Shareholders in Veganz Group have backed the German plant-based business’ move to spin-off its subsidiaries.
Veganz Group is putting its operating divisions into separate subsidiaries and moving to a holding structure.
The company, which made a loss of €4.8m ($5.6m) in 2024 amid declining sales, will remain the majority owner of each of the subsidiaries – Mililk, Happy Cheeze, Peas on Earth and Veganz.
“The new structure creates the basis for a clear focus as an innovative technology investment holding company and supports further international growth,” Veganz Group said in a statement.
Veganz Group – which will change name to Planethic Group – believes the restructuring will give the different businesses more chance of hitting their growth targets. The shake-up will also allow potential suitors to invest in specific subsidiaries, rather than only the entire group.
Just Food understands Veganz Group is in talks with interested parties to invest in the subsidiaries. Discussions have so far progressed furthest for its plant-based milk business Mililk.
“With the measures decided today, we are laying the foundation for accelerated growth,” founder and CEO Jan Bredack said in a statement. “The new holding structure and capital measures increase our strategic flexibility, improve the liquidity of our shares and open up significant value enhancement potential for our shareholders.”
Bredack is stepping down in October but will remain “closely associated” with the business as the Berlin-headquartered company’s largest shareholder.
He will focus on indoor farming as the managing director of OrbiFarm, the business Veganz Group sold for €30m to an unidentified “third party” earlier this year, plus a profit share.
Ryan Tegtmeier, a former CFO of online supplements business Nu3 Group, will succeed Bredack as CEO.
The AGM, held last Wednesday (13 August), also saw Veganz Group’s executive and supervisory boards for the 2024 financial year discharged.
On Friday, the company announced that supervisory board chairman Roland Sieker had decided to step down.
Yesterday, Veganz Group said company shareholder Evgeni Kouris had been appointed to the role.
Reporting its 2024 results in May, Veganz Group said sales dropped 34% to €10.8m.
It added that the DACH region, namely Germany, Austria and Switzerland, accounted for 95% of the sales total, with Germany the company’s largest market at 81%.
Meanwhile, EBITDA losses for 2024 narrowed to €2.4m from €6.3m a year earlier and, similarly, the net loss shrank to €4.8m from €9.5m.
Earlier today, the company said a rights issue, private placements in July and August, as well as the “utilisation of contingent capital”, had strengthened its equity base to around €8.4m. “With the additional placements, we have strengthened our equity base and thus created the necessary flexibility to consistently implement our growth strategy,” Bredack said.
