Their corporate traditions may be tied to the dairy industry, but WhiteWave Foods knows the value of dairy-free, as evidenced by their most recent acquisitions of Turtle Mountain (So Delicious Dairy Free) and now Vega.
Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Vega is a leader in vegan protein with a huge and rather tasty array of powders and bars for the snack, meal replacement and fitness industries. To take a bite out of this growing market, WhiteWave Foods has purchased Vega for $550 million. That may sound excessive, but Vega produced net sales of $100 million during the past 12 months while growing at a consistent and rapid pace. All of this is within a nutritional supplement market that is worth $8.6 billion.
The buy out is scheduled for fall of 2015, but as of right now, the Vega team says all will be business as usual. They plan to maintain their northwest location, continue to produce their high quality foods with sustainable practices, and keep Brendan Brazier at the promotional helm. The hope is that WhiteWave Foods will simply provide the business expertise and funding to help expand Vega’s reach as the dairy-free and plant-based movements continue to grow.
About Vega
Vega is a pioneer and leader in the fast-growing plant-based food and nutrition category, offering a range of market-leading powder and bar products through Canada and the United States. Originally launched in Canada in 2004, Vega has become the nation’s #1 clean, plant-based nutrition brand. For more information, please visit myvega.com.
About The Whitewave Foods Company
The WhiteWave Foods Company is a leading consumer packaged food and beverage company that manufactures, markets, distributes, and sells branded plant-based foods and beverages and organic produce throughout North America and Europe (they do also own a handful of dairy-based brands). The Company also holds a 49% ownership interest in a joint venture that manufactures, markets, distributes, and sells branded plant-based beverages in China. The Company’s widely-recognized, leading brands distributed in North America include Silk® and So Delicious® plant-based foods and beverages, and Earthbound Farm® organic salads, fruits and vegetables. Its popular plant-based foods and beverages brands in Europe include Alpro® and Provamel®, and its plant-based beverages in China are sold under the Silk ZhiPuMoFang® brand. To learn more about WhiteWave, visit www.whitewave.com.
2 Comments
Love the collage, Alisa! So excited for the plant-based future that’s ahead of all of us!
A lot of dairy-free love there – can’t wait to see where things go!