one: Mr Russler, many REWE stores already have a wide range of vegan and vegetarian products. Why the move to a vegan counter now?

Alexander Rußler: That's right: we have already expanded our vegan and vegetarian ranges in the self-service areas in recent months - for example with milk substitute products, meat, sausage, cheese and fish substitutes as well as convenience alternatives. The dry and frozen product ranges have also been optimised. But for us as a full-range retailer, the service counter also plays an important role. It was therefore only a logical consequence that we also wanted to offer vegan alternative products in the fresh food counter to round off our vegan product range expertise. Incidentally, we also asked our customers beforehand what they would like to see on our service counters: 20 per cent of those surveyed would like to buy plant-based alternative products there.

one: Which customers are the range mainly aimed at? Are they people who also buy meat products or who are already vegan or vegetarian?

Alexander Rußler: This question also occupied us for a long time. We know from the vegan self-service area that it's mainly vegans, vegetarians and flexitarians who buy these products. But with the ongoing vegan trend, observations show that other customers are now increasingly open to vegan and vegetarian alternatives. As these omnivores and flexitarians are already shopping at the service counters, we are primarily targeting this large group. This is why the placement is also at a central point of the service counter, for example next to cheese or delicatessen products. We will also be delighted if we can attract vegans and vegetarians to the counter with the new range.

one: What do you think: do vegans actually go to the service counter, which was previously not relevant for their purchases?

Alexander Rußler: It certainly won't be easy to attract the vegans among our customers to the service counter. Especially as animal products continue to dominate in the neighbourhood. But we will only gain more insights into this over a longer period of time through observations in the test markets. There is also a good argument in favour of shopping at the counter: customers can bring their own containers and there is less packaging waste. And they can get advice about the products and buy exactly the portions they need.

one: What product range do you offer?

Alexander Rußler: We are offering 34 items to start with. All products have been certified with the V-Label from ProVeg and are purely vegan. The selection includes plant-based alternatives to meat, sausage, cheese and fish. The range includes, for example, vegan salami and vegan liver sausage, vegan barbecue skewers and vegan steak, various mature cheese alternatives and vegan delicatessen salads. In this way, we are able to mirror our conventional service counter - much smaller, of course - in a vegan way.

one: What challenges did you face during implementation?

Alexander Rußler: With our vegan range, we are one of the "first movers" in the German food retail sector. We were therefore able to draw on little competitive observation or experience. The first challenge was selecting the right items for the counter. Moreover, the selected products were not yet available as service goods, as the industry had previously tended to produce for the self-service sector. And then there was the ProVeg certification process to go through. But other sales department issues also presented us with challenges, as we were dealing with a completely new product group. This includes avoiding animal contamination in vegan products.

one: How do you ensure that the vegan range is strictly separated from the conventional counter?

Alexander Rußler: This is achieved in the counter through the use of dividers to the neighbouring product ranges. The vegan items are also placed in their own mint green trays, extra shelves and cutlery are used and, of course, they are also stored separately.