Mon, Jun-12-23, 08:16
|
 |
|
|
Plan: Muscle Centric
Stats: 238/153/160
BF:
Progress: 109%
Location: UK
|
|
Oh dear!
Quote:
Vegan foods maker Meatless Farm sacks almost entire workforce
Meatless Farm is looking for a buyer as appetite for meat-free alternatives fades
A plant-based meat manufacturer has made the majority of its staff redundant amid a drop in demand for vegan products.
Meatless Farm, which makes vegan sausages, mince, and burgers, hired restructuring specialists Kroll in May in hopes of finding a buyer for the business as it faced running out of cash.
The company, whose LinkedIn indicates employs around 100 staff, let go of many of them on Friday, according to sources close to the situation. The exact number of redundancies is not known.
Meatless Farm filed notice that it planned to appoint administrators on 31 May, however it is understood that no administrator has yet been appointed.
The company was founded by Danish entrepreneur Morten Toft-Bech in 2016 as demand for plant-based products began to rise in the UK.
As well as vegan sausages, mince and burgers, the company has launched products including vegan pasties, plant-based ravioli and a “chickenless” Christmas roast.
Sales have grown steadily over recent years but the business has failed to turn a profit. Its latest results show revenues almost doubled from £7.5m to £12.5m in 2021 but losses increased from £15.4m to £23.5m.
It has raised around £40m from investors in numerous crowdfunding campaigns to support its growth since inception.
Mr Toft-Bech told The Grocer that a major investor had pulled out of a large financial commitment to the company.
This “caught the board and the management team of MF by surprise”, he said.
He told the trade magazine, which first reported the company had run into trouble last month: “Operationally Meatless Farm is doing really well but the cashflow squeeze is proving hard to manage given the short notice we have been given from the investor to solve it.”
It comes amid a wider slowdown in the market for vegan food.
Yorkshire-based sausage maker Heck recently cut its range of plant-based products from 15 to around 2, blaming a lack of demand.
Major supermarkets have also been pulling back. Tesco, Asda, Morrisons, Waitrose and Sainsbury’s all slashed the number of meat-free lines on sale by 10.9pc over the six months to March 20, according to Assosia data.
Kroll declined to comment.
|
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/busines...ndancies-vegan/ |