June 25, 2020 • 28 mins
CSE's James Black had an opportunity to chat with the Very Good Food Company (CSE:VERY) Founders James Davison and Mitchell Scott on the eve of their Canadian public listing to discuss The Very Good Butcher brand and much more. Here's what they discussed on this episode of #HashtagFinance:
1:52 - How James was inspired to apply his culinary skills to produce very good food after being uninspired by incumbent vegan offerings.
3:04 - James describes what's in the food (not meat!)
3:57 - What makes their product better than others in the plant-based food arena.
4:40 - What James had to learn, and unlearn from his 13-year culinary experience when it came to making a satisfying product.
6:25 - The key role that the farmer's market on Denman Island, BC played in the company's ability to product test their recipes.
8:16 - What happened after the company moved to Victoria, BC and opened the first Vegan Butcher Shop on the west coast of Canada.
9:39 - How non-vegan butchers reacted to the company.
11:26 - How they used Kickstarter to fund and expand their company.
12:53 - Why they pitched the company on Dragon's Den and what happened after they reached handshake deals from the 5 of the Dragons.
13:45 - Why they turned to FrontFundr for equity crowdfunding to avoid VC investment.
14:32 - How the delivery of a "stuffed beet" led to a $2M financing and path to public markets.
15:51 - Plans for expansion including a new "HQ" in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood of Vancouver.
16:48 - How the business model for plant-based meat compares to conventional meat products.
18:35 - Plans for brand expansion including The Very Good Cheese Co.
19:31 - Their alternative to chicken wings that utilizes cauliflower.
20:54 - How traditional meat-eaters respond to their product
21:09 - Utilizing food tech for quality scalability.
22:40 - The global appeal of plant-based eating.
23:29 - How COVID contributed to its growth and demand for their product.
26:05 - The company's shipping capabilities across North America.
Related links:
https://www.verygoodbutchers.com/
https://thecse.com/en/listings/diversified-industries/the-very-good-food-company-inc
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, it's James here welcoming you to this
presentation of the hashtagfinance podcast.
This is just a reminder that ifyou like video, all of our CEO
and expert interviews arefeatured on the hashtag finance
playlist on CCTV, including theshow that you were about to
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(00:20):
And finally, this is just afriendly reminder that the views
information or opinionsexpressed during the podcast are
solely those of the individualsinvolved and do not necessarily
represent those of the Canadiansecurities exchange and its
employees.
So happy listening, and nowenjoy the show.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
This is hashtag finance presented to you by the
Canadian securities exchange theexchange for entrepreneurs with
your host James Black James, andI'm here from new markets
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Today.
Broadcasting another episode ofhashtag finance, and I'm really
excited to be joined by the verygood butchers from the very good
food company.
Uh, neat James Davidson andMitchell Scott joining me from
Victoria British Columbiagentlemen, how you doing today,
guys?
Pleasure now on the show, right?
Thanks man.
Uh, full disclosure, we'retaping this before the company
(01:12):
has listed so on the Canadiansecurities exchange.
So I don't even know what yourstock ticker symbol is going to
be yet.
I'm not really supposed to knowuntil we announce it, but if,
you know, maybe we'll have achance at the onset to throw it
up.
So don't say anything yet.
Uh, but what I do know is thatyou guys, uh, have been in the
midst of, uh, raising publiccapital.
(01:32):
You've got a, uh, offeringprospectus, uh, which was a sign
off I can't afford.
You can see it on CDR under thevery good food company.
And, uh, let's, let's take astep back before we tell the
story, but while you're in themarket, but what are you guys
doing?
You, you both have theset-shirts on, it looks like
you're working at a restaurant.
What's what's, what's yourstory.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Yeah, one of the things, I guess, I'll start with
the backstory.
Um, so we all were at our a bitshop in Victoria, BC, and that
all started with me on DemondIsland, uh, coming up with this
idea of the very good pitchers.
I just be a, I just became avegan basically.
And, um, I kind of, wasn'treally happy with what I was
(02:15):
seeing on the, on the shelves inthe store.
