Dutch vegan and vegetarian food specialist Vivera Foodgroup has sold its convenience meat products business Enkco to enable it to commit fully to a “meatless future”.
The group – owner of the Vivera, Culifrost and Dutch Tofu brands – says it will make large-scale investments in expanding production capacity of its plant-based product ranges.
Vivera has a strong market position in the European market and is one of the largest producers of plant-based products in Europe. Most of the 100 employees of Enkco will be taken on by Vivera Foodgroup.
Enkco, specialist in chilled and deep-frozen meat products, was sold to Dutch Van Loon Group at the end of May 2019. As a result of the sale Vivera Foodgroup says it will be able to focus more on the strong growth opportunities in the plant-based market in Europe. With its lead brand Vivera, the company already commands a strong market position in large parts of Europe and is one of the three largest players in Europe.
The company says that the sale of Enkco and new 100% plant-based strategy reflects the rapidly developing market demand for vegan and plant-based food. There are plans to significantly increase production capacity at the business by the third quarter of 2019. The company already manufactures over a million plant-based products each week.
“We are one of the first companies in the world’s meat industry to say a final goodbye to meat”
Willem van Weede, CEO of Vivera Foodgroup: “We are one of the first companies in the world’s meat industry to say a final goodbye to meat. From now on we only focus on plant-based foods which are really conquering the world. More and more consumers are discovering that plant-based products can be just as tasty as real meat and have many benefits for personal health, environmental impact and animal welfare. As a result of the sale of our meat activities we think we can boost even more Vivera’s rapid international growth”
With the development of the first commercially available vegan steak in the world in 2018, Vivera reached a milestone in its history. In the UK alone, over one million items have been sold through supermarket chain Tesco. In addition, as an extension to the extensive product range Vivera recently launched successful products such as Pulled Veggie, Shawarma Kebab and Veggie Quarter Pounder which are available at many large retailers in Europe.
