🇨🇳 KFC has launched its
first meat-free burger in China. A portobello mushroom and dairy cheese patty may not sound groundbreaking, especially when compared to Quorn-based
Imposter Burger at KFC UK, but in fact it is quite a milestone for Chinese QSR sector: a nationwide rollout of a meat-free option by the largest fast food chain in the country (6000+ outlets), accompanied by a media campaign, involving some local celebrities (videos
here and
here).
🍔 Impossible Foods is now present at over 160 food service outlets in Singapore, only four months after the launch. Per capita, it’s actually more than in its home market, the United States. Not entirely surprising, knowing how receptive SG market is when it comes to new food trends. Some of the new venues like PizzaExpress replaced Beyond Meat products with Impossible’s, while others like SaladStop! are now carrying both brands. The company also
launched an exclusive partnership with food delivery service Deliveroo. Back in May Impossible
announced its largest funding round yet: US$300m Series E, led again by Asian investors Temasek and Horizon Ventures with a
rumoured valuation of ~US$2b. The round brought its total funding to over US$750m, nearly twice as much as raised by Beyond Meat.
🥚 JUST Inc. has entered into a partnership with South Korean premium egg producer
GanongBio to manufacture its plant-based JUST Egg product. No timeline was given, but it will likely take a while - a similar deal was
announced by JUST in Europe in July 2018 with Eurovo Group and in February with PHW with “first products expected to be available in Q4 2019” (
source).
🐓 Sunfed Foods from New Zealand has
expanded to Australia with its
Chicken-Free Chicken product, available exclusively at Coles supermarkets.
Priced at AU$11 (~US$7.75) for a 300g pack, it is about 10% cheaper than in NZ. The company remains the top funded plant-based startup in the Asia-Pacific, so far raising over US$7.5m, mostly
from Australian investors.
🍕 Hell Pizza, one of New Zealand’s top pizza chains, has introduced a new limited-edition meaty pizza across its 70+ outlets, and as a marketing stunt for the first few days has not informed customers it is using Beyond Burger as a topping,
explaining they “wanted to see if people could tell the difference between a plant-based patty and a meat version”. The chain had sold 3,000 pizzas before revealing it has been made with Beyond Meat’s product.
According to an
online survey, 80% of customers were “pleasantly surprised or unfazed” to find out it was plant-based and 70% said the patty tasted just like meat. While other companies around the world did similar stunts, I am not aware of any on that scale (thousands of consumers). Not surprisingly it drew a lot of
media attention and even a
regulatory inquiry. Hell Pizza
announced the pizza is now sold-out and it has no immediate plans to bring it back “due to cost of Beyond Meat” (Beyond Burger in NZ is 50-60% more expensive than the US).
🐟 Quorn has expanded the range of 100% plant-based
products in Australia, introducing Fish Free Fillets, Pepper & Herb Sausages and Gourmet Burger. Australia was one of the fastest-growing markets for the company in 2018 (+38% YoY compared to +24% in the US and +7% overall), according to
this FT article. Quorn’s global sales in 2018 have been ~US$275m.
💰 Angel Food, New Zealand’s leading dairy-free cheese producer, has launched a new
crowd-funding campaign, planning to raise up to NZ$385k (US$260k) with a pre-money valuation of ~US$3m. Their products are available at 700 retail and food service outlets. During the last financial year, the company had sales over US$1m on 20% gross margin and US$180k net loss (mostly due to investments in new staff and new co-packer - a prior year has been profitable). Full financials in the investment prospectus
here.