Quorn owner Marlow Foods has been hit with a £63m loss following weaker demand for vegan products.

In the 12 months to December 2023, Marlow Foods sales fell by 6.9% to £205m, its lowest levels since 2017 – a slump that resulted in the parent company being forced to axe almost 100 jobs as part of an internal restructuring.

The decline was seen especially in its performance in supermarkets, with retail sales falling 8.6% to £170.7m.

Marlow Foods chief executive Marco Bertacca described the period as “a challenging year”, citing rising inflation and interest rates driving up costs.

Subscribe to Grocery Gazette for free

Sign up here to get the latest grocery and food news each morning

Bertacca said: “2023 was a challenging year where high inflation and interest rates continued to put pressure on consumers and on the cost of producing our great food. In this difficult context, the key markets in which we operate were down.

“Continued inflationary pressure on our input costs in 2023 did have a significant impact. We have taken continuous actions to control our costs, but as we always seek to minimise price increases and protect affordability for our consumers, those dynamics resulted in making a loss.”

However the CEO maintained that despite pressures, Quorn remained as a leader in its category, and pointed to recent innovation including its snacking range and other NPD like Cheesy Nacho Nuggs.

The Marlow Foods, which owns both Quorn and meat-alternative brand Cauldron, results come amid a turbulent past year for the plant-based sector, with many FMCGs being hit by a wane in demand for vegan options.

It has seen brand such as Meatless Farm and Heather Mill’s VBites falling into administration, while others such as Beyond Meat attempt to arrest their slump in sales.