v2food announced that it has acquired plant-based ready-made meals brand Soulara to expand its product portfolio and broaden its distribution reach beyond supermarkets and foodservice.
Soulara will be integrated into v2food under its new Ready Meals division – Flexitarian Meals Solutions. The acquisition will allow v2food to deliver its products directly to consumers’ homes via Soulara’s proprietary e-commerce channel. It will also complement v2foods plant-based meat products with Soulara’s vegetable-based offerings, thereby diversifying v2food’s product selection.
In addition, v2food said fitness-focused, ready-made meals brand MACROS will also be integrated under Flexitarian Meal Solutions.
“We are committed to our mission of ‘feeding the planet in a way that takes care of the planet’ – by driving adoption of plant-based diets we create the greatest impact,” v2food CEO Tim York told Future Alternative.
“Through this acquisition, we will have the opportunity to do this at even a greater scale by reaching consumers in supermarkets and shipping products directly to their homes.”
York added that Flexitarian Meals Solutions ships between 50,000 to 100,000 meals each week via a direct to consumer channel, which v2food views as an excellent platform to introduce plant-based products to Australian consumers.
Soulara General Manager (Commercial) Sean Bone said: “As Australia’s favourite plant-based ready-made meal service, Soulara has carved a niche for itself with its focus on delivering meals designed by our team of chefs and dieticians to ensure best in class taste, nutrition and value.
“v2food’s expertise in plant protein is the ideal complement to Soulara’s vegetable-forward approach, as we strive together to provide a well-rounded menu for consumers seeking a plant-based lifestyle.”
Executive Director of think tank Food Frontier Dr Simon Eassom said: “v2food is normalising plant-based meat offerings across multiple channels. It is already firmly entrenched as the dominant player in the two major supermarkets— with plant-based chicken-style products, burgers, sausages and mince—and it’s increasingly successful with its Rebel Whopper in Hungry Jacks.
“v2food is doing something that few, if any, other major plant-based companies are doing anywhere around the world: branching into all channels with offerings to suit and doing it via mergers and acquisitions. The only other company that compares would be the Vegan Food Group in the UK, which is aiming to become a vegan Unilever.”
Besides its business expansion, v2food recently rolled out what it claims to be a world-first technology using red algae that changes the colour of plant-based protein while cooking at the same time and temperature as animal meat.
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