Bloomberg Intelligence Senior Analyst Jen Bartashus gives us the up-to-the-minute analyses on the Plant-based Innovation sector in the public markets, including Beyond Meat and Oatly on this episode of The Plantbased Business Hour with Elysabeth Alfano.
Specifically, we discuss
1. Which public companies fall under the umbrella of Plant-based Innovation and why, such as ingredient companies, flavor and texture companies, legacy food and beverage companies and even outliers and well and novel CPG companies.
2. Which old-school, public food companies are venturing into Plant-based Innovation, including alternative proteins,
3. What happened to Beyond Meat and Oatly and
4. What is the Bloomberg Intelligence prediction for the sector in the next 10 years.
Below is a highlight clip and transcription from our long-form conversation.
Elysabeth: Okay so maybe we should start at the very, very beginning, is the plant-based sector in the public markets Beyond Meat and Oatly only?
Jen Bartashus: No, it’s not, and it’s easy for people to forget that because those are the two companies that get the most headlines. They get the most headlines because they’re pure plays and that’s really all they do. So, people look at those companies as that benchmark of what’s happening in the industry but they are both small companies. They both are going through huge transformations of their business model and so they’ve faced a lot of challenges that they are still working through, but in the broader market you have companies like Ingredion or Givaudan that are there in the space as well. And not to mention some of the big packaged food companies like Nestle or even Kraft Heinz with their joint venture with Not Co.
There are plenty of companies out there that are still investing in the space and are throughout the public markets without just being the focus of Beyond Meat and Oatly.
Elysabeth: I love that you mention Ingredion and Givaudan because they’re both so committed to plant-based proteins. Givaudan, for those who don’t know, is a flavor and texture company. So, they’re really working to make plant-based items taste good so that consumers really want them. But at the same time, behind the scenes they’re spending CapEx. They’re spending on infrastructure on cultivated meat in Switzerland in a joint venture in Buhler which makes food machines and a lot of the machines in factories that make plant-based meats. So Buhler and also Migros which is the Swiss large retail grocer. The three of them are in a joint venture on cultivated meat. And then in the United States they’re doubling down on a plant-based innovation lab on the west coast.
So, they have their business-to-business model which is where we at VegTech Invest think all the growth is going to be. It’s going to be really in that infrastructure. So, they have their business-to-business clients working on food and flavor texture but then they’re also doubling down to be there to capture market share when things really shift. They’re placing themselves for cultivated meat and plant-based innovation. So, it’s exciting to see.
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