Hot & Savoury update - Real talk

Huel Updates
1

Hi all, over the last few weeks I’ve alluded to some changes to our range, as well as many of you suspecting big changes coming. I want to get into some detail on the changes we are making to our Hot & Savoury range (H&S), including delists and a format change. There is a lot going on, I’m going to try and be as transparent as I can but you’re going to have a lot of questions, so drop them below and we will do our best to answer them as openly as possible.

N.B. Current Hot & Savoury Pouch Subscribers will be emailed with a shorter, region specific version detailing the below.

I.e. anyone who has an active subscription containing a H&S Pouch will be emailed. This will happen gradually through the day, so please don’t panic if you haven’t received an email yet.

Tl;dr of the changes

  1. Introducing our new single-serve Hot & Savoury Meal Packs! This will be replacing our H&S pouches to offer a better consistency/texture with Hot & Savoury and give you the perfect portion everytime
  2. This single-serve sachet will cost the same amount per serve as your pouch cost per serve
  3. These will give you the perfect portion every time in a convenient small pouch. These will also be a little easier to take on the go if you wanted to
  4. After a lot of research and analysis, we are delisting our H&S pouches (to be replaced by our ‘Meal Packs’. This is due to Pouches not performing well and not meeting flavour and texture expectations
  5. We are delisting Tomato & Herb, Sweet & Sour everywhere in all formats - this has already happened in most regions
  6. We are delisting Mac & Cheeze in the USA and EU regions in all formats
  7. We are delisting Carbonara and Korma in the UK/EU in all formats
  8. We are delisting Bolognese in the USA, in addition to Alfredo that has already gone in all formats
  9. All these flavours will be taken off the website
  10. But, anyone who is currently subscribed to these flavours will continue to be subscribed until we run out. The run out for existing subscribers will be staggered based on how quickly we get through that inventory (e.g. Tomato & Herb in the USA has already run out and you’ve been migrated to Yellow Coconut Curry)

Before you comment below, please read this post in full and if you choose to post with specific questions, please tell us which region you’re from as it will help us give you more specific information.

Intro

We know that there are going to be so many of you who will be affected by this news and I will go into why now. I’m going to give you reasons like “it’s not performing well” or “it gets lots of complaints”. These general statements might fly in the face of your experience of a product/flavour you love. I would ask you to read this information with an open mind, and try and see from Huel’s perspective how it is important to make these decisions so we can continue to grow and deliver our mission of nutritionally complete food.

What is going on and why? (Long version)

Why H&S is important

When we launched our H&S range in 2020 it was a reaction to the huge amount of feedback from you that Huel needed something savoury for lunch and something you could chew - what we heard was that you wanted something closer to “real food”. We know that many people don’t opt for Huel for these reasons, so it’s important for us to understand why and react to that. Hot & Savoury is part of that solution.

The research we’ve done

We look at a lot of data when we analyse products. This next section is going to sound quite businessy and I appreciate it might sound strange to hear how we analyse the purchasing behaviour of you, our Hueligans. But I want to bring you into this world, because I hope it will help you understand why we make some of the decisions we do.

For the last year we’ve been looking hard at these metrics for H&S:

  • Repeat Rate (RR) - This measures how often you, our Hueligans, come back for more Huel products, whether it’s the same flavour, another flavour, or something totally different. It’s important because it helps us rank clearly which products are preferred and which are good gateways to other products.
  • Net Promoter Score (NPS) - This metric asks how likely you are to recommend Huel to your friends and family. A high score from you means we’re doing things right and that you’re spreading the Huel love! It’s not directly product related, but we can draw correlations with the above metrics and products to help form a picture.
  • Complaints - While they might seem like bad news, your complaints are actually golden opportunities for us to improve. We appreciate your feedback and aim to turn negatives into positives where possible.

There are certain regional differences in performance of H&S, but there are a few flavours of H&S that are at the bottom of the pile for all these metrics. I.e:

  • a lower % of you buy H&S a 2nd/3rd time
  • they get more complaints, vs other ranges and flavours
  • and you report a worse experience overall

vs other ranges.

However, we can’t ignore the amount of you that buy and love Hot & Savoury. So…

  • Clearly there is a need for Hot & Savoury
  • But we are not delivering a good enough product

What is the problem with H&S?

