Planted, a Swiss food tech company making meat alternatives from clean ingredients, is increasing its production capacity with the construction of a new facility in southern Germany.
According to Planted, the site will be the most modern plant-based meat production facility in Europe, with green energy playing a key role in its construction. The announcement follows the success of the brand’s plant-based steak, which has reportedly proven very popular with both consumers and restaurateurs.
Previously, all Planted’s research and production was carried out at the company’s site in Kemptthal, Switzerland. However, the German market now accounts for the largest proportion of sales, so Planted has decided to construct a new facility to carry out production as close to consumers as possible.
The new plant will be located in Memmingen, Bavaria, on the site of a former brewery. Commissioning is planned for the first quarter of next year, with 50 technical and operational jobs expected to be created in the final expansion stage. In the medium term, over 20 tons of plant-based meat per day will be produced. The Kemptthal headquarters will remain operational following the opening of the new facility.
“Advanced and disruptive fermentation technology”
Planted began the strategic expansion of its production capacity earlier this year with the opening of a state-of-the-art fermentation plant in Kemptthal. This allowed the company to produce a fermented plant-based steak, the first product made using its ‘Whole Muscle’ platform. Through a proprietary fermentation process, this platform enables the production of premium whole cuts of plant-based meat.
The fermented steak launched for food service across Europe in March, before arriving in Swiss and German retail in June.
“Our international expansion follows the strategic decision to bolster our biotechnological expertise and locations abroad, closer to our consumers,” said Lukas Böni, co-founder and member of the Executive Board at Planted. “Our goal is to quickly bring innovative products from our fermentation platform to the market. In particular the planted.steak, which currently uses our most advanced and disruptive fermentation technology in terms of scalability, flavour and product quality.”
