Is Yeo Valley’s move into meat as crazy as it sounds?

Not content with its surprise acquisition of rival yoghurt brand The Collective a fortnight ago, Yeo Valley Organic took a step further last week, when it announced the expansion of its range with a… beef burger?

The launch of its organic and grass-fed burger, so soon after Yeo Valley bolstered its core offering with the purchase of The Collective, may have initially sounded a bit left field – after all, burgers and yoghurt are not normally natural bedfellows.

But a closer look at the product and Yeo Valley’s wider growth strategy suggests it may not be as crazy an idea as first thought.

The brand has not been shy about growing outside its core offering – which, bar a move into soups in 2022, has been largely limited to yoghurts and yoghurt drinks since it sold off its milk, cheese and butter business to Arla in 2018.

At the time of that soup launch – Yeo Valley’s first ever departure outside the dairy aisles – its owner Tim Mead said he wanted to expand the availability of organic products in the major supermarkets and “provide a wider natural healthy food offering that nurtures our planet and nourishes people”.

Yeo Valley: a family farm

A poll of London consumers by the brand had shown people thought of Yeo Valley as a “family farm”, the business said. “So, anything you think you could buy at a farm shop is not far off where we should go,” suggested former brand manager Rebecca Cottee at the time.

A move into upmarket, and crucially more sustainable beef burgers, was therefore a logical next step, Yeo Valley argued last week.

Beef for the burgers is sourced from grass-fed, free-ranging organic cattle, alongside retired organic dairy cows from Yeo Valley’s own dairy supply chain – supplied via red meat giant ABP.

“Families want top-quality, high-welfare meat that matches their ethics and principles, without compromising,” said senior brand manager Jonny McIver. Made from just a few simple ingredients, it was “a tasty, no-fuss choice for those who care about great taste and responsible sourcing”.

He may be on to something, with Kantar data in The Grocer’s latest Focus on BBQ report showing a 10.8% increase in volume sales of premium-tiered meat products last summer [16 w/e 1 September].

Meanwhile, red meat sales in general are also buoyant, having rebounded after a cost of living crisis-driven slump in recent years. NIQ data for The Grocer’s 2024 Top Products survey shows beef sales in the mults registered the biggest absolute value gain of any grocery line last year.

Sales rose by 8%, or £242.1m as improving consumer confidence led to “the return of lost shoppers”, according to AHDB analyst Grace Randall, with the category also benefiting from innovation and premiumisation.

Added to that, rising organic meat sales were a key driver of growth in the wider organic category – which saw total sales rise by 7.3% to £3.7bn last year, according to The Soil Association’s recent Organic Market Report. Meat, fish and poultry value sales also rose by 12.9%, with better retail availability of organic beef helping “support a consumer shift to buying less but better meat”.

Upmarket burgers

And when it comes to price, Yeo Valley’s first move into meat is actually quite attractively positioned, when compared with Tesco’s wider burger lineup.

When it hits Tesco shelves tomorrow, it will cost shoppers £5 for two 130g patties (or £19.23/kg).

That compares with a price of £4.50 for two 150g The Jolly Cow burgers (£15/kg) or £4.25 for two 160g Tesco Finest burgers (£12.50/kg) – both of which are sourced via conventional, non-organic and non-free-range beef supply chains.

In fact, the organic premium paid for a Yeo Valley burger when compared with the Finest burger of 28.2% is narrower than the 36.8% premium charged for a Yeo Valley Organic two-litre bottle of milk (produced under licence by Arla) and a two-litre own label standard bottle of milk in Tesco.

Of course, whether shoppers take to a Yeo Valley burger in the meat aisles remains to be seen.

Grocery is littered with unsuccessful non-core brand extensions, from Heinz’ Beanz’s chilled Houmouz to Innocent’s dairy-free milks and Warburtons’ attempts to launch a snack brand.

But with the brand also planning on expanding its range to “bring more high-quality, high-welfare meat that’s also great value”, we can expect to see much more of Yeo Valley in the meat aisles before too long.