Um, but I'd been a chef for 13years kind of like into my, all
my foods.
Um, and I really wanted to keephold of being able to have kind
of like all my bills and part ofthat, it's like the meats that
went with it, but like thesausages and the burgers and the
grapes and all those kind ofthings.
Um, so I'm sitting at home oneday.
(02:35):
I kind of fall while I just tryit myself.
So you see how I go and, um,kinda came up with four or five
products and then send them downto the farmer's market on Demond
there and just had anoverwhelming reaction to it.
Um, I would basically spend likea week in my kitchen at home
making as much meat as I curved,and then it would sell out in a
(02:56):
couple of hours at the farmer'smarket.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
But by me, you mean this has been derived a plant
based food or is there otherelements involved?
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Yeah, so that's basically a like beans, organic
wheat, vegetables, hubs, spices,um, kind of as organic as we can
, um, still kind of getting afew different ingredients, try
to source organically.
Um, but we will be gettingorganically certified or like
our first five products,hopefully in the next six
(03:25):
months.
Okay.
Um, when you answer messagereactions back and then, um,
they kinda Mitchell came alongand he tried it and he'd been
vegetarian for a long time.
Mmm.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
And like I said, a lot of not very good burgers
that was, you know, I'm prettyimpressed with, with what he
saw.
Right.
And, uh, decided let's try andmake it a business.
Right.
So my, my baseline is the, uh,the one you get from Costco that
comes in the frozen package.
So, so what do you guys do?
That's I imagine a little betterthan that.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
I think, yeah, I've got bigger kind of differences
are the quality of theingredients we get.
So it's all, um, it's organicvegetables or it's kind of queen
or bank Bali.
You're getting oil everywhere.
We can go organic.
We have, and then it's minimallyprocessed.
So imagine kind of making asuper home, that's kind of where
(04:17):
we start with that kind of base.
And then we add our, um, highprotein wheat flour and then
find everything makes it, thatgives it, that meeting too.
Again, that's where the organicwe, um, so it's, it's, it's
basically, I try to be asmentally approached as possible.
Everything that you see on thepackage you'll understand, you
potentially have it in yourkitchen or home.
Um, and that's kind of how wewant to, we want to keep things
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Right.
So if I, uh, my next questionwas for Mitchell, the, um, the,
your origin as a chef.
So you were a chef in the UK.
I've, I've detected an accent,but I also read your biography.
So, um, and so the, this, thisculinary training that you had,
which obviously led to yourability to be creative in the
(05:00):
kitchen with these ingredients,um, what did, what did you know,
or when did you bring the tablefrom your culinary experience
that helped you do this?
But I also want to know, whatdid you have to unlearn, uh,
which I assume when you were inculinary school, they were
teaching you all the differentways you can cook me and all the
ways you can make sauce off me,but they weren't necessarily
telling you how to make a beanbased meat substitute.
(05:21):
No.
So I think the biggest thingthat I brought from the colory
world is just an understandingof flavor and has great flavor.
Um, I think that's the biggestthing let's see, when you having
a product like meat it's comesdown to texture and face.
Um, so we've, all of theproducts are used flavors that
you would associate with thatproduct.
So I, when I first made asausage, I was like using leaks
(05:44):
and apples and Sage time, um,
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Those kinds of, those kind of flavors that you would
already associate with a sausage, um, and then trying to add in
some more like umami flavorswith various,
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Um, different ingredients, um, just to try and
, uh, kind of get that meatinessas well.
Yeah.
The texture is important, right?
The texture is already blown.
Yeah.
And that's where the weightcomes in.
It's um, for a bedtime productsthat protein really acts kind of
like a, the proteins you find inlike the muscles of anatomy, it
gives it that amazing shirtright now.
(06:21):
They tell, I was going to say,because not too many businesses
end up on the public marketsthat started in Denman.
So Denman for those watching.
So if you're going on VancouverIsland, you're going up the
highway and you decided to gopass in an IMO and you find
yourself somewhere in the couchand Valley, you'll actually find
a little ferry terminal.
