Propercorn’s brand director turns co-founder with AllPlants – a frozen meal delivery brand for the vegan age
Alex Petrides has resigned from his role of brand director at Propercorn to co-found AllPlants, a delivery service spotlighting entirely vegan, plant-based food.
Alex (left) and JP Petrides founded AllPlants
Petrides was “employee number one” at the popcorn brand and spent five years there before departing in September. He has gone into business with his brother Jonathan (‘JP’), co-founder of east African mobile bank M-Shwari and Kenyan healthcare company Penda. The duo have brought three chefs on board to develop entirely plant-based dishes for online orders.
“There's never a right time to do anything, and saying goodbye to Propercorn was very difficult,” said A Petrides. “Through all I learnt there, I felt compelled to dive a little deeper into the world of food, wellness and sustainability and explore how to play a role in inspiring a new way of keeping our taste buds happy, minds active and bodies fuelled, while lowering our impact on the planet.”
Both brothers are evangelical about the diet they’re marketing, having eaten nothing but plants for the last year. AllPlants aims “to make it easier, more delicious, and totally affordable to live on, or try, a plant-based lifestyle,” with meals such as Black Bean Chilli and Jerk Jackfruit.
The hand-prepared dishes are packaged in colourful, Instagram-friendly branding and frozen in 100% compostable carbon trays, ready to be delivered to all addresses in the UK via Yodel.
The business model makes sense. There’s been a huge rise in interest for natural, healthy, raw and vegan eating (vastly thanks to the meteoric popularity of meat-free, dairy-free, gluten-free, refined sugar-free blogger Deliciously Ella) and the Petrides have compounded this with the mass adoption of food delivery through the likes of Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat.
“Our tasting dishes sold out until Christmas within a week of launching, so I'd say people are definitely interested,” said A Petrides. “Nearly half [43%] of people in the UK are trying to eat more plants and less of everything else."
Marketing-wise, AllPlants’ strategy is “simple”, particularly as the brand is still in testing mode. Partnerships and collaborations are on the cards and content generation seems to be a key player.
“Through some of our events and content, we will be inviting some of the best chefs and most creative foodies in the country to put their culinary skills to the test, explained A Petrides. “We’ll be testing how they fare at making delicious food, using nothing but plants.”
Plans for the future include an expanded offering of desserts, juices and snacks and extending the limits of a zero-waste service.
“There’s a real myth that vegan means bland and boring, or expensive, squeaky clean, diet food,” said A Petrides. “We’re breaking that mould.”