M&S makes vegan wine pledge

Source: Mintel 01-11-2019

M&S has announced it will make all of its own-label wines vegan by 2022. 70% of the retailers wine range is already vegan friendly and it aims to expand the effort by replacing any animal products used to make wine with plant based substitutes. This will include finding substitutes for the animal gelatine, egg whites and milk protein commonly used to make wines.

Previously in the year, M&S launched their own plant-based range titled ‘Plant Kitchen’ and also announced plans of extending its vegan offer to its Christmas dinner range.

The announcement is well-timed with today being World Vegan Day.

“While we expect that those following a vegan diet are aware that many wines are not vegan or even vegetarian, we expect that there are quite a few people who do not realise that animal-based ingredients are used in the production of wine. This new pledge by M&S is a bold move and one that will make shopping the wine category much simpler for the vegan shopper while attracting new shoppers to the category. In Mintel Report Still, Sparkling and Fortified Wine - UK, October 2019, consumer research shows that only 8% said that they would be willing to pay more for a vegan product when buying wine, however interestingly this goes up to 17% among a younger demographic of 25-34 year-olds. Convenience retailer SPAR has also made a similar pledge to convert all of its own-label wines to vegan in the next few years. We can expect more retailers to follow this strategy and build a wider vegan range in wine, but also extend that into beer and spirits as we see the growth of veganism continue.”