vegconomist - the vegan business magazine

As the Netherlands and other European countries battle Covid with increasingly stringent government mandates on assembly and movement, PLMA has decided to cancel its World of Private Label Trade Show, which was set for the RAI Exhibition Centre on 14-15 December. According to the organizer, the Private Label Manufacturers Association (PLMA), the trade show is the largest private label trade show in the world. It is claimed to attract thousands of exhibitors and visitors every year. The event was previously postponed from May to December, also due to Covid restrictions. From the vegan business world’s perspective, the event’s cancellation is a loss, as the PLMA had previously announced that among the new products on display the trend for vegan alternatives is very strong, with plant-based meat alternatives and ready meals being the most trending categories. However, in announcing the December cancellation, PLMA assured its members, retailers, and other parties in the private label industry that it will be providing ample opportunity for them to network and transact business throughout 2022. A virtual show, PLMA Global, will be presented in March, and the regular annual in-person event has been set for 31 May – 1 June 2022, at the RAI in Amsterdam. PLMA President Peggy Davies stated in a press release: “PLMA remains committed to providing the worldwide private label industry with networking opportunities as well as valuable sales and marketing solutions.” ...

Greek yogurt maker Chobani has filed for an IPO and will trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol CHO, with the equity sale expected to value the business at over $10 billion. The New York-based company has been moving increasingly into alt dairy with a selection of plant-based offerings along with its conventional lines.  Meaning shepherd in Turkish, Chobani was founded in 2005 by Hamdi Ulukaya, a Turkish immigrant to the US who bought an old yogurt plant with a small loan. The company revealed its finances for the first time in its filing for an IPO, showing a nearly 14% jump in net sales. Chobani has expanded with a plant-based range of oat-based drinks, cultured oat blends, dairy-free Greek yogurts, and probiotic drinks over recent years.  Chobani has factories in New York, Idaho, and Australia, and was reported to have rejected a bid for a majority stake from beverage giant PepsiCo Inc in 2016 in order to stay independent. The company is to launch a new range of refrigerated oat beverages and is expanding its manufacturing capacity in its plant in Australia to facilitate. The terms of the IPO were not revealed though vegconomist reported in February that it could set its value between $7 billion to $10 billion.  “As we create the food company of the future, we’ll look at all options carefully to fuel our ambitious plans, especially with oat milk and plant-based products,” Chobani founder Hamdi Ulukaya has stated previously.   ...

Aerospace corporation Airbus has kitted out one of its Corporate Helicopters with a fully vegan interior. The special design was made at the request of a customer, German construction entrepreneur Dr. Urs Brunner. Brunner is married to fashion designer Daniela Brunner, founder of ethical fashion house Giulia & Romeo. The brand uses no animal products, and Ms. Brunner was determined that the helicopter’s interior would be in line with these ethics. Instead of conventional leather, Airbus used a vegan alternative called Ultraleather — which looks like animal leather and has the same durability — in the Brunners’ helicopter. The passenger seats, central storage cabinet, rear partition, and cockpit control cuffs were all redesigned to use the material. Vegan leather interiors Vegan leather is rapidly gaining in popularity in car interiors, with Volvo recently revealing plans to make all new cars leather-free. Meanwhile, BMW will be partnering with Desserto to use cactus leather, after announcing plans to end the use of conventional leather in all Mini and 5-Series cars. Mercedes has also been experimenting with animal-free interiors, after vegan Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton attempted to convince the company to stop using leather. The vegan automotive leather market is forecast to grow with a CAGR of 48% over the period 2020-2026. In the wake of this progress, it seems inevitable that vegan leather will soon be widely used in the interiors of other vehicles such as aircraft. “We’re very proud of our team’s work in creating this bespoke ACH Line interior. ...

