The Flava People and Pilgrims Europe have paired up to bring big brand flavour, fun and vibrancy to the slow cook category
YO!, the UK’s leading Japanese brand in food retail, is expanding its reach into the slow-cooked category with an exciting new range of Pulled Chicken Katsu and Pulled Pork Teriyaki dishes, both based on restaurant favourite flavours. Developed by The Flava People collaboratively with Pilgrims Europe, the new products will be launching exclusively in Asda at the beginning of April in 305 stores nationwide. This marks a major step for YO! into a brand new category, leading the way in making Japanese food more accessible to UK consumers while introducing younger shoppers to a more traditional fixture.
The new range has been crafted to capture fan-favourite flavours synonymous with YO! restaurants, offering a convenient, tasty way for consumers to enjoy slow-cooked meals at home. Designed to bring excitement and innovation to the category, the bold range is packed full of flavour and also incorporates multi-layered texture specifically into the Katsu line, which is finished with a crunchy katsu crumb for a crispy finish on top of rice or in bao buns. For a fast and foodie dinner, consumers can whip up a Japanese-inspired meal in just 30 minutes thanks to the experts at Pilgrim’s Europe slow cooking the products for hours for perfectly tender meat every time.
The YO! Slow Cooked range includes:
- Pulled Chicken Katsu
- Pulled Pork Teriyaki
The launch will be supported across multiple YO! touchpoints, from its Love Club newsletter to over 250,000 followers across social media platforms. In addition, products will be hitting shelves with an exclusive 20% restaurant discount for shoppers purchasing from the new range, meaning brand fans can enjoy their favourite flavours at home and in-restaurant for a reduced price.
Olivia Rooney, Brand Strategy Manager at The Flava People, says: “We’ve worked hard to bring these iconic Japanese flavours to life in a way that is easy, delicious, and exciting for consumers, paired with the ultimate trust in a leading brand like YO!. Collaboratively bringing this to life with the teams at Pilgrims and YO! has been brilliant, and we’ve seen genuine excitement among everyone involved to get this onto shelves.
“The slow cook category has long been dominated by own label which can struggle to stretch outside of traditional British and American flavours. Our new launch is ready to disrupt the fixture and entice new, younger foodies to slow cook. Launching under a well-known brand gives shoppers the confidence they need to try something a little different for dinner and inject credibility into the category.”
With YO! continuing to grow its presence beyond restaurants into grocery, the new slow-cooked range represents another exciting milestone in the brand’s journey. The introduction of these products aims to breathe new life into the sous-vide category, which has traditionally been dominated by own-label, offering something fresh, vibrant, and globally inspired from an authentic brand leader.
Sam Reader, Innovation & Product Director at Pilgrim’s Europe, comments: “We’ve loved working collaboratively on this project to bring to life the vision for YO! to inject some vibrancy and delicious flavour into the slow cook category. Combining our high quality meat products with the punchy flavours created by The Flava People has resulted in genuinely exciting innovation that we can’t wait to see enter the market with Asda.”
Sam Clarke, Buyer for Slow Cooked and Ready to Cook, Meat, Fish & Produce Business Unit in Commercial Food, Asda, adds: “There’s a real opportunity across the slow cooked range to use brand-led innovation to increase incremental shoppers into the category. With YO! being a growing brand across ambient, we’re excited to see how this first-to-market launch will impact slow cooked as a category, while also offering customers something exciting and unique.”
The two new YO! Slow Cooked products will be available in 305 Asda stores nationwide from early April, RRPs: Pulled Chicken Katsu £5.75 and Pulled Pork Teriyaki £5.50.
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