GFI acquires plant-based brand YoFiit
YoFiit's products include a high-protein plant-based milk alternatives made with chickpeas, pea protein and flax oil to provide 10g of protein per serving and 1,000 mg of omega 3, while free of gums and sugars. YoFiit also sells high-protein low-sugar snack bars and granola products made from plants.
YoFiit's products are sold through health foods and major grocery chains across Canada and available online through Amazon in the US and Canada and the company's website. YoFiit's founder, Marie Amazan, will continue as president of YoFiit and manage the brand's products and business development within the GFI group.
"We are very pleased to accelerate our plans to expand into the high growth plant-based milk and snack food segments through this acquisition. YoFiit has developed a loyal and engaged customer group in Canada due to the unique health proposition of its product offering and we look forward to implementing a US market launch in the next few months," said David Hanna, GFI's CEO.
In addition to its current product line up, YoFiit is engaged in a research and development project. With the support of its consortium members, including Protein Industries Canada, a project is under way to develop additional plant-based milk SKUs, plant-based yogurts and plant-based egg replacements. The company has secured $1.2m in government grants to support the project.
"YoFiit has major expansion plans into the US market and across Canada, while also developing new plant-based products that will fill the nutrition and taste gaps in the marketplace. We are excited to join GFI to accelerate these plans and use GFI's platform to connect our plant-based ingredients needs right to the farm level," Marie Amazan, YoFiit's founder, said.
According to The Good Food Institute, the US plant-based milk segment had annual sales of $2.5bn in 2020, a 20% increase from the prior year, with approximately 50m American households having purchased plant-based milks in the year. Plant-based yogurt represented a $343m market in 2020, having grown 20% from the prior year and 68% over two years. In addition, the emerging market for plant-based eggs had $27m of sales in 2020, up 168% from the prior year.
GFI is a plant-based food and ingredients company, connecting the local farm to the global market for peas, beans, lentils, chickpeas and other high-protein specialty crop ingredients. GFI is organized into four primary business lines: Pea Protein Inputs, Plant-Based Ingredients, Plant-Based Pet Food Ingredients and Plant-Based Consumer Packaged Goods.
Headquartered in Toronto, GFI buys directly from its network of farmers, processes its products locally at its four wholly-owned processing facilities in Saskatchewan and Alberta and ships to 37 countries across the world.
