Dive Brief:

• Target is launching a plant-based line under its Good & Gather private label food and beverage brand, the retailer announced on Tuesday.
• Good & Gather Plant Based will include more than 30 products across categories like meat alternatives, plant-based dips, spreads and more, with all items priced under $8. Items will hit store shelves and online shopping beginning now through the fall.
• The new line will expand Good & Gather's small selection of plant-based products, and capitalize on a fast-growing segment for Target. The company said its plant-based assortment has increased fivefold over the past three years. 

Dive Insight:

Target is building on the early momentum of its Good & Gather brand, which launched in 2019 and is now the company’s largest store line with more than 2,000 products. Last year, it netted more than $2 billion for the company.

Examples of new products under the plant-based sub-brand include everything seasoned cashew dip and spread, caramel vanilla almond milk creamer, buffalo-style cauliflower wings and Italian-style meatless meatballs. Target currently sells a limited selection of plant-based offerings under Good & Gather, like vanilla oat milk and meatless chicken tenders.

Good & Gather Plant Based products will all retail for less than $8, but most items will sell for less than $5, the company said. Products will roll out in stores as well as online through Target’s same-day delivery, pickup and ship-to-home services.

“Guest demand for plant-based offerings is incredibly high and continues to grow,” Rick Gomez, executive vice president and chief food and beverage officer at Target, said in a statement.

By launching a plant-based sub-brand, Target is following a path blazed by other retailers — most notably Kroger, which has a plant-based line under its popular Simple Truth brand that launched in 2019 and now includes more than 75 products along with a separate meat alternatives line. Albertsons has rolled out plant-based private label frozen foods and recently unveiled a line of sustainably produced wines.

One of the hottest trends in grocery retail in recent years, plant-based food sales shot up 27% in 2020 to $7 billion, according to data released by the Good Food Institute and the Plant Based Foods Association. Fifty-seven percent of U.S. households purchased plant-based items in 2020, up from 53% in 2019, according to the report.

An "explosion in plant-based products" is coming as grocers expand their assortment and also add it to their private label offerings, said Carol Spieckerman, president of retail consulting firm Spieckerman Retail.

"There's this big shake-up at work ... There's a lot of naysaying [and] people still saying that it's a niche, that it might even fizzle out, which is preposterous," Spieckerman said. 

Catherine Douglas Moran contributed to this story.