‘There’s a world of food out there that people haven’t given a go yet’

For Thanks Plants founder Aisling Cullen, the journey to owning her own business plant-based food business began with the search for a meat-free alternative that was“more natural”and that her“family would be more comfortable eating”. The company began in May 2020 and has since gone from strength to strength — and Aisling told Chic about what inspired her to start the business, and the journey to getting their products on the shelves.

She said,“basically, I’m a vegan and my husband, he isn’t. I’d be bringing home various meat substitutes and try to encourage him to eat less meat and maybe get the kids to eat less meat, too.

“But he’d flip the back of the pack and look at the ingredients, which were like, methyl cellulose, sodium alginate, red iron oxide — all of these weird ingredients that he didn’t really understand, or neither of us understood.”

Aisling recalled how, due to this, she“ending up trying to make my own meatless meats at home”.

She continued,“i’d be following variousyoutube videos and bloggers. I’d tweak it and try and put in as many good ingredients as possible, adding in the kind of lima beans, the pearl barley, vegetables, herbs and spices. “I wanted to have something that was a lot more natural and something that my family would be more comfortable eating. “It was a huge success with him and so I just thought, ‘oh, there must be a business idea here’. I joined the Food Academy with Supervalu and it kind of started me off on a journey to get the products on the shelves.

“We started in May 2020 with five supermarkets — and now we’re in more than 300, including Supervalu and Tescos nationwide.”

Aisling told how her experience a the Food

“Sometimes the message of sustainability gets lost.”

stick to a few different kinds of meat — chicken, beef burgers, steak…not much beyond that.

“But plant-based eating, I don’t find that restrictive at all. I think that there’s a world of food out there that people haven’t given a go yet.”

Aisling added that one of the bigger challenges she has found about owning her own business has been“trying to change people’s mindset on what meat-free eating is about and what it’s like”.

She continued,“i think that maybe two or three years ago, some people dipped into trying meat free and the options out there weren’t that great and it turned them off it completely.

“It’s about trying to get these people to try your product.

“I think there are a lot of brand out there that are doing a much better job now, and a lot of them are Irish brands. I think trying to get people to try it out again (is important).

“And I don’t know, I think sometimes the message of sustainability can get lost. If you want to make an impact on the environment, the most effective thing you can do is change what’s on your plate three times a day every single day.

“If you’re having cereal with dairy milk, your ham sandwich for lunch and a beef hamburger for dinner — that’s incredibly unsustainable for the environment.

“But if you can make little tweaks to your journey along the way, by switching to oat milk or trying out some plant based meat alternatives, that would have a huge impact on what’s going on with the environment.”

Aisling told how one of the things she has loved the most about owning her own business is the challenges that it brings — and how no two days are quite the same.

She said,“every single day is different — and every day presents a problem, too. But I love to problem solve. I think [my favourite part] is the challenge, really, and always thinking, ‘what’s next? What do I have to do now?’

“Before, I was working in the shopping centre industry in retail property. I’d be phoning up retailers going,‘do you want a shop? Do you want a shop?’ and filling up shopping centres. Every day was the exact same, there was very little variance to the job.

“So I think that I like the fact that every day, you don’t know what’s going to happen — you have your plans, but there’s so many different challenges every day.”

Aisling also encouraged anyone who is looking to make a change to a more plant-based diet to be easy on themselves — adding that“nobody has to do it overnight”and you ahem to“try to understand what meals work for you”.

She told how while people tend to see it as more of an“all or nothing”approach, there’s a lot more to it than that.

The mum added,“i’d say for people not to be so hard on themselves. I started about 14, 15 years ago — nobody has to do it overnight. Take your time, try to understand what meals work for you.

“If you’re craving a spaghetti bolognese, why not try something like half lentils, half beef? The easiest swap for me, I think, is changing from daily milk to oat milk.you wouldn’t really notice the difference between the two.

“A lot of people think it’s this all or nothing approach. But I think that when anybody integrates more plants into their diet, they see the benefit

— not just health wise, but that they’re doing something better for the environment too.”

As for what’s next on the cards for Thanks Plants, Aisling told how they have their sights set on the possibilities for international expansion.

She said,“the UK is such a big market — although it is probably the most competitive one in Europe, in terms of plant-based. But we do see an opportunity because we’re doing something different.

“We’re going to try and crack the UK — and then, I guess, go from there and expand throughout Europe.” ■

For more information about Thanks Plants, visit www.thanksplants.co/.