Planted picks Germany for second meat-alternatives factory

Planted plans to build a second factory for meat alternatives to ramp-up production of its “whole muscle steak” and other products.

The Swiss start-up, set up in 2019, has chosen Germany for the new facility, a destination that currently accounts for around 75% of production from its inaugural site in the village of Kemptthal, Switzerland.

Planted said the German factory in Memmingen, Bavaria, will have a capacity to produce 20 tonnes of plant-based meat a day in the “medium-term”, similar to the current output at the Kemptthal site.

Memmingen is set to begin initial production in the first quarter, with the project expected to create more than 50 jobs when fully operational, adding to the company’s current staff count of 200.

The company employs a fermentation process using so-called clean ingredients to manufacture what it calls “bio-structured proteins”. Plant-based steak is the first product to emerge from Planted’s “whole muscle platform”.

Other products in the Planted range include chicken, kebabs, duck and pulled pork. They are sold in retail and foodservice across Europe but mainly in Germany, the UK, Switzerland, Austria, France, Italy and the Benelux countries.

Selective retailers include REWE, Edeka, Tesco, Morrisons, Carrefour and Conad, along with 6,500 restaurant or foodservice outlets.

Planted founders Lukas Böni and Pascal Bieri are “convinced that bio-structured proteins will surpass animal meat in the future in terms of flavour, sustainability, health, productivity and price”.

Böni said: “Our international expansion follows the strategic decision to bolster our bio-technological expertise and locations abroad, closer to our consumers.

“Our goal is to quickly bring innovative products from our fermentation platform to the market, in particular the Planted steak, which currently uses our most advanced and disruptive fermentation technology in terms of scalability, flavour and product quality.

“The investment in the additional production site enables us to meet the rapidly growing market demand and produce even closer to our German consumers.”

R&D and manufacturing has been undertaken at the Kemptthal site since 2020. An old brewery is being converted at Memmingen to create what Planted claims will be the “most modern European production facility for plant-based meat”. It will be capable of producing 5,000 tonnes a year.

Planted said the Memmingen factory will be almost completely CO2 free and will utilise a “well cooling system, district heating from wood burning and photovoltaics” for power.

Just Food