This Newly Public Plant-Based Brand Seeks To Disrupt Food Industry by Making Meatless Meals Mainstream

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The following post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga.

Younger generations, with their commitment to making healthier and more ethical choices about what they eat, have driven a boom in the plant-based industry, turning the once fledgling industry into a hypergrowth market with a compound annual growth rate of 20.4%.  

But shifting to meatless alternatives isn’t the whole story, and Boosh Plant-Based Brands Inc. VGGIF believes the key to sustained growth in this market lies in delivering products that make plant-based meals as convenient and flavorful as the meat-centered dishes modern consumers have grown used to in the past few decades. 

The plant-based brand is leveraging a strategy that makes these healthier choices as convenient, accessible and familiar as fast food or TV dinners to push plant-based products further into the mainstream. Investors are excited about the revenue potential of that unique approach. Boosh raised over $2.8 million from more than 1,100 retail investors in its initial public offering (IPO) in May. 

Meat Alternatives Breakout of Niche Industry Status

Vegetarian and vegan alternatives to meat have been around since at least the 1930s, but they’ve long existed as a niche product with little broad appeal. That began to change in the late 1990s and early 2000s as millennials, followed by Generation Z, were old enough to become consumers themselves. 

While just 8% of consumers identify as vegan or vegetarian today, 48% of consumers seek out plant-based products, and roughly 70% of U.S. adults have tried plant-based alternatives. These trends confirm that meat alternatives have broken out of their niche status. 

That breakout trend is largely driven by the growing body of research demonstrating that eating less meat is better for your health and is the best way an people can reduce their carbon footprints — even meat-eaters are turning to plant-based alternatives to reduce the amount of meat in their diet.

Major players across the food and beverage space are already investing in new products and partnerships to stake their claim in this explosive market. 

In 2020, Tyson Foods Inc. TSN, the world’s second-largest meat and poultry processor, along with other leaders in the space, invested in Memphis Meats, a California startup working on a cell-based meat production method that could replace the need to raise and feed livestock. 

Later that same year, Starbucks Corp. SBUX partnered with both Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat to offer a selection of plant-based foods, including the Impossible sausage, egg and cheese sandwich in the United States and a range of plant-based seafood lunches at its locations in China.

How Boosh Is Disrupting the Plant-Based Meat Industry 

While many brands are still taking a traditional approach to marketing their plant-based products primarily as a wholesome alternative for health-conscious consumers, the core of Boosh’s success is in its belief that the plant-based market is more diverse than most major players realize. The brand has envisioned a product line that satisfies both the desire for healthier choices and the desire for comfort, convenience and flavor in food. 

Unlike other plant-based convenience foods that are often still loaded with dairy or compensate for the lack of meat by loading up the dish with salt or sugar, Boosh’s line of products are all 100% vegan, gluten free and low in sugar and sodium. From hearty shepherd’s pies and pot pies to vegan macaroni and cheese or pasta Bolognese, Boosh delivers consumers’ favorite comfort foods in a convenient ready-made frozen format with a balanced nutritional profile.

That vision of the market’s diversification potential has also driven Boosh to move into the food services industry this year where it will give restaurants and pubs the easy-to-use and affordable ingredients they need to offer plant-based versions of pub food classics and other staple comfort foods.

With this strategy, Boosh is seeking to not only establish itself as a leader in a meat alternative market with the potential to exceed $162 billion in value by 2030 but also to widen that market even further by making plant-based options as appealing to consumers as their current favorite go-to, meat-based dishes.

The preceding post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga. Although the piece is not and should not be construed as editorial content, the sponsored content team works to ensure that any and all information contained within is true and accurate to the best of their knowledge and research. This content is for informational purposes only and not intended to be investing advice.