Huel Hits Heathrow Airport & Expands Into Tesco Stores Across The UK

TRING, United Kingdom — Huel, the fast-growing company best known for its nutritionally complete powdered meals, is ramping up its physical presence with two new heavy-hitting partnerships.

The plant-based food brand is landing at Heathrow Airport via five Huel vending machines that will provide travellers passing through Terminal 5 with the opportunity to pick up its meals on the go. A separate listing at supermarket chain Tesco will also see the brand’s ‘ready-to-drink’ products available across 500 stores around the UK.

The milestone partnership will significantly step up Huel’s reach across the nation and bolster its mission of making convenient, affordable nutritious meals more accessible to the masses.

Speaking about the two launches, CEO of Huel James McMaster said: “Consumer demand for Huel has increased over the last year at an exciting pace. Not only have we seen growth with new consumers seeking more plant-based food that also offers complete nutrition, but we’ve made sure our most on the go products have become available in more locations for impulse purchase.”

He continued: “As we start to see the international travel market open up, we’re really happy to have our vending machines in Heathrow. While for those not travelling abroad this summer, our ready to drinks will now be available in 500 Tesco stores across the UK, making it easier to grab a nutritionally complete meal when you are out and about.”

Currently boasting sales of more than 150 million meals across 100 countries and turning over £72 million annually, Huel has successfully demonstrated the global market for products that fundamentally change the way food is made and eaten. However, Julien Hern, who founded the powdered meal startup, back in 2015, believes the company has the potential to be as big as the likes of previous challenger brands such as Red Bull, which created, then dominated a completely new category.

The brand’s continued expansion into retail will play a key role in making that vision a reality.

The Hertfordshire-based business first moved into physical retail in 2019, when its ready-to-drink bottles launched into 500 Sainsbury’s stores across the UK. Since then, Huel has seen its distribution treble within Sainsbury’s, whilst also launching in travel locations like BP forecourts and more recently into the wellness sector with David Lloyd Gyms and Nuffield Health.

Product innovation, such as the release of its Hot & Savoury range — its first nutritionally complete warm meal. And more recently Huel Complete Protein — made from a blend of vegan-safe hemp, faba and pea protein, are also helping to fuel the brand’s growth.

Huel Complete Protein, argues Hern, fills a gap the brand wasn’t satisfying before. And challenges the misconception that plant-based protein is inferior to whey.

“At Huel, we now have a product that means there is no reason to rely on whey anymore,” he told Welltodo earlier this year.

Adding: “As it was with plant-based milk and plant-based meat, we’ve solved those problems with protein. Now there’s no compromise. You know you’re going to have something that tastes as good, if not better.”

As more people continue to choose to adopt plant-based eating — whether that be full time or just a few days a week — Huel believes it is increasingly helping them achieve this.

By doubling down on its presence in the places people live, work and travel it’s further establishing itself as a convenient and attainable solution that taps into the rapidly rising ‘healthy for me, healthy for the planet’ mindset.