After eight years in business, Herbivore Earthfoods brand has hit the jackpot going into partnership with food and beverage company Tiger Brands and private equity company Secha Capital.
Cape Town-based co-founders Chanel Grantham and Davey du Plessis said they were thrilled about the developments.
“Our goal is to make our brand affordable and accessible and I believe this partnership makes it more tangible. We can now leverage off their expertise,” Grantham said.
Du Plessis said: “These partners can add to the growth of the business. The personal reward is that this is validation for what we’re doing.”
With its inception in 2014, the plant-based brand started distributing its products to independent health stores. They later started distributing to retail stores like Woolworths and supplying to burger joint Hudsons.
A month before lockdown started in South Africa, Grantham and Du Plessis decided to open an online store and their business sky-rocketed.
“It was convenient because people needed to order food online,” Grantham said.
“We wanted to maximise our reach. Thankfully, at the time, customers were more open to buying products online,” Du Plessis said.
Herbivore’s product line includes dairy-free milk alternatives, desserts, confectioneries and protein alternatives.
Grantham, the director of the brand, said they started their company to radically change the food system.
“We are making products that are more resource sufficient, more ethical and better for the environment,” she said.
Grantham struggled with asthma since she was a child and chose to go plant-based.
“My asthma went away completely. Seeing the benefits of a plant-based diet in my personal life was an inspiration to start this business,” she said.
“At the time, there weren’t many plant-based options available, so I wanted to create a company that made it accessible and affordable,” she said.
Du Plessis, who also works as a director for the brand, runs operations and strategy. During his travels, he did work to promote environmentalism.
“I spoke about it publicly and worked with some environmental organisations when I was in the Amazon,” he said.
“I found that talking about it was getting nowhere. That spurred the idea for this brand,” he said.
The pair said they experienced frustration with the lack of plant-based options available.
“The company was born from that frustration but also the drive to create a company that stood for change. We do believe this is the future of food,” Grantham said.
“Said to that frustration, when there were plant-based products available, they were greenwashed and not done authentically,” Du Plessis said.
Du Plessis said one of the brand’s biggest challenges over the past eight years has been finding capital, as Herbivore Earthfoods manufactures and distributes its products.
“We don’t outsource, which means we have to pay a lot to make a single product return.
“Building a manufacturing business means having access to large amounts of capital,” he said.
He said: “Although we’ve been around for eight years, had we had more capital, it could have accelerated our growth much faster.”
Their partnership with Tiger Brands and Secha Capital means that a few things will change in the months to come.
“We want to get to price-parity with meat or even make it cheaper. We also want to grow in marketing and build a stronger brand,” Du Plessis said.
“There are some exciting products in the pipeline and we can’t wait to innovate and launch new products. Tapping into Tiger Brands’ distribution network will help us expand our reach out of South Africa,” Grantham said.