Product details

Due to health, environmental, and animal welfare concerns, increasing numbers of consumers have been switching to vegetarian, vegan, and flexitarian diets. This value migration in customer demand has driven consistent growth in the plant-based food market over the last 20 years, although at a slowing rate in 2022. Demand growth for plant-based products has provided an opportunity for startups and new ventures, as well as for legacy food producers in the United States. These companies entered the new plant-based food market using a variety of mechanisms including acquisition, organic growth, and partnerships. Powerful retailers such as Kroger, Walmart, and Whole Foods also entered the plant-based food market with private label brands. In 2022, Kraft Heinz and NotCo announced a new joint venture (JV), The Kraft Heinz Not Company. Kraft Heinz in 2022 was the fifth largest food and beverage company in the world with a broadly diversified product portfolio. NotCo was a Chilean, plant-based, food-tech company that used Artificial Intelligence algorithms to produce plant-based food. the goal for the JV was to capitalize on the many strengths of Kraft Heinz including scale, product portfolio, commercialization know-how, and access to distribution channels, and on the unique leadership Not Co brought to the venture as a technology company in the food business. The JV posed interesting challenges for Lucho Lopez-May, new CEO of The Kraft Heinz Not Company, LLC, as well as for the two separate companies Kraft Heinz and NotCo. How could the new JV best position to face the challenges of working with parent companies? Were there specific conflicts of interest that would need to be addressed early to manage different relationships and decisions across these organizations? Were the goals of the JV and the individual companies similar or different?