ADVERTISEMENT
Applewood’s first vegan cheese offering has proven so popular with customers desperate to see how the cheese measures up to its dairy counterpart that it’s already sold out in stores.
Applewood, a cheese company which has been producing traditional dairy cheese for more than 56-years, recently launched its first-ever vegan cheese in collaboration with VBites on 23rd September in 235 Asda stores, and it’s proven so popular with people desperate to try it that it has sold out in just one day.
Phenomenon
Speaking to Plant Based News about the phenomenal demand, Applewood’s senior brand manager, Lisa Harrison, said: “Supermarket sales have exploded, and now we’re asking, is this the Greggs sausage roll phenomenon all over again?”
“40 percent of stores sold out on the first day of sale and consumers were lamenting on social media that they couldn’t buy it, our switchboard was inundated with calls from people asking when would more stock be available. In fact, we had to take to Twitter to apologize that we had misjudged the demand.
“The demand has been so great that just two days after Applewood Vegan first went on sale our purchasing manager was desperately emailing Heather to say, ‘we need as much as you can supply as soon as you can supply it’.”
Overtime
In a bid to cope with the overwhelming and unexpected demand, staff at VBites’ owner Heather Mill’s Newcastle-based factory have been put on triple-shift overtime to make as much of the vegan cheese as possible to meet demand.
In a statement sent to Plant Based News, Mills said she was “delighted by the enthusiasm for Applewood Vegan.”
“I’ve always predicted that it would be a winner because just one nibble will tell you that; it’s the next level for great-tasting plant-based food and there’s much more like this to come,” added Mills.
