The Very Good Food Co. in Canada has secured a lease on a pre-built production facility as the meat-alternative start-up expands capacity to meet demand locally and also in the US, a market the business entered two months ago.
Located in Vancouver, British Columbia, the so-called Rupert plant adds to one other in Canada situated in Mount Pleasant, Victoria, and another under construction in the US in Patterson, California.
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The new site has 45,000 square-foot of space encompassing production, refrigeration, warehousing, R&D and office areas. Operations at the newly-acquired factory are expected to begin in the first quarter, Very Good Food, which owns the Very Good Butchers brand, said in a statement.
In the US, Very Good Food also said it has formed an agreement with local sales and marketing agent Good Now Foods, which has been engaged to secure wholesale partnerships in “advance of the production ramp up scheduled for 2021” at the Patterson plant.
“The timely availability of the Rupert facility has presented us with a unique opportunity to address near-term demand while we work to operationalise our facility in Patterson, California,” said CEO Mitchell Scott, who founded the company in 2016 with James Davison, the chief research and development officer.
“We expect to be able to bring the Rupert facility online swiftly and add significant capacity to address current production shortfalls arising from strong demand for our products in Canada and the US.”
The ten-year lease on the property, which commences in January, has an option for renewal for two periods of five-year terms. Very Good Food said it plans to spend CAD3m (US$2.3m) on the facility over the next 12 months to improve “process workflow, drainage and heating, ventilation and air conditioning”.
Following the signing of the lease, Very Good Foods said the Mount Pleasant facility will now accommodate its R&D operations.
