Please believe us when we say it wasn’t an easy decision to make!
Regarding Hot & Savoury and Bars, would you mind elaborating a little on why you don’t think they would be worth it for the new price? Bars will now be £1.43 per bar (previously £1.30) and Hot & Savoury will be £2.67 per meal (previously £2.36).
Cam, when commenting that a Huel bar has “only” increased by 13p I think that’s probably quite condescending. That’s still a 10% increase which adds up over a month
Also, Huel need to decide what their image is. You cannot create a following based on doing what’s right and putting consumers first and then increasing prices by 12%, which is clearly over and above any raw material price increases.
Profit margins at Huel in last years accounts were 62% and with economies of scale increasing substantially over the last year, I’d say Huel could in theory swallow the cost of sales increases
This is a corporate strategy of increasing profits for owners and the ceo statement is for PR
That’s a pretty big jump in price there, along with all the other smaller price rises for other things and a static pay check I’m going to have to really look if I can continue with Huel, or at least cut down which I don’t want to do.
Yes but if you come in with a 12% increase after 6 years and other companies are putting there price up by 2% per year after 6 years we end up in the same place so it’s not really saying much.
That’s assuming a 2% increase per year, these other companies may be increasing less than that per year which means Huel will have gone up in price more than these competitors in that 6 year time frame.
This was of course not my intention, and I understand that pennies add up. What I am attempting to convey is that we still deem Huel to be affordable, which is a core part of our mission statement.
This article outlines the price increase of some raw materials globally. Granted, the materials mentioned are not directly applicable to Huel, but the general trends and high percentage increases are representative of other materials and ingredients globally. This also does not account for the sheer increase in freight and transportation globally - both transportation of ingredients and goods to consumer have increased for us too. We subsidise this as much as we can by offering free delivery above a certain threshold.
It’s worth noting we’re not the only company having to increase prices in order to grow, and we of course want to continue offering superior products due to the numerous benefits Huel has!
This is true, and so lets say our annual increase is 2%. I sadly do not believe that many other EBITDA profitable companies will only be increasing prices by 2% this year. McDonald’s prices are looking to be around 6% up this year compared to last year, in addition to other regular price increases in the last 5 or so years. What I’m trying to say is we’re not alone, and in fact probably increasing less than other companies are having to this year.
I can absolutely empathise with any upset caused by this as I myself have received emails from some of my favourite companies about them increasing their own prices, and we appreciate all past, present, and future support as we continue to grow and provide complete nutrition.
Been using Huel for many, many years. It was already expensive. Sorry but this price increase is crazy, unsustainable and frankly taking the piss…
Looks like my last order will be on the 7th of December
I think you’re going to lose a lot of customers
Jim
McDonald’s are notorious for their commercialisation to the detriment of public health, the environment and consumers. For instance, they invented coupling toys with junk food in order to directly market junk food to kids. I don’t doubt that McDonald’s will find any opportunity to increase prices and profits where they can.
Huel markets itself differently. And then releases a statement saying they had no choice and it was a hard decision to make etc etc.
Let’s just be honest here. Huel corporation wants more profit like any other organisation and has seen the opportunity to do so. Don’t sugar coat it with these public statements to try and keep consumers onside.
My two penn’orth… I’ve been eating Huel since 2016 and I can’t remember the last price increase apart from when I changed from White to Black. Was there a bit of shrinkflation at one point? I can’t remember. That’s a pretty long time without a price increase. A few months ago it occured to me that I couldn’t remember a price increase - oops! Blame me, people - I inadvertently jinxed Huel.
I’m not that good at sums, something I’ve demonstrated with some disastrous carb counting over the years. This year I’ve finally fought my Hba1c down to a level that actually impressed Nurse Ratched (please, please, please don’t let her hear me calling her that!) and, of course, Huel has been a major factor in that. I reckon around 75 to 90% of my diet is Huel these days - try as I might, I can’t give up my nightly treat of a lump of vintage cheddar.
I noticed from the price tables that the increase on Black Huel is not much different from the increase when you change from White Huel to Black Huel. So if I’ve swallowed the increase once, I can do it again. I’m not happy about the increase: it’s more a case of needs must. As far as I can tell none of Huel’s competitors can meet my needs as well as Huel can: I’m not going to risk the progress I’ve made with Huel to experiment “just in case” for the sake of saving a few quid.
I have a subscription for eight bags at a time (I adjust frequency to take into account how much I’ve got in stock), which is £172 a time. With a delivery due next week, I considered dipping into the rainy day money to double my usual order, but the risk of violating my “I will not touch that money unless it’s an emergency” oath just isn’t worth it. I budget £200 for each delivery anyway - the money left over has been a treat or two at Amazon. I guess I’ll just have to be a bit more honest with myself.
I’ve told this story before, but a few years ago I sat down with a hospital dietitian who went through the ingredients list looking for an excuse to rubbish Huel and she ended up saying that she wished she could prescribe it.
I know I’m echoing almost everyone else, but this is way too high of an increase. Such a shame, first time since starting huel that I am now tempted to see what alternatives there are.
Its a real pity. Things are not so simple and I am sure that Huel has its reasons to bump up the price, but some products will be just too high to use it regularly.
Huel was near the limit before as a healthy and reasonable price meal. Now Huel its on the limit for me and I will think when and why consuming it.
Maybe just cooking 95% like old times and Huel just for very few scenarios.
I’ve just started with Huel and so far only on ready to drink. Sainsbury was my friend initially at £3.50 a hit but I signed up and the savings were significant. I’ve tried chocolate, banana and Vanilla and I like them all… but Vanilla is the business and I love the texture, taste and knowing what calories and nutrients are going in and its supporting my training very well.
