I appreciate that this may be a tricky question to answer for the powers that be, but do you reckon the chances are good that we’ll see this in 2018? 
I can’t help but think back to that Wired article which mentioned it alongside the chocolate-orange flavoured bar and the coffee-flavoured Huel as being upcoming products. And of course the bar and the coffee-flavoured Huel have already been unveiled.
It very much goes against the core environmentally friendly aspect of Huel. It’s been brought up before, some for, some against.
I’d be disappointed to see it purely due to the Huel ethos around environmentalism being so strong. I’m not even one of these enviro-nuts, so there’ll be people even more against it than me.
But, I guess there’s a fair amount of money to be had in a pre bottled version.
I think ready to drink versions of meal replacements are much more popular in USA than UK. I don’t have any figures to hand but I did watch Food Uncovered or whatever it’s called on Boxing Day last year and it was discussed. Huel was featured too…obviously Huel is looking to increase market share in USA which is probably why Julian has been over there for aeons…and so it makes sense.
But would it? If Huel was more accessable, then more people may consume Huel as opposed to less eco-friendly meal choices - the net effect could be a benefit.
The only potential issues are 1) a bottle, which would be addressed if Huel to the best of Huel’s ability if we were to produce a bottled version, and 2) increased weight for transport per calorie.
We are making plans to look at the sustainability issues as a whole much more.
It’s a fair point, I just don’t see how you could ever make it anywhere near as eco friendly. We can’t pick and choose where to use the calorie per unit volume argument.
500ml of Huel Powder can simply never ever be matched by 500ml of mixed Huel. 500g for me would be 2L of water or more. That’s an enormous volume compared to getting it in a bag.
As I said, for me it won’t ever be an issue. I don’t use Huel to save the environment etc, I use it for convenience and fuel. But, for those who do care, I can’t see how you can retain the environmental claims if you’re just another product with standard logistics and space consumption in transit.
My advice is to not compare the ready-to-drink version with the powder version, but instead compare it with other food one might eat instead.
The powder version will always be the best nutritionally-wise, with the highest nutritional density. The RTD version will always be more convenient.
Personally, I am for the creation of RTD Huel, just so that other players do not beat them to mainstream market in UK/Europe (there already are a few companies that have a RTD product, but the sales are too small for now).
I guess the problem becomes capitalism for Huel. On one hand they want to be sustainable. On the other hand they want to make as much money as possible. I guess it’s natural but I wonder if they can co-exist without profit being higher priority than sustainability?
Capitalism sucks, but it’s the best we have I suppose. But it often won’t work in planets best interest as profit > everything else. And at least now, being green is usually not the most profitable for companies. From my experience.
I would rather see this not be needed or requested for those reasons but I know there is demand. Seriously though, Why can’t people mix the powder and bring with them lol
I completely agree on: increased weight for transport per calorie. It gets vastly reduced to the point in which you would basically sell Water and some Huel.
I would like to have some available, could be very helpful but the price would be very high per meal and the bottle waste is very important
It needs a rethink
What most of the people want is branding, to feel part of Huel. That is why creating an official plastic bottle for Huel to use in short travels or at the office should be a priority for you. Something around 400ml like the square sistema bottle.
RTD is where it’s going to be at, soon. Powder will always be the most eco sure, but compared to the breakfast cereals and supermarket lunches lots of us replace with huel… an RTD would still be leagues ahead environmentally.
Newer brands like saturo and yfood are focused entirely on ready to drink and are doing brilliantly. More established powder brands like Jimmy joy and feed are making it their focus in 2018.
It’s more convenient, a much easier sales prospect to new customers, and let’s be honest; we’ll never see powdered huel on a shop shelf, but an RTD will be everywhere - you just have to look at soylent in the states.
What most people want is quick and easy nutrition. Huel is just food after all.
I am not sure if that’s what most people want. Most
people that want a meal replacement drink want that tho.
I don’t really get the point of a RTD Huel, because it would be much more expensive, like Jimmy Joy or other competitors, which I would never buy exactly because they are expensive. I want to have better meals, but I’m not rich so I can’t spend double or triple the price. And even if I had the money, why would I spend more?
An RTD bottle could be useful as an introductory test for new customers, or for very limited situations (like I’m in another city, I’ve no Huel with me, I want an Huel so I go to a supermarket). But that’s the catch: it’s not enough to have an RTD for that scenario, it also must be in every supermarket so that it can be found easily. Maybe that could happen in UK, but I don’t think I will easily see it here in Italy.
I also think the plastic waste will surmount any advantage in term of people eating better, because it would be a bottle for any meal, compared to, I don’t know, a plastic bag of pasta that would last several meals, or a box of veggies. But that could be fixed, maybe using some eco-friendly organic stuff as material?