Fundamentally it comes down to two things 1. Bad product experience and 2. A mismatch in expectations vs reality:

  1. There is an issue with the consistency you get because of separation in the pouch between big pieces of pasta + small powder particles. This leads to some portions heavy on pasta, and others heavy on sauce. No matter how thoroughly the pouch is mixed it will always lead to incorrect portions.
  2. Some flavors don’t quite align with the flavour/texture people anticipate, especially widely recognised meals like Alfredo and Carbonara, which come with extremely high expectations.

What are we doing about it?

We are delisting some H&S flavours in all formats

After we have reviewed the data, there are some clear patterns with the flavours that are performing well:

  • They have a stronger flavour or are spiced (e.g. Mexican Chilli, Gochujang Noodles)
  • They are more general, universal flavour profiles and not specific to dishes (e.g. Fiery Chick’n Noodles)
  • They are not cheesy/creamy (these ‘cheesy/creamy’ flavours aren’t working - Alfredo, Carbonara, Mac & Cheeze)

We are going to be delisting a number of flavours that are not working. We are doing this regionally because the flavours that do, or do not work are different in each country.

USA Delists

Grains: Tomato & Herb, Sweet & Sour

Pasta: Mac & Cheeze, Bolognese, Alfredo Cup

These flavours will be delisted in all formats unless otherwise stated. The changeover will be gradual as we run down our stock levels. Generally we will do this by:

  1. Removing from the website product pages so that new subscribers cannot purchase
  2. Continue fulfilling existing subscriptions
  3. Moving your existing subscriptions to a different flavour when we run out of stock

Full list of flavours below.

The Perfect Portion

In addition to this, it is clear that pots perform better than pouches (based on the metrics I outlined above). We know this from tests we’ve run. In Germany/UK we sold Pots and Pouches of certain flavours at the same time and compared the results.

So why did Pots perform better? One of the reasons is they provide a “perfect portion”.

Our pouch of Huel Hot & Savoury contains 7-servings. It is made up of 3 parts:

  1. Grains or Pasta or Noodles - the main bulk of the product
  2. The powder - flavour, spices, dried herbs, vitamins/minerals, protein
  3. ‘Inclusions’ - the protein pieces, dried vegetables

To ensure you get all the nutrition we state on the pouch, we drop these into each pouch in 2 or 3 stages. When they arrive with you these parts are still separated into these layers. This requires you to mix them thoroughly to homogenise the contents of the pouch. This isn’t easy to do and as a result your first scoop might be heavy on pasta, and your last scoop mostly powder.

This is a big problem for your product experience and based on our data this is driving a lot of first-time customers away from Huel. Offering single-servings is a way to control each of those servings and ensure that every serving contains exactly the right mix and reduces margin for error.

Pots are a potential solution, but these are more expensive to produce and take up more room in your cupboards.

Introducing our Huel Hot & Savoury Meal Packs

We are going to be phasing out all of our Hot & Savoury 7-serve Pouches. The remaining flavours, i.e. the ones not listed above, will move into individual Meal Packs.

This will be a smaller pouch containing 400kcal of Hot & Savoury, they will be sold in boxes of 7 servings. We are really excited about this as we think it is going to be a massive improvement to your product experience.

  • Perfect portion every time
  • Improve the texture of final product
  • Easily portable
  • Allows us to do a mixed box in the future

I know from comments here that you have been concerned our solution to H&S will be to launch everything in Pots and make them more expensive. This is not the case.

We are launching this single-serve format at the same low price of H&S Pouches currently. I.e. you will incur no increased cost, only a change in format.

To make your H&S single serve, you just need to tear open the pouch, pour the contents into your bowl or reusable cup and continue with your usual water instructions. No scoop needed!

Obviously there are tradeoffs here. We know some of you like having flexible portion sizes and compact storage with H&S Pouches. Hopefully from the information above, you can see that we need to compromise on a few of these to improve the product experience.

When will this happen?

This will happen at different times for different flavours and markets. Here is a rough timeline. The dates here are likely to change based on how fast we sell stock, however the order of events won’t.

