Agro Tech Foods - Ready for Act 2.0?

De-risking commodity play, bringing more products in the pipeline.

MONOLOGUE

Yves Potvin, a Canadian Entrepreneur saw potential in the plant-based meat category and launched his company Garden Protein International (Gardein) in 2009. It got sold to Pinnacle foods for USD 154 Mn (Sales of USD 65 Mn) in 2014, finally landing in Con Agra’s portfolio in 2019 (this was a part of USD 11 Bn acquisition of Pinnacle foods by Con Agra).

In the most recent Q1 con-call by ATFL, the MD, Sachin Gopal was quoted giving this instance stating that the categories ATFL is prioritizing their focus on are niche categories and will take time to reach a 2500-3000 cr. mark. The management is focused on shifting it’s focus from edible oils to making ATFL a total foods company. (The mix has improved from 22% to ~32% between FY15 and FY20).

The idea basically is, it is only in the recent years the world has come to terms with Beyond Meat and other meat alternative product companies to look at it as the next big leg of value creation. But for Gardein, it took almost 11 years to be recognized as a household name.

Is ATFL at an inflexion point? Let’s delve deeper here.