Introducing... Huel Instant Meal Pots 🎉

[Tim_Huel]

Hex, thanks so much for this message. I am the product marketing lead on our Instant Meal Pot launch, so I’m going through it now and will reply line by line, but frankly agree with most of what you’re saying. Give me a moment, I will edit this post with my responses.

@hex response now updated below

Fill line design

• I echo what Mark has said, we actually don’t have control of the orientation of the lid position, at least that is what we have been told by the factory team. However, considering I’ve read 3 similar posts on the forum I’m going to check this out, because clearly most/many are being positioned around the back
• Putting a fill line inside the pot requires a totally different manufacture process called in-mould labelling, that’s what Pot Noodle use. It’s expensive and requires huge volumes to make it financially worthwhile.
• However, we’re going to be moving to a different pot which solves this problem (and a bunch of other operational limitations too). The pot will still be recyclable, but it will be mono-material plastic with a removable cardboard sleeve. This means we can print on the inside of the card sleeve, which will enable you to see a fill line through the pot (see below)

Layout of instructions

• Good point, I’ve never thought of this as I just naturally read down. I’ve not heard anyone else say that this was a problem for them, that doesn’t mean it isn’t, but I wouldn’t want to change them just yet as a result. Anyone else do respond below if you think a left → right would be better.
• However, new pot will solve this as it’s a bit taller, so the instructions are just below eachother (below)

May contain mustard sticker

• I will be totally candid with you here because I absolutely agree, I hate it, makes me very sad to see it. This was not how it was meant to be and basically was a result of our paper pot having a very long lead time (i.e. it takes a long time to be delivered from point of ordering). So the artwork was ordered before we found this small mustard risk.
• The solution is eliminating the mustard risk in Katsu, which the team are working on but we just have a lot of stock of the ingredient with the small mustard risk

Plain design of the pot

• Interesting to hear you say you don’t like the plain design safe to say there has been d e b a t e at Huel HQ
• There is logic, albeit brand logic. Products which are only sold on our website are black and white (don’t ask questions about Greens ), products which are retail focussed get a colour strip. Instant Meal Pouches is an anomaly there but we will likely try and change the packaging design there to be more plain, and not black (because it’s not black edition)

Might get sacked for this but gonna tag @julian to see the discussion here, boss, some people don’t like your plain white pot design…

Fiery spice

• Thanks for the opinion. I think the first thing to say is that it came out spicier than we intended and we created the 4th chilli in the spice rating late on as a result of testing the final product in HQ
• Interestingly, we’ve only had 10 complaints so far about spice level. That is very low and I think is the result of us using the 4th chilli
• This is one for us to monitor, I think there is scope in future to bring down the spice level, but right now I want to get more data.
• Personally, I love the spice level, I find myself always adding hot sauce to dishes that claim to be spicy. Fiery Noodles hits the spot for me. Naked Noodles has a product they give and it’s an actual joke how mild it is for a 5 chilli rating!

Cost and single pot

• Such a difficult one this as rarely has anyone said to Huel “This is the perfect price” - people always want lower prices. However I really appreciate how you’ve gone about raising this.
• Like above, we need to monitor this and potentially test it. We’re starting to get results from retention rate etc and should it not be where we want it to be I think it’s a viable option to see how we can go about reassing the price. But I can’t promise anything and it’s not my decision.
• Single pot - I’m working on it, and sorry it’s taking so long, honestly there is just lots on my plate right now. However this is what I’m looking at rolling out, probably no print or branding for speed
• It will cost more per pot vs buying a box, I hope that’s obvious, I’m not sure on the final cost yet.
• These would sit in the ‘Singles’ section on our Build you own bundle flow

Sorry that took so long, had a few meetings inbetween. Tag me in your follow up questions. Hope that all makes sense.