We are tackling the USA first because the data for H&S in the USA are more acute than the UK or European markets.

USA

  • From November 2024
    • USA - Tomato & Herb, Sweet & Sour Grains delisted
  • December 23rd 2024
    • USA - All pouches will be removed from the USA site. Subscriptions will continue to be fulfilled until stock is run through
  • December 31st 2024
    • USA - Single-serve sachets launch on site for remaining Grains and Pasta flavours (along with 2 exciting Noodle flavours)
  • ~End of April 2025
    • USA - most H&S Pouches run out and you will be moved to an equivalent single serve sachet option

If you’re subscribed to any of the Pouch flavours being delisted, you’ll automatically switch to a different flavour of Pouch from our great range of Hot & Savory options. I.e. we won’t move you to a ‘Meal Pack’ straight away as we know you like our Pouches.

Pouches (US only)

  • Tomato & Herb → Yellow Coconut Curry – already happened
  • Sweet & Sour → Thai Green Curry – from mid January
  • Bolognese → Chick’n & Mushroom Pasta – from early April
  • Mac & Cheeze → Chick’n & Mushroom Pasta – from mid April

Pots (US only)

  • Chick’n Alfredo → Chick’n & Mushroom Pasta – from early March

Please note that these dates are subject to change based on demand, and an earlier/later switch may occur if demand increases. We’ll keep you informed with further communications nearer the time.

The future range

These are the flavours that will be available on our website to purchase. This doesn’t include flavours only being fulfilled to subscribers in the background.

USA

Pot

  1. Korean BBQ Noodles
  2. Spicy Gochujang Noodles
  3. Japanese Curry Noodles (a.k.a Katsu)
  4. new flavour
  5. new flavour
  6. Chick’n & Mushroom Pasta
  7. Cajun Pasta

Sachet

  1. Thai Green Curry
  2. Mexican Chilli
  3. Yellow Coconut Curry
  4. Spicy Indian Curry
  5. Chicken & Mushroom Pasta
  6. Cajun Pasta
2

it sounds like these were well researched decisions done out of necessity, but it’s a bummer and to be honest will likely decrease the amount of huel that i buy.

sad to see mac’n’cheeze go- one of my favorite flavors, especially when mixed with mexican chili. the rest make sense, ha.

aside from the likely environmental impact, one of my favorite things about the pouches (aside from mixing flavors) was the ability to do 200 or 600 calorie servings.

3 Likes
3

Pasta Bolognese is a really good flavor, it may do better with a simple name change to something like Pasta in Tomato Herb Sauce or even Red Sauce. The green curry and the yellow curry both are very similar in taste and very mild in flavor. I personally don’t see the point in needing both.
The pasta based ones really make all the difference for me because, like you describe above, it actually feels like I’m eating real food and have something to chew. I quit ordering all the curry based ones because they had nothing to bite into, its like it all went through a blender. If I wanted it to be a liquid I would just get the regular Huel and drink it. Pasta Bolognese and mac and cheese were easily my favorites and its tough to see them go.

3 Likes
4

I’m trying to roll with the punches, but I’m very sad to see mac and cheese go rather than get another update. Version 1 of mac and cheese is still my favorite and even today I haven’t gotten over its loss.

However, I don’t run the business so I will trust that you’re making the right decisions. Since we’re moving to single serving pouches I hope that we will see the noodle meals in the cups make their way to the pouches (Korean BBQ and Gochujang sound great!). But I don’t have the storage space to buy the cups, nor do I want to pay extra per serving when I have perfectly good bowls here in my apartment. The cups would just be unnecessary garbage for the landfill.

I’ve been one of your mac and cheese whales for multiple years now, it’s been 80% of my diet since the early days of the pandemic. This change will impact me significantly, so I have to be honest and say that the remaining pouch flavors don’t excite me. I’ll make do with cajun mac for now I guess, but unless some of the cup flavors become available in pouch form, I may have to reluctantly reconsider how often my subscription will need refilled. And I really do mean it when I say reluctantly because Huel H&S has had such a significant and positive impact on my life.

2 Likes
5

I’m with you on many of your points. I would love to see other flavors come to the sachets such as Korean BBQ and Japanese Curry. I’ll also miss mac-n-cheeze as well as Pasta B.

