I have to say Hot and Savoury is amazing, both flavours. Great taste, I enjoy the texture and as someone who has 1 Huel Black and 1 Huel v3.0 every single day, Hot and Savoury is an amazing complement to my Huel habits when it comes to taste.
I have to wonder though: why is it SO much more expensive than Black and v3.0? I would have thought the grains being whole means less grinding and processing. At the minimum order of 3 bags for comparison, H&S is 180% the price per meal of v3.0 and 162% of Black. Would the bag size have a lot to do with it too? H&S has 7 meals per bag while Black and v3.0 has 17.
I like everything about Hot & Savoury except the price per meal and it gets even worse when thinking about price per protein- H&S has 5g less protein than even v3.0. Price per protein is a particularly important metric to me especially since protein is the most expensive macronutrient in food.
How come H&S is this much more expensive and what options are there for lowering price per meal? Can Huel release bigger bags in future? Bigger bulk discounts?
I really do enjoy H&S but I donāt think I can really justify paying so much more per meal to make it a staple. I canāt see myself making a Huel habit out of it right now
ā¬3.21 per meal compared to many other convenience options is not crazy, especially with how balanced the nutrition is. For me though, this jump in price is the crux for not having it every day like with the powders. A real shame, but happy to see you guys killinā it.
I am satisfied with the pricing of HS because it is cheaper and healthier than lunches I was eating previously (prior to any Huel). I have so far not been at work but plan to use HS 3x weekly; 2x on days off and 1x days on. This still saves money compared to my meal costs pre Huel. Although not a vegan I havenāt come across similar nutritionally profile vegan meals of this convenience at the same price point.
from what Iāve seen of some Huel people mentioning it, itās not really positioned as a staple replacement to their core products more of an occasional ācomfortā food option so in that respect it works well. I kind of do this too - I donāt have a H&S every day - maybe 2 or 3 times during the week.
It is expensive to create a new product; and itās a risk. You can never be sure how the market reacts. To account for that, every product that is new is more expensive in the beginning. If people buy it and if it is an economic success prices will decline.
Success doesnāt drive down prices. Companies like money, and they have no reason to lower the price of something if it sells well at a high price. Huel would use those profits to expand their business and for R&D.
Competition drives down prices. If another company releases an equivalent product at a lower price, some people will switch to that. If a company releases an inferior product at a far lower price, some people will switch. And if another company releases a better product at the same price, some people will switch. Huel will then have to decide how to react.
That makes sense to me. Following that replacement reasoning, I can understand raising H&S price as a way to avoid cannibalising the sales of the powders. For me personally, it wouldnāt have affected my purchases of powders- nothing but an increase to my total Huel daily intake but I suppose Iām a minority here.
I agree with this sentiment but I do hope there will be some pricing considerations for people like me. People that would toootally max out my basket with H&S had the price been closer to āstapleā levels. I doubt a successful H&S launch would drive its prices across the board down, but I hope more avenues of purchasing it would open up like bigger bulk discounts or bigger bag options (in the hopes of lower price per meal by using less packaging per product), or other incentives like that. Incentives that people far smarter than I can conjure up, maybe
At this stage of development I think H&S is pretty reasonable. I considered ordering a boatload but the problem there for me is that there are only two flavours. I donāt want to be limited to two flavours for every evening meal (or lunch or whatever).
With the core products I can generate about 12 flavours easily, add into that the bars and we are up to over 20 something with no effort. Not that confident about changing flavours around much with H&S other than a bit of Tabasco or something so I will probably only have them 2-3 times a week.
There are many points to consider with the price. Many of which already have been mention (marketing a new product, new ingredients, etc.). Thereās also another factor you are not considering. You are looking at the EU price. Look at the price across the different markets:
Price
Huel Powder
Hot & Savoury
US ($)
per 400 (expensive)
2.12
3.75
per 400 (cheapest)
1.51
2.51
UK (Ā£)
per 400 (expensive)
1.47
2.62
per 400 (cheapest)
1.10
1.79
EU (ā¬)
per 400 (expensive)
2.03
3.57
per 400 (cheapest)
1.30
2.48
As you might notice, the price is cheaper in the UK (even considering the exchange). When I pointed this out on my review; Huel gave me a small insight:
āRegarding the price point there a few things to we need to consider - different countries have different taxes for food and food products. This results in different levels of VAT being added to our products depending on what country you order from.
