Retail History
Quorn as a retail product was first produced in 1985 by Marlow Foods – named after Rank Hovis McDougall's headquarters in Marlow, Buckinghamshire – a joint venture between RHM and Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI), who provided a fermenter left vacant from their abandoned single-cell feed programme. The product was named after the Leicestershire village of Quorn. The two partners invested patents for growing and processing the fungus and other intellectual properties in the brand. Although the food sold well in the initial test market of the RHM staff canteen, the large supermarket chains were unconvinced until Lord Sainsbury, finance director of the UK's Sainsbury's supermarket chain, agreed to stock the brand.
Quorn entered distribution in the UK in 1994, and was introduced to other parts of Europe in the 1990s, and to the US in 2002. The initial advertising campaign for Quorn featured sports personalities, including footballer Ryan Giggs, rugby player Will Carling, and runner Sally Gunnell.
Quorn brand mycoprotein is sold in ready-to-cook forms, such as cubes and a form resembling minced meat; and later introduced a range of chilled vegetarian meals, including pizzas, lasagna, cottage pie, and products resembling sliced meat, hot dogs, and burgers. As of 2006, it is available in stores in the UK, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, the US, Switzerland and Ireland. Since June 2010, it has been available in Australia. In May 2012 Quorn Foods opened the German website quorn.de to launch Quorn in Germany. By 2005 Quorn enjoyed around 60% of the meat-replacement food market in the UK, with annual sales of around £95 million.
In 2004, McDonald's introduced a Quorn-branded burger bearing the seal of approval of the Vegetarian Society, an endorsement criticised by the Vegan Society. As of 2009, the quorn burgers were no longer available at any McDonalds restaurant in the UK. In 2011 Quorn Foods launched a 'vegan burger' into the USA market - the binder being potato protein, replacing egg albumen, to confer vegan status.
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