I forget the name, but I, I I'vebeen there.
(06:42):
A Buckley Buckley Bay, I shouldsay, to decide, you're going to
go to Demond Island.
You're not going to go shuckingoysters that day.
You go to Denman Island, yousay, okay, I'm not going to go
to Hornby Island, which is thesecond Island you can get to
from there.
It's beautiful.
It's actually gorgeous.
I highly recommend you go there,but stay in Denman and go to the
market and you end up findingyour products.
(07:02):
So I assume this was sort oflike the proving ground, um, as
James alluded to you guys wereselling this product, but I
imagine this was a reallyimportant time in the formation
of the company to learn whatpeople were responding to and
maybe what they didn't like, andreally that, that proving
ground.
Can you talk a bit about howimportant that experience was to
have that environment and wantme to hear your voice?
Speaker 4 (07:25):
Oh, absolutely.
Yeah.
Um, so it, yeah, so as Jamesmentioned, um, so that was like
the summer of 2016.
Who's selling them at thefarmer's market, actually tried
the products at a familybarbecue.
So we're, um, somehow related.
So James, his wife's brother ismarried to my sister, so it's,
you know, some sort ofstepbrother type situation.
So anyways, basically.
(07:47):
Yeah.
So that's how I kind of firstgot introduced to the products.
And I think that piece of it wascrucial.
Cause that's when you're findingproduct market fit, he's testing
it one week, you know, he'stweaking the recipe slightly the
next week.
I'm just getting that kind ofinstantaneous feedback.
Um, and that's how we kind of,we took that model when we
decided to kind of expandthings.
Um, so after that first summeron Demond at the farmer's
(08:09):
markets, uh, we decided to teamup, uh, one of the first events
we did was a little pop upmarket in Victoria, a little
Christmas market.
Uh, so we showed up with, youknow, two coolers full of meat.
And over two days we sold outeverything.
I had a few hundred people showup, we'd post on a local kind of
Facebook group before.
Um, this was in the Victoriapublic market as kind of a big
indoor market.
(08:29):
Um, while we were there, wenoticed that a full time retail
space available, um, and themarket manager approached us and
said, Hey, you know, you guysare, people are loving your
meat, you should, uh, try one ofthese retail spaces.
Um, so we've kind of justdecided to go for it.
And then a few months afterthat, we opened the first vegan
butcher shop on the West coastof Canada, which is where we are
today.
Um, we've got about a thousandpeople show up in our opening
day and we actually had to shutdown for a week after that, just
(08:51):
to restock everything.
Um, so for that first I was, uh,it was pretty incredible.
Um, and having that butcher shopexperience really allows us to
test and innovate and justswitch things up.
And also obviously, cause wewere production limited
initially, you know, we'rerolling sausages by hand, we're
pressing burgers by hand, uh,that direct to consumer sales
model makes a lot more sense.
(09:11):
You're maintaining more of themargin.
You're also building acommunity, you're building a
customer base more so than if wewere just to create a product
and sell it in a traditionalwholesale, a wholesale channel.
I think it really allows us toform that bond with our customer
, um, and build that kind ofstrong community.
Um, so like today we've gotaround 55, 60,000 followers on
(09:32):
Facebook and Instagram combinedand that's really just helped
fuel all our, of our otherefforts and projects and things
we're working on.
So do you ever get, uh, thepeople who are traditional
butchers come up to you guys andgo, you can't kill yourself, put
yours as your meatatarian orwhatever, what era vegetarian,
vegetarian, is there any, isthere any friction there with
(09:52):
the traditional butchercommunity with, um, even using
the term?
I'd say when we first started,there was definitely a bit of
blowback, cause it was verylike, people had never heard of
a vegan butcher before, um,which actually worked great for
us cause of all the peopletalking like there was the blow
back then there's the peoplesupporting it and it ended up
just multiplying and it was likeCTV news.
It was their most commented andshared in like Facebook posts of
(10:15):
the year.
So then they came and did afollowup story on us.
