Jan Bredack’s company goes public

A Veganz supermarket in Berlin

Dusseldorf Jan Bredack has meticulously prepared this moment for a good two years. In 2019 he converted his company Veganz into an AG. In two rounds this year, he has brought new shareholders on board in private placements.

And now comes the step that should give the manufacturer of vegan foods the decisive boost. “We believe that we have complex growth potential and that now is the right time for Veganz to go public,” explains founder and CEO Bredack. In the coming months, the share is to be listed for the first time on the open market on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

“We see positive momentum for purely plant-based foods, which is being driven by various trends, such as the increasing awareness of sustainability in nutrition and animal welfare,” said Bredack. The proportion of vegetarians, vegans and flexitarians is particularly high among younger generations.

In fact, the market is just getting bigger. According to a survey by the Allensbach opinion research institute, eight million German citizens state that they are vegetarians. According to the survey, another million Germans even have a completely vegan diet. In the course of the debate about climate protection, more and more people are reducing their meat consumption, at least in part.

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The Veganz brand obviously has a good reputation with this target group. In a survey by the YouGov Institute for Handelsblatt, Veganz came third in the ranking of the most innovative brands. In front of her, only the electric car manufacturer Tesla was in second place and the Danish company “Too good to go” was in first place.

On the shelf at Aldi, Edeka, dm and Rossmann

The products of the company founded by Bredack in 2011 can now be found in more than 22,000 stores in numerous retail chains, including all major grocery stores from Aldi to Edeka, but also drugstores such as Rossmann, dm and Müller. Sales rose last year by 12.7 percent to 30.2 million euros.

Jan Bredack

The founder and CEO of Veganz aims to go public.

(Photo: Veganz Group AG)

Bredack’s strategy of reaching customers with its own stores was less successful. At times the company had ten branches, another ten were planned. But with the growth in retail, the company had taken over. Veganz’s retail subsidiary had to file for bankruptcy at the beginning of 2017, only three branches in Berlin remained.

The company also discontinued its own online shop. The products are now sold via platforms such as Amazon or quick commerce providers such as Gorillas, Flink or Foodpanda.

A change in strategy followed, and the company increasingly became a vegan branded goods provider. Production is still almost exclusively outsourced to third-party manufacturers. But the company plans to start producing more in-house.

The reason: According to Veganz CFO Alexandra Vázquez Bea, products from our own production “could potentially achieve a gross margin almost twice as high as products whose production we have outsourced”. And Torsten Fiegler, Investment Manager at Brandenburg Kapital, who took a 3.5 percent stake in Veganz in July, explained: “The in-house production at Veganz and the associated depth of added value will tie up sustainable know-how and generate competitive advantages.”

EUR 35 million proceeds from IPO planned

In 2020 Veganz built its first own small production facility for soft cheese alternatives in Berlin. The company is now planning to build another production facility on around 10,000 square meters in Brandenburg. Plant-based fish alternatives are also to be produced there in the future, as well as proteins for the production of unrefrigerated meat substitutes.

The proportion of sales revenue from in-house production is to increase in the medium term from 0.3 percent today to 30 percent. Therefore, the largest part of the proceeds from the IPO should flow into the expansion of in-house production.

The company is hoping for gross issue proceeds of around 35 million euros. The total volume is expected to amount to up to 50 million euros and consists of new shares from a capital increase and the placement of existing shares by certain shareholders.

The major investors include Vegan Angels GmbH (14.1 percent), Paladin Asset Management (12.5 percent) and Katjes Greenfood (7.8 percent). The mustard manufacturer Develey also holds 3.5 percent. It is not known who of the previous shareholders would like to sell shares.

Bredack himself, who today still owns 26.3 percent of the company, definitely intends to continue developing this personally for a longer period of time. The 49-year-old is not selling any shares for the time being and has agreed to a blocking period of 36 months.

More: Veggie meat and oat milk – market share of vegan alternatives is set to grow rapidly

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