Impossible Foods CEO on the importance of first impressions

 Impossible Foods CEO on the importance of first impressions


Amid category-wide headwinds, Impossible Foods CEO Peter McGuinness noted that part of plant-based food’s problem lies in not making a great first impression.

First-time buyers are not having a great experience, between poor taste and texture of many plant-based products, “and you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression,” McGuinness said in a recent interview with Food Dive. 

Even though the category has been doing poorly across the board, McGuinness said his company is the “only growing plant-based brand in the United States, and as a consequence, the fastest growing.”

Recently, Impossible Foods secured a highly awaited retail deal with Whole Foods and the brand relaunched with new packaging and sharpened its health claims in March. The company also launched a hot-dog product as well as Indulgent Beef and Lite Beef.

Headshot of Peter McGuinness wearing an Impossible Foods baseball cap.

Optional Caption

Courtesy of Impossible Foods

 

The Redwood City, Calif.-based company just moved up a couple of share positions, McGuinness said. “This makes us number two in share behind legacy brand Morningstar, and they have been around for 25 years.”

Impossible Foods reported that it achieved record sales in 2022, including sales growth of more than 50% in the retail category. 

In 2021, Reuters reported that the company had been preparing for a public offering. The news agency also reported that the company raised $500 million in late 2021.

Impossible’s record sales growth in 2022 and increased funding is a “double-edged sword,” said McGuinness, who acknowledged he wishes the category was doing better. 

Before making his way to the plant-based space, McGuinness was at Chobani for nine years, before leaving to take his current CEO seat at Impossible in April of 2022. 

The CPG veteran wore multiple hats at the Greek yogurt maker, including chief marketing and commercial officer to president and eventually COO..During his tenure, he created a demand department, which sought to integrate the marketing, sales, insights, product innovation, and commercial finance departments into a single team.

With his significant CPG knowledge, McGuinness said the plant-based category is ill-defined. “I think there are certain brands and products that are the problem.”

The problem brands that McGuinness referred to are the start up “micro brands,” that are using fungi and mycelium-based mushroom ingredients to create alternative protein products that don’t necessarily taste very good, he said. 

The plant-based category also includes alternative meat companies like Impossible and Beyond Meat and legacy brands such as Gardein and Morningstar Farms. But according to McGuinness, the three types of brands don’t belong under the same umbrella. “Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat as the only true meat alternatives in the category.”

In recent quarters, Beyond has struggled. The company said it plans to make a steep reduction in operating costs in 2024 after reporting in February its seventh consecutive quarter of declining sales. 

Besides Impossible and Beyond, and some legacy brands that now have plant-based products, “there is the biggest ‘all other’ I’ve seen in any category that I have ever worked in during my professional career,” said McGuinness. Meaning, “there are 100 of these little micro companies that are throwing out products that are not particularly good.” 

McGuinness thinks these smaller brands are going to go by the wayside. “You’re going to be left with a couple of brands and private labels, and that’s going to be the category.” Once smaller brands are forced out of business, McGuiness said that then the category will see growth. 

Some smaller players are gone already. Two California-based plant-based startups were forced to close just after Meatless Farms, a maker of plant-based sausage, ceased operations in June 2023. Unreal Foods ended production of its eggless egg one month later, Bloomberg reported. 

Impossible Foods has not been immune to the realities of the category either, McGuinness said. The company went through two rounds of layoffs over the past two years to focus on growth. 



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