Meatless Farm, a manufacturer of vegan “meat” alternatives, is on the brink of collapse after firing its entire workforce.
Between 50 and 100 staff were let go from Meatless Farm on Friday, according to reports. The company was founded in 2016 by Morten Toft-Bech, a Danish businessman. Despite selling over £11 million worth of fake meat burgers, sausages and mince at its peak in 2021, the company never turned a profit, recently recording losses of £23.5 million.
Speaking to trade magazine The Grocer, Toft-Bech said Meatless Farm had been caught “by surprise” by a major investor pulling out. The enterpreneur claimed that the resulting “cashflow squeeze” had caused problems. The company has now reportedly called in insolvency firm Kroll to “advise” on their options, with their website now offline.
Overall, the demand for so-called meatless meat has dropped across the West, even though plant-based “alternatives” to dairy products like cheese and milk have maintained popularity. Major British supermarkets have cut their meat-free alternatives by around 11% in the last six months to March, according to recent data.
Nobody wants to eat this shit, especially when it is more expensive and contains more additives and chemicals than normal, natural foodstuffs.
Vegan foods maker Meatless Farm sacks almost entire workforce https://t.co/I7AUu0IYXU
— Schweizermag 🇭🇰 🇨🇭 (@Schweizermag) June 12, 2023
Another plant-based failure, as supermarkets reduce such offerings by 11% since January.
Huge media hype, but ultimately the vast majority of people not sold on the ‘story’ – or nutrition/taste.
Not a good time to be betting big on UPFs.https://t.co/a8pD5l2E0W
— Joe Stanley 🇺🇦 (@JoeWStanley) June 12, 2023
“This stagnation is coming out of the US and is having a negative effect on the global picture,” said Tom Rees, a food researcher and industry manager at Euromonitor. Rees noted that Meatless Farm was not a “top 10 player,” only accounting for 1.2% of the market share last year, compared to Beyond Meat at 3.3%.
British consumers had also been put off by the high prices of meatless meat products, and had also become pickier with what they ate. “We’ve had a real glut of products on the market with supermarkets pushing their own ranges and outstanding brands. Now consumers have decided which ones they like,” Rees said.
Valiant News reported in November that internal photos and documents showed that in a Pennsylvania factory for Beyond Meat, one of the leading manufacturers of vegan meat alternatives, mold, deadly bacteria, and foreign objects were all detected in the “meat.”
