Starting a business is often a blend of passion, purpose and perseverance. For One Planet Pizza, it’s all of that plus a lot of love for animals, sustainability and incredible food. The Vegan Trademark team caught up with co-founder Joe Hill to dive deep into the story behind the UK's loud and proud vegan pizza brand.
From childhood inspirations to navigating industry challenges, it’s been a long road. One Planet Pizza is a perfect example of how showcasing their authentic values – of producing great-tasting food without the use of animals – has created the strong and distinctive brand that exists today.
What inspired you to start your vegan business? Can you share a bit about the mission and core values of your business and how they align with your personal beliefs?
From a young age I was obsessed with nature and animals. Luckily for me, my Dad had been a vegan since he was a teenager and so I followed in his footsteps, going vegetarian at 10 years old.
As a family, we cooked at home a lot. Friday night was always pizza night. But Mike always missed out and his vegan pizzas never looked appetising.
By 2016 the world had change – thank God. Veganism had become mainstream and plant-based ingredients had come a long way.
That’s when Mike sat me down and told me about this crazy idea he had: to go into business together and build the world’s biggest vegan pizza brand.
Our mission has always remained the same – get great-tasting vegan pizzas into the hands and mouths of as many people as possible. Why? To remove animals from the food chain.
We both believe that animals deserve more from us. and that’s why we’ll never make anything that isn’t 100% vegan and doesn’t help us on our mission.
What advantages do you see for being a loud and proud vegan brand?
Nobody remembers anything bang average. The same goes for brands. As a small, challenger brand you need to stand up for what you believe in. You need to be loud and proud about your values and your ‘why’.
People who share your beliefs and your mission will be the best customers and cheerleaders any company could ever wish for.
Being clear about being a 100% vegan brand allows us to own this space. No other frozen pizza brand in the UK can claim this and that’s what makes us special. Why would a retailer take a range of vegan pizzas from anyone else? Why would shoppers buy a vegan pizza from another brand? We’ve got your back, folks.
Do you think there’s any stigma or misunderstanding around the word "vegan"? If so, how do you address that within your business and branding?
Yes definitely. People who don’t fully understand this term are the ones who are afraid of it or confused by it, or even annoyed sometimes.
Clearly displaying the Vegan Trademark is important to us and shows our die-hard, core customers that they can trust us.
But at the same time, leaning more towards the term ‘plant-based’ helps attract and appeal to non-vegan shoppers. The research isn’t 100% clear on what shoppers think on the term ‘plant-based’. So to play it safe, and ensure we attract and appeal to vegan and non-vegan shoppers we use both on the pack.
How do you balance inclusivity in your branding—appealing to both strict vegans and the more flexitarian or plant-curious consumer?
Most of our customers are reducers or flexitarians now. So we’ve consciously shifted our marketing and branding to a more inclusive style.
We now assume we’re talking to people who may not know or fully understand veganism. Their toe-dippers who mostly are buying our pizzas for health reasons.
I believe we keep strict vegans (myself included) happy by having the Vegan Trademark.
And then we focus most of our energy and attention on the majority of consumers where we think we can make the biggest impact and save the most animals.
Hopefully as brand we now sound; welcoming, inviting, friendly, approachable.
Why did you decide to certify your products with The Vegan Society's Vegan Trademark?
It’s the OG trademark. We wanted this gold standard from day one as a proudly vegan brand.
What are some of the biggest challenges you've faced as a vegan entrepreneur, especially in a rapidly evolving industry?
We’ve had a heck of a ride. Brexit, a pandemic, a cost-of-living crisis.
Our biggest challenge was a few years ago when energy costs suddenly went through the roof. We went from comfortable to running out of cash in a matter of months.
We had to act fast. The only way to survive this was to close our production site down and move to a manufacturing partner in Europe. This meant making some incredibly difficult redundancies, closing a site down and moving to a new one in a matter of months.
But we survived and we helped find our team new jobs locally which was a relief.
More recently we’ve been struggling to break away from the negative image that the media has painted of the sector. Many vegan businesses have sadly been unable to survive the current economic climate, and investors have also largely backed off.
The sector is in fact entering a stage of maturity. Rather than simply declining, ranges are being reduced to focus on better tasting and better selling products. But retailers have become cautious, and it’s been tricky getting in front of them.
Luckily, we have emerged as a rare success story, having won major listings and achieved 41% growth with Asda. In every challenge there is opportunity!
You are an active part of the vegan business community and champion many other brands. What excites you the most about this industry?
I try my best!
Apart from pizza? I’m really excited for the next chapter of our industry – one that focuses more on clear health benefits, simpler wholefood ingredients, and hopefully LOTS of mushrooms.
2024 has been the year of the bean. It’s been amazing to see an explosion of interest in the humble bean – a classic source of fibre and plant-based protein that is super versatile and affordable.
Focusing our energy on making delicious and exciting products out of plants is our best chance now of winning over the mass majority of consumers still on the fence.
Bring on protein packed tempeh, succulent mushroom meats, and more beans!
What do you see in One Planet Pizza's future?
We’ve had some huge wins this year. Winning our 2nd major supermarket listing with Morrisons taking our Tex Mex.
But next year looks like a huge one for exporting. We’ve just secured a listing with a major supermarket in the Middle East which could open up a whole new part of the world for us.
I will be focusing on winning at least one more supermarket here in the UK though.
And now we’ve proven that OPP belongs in Asda and Morrisons, we’ll be looking at what products come next for both retailers.
Cheezy vegan garlic bread pizza, anyone?
How about stuffed dough balls or frozen brownie desserts?
Watch this space folks and keep fighting the good fight!
One Planet Pizza is available to buy at Morrison’s, Asda, Booths, Getir, Mighty Plants and The Vegan Kind. You can find out more about One Planet Pizza here.
The views expressed by our bloggers are not necessarily the views of The Vegan Society.
