German plant-based cheese producer Mondarella would consider receiving investments to support its growth plans.
Speaking to Just Food at the IFE trade show in London yesterday (25 March), founder and CEO Frank Riedel Mondarella is “open to external investments” if there is what he described as “a strategic benefit".
He added: “It could be a geography… it could be an expansion within the categories. We are in cheese, it’s not too far to say we [could be] in cream, spreads and those kinds of things. That’s what could be beneficial from a category point of view.”
Riedel also spoke of building Mondarella’s “relationships with big manufacturers and big QSRs [quick service restaurants]”, adding: “So what do we need to provide to be a driving force and of value to everybody in the marketplace?”
He added that the business, set up in 2021, planned to approach the next five years “with a question of how do we see the category developing? What needs to be done and what’s our position in this to make that category grow?”
Mondarella booked €80,000 ($86,854) in revenue when it was founded three years ago, growing 400% the following year to €400,000, and hitting €2m in 2023.
The company has raised €8m to date, funded in part by Riedel himself and the investor Sparkfood, a venture unit of Portuguese conglomerate Sonae, which took a minority stake in the group last November.
Riedel was unable to disclose the exact amount of shares Sparkfood owns in Mondarella but indicated it was now “a large shareholder”.
When asked how long the business needed to become self-sustaining, Riedel said thought it would be possible in “two to three years”.
The Berlin-based group produces a range of dairy-free cheeses including a plant-based mozzarella in block and shredded formats, and soft cheese alternatives to camembert and brie.
Its stockists in Germany include major grocers Edeka and REWE as well as foodservice. It also sells to retailers including Coop in Switzerland, Spar in Austria, Rohlik in Czechia and Mpreis in Italy.
Besides Mondarella's home market, its other major presence could soon be in the UK, where it plans to launch a plant-based feta cheese made from fava beans to retail and foodservice by early 2025. It also hopes to add a cheddar alternative to the UK market by the latter half of this year.
The company is also looking to enter new markets in Ireland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway, as well as Spain, Portugal and France further down the line.
Mondarella makes its plant-based cheeses with two third-party manufacturers south of Berlin. While the feta and cheddar products will likely be supplied from Germany to start with, the company is “actively looking into regional production with partners” to manufacture in the UK within the next two years, said Riedel.
The company also has two development kitchens for recipe testing and small-batch production, one at its headquarters in Berlin and the other at New Covent Garden Market in London, which opened in January.
