As someone that is exploring the idea of replacing most of my daily calorie intake with Huel, and potentially making a long term commitment to it, I’m just wondering how well Huel is doing as a business. For a customer, the worst thing that would happen is to rely on a product or make a long term commitment to it, for it to become unavailable after a period of time.
Ofcourse I’m not expecting in-depth figures, but would be interesting to know if Huel is making a profit, and whether it is going to be rolled out on a larger scale. Will Huel still be here in 1, 2, 3+ years time?
Huel is currently doing well. In a few years who knows how well they will be doing. Their product is very easy to copy and replicate and put out at a better price as myprotein have done. As more competition comes out with even better and better pricing then they could lose their foothold unless they adjust their price too. But you need not worry there should be more and more huel clones coming from other big companies as the industry gets more attention. I think huel will be here to stay too but they will just have a smaller and smaller market share
I mean, bearing in mind MyProtein no longer stock Whole Fuel because their supplier was unable to reliably source the ingredients, I wouldn’t say this is particularly true.
Youre saying its hard to source rice, oats, peas, coconut and seeds ? I dont believe it is hard at all, those arent rare items. Supply problems are common in business, Myprotein probably underestimated the success of whole fuel and their supplier wasnt able to cope with the volume needed. Im sure they will simply change to a bigger supplier and start stocking the item again
Time will tell. The problem, though, isn’t simply sourcing rice, oats, peas, coconuts and seeds. You have to find them in such a form that mixes easily and doesn’t have an overpowering taste. By all means try if you think it’s easy - assuming you’re consuming Huel anyway, it should save you money if you’re convinced they aren’t competitive enough.
Why would i source those ingredients?, im not looking to start a rival company. Huels pricing is OK, but not competitive with myprotein which was my point. They have already undercut huel by a large margin so as more players come onto the scene i imagine more will undercut.
Im not saying its easy for a layperson to source those ingredients, although it actually is because i could go to a supermarket and get all those things right now. Im saying its very easy for big companies such as myprotein to source, even if a start up with 50k to start making a huel product i doubt it would be hard to source
My point is, whilst there are similarities, Huel and Whole Fuel are very different nutritionally. Whole Fuel can undercut because the product uses lower quality ingredients.
Yes you could go to a supermarket but they wouldn’t be isolated in the forms you want. It isn’t as simple as just buying rice.
Id say they can undercut because they dont need to make as much profit as they have many other sources of revenue. Plus they can probably buy cheaper as they can buy larger quantities. How do you know whole fuel uses lower quality ingredients ?
Im sure it isnt as simple as going to a supermarket to buy rice, but if i wanted to source the ingredients in bulk and i had lots of cash and was starting my new business, i highly doubt it would be difficult to source any of those very readily available items
Because I’ve compared both ingredients lists. You may be right about the larger buy-in prices and revenue from other sources, but the same would be true of Rosa Lab’s Soylent, a product that costs more than Huel does. Based on the ingredients Whole Fuel uses, I’d speculate a similar profit margin to that of Huel, even though the price is lower.
Again though, the test is sourcing the ingredients with the right nutrition profile and taste/texture that work well together. A lot more thought, for example, has gone into Huel’s micronutrient mix than Whole Fuel’s. It’s still not perfect, but it’s one of the better ones on the market.
Personally speaking, to eat a “non-food” regularly, I need complete trust in the manufacturer (I trust Huel).
It’s not really something you can take a risk with.
I think it’s a fair price for the benefits I’m getting and I wouldn’t switch even if a competitor product was much cheaper.
If Huel keep going with the great service/attention to quality and customer transparency model they have, they’ll end up a trusted brand and hence not significantly be affected by cheaper providers IMO.
There’s more to something like this than macros, but the syrup in Whole Fuel (along with the lack of any MCTs) is a place to start. Next you have the micronutrient quantities, and based on MyProtein refusing to say the forms of their micronutrients, more than likely the bioavailability too.
So when you say they are using lower quality ingredients, that isnt actually correct ? They are using the same main ingredients as huel which are of no different quality to your knowledge. You just mean they have some additional things which huel doesnt which arent very beneficial and huel has some things that whole food doesnt have that are beneficial
So the actual main ingredients are actually of no lower quality as i said, its just that in your opinion they have an inferior mix of micronutrients. That is fine
I consider the micronutrients to be a larger part of something that can be used to replace all food than the macronutrients, as macronutrients can be obtained from far more sources. Additionally there really isn’t much debate MyProtein’s micronutrient mix is worse.
Regardless though, the MCTs in Huel are a main ingredien that are exceptionally good for you, whilst the syrup in Whole Fuel (along with the creamer) are main ingredients which aren’t as good for you as the ingredients in Huel.
I actually think Super Body Fuel’s products just about edge Huel out of the top spot, but being based in the US makes it somewhat infeasible to regularly order.
I’d like to see an increase in potassium up to 4700mg per day (in line with the findings of the US IoM), and the addition of a decent amount of vitamin D3 from lichen as vitamin D deficiency is so common. I’d also like MCTs to be increased, particularly lauric acid, but being one of the only companies who offer MCTs at all, I’m not overly surprised this isn’t offered currently. I’d like PUFAs lowered somewhat due to potential oxidation issues (which would allow more MCTs whilst keeping the overall macronutrient ratio the same), and ideally I’d like them to look into mineral chelation for even higher bioavailability, but that’s probably unlikely to happen.
Thank you for all the interest in how Huel is doing as a business.
This is definitely set to continue. I personally believe that people don’t just buy a product but they buy into a brand’s values too. So long as we have an amazing community of Huelers like you all, I think we’re in for the long haul!