Business Plan Proposal

1. Business Description
1. Business Description
The business plan will be created for VegGo. The area of activity is the
food market, having as its essence the production and commercialisation
of high-quality plant-based food, to satisfy its potential audience: vegans,
vegetarians, flexitarians, and meat lovers who want to reduce meat
consumption.
The idea of the venture came with the intention of placing a product that
is very scarce in Ireland’s snacking market. At first, the product will
consist of pre-packed freshly made plant-based sandwiches, wraps and
soups. The idea is to provide a grab-and-go product where customers can
take advantage of a healthy, free from eggs, milk and meat, and
conveniently ready food.
By creating products free from, the brand will also have a broader vision
of bringing awareness to the sustainability creating a brand that cares
about collaborating to a more sustainable world.
VegGo will offer an innovative flavour for those who care about their own
health and the Planet where we live.
- Product’s key benefits:

• Handpicked and fresh ingredients;

• Innovative flavours;
• Unique recipes;
• Gluten-free options;
• Production from scratch (except bread);
• Recycling packaging;
• Labelling transparency;
• Ready to eat.
Geographically the business aims to operate in an area, no more than 20
minutes away from Dublin, which is where the products will be delivered
to. In a logistic point of view, this area was selected for being close
enough to Dublin. The rent price was also taken into consideration, it is
much cheaper to rent outside Dublin.
The products are intended to be readily available to the public via
supermarkets and airport, which are the largest market, who has the
greater number of customers, and through convenience stores, and
healthy food shops.
The demographics end users are people that follow a plant-based, healthy
diet, who are seeking an easy alternative for consuming healthy foods on-
the-go.
• Market Analysis
An analysis of the Irish market and its trends in relation to the food
market, especially healthy and vegan, was conducted to better serve
those consumers who follow or want to follow a healthier, or perhaps, a
vegan plant-based diet.
- Food market
According to Irish Foodservice channel Insights Report (2017), the food
service in Ireland continues to grow and is valued at a record €7.8 billion.
The Health Snacking UK and Ireland (2018) research points out that the
snacking category in Ireland will grow 5% between 2017 and 2021
worthing more than €3 billion, being the 2nd largest in value ahead of
both Alcohol and Tobacco and the 3rd fastest growing. The study shows
that 70% of people snack every day and for 31% of the people the
amount of times they have been snacking during the day has increased a
little and for only 13% of the people has decreased a little, therefore the
habit of snacking is increasing.
An interesting research by Bord Bia (2017) that includes the Irish Attitude
towards healthier options, shows that 67% of the people say that would
like manufacturers to produce more healthy options with the intention to
help customers eating healthier. 46% thinks that there are never enough
healthy food options when shopping, and 48% said that choosing healthy
food can be very limiting.
This shows that it would be appropriate to offer a healthier option to
customers who are willing to be healthy, but many times find difficult to
find different alternatives or don’t find the product needed.
- Vegan diet
The veganism is on the rise all over the world The UK’s Vegan society
found that in a decade the vegan population have tripled in a decade to
more than 500.000 (Irish Examiner, 2018). The Independent UK (2018)
wrote an article stating that the total of vegans in the UK is of more than
3.5 million vegan people and in America, there are currently 1.62 million
vegan people (Vegan Bits, 2017).
The community in Ireland is starting to grow, businesses are aware of the
trend and are starting to create products for this niche, and this is the
best time to put products in the market.
Data from Google trends shows a huge interest in veganism worldwide
from 2008 to 2018.

The 5 top regions are New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Sweden and
Ireland, as shown in the figure below:

Data released by Just Eat reveal that demand for healthy choices
generally grew by 94% in 2017, and gluten-free options increased by
72% (QSRMedia UK, 2018). Just Eat Marketing Director, Edel Kinane said:
“The results from this year are a good insight into the future consumer
trends and while convenience will continue to be key for consumers next
year and beyond, we know that they are increasingly looking for more
diverse, healthy, gluten-free and plant-based Vegan options”.
 2. Justification for this proposed business
A focus group was carried out with 6 people that can be considered
vegans or flexitarians. We discussed the necessity of the market to
embrace this new trend, as people are looking to change their eating
habits to become healthier and to collaborate with a more sustainable
world.
The creation of Facebook groups for vegans to share new vegan
products such as Dublin Vegans, Dublin Vegan Group, and Suitable for
Vegans Ireland Group, can be of a great resource for observation. It
shows that the vegan market in Ireland is still lacking in products and that
consumers have been keeping an eye on the products being offered and,
most importantly, communicating to each other in order to consume
these products. Therefore, VegGo will provide quality products and
especially will innovate in taste and will maintain contact to its
consumers. The brand will not only offer the products to the vegan
community, but also to everyone looking for a healthy option.
As this market is still new, many products, that can be considered
basic, can be introduced. Considering the demand for ready-to-eat
products, especially healthy, and with the fact that veganism is a growing
trend worldwide, it is possible to conclude that the brand VegGo will have
great chances to succeed and will be of great convenience to its final
consumers.
 References
Bord Bia (2017). Irish and British Consumers and their Food. PERIscope
2017. [online] Bord Bia, p.160. Available at:
https://www.bordbia.ie/industry/manufacturers/insight/publications/bbre
ports/PERIscope6/PERIscope2017/Bord%20Bia%20Periscope%202017%2
0-%20Irish%20and%20British%20Full%20Report.pdf [Accessed 17 Oct.
2018].
Healthy Snacking UK and Ireland. (2018). [online] Bord Bia & Spark.
Available at:
https://www.bordbia.ie/industry/manufacturers/insight/publications/bbre
ports/RecentMarketingReports/Healthy%20Snacking%20UK%20and%20I
reland%20-%20January%202018.pdf [Accessed 8 Oct. 2018].
Irishexaminer.com. (2018). Veganism in vogue as Irish companies
embrace trend. [online] Available at:
https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/business/veganism-in-
vogue-as-irish-companies-embrace-trend-849459.html [Accessed 17 Oct.
2018].
Petter, O. (2018). The number of vegans in the UK has soared to 3.5
million, according to a survey. [online] The Independent. Available at:
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/vegans-uk-rise-
popularity-plant-based-diets-veganism-figures-survey-compare-the-
market-a8286471.html [Accessed 31 Oct. 2018].
QSRMedia UK. (2018). Just Eat predicts that Vegan will be the food trend
of 2018. [online] Available at:
https://qsrmedia.co.uk/research/news/just-eat-predicts-vegan-will-be-
food-trend-2018 [Accessed 31 Oct. 2018].
veganbits.com. (2018). Vegan Demographics 2017 - USA, and the world -
Vegan Bits. [online] Available at: http://veganbits.com/vegan-
demographics-2017/ [Accessed 17 Oct. 2018].