Wicked Kitchen is coming to the U.S. | Wicked Kitchen
The UK’s market-leading vegan brand Wicked Kitchen is coming to the U.S.
This follows Wicked Kitchen’s successful series A fundraising round earlier this month, which saw the company raise approximately $14 million to help support its upcoming U.S. expansion.
Over 20 popular Wicked Kitchen products will soon be available at 2,500 U.S. Kroger and Sprouts Farmers Market stores nationwide. The launch will include convenient breakfast, lunch, and snack options, as well as frozen ready meals, sauces, pestos, and dinner kits.
Founded in 2017 by brothers and chefs, Chad and Derek Sarno, Wicked Kitchen has now launched hundreds of products through its partnership with Tesco, the leading supermarket chain in the UK.
The Sarnos, New England natives, have also published multiple cookbooks and thousands of recipes through their Wicked Health online videos and went on to co-found Gathered Foods—the producers of Good Catch’s popular plant-based seafood line.
“Our mission is clear: we help people cook and eat more plants,” says Derek. “Together with Wicked consumers, we help save many millions of animals, we help our planet, we support farmers, and importantly, improve human health.”
“Our experience comes from a lifetime of working in kitchens, owning restaurants, catering events, teaching cooking classes, and working on veggie farms,” he continued. “We’re now crafting and creating 100% delicious plant-based foods for mainstream markets, leading with taste and never compromising.”
Throughout its partnership with Tesco—where Derek also serves as the Executive Chef and Director of Plant-Based Innovation—Wicked Kitchen has continually emphasized the use of primarily whole food ingredients alongside unique textures and flavors that can appeal to even the most dedicated meat-eaters.
Over just the last few months alone, the brand has added vegan sandwich and deli meat slices, a complete range of Beyond Meat ready meals, several dairy-free ice cream tubs, and even baked goods such as cakes, cookies, donuts, and Bakewell slices. This, in part, has helped to maintain Tesco’s reputation as the go-to supermarket for vegan products in the UK.
“We’ve created the tools, recipes, and products to make it simple, flavorful, and fun for people to cook and eat more plant-based foods,” adds Derek. “We are excited to now bring these to the U.S.”
According to plant-based venture fund Unovis Asset Management, which led Wicked Kitchen’s recent series A round, a collaboration with Kroger—the world’s largest supermarket chain—is the perfect fit for the brand’s American debut.
At the end of last year, Kroger launched an unprecedented 50 new privateproducts under its Simple Truth Plant Based line, including vegan meat, cheese, milk, desserts, snacks, and sauces. According to the company, it will also keep expanding this range in the coming years.
“We wanted to partner with retailers that want to go deep into cross categories as we have done with Tesco,” explains Derek. “Our true differentiation is that we’re chefs and we lead with taste, creating delicious and boldly flavored foods that vegans and meat-eaters alike can enjoy.”
“We started Wicked with the aim of making the biggest impact possible!”
This post was last modified on July 28, 2021 4:49 pm