–The Very Good Food Company Inc. (NASDAQ: VGFC) (TSXV: VERY.V) (FSE: 0SI) (“VERY GOOD” or the “Company“), a leading plant-based food technology company, today shared its exciting record performance in the month of October 2021. With sales of approximately C$1.5 million for the month, the Company saw an increase of 202% in revenue compared to the same month last year. VERY GOOD has seen steady growth as meat alternatives increase in popularity and consumers demand high quality plant-based options. This continued growth illustrates the stronghold that meat alternatives are forging in the food industry and how the unique offerings of the Company’s core brand, The Very Good Butchers, keep consumers coming back. Record sales of C$1.5 million were achieved in October due to increased demand for VERY GOOD’s products in both its wholesale and eCommerce channels. The Company recently launched into U.S. retail in August 2021 and was in over 396 stores in the U.S., in addition to 805 stores in Canada at the end of September. eCommerce sales also rose due to the demand for holiday products including the Stuffed Beast and the limited-edition Thanksgiving Box. In October, Stuffed Beast sales were seven times the number sold in October of last year. These increased listings ...

Danone, the multinational Paris-based company best known for its yogurts, has announced it will be converting one of its major factories to produce Alpro plant milks instead of dairy products. The facility, located in Villecomtal-sur-Arros in the South of France, will mostly produce oat milk following the conversion. Danone acquired Alpro in 2017, in response to growing consumer interest in healthier options. In February of this year, the company also acquired Earth Island, owner of US alt-dairy brand Follow Your Heart. The conversion of the facility will begin in the autumn of 2022 and should be complete by the second quarter of 2023, coming in at a cost of €43 million. Earlier this year, Danone invested a further €16.5 million in upgrading another of its French Alpro facilities, and €12 million in expanding one of its plant-based food facilities in Spain. An Alpro plant in the UK has also recently received a $23 million upgrade. Plant-based by Danone According to Danone, the market for plant-based products in France has tripled over the past seven years and is expected to grow a further 50% by 2025. The company has said it aims to make €5 billion in plant-based sales by 2025, and has also revealed it is developing a new type of plant milk aimed to be a direct replacement for dairy. “Our mission is to continue advancing plant-based lifestyles with delicious tasting products. In five years, we hope to see more people — vegans and flexitarians alike — adding plant-based ...

Brazil’s JBS – the largest meat processing company in the world – announced it is to purchase Biotech Foods, a cultivated meat producer based in Spain. JBS will also establish a cultivated meat R&D centre in Brazil as part of a $100 million drive, with JBS stating that the “acquisition marks the company’s entry into the cultivated protein market,” according to Reuters. The deal reportedly includes $41 million for the building a new plant for Biotech to scale up production in Spain. In January this year, BioTech Foods announced a €5.2 million R&D initiative called the CULTUREDMEAT project, after receiving funding from the EU last October. JBS clearly recognizes that the future lies in alt meat. Aside from operating its plant-based brand Planterra, the meat giant has been steadily making moves into the sector. Last January, Seara Alimentos, a division of JBS, announced an innovation center named the Incredible Lab, aiming to lead the global PB market, stating: “The world is constantly changing. Today there is a new way for everything and with food it’s no different. The search for vegetable proteins is a reality and we want to be leaders in the segment.” And in a landmark move this April, JBS announced it had agreed to purchase Vivera foods, which at the time was Europe’s third-largest plant-based food producer, for an enterprise value of €341 million in a deal that includes three manufacturing facilities and a research centre in the  Netherlands. Forbes reported at the time that JBS may be ...

According to a recent analysis by Reports and Data, the global oat milk market generated USD 3.68 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach USD 6.47 billion by 2027. However, the market for oat products in India is rarely discussed. Here we address a main player in the Indian market and the backlash it received from dairy companies. The Indian Oat Milk Market Although Oatly, the world’s largest producer of oat milk, just joined the Indian market, the brand is still relatively unfamiliar in the country. However, the category is fast expanding, and Bevry, the Indian oat milk startup, is eager to establish itself in this segment. Oatly, while not well-known in India, is available at Starbucks and a few other locations. But the company continues to focus its efforts on other countries. Because Oatly has a little footprint in India, Bevry wants to establish itself in the oat milk industry before the alt milk market in India becomes too competitive. Bevry’s ready-to-drink (RTD) beverages come in 200 mL bottles and are available in three flavours: vanilla & cinnamon; chocolate & hazelnut; and cold-brew coffee. It distributes its items on its website and through Whole Foods Market. Additionally, it just announced an agreement with Nature’s Basket, a premium brick-and-mortar shop, and Big Basket, an online platform. Due to the pervasiveness of dairy in the normal Indian diet, it was critical for Bevry to design a product that was as dairy-like as possible. India is a major producer of dairy ...