Um, I'd say maybe a couple timesa year we'd get an angry email
from someone or, or someoneshows up trying to get an ox
bone or something here and itgets confused, but I think it's
becoming more and more commonlike plant-based to the past few
years has just really, reallytaken off.
Um, so I think it's, I thinkpeople, people for the most part
(10:37):
are open to it.
At least that's what it's called,
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Sorry as a proving ground, because there's so many
different food options there.
I think it's the mostrestaurants per capita in the
country.
Last time I lived there, um,you've got a very much, uh, a
growing, um, youth population.
It's traditionally been an oldercity, but it's gotten a lot
younger over the last few yearsI imagined, um, almost just
cause it has to, but it's uh,and it's got a nice core.
(11:03):
It's got a bit downtown thatisn't too big.
So you often have your three orfour favorite places you go.
Um, so talk to me then about youguys ended up on, on your track
to, to raising capital and youdecided you're not just going to
be a vendor at food fairs,you're going to go and actually
expand and create a enterprise.
And I imagine that's what ledyou to Dragon's den for some
(11:24):
seed capital.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
Yeah.
So, so what ended up happening?
Um, so we opened, we had athousand people show up and we
were like, Holy shit.
You know, people, sorry, Holyshooters, people, people like
this, um, there's a market here.
And then from that day on, we'vebeen production limited and art
until this day.
So there's more demand for ourproduct and we're able to
supply.
So that's demand in storedemand, it's online demand.
(11:47):
So we have an eCommerce storeand then it's also retail
demand.
Um, so we figured like, youknow, how do we, how do we scale
this up, take it to the nextlevel.
Um, so one of the first thingswe did in those, like the first
six months, uh, we launched aKickstarter campaign, uh, raised
about 74,000 from 800 differentbackers.
It was basically just a giantpreorder for our products.
Uh, we use that money to expandinto a larger butcher shop,
(12:08):
which is where we are today.
Um, so we expanded, we expandedour hot food lineup.
We expanded our productoffering.
Um, and as I was mentioning, theconcept is like that of a
traditional butcher shop.
So you get in, come in, you getto be meats and cheeses.
I stopped by the a hundred grams.
We also have a quick servicerestaurant with kind of a fast
casual food.
So that's all highlighting ourproducts.
So burgers, deli sandwiches,vegan Mac and cheese poutines,
(12:31):
just that kind of vegan comfortfood, um, that would just really
showcase our products.
Um, so we did that, um,Kickstarter campaign moved to
the bigger space and realized,you know, we're still at
capacity here.
We're a little productionkitchen in the back.
And there was eight people inthere making meat from, you
know, six in the morning till 11at night.
And we're like, we need to kindof take it to the next step.
(12:54):
Um, and so we, the Dragon's denpeople were in town just doing
their little auditions and wentdown their pitch and they said,
okay, come to Toronto.
Um, so we went to Toronto, um,had a great result on Dragon's
den.
Uh, we got handshake offers fromfive of the six dragons.
I ended up, uh, Oh, sorry.
Yeah, we got offers from five ofthe six dragons.
(13:14):
Did a handshake deal with two ofthem, uh, for 750 K and a
million dollar interest freeloan for 10%, which was like a 7
million valuation at the time,like a year or two years after
founding, which we were prettystoked on.
Um, unfortunately it ended upfalling through, um, who's
interested just out ofcuriosity.
Do you remember who it was?
(13:35):
It was laying in Michelle.
Yeah.
Michelle Romano.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then the next lane was anewer one from Colona, um, which
was so we were stoked in that.
Unfortunately the deal ended upfalling through, which is
apparently pretty common withthe Dragon's done deals.
Uh, we just ended up gettingoffered less than we were
willing to accept in the end.
Um, so we turned around and weraised around on front thunder,
(13:57):
which is an equity crowdfundingplatform.
Uh, so we raised 600,000, uh, onbasically the same terms as the
Dragon's den deal.
Uh, so it was a convertible notewith a seven and a half million
dollar cap.
