CANADA – The future direction of Eat Beyond now rests on the hands of Michael Aucoin who has been appointed new CEO of the Vancouver-based investment issuer focused on the plant-based and alternative food sector. 

Aucoin will succeed Patrick Morris, who has served as the company’s CEO since its establishment in 2019, and brings with him over 25 years of experience in food sales management and the consumer-packaged goods industry. 

Prior to joining Eat Beyond, Aucoin served as president of the Canadian division of dairy cooperative Agropur and has also held several senior sales and marketing roles at firms including Hershey and Smuckers. 

Under his new leadership, Aucoin will particularly focus on establishing Eat Beyond as a recognized leader in the plant-based protein market, with a focus on North America and Europe. 

The business also intends to focus on technical innovation, research, and investments in capacity-building projects. 

“We intend to compete in a wide cross-section of plant-protein verticals, as represented by our portfolio companies, with which we will work with closely to accelerate their success from an operational and value creation standpoint,” said Aucoin.  

Eat Beyond being the parent company of Eat Just – which received the world’s first regulatory approval for its cultured chicken in Singapore- has already staked a name for itself in the alternative protein sector. 

Its other portfolio companies that include The Very Good Food Company, Turtle Tree Labs and Nabati Foods are also creating a buzz in the food industry. 

Nabati Foods Global has, for instance, filed new patents for its plant-based egg product, Nabati Plant Eggz Canada, the US, and Australia, and further intends to make applications in Europe and China. 

Its sister company The Very Good Food Company also recently announced a new distribution partnership with Peter Green Chilled, a leading 3PL logistics provider in the UK and Europe to support its global expansion plans.   

Through the partnership, The Very Good Food Company plans to launch its core brands; The Very Good Butchers and The Very Good Cheese Co in the UK market before expanding into the rest of the European continent.  

Meanwhile, the Turtle Tree company moved into the Lab@AgStart incubator in June and announced its first commercially scalable product, a protein derived from human milk that’s used as a nutritional additive in food and nutrition products. 

The company now plans to set up a pilot facility in Woodland California to optimize some of its strains and processes and “build a know-how for a much larger facility in the future.” 

All these companies, each with tremendous growth potential, now lie in the hands of Aucoin who is confident that his wealth of industry knowledge will enable Eat Beyond “to achieve scale at a much quicker rate than traditional investors who may be more hands-off.” 

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