Germany’s Veganz supermarket chain prepares for IPO

Germany's pioneering vegan company Veganz went public on Oct. 27 on the Regulated Unofficial Market (Freiverkehr) of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (Frankfurter Wertpapierbörse), according to a release published on the company’s website. The initial offer period will end on Nov. 3, and the company set the price range for shares between €85.00 to €110.00.

Veganz is part supermarket chain, part vegan brand, and the latest plant-based company to seek to go public. Founded in Berlin in 2011, the vegan grocery purveyor has spent the last 10 years expanding into its own-brand product lines and currently has 120 products across 17 categories. These products are available on the shelves of 22,000 retail locations across Europe, including well-known chains such as EDEKA, REWE, Rossmann, dm, SPAR, Coop, LIDL and ALDI.

“[We] offer a highly innovative product range that is able to satisfy consumers’ needs from breakfast to dinner. We also believe that none of our competitors has a comparably broad range as we do,” said founder and CEO Jack Bredack in a statement.

Although the company’s portfolio is already expansive, the momentum from plant-based food has sent the corporation to the table to seek a public offering in hopes of further expanding both its product offerings through research and development as well as its global reach. Gross proceeds from its IPO are expected to generate up to €42.8 million.

As a part of its efforts to expand the number of products in its portfolio, Veganz said it will establish a new production site near Berlin, and various sources report that the company will focus its efforts on developing vegan cheese and plant-based seafood options – two of the fastest-growing segments within the plant-based category.

It is clear that the vegan company is already making strides toward its expansion goals. Last year, the company told Vegconomist that its revenues increased by 35% for the first half of 2020 to hit €13.1 million. The private company is looking to catapult that growth trajectory by making itself public.

Recently, a handful of well-known plant-based brands have turned to stock exchanges to search for growth. Beyond Meat was the first brand to make a splash on the scene with its highly publicized IPO in 2019 that was not only flashy but also successful. The company’s stock rocketed 163% on its first day of trading. Swedish brand Oatly also began trading on the U.S. stock exchange this year in a $1.4 billion (€1.2 billion) IPO that also saw a jump in the first day of trading but at a more modest 30%. Canada-based Odd Burger became the first publicly traded vegan fast-food chain to be publicly traded this spring when it had an IPO on the Toronto Stock Exchange’s Venture Exchange.