Who Owns Big Vegan Food Brands?

[shyvas]

Find out about some of the most popular vegan food brands in the world, including who owns them and whether they are vegan businesses.

• Discover the types of products made by each vegan food manufacturer.
• Make informed shopping decisions about the vegan food brands you want to support.

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Otsuka Announces the Acquisition of Rapidly Growing Plant-Based Food Innovator Daiya

/PRNewswire/ -- Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (Otsuka), a wholly owned subsidiary of Otsuka Holdings Co., Ltd. and a global holistic healthcare company...

www.prnewswire.com

 

[shyvas]

Danone acquires plant-based pioneer Follow Your Heart

The maker of market-leading dairy-free cheeses, Vegenaise and a powdered vegan egg substitute will help the French company reach its goal of $5.7 billion in segment sales by 2025. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

www.fooddive.com

I will have to find a link with a recent update on vegan owned food brands. It would seem as soon as a company is successful it is
automatically taken over by a non vegan brand.

 

[shyvas]

Another pb food company; Vivera that has been taken over by a meat giant :

JBS is the world’s second-biggest food company. Moreover, it is the largest in animal protein with over 245,000 employees.
It stretches over Brazil, the US, Canada, Australia, China, and the UK.

Plant-Based Protein Brand Vivera Acquired By Meat Giant JBS

 

[Lou]

This is an interesting issue but part of me just doesn't care.
The ethical stuff is concerning and maybe its wrong for me to be dismissive.
I think part of my apathy is derived from fatigue.
I always bought a lot of Silk soy milk. then they got bought up by a big company, then they sold or something and then bought by someone else. After a while I just couldn't keep track. It bothered me a lot that my dollars were going to a company that made dairy products. But then when I go to a grocery store I spend my money at a store that sells all kinds of non-vegan stuff.
So after a while I just decided there were bigger things to worry about. Although I still feel guilty somewhat.

I can't remember the numbers but like 90% of our food dollars go to something like 10 companies. and maybe 80% goes to just 4.

There may be some positives out of this (admittedly I'm grasping). When the big evil multinational takes over, it might inject a bunch of money into the little company which can then increase their production and improve distribution.

One of the biggest negatives is that if the little company makes a product that competes with a product made by another division of the big company - they may cancel that product. I think this just happened with one of the companies that Danone bought. I can't remember if it was a nondairy cheese or ice cream.

My local farmer's market opens back up next week! Yea.

 

[shyvas]

One of the biggest negatives is that if the little company makes a product that competes with a product made by another division of the big company - they may cancel that product. I think this just happened with one of the companies that Danone bought. I can't remember if it was a nondairy cheese or ice cream.

Danone recently purchased Alpro (Belgian company)which is one of the UK's leading plant based supermarket buys. They also own Provamel, Soya Soleil & Silk.

 

[LoreD]

I don't have a problem with large corporations producing vegan products. I think it shows that they are seeing a shifting away from animal products. Hopefully, the wfpb based foods will be a large enough part of their portfolio that they will start moving away from animal products. I will buy an Impossible Whopper, every once in while, just so that they will keep offering it.

I am already seeing the changes here in the meat/cheese state of Wisconsin. Vegan restaurants popping up. The vegan sections of the freezer get bigger every month. I see every possible non dairy milk from about 4 or 5 producers. The non dairy milk section is now bigger than the milk section.

Dairy farms are going under all over the state. People aren't drinking milk the way they used to.

 

[shyvas]

£50M Takeover Reportedly in Process for UK Plant-Based Brand Gosh! - vegconomist - the vegan business magazine

Reports of UK vegan ‘free from’ producer Gosh! in £50 million takeover deal after strong growth and consumer demand for plant-based foods

vegconomist.com

 

[Lou]

Did we already mention this?
It's not news but Nestle acquired Sweet Earth.

 

[feather]

When it comes to food or 'almost' food, then, for all of them, these companies.

Realizing 90% of the 'food' is processed. The produce aisle is under represented, grains and beans that are not processed can be found from farmers or distributors. These companies will buy up vegan markets to gain their share, and make sure to earn money for their stock holders. I don't think anything will change in terms of who owns them, just what they own changes.

Since I can my own condiments except soy sauce, make my own soy milk, don't eat faux meat or cheese so far (things change you never know), and we eat mostly from the produce aisle, it's not going to matter to me. I used to work for a company that supported the canned food industry, even though I canned my food at home. I used to work for another food processing bottling line, that was fun too, I don't eat their products either. I guess I've always been this way.

If you want to do good for the ideal of veganism for whatever reason you do that, then support small businesses that don't sell out to the big names. Money though, is a powerful motivator for everyone. If you want to do good for your health, then processed food probably isn't going to impact you as much as others.

 

[Mufflon]

If you want to do good for the ideal of veganism for whatever reason you do that, then support small businesses that don't sell out to the big names.

I'm going to support them if they have good tasting products for reasonable prices. If the product is outstanding I'm willing to pay more but let's be honest here: many of the products some small companies offer taste mediocre at best but you have to pay premium money for it. Of course there are some outstanding products like the cashew-based camembert I occasionally used to buy before moving to a smaller town. It was expensive but IMO worth its price.

Vegan products (the ones you label "almost foods" in a kind of condescending way) became way more affordable once the big players got into the game if one likes that or not and - again, doesn't matter if one likes it or not - many (of course not all) of them taste better than the products some of the smaller companies are offering.