Hong Kong-based Green Monday Group recently launched in Taiwan and the Philippines. Later this year they plan to expand to Thailand, Vietnam and mainland China.
Green Monday Group (GMG) has several subsidiaries supporting each other: the social arm is building awareness around the environmental impact of food, while venture arm takes an active role in the market to increase the supply of plant-based food. The latter includes food retail & distribution, corporate consulting, VC investments and development of their own food products (Omnipork).
The group secured distribution deals with major US brands like Daiya and
Califia Farms - and most notably
Beyond Meat. Green Monday VC arm is also one of the
early investors in Beyond.
GMG’s founder David Yeung
said this about an impact of Beyond’s recent IPO (the company has a
market cap of over US$4b a few days after their Nasdaq debut):
“Being an investor and the Asian distribution partner of Beyond Meat since its early days, I have the honour of having a front-row seat on their epic IPO. There is no doubt the record-shattering listing of BYND sent shockwaves around the world, as people suddenly woke up to the disruption happening in the food industry.”
Since November last year, David is taking GMG outside of its core market of Hong Kong & Macau. In 2018 they expanded to Singapore and in March 2019 launched in Taiwan.
Taiwan launch event - which I had a chance to attend in person at Grand Hyatt Taipei - included a number of
partner restaurants and a
celebrity endorser. Omnipork, Beyond Burger and other products distributed by GMG are now available to Taiwanese food service companies and in the future also at retail outlets.
Next up is Thailand, where GMG is already manufacturing Omnipork. In August they plan the launch event in Bangkok, similar to the one in Taipei - with major hotel and food service partners, including “one Michelin star restaurant as well as fast casual and cafe chains”, David Yeung told me.
Smaller-scale rollouts are happening in the Philippines (at
Grand Hyatt Manila) and Vietnam (“some major hotels launching Beyond Burger to start”, according to David).
The big one coming up in 2nd half of the year is mainland China. Asked about details David said: “ecommerce will be a key part of our strategy given the size of China”. The launch will also include “hotel, F&B and retail”.
None of the major plant-based brands is available in China yet.
JUST has hold a launch event in Shanghai for JUST Egg in December, but their products are not yet sold there at the time of publication. Impossible Foods said it has a plan to come to mainland China “
within the next 2 years”.