Yves Veggie Cuisine, a 40-year-old Canadian meat-free brand, is being taken off shelves by owner Hain Celestial, sparking furore on social media.
After four decades in operation, a fan-favourite brand of plant-based meat is being discontinued, leaving scores of consumers outraged.
Canada’s Yves Veggie Cuisine, which defined the earliest wave of meat alternatives and once made it onto the McDonald’s menu, has become the latest casualty in the vegan food sector.
The brand quietly announced the decision in response to an Instagram comment asking about its expansion plans, prompting heavy backlash from users against its parent company, Hain Celestial Group – partly due to the way it handled the announcement.
“We want to let you know that we’ve made the difficult decision to discontinue the Yves Brand. This wasn’t a decision we made lightly – it was made after careful consideration of how we can best focus our efforts to ensure long-term growth across our brand portfolio,” the Yves Veggie Cuisine account said on the social media platform.
“We understand your disappointment, and we truly appreciate your loyalty over the years. While we currently do not offer a comparable meat-free brand, we invite you to explore the wide variety of our other trusted better-for-you products available – you may discover something new that meets your needs and preferences.”
How Yves Veggie Cuisine went from industry leader to discontinuation
Yves Veggie Cuisine was established in 1985 by plant-based industry pioneer Yves Potvin, who envisioned its products as healthy alternatives to meaty fast food, starting with a vegetarian hot dog.
It was one of the first commercially available plant-based meat brands available in North America, and achieved mainstream success quickly. At the turn of the century, its annual revenue reached $35M, and a year later, Potvin secured an exit via a sale to Hain Celestial (reportedly for $54M).
The entrepreneur then went on to found another seminal meat-free brand, Gardein, which he sold to Pinnacle Foods in 2014 (which itself became a Conagra subsidiary in 2018). In his third act, Potvin is innovating in the world of alternative seafood with Konscious Foods, which makes frozen vegan sushi, onigiri and poke bowls.
Meanwhile, as part of Hain Celestial, Yves Veggie Cuisine began supplying its soy-based burgers to McDonald’s in a test run for a McVeggie Burger in hundreds of Southern California stores.
Its current lineup includes a range of vegan nuggets and tenders, a range of burgers and minced meat, hot dogs and sausages, and deli slices like bologna, ham, turkey, salami and pepperoni.
Until 2023, things were going well for Yves Veggie Cuisine financially. Its market share in Canada rose by 2.7% in the frozen category and 0.7% in the fresh department in the first quarter of the financial year, despite what Hain Celestial described as “softness” in the category.
“As we see consolidation in this category, consumers are returning to leading brands in this space,” former CEO Wendy Davidson said at the time. “We continue to believe in the long-term growth potential of the global meat-free category as consumers are seeking veg-forward, flexitarian and vegetarian options that deliver on taste and convenience.”
But as witnessed across the meatless sector, the tides turned quickly in 2024, with Hain Celestial ascribing the 5% year-on-year decline in net sales for its Meal Prep division in Q4 to “softness in meat-free”, across both Yves Veggie Cuisine in North America and its Linda McCartney brand in the UK.
Fans make anger clear over Hain Celestial decision
Yves Veggie Cuisine has been revered by consumers for its cultural impact on plant-based eating, with many noting that it was Yves Veggie Cuisine that introduced them to the vegan diet. Meanwhile, as one of the longest-standing meat-free businesses, it has been a symbol of the industry’s success.
Now, the brand is being taken off the market. It revealed the development on its most recent Instagram post, which was met with frustration and disappointment. Many commenters asked Hain Celestial to reconsider, noting that their families relied on its range, and a few suggested a boycott against the company.
“I have been buying Yves for well over 20 years, and to discontinue Yves to strengthen your ‘portfolio’ while encouraging vegans and vegetarians to consume your other products that contradict their beliefs is tone deaf,” one user wrote.
Another said: “Unfortunately, with this choice, you are instead damaging your brand reputation and consumer trust. You are leaving a huge gap in the market, and making it much harder for vegetarians and vegans to access affordable meat alternatives, especially in rural areas. I hope that you enable someone else to purchase the rights and continue to make some of these products.”
But for anyone following the market recently, the news should come as little surprise. Several companies have scaled back their plant-based meat offerings, including the largest in the sector, Nestlé. Many others have run out of road and ceased trading, or have been acquired (often out of bankruptcy) by another firm.
Yves Veggie Cuisine is also not the only legacy producer to suffer this fate. Atlantic Natural Foods, the 135-year-old company behind the Loma Linda and Tuno brands, recently filed for bankruptcy, before selling those brands to Filipino giant Century Pacific Food for less than $10M. It has closed its US facility, and the products will now target Seventh-day Adventists in the Philippines.
These challenges have come as sales of plant-based meat contract in North America – revenues were down by 9.5% from 2023 to 2024, reaching $1.9B. Overall, the market for vegan meat and dairy alternatives declined by 7.6% to $7.3B in the region last year.
But despite the downturn, the plant-based sector in Canada has been recognised as “central to the country’s broader food tech ecosystem”, representing a quarter of all domestic food tech companies and garnering 12% of the industry’s total funding.
Will Yves Veggie Cuisine continue to lead that ecosystem through a sale, or is this the end of the line for the meat-free pioneer?
The post Legacy Plant Protein Brand Yves Veggie Cuisine is Being Discontinued – and People are Mad appeared first on Green Queen.
This post was originally published on Green Queen.