Prosperity Organic Foods has emerged as the winning bidder for plant-based dairy company Miyoko’s Creamery. Its namesake founder is asking the new owner to rebrand in the hope of getting back the rights to her name.
Following a dramatic bidding war, Miyoko’s Creamery finally has a new owner.
The plant-based dairy company, which entered the assignment for the benefit of creditors process last month, has been acquired by Prosperity Organic Foods, the owner of vegan butter brand Melt Organic.
It beat out a rival bid by Miyoko Schinner, the namesake founder of Miyoko’s Creamery, who was ousted from the company in 2023, and garnered widespread support to return to the helm. She had raised more than $100,000 from over 1,600 crowd investors in around 48 hours to help her bid.
Schinner had admitted that it was “highly unlikely” her bid would win, as the liquidators have a responsibility to accept the highest offer. Now, it has emerged that Prosperity Organic Foods submitted the best bid.
“We are excited to have the opportunity to grow the Miyoko’s brand as it aligns perfectly with our mission to provide consumers with delicious, sustainable, and functional plant-based food options that embody innovation and high-quality craft,” said Prosperity Organic Foods CEO Scott Fischer.
The new owner said it would “continue to honour the brand roots and community of Miyoko’s Creamery, as well as its commitment to the highest standards of quality, taste, and sustainability”. However, Schinner is distancing herself from the company she founded 11 years ago, outlining that it doesn’t have the licence to use her name or image, even if it owns the trademark “Miyoko’s Creamery”.
“I’d like to ask them to rebrand it and remove my name from it entirely,” she tells Green Queen. “If it’s the product itself – the taste, quality, etc. – that they want, then the branding should be irrelevant. They can have the butter formula – I don’t need it. It’s basically the formula I published in The Homemade Vegan Pantry, anyway,” she says.
“And now, I have new formulas that don’t even contain the emulsifier, lecithin, [etc.], that are in The Vegan Creamery,” she adds, suggesting that she’ll share one of those recipes on Instagram soon, once she finds someone to film it (“I’m tech-challenged”).
Her comments came shortly after she posted screenshots of a heated conversation with one of the bidders on Instagram, whom she called a “creepy character”. And there are plenty of hints to suggest that the person in question is Fischer.
Miyoko Schinner asks new owners to rebrand Miyoko’s Creamery
Days after announcing she didn’t win back her company, Schinner began distancing herself from the business, outlining the trademark distinction and refusing to associate her own name with the brand. “Not my company, not my brand, not my products,” she wrote.
“Regarding the association of my name, according to IP laws pertaining to name and likeness, the new owner cannot imply that I am associated with it just because they own the trademark, ‘Miyoko’s Creamery’,” she explains.
“They simply own the two words, ‘Miyoko’s Creamery’. That’s it. They cannot mention my name, ‘Miyoko’ or ‘Miyoko Schinner’, or imply any sort of reference that could lead people to think that I am somehow associated with it. Nor can they use my image in any way.
“They cannot tell the origin story or mention my name as part of it. They cannot imply that the brand stands for ethics related to me. The trademark will become an empty name.”
In one social media post, she asked the new owners to consider rebranding and give her back her naming rights. “If you do plan to keep the name Miyoko’s, do you plan to restore the original lustre to the product line?” she wrote. “Many people say that the quality has plummeted as products have been reformulated, presumably for lower COGS [cost of goods sold].”
“Will they remain the same, or will they be reformulated back to the original or better? And who will do that? And finally, do you have a visionary in place who can imagine the future of the company and inspire the public besides the usual suits in their data room?” she continued.
Speaking to Green Queen, she says: “If they believe that simply using the trademark will give the air of association to me, the person, then I think their plan will eventually fail. The name ‘Miyoko’s Creamery’ no longer holds any meaning. They should just rebrand as another formula under Melt.”
Melt Organic CEO facing backlash for comments made to Schinner
Hours before Prosperity Organic Foods’s announcement, Schinner took to Instagram to explain that “the CEO of a vegan butter brand reached out to me about being a ‘brand ambassador’” on an independent contract basis. “I’m not going to be a brand ambassador for the brand I started without control or a voice in the direction of the brand and quality of products,” she wrote on the post.
“When this person reached out to me, I wanted to hear what he had to say, so I responded. Then he ghosted me for a few days. This happened a couple of times. In the meantime, I decided I would make my own bid for the company. When he heard about it, he went berserk and sent me this lovely text, as if I were indebted to him.”
The texts in reference called Schinner “cagey” for bidding on her namesake business. “I’m unsure why I wasn’t given a heads up,” the person wrote. When she explained her reasoning, he said: “You’re a failed business person and appear not to have learned a thing […] You don’t belong with our team.”
“I have been denigrated by many businessmen, but this takes the cake,” Schinner wrote. “I have worked with some absolutely wonderful, supportive men, but the more successful I became, the more creepy characters appeared.”
She added that she hoped this person wasn’t the new owner, though it turns out they were. “It’s interesting how things play out, isn’t it? Not the first time a man has spoken to me in this manner,” she tells Green Queen.
The comments section suggests Fischer was the sender of the messages. In response to a user asking who the person was, Schinner commented: “A butter brand that begins with M.”
It sparked a major backlash against Melt Organic, with many users announcing a boycott of its products. To clarify things even further, Schinner added another comment that confirmed the name of the brand: “Melt has disabled comments.”
How Miyoko’s Creamery got here – and what’s next for Schinner
The acquisition of Miyoko’s Creamery ends a long saga for a pioneering plant-based dairy brand. Its products, which include cheeses and butters made from cashew or oat milk, are available in over 20,000 retail doors in the US. Its fate took a turn in June 2022, when Schinner was ousted from her role as CEO by the board, at a time when the business was worth $260M.
The news wasn’t made public until months later, when Miyoko’s Creamery sued its founder for allegedly breaching her contract, violating trade secrets, and stealing company IP. Schinner, in turn, countersued, saying she was “blindsided” and alleging that sexism led to her dismissal.
She claimed that recently hired male executives discriminated against women, accusing then-COO René Weber of having “openly denigrated women, their expertise and their contributions at Miyoko’s”, Schinner added that after raising an HR complaint about an operational consultant hired at an investor’s request, the company “swiftly retaliated against [Schinner] by demoting her and then terminating her”.
Publicly, the board claimed Schinner lacked the necessary skills to take Miyoko’s Creamery to the next level as its CEO. Two months later, there was a resolution between the company and its founder, with both withdrawing the legal claims.
The business hired former Coca-Cola and Beyond Meat executive Stuart Kronauger as its new CEO, who closed its Petaluma factory amid a shift to a co-manufacturing setup, affecting 30-40 jobs. According to Bloomberg, Miyoko’s Creamery was already aiming to raise funds and prepare for a potential sale in late 2023, after sales fell by 24% on the back of sustained deficits for years.
Schinner, a highly successful cookbook author, turned her attention to education and her animal sanctuary, Rancho Compasión, in Nicasio, California. The opportunity to return to the company she started was too good to miss, and even though it didn’t pan out in the end, she remains upbeat.
“My mission now is to make people less reliant on packaged goods, to take the ‘consumer’ out of people. I want people back in their kitchens, reclaiming them, learning to make things that they’ve relied on corporations to provide,” she says. “Hopefully, this becomes the impetus for people to start making butter in their kitchens.”
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