Plant-based meat producer edges towards administration

A UK food manufacturer that produces 55,000 tonnes of plant-based meat alternatives a year at a massive facility in Lincolnshire could be heading towards administration, TheBusinessDesk.com understands.

Plant and Bean, which also has a production site in Bubwith, North Yorkshire, created around 500 jobs when it opened its factory on New Hammond Beck Road in Boston – the largest facility of its kind in Europe – in 2021.

On its website, the company defines its mission as follows: “[B]y designing delicious and healthy plant-based meats and making them accessible to everyone, we can improve global health, the biodiversity of the planet and animal welfare, thereby making a sustained positive impact on the world we live in.”

The firm’s gargantuan factory in Boston spans some 2.83m sq ft.

Despite supplying a host of major supermarkets, Plant and Bean has posted a Notice of Intention to appoint administrators (NOI)– a move that will protect it from creditors for a period of ten days, but which usually indicates significant financial distress.

As we went to press it was unclear what caused the manufacturer to post the NOI.

Plant and Bean’s last available accounts, made up to the end of 2021, show the company owed its creditors £9m and was forced to take out a bank loan of around £2m that year.

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