Is Britain’s vegan obsession finally over? How Heather Mills’ VBites is the latest meat-free firm to collapse in 2023, as brands like Heck, Nestle and Innocent ditch plant-based offerings because consumers are switching back to the real thing

The multi billion pound bubble surrounding vegan food and fake meat appears to have burst in 2023 with some vegetarians returning to their weekly roast chicken and steak for financial and health reasons, MailOnline can reveal today.

Heather Mills’ VBites went into administration this week – one of at least ten major plant-based food and drink businesses to suffer financial woes, plunging sales or jettison ranges this year.

Experts have said that the public’s view of meat-free products is ‘generally quite negative’ – especially anything with ‘vegan’ on the label – comparing it to the rise of ‘cool’ craft beer and smoothies that led to an ‘over-proliferation of brands’. 

The price of meat-free products such as sausages, fish fingers, fake bacon and other products are the same price or more expensive than the real thing. And nutritionists say clients are back eating meat because they feel ‘tired’ because ‘it’s very hard to maintain protein intake’.

Nestle axed its Garden Gourmet plant-based vegan brand in the UK and Innocent stopped many dairy-free smoothies, joking about poor sales by declaring: ‘We wanted to say a big thanks for buying them. We really appreciate all five of you’ 

Heck has axed 10 out of 12 of its meat-free ranges with its boss admitting shoppers were ‘not there yet’ when it came to buying lots of different vegan products, despite a boom that began just before the pandemic.

Best-selling brands are slowly axing plant-based offerings, going into administration or seeing sales and market value fall

Heather Mills lost a leg after she was hit by a police motorcyclist on a 999 call in 1993. She said that discovering veganism contributed to her ‘miraculous recovery’. She has sought to become the UK’s ‘vegan queen’ but VBites has gone into administration

Sir Paul McCartney’s ex-wife Ms Mills has blamed ‘nefarious practices’ and a ‘litany of lies’ from animal-related rivals for the collapse of her vegan food empire this week. 

Other leading vegan lights, including the boss of a US firm that includes Leonardo DiCaprio, have also said rivals selling meat and dairy have been ‘seeding doubt and fear’ about how processed plant-based meats are. 

Heather Mills’ vegetarian and vegan business has gone bust after 30 years. Ms Mills said she was devastated by the company’s demise after pouring ‘blood, sweat and tears’ into it.

10 meat and dairy-free firms hit in the past year 

VBites: Job losses at factories in Peterlee and Corby

Meatless Farm: Leeds-based from laid off laid off most of its 100 staff and fell into administration

Plant & Bean: Lincolnshire supplier companies including Tesco went into administration

Marlow Foods: Middlesbrough rival to Quorn posted £15.5m losses

Beyond Meat: US giant which supplies McDonald’s reported sales had fallen 30.5pc. Market value down from $10bn to $981m since 2019

Veggie Pret: Vegan arm of Pret A Manger closed half its vegetarian and vegan-only outlets

Heck: Meat-free range cut from 10 to 2

Nestlé: Axed its Garden Gourmet brand

Innocent: Slashed dairy-free smoothies

She paid tribute to her 112 staff, whose jobs are at risk just two weeks before Christmas. Her manufacturing site in Peterlee, County Durham and in Corby, Northamptonshire, will continue to run until a new buyer is found. 

It came in a tumultuous year for firms in the same industry. 

Leeds-based Meatless Farm laid off most of its 100 staff and fell into administration in June.

Lincolnshire supplier Plant & Bean, who worked with big firms including Tesco, also went into administration.

Marlow Foods, a Middlesbrough rival to Quorn, posted £15.5million losses.

US giant Beyond Meat, which supplies McDonald’s and counts backers such as Leo DiCaprio, saw reported sales fall 30.5%. Its market value went down from $10bn to $981m since 2019.

Veggie Pret, an arm of Pret A Manger, closed half its vegetarian and vegan-only outlets while high-protein meat-free food maker LoveSeitan shut down six years after it started trading.

Celebrity nutritionist Gabriela Peacock, who counts Princess Beatrice and Dame Joan Collins among her clients, says that people who have given up meat completely can be left ‘tired’ and struggling for a good source of protein.

She told The Daily Telegraph: ‘I see a lot of clients that were vegetarian are going back to having a steak once a week, because it’s very hard to maintain the protein intake. You become tired.