Um, that was just over a yearago, maybe a year and a half
now.
Um, and then circle.
That's very cool.
Yeah.
I know, I know that if I'm infront of funder, founder, Peter
(14:17):
Paul, and uh, okay.
That's very gratifying.
Cause I know the idea was alwaysthat you would go use this
system to then, you know, bridgeinto the capital market, the
public markets, um, you know,instead of having to go do the
DVC thing like you tried to dobasically on exactly.
And then kinda kind of afterthat front, front around, I also
did the traditional kind offundraising, willing to pitch
events working in that wholething for probably six months,
(14:41):
six or eight months, um, hadsome offers, some term sheets,
none of them were that great.
And I wasn't happy with them.
Um, then we, we met a group, uh,was actually delivering a
stuffed bee.
So that's our Thanksgivingholiday, our holiday Rose out of
this, this house in a nice housein West Vancouver.
Um, and I got talking to the guythere and next thing you know,
(15:03):
he'd gotten up a few of hisbuddies and they put together a,
uh, around for us.
Um, so we raised just under$2million, uh, last July.
Um, and then the end goal of theend goal was that, so there was
a private, private placementbasically, but with a goal of
taking the public, the companypublic in the next kind of year
or so, um, this was also aroundthe time when Brianna gun
(15:23):
public, there was a ton ofinterest in the market and the
sector.
Um, and yeah, for us, it waskind of the, one of the best
offers that was on the table.
And we saw it as a great kind ofsomewhat different way to move
forward.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
So I'm not good at math, but you, from this point
that you've just mentioned,you've raised about two point$6
million.
So from funder, then thepre-public round with the, um,
the guys from us Vancouver, andnow you're, you've done an
offering perspective.
So what was the goal of that?
Speaker 4 (15:51):
Yeah, so we closed that out.
Uh, it was 4 million.
Um, it was yeah, oversubscribed,um, sorry, just to mention, we
did also do a small seed roundat the beginning with some
friends and family and I alsoput some money in, but it was
fairly minor.
Um, so the goal of this, theprivate round was to get us
ready to go public and alsoreally help expand our
manufacturing capacities.
(16:12):
Um, so about eight months ago,we opened up a 4,000 square foot
facility, just down the roadfrom here.
Uh, we started bringing somebigger machinery and we really,
really increased our productioncapacity there.
Um, and now with the, this,this, this round, this, this IPO
round, uh, we're expanding toVancouver, um, we've signed a
lease on a space there it'sabout 10,000 square feet.
(16:33):
It's going to be mixed use.
So, uh, butcher shop, restaurantproduction facility, R and D lab
, um, some office space kind ofall under one roof.
It's going to be kind of a,what's the word?
HQ.
HQ.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Yeah.
So, so the, the, the, the littlecompany that could out of
Victoria does have to get offthe Island.
We do things which is okay.
I mean, you already left oneIsland.
Why slowly the second?
Um, so this, this talk about the, the, the plant based business
itself.
Like there's just the industry.
(17:08):
So we know beyond meat and howexcited people were for that
product, because everyonethought everyone's going to move
off traditional meat to plantbased.
And there's been some hiccupsalong the way, but I think the
point has been proven thatpeople do want an alternatives
right now from a businessoperator perspective.
What are their advantages toworking in a plant based is a
(17:29):
better margin on, on the endproduct?
Like, can you price close toreal meat, or is it, um, are you
charging a premium, like, I, I,haven't gone and bought a meat
sausage or a meatless sausageand some time or whatever.
Um, can you just give me an ideaof the cops and what people are
looking at from a business modelperspective?
For sure.
And like for us or our inputsare relatively cheap.
Speaker 4 (17:49):
I mean, it's beans,
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Veggies, herbs, and spices.
We're not using a lot of kind ofisolates or, or chemicals or
additives or anything.
Um, so we can be pricecompetitive.
Um, that being said because ofthe quality of ingredients where
we're kind of going for thatartisan handcrafted butcher shop
style product.
