How this vegan start-up business is powering growth overseas

From telegraph.co.uk/business

Investing in the right business tools was a vital step for New York-based vegan food company Daring Foods, which is officially launching into the US after a successful test in the British market

When sports enthusiast Ross Mackay became vegan in his early 20s, he did so hoping to find a tasty alternative to meat which would also provide a rich source of protein. However, now 28, the once successful tennis star (he was coached by Judy Murray and represented Scotland in the sport as a teenager) was soon left feeling very disappointed.

“I became tired of eating poor vegan meals,” he says. “I felt like I was missing out on the experience of food.” So, along with co-founder Eliot Kessas, he decided to launch a new vegan meat brand that he hoped would combine both a high level of taste with all the nutrients needed to play sport at an elite level.

Now just a year into its test market, Daring Foods’ alternative to chicken, Daring Pieces, is available in hundreds of restaurants and food outlets across the UK, and is now available in the US. “The reason we’ve grown so quickly is that a lot of our competitors have yet to close the gaps in taste and texture between their products and the real thing. We’ve accomplished this with a much more popular protein – chicken – which has enabled us to stand out from the crowd,” says Mr Mackay.

Importantly, the product isn’t just aimed at vegans, but also “flexitarians” who occasionally eat meat and fish too. The plant-based product comprises five main ingredients, including non-genetically modified soy, and is free from palm oil.

Investing for growth

Inevitably growing the business in such a short space of time has provided Daring Foods with a huge operational challenge, especially in managing more than a dozen wholesale partners and numerous product variations, known as stock keeping units (SKUs). “Until recently we were doing everything on Excel spreadsheets which was far from ideal,” says Mr Mackay.

All this changed when Daring Foods decided to reconsider the business software it was using. The company turned to Oracle NetSuite to help run the business more effectively. “It’s been a great relationship,” says Mr Mackay. “What NetSuite has enabled us to do is to really automate and centralise a lot of our key business functions, including accounting, financial reporting, stock management and customer relationship management (CRM).”

What’s more, because the solution was rolled out in just 40 days, the NetSuite solution has enabled Daring Foods to scale much faster than it would have been able to do without the technology in place. “We’re still a very small team but we are growing quickly thanks to NetSuite.”

Spreading the message

Fuelled by the latest software, Daring has ambitious plans for growth in the US, first into restaurants followed by a retail launch in early 2020 (the company’s distribution centre is in Philadelphia). There are also plans to expand into the Gulf region where veganism is growing strongly. “The demand in the GCC for plant-based alternatives has been tremendous, particularly in Dubai,” says Mr Mackay.
With the right technology now in place, Daring hopes it can scale its business even further and help spread plant-based chicken worldwide.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/unlock-potential-growth/how-a-vegan-start-up-is-powering-growth-overseas/?WT.mc_id=tmgspk_plrnlr_2829_AtwqDM4qwXcg&utm_source=tmgspk&utm_medium=plrnlr&utm_content=2829&utm_campaign=tmgspk_plrnlr_2829_AtwqDM4qwXcg&plr=1&mvpf=97d468b966a94975b133637755752536&mvpflabel=Front+page+email