Also, in these volatile times, we have to build in a conversion rate buffer, as our selling prices are in various European currencies, whereas most of our expenses are still in GBP.
We are doing the best we can to make it as fair as possible for everyone no matter where from you are ordering.ā
As you can observe there are multiple factors that affect the price, and while I agree with you that I think it should be slightly cheaper perhaps, there are solid reasons for it to be what it is.
Oh huh, I hadnāt even thought of that at this pretty early stage. Different base flavours and flavour boosts to work with exponentially increase the variety in powder taste. Itās not as easy to achieve that kind of customisation with H&S. On the bright side, I feel that what H&S flavours lack in variety is somewhat offset by just how much I like the base flavours.
Oh hey good to see you around here, Enaut. Iām a fan of your site! I just read your review and happy to see it looks like weāre in almost total agreement about H&S, even questioning the meals per bag bit. Itās great overall, but it seems we share the wish that price could be massaged even slightly down.
Iām not sure I follow the conversion rates reasoning though. Not because I donāt believe in conversion rate risks or anything- those are very real and I understand them. However, the chart you posted illustrates what I think is the more relevant point- comparison between Powder vs H&S rather than comparison between Ā£ vs ā¬. I think any currency conversion troubles that H&S has would apply to Powder too so I donāt think itās responsible for much disparity. Thatās unless weāre saying H&S has specific ingredients that get taxed in the EU more than Powder ingredients. Is that partly what youāre trying to say?
Regardless of currency and price range (expensive or cheapest), H&S is 160% to 190% more expensive than its counterpart Powder which just places H&S as more of a luxury than a staple like the Powders. Maybe thatās the whole intention though, right? Your review mentions you donāt know of any other company that even came close to what Huel has achieved with H&S. Iād say thatās a far more powerful reason than anything else for driving price up- they got this niche locked down and good for them!
Part of why I have high hopes for H&S is hoping itāll open the door for many more options like it
Rising demand can also lead to higher prices, sure, but this is usually the case if production does not scale up. There is no reason why Huel should not be able to increase production.
Additionally, there will be competition from other manufacturers - which is already the case. So far only for the powders, but this is also likely to change soon because it seems that there is demand for non-sweet products.
So in the long run it is very likely that prices will go down. Although that does not affect me - as Iām fine with the shakesā¦would not even try anything elseā¦
I donāt, because I am definitely not interested in H/Sā¦and I will definitely never order something like that - I have different preferencesā¦
Nevertheless several people seem to use it here in the forum, so I wish that the conditions changed for you for the betterā¦and I think the odds are goodā¦
āAnd for the size of the H&S pouch - itās important that you give the pouch a good shake to mix the ingredients before use, and the bigger the pouch is the more complicated it gets - the number of meals per pouch is a result of us wanting to make the best possible experience for our customers.ā According to Huel.
I still wouldāve liked a bigger size.
The points I mentioned above were mostly those that Huel gave me as a response to my criticism in the same exact point. I think that they argue that EU prices are always going to be higher due to the fact that they need to convert EUR to GBP (lose part of the margin, get taxed differently etc). Whether the factors that they mention are enough to justify the disparity is a whole other argument. I will only say that Huel is not the only UK company that has this (Myprotein, TheProteinWorld etc.). Iām pretty sure that ppl will give you the reverse examples too.
Mmm. I tried to illustrate both. I guess if you donāt know the conversions is not as clear.
I generally agree that I wouldāve liked to see better prices though
Because theyāre totally different foods? H&S is (basically) chunky soup, and Powder is (basically) porridge. Only a monster would ādiluteā soup with porridge. A total monster.
I too would love to see lower prices on the h&s. Why not sell it in portion pouches in a bigger box? This has the advantage of not needing a shake to mix ingredients equally. Also, the pouches could have assorted flavors or one could more easily bring those to work etc.
It might be really easy to make flavor boosts for a basic flavoured h&s. Like packets of instant soup (and in all of those flavours)without the thickener, but added to that complete nutrition/ functional food base.
but youāre also increasing manufacturing/packing and packaging costs considerably by doing that so may even increase prices whilst admittedly improving user convenience.
Personally, I would pay 5-10% more if i had the option of buying H&S or even Huel powders in pre-portioned pouches.
Although i donāt know how much it would increase the manufacturing costs, i feel like it would be less then the extra i would be willing to pay. I buy RTD instead of powder for this exact reason.
Thank you!