v2food, Australia’s newest plant-based meat company, is excited to announce the purchase of a 55,470 square-metre site in Wodonga. The purchase of the dormant building represents a chance to inject new life into the site, which will form the cornerstone of the company’s plans to change the way the world thinks about and consumes meat.
Last week v2 secured $35m in funding from some of the world’s leading investors, representing the largest ever Series A funding round for a plant-based meat company, even beating out the US giants Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat. More than $20m will be invested in refitting the Wodonga site to be a world-class food-grade facility including the installation of new equipment using the expertise of local contractors.
The factory is expected to begin operations in Q2 2020 with plans to employ 40-50 local workers. Once up and running, the factory will enable v2food to scale-up at speed to produce the plant-based meat that customers will soon find in supermarkets and restaurants across the country.
v2 surveyed over 50 locations before confirming the Moloney Drive site. It is critical that v2 can locally produce plant-based meat in order to make the most of Australia’s expertise as one of the leading global meat producers and export an Australian success story across the globe.
The world’s appetite for meat is growing too quickly for this to be a threat to local farmers. Instead, there is an opportunity for Australian farmers to become part of a growing industry that could add $6 billion to our economy by 2030. The Wodonga factory will form part of v2food’s supply chain enabling local farmers to supply this growing industry with Australian-grown ingredients.