Former Lidl managers focus on vegan eggs

With their new brand The VGN, the founding team is bringing a vegan whole egg substitute to the refrigerated shelves.

Former Lidl managers Jürgen Achenbach, Martin Hesse, Alexander Wilczek and Dieter Lamprecht are jointly launching the start-up The VGN. The first product is a liquid whole egg alternative in a bottle made from field bean protein. According to the start-up, it can not only be used for cooking and baking, but also makes vegan scrambled eggs possible.

"Going vegan is no longer a niche lifestyle. With our appearance and our communication, we will bring joie de vivre, color and fun into the consumer world and offer people an enriching nutritional facet that they may not have known about before," says Achenbach, the start-up's managing partner. Achenbach was previously Managing Director of Marketing in Germany for Lidl. Now he wants to use his knowledge of the food industry to develop a vegan alternative.

The new egg substitute will be available in Germany from April. The next step for the start-up is to expand into other European countries from mid-2022, with Ocado already confirmed as the retail partner for the launch in the UK. The next products are also already being planned.