VBites

Heather Mills in blue suit

© Heather Mills

Investments & Acquisitions

Heather Mills Acquires Alternative Stores to Create a Central Hub of ‘Hero’ Plant-Based Products in the UK

Heather Mills, owner and founder of VBites who was recently recognised as ‘Vegan Woman of the Year‘ at the 2024 Vegan Women’s Summit in Los Angeles, announces the acquisition of the award-winning online plant-based store Alternative Stores. This latest addition to Mills’ vegan portfolio aims to offer support to hundreds of family businesses and assist with the launch of their own brands, and follows last year’s acquisition of the Plant & Bean manufacturing facility in Boston, UK, which was facing administration. Alternative Stores lists a wide variety of notable plant-based brands including UK egg alternative producer Sinless Food; Naturli butter; LoveRaw confectionery; Violife cheese; Mummy Meegz chocolate and treats; and of course, VBites, in addition to other categories such as footwear, household, pet food, and …

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Heather Mills at Vegan Women Summit

© Vegan Women Summit
Fairs & Events

“Woman of the Year” Heather Mills to Call for Plant Based Treaty at Bonn Climate Conference

Vegan entrepreneur and charity campaigner Heather Mills is set to appear at the Bonn Climate Conference in Germany this week to call for a global Plant Based Treaty. Advocates for the treaty will set up a food truck at the entrance to the conference, giving out 2000 free hotdogs donated by Mills and her plant-based food company, VBites. At the conference, Mills will urge world leaders to make policy changes such as shifting subsidies from animal agriculture to the plant-based sector. She will also meet the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to discuss a pathway to 100% plant-based catering at future climate conferences such as COP29. 18,000 people have already signed the Plant Based Treaty’s petition calling for all food served at …

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Heather Mills in blue suit

© Heather Mills

People

Heather Mills Sets the Record Straight. “A Reset Was Entirely Necessary and I’m Delighted to Be Back at the Reins”

In 2009, Heather Mills purchased Redwood Wholefoods, a health food company operating since 1993. The company would become VBites and go on to develop and sell 130 products to more than 20 countries. Fifteen years later, just last week, Mills bought the company once again. Here, she explains some of the events that happened in between, and puts the record straight in terms of several misreported details around the situation. In 2018 Heather bought a second factory in Newcastle to focus on cheese alternatives, launching Morrisons’ first vegan cheese product as a private label. The following year, at the height of the plant-based boom and just weeks before the Beyond Meat IPO, VBites acquired a 385,000 sq ft factory in Peterlee with intentions of creating …

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Heather Mills saves VBites from administration

© Heather Mills

Company News

Heather Mills Saves VBites From Administration, Purchasing Assets for £1M

Heather Mills has saved VBites from administration after purchasing the company’s assets “at great personal cost”, in a deal reported by administrator Interpath Advisory to be worth £1 million. Mills acquired the 30-year-old plant-based food company in 2009 and has remained a majority shareholder ever since, though German investor NRH acquired 34% of shares in 2021. In December 2023, it was announced that VBites had entered administration, with Mills blaming various factors such as “corporate greed”, Brexit, “galvanised misinformation” from the meat and dairy industries, and “nefarious practices” by utility companies that made energy unaffordable. Interpath Advisory said VBites’ move to a larger facility in 2021 had compounded the company’s difficulties by increasing operating costs. But in a recent LinkedIn post, Mills said VBites had …

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VBites Mills FB

Heather Mills. ©VBites

Company News

VBites Enters Administration: Heather Mills Cites Corporate Greed, “Galvanised Misinformation” & Nefarious Practices

VBites Food, a UK-based producer of meat and cheese alternatives founded by Heather Mills, has called in administrators. VBites Food was founded 30 years ago, making it a pioneer in the UK plant-based movement. The company supplies both retail and food service, and exports its products to over 20 countries. VBites’ UK customers include Morrisons, Ocado, and Dominos. In a detailed statement on her website, Mills blamed various factors for the troubles faced by the company, including “corporate greed” in the market and “galvanised misinformation” from the meat and dairy industries. She also criticised Brexit, which she said had been an “utter disaster” for the plant-based industry, and claimed that “nefarious practices” by utility companies had made energy so expensive that companies could no longer …

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Heather Mills VBites plant-based food

Image Credit: www.heathermills.org/
Investments & Finance

Heather Mills’ VBites Plant Creates Hundreds of Jobs Amid German Food Giant Investment

Heather Mills’ VBites plant in Peterlee, UK is set to create over 320 new jobs in the area following a multimillion-pound partnership with food giant Pfeifer & Langen. The German food conglomerate has entered into a strategic partnership with the plant-based producer, purchasing 25.1% of VBites.  The new Peterlee plant will now expand production after the Pfeifer & Langen announcement. The minority stake owner specializes in large-scale food manufacturing and is the parent company of Intersnack – which has an annual turnover of €2 billion. The partnership with VBites will complement Pfeifer & Langen’s previous investment in German pea-protein brand Endori Producer of vegan meat, seafood, and dairy products, VBites has experienced impressive growth over the last year and currently exports to more than 20 …

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Vmega-3

Image: Vbites
Market & Trends

Heather Mills Launches Vegan Omega 3 – Fishless Omega 3 Market to Reach US$1.3 Billion

Heather Mills’ plantbased company VBites has launched a vegan Omega 3 supplement, called V-mega 3. The global fish-free omega-3 ingredients market in 2019 is foreseen to turn over a revenue of worth US$ 590 million, according to a recent report by Transparency Market Research, and is estimated to reach almost US$ 1.3 billion by 2029.

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applewood's vegan cheese product

© Applewood

Top Stories

Applewood Launches its First Vegan Cheese with Heather Mills for New “Flexi Friday” Campaign

A decade after Meat Free Monday began, Applewood cheese, a well-known British brand famous for its smoky flavour, is spearheading another national day of meat reduction for the climate, called “Flexi Friday”. The company sent the first samples to the Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn and the Duchess of Sussex – all of whom claim to be flexitarians.

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Interview with VBites CEO Heather Mills and Kale United CEO Måns Ullerstam
Interviews

Heather Mills & Måns Ullerstam – Giants of Vegan Investment Speak of Collaboration

VBites CEO Heather Mills and Kale United CEO Måns Ullerstam
VBites CEO Heather Mills and Kale United CEO Måns Ullerstam

Heather Mills and Måns Ullerstam are two prolific investors in the world of vegan business. Ms Mills operates meat and dairy alternative producer VBites, and her lengthy list of achievements in the field includes constant and steady expansion in the UK, the acquisition of a Procter and Gamble factory to create a “plant-based silicone valley”, and collaborations with One Planet Pizza and Goodfellas Pizza in advancing the development of vegan cheeses.

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