German company Veganz, Europe's first vegan food chain store, will launch operations in the U.S. near the end of this year.

In conversation with www.freshfruitportal.com, Veganz public relations representative Jennifer Valdés discussed the food chain's future plans for the U.S. market. 

"We will start distributing to the North American markets by late 2016. Therefore we will open up a Veganz Headquarters in Portland [Oregon]," she said.

"The first area of operation will be the wholesale channel. Our products will be available in the U.S. in selected grocery stores as well as online. We are considering to open a retail store in 2017. However if, where, and when precisely, isn't decided yet."

Valdés highlighted Portland's vivid vegan culture.

"It has the reputation to be one of the world's most vegan-friendly cities and attracts some of the most dedicated vegan activists in the country. The annual VegFest and more than six different vegan meetups draw dozens of exhibitors and thousands of attendees to the city, year by year.

"The rapidly-evolving vegan scene, makes it the perfect spot to open up an office to start our expansion."

The company will be considering other locations in the country as well.

"We surely consider other attractive locations. Our mission at Veganz is to make the vegan lifestyle available for everyone. To reach this goals we decided to put the primary focus on the distribution of our products through wholesale channels.

"By doing so, we will be able to provide large parts of the U.S. population with vegan goods. By opening up an online shop, we will reach even more people.

"We surely plan to work together closely with our American partners, as we already did very successfully through the last five years. Right now we are getting in touch with possible retailers and cooperation partners.  Therefore our team will be at Expo West from March 11 to 13, presenting some of our product highlights."

Veganz also plans to include its popular cooking classes in its U.S. operations.

"The cooking classes we offer in Germany are always fully booked. There is a high demand, since the vegan lifestyle is trending and more and more people consider changing to a plan-based diet.

"Cooking classes are a great way to help them through the transition, so we will continue to include them in our plans. After all, promoting a plant-based lifestyle and animal (cruelty) free products worldwide is what Veganz is all about."

www.freshfruitportal.com