‘It’s been very popular to be vegetarian or vegan – [now] I can see quite a big turn. People do understand that actually meat is really not that bad if it’s from good sources.

‘Generally, they [plant-based products] are made from a lot of additives and some fake proteins – it’s very far from a natural vegan diet and from plant-based foods.

‘It’s been very popular to be vegetarian or vegan. I can see quite a big turn. People do understand that actually meat is really not that bad if it’s from good sources’. 

The ethical drinks company Innocent – known for its popular fruit smoothies – scrapped its trendy dairy free milk range after disappointing sales

 Pret A Manger decided to close almost all of its meat-free Veggie Pret branches

Nestlé also announced it was pulling its plant-based Garden Gourmet and Wunda brands from retail in the UK and Ireland, following lacklustre sales. While Garden Gourmet comprised meat-free burgers, mince and sausage, Wunda is a pea-based milk alternative

Alice Pilkington, a food analyst at Mintel, said recently that people thought cutting down on meat would save them money – but found the opposite.

In autumn 2021 Baileys’ vegan alternative Baileys Almande was also discontinued

She said that price is ‘increasingly a barrier as they were on a par or more expensive than meat or more traditional alternatives.

‘Nearly half of adults have reduced the amount of meat they eat or have stopped eating it entirely and another 14% have yet to reduce the amount of meat but want to,’ she said.

‘The group of flexitarians is growing and that is the target market for these products.’ 

It came as a study revealed that companies should now consider not putting vegan on labels if they want them to succeed with weary consumers. 

After her split from the Beatles genius and bitter divorce battle that saw her hurl water on Sir Paul’s barrister Fiona Shackleton, Ms Mills, a former model and ski instructor set about her mission to promote veganism and animal rights and become the UK’s ‘vegan queen’.

The collapse of VBites will have hurt Heather deeply.  It was a path that coincidentally pitted her against Sir Paul’s late first wife, Linda, whose vegetarian food remains a best-seller.

VBites makes vegan sausages, burgers and fish fingers, and had previously had a deal to supply McDonald’s. The business also supplied meat-free products to Europe including ski resorts and even ran vegan cafes in chichi Chester and Hove. 

The company was founded as Redwood Wholefood in 1993, Mills took control in 2007 and changed its name to VBites.

But the administrators have now been called in, with Ms Mills blaming celebrity campaigns promoting milk, cheese and meat for a decline in demand for the vegan foods VBites offered. 

The former model, who was awarded £24.3million in her divorce from Sir Paul, has said she was devastated by the collapse of her vegan food empire just before Christmas, claiming she had invested ‘tens of millions of pounds’ of her own money into the business – as well as ‘blood, sweat and tears’ to try to save it.

She paid tribute to her 112 staff, whose jobs are at risk just two weeks before Christmas.

On her website, she said: ‘It’s with regret that VBites Foods, a company very dear to my heart, is entering into administration. I offered every solution I feasibly could to keep it going.’

Heather split from Beatles legend Sir Paul McCartney in 2006, after four years of marriage and the birth of daughter Beatrice. (Mills is pictured with him in 2003)

Heather asked for £125m in the divorce from Sir Paul, but a High Court judge awarded her just a fifth of that sum — £24.3m’. (Above, the Beatle with his drenched lawyer Fiona Shackleton leaving the High Court in March 2008 after she was soaked by Heather)

Heather Mills, 53, exchanged rings with boyfriend Mike Dickman, 36, just before Christmas. He is head of marketing for GFinity, a company which specialises in competitive gaming, and which last year reported an operating loss of more than £5m, and has been working on tie-ups with blue-chip firms such as Cadbury and Samsung. (Pictured together in November 2019)

Heather’s  first marriage, at age 21, was to businessman Alfie Karmal  in 1989 (pictured). They split two years later

Before Sir Paul, Heather was engaged to documentary maker Chris Terrill (pictured)

Mills also blamed rising energy costs and Brexit for the collapse of the business.

‘Brexit has been an utter disaster for the supply and maintenance of the sector and the government doubtless has a lot to answer for,’ she said.

‘So do the opportunistic utility companies and their broker networks, that through an array of nefarious practices now under investigation have hiked up prices so that companies simply cannot afford to operate’. 

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