Consumer, Investor Demand For Impossible Foods' Meat Substitute Grows
REDWOOD CITY (KPIX 5) -- Impossible Foods, one of the fastest-growing and most closely-watched startups in the Bay Area, held an open house at their Redwood City headquarters Thursday, fielding questions among a wide range of topics.
In 2018, Impossible grew from 200 restaurants to more than 5,000 dining establishments. With the help of partnerships with Burger King and White Castle, the number of known locations had reached more than 10,000 by June 2019, according to J. Michael Melton, head of the culinary department.
The rapid growth has caught the attention of investors, as the company also announced Thursday a new round of Series E funding worth $300 million. The capital will be used to ramp up production of its Impossible Burger 2.0, which debuted January to positive reviews. Strong demand caused shortages at various Burger King locations and smaller independently owned restaurants who had come to depend on Impossible for growing sales.
CEO Pat Brown said 30 to 40 employees, mostly food scientists, volunteered to work overtime shifts at the Oakland plant in order to fulfill immediate orders, as the company is hiring more factory workers.
"We're hiring as fast as we can, great factory workers for our Oakland plant so that we can run three shifts a day, seven days a week," said Brown. Meanwhile, our employees from Redwood City and Oakland are working overtime basically at the plant ,to scale production.
Impossible also launched "Generation IF", an awareness campaign to get young children interested in eating plant-based foods. The company's in-house research found younger generations, including millennials and Gen Z, are more likely to eat their products.
Rebecca Shankland, mother of an Impossible employee, says many of her fellow baby boomers would eat it for the promised health and environmental benefits, but many don't even know about it.
"If they try it, I think they'll all like it. It's just that it's not particularly available, it's not as well publicized yet. But it's getting there," said Shankland.
Representatives from the USDA and federal government also arranged a meeting and tour with Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, a Trump appointee. Perdue said he regularly visits sites where companies are conducting food related innovations.
"Obviously, it was a good experience," Perdue said after taking a few bites of an Impossible Burger.
As for encouraging President Trump, a known fan of hamburgers, to try one? Perdue responded with a chuckle.
"Well if he asks, obviously. President Trump is pretty exploring on his own. Given the opportunity, I will give him my experiences," said Perdue.
Perdue declined to say if the Impossible Foods visit was a vote of confidence for plant-based foods, and spoke about the competition with the beef industry.
"There's always anxiety but this will be a long trend. And ultimately, the consumer is in charge," said Perdue. "And I think many cattle people feel like they'll be able to compete, and if Impossible can take it down to scale, from a competitive perspective, that'll give the consumer more choices. And that's really what we are. At the USDA, our motto is 'Do right, and feed everyone. So we are kind of all of the above."
Retail sales of Impossible products, that can be formed into patties, meatballs, or used just like ground beef, are set to begin later this year. Pricing has not yet been announced.
