From vegconomist.com
At Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, vegconomist caught up with Josh Tetrick, CEO and co-founder of Eat Just, on the sidelines of a busy show floor. With Just Egg now in over 500 REWE stores across Germany, and a second retail launch underway with Edeka, Tetrick spoke candidly about what the German market has taught him, how his company has defied the industry’s difficult moment, and why the path to transforming the food system runs through financial discipline as much as innovation.
Nils: You launched Just Egg in Germany in January with REWE. How has it gone?
Josh: We launched in January with REWE, and it sold well enough that they’ve expanded the number of regions we’re in. We’re now north of 500 stores with them. A couple of weeks ago we also launched with Edeka. I’ve been following the progress of our launch through the German vegan Reddit boards.I translate them and read everything people like and don’t like. They seem to like the product. They seem not to like the price.
Nils: That sounds very German.
Josh: I get it. Germans are spoiled for good quality. We’re producing out of our manufacturing facility in Lüneburg, Germany. We have 90 people there, a full line. We’ve invested a lot of capital getting that line set up.
“If someone is putting a perishable item in their suitcase when they travel to the US, that is a good sign the market wants it.”
Nils: How is consumer response in Germany different from the US?
Josh: Much better. I’m not sure if it’s because Just Egg is just more established in the US and people are more aware of it, or if there’s simply more appetite for what we’re doing in Germany. Just Egg is currently the highest-selling plant-based protein item in the United States in terms of units per store per week. But in Germany, there’s a very active conversation on the Reddit boards about Just Egg specifically. We’re seeing things like, “Now I don’t have to pack this in my suitcase when I visit the US.” If someone is putting a perishable item in their suitcase, that is a good sign the market wants it. I don’t need any McKinsey consultant to tell me anything. If that’s happening, that’s all I need to know.
Nils: Why did you choose this particular partnership structure for the European launch?
Josh: We partnered with the Vegan Food Group, which is backed by Ahimsa, one of the largest investors in the plant-based protein space and also one of our larger investors. The manufacturing facility in Lünerburg is owned by Ahimsa, and we wanted to launch in a facility where we have more autonomy and agency. The retail partnership flows naturally from that larger relationship.
Messaging for Germany: Vegan over Plant-Based
Nils: You’re relaunching your website in Germany at ju.st/de. Did you change the positioning and messaging for the German market?
Josh: Yes. We’re definitely using the word “vegan” more. In the US, I would say “made from plants” or “plant-based.” In Germany, I’m much more explicit: vegan. It’s a word that doesn’t seem nearly as polarizing in Germany as it can be in the United States. And there’s also much more emphasis on impact, on animals and on the environment. In the US, I’d lead with health. In Germany, it’s animals first, then environment, then health.
Defying the Industry Downturn
Nils: There’s been a lot happening in the alt-protein market: companies filing for bankruptcy, headwinds across the board. What gave you conviction to keep going?
Josh: At least as it relates to us, the last three months have been our highest-ever revenue months in the history of the company. Just Egg is selling more than it ever has. Just Meat is now launching. Our margins are higher. That’s not speaking to the broader industry situation, but I think the reality is: if we can make things that are really tasty and really different, things that connect with people, we’ll win. And if we’re not making things that taste good enough and aren’t generating profit, it’s probably going to mean we lose.
Nils: What do you do differently from other players?
Josh: A few things. First: if you’re going to launch something, make it meaningfully different from anything else on the shelf. Different enough that even if you didn’t put a single dollar into marketing, people would still buy it. Second, and this is probably equally important, something someone close to me told me: when you don’t burn money, you have more power to do good. We’ve learned how not to burn money. That was a hard lesson for me. It means an intense focus on every detail: warehousing, our entire bill of materials, whether we’re spending $100 on a software subscription we don’t actually need. You look at every single penny, maximize efficiency at every turn, and then wake up the next day and do it again.
“When you don’t burn money, you have more power to do good. We’ve learned how not to burn money.”
Josh: And eventually you look at the bank account on the first of the month and then on the last day of the month, and it actually has more money at the end. That feels really good. You want to keep doing that, because there’s a lot of good that flows from that kind of discipline.
The Portfolio: Eggs, Meat, and the Long Game on Cultivated
Nils: You now have Just Egg, Just Meat, and Good Meat. How does it all fit together?
Josh: Really, 95% of the focus is Just Egg and Just Meat. Five percent is long-term Good Meat, very long-term. Right now we’re trying to figure out how to build a cultivated meat facility for significantly less cost than it costs to build one today. We’re not close to solving that, so there’s a lot of work ahead. But the strategy is: let the plant-based side drive us, generate cash, and fuel growth in Europe. And then, long-term, we still want to do cultivated.
Nils: If Just Egg, Just Meat, and ultimately Good Meat all hit their full potential. What does the food system look like?
Josh: Full potential would be: on any given day, let’s say Expo West ten, twenty, thirty years from now, the majority of eggs and chicken produced in the world on that day don’t require harming an animal. That’s full potential. Whether it’s us alone (which is very unlikely) or any number of companies collectively making that happen. There are already countries in the world, Norway and Sweden among them, where the majority of cars sold on a given day are electric. Twenty years ago, no one would have predicted that.
The Assumption That’s Completely Wrong
Nils: What’s an assumption people have right now that you think is completely wrong?
Josh: Two things. First: a lot of people have tried plant-based products and had a bad experience with one, and then they assume that’s what all plant-based products taste like. It’s like driving one of the first electric cars and concluding that’s what electric vehicles are. Forgetting that a Tesla Model S or a Rivian doesn’t drive anything like that first EV. That assumption is wrong.
Josh: Second: I think people are genuinely confused about health. One of the most important things we can do for our health is radically reduce saturated fat intake. There are plenty of plant-based products and non-plant-based products that are packed with saturated fat, both will increase your risk of cardiovascular disease. People need to be able to discern which plant-based products are actually healthy, not based on the label, but based on a pretty basic understanding of nutrition that unfortunately gets distorted in the media ecosystem we live in.
Nils: Do you think consumers are confused?
Josh: Definitely. I’m thinking of Dan Buettner, the Blue Zones researcher. Someone offered him decent money to write a weekly nutrition column, and he turned it down. He said he’d just write the same article every week: eat lots of plants like kale, broccoli, blueberries. Keep saturated fat under 15%. Get enough protein. If you eat chicken, better to be plant-based than animal-based. That’s it. The same article every week. And because you can’t build an audience writing the same thing repeatedly, people generate new content, new takes, and that creates confusion. Sometimes the truth is extremely boring. But it’s a truthful one.
What’s Next for Europe
Nils: Last question: where next in Europe after Germany?
Josh: Germany is the foundation. From Germany we’re going to the UK, then the Netherlands, then the Nordic countries.
