Unlike a 3-hour sporting event, a “game” in the world of business is typically a quarter, or 3 months. While that’s certainly longer than you‘d want to sit and watch, time goes extremely fast when you’re building a multi-million-dollar company (or an investor in one). If a quarter is one game, then a fiscal year is the season.
Since we’re betting you weren’t sitting and watching every play, we’re here to give you a “highlight reel” on all that’s happened behind the scenes with The Very Good Food Company (CANADA: VERY) (U.S.: VRYYF) (EUROPE: 0SI) in the 2020 fiscal year.
Although you may be aware of some of the milestones the team has achieved and discussed through various news releases and social media posts, we’re here to give you a one-stop-shop of all the latest goods when it comes to this flourishing plant-based giant.
Production
When it comes to The Very Good Food Co., production is everyone’s favorite word. As you may have seen in our theoretical analysis of Very’s price-to-sales ratio, production capacity is a major factor when it comes to a company’s growth and scale.
What’s the latest in production, you ask? Let’s run through it.
- The Rupert facility (Vancouver, Canada) is currently operating at partial capacity, and is expected to be 100% operational by the last quarter of 2021.
- The Patterson facility (California) is anticipated to commence initial food production around in late 2021. By Q1 2022, full operations are projected to begin.
- One of Very’s third-party logistics providers, UNFI, has a distribution center on the same property as the Patterson facility. This UNFI facility is positioned on key shipping routes for ground transportation to wholesale clients, of which UNFI services over 30,000 within the U.S.
Being directly adjacent to their logistics partner boasts an advantage to Very. When “shipping” products to their partners for distribution, the time and costs are substantially decreased due to the ability to deliver via a short haul forklift.
Enhanced production will increase the availability of their products through Canada and the U.S., allowing for both retail and eCommerce sales to increase. Over 14 SKUs will be available in the market to enable consumers to access Very’s diversified product offerings (including a couple new ones that we will highlight below!).
In Q4 2021, Very is also opening its second flagship store in Mount Pleasant (Vancouver, Canada). The facility is going to be utilized as a professional space, R&D centre, “butchery” and licensed test kitchen, where customers can see the product being made, right in front of them!
In December of 2020, the company utilized the “just-in-time” inventory management system at their hometown Victoria facility, which keeps inventory on-hand at a minimum. This not only increases capacity but reduces wait times for online sales. Combined with additional warehouse space to be approved by Q4 2021, the company’s production volume is expected to increase drastically from an already impressive 20,000 lbs. per week, as reported at the end of 2020.
Ecommerce
The Very Good Food Company has taken on new initiatives to strategically grow their eCommerce sales. Their current use of 3PL logistics, which doubled eCommerce sales earlier this year, is now being explored in Europe. A proper logistics partnership overseas is anticipated to launch in the UK by Q3 2021, with plans to establish an online platform in the European Union closer to the end of the year.
This would be a huge milestone for Very, helping them increase their reach and achieve global recognition, all thanks to the utilization of eCommerce strategy.
Meanwhile, back in North America, Very noted that they were working with 1,300 points of distribution, achieved through the use of their boutique wholesale and food service broker, Lloyd-James Marketing Group.
When you give someone a trial employment contract and they do a phenomenal job, you’d naturally want to hire them.
What happens when they’re an entire agency?
You buy them.
Lloyd-James Marketing Group is now owned by The Very Good Food Company. Yes, they are sparing themselves of the 5% broker fee, but that isn’t even the tip of the iceberg.
This deal, propelled by Lloyd-James’ impressive history of placement in all types of grocery retailers – from natural, to specialty, to conventional – will enable Very to scale their North American retail network to a staggering 15,000 points of distribution by the end of this year.
What about what they own, as a company? Very’s current assets sit north of C$35,000,000 as of the end of 2020, a stark increase from their previous position of C$1,300,000 the previous year-end.
Innovation
Did someone say diversified product offerings?
Oh wait, that was us.
Very is preparing the launch of their new gluten-free Butcher’s Select line. Burgers, Meatballs, Sausages; all will be available in a gluten– and soy-free option. Not only that, but they will also be verified as non-GMO, meaning the products are produced without any genetic engineering.
The recent acquisition and entry into the dairy-alternatives space has led the company to launch the The Very Good Cheese Co. Brand, going live in Q2 of 2021.
Out of 7 products from the acquired subsidiary, 4 of them are immediately being relaunched with a brand-new face behind the plant-based cheese. The remaining products are to be deployed in the new year.
The company’s research & development pipeline has allowed them to perform readiness assessments regularly. Such assessments are required to ensure that any new product launches, processes, operational procedures, and changes of structure are to occur without any error or hiccups.
We’ve all had that boss who has big, elaborate ideas with little to no execution behind the imagination, leaving the rest of the team to deal with the transitional headache. This is where the luxury of readiness assessments come in handy, putting all aspects of the business to the test, and ensuring preparation for any new and exciting additions or changes.
Such is why Very is able to gradually deploy 8 new products under their newly incepted brand, The Very Good Cheese Co. assessments will occur in the latter half of this year, in anticipation of the products to be fully ready to hit the market, come 2022.
Read the Full Release
Please visit https://finance.yahoo.com/news/very-good-food-company-reports-022000261.html to read the full release.
Disclaimer: The Very Good Food Company is a communications client of Edge Investments, and we own shares in the company.