Plant-based brand This has hired former Wahaca, Camden Town Brewery and Eat Real boss Mark Turner as MD.
Turner led Eat Real for the last year, after heading up Wahaca from 2017 to 2020. Prior to that he was MD of Camden Town Brewery, having also worked at Innocent Drinks for 10 years across a variety of commercial roles.
Turner would be responsible for “driving the company’s business strategy and expansion”, said This, adding his “experience of helping to step change the growth trajectory of food and drinks businesses” would “enable This to move into a new phase of growth”.
The time had come “for us to start adulting – now that we’re taking the fight to the bigger brands”, said This co-founder Andy Shovel. “We’ve got huge confidence Mark will help This grow even faster, and perhaps less chaotically, than before. In return, we’ll teach him how to prank meat-lovers into eating plant-based food.”
It comes as the brand has rapidly expanded its range over past months, adding a Christmas range of plant-based stuffing, pigs in blankets and mini sausages in October and launching into supermarket sushi counters through a partnership with Yo and Panku owner Snowfox Group.
June saw it pull in £11m in what it claimed was the biggest series A fundraise for a meat alternative brand in the UK, which was co-led by investment firm BGF and Lever VC, which specifically invests in start-ups in the alternative protein space. The brand has raised £21m to date.
“What This has done really well is show you can have a purposeful mission whilst also being a fun brand that resonates with people,” said Turner. “This will continue to be a core part of our strategy.”
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