No it is not the same product, If it was it would be identical which its not. Even Tim Said that this new One even “beat the original Ready-to-drink that you once knew and Loved!”… And alot of People obviously taste a difference, maybe your taste buds are not as sensitive as Other peoples? Not to insult you or anything, just Making observations.
Tim, which factory do we Europeans receive our RTD’s from? Why not from the German factory, since its in Europe and it would be Close with shipping and all?
Sorry - I was talking about the EU version being the same as in not an old or new product but the same one its always been. No offence taken. Regarding the taste yes, its subjective but perhaps I’m just a little more pragmatic in my opinion of it - rather than some of the hyperbole and often ludicrous exaggeration used by a relatively small amount of UK customers.
@Lohoffsson I’m really sorry for frustrating you here. Question, have you bought the Huel RTD before?
The RTD that is currently sold in mainland Europe is the same RTD we have always sold in mainland Europe. If you have ever bought an RTD from Germany, France, Sweden, Italy etc etc. you would have received the RTD with a tin foil seal. We never received complaints from Europeans about this RTD.
However, when we switched the RTD in the UK to the European one, there was…well…uproar. The RTD was not bad per se (as I’ve said repeatedly we didn’t receive complaints about it from Europeans), it was just different and the Hueligans in the UK didn’t like the difference.
Although, I’m not saying we won’t ever change the RTD in Europe (we may well - but that decision is more commercial and operational), it feels like we would get a very similar reaction in Europe to a change in RTD - a negative one. People, naturally, do not react well to change.Therefore we have not changed their RTD in Europe yet.
You tell me the “new” One is superior, why wouldnt I want that? Chalky is bad in My Book… also it makes No Sense not to ship the new ones from Germany to Europe? Instead we get things produced in the UK? Talk about inefficiency and also thats not evironmentally friendly with all the unnecessary extra distances to ship… Why not increase the production where the better ones are made, instead?
As I said, there’s a lot more that goes into carbon emissions than distance. Notwithstanding the article @Tristan has linked to, shipping is often more environmentally friendly than trucking.
We have only just started production at our new factory. The new RTD production has been released a matter of days ago, with the greatest respect (and thanks to you as a Huel customer), could you give us a moment?
Sorry just got my first vanilla batch. It tastes nothing like the lovely smooth original. It’s horrible sickly and grainy with nasty aftertaste. Can’t believe they have messed up the perfect original so badly. To suggest it is the same recipe and ‘tastes even better’ is simply not true. Very disappointing!
I think it’s all down to personal taste. I live in the UK and so my latest batch has been the ones from Germany and I actually preferred the other chocolate one, the one that you think is inferior!
You could make the effort to try the ones we have in the UK now and you may realise you prefer your ones anyway. I find the ones from Germany grittier but I seem to be in a minority.
No two people have the same taste buds!
It sounds like Huel are trying to cater to the general needs of the population using the product.
Finally got to try the new versions today with a delivery of vanilla and berry bottles. its been a while since I had the original US/UK ones but I really liked it - smoother than the euro ones and the taste seems a little more intense than I remember - which is no bad thing. I’m not a regular customer of RTD anymore but though I’d try them out and glad I did.
Bah humbug. When I saw this thread this morning I thought it was going to be an announcement about RTD Banana or Coffee. Didn’t realise it was an older thread being resurrected.
Question regarding availability of RTD products in stores. I know that it’s in Sainsburys & Moto Services but are there plans to expand this? Or if not what’s the reason?
I imagine its relatively complex as you want a good agreement and know that RTD products are going to sell / be placed in the store where it’s going to be visible etc. etc.
Does considering environmental/economical matters/online consumer purchase demand come into play too?
In any case, I think that branching out RTD to other consumer accessible locations (like other supermarkets) would be awesome
Just adding this post here as it will add some context to anyone else reading this later!
Absolutely! There’s definitely a balance on the agreement with a store. Retail can be really cutthroat and some retailers can really wipe out a lot of your profit margin. We have a great product and it takes some education to understand this isn’t the same as the £1.50 protein shakes they also sell. We want to work with retailers that won’t do that, but also balance the need for people to trial products like RTD and Bars.
Other stores, well we actually sell RTD in a lot of places: Sainsbury’s, BP, Moto Services, WH Smith, Ocado, Carrefour, Auchan, MonoPrix and ICA and starting to sell in some places in the states too. But we’re working on more for sure!
Well, with the pandemic most people have resorted to online shopping, particularly ‘Click + Collect’ services.
I reckon making Huel easy to spot for online shoppers wouldn’t be a bad shout! Not sure how you’d do this but placing an item at the top seems far more efficient, cost-effective, manageable and simpler vs. making sure that stock is insight for in-store shoppers.
Where RTD/Huel Bars are stocked well, I’ll leave that with the Huel Team as you have the stats to know where Huel may sell more nationally.
I’d personally like to see it in Tesco (my local shop) and I think this type of store is more common amongst people generally. To expand on this, I think it’s a case of placing relatively unknown products in places of ‘common knowledge’ so people who aren’t necessarily looking for RTD/Bars come across those products.
To be perfectly honest I’ve never even heard of Carrefour, Auchan, MonoPrix and ICA !!
They are European/global chains. Carrefour is the fifth largest food retailer (by locations/stores) in the world after 7-Eleven, Spar, Walmart and Aldi. As a frame of reference - they are approximately 40% bigger than Tesco.
That’s great to know. All for for learning about this sort of thing!