Um, so we try to price it closeto what you'd see kind of in a
conventional butcher shop, uh,for sausages or patties or that
(18:12):
kind of stuff.
So beyond me, and if I go to,are they trying to tackle the
more mass production type marketwhere they can go to burger King
or they can go to a, um, youknow, Tim Horton's and sell them
an approximate Patty that peoplecan say, well, that's not me,
but, you know, I don't know.
I haven't, I've taught, I'vetried that product.
I can't say I was terribly happywith it, but I've had really
(18:34):
good plant based stuff.
There's a place here in Torontocalled Planta.
I think it's still going and youhave their burger.
You wouldn't know that you'rehaving a non traditional meat
burger.
It's phenomenal.
Um, so that's, that'sinteresting.
So you guys, you guys are notgoing to move the Island.
What other expansion plans youhave?
So you've got the very goodbutcher brand, but is there more
to this very good food companybrand, um, your empire, I should
(18:58):
say, are you guys going to moveinto different verticals?
Is there more room to grow as a,as a provider of plant based
foods
Speaker 4 (19:05):
Production?
Absolutely.
So that's kind of the end goalis we have this very good food
company then inside of that,there's a few kind of distinct
brands.
So we've got the very goodbutchers how we'd love to do the
very good cheese co uh, we'recurrently developing a few other
kind of food-related productsthat don't quite fit in our
what's your brand.
Cause they're not strictly meatalternative, but there's still a
great plant based product.
(19:25):
So that is, we have a fewcompanies under this very good
food company, umbrella, allexamples of that.
Yeah.
Of which
Speaker 1 (19:31):
The last one you just mentioned, you said it's not non
meal.
Like, what do you mean?
Speaker 4 (19:35):
Yeah.
So for example, we havesomething called a Callie wings.
So it's like a breadedcauliflower in it.
It's kind of like a, like achicken wing, but it's not made
the way we make our meatalternatives.
It's, it's more of like adelicious or appetizer.
It's not quite that meat.
It's not quite as medias, butwe're not trying to imitate a
chicken wing.
(19:55):
Right.
But it still fulfills that.
Yeah.
So it just feels like, and likefor another example, we're
Wisconsin, we've got a reallygood vegan Manny as we make here
in the shop.
We'd love to put that in abottle and sell that.
It's a bit weird if it has thatvery good Pinterest branding,
right.
Cause it's not really a, youdon't expect to buy mayonnaise
from a butcher.
So that was kind of the, theidea behind rolling out this
(20:17):
very good food company.
Uh, so we can kind of expandinto other verticals, use the
very good butchers brand powerand hopefully kind of transfer
it into these other different,different plant-based verticals.
Do you want people
Speaker 1 (20:30):
To approximate the taste of your food to real meat,
or we just send a transitionperiod where eventually people
will know and accept and betotally happy with that.
The factory eating a plant basedmeat substitute and just go, I
actually prefer this, like, thisis my jam.
Whether or not you eat meat, youknow what I mean?
Like if you, if you hadexperience James where someone
has eaten something and gone,like this is actually better
(20:51):
than a hamburger or better thana sausage.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
Yeah, I think so.
Um, I think because people, whenpeople look at the ingredients
and they see what they're eatingand there was a lot of that,
like, Oh, I feel so much betterabout this product.
What about eating a competitor'sproduct, all the traditional
meat.
And so having looked at
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Beyond meat and what they've done, what do you know
you've touched on it, but I wantto get into a little more detail
as you know, they were knocked alittle bit again for product
quality in that product qualitythat you guys are bringing to
the table.
Um, I assume this is going to bethe pathway forward.
You're just going to stick withthat butcher quality.
You're not going to go massproduction unless, you know, you
want to get on a store shelf.
You've got to start makingcompromises.
(21:30):
No.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
Yeah.
I think for me, it's, it's goingto be a combination of, um, kind
of clean food tech and then ourorganic load process when the
sensibilities, if you will, intothis start.
Um, so I think to really feed alot of people and to really make
a big impact, we will need touse, um, some food tech.