On the extra garbage front, I’m never excited to see individually wrapped items come to market. Though it does seem Huel is trying to push this model on all fronts (powers, meals, etc).

2 Likes
6

Really disappointed that the Mac and Cheeze is going away. That was by far our favourite for me and my partner, and I don’t see much reason to subscribe to Huel anymore once it’s gone.

3 Likes
7

I am devastated by them getting rid of the Mac & Cheeze. It’s the only one I buy. It’s perfect when I add frozen peas, hot sauce and black pepper.

I’ll likely stop buying the hot and savory pouches because the 2 other flavors I’ve tried I haven’t liked. I can’t even bring myself to eat the 1.5 pouches of Green Curry I have because I dislike it so much. I don’t want to waste another shipment of a flavor I don’t like.

1 Like
8

TerraTela:

Really disappointed that the Mac and Cheeze is going away. That was by far our favourite for me and my partner, and I don’t see much reason to subscribe to Huel anymore once it’s gone.

I feel the same way. I know it’s apparently underperformed here in the USA, but you wouldn’t know it from the comments here. I’ve tried quite a variety of the H&S Flavors, and Mac & Cheeze is the only one I don’t tire of by the end of the bag. I’ll probably try a couple of the new noodle flavors, but the mushy rice ones aren’t a good fit for me.

I’m also curious if there are metrics comparing before and after last year’s Mac & Cheeze recipe change? I found it less enjoyable after that change, but it’s still my favorite (comparatively speaking). If anyone can speak on this more, I’m curious whether the recipe helped or hindered sales.

Also: from the explanation and comments above, it sounds like some underperformance might be attributed to a mismatch of branding & cultural expectations re: “creamy“ flavors. For example, the “Mac and Cheeze“ compares very well to other vegan products in this category, but I can see how anyone used to actual dairy might find it underwhelming. In the end, it’s just really hard to make vegan food that properly taste like cheese. I know - I’ve tried! If there are going to be any “creamy sauce“ H&S products reintroduced in the US in the future, consider branding that’s less dairy-adjacent.

1 Like
9

seconding this, i’ve introduced it to vegan friends and they’ve all become huge fans while previously having no knowledge of it. same with overnight hikers and bikepackers- it’s an ideal product for them and none of them know it exists. everybody assumes it’s techbro bullshit until you actually put it in front of them.

1 Like
10

Pretty disappointed about the pouch flavors that are being discontinued – I liked them all. I sure am not going to switch to those bland curry flavors.

At least Chick’n & Mushroom and Cajun Pasta are sticking around. Don’t really like the increased packaging though; mixing the pouches is not that hard.

And the cups are just too expensive.

I see more powder and less H&S in my future.

11

My wife and I really love the Mac n Cheez. I really like Sweet n Sour too but the Mac going is just… depressing.

Mixing the MC with Mexican Chili is so damned good.

This sucks.

12

We’ve done everything inch of research and testing to make sure the decisions we make are the right ones!

With Meal Packs, all you need to do now is tear open the pouch, pour the contents into your bowl or reusable cup and continue with your usual water instructions. The perfect portion every time, no scoop needed!

Obviously, there are tradeoffs here. We understand the previous pouch format allowed for more flexible portion sizes and compact storage. Hopefully from the information above, you can see that we need to compromise on a few of these to improve the product experience. If you’d prefer a larger portion size, feel free to tear open two meal packs instead of one, or decant any excess Hot & Savoury into an airtight container with a light barrier (i.e. not clear plastic) and store in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight.

13

Who knows what the future holds?

I’m really glad to hear that Huel has made such a big impact so obviously sad to read that it will impact you. Have you considered trying any other flavors we offer?

14

We’re making this change to improve your experience. The new Meal Packs are single-serving sachets that ensure consistent portions, improved texture, and the perfect balance of ingredients in every serving. This update also addresses common challenges like inconsistent servings and ingredient distribution, making Hot & Savoury easier and more enjoyable for you.

We’re also refreshing the flavour lineup based on customer feedback and performance data to focus on options we know you’ll love, as well as delisting some of less popular flavours.

