Vegan Food Producer Tofoo Hires More Staff To Cope With Demand

Tofu manufacturer Tofoo Co plans to hire more staff to cope with increasing demand.  

The Yorkshire-based Tofoo Co is scaling the production capacity in its Molton facility after the sales skyrocketed this year. 

The Tofoo Co is a family run business. It was founded four years ago by a husband and wife David Knibbs and Lydia Smith. 

In January the company’s turnover doubled compared to January 2019 and exceeded £1m. The owners say the business could reach a turnover of £35m by 2025.

David Knibbs told The Yorkshire Post: “We’ve been blown away by consumers’ response.” 

“Our sales in January and February were massive, more than double last year. A lot of people are eating more meat-free meals. Only two per cent of the UK are eating Tofoo which means there is 98 per cent still to go for."

“We are spending £2m at Malton, building more capacity. Our capacity should have increased by 75 per cent in June.”

He added: “We now have 81 staff and definitely plan to hire more. In the first week of January, we sold 30,000 cases and last week we sold around 40,000 cases.

“We can’t supply everybody we are being asked to do at the moment. We are turning over £12m this year, and in five years’ time we expect to turnover between £30m and £35m.”

Tofoo Co launched three new products in January and is going to launch more till the end of the year. 

Knibbs said: “We are now doing marinated and diced products. We are trying to expand the footprint of the brand.”

He added: “Our aim is not to mimic or replace meat – tofu is a valuable addition to meal times and to a multitude of diets, not just those who follow meat-free or vegan lifestyles.

“Eastern diets have contained less meat for thousands of years, and tofu has long held an important place in those diets.

“This is now being seen in modern UK diets with more people using our ‘Naked’ tofu to make a host of meat-free meals.

“We strongly believe that the growth and dominance of The Tofoo Co in the tofu market is testament to the superior product which has better taste and texture due to the traditional Japanese recipe using Nigari; each product is hand-made in small batches and we produce every single pack in Yorkshire.”

The market for plant-based and meat-free products is growing in the UK. Many Britons avoid eating meat and dairy and adopt to vegan and vegetarian diets. 

According to Mintel, nearly 40 per cent of Brits regularly buy ‘free from’ food and drinks.