Made in Chelsea reality TV star Verity Bowditch and former YouTube personality Mikey Pearce have closed the seed round funding for their plant-based food brand Clean Kitchen Club. The round raised £1.4 million with a £7.5 million valuation despite being less than 12 months since launching.  “People are waking up to the impact that meat production is having on the environment and need a clear solution” – Verity Bowditch The plant-based QSR chain currently operates out of five sites in London, selling over 50,000 burgers in its first year and growing 30% month-on-month. The funding and valuation will enable Clean Kitchen Club to expand further with plans to open 40 new sites across the UK as it aims to bring sustainable, plant-based food and carbon-neutral packaging to the mainstream.  As well as opening a flagship store in Soho early next year, the vegan brand is also launching a range of retail products, starting with Clean canned coffees and alt meat products. The funding round saw participation from Clive Sharpe, ex-chairman of Quorn, and Grace Beverley, fitness influencer and business owner. Mikey Pearce, Co-Founder and CEO of Clean Kitchen Club, commented: “I’m incredibly proud of the team for signing our first investment round and seeing the phenomenal growth Clean Kitchen Club is experiencing every day. The idea for Clean was born from my mother’s vegan bacon sandwich and I decided I needed to create a brand that would provide delicious, accessible plant-based food and bring it to the mainstream. We have ...

TIME Magazine has recently published its list of the top 100 best inventions of 2021. Featured on the list is Kuleana‘s plant-based tuna, which is made with koji (a type of fungus), algae, radish, bamboo, and potato. TIME praised the tuna for having comparable levels of iron, vitamin B12, and omega-3 fatty acids to conventional tuna, while being free of the harmful substances often found in fish flesh — microplastics, mercury, and cholesterol, for example. The magazine also noted that the tuna could help to alleviate the environmental damage caused by commercial fishing. Kuleana, which has been named the “Impossible Foods of seafood”, entered the US seafood market in September of last year with the initial launch of its raw tuna. The tuna is now available at various restaurants and Poké Bar locations in the US, with further rollouts planned. Kuleana will also be launching plant-based salmon in the near future. While alt-seafood is still far less common than alt-meat products such as burgers and sausages, the number of tuna alternatives on the market has soared in recent months as companies work to address this. In September, Fazenda Futuro introduced its “Future Tuna” just two weeks after Hooked’s plant-based tuna launched in Sweden. At around the same time, Japan’s Next Meats announced it had developed a similar product. June also saw the introduction of several new alt-tuna products, with JINKA and OmniFoods launching plant-based tuna and Finless Foods developing sushi-grade cultivated tuna fillets. “Plant-based seafood is uncharted territory. We carry ...

Luxury fashion house Louis Vuitton has entered the rapidly growing sustainable shoe market. With its new Charlie sneakers, the French brand is utilizing 90% recycled and bio-sourced materials, including Biopolioli – a corn-based plastic. Featuring a unisex design, Charlie is Louis Vuitton’s most eco-friendly sneaker offering to date; the laces are made from recycled fibers, the soles are composed of 94% recycled rubber, and the tongue is from Econyl – a renewable nylon fabric. Every pair of Charlie sneakers is produced in Louis Vuitton’s workshop in Fiesso d’Artico, Italy, and come in low and high-top versions.  Biopolioli is just one of the latest biomaterials to be changing the world of fashion as the concept of “luxury” seems to be changing in the face of the climate crisis. UK fashion house Stella McCartney recently showcased a handbag made with vegan mushroom leather on the runway at Paris Fashion Week, whereas luxury fashion group Kering has announced that none of its fashion houses will use real animal fur, including Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta, Alexander McQueen, Brioni, and Saint Laurent.    ...