Maple Leaf bets on comeback for plant-based brand Yves
Yves Veggie Cuisine is getting a second act, and Maple Leaf Foods is betting there’s plenty of life left in this Canadian plant-based brand.
At Maple Leaf’s head office in Mississauga, Ont. this week, that comeback was served up as lasagna, stacked deli sandwiches and a smoky Southwest salad as Maple Leaf showcased six returning Yves products—and laid out its plans to put some serious marketing muscle behind the 40-year-old Canadian plant-based brand.
“We’ve had incredible retailer support so far,” said Adam Grogan, president and COO of Maple Leaf Foods. Products are already appearing on store shelves, with a major “Yves is back” campaign set to kick off Sept. 28, supported by digital marketing and social media across Canada.
The returning lineup includes Original Veggie Ground Round, Original Veggie Ground Round 4-Pack, Mexican Veggie Ground Round, Veggie Ham, Veggie Bologna and Veggie Turkey, with availability expanding to retailers across Canada.
For Grogan, the comeback has been a long time coming. He recalled talking with the company behind Yves back in 2016 about the possibility of bringing the two businesses together. A deal didn’t materialize, and Maple Leaf instead went on to build its plant-based portfolio with brands including Lightlife and Field Roast.
When he heard Hain Celestial Group would be discontinuing the Yves brand, Grogan said it hit a nerve. “I had a bit of a visceral reaction,” he recalled. “I am Canadian, and to see what Yves Potvin started 40 years ago just go, I was in shock, like many within the industry.”
Grogan said he was even fielding calls about Yves when the brand disappeared, despite having no connection to it at the time.
Maple Leaf ultimately acquired the Yves brand late last year, along with its recipes, intellectual property and social media channels. But getting Yves back into stores required more than restarting production. The company redeveloped the products, working from the original recipes and ingredients to reproduce the familiar taste and profiles.
Yves products are being produced at fully vegan facilities in the U.S., with third-party validation in place, Grogan said. The company also operates a 100% vegan culinary and innovation centre in Chicago, part of an existing plant-based infrastructure that gave it a foundation for bringing Yves back to market.
“We had the recipes and ingredients to replicate the formulas that Yves had…and I think in most cases we got it right and a few we’ll continue to tweak along the way,” said Grogan.
While a plant-based brand might seem like an unusual fit for a company best known for its meat products, Grogan said Maple Leaf has been thinking of itself more broadly as a protein company for about a decade now. In 2016, it set out to become what it describes as the world’s most sustainable protein company.
READ: Maple Leaf Foods consolidates U.S. plant protein production, remains committed to category
He acknowledged the plant-based protein category has gone through a period of adjustment after its earlier rapid growth, but said consumers’ interest in health, wellness and protein still presents lots of opportunity. For Maple Leaf, the aim is to offer great-tasting, economical sources of nutrition and “meet consumers where they are,” he said.
With Yves, the company also wants to move the conversation beyond simply swapping plants for meat. “We need great-tasting food rather than substitution.”
Samantha Lazuric, Maple Leaf’s head of Culinary–Retail, put that thinking into practice at the company’s Kitchen Stage in Mississauga. Using the relaunched products, she and the culinary team served a Bolognese lasagna made with Original Veggie Ground Round, a smoky Southwest salad featuring Mexican Veggie Ground Round and a Great Canadian sandwich piled with Yves Bologna and Ham.
For now, Maple Leaf is focused on the six returning products, but Grogan said there are definitely plans to expand the lineup. “We’re hoping over the course of time to do many, many more.”
