pattern and instead they snack and graze all day long as this is more convenient for their chaotic and fast-paced lifestyles.Because of this, there is a demand for plant-based snack products that can be consumed on the go. If anything, the Covid-19 pandemic has made people more conscious of their health and eager to choose ‘better for you products’. Through analysing early shopper insights and new innovations in plant-based snacking, Fancy Plants is attracting a younger, premium shopper who is looking for “better for you” snacks that simultaneously feel like a delicious treat. Plant-based dessert style snacks is a whole new category and – just as we disrupted the health food category with chia, and the yoghurt category with Chia Pod – we plan to disrupt the snacking industry by reinvigorating the chiller with plant-based snacks. Fancy Plants intends to become a certified B-Corp by the end of this year. How do you plan to achieve this?When we created Fancy Plants, we mapped out the whole business with B-Corp certification at the forefront of our minds. The mission and vision of our company, our employee framework, our packaging choices and ingredient-sourcing policies have all been guided by our B-Corp aspirations and this ensures that all our business activities across all departments take into consideration people and the planet.