15

Our Hot & Savoury Meal Packs use the same material as our multi-serve Pouches, but yes the plastic packaging has increased due to moving to single-serve. This decision wasn’t taken lightly. We found that many customers weren’t able to get consistent portions in a multi-serve format and this led to a bad customer experience and more complaints. While not recyclable, our pouches are lightweight and account for less than 3% of the product’s carbon footprint. We have had to balance a number of factors and are always reviewing our packaging.

16

Of course! I’ve been a loyal hueligan for many years and eat at least 2-3 meals daily, so I’ve made the rounds on every flavor. Mac and cheeze is the only flavor I never tire of, so I usually get 6-8 bags of it at a time (all that will fit in my studio apartment) and then supplement with the other flavors. But for the last two years or so I’ve narrowed down to mac and cheeze and cajun pasta.

I think the surprise of this announcement is that mac and cheeze is what got me in the door as it comes across as your flagship product. As a vegan for a decade I can say without a doubt that Version 1 was the best at-home vegan mac and cheese I’ve ever had and I’ve said as much to anyone who will listen. Version 2 was a bland replacement, but I continue to buy it because it’s the most versatile. I understand that it ranked low in repeat buys, but I feel like there are more factors that play into that - is it that customer’s first time having vegan mac and cheese? It will always fall short of expectations in that case, Kraft themselves failed to make a perfect vegan M&C. What’s the percentage of first-time customers that have M&C in their order? They may not buy it again, but it may have been the motivation for taking the plunge into Huel in the first place. You don’t have to answer me here, just something to mull over.

I would pay double the price for version 1 mac and cheese to make a return, I could truly eat it multiple times a day every day for the rest of my life, and I honestly had planned on it. Version 2 has been an uninspired alternative that I’ve learned to make do with simply because you have no direct competitors in the US. But I still eat it everyday. Perhaps with the change to preportioned pouches the complaints about V1 are now moot (inconsistent noodle:sauce ratio, amount of water required, etc.). You really had something special with V1 so I hope this isn’t a goodbye to the mac and cheese but a return to the drawing board for the number one reason I’m a hueligan in the first place.

2 Likes
17

Very nicely said, and I feel the same way. I would also be willing to pay a higher price (to a point) for the version 1 Mac & Cheeze in the future.

This was one of the few meals I could a) make for myself, and b) regularly have appetite for during a months-long surgery recovery this summer. I required a high protein diet without dairy, and Huel H&S was absolutely perfect for that.

As a person living with chronic pain and other disabilities, Huel / H&S has been a game changer for my daily routines and nutrition. Although I am interested to try some of the new flavors, I’m worried that I won’t find anything that works as well for me as the Mac & Cheeze. I would love to be proven wrong, though!

1 Like
18

Understood. sorry to hear that this will impact you! Remember if you have a subscription we will still be fulfilling these for the time being so you can make sure you don’t miss out :heart:

Of course, there are lots of factors that come into play when it comes to us making decisions like this. As for customer-specific data, this is not something we can share. We looked at many different metrics when it comes to making these decisions. I know its a rehash of what we said in the original post but wanted to highlight this again for you.For the last year we’ve been looking hard at these metrics for H&S:

  • Repeat Rate (RR) - This measures how often you, our Hueligans, come back for more Huel products, whether it’s the same flavour, another flavour, or something totally different. It’s important because it helps us rank clearly which products are preferred and which are good gateways to other products.
  • Net Promoter Score (NPS) - This metric asks how likely you are to recommend Huel to your friends and family. A high score from you means we’re doing things right and that you’re spreading the Huel love! It’s not directly product related, but we can draw correlations with the above metrics and products to help form a picture.
  • Complaints - While they might seem like bad news, your complaints are actually golden opportunities for us to improve. We appreciate your feedback and aim to turn negatives into positives where possible.

Who knows what the future could hold :heart:

19

Completely understand this :heart:

I’m sorry to hear that this will impact your day-to-day consumption of Huel. Of course, we’ve taken everything into account when making these decisions so hope you understand why we’ve done it :heart:

I can assure you, in my personal opinion we have some absolutely delicious flavours available! One of the stand outs being Chick’n & Mushroom pasta :heart_eyes:

20

Exactly this. 400 was never enough for me, 600 was perfect