Report Writing

MKT 340 – Group Project Guidelines (Fall 2022)

Due Date:  14^th November 2022 – each group member to upload a copy of the group project to Blackboard

The Group Project is worth 30% for this course. There should be 3 to 4 people per group and the Word Limit Guidelines of the Report are 1500-2000 words.

This is a group written report. Your task as a group is to write a report on:

1. an industry sector report that critiques the addition of new plant-based food or beverage products (in addition to their existing product categories), e. companies that are transitioning to a CSV strategy or adopting a CSV strategy alongside other strategies. This will mainly be secondary research that analyses up to 15 companies. For example, it could focus on new PBFB in the restaurant sector, or PBFB in the Coffee shop sector or, addition of PBFB in online sales channels. If you chose to focus on an industry sector, the key is to broaden your research to review secondary data on a sample of companies (target of up to 15 companies). If you focus on this approach, you will essentially be ‘majoring’ on industry sector and, ’minoring’ on one sample company within this sector.

The objective of the group project is to critically analyse the impact of new PBFB companies or existing business that are adding new innovative PBFB to their offerings.

Explainer: Plant-based Food and Beverage Sector (PBFB)

The PBFB sector is worth an estimated $7 billion and during the Covid-19 pandemic, sales of plant-based foods grew almost twice as fast as the U.S. retail food market (15%), increasing by 27% in 2020. In addition to familiar ingredients such as chickpeas, soy and soy products like tofu, there has been a lot of innovation with the introduction of new plant-based foods. For example, Lupini beans that contain three times more protein than eggs and three times more fibre than oats and contain all nine amino acids. Kelp – which is a type of seawood, is packed with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants and can be found in Kelp jerky and burgers, among other things.

Moreover, the discovery of novel goods such as plant-based milk, egg substitutes, and meat substitutes in recent years has resulted in rising consumer acceptance of these food items. These goods are high in critical nutrients and taste virtually comparable to those derived from animals. Furthermore, awareness campaigns by celebrities and atheletes have promoted the intake of vegetarian products in order to have a health diet in addition to easy accessibility of these products over online sales channels, which are expected to propel the market further.

American plant-based meat, egg and diary substitute companies have gained record innovation funding, and between 2010 and 2020 this totalled $2.7 billion. However, $1.2 billion of this amount was raised between 2019 and the first quarter of 2020, which highlights the sudden and recent growth in this trend.

As a result of this sustained innovation investment, we are now seeing the emergence of major brands that are internationalizing their business such as: Beyond Meat, Oatly and Gardein.

In the UK, demand for plant-based meat and diary alternatives has boomed in recent years, doubling in value from 2016-2020 to around $1.5 billion at retail. Plant-based food tend to sell strongest among young, urban consumers who believe eating less meat is healthier and more sustainable for the environment. Growing numbers of the UK population intend to become meat free, vegetarian, or vegan during the next year.

Table 1 – Plant-based Food and Beverage Market by Category

Detailed Written Report Structure to Follow for above given topic.