Meatless Farm establishes plant protein subsidiary and facility in Canada

UK meat alternatives brand, Meatless Farm, has launched a dedicated plant protein ingredients subsidiary, which will operate out of a new facility in Calgary, Canada.

Meatless Farm has invested an initial $12 million in the 30,000 square-foot factory, which will have the capacity to produce up to 14,500 tonnes of plant protein ingredients by 2023. The company says its facility will be the first-of-its-kind on this scale in Canada and marks one of its biggest investments to date.

Lovingly Made Ingredients – the company’s plant protein subsidiary – will provide Meatless Farm’s global supply of textured plant protein and enable the expansion into producing customised plant proteins for selected external partners across the meat alternatives, bakery, snacks and cereals sectors.

Established in 2016, the Yorkshire-based company now operates in 24 countries with multiple product lines stocked in six major supermarkets in the UK. The news comes after two rounds of over-subscribed fundraising with funds totalling $48 million.

The facility marks an important step in the business’ Farm to Fork programme, which works directly with farmer collectives to source peas and guarantee traceability. Meatless Farm aims for the plant to be net zero on carbon emissions throughout the supply chain within the first year and will use manufacturing processes to halve its water and energy use.

Morten Toft Bech, founder of Meatless Farm, said: “Meatless Farm started less than five years ago at my kitchen table so it’s amazing to see us open a facility of this size and scale and is testament to the growth and importance of this sector.

“The pace of global growth presents opportunities for how we can share our expertise and innovation with other partners and that is where Lovingly Made Ingredients comes in.

“Canada is the pea-capital of the world so it makes sense to have a facility here which will give us the ability in future to grow, harvest, process and extract our pea protein all within one country. Bringing this under our own operations in Canada will have huge benefits for efficiency, quality, sustainability and innovation and enable us to offer that innovation and manufacturing expertise to other partners too.”

Meatless Farms says it has 10 SKUs planned over the next six months and is also investing in plans for Europe and Asia to help shorten the supply chain in local markets.