(21:52):
Um, and I think that makingthose products kind of a little
bit more kind of realistic orkind of, you know, appeal to a
different market.
So then we'll, I think we'llhave both the kind of markets
covered the very sort of hypernatural.
I don't really care if it tasteslike, like meet people and then
other people are like, I can'tgive up me.
It needs to taste exactly.
Like it needs to be interesting.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
And, but you guys had mentioned beverages you're in
the beverage space at all, orjust, just the physical.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
So currently it's just, just meat alternatives, um
, looking at sauces and stuffthat at some point, very good.
Probably be nice.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Meatless beer.
Yeah.
Um, no, that's that's do youever go back to the UK James and
try to sell your friends andyour family stuff for them?
And they just,
Speaker 3 (22:40):
I don't get back there often enough, but there is
a big bump based or veganmovement in, um, in the UK
shorts.
Um, it's really taken off that.
There's going to be like the bigkind of the big brands and the
big stores, the Tescos and thewhite Jordan's full have their
own kind of line of veganproducts.
Now it's, it's, it's the height.
(23:00):
It's still the, it's the biggestgrowing sector.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
I mean, you look at a country like India.
I mean, a lot of their dietsreally based.
You just have to look outsideyour own border to see that
there's a gross acceptance ofthis style of eating.
It's not just this, it'sactually more of a North America
phenomenon.
How we, you know, put meat onher plate, you know, breakfast,
lunch, and dinner.
It's, it's a unique to what wedo actually.
So we're deprogrammingourselves.
(23:24):
It was still like that in theUK.
Yeah, no, I don't doubt itagain.
I always ask this question inthis environment during COVID,
um, you guys are growing athriving business.
What have you had to do toadjust?
What have you had to, um, youknow, pivot around to, to make
sure that you guys can keep onyour growth track, raise that
money, hit the market with yourboth be running, hitting the
ground, um, you know, withoutgetting caught up in everything,
(23:47):
that's keeping everyone at home.
Speaker 4 (23:50):
Yeah.
So, I mean, COVID definitelyslowed down our fundraising
process a little bit kind ofpushed it back by kind of a
month or two.
Um, that being said, it was kindof business as usual as, as much
as possible for us.
Um, we obviously the restaurant,what's your shot here.
We really reduce the hourspivoted to take out and delivery
only.
Um, but our online businessreally took off.
(24:12):
Part of that was COVID related.
Part of that was also productionincreases in a new marketing
partnership we brought on.
Um, and then our retailwholesale grocery store business
also went up as well, just aspeople are buying more, eating
more at home and stocking up ongroceries.
Um, so we actually had to staffup during COVID well trying to
still maintain kind of safety.
Uh, so we put on a second shiftand just really spaced employees
(24:35):
out.
Um, yeah, nothing else justseeing massive growth for it.
It's, um, it's been kind ofincredible this last few moments
, um, and it's just been tryingto keep up with that, that
demand and, um,
Speaker 1 (24:51):
Increase as far as we can, but, you know, keeping up
with the, uh, with puttingolders and, um, give me a one
that these are, these are goodproblems to have.
It's incredible.
Okay.
In the next step, as you said,is moving to HQ to, I guess,
Vancouver or somewhere inVancouver.
Um, anything else you wanted tojust mention before we get to
the wrap?
Speaker 4 (25:12):
Um, you know, I mean, we've got a few other things
that we can't really quite talkabout yet, but, uh, maybe
expecting them to anannouncement or a press release
in the next few weeks.
Um, but yeah, I mean we have bigplans and we're really kind of
ready to
Speaker 1 (25:23):
The biggest by storm and where's the best place to
follow you guys just go to verygood.
Butchers are good.
Speaker 4 (25:29):
Very good.
butchers.com.
The very good butchers onFacebook, the very good booklets
on Instagram.
So we've got our kind of, yeah,our very good your website and
we'll have an investors page upthere as well in the next kind
of day or two, a bunch more infoabout the company.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Yes.
It'd be launching the websitethe next few days.
