Anuga in conversation: REWE on the first plant-based supermarket in Germany

Isabell Kroll: The market is a premiere, the first vegan REWE in Germany. Thanks to our category management, we can offer a very broad assortment of more than 2,700 items. We are always thinking about new snack items for our own production. New products and customer wishes quickly find their way onto our shelves. All REWE markets ultimately profit from this.

Isabell Kroll: For our product experts and buyers, trade fairs revolving around nutrition and food are the ideal place to discover new products. Anuga brings together so many dedicated suppliers at one place, whether start-up or tradition brand. One very important sign from our perspective is the trade fair for alternative proteins. It demonstrates the true power of the assortment.

Isabell Kroll: We are a real supermarket, just completely plant based. And it is precisely this that receives the most praise. From vegetables through baked goods and plant-based drinks to sweets and chemist's shop items, REWE voll pflanzlich has the full assortment. Simply reach out for anything on any shelf without a care. Where else is that possible as a vegan? There is no need to check any ingredients or to carefully search the rows for plant-based products. Especially popular are the baked goods like franzbrotchen and pretzels. Also surely a factor here is the direct proximity with the underground and commuter railways.

Isabell Kroll: The animal protection organisation PETA distinguished us at the start of the year with the PETA Vegan Award 2025 in the category "Best Vegan Diversity" for REWE voll pflanzlich. That was truly a nice confirmation! We are also quite satisfied in economic terms, but also know that location is the ultimate factor. Plant-based supermarkets need the right prerequisites. Location and customers must be very urban. It isn't certain yet whether there will be futher markets.

Customers make around 5,500 purchases each week in "REWE voll pflanzlich" in Berlin-Friedrichshain. It is the grocer's first vegan market in Germany. The store is compact with its sales area of 212 square metres. A standard market is eight times this size. The offering of plant-based products is all the greater: more than 2,700 items from around 300 brands find space in it. There are five self-checkout cashiers, two with a cash module, while three function cash free. There are no conveyor belt cashiers in the classic sense in the vegan market.

With around 1,300 items in the dry assortment and 1,400 fresh products, it is possible to shop for a full week in the purely plant-based supermarket. In addition to the REWE house brands, there are also many products on the shelves from brands like "Heimatgut", "bettr", "bedda" and "Koro". A machine with vanilla soft ice cream from "Oatly", vegan sushi from "Eat Happy", a vegan Backwelt and a snack bar with fresh sandwiches and wraps round off the offering.

Convenience is the by far strongest segment in "REWE voll pflanzlich". The most popular products come from Backwelt with the chocolate croissant and the franzbrotchen. The in-house snack buns like schnitzel spelt and smoked tofu are also top sellers. Hardly surprisingly, fruit and vegetables are also among the best-selling assortments. The cucumbers and bananas of the REWE Bio house brand are the most popular items. Cream spreads based on coconut and almond are produced daily in the market. The self-serve creamy "Sovteis" (soft ice cream) on an oat basis has also proven itself and is among the top 10 products.

"We have created a completely new market concept that is fresh, innovative and diverse. We can offer our customers significantly more plant-based products here than in a conventional supermarket", says project manager Isabell Kroll. With more than 500 items, the organic share of the assortment is around 20 percent. However, the project team doesn't only want to address organic-savvy customers with "REWE voll pflanzlich". "Absolutely anyone should be able to shop purely plant based with us. Accordingly, there are also products from the price entry segment", the responsible grocer Dennis Henkelmann emphasises. He perceives a somewhat different customer base in "REWE voll pflanzlich" than in his neighbouring classic REWE supermarket: "Plant-based products also do very well in my home market. However, flexitarians tend to shop there more. The shopping baskets are quite a mix. In the plant-based market, it is already more the vegans who quite consciously only want to purchase purely plant-based products."

With an average of 1,800 vegan brands and house brand products and more than 300 different fruit and vegetable items in each market, REWE offers a broad variety for plant-based nutrition. According to studies, REWE is the leading grocer for vegan products in Germany. According to figures from Nielsen*, customers purchase the most vegan items in the more than 3,800 REWE-markets throughout Germany. The representative study indicates that REWE is number one for plant-based products both in terms of turnover and quantity. The ProVeg price study* also certifies the grocer having the best availability of plant-based alternatives.

The first purely plant-based REWE market in Germany impressively demonstrates how innovatively and dynamically the food retail trade is changing. With an assortment of more than 2,700 purely plant-based products, REWE voll pflanzlich allows not only a new shopping experience for vegans, but also shows that plant-based nutrition has long-since become more than simply a niche trend.

Trade fairs like Anuga play a key role in this development: they bring dealers, producers and innovators together to advance pioneering concepts. The trade fair for alternative proteins emphasises how great the potential for plant-based products is.

The success of the Berlin test market shows that the demand for pure plant-based concepts is growing – and that REWE plays a pioneering role in this area as a leading dealer. Whether further markets will follow remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: the plant-based future in the trade is picking up its pace, and Anuga remains the central meeting point for this trend-setting transformation.