Schuman Cheese, GOOD PLANeT Form Joint Venture

The plant-based cheese category is getting another shakeup with the formation of GPV Foods, a new joint venture between Schuman Cheese and GOOD PLANeT Foods.

The new partnership will bring together Schuman’s plant-based cheese brand Vevan with GOOD PLANeT’s retail business. GOOD PLANeT Foods distributes a line of allergen‑free, plant‑based cheese made with olive oil to over 1,200 retail locations nationwide.

The two companies were already closely linked with fourth-generation cheesemaker Schuman providing co-manufacturing services to GOOD PLANeT, but the formal alignment will place the two brands in the same business structure. The joint venture also lays the groundwork for a “game-changing innovation” expected to be released sometime during the third quarter, said GOOD PLANeT co-founder and CEO David Israel.

“GOOD PLANeT was growing while Vevan was seeing some stagnant growth, but together we’ll be in almost 5,000 stores,” he told Nosh. “We formed a new company together where we both put all of our assets into, and then we’ll share resources to make sure that we optimize it and build faster and stronger.”

Israel expects GOOD PLANeT to be the retail face of GPV Foods while Vevan and Schuman will scale deeper in foodservice and as an “industrial” ingredient supplier.

“Both brands will remain distinct, focusing on the markets and channels where they perform best,” said Walshe Birney, director of Marketing and Merchandising for Schuman Cheese, in an email. “We’ll continue to invest in and grow each brand, while exploring opportunities for collaboration where it adds value for consumers.”

Bellevue, Wash.-based GOOD PLANeT is expected to benefit from Schuman’s manufacturing and R&D infrastructure while also leaning on its network in foodservice and as an ingredient supplier.

Vevan is expected to reformulate many of its recipes to use GOOD PLANeT’s olive oil cheese platform and “robust retail presence” to build further in the alt-dairy set.

Israel noted that there will likely be some consolidation in the workforce as the details are ironed out and potential redundancies are identified.

Vevan launched in 2020, diversifying the Schuman Cheese portfolio into the dairy-free set. The legacy cheesemaker has tinkered with Vevan’s positioning over the five years, repackaging and reformulating the brand with coconut oil replacing palm oil and the addition of pea protein to its products last year.

GOOD PLANeT has made olive oil the brand’s hero ingredient since 2023. The positioning has proven to be a winning strategy for the brand, opening new retail doors and providing a marketing appeal around less saturated fat.

While both plant-based brands make sliced and shredded options, GOOD PLANeT offers varieties in blocks and cubes, and Vevan has a line of dairy-free cream cheese alternatives.

“It just opens a lot of doors for both of us,” Israel said. “If we implement this superior innovation that we have created at GOOD PLANeT with their operational skills, it’s just a win-win for everybody. We get to use the mothership and lean on them to help us capitalize quickly.”

The partnership comes at a time of realignment in the plant-based dairy category. Category household penetration declined to 4% last year, compared to 5% in 2023, according to data from the Good Food Institute (GFI). During 2024, dollar sales fell 4% to around $218 million, with unit sales dropping 3%.

Yet, the percentage of buyers who purchased a plant-based cheese product more than once increased from 48% in 2023 to 54% in 2024. This could speak to the set maturing and targeting consumers’ needs, GFI reported.

The Bel Group announced in June it was discontinuing its Nurishh plant-based cheese line. With one fewer player in the set, brands like Violife (which already dominates about 22% of the category), Daiya and the new GPV Foods partnership could see a sales lift.

Despite less competition, it’s been an uphill battle for the alt-cheese category to break through to more conventional and “flexitarian” consumers.

“We’re not just after the niche, vegan community,” Israel said. “We want to attract a broader community that wants to do better for themselves, wants to do better for the planet. At Schuman, they saw that GOOD PLANeT had a brand that was resonating and together, we could combine forces and grow into something bigger and better.”