A Recipea for Success? Nestlé’s Plant-Based ‘Milk’ Brand

[adelina.budulan]

This thread is for the general discussion of the Article A Recipea for Success? Nestlé’s Plant-Based ‘Milk’ Brand. Please add to the discussion here.

 

[Jacob Miller]

The general rise of plant-based meat and animal by-product alternatives is a really interesting one for sure. It's not something I've jumped into myself - I'm a carnivore at heart and only like cow's milk! - but my fiancée drinks exclusively plant-based milks and my mum is a vegetarian, so I'm quite familiar with a lot of the products.

Interestingly, though, neither of my family members who use products like this have ever subscribed to the "moral" case for doing so - instead, my better half drinks alternative milks for health reasons and my mum simply doesn't like meat. I think the fact that more and more plant-based alternative product brands have pivoted towards marketing for market segments like health fanatics as well as those who use alternatives for "moral" reasons shows that it's an industry which is firmly here to stay. On that note, though, a crowded market also brings about its own challenges: another of the (fantastic!) articles this week discussed how Beyond Meat's share prices have begun to fall amidst a busy market and increased competition. This is something that the big players will be very conscious of, and will need to take steps to mitigate.

In terms of how this discussion is relevant for applicants and interviewees, I think it's more of a "market trend" worth discussing that just the story in and of itself. Being able to identify broad market trends and how these are driven by consumer behaviour is important for law firms as they are able to pre-empt the sort of advice they are likely to have to give and, as such, devote money and assets into the most appropriate places.
From the perspective of identifying the areas in which firms might be asked to advise, a few considerations:

1. As with any new-ish, high-value, fast-growing industry, it is likely that there will be a slew of M&A deals as the market consolidates in coming months and years.
2. With the number of new products being developed and released so rapidly, and the similarities in offerings between many providers, intellectual property/ trademarks/ copyrights/ patents etc will be a hot topic as different brands try to settle into the marketplace.
3. With the regulatory changes between jurisdictions, aggravated by changes brought about by Brexit etc, food standards compliance etc is likely to be an important area for manufacturers and, as such, law firms advising them.

 

[Dheepa]

Don't have too much to add to Jacob's already fantastic analysis, except that while I do agree that growth in the vegan/vegetarian market is no longer just because of the morally motivated consumers, I think these businesses have to be more conscious of ESG concerns than businesses in other sectors.

Thinking back to Blackstone's investment into Oatly a couple of months back, there was a huge amount of backlash and even a boycott organised on social media because Blackstone were allegedly funding a completely different company accused of carrying out extensive deforestation activities in the Amazon.

Especially with the big boom in PE deal-making we're seeing at the moment, these companies will have to be extra careful when considering who to take investment from and who to sell too, unless it wants to risk losing part of it's consumer base.