Kraft Heinz Announces New Joint Venture to Make Plant-based Hot Dogs

As the plant-based boom continues, Kraft Heinz is jumping onto the bandwagon with a new joint venture to make plant-based hot dogs.

The company announced this week that it is forming a joint venture with TheNotCompany, a Chilean start-up that makes plant-based substitutes. The start-up company is valued at $1.5 billion and creates plant-based substitutes for eggs, milk and meat.

Shares of Kraft Heinz closed Tuesday up 5% on the news. The stock was down less than 1% in morning trading Wednesday.

The goal of the joint venture is to “democratize” plant-based food, according to Kraft Heinz’s U.S. president, Carlos Abrams-Rivera.

“Now we will have the advantage of bringing the products you love from the brands you trust also with a plant-based option,” Abrams-Rivera said Wednesday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

“It’s thinking about whether you have Oscar Mayer hot dogs and Oscar Mayer ‘Not Hot Dogs,’” he added.

It was a year and a half ago that the company revealed a master plan for Oscar Mayer that included new packaging, simpler ingredient lists and marketing that focuses on its status as an iconic
American brand. The branding changes came after the company wrote down Oscar Mayer’s value in the fourth quarter of 2018 and again in the second quarter of 2019.

Abrams-Rivera said roughly a third of Americans follow a flexitarian diet, which involves reducing meat intake in favor of more plant-based foods.

Disclaimer: We have no position in any of the companies mentioned and have not been compensated for this article.