Vegan food business, VBites, has collapsed into administration after failing to secure fresh funding amid rising cost pressures.
The entrepreneur and former model Heather Mills said the company’s failure was “extremely distressing” and had been forced upon her by a “combination of corporate greed and poor management, the cost of living crisis, price rises in the global ingredients and utilities markets, and the current state of the manufacturing economy in Britain”.
"With great regret, I am sorry to announce that after 30 years of pioneering plant based production and innovation in the meat-free, fish-free and dairy-free sectors, VBites Foods Ltd, a company very dear to my heart, is entering into administration this week.
“Brexit has been an utter disaster for the supply and maintenance of the sector and the government doubtless has a lot to answer for. So do the opportunistic utility companies and their broker networks, that through an array of nefarious practices now under investigation have hiked up prices so that companies simply cannot afford to operate.”
Mills said that although she “offered every solution I feasibly could to keep it going, sadly, VBites ultimately fell victim to the galvanised misinformation currently being undertaken by the meat and dairy industries as well as the corporate greed in our market”.
In a lengthy statement, Mills said she and her team had put “blood, sweat, and tears” into the business over 30 years for “the sole purpose of furthering the plant-based movement”.
“This is extremely distressing for me on a personal level but also for my wonderfully loyal and hard-working staff,” she said. “My team and I have undertaken 30 years of product creation and evolution as well as personally investing tens of millions of pounds into the business and offering every solution I feasibly could to keep it going, but sadly mine and my staff’s efforts have been thwarted by a demand that I stepped away from day to day management, in order to secure essential investment.”
Meatless Farm, Plant & Bean, Miyoko’s Creamery and Violife UK have all suffered from events such as: unexpected investor pull-outs, factory closures, unwanted management takeovers or in the case of the former two, liquidation following corporate investment, she added.