So for me an RTD version make no sense, but I fully trust the Huel team to be better than me, so I’m sure they will go for the best option since they’ve ben great so far. If they launch an RTD version, it will have its market place and its reasons. 
Hi Phil - I think @rikefrejut has made the point - a RTD product should not be compared with powdered Huel, but other food. If more people consume Huel because of it - that’s a benefit to the environment.
I quite like the idea of RTD for some occasions when even a convenient shake isn’t convenient, but it rarely applies. I actually bought a 6 pack of Saturo when it was released…well over a year ago…but I used it so infrequently I have 2 left past use by date now.
I see a vegan RTD in Tesco now…called uFit. So becoming more mainstream.
Yes but the execution is almost as important as the main product. If you dont make your customers proud of what they are using the connection in the future is not guaranteed. But if you make them available products to complement their experience they probably would become prescribers.
They way of preparing and consuming Huel needs to be improved. From the process from the scoop to the bottle.
I totally disagree! I’m a fairly new Huel subscriber but I intend to stick with it, I think they have got the balance between sound nutrition, taste & convenience pretty spot on!
I wouldn’t purchase an RTD version because I like to make my huel to my own taste & vary it everyday if I want to - Huel powder gives me that freedom.
As for better branding… It might help Huel become more visible & increase sales if it focused on becoming a super trendy brand & everyone was dying to get their pics of themselves drinking Huel in a variety of glamorous/exciting situations on Instagram… I know huel already encourages this & uses it as advertising! But really that’s just marketing bullshit ruled by trends… Loyal customers who make up the core of Huels business will be people who keep coming back because they like the product & the effect on their wellbeing & how it fits into their life… Not superficial branding or a more fancy bottle to drink it out of!
Maybe I’m just old fashioned… I do think though, that an RTD version of Huel in a plastic bottle would destroy or severely dent the company’s claims to be super eco friendly & sustainable.
Several people have mentioned that a plastic bottle would harm Huel’s image as an environmentally friendly company. Well, if and when Huel ever does go down the RTD road, why not sell it in a recyclable carton; like milk? The carton would have enough for, say, five servings; and the customer would keep it in his fridge.
You could also sell a special glass, with notches on the side showing the customer where to fill it up to to get a full serving.
I think it would have to be a fundamentally different drink, though. The soy-based drinks seem to have a better shelf life, as a general rule, than those based on oat or pea proteins like Huel. They’d probably have to invest loads of money in tweaking the formula, stabilizing it to survive in a carton for a week. I’m happy with the way the product works at the moment - it’s not that inconvenient to mix my own meals.
If they perhaps released an RTD meal as a totally separate product line, something like “X by Huel” (“x” being the new product name); and continued manufacturing and selling the powder as it is right now; that would tick everyone’s boxes. They could even base the RTD product on soy, since it seems to work better in that format, and so that Huel could also appeal to soy devotees. Anything’s possible in ten years time, when the company has expanded sufficiently!
Hey dolerocket, this isn’t a dig at you by any means, but are there really still soy devotees??
I find that hard to understand when there seems to have been a lot of evidence over the past few years that soy is damaging to health & disruptive to hormones unless it is eaten in the traditionally fermented manner, as they do in China/SE Asia?
I seem to remember there was a lot about this on the documentary Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead about an American guy who swapped his unhealthy vegan diet, heavy in soy & processed convenience food for an omnivore Paleo diet & vastly improved his health.
Soy is also bad for the planet & environment as a lot of it is GMO & grown in South America where rainforest has been destroyed to accommodate.
I would give a serious side eye to Huel with soy!!
I wasn’t aware of the negative implications of soy! That documentary sounds pretty compelling, and I may hunt it down.
I’m not a particular advocate of soy myself (unless fried tofu counts), I simply assumed that there must be a market for it since loads of foodstuffs and meal replacement shakes use it as a key component. If Huel ever did bring out an RTD meal replacement, I probably wouldn’t buy it. Like I said, I’m happy with the powder format. I just thought that maybe concerns with shelf life would force them to use soy in such a product, and that that wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing as it potentially opens up another sector of the marketplace.
I didn’t know about the issues you mentioned. I’m sort of new to this game! You’ve certainly inspired me to do some reading, though…
Yeah fried tofu can be really tasty… I used to have soy milk as a dairy alternative but I avoid it now based on what I posted above. I enjoyed Cauldron brand marinated tofu in a stir fry occasionally when I was strict veggie & lived near a place that stocked it, but now I eat some meat a couple of times a week & give soy a miss as much as possible… I think it’s added to a lot of things inc. shakes & protein powders because its so cheap due to the scale its produced on for animal feed.
That’s a whole other rabbit hole to go down though, as animal feed made from GMO soy means that the resulting meat from those animals is GMO too but doesn’t have to be labelled as such.
I really appreciate that Huel is properly healthy & removes some of this nutritional & ethical minefield from my daily life though!