I can understand why for some the price increase is a real hit, but I’m very happy so far and intend to stick with it all the time it works for me….I just need to broaden my horizons beyond ready to drink…but it keeps hunger at bay and is very convenient.
I can’t speak for the UK but I know in the US, grocery prices have jumped significantly since the pandemic kicked in 2 years ago. Where I am in the world, thanks to lots of foods being imported, I would say an equivalent grocery cart is costing me roughly double what it did in 2019 now (worst I had was two carrier bags of groceries and two six packs of drinking water costing me about £200). So while price increases are never welcome – I would say it’s hardly surprising either. Given the other options I have – even with these new prices, Huel still makes good economic sense on balance for me.
Basically the price has increased here in the U.K. due to Brexit, now they have to pay as they are importing ingredients/goods from Europe etc and it as to be paid at customs making it more expensive, transportation and taxes wise.
I’ve not seen any mention of Complete Protein in the price changes. Have they avoided the jump or are the changes there to come?
I believe the majority of their raw materials come from and/or processed in Canada or various Asean countries. However as you say, post Brexit even trade and customs agreements with these countries were with the EU not individual states so will have been nullified for the UK.
Basically - food production and distribution has just gotten a lot more expensive for a lot of reasons during the pandemic. While it initially dropped in the early days, it has since sky rocketed. the chart below shows the global index from 2018 through 2021 and shows the increases almost up to 130% of the level for the previous measured 3 year period.
We’re gutted to hear this and hope you’ll reconsider, but we also appreciate that affordability is key. We still believe Huel is affordable, especially when compared to other convenient and nutritious options.
Of course meal prepping is more cost-effective, we don’t begin to suggest Huel is more cost effective than batch home-cooking (it can be, depending on what you’re comparing against, but we’re not here to replace this if you are someone with the time to do this for every meal). The convenience of Huel plays in here and still does, we hope that you will see this in time.
Appreciate you are frustrated, but Cam wasn’t citing McD because he thinks we are comparable products for nutrition, environment or consumers. Cam was citing them because they’re a massive brand who sells food and also has increased their costs, and more than we have. There are plenty of articles which show the same, it is really unfortunate, there is never a good time for a price increase and we are truly sorry and sympathetic to you all.
That’s not true, that number doesn’t include distribution costs, cost of getting the raw materials, people getting paid, marketing costs. It’s an easy narrative to create, “Huel just want more profit”, but we actually turn very little profit, and for a few years have made losses (all published in our reports). However, that narrative becomes more difficult to make when it’s been so widely reported that the cost of everything has increased, not just from inflation either.
Thanks for the post @Taliesin, great to see you back on the forum, even if it was this post which brought you back! Just for clarity, there was a price increase in December 2019 when we released v3.0. That was our first one.
No shrinkflation, pouches have always contained 7000kcal per pouch. You might be thinking of when we removed a decimal place and a new formula meant there was 40g less in a pouch. More here
Your comment about your vintage cheddar treat each night has made me smile, it’s the small things right?
We really appreciate this. We will always focus on nutrition and quality. It’s cool that your dietitian thinks the same.
Thanks @BigCat10, glad that you aren’t too hit by the price updates, but obviously everyone is different here. Definitely branch out of just ready-to-drink. You won’t be able to replicate the smoothness of RTD with powder but do check out the powder and blend it/chill it as it is smooth, but just not as smooth!
@m.rabbich Complete Protein wasn’t increased in price, we can’t see what is around the corner, but it won’t increase this time.
As has been pointed out here, prices of food, shipping, delivery, raw materials have increased massively, this is a global economic issue, not down to one issue. If Huel are going to be around for a long time we need to adapt, we hope you will continue on this journey with us because as J said, the best is yet to come. We’ve got some incredible products and flavours coming.
Its a big jump percentage wise tbh however prices are gonna rise everywhere for alot of things. Its still cheaper and more convenient than buying a lunchtime sandwich for me.
Price increase may stop new comers esp as huel dont do samples.
Julian founder of Huel here.
I’m sorry we gave had to put prices up
To give a bit more context… Huel made -10% ebitda profit in f2018 and -1.6% profit in f2019. So you can see that we are not a highly profitable company.
The costs of ingredients, energy, and especially transport have increased dramatically. For example to the cost of international freight has increased by over 800% at their peak and they are still dramatically higher than pre covid so I can assure you that 15% in our price doesn’t even cover all the price increases. Our margin will be lower this year compared to last year.
So I do apologise for have having to increases prices but it’s a necessity.
What I can say is that in the background we have been negotiating hard and resisted increasing prices for as long as possible. Plus I have a few ideas up my sleeve for how we can make improvements in the future. I hope you understand.
Love J x
Tim_huel wrote “We’re gutted to hear this and hope you’ll reconsider, but we also appreciate that affordability is key. We still believe Huel is affordable, especially when compared to other convenient and nutritious options. Of course meal prepping is more cost-effective, we don’t begin to suggest Huel is more cost effective than batch home-cooking (it can be, depending on what you’re comparing against, but we’re not here to replace this if you are someone with the time to do this for every meal). The convenience of Huel plays in here and still does, we hope that you will see this in time”
Tim,
I’ve just ordered a sample from a competitor. They charge £50 for 4 kilos of their vegan complete meal replacement. Huel are going to charge £63 for 3 kilos !!! I’m a big Huel fan, used it for many years but you’ve just priced yourselves out of the market.
Huel is good, but it’s not that good.
