Culinology - December 2020 - 33
Upfield US CEO sees
plant-based
trend surging
im Brown, president and chief
executive officer of Upfield US, Inc., the
global company's US-based business unit,
sees it as a startup with scale. The maker of
such well-known spreads brands as Country
Crock, I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, Imperial
and more is capitalizing on consumer interest
in plant-based products with clean label
attributes to identify and execute against
opportunities with consumers.
Upfield Group BV, Amsterdam, The
Netherlands, was born out of the sale of
Unilever's spreads business in 2018 to
the investment firm KKR in a deal valued
at approximately $8 billion. Globally, the
company had sales of €2.8 billion ($2.4 billion)
in 2019.
Upfield markets itself as the No. 1 plantbased spreads company globally. Other
brands owned by the company include Flora,
Rama, Blue Band, Proactiv and Becel.
Mr. Brown joined the company in 2019 after
stints as president and chief operating officer
of Chobani, LLC, Norwich, NY, and as CEO
of Nestle's North American water business.
In an interview, he called the current market a
transformative time for the plant-based trend
T
and sees Upfield one day extending its reach
beyond plant-based spreads and cheese.
Today, the focus is on contemporizing
the business.
Moves made by Upfield underscore
management's commitment to the plantbased trend. In 2019, the company
introduced Country Crock Plant Butter and in
August of this year announced the launch of
Flora Plant Butter in the United States.
The Flora product is vegan and dairy-free
and may be used 1:1 in baking and cooking
as a replacement for conventional butter,
according to the company. It is formulated
with palm, sunflower and canola oils and is
being marketed as a premium brand. Like
traditional butter it is available in salted and
unsalted varieties and comes in an 8.8-oz
brick format.
The Country Crock variety is available
in sticks and tubs in formulations featuring
different oils. Both tubs and sticks are
available in almond oil and olive oil varieties
and there also is an avocado oil stick variety
as well.
" It's in the realm of things like Beyond Meat
or Impossible Foods, " Mr. Brown said. " This
by Keith Nunes
knunes@sosland.com
Photo credit: Upfield
DECEMBER 2020 | Culinology |
33
Culinology - December 2020
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