I feel the opposite. Here’s why from my experience:
- 2018 - 2020: Regular consumer of RTD and granola, some H&S/Instant Meals, along with occasional bars (typically for last resort situations where other food is unavailable, hiking, etc). Amazing customer service throughout.
- 2021 - 2022: Regular consumer of Huel powder and H&S/Instant Meals. A family member started Huel. Amazing customer service throughout.
- 2023: Regular consumer of Huel powder, H&S/Instant Meals, Daily A-Z, and the new bars (which are LEAGUES better than the old ones, they’re unreal, like Mars and Milky Way had an ethical baby), along with occasional Instant Meal Pots. Several friends and family now using Huel. Improved website with order history. Loyalty scheme with different coloured shakers. And again, amazing customer service.
Now in 2024, already we have Daily Greens weeks away. Not including US releases or company accomplishments.
I think it’s very poor to say Huel now is just money grabbing, buzz hype, disingenuous, etc, especially when not only do you still have the products you love (besides granola), but they now have a wider variety of products and flavours, are better financially, are more globally accessible, have more of and faster R&D, some improved products (e.g. bars), more environmentally friendly, and still amazing service.
You love the powder? Cool, you still have it. For others who like noodles, now they have a healthier alternative. Same with chocolate bars, energy drinks… you get the point. I never understand the argument of being annoyed because a company now offers more products for other audiences, diversifying, growing and strengthening, while still offering the originals. Huel has always frequently marketed the product as consuming a convenient nutritious meal, such as swapping an unhealthy one with a healthier one. Nothing’s changed there.
If Huel staff are listening, the only negatives I can think of are:
- All bags still not recyclable.
- No organic version of Powder.
- Room for improvement when it comes to communicating the “processed” food element. I know a couple people who loved Huel but left it because of the growing trend of moving away from processed foods, and I found the lack of any communication about this after Steven Bartlett’s recent podcast interviewing Chris Van Tulleken who was slating processed foods quite odd. I know there’s a great past article about it, but compare this article with the 2 hour podcast vilifying anything processed, thousands of comments on YouTube criticising this, socials, books, etc. Get James Collier on Diary of a CEO, or have Steven confront the questions with Chris, or release an article or video addressing either the podcast or processing in general, or something educational and snappy, just something frequent and engaging that directly addresses this topic. In fact, today someone gave me their remaining Huel and stopped it because they think it’s too processed, who is reading Chris’s book… It’s also still difficult to explain it particularly to older generations – the simplest I’ve seen is the RTD bottle image filled with the real ingredients inside, which helps visually interpret it instead of calling it a milkshake
More studies would also help. - New Mac & Cheeze disappointing. Went from having it weekly to never again. The new version significantly lacks sauce, creaminess, cheesiness and flavour, and has way too much macaroni.
- New discount system is too confusing, unclear, now more difficult and time-consuming to recommend to others. I often recommend Huel and have had people ask me how much [product] would cost them to have 1 per day per month, and now it seems impossible to see the cheapest price on the website without logging into my account, editing my subscription, adding those products to my subscription, saving it, clicking on my account, clicking Upcoming Deliveries, and then finally it shows me the price after the 10% off subscription and 10% off £85+ discounts. Would be far easier and more attractive to new customers to simply display this on the product sale page with how to get the 20% off. It was dead simple before, being able to increase quantity and see the discount immediately.
- Huelwear could have been handled significantly better. The clothing brand’s marketing was far below par that I didn’t even realise the brand existed until the closing sale banner at the top months ago. Illogical to represent a clothing brand of beanies, jeans, jackets, joggers, caps, etc with only a small thumbnail image in the Products dropdown of a plain black t-shirt that looks identical to the free one being given away for years, with no mention of other clothing products, and no marketing of the clothing anywhere on the website or in delivery packages.
- Inability to only subscribe to emails for new releases, announcements and offers, not the constant marketing emails, is still the sole reason I don’t subscribe to Huel’s newsletter.
- (My fridge and I are still sad at there being no Huel Sauces/Condiments to replace all the garbage out there!)
Overall, the negatives are pretty minor and do not impact the reason I started using Huel. Instead, I use and enjoy Huel more than ever, and their customer service is the best of any company I’ve ever interacted with. Room to improve absolutely, but getting better and better.