Food Manufacture: What’s driving food factory closures – and how to avoid them

It’s a challenging time for industry that has comprised a multi-year period of shocks that have struck one after the other.

This has set about a catalyst for change, in which businesses have had to rethink their strategies in light of ever-changing circumstances, and it’s also resulted in a period of consolidation.

Is this a plant-based problem?

With some well-known plant-based brands entering administration in the last few months, it has left many spectators wondering whether closures are just a ‘plant-based issue’.

According to business management and research consultant firm ChemBizR, there are those who have concluded that the market for plant-based products is simply not as large as some industry analysts predicted.

Despite sustainable choices being a big tick for consumers and a link between plant-based diets and planetary health, the amalgamation of the cost-of-living crisis, concerns around ultra-processed foods, and some products just not meeting expectations when it comes to taste and texture, appears to have tipped the scales the other way.

Alongside market saturation in plant-based, it also hasn’t been easy to make these alternatives competitive on price (compared to traditional meat products) because the cost of making plant-based is still quite high, note the experts at ChemBizR.

“The industry is heavily dependent on private investments, the withdrawal of which might have a significant impact. When the money runs out, closures become almost inevitable.” a spokesperson for the consultancy explained.

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This story was originally published in Food Manufacture, material provided by Shreya Rajput and Shivani Bisht, Associate Consultants at ChemBizR.