Quorn Posts First Revenue Growth in Years on Back of Protein Bites Launch
- Gauri Khanna
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
Quorn Foods recorded a 2.2% rise in revenue in the first half of 2026, its first meaningful growth after several consecutive years of decline.
The recovery was led by a double-digit jump in snacking sales, driven by the UK launch of Protein Bites, a mycoprotein-based convenience snack positioned in both meat-free and food-to-go retail sections.
The result signals a potential strategic pivot for the mycoprotein category, from meal replacement into everyday protein snacking, though the foodservice division and rising input costs remain significant headwinds.
After several difficult years, Quorn is showing tentative signs of recovery. The Monde Nissin-owned business, which operates both the Quorn mycoprotein brand and the Cauldron plant protein range, reported revenue of ₱7.38 billion ($120 million) in the first half of 2026, a 2.2% year-on-year increase on a constant-currency basis. In Q2 alone, growth accelerated to 2.7%. The improvement follows a 9% sales decline in 2024 and a 1.2% drop in 2025, making it a welcome, if cautious, inflection point for the brand and for its Filipino parent company, Monde Nissin.
The recovery is not uniform across the portfolio. Quorn's chilled products grew 0.5% and frozen 0.9%, while Cauldron registered a 4% decline in Q2. The net figures reflect a business that is stabilising rather than surging, against a backdrop where the broader US meat alternative market contracted by 2.3% in the same period, according to Nielsen-NIQ data cited by the company.
Protein Bites as a Category Wedge
The most significant commercial development is the UK launch of Protein Bites, a snacking product that Monde Nissin CEO Henry Soesanto described to investors as playing into a trend of consumers combining snacks and meals to reduce overall food consumption. The product is positioned in both the meat-free aisle and food-to-go sections of UK retailers, a deliberate attempt to reach shoppers who would not ordinarily browse the meat-free category.
Quorn CEO David Flochel noted that Protein Bites have helped drive the highest brand awareness and purchase intent the company has recorded. The snacking segment as a whole now accounts for approximately 15% of Monde Nissin's protein revenue, and management considers it margin-accretive, citing the premium price point that health and convenience positioning can command.
Soesanto flagged the product as scalable beyond the UK and Europe, suggesting international distribution as a medium-term ambition. Flochel described it as a platform that could expand into convenience retail and out-of-home channels, broadening Quorn's commercial footprint beyond its historically narrow reliance on the meat-free fixture.
This kind of category expansion mirrors a wider industry dynamic; Quorn's longer-term challenges are well documented, and several mycoprotein players have been exploring adjacent formats to maintain relevance in a shifting alt-protein market.
Structural Drag in Foodservice
The clearer trouble spot is foodservice, which represents 18% of Quorn's protein business and fell 5% in Q2. Flochel attributed this to cost pressure from operators and distributors, lower demand from quick-service restaurant (QSR) partners in Europe, and new regulations affecting school catering in the UK. He acknowledged that the business had historically relied too heavily on the education sector and a small number of QSR relationships.
The response is a "back to basics" strategy built around execution, combined with the rollout of UltiMeat, a B2B blended meat solution for foodservice that builds on a partnership with the NHS begun in 2024. Flochel was candid in his assessment: foodservice is "probably going to get worse before it gets better."
What the Numbers Do Not Yet Confirm
Gross profit rose 44% to ₱2.3 billion ($37.2 million) in the first half of 2026, and core net income reached ₱106 million ($1.7 million), compared with a ₱215 million core net loss in the same period last year. However, CFO Nick Cooper cautioned that high input costs, partly linked to disruption from the Iran war, are sitting in inventory and will weigh on gross margins in the second half of the year. The Q2 performance also benefited from a weak year-on-year comparison, which limits how much of this recovery can be attributed to structural improvement. Whether the Protein Bites momentum is durable, and whether foodservice can be stabilised, will determine whether 2026 marks a genuine turning point or simply a pause in a longer decline.
