Soglowek, the Israeli meat producer, has taken up a 70% stake in Thai plant-based meat manufacturer Plant & Bean, funding an expansion that will double its factory’s output.
Plant & Bean, a Thailand-based co-manufacturer of plant-based meat products, has sold off a majority stake to Israeli meat giant Soglowek.
The latter now owns 70% of Plant & Bean, having acquired its stake from an existing shareholder for an undisclosed sum. It will operate its factory in Ayutthaya in collaboration with Thai state-owned oil producer PTT, which retains its indirect 30% equity in the venture.
PTT’s share comes via its life sciences arm Innobic, which formed a joint venture with Nove Foods Co to establish the Nutra Regenerative Protein Co (NRPT) entity that holds the direct stake.
With the acquisition, Soglowek is now funding an expansion of Plant & Bean’s facility, which will double its output. That effort is already underway and set to take about a year.
“We aim to provide cost-effective, distinctive, innovative veggie products to brands and retailers around the world,” Hagai Stadler, managing partner of AP Partners, the fund that controls Soglowek, said in a LinkedIn post.
From the UK to Thailand
Plant & Bean has its roots in the UK, where it was founded in 2019 as a spinout from the meat-free division of Brecks Foods. The company had set out to open Europe’s largest plant-based meat facility.
But thanks to food and energy inflation resulting from Covid-19 and Russia’s war on Ukraine, it ran into financial trouble in 2023, facing operational losses and racking up a debt of over £6M. It soon called in administrators, who sold its UK production facility and assets to VBites founder Heather Mills.
While it was navigating the UK headwinds, Plant & Bean was also planning its factory in Thailand, which it had set up via the joint venture with NRPT in 2021.
That facility began operations in 2024, spanning 3,000 sq ft and boasting an eventual capacity of churning out 25,000 tonnes of plant-based meat every year.
It passed the BRC Global Food Safety Standard at the Grade A level, and was the first ASEAN company to receive a BRCGS Plant-Based certification for the production and distribution of plant-based foods. It also obtained good hygiene practices and HACCP (hazard analysis) authorisations.
Plant & Bean produces both ready-to-cook and ready-to-eat formats, including meatballs, minced meat, sausages, nuggets and dumplings, supplying customers in the UK, Southeast Asia, and the US. In Thailand, it has partnered with Church’s Texas Chicken, which has outlets at PTT petrol stations, as well as NRPT’s Alt.Eatery brand.
Plant-based has ‘seen better days’, but this is the ‘right time to get in’
“I always knew Thailand was ‘the kitchen of the world’, but I was still struck by the level of technology and food innovation of Plant & Bean,” said Stadler. “At one point, I genuinely wondered if they were tricking me with real meat instead of the veggie alternative.”
The facility was visited by the Good Food Institute (GFI) Israel three months ago. “The scale was obvious in person: 3,000 square meters producing custom plant-based products for major food companies across the West,” the think tank said in a LinkedIn post. “We are happy to see a legacy meat company putting real capital behind plant-based production.”
Soglowek’s investment in Plant & Bean’s factory comes as demand for plant-based eating grows in Thailand. Hotels in the country are committing to adding more plant-based proteins on their menu, just as the government has called for a shift to a plant-rich food system.
The transaction will see Eli Soglowek, son of the company’s founder, move to Thailand, leaving his role as chairman of the business to become the president of its international operations instead.
“Beyond the state-of-the-art facility of Plant & Bean, we found amazing people to work with, and partnered with one of the most respected companies in Thailand,” said Stadler.
The development builds on the alternative protein sector’s consolidation wave – since September 2024, at least 85 players involved in this space have been acquired, merged, fallen into insolvency, or shut down altogether.
“I know plant-based has seen better days, and we’re past the hype – but economically, this is exactly the right time to get in,” argued Stadler. “The trend is built on real needs, and the fundamentals are there. We all know the cycle of business – great days will come, and we’ll be there to meet the need.”
