Kraft Heinz and NotCo Announce Joint Venture
The Kraft Heinz Company and TheNotCompany, Inc. today announced a new joint venture in order to develop and launch a new line of plant-based products.
Called The Kraft Heinz Not Company, the JV will fall under the auspices of Kraft Heinz and span all of its brands and geographic regions. While Kraft Heinz will bring its brand portfolio and ability to bring products to market quickly, NotCo will utilize its artificial intelligence (AI) platform to help guide product decisions and development. Products that are launched under the JV will carry both companies’ names.
“When we started NotCo, it was our goal to make our technology a catalyzer for a more sustainable food system not only for us, but for other brands and manufacturers who share the same ambition,” said Matias Muchnick, co-founder and CEO of NotCo, in a press release. “Today is an exciting milestone for the plant-based industry and shows the power of technology’s role in driving mainstream adoption.”
The Kraft Heinz Not Company will be headquartered in Chicago and will also have research facilities in San Francisco with current NotCo North American CEO Lucho Lopez-May becoming CEO of The Kraft Heinz Not Company. Lopez-May was previously the CEO of Garland Food and, prior to that, president of strategic growth channels for Danone North America.
Founded in 2017, Chilean-based NotCo first expanded across South America before bringing its NotMilk to the U.S. market in 2020. Muchnick previously told NOSH that the company eventually plans to offer its wider portfolio of products (which include condiments and plant-based meat options) in the U.S as well.
NotCo’s platform revolves around its use of Giuseppe, an AI program that can analyze the molecular makeup of animal-based products and suggest a combination of plant-based ingredients that will replicate the product’s taste, texture and smell. The company claims that Guiseppe is able “to get more intelligent” with each product, developing new recipes faster based on previous learnings.
Increasingly the company has emphasized its data capabilities, shifting from becoming a straight CPG platform to more of a service provider. It’s a similar move to alt-dairy company Perfect Day, which first debuted as a line of milk before pivoting to instead help other brands develop products using their proteins and fermentation technical processes.
“For NotCo this is not only the biggest milestone in our relatively short existence but I think the biggest chance of achieving REAL CHANGE at a scale not yet seen before: for our world, for us, for animals, and most importantly, for our future generations and is this particular element that genuinely took us to partner up with The Kraft Heinz Company,” Muchnick wrote in a LinkedIn post.
According to a press release, Kraft Heinz hopes the JV will allow them to transform some of “the most loved global food brands” in order to “set a new standard for plant-based innovation.”
Kraft Heinz has promised to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, with a 50 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, and to improve the health & nutrition of its products by achieving 85% compliance with Kraft Heinz Global Nutrition Targets by 2025 — ESG efforts that will benefit from an increased emphasis on plant-based, sustainably produced products.
The company also said in its presentation at the Consumer Analyst Group of New York (CAGNY) conference today that it wants to best utilize its strength in go-to-market strategies while partnering with other companies to help get products to market faster, as well as develop unique products that can help the company ward off competition from private label items.
“Our transformation to date has been successful in unleashing the full power of Kraft Heinz by transitioning from our size working against us, to our scale working for us,” said Miguel Patricio, Kraft Heinz CEO, in a press release about the CAGNY event. “In our next phase, you will see us augment our agile expertise and capabilities through partnerships with technology giants and cutting-edge innovators to redefine best-in-class. We are also utilizing our improved financial flexibility to acquire capabilities that can be much more powerful when combined with the scale of our portfolio. We call this AGILE@SCALE.”
The company has tried to achieve similar goals in the past, most notably through its Springboard Brands division, which included an incubator for emerging companies as well as helping teams focused on reinvigorating existing Kraft Heinz offerings. The division relaunched the brand’s Boca Burger product in 2018 with new branding and formulations, developed Jell-O Play (kits that allowed consumers to build and shape jello into creative shapes) and created Ssäm Sauce, (a condiment developed in partnership with Chef David Chang). However, the status of these products, as well as Springboard itself, is murky, with social channels no longer posting and products listed as out of stock.
Large companies are partnering with plant-based protein providers across the industry, with Just Egg, Beyond Meat, Zero Egg and Perfect Day working with food brands on co-branded products. PepsiCo’ also has a joint venture with Beyond Meat to produce plant-based beverages and snacks. Unlike the The Kraft Heinz Not Company, the focus of that partnership seems to be on developing entirely new products, rather than iterating on existing items. According to leaked photos on social media, the PepsiCo/Beyond Meat JV is testing a new plant-based jerky.