Right.
And for those listing, you canalso go, am I looking at these
are, so these are very goodburgers.
I don't know if the light mightbe a bit on it.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
We've also got our pepperoni here and James, his
favorite are a very Britishbangers.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
That's what I meant to ask.
Yeah.
What are you guys taking homeevery night?
Speaker 4 (26:05):
You pass the beads, lays the British maggots and
where do you have to be?
Can you deliver across countryor is it just local to Victoria?
So we actually currently shipacross North America.
Um, so we, we shipped by DHLinto the state, so airmail, uh,
and then we, yeah, we ship allthe way to the East coast as
well.
We have a special insulated boxice packs.
(26:25):
Um, we're a little bit behindright now on fulfilling orders
just cause we have too manyorders.
Uh, but we're, we're, we'rescaling up quickly.
Um, and yeah,
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Beautiful, beautiful.
Well for those listening, uh,the company will be public by
the time you hear this.
So you can go to the cse.com.
All the company's disclosurewill be up there, but uh, good
luck to you guys.
I really appreciate you takingthe time to share more about the
company, uh, for those listeningor watching again, subscribe.
So if you're listening to thisas a podcast, just make sure you
(26:55):
subscribe.
If you're on iTunes or Apple orGoogle, Spotify, whatever, just
push subscribe, and you'll getmore great content like this.
If you're watching, you'rewatching and CCTV, and again, we
want you to subscribe.
We're putting out two or threevideos a week interviewing great
entrepreneurs like JamesMitchell, who are doing an
amazing job, bringing newinnovations to the market.
And I'm James I'm from the CSC.
(27:15):
And I want to thank you againfor watching until next time.
Take care.
Hey, it's James here remindingyou that if you just enjoyed
this episode of hashtag finance,there's a lot more, make sure
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(27:38):
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(28:04):
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Hey, it's James here welcoming you to this
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(00:20):
And finally, this is just afriendly reminder that the views
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So happy listening, and nowenjoy the show.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
This is hashtag finance presented to you by the
Canadian securities exchange theexchange for entrepreneurs with
your host James Black James, andI'm here from new markets
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Today.
Broadcasting another episode ofhashtag finance, and I'm really
excited to be joined by the verygood butchers from the very good
food company.
Uh, neat James Davidson andMitchell Scott joining me from
Victoria British Columbiagentlemen, how you doing today,
guys?
Pleasure now on the show, right?
Thanks man.
Uh, full disclosure, we'retaping this before the company
(01:12):
has listed so on the Canadiansecurities exchange.
So I don't even know what yourstock ticker symbol is going to
be yet.
I'm not really supposed to knowuntil we announce it, but if,
you know, maybe we'll have achance at the onset to throw it
up.
So don't say anything yet.
Uh, but what I do know is thatyou guys, uh, have been in the
midst of, uh, raising publiccapital.
(01:32):
You've got a, uh, offeringprospectus, uh, which was a sign
off I can't afford.
You can see it on CDR under thevery good food company.
And, uh, let's, let's take astep back before we tell the
story, but while you're in themarket, but what are you guys
doing?
You, you both have theset-shirts on, it looks like
you're working at a restaurant.
What's what's, what's yourstory.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Yeah, one of the things, I guess, I'll start with
the backstory.
Um, so we all were at our a bitshop in Victoria, BC, and that
all started with me on DemondIsland, uh, coming up with this
idea of the very good pitchers.
I just be a, I just became avegan basically.
And, um, I kind of, wasn'treally happy with what I was
(02:15):
seeing on the, on the shelves inthe store.
Um, but I'd been a chef for 13years kind of like into my, all
my foods.
Um, and I really wanted to keephold of being able to have kind
of like all my bills and part ofthat, it's like the meats that
went with it, but like thesausages and the burgers and the
grapes and all those kind ofthings.
Um, so I'm sitting at home oneday.
(02:35):
I kind of fall while I just tryit myself.
So you see how I go and, um,kinda came up with four or five
products and then send them downto the farmer's market on Demond
