After a period of rapid retail expansion in the US, Tindle Foods—the company behind Tindle Chicken—is officially stepping away from the American market. The Singapore-based company is shifting its strategy toward producing unbranded, private-label vegan meat in Europe, where demand for low-cost, store-brand vegan food continues to climb.
The announcement marks a dramatic pivot for the company, which rolled out its chicken products in hundreds of Kroger stores earlier this year, increasing its US retail presence nearly tenfold.
Tindle
Why Tindle is exiting the US
According to Tindle Foods CEO and founder Timo Recker, the decision comes down to one thing: price.
“The plant-based category has become increasingly price-driven,” Recker said in a press release, adding that private-label products are capturing more of the market. In the US, plant-based meat sales have been sliding and many brands have struggled to keep shoppers engaged amid rising costs and loud debates around ultra-processed foods. Despite the challenges, Tindle maintains that it has a solid capital base and is “positioned for long-term growth.”
A bet on Europe’s private-label boom
In Europe, the landscape looks very different. Affordable supermarket-owned vegan products are experiencing double-digit growth, and retailers are increasingly treating private label as a strategic priority—not just a budget option.
Starting in 2026, TiNDLE will produce unbranded plant-based proteins like chicken, pork alternatives, and more for retailers, manufacturers, and restaurant groups across Europe. Those partners will have the freedom to handle branding and pricing, thus dramatically reducing Tindle’s marketing and distribution spend, allowing it to redirect resources into developing affordable, clean-label formulations. The company emphasizes that it will continue using non-GMO, simple ingredient lists to help lower regulatory hurdles and attract new consumers.
PLNT Burger, Mr. Charlie’s
What this means for plant-based shoppers
For US consumers, Tindle’s exit removes one of the newer and more ambitious players in the vegan chicken category (having brought everything from tenders and patties to tikka masala and parmigiana-stuffed fillets to market) from grocery shelves and restaurants like PLNT Burger and Mr. Charlie’s. But its pivot speaks to broader shifts in the plant-based market: affordability increasingly determines success, and Europe—particularly its younger consumers—continues to adopt plant-based eating at a faster pace.
Recker says Europe’s growth potential is simply stronger. “We are seeing greater demand for plant-based innovations, especially among younger generations who have fully adopted these foods into their daily lives,” he noted.
Tindle, which raised $100 million in 2022 in the largest Series A in plant-based meat history and attracted the likes of prolific chef Andrew Zimmern as an advisor, now enters its next chapter not as a consumer-facing brand, but as a behind-the-scenes supplier helping shape supermarket vegan lines across the continent.
What that means for the future of plant-based chicken in the US remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: Tindle is betting that the next big wave of plant-based innovation won’t come from the freezer aisle—it will come from store brands.
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