One of the fastest-growing segments today is the plant-based industry, as the push towards cleaner lifestyles, eating habits, and sustainable living choices fuel consumer movement.

Investors have been keeping their eyes on innovation to how these companies differ from the rest. With that focus, one Canadian owned and operated business stands apart.

Connecting the local farm to the global supply chain:

Global Food and Ingredients Ltd. (TSXV:PEAS) is a fast-growing plant-based food and ingredients company, connecting the local farm to the global supply chain for peas, beans, lentils, chickpeas and other high protein specialty crops. GFI is organized into four primary business lines:

  • Pea Protein Inputs
  • Plant-Based Ingredients
  • Plant-Based Pet Food Ingredients
  • Plant-Based Consumer Packaged Goods

Headquartered in Toronto, GFI buys directly from its extensive network of farmers, processes its products locally at its four wholly-owned processing facilities in Western Canada and ships to 37 countries across the world.

The company’s vision is to become the leader in the plant-based industry through a vertically integrated farm-to-fork plant-based platform providing traceable, locally sourced, healthy, and sustainable food and ingredients. Through recent acquisition and development activities, GFI now offers a full suite of plant-based consumer packaged goods with over 20 SKUs under the YoFiit, Bentilia, and Five Peas in Love brands.

Vertically integrated farm-to-fork plant-based platform:

GFI boasts a full suite of branded plant-based consumer products with more than 20 SKUs. These consumer products complement the company’s core ingredients business centered around peas, lentils, chickpeas, and beans. Through its expanding capabilities at existing facilities, GFI’s vision is to produce, in-house, the core ingredients utilized in each of their consumer products.

Currently, GFI handles these crops in their whole form as well as value-added ingredients, such as split peas, pea and lentil flour, pea fibres, and consumer products where each of them have a central ingredient that is based out of those sourced crops. This is a fully integrated farm-to-fork platform from locally sourced to value-added ingredients, as well as consumer products.

As one of the leading suppliers to the pea protein extraction industry, the company has seen their pea protein inputs business grow by 649 percent, year over year with an order book of $15 million as of Jan 1, 2022.

Essentially, GFI supplies the glyphosate-free and organic yellow peas needed to make high-quality pea protein, an excellent functional protein that is non-GMO, glyphosate-free, and made from yellow peas, a regenerative crop that uses very little water compared to alternatives. 

Global Food and Ingredients boasts three lineups of clean-label consumer products made with natural ingredients.

The YoFiit brand bolsters a full line-up of nourishing and delicious plant-based products that are free of chemical additives and contain zero to low sugar. This includes a plant-based milk made with chickpeas, pea protein, and flax oil.

Bentilia is a high-protein pasta with one key ingredient – red lentils. There are no other additives. Bentilia also offers a new generation of delicious superfood pasta made with an exclusive blend of 21 nutrients designed to maintain, strengthen, and support the immune system,

The company is also launching a side dish called Five Peas in Love that is a high protein, all-natural, “ready-to-eat” lentil and pea side dish with vegetables and spices. Heat it up and it is ready to go, without any preservatives or additives.

These products reflect the company’s approach centred around specific crops dedicated to producing healthy food for consumers and the environment.

The products that the company has as its central crops are all regenerative, in that they bring nitrogen back into the soil, which means that farms that plant these products do not need to put chemical fertilizers to the same degree when they plant other crops in future years. It reduces the environmental footprint of the farm and is also better for your health since there are fewer chemicals to be found in the products themselves.

GFI also acquired a pet food facility in September 2021. The facility is designed to extract valuable ingredients from by-products at GFI’s other facilities, greatly reducing waste through the extraction and segregation of by-products into pet food ingredients and other food ingredients.  Therefore, in addition to giving GFI a full suite of healthy and sustainable, high protein formulated plant-based ingredients for pets, the facility also enhances the company’s operations and represents a key step forward in realizing its zero waste strategy, while maximizing the value of every step throughout the production system and bolstering profitability.

Going public:

In June 2022, the company’s common shares began trading on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol PEAS.

The company’s President, and Chief Executive Officer, David Hanna remarked in a media release on this news that this milestone in the company’s evolution supports the team’s ambitious growth plans while maintaining its core focus as a vertically integrated plant-based food and ingredients supplier providing premium, sustainable plant-based protein ingredients directly from the farm to consumers’ homes.

Image courtesy GFI Ltd.

Financial picture:

With more than $20 million of equity invested to date and $116 million in trailing twelve-month revenue, the company is seeing its third consecutive year of positive adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA). The company continues to advance its funded plan to grow its revenue and profit margins.

Having just closed its private placement offerings of GFI subscription receipts for gross proceeds of $3.6 million, the company has sufficient funding to realize its plans over the next few years.

The leadership team at the helm of the company sees a lot of opportunities for M&A activity alongside larger projects. In an interview with Stockhouse Editorial, they stated that they will come to market when there are opportunities to justify it, but their existing business plan and growth trajectory is fully funded.

Meet the team:

Global Food and Ingredients is backed by a highly invested management team with deep, relevant experience.

CEO Hanna, MBA CFA, has 20 years in management roles in the food and beverage sectors, with 12 years building farm-to-fork companies, and nine years in executive roles starting international food businesses. He came to the company with experience gained from his previous executive role at a global consumer products company.

Chief Financial Officer, Bill Murray, MBA CFA brings his 25 years in corporate finance and private equity to the table, as well as 13 years advising the agriculture and food sectors. A proven executive owner, he has experience growing capital 10x in seven years. In fact, he was the advisor on the 2014 CVCA “Deal of The Year” – the sale of Wolftrax Micronutrients to Compass Minerals.

Investment summary:

Still an early-stage investment opportunity, Global Food and Ingredients Ltd. has grown substantially in the current year, given the market size, current expansion, and future expansion plans.

Patience among stakeholders of GFI seems to have paid off now that the company is listed and trading on the TSXV. Shareholders can look forward to seeing what transpires as GFI advances its relationship with its existing and new partners to continue to strengthen and expand its position as a global leader in plant-based food ingredients and farm-to-fork consumer packaged goods.

To keep up with the latest updates from the company, visit Global Food and Ingredients online at gfiglobalfood.com.

FULL DISCLOSURE: This is a paid article produced by The Market Herald.

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