Monde Nissin restructures alternative meats business

MANILA, Philippines  – Billionaire Betty Ang’s food conglomerate Monde Nissin Corp. is shifting spending away from Quorn, its flagship alternative meat brand in the United States and United Kingdom, while investing in a US-based startup that makes fungi-based bacon and other plant-based meat.

The maker of Lucky Me! instant noodles had previously announced plans to restructure the alternative meat business, whose profitability in 2022 was hit by soaring inflation.

In a stock exchange filing on Wednesday, the company said its board approved the reallocation of proceeds from its initial public offering (IPO) two years ago.

This principally involves reallocating over P2.1 billion in IPO proceeds meant for alternative meats to Asia-Pacific Branded Food and Beverage Business, which makes noodles and biscuits and is the company’s main source of revenues.

In the same filing, Monde said it would invest $2 million (P110 million) to acquire preferred shares that allows it to take a nearly 2 percent stake in US-based food startup Terramino Inc.

Terramino, which is now called Prime Roots, is developing and selling a variety of plant-based meats derived from koji, a type of fungi that is a key ingredient in making fermented products such as soy sauce and miso soup.

It sells turkey, ham, bacon and even foie gras products made using koji, its website showed.

Monde CEO Henry Soesanto said last November the company was implementing “restructuring and efficiency measures” for alternative meats.

“We realize that market conditions today are very challenging and there is a need to adjust to the current realities despite our view on the longer-term attractiveness of the category,” he had said.

Removing the impact of foreign exchange movements, the company’s meat alternative business saw sales increase 1 percent while gross profits fell 17.4 percent to P3.9 billion in the first nine months of 2022.

It said this was due to lower volume and high costs, which were offset by price hikes.

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