A Triangle company trying to build an empire on alternatives to meat just signed a key partnership that could lead to profitability.
That’s according to Rody Hawkins, CEO of Improved Nature, speaking after the Garner-based food producer inked a deal with food manufacturer RMS Foods. Hawkins said the partnership with RMS allows the company to efficiently create more product – and compete for major contracts.
Financial details were not disclosed.
RMS has been manufacturing plant-based meat alternatives for more than two decades. Improved Nature has been working with them – albeit at a smaller scale – since 2018. RMS had been a co-packer, turning Improved Nature’s products into finished products.
“We manufacture the base, we provide the texture for those products and then they turn them into the finished product,” Hawkins said.
It’s been tough going for the Garner firm in recent years. As with many industries, supply chain issues caused major delays. Recently, the company hit pause on plans for a 100-job facility Smithfield. But Hawkins said business is "booming" today and that an even bigger upswing is coming thanks to the RMS partnership.
Through the new partnership with New Mexico-based RMS Foods, Improved Nature will finally have the scale to go after major deals – potentially creating private label food for big retailers and restaurant chains.
“It actually allows us to hit the market straight to the retailer,” Hawkins said.
He said it’s hard to be profitable in the $8 billion U.S. market for plant-based meat alternatives – even for a debt free company like Improved Nature. But with RMS, Hawkins thinks the company can finally hit a price point that will work.
“Retailers are asking for a lower price point in order to increase those sales and those other suppliers have been selling at a loss,” he said. “They can’t go after that market. We can.”
Right now, Improved Nature is operating at break even. And it’s had to turn down opportunities because it couldn’t hit the price points. But Hawkins said the inflection point is finally coming. The firm is about to showcase its products in Asia. After that, there’s a manufacturing show in Chicago.
Improved Nature, with 17 employees, is trying to raise capital so that it can build a “more involved sales force.”