UK tofu maker The Tofoo Co recorded an 18.5% growth in revenue in 2024, hitting nearly £24M in the same year the company changed hands.
Subverting the decline of the UK’s meat-free market, The Tofoo Co enjoyed a milestone year with sales reaching record highs after the business was acquired by German private equity firm Comitis Capital.
The company, which sells tofu, tempeh and seitan under The Tofoo Co label and tofu under the Clearspot brand, hit £23.9M in revenue, an 18.5% improvement from 2023. Its profits also swelled by 40% to £2.2M, before accounting for a one-off charge related to its takeover.
The Tofoo Co ascribed the growth to the launch of new products, an 89% increase in marketing spend, deeper distribution, and expansion in foodservice. “The decision to move to third-party co-pack on added-value tofu products has helped us unlock new revenue streams and is something we will continue in 2025,” its board wrote in the business’s financial filing for 2024.
The Tofoo Co drives category growth amid UPF concerns
The firm’s success was driven by The Tofoo Co label, whose retail sales value touched £30M for the first time, making it the second-largest meat-free brand in the UK, behind mycoprotein leader Quorn.
Further, the Tofoo Co brand helped the tofu category reach more households, growing annual penetration by 0.2%. While this growth is minuscule, it’s far better than how the larger meat-free category performed, whose penetration declined to 24.3%.
In its filing, the company blamed the category’s struggles on “continued negative press around the category and ultra-processed foods, and an impression that meat-free is expensive relative to meat”.
Concerns around UPFs, which make up 57% of the average Brit’s diet, are driving consumers away from plant-based meat (whose sales fell by 10% last year). It has led to a surge in whole-food innovations like Veg’chop and This’s Super Superfood. In fact, meals made from vegetables, beans and legumes saw the highest net increase in intake (46%) among the entire category, though tofu, seitan and tempeh witnessed the smallest net gain (19%).
Still, the Tofoo Co’s namesake brand drove better gross margins, which were up from 38% in 2023 to 40.3% in 2024. “This was mainly the result of rising volumes but also better processing and labour efficiency in the operation,” its board said. “Soya bean costs were stable during the period.”
It invested £1.9M to streamline its manufacturing operations by expanding soy milk processing capacity, bringing tempeh production in-house, and investing in a larger broiler and grid connection. In addition, the company recently revealed plans to build a 68,000 sq ft factory one mile from its current site in Yorkshire, which will triple its capacity and is expected to be completed by late 2026 or early 2027.
The Tofoo Co continues to be the leading tofu company in the UK, accounting for 53% of the market in 2024 and finishing the year as one of the only growing meat-free brands.
The Tofoo Co goes international in positive start to 2025
Looking ahead, the board shared a positive outlook for 2025, which it said has “started well” with “consistent value and volume growth”, enlarging its share in the meat-free market to 11.3% (its highest yet).
It outlined further opportunities for growth this year, through distribution gains in existing retail customers, new product development, and expansion in foodservice, which remains a small yet growing part of its total business.
The nine-year-old company is betting on international expansion, having launched its products in four major French supermarket chains. The acquisition by Comitis Capital was key here, with the majority shareholder “providing stable backing of the business and promoting new growth opportunities, especially given their knowledge of European markets, where Tofoo Co is looking to expand”.
Even after modelling downslides in sales, margins and operating performance, the board said the firm would remain profitable and have positive cash balances. Still, it outlined several challenges that could derail its performance in 2025, including rising energy and ingredient costs, the ongoing impact of Brexit, and lower consumer demand for meatless products.
“Meat-free as a category continues to see some declines, but growth has been strong in the first quarter of 2025 on tofu and the trend towards more natural products continues,” The Tofoo Co said. Indeed, the volume of tofu sold in the UK was 10% higher in January 2025 than 12 months prior, possibly due to its affordability. Meanwhile, tempeh and seitan enjoyed an 85% hike (albeit from a tiny base).
The company is now splurging on marketing and mainstream media for product sampling, building brand awareness, and attracting new consumers. Its board remains confident that the demand for tofu will keep rising in the coming years, thanks to “increased awareness of both more natural, healthier and environmentally friendly diets and products”.
The post The Tofoo Co Rides on UK’s Tofu Wave with Record Sales in 2024 appeared first on Green Queen.
This post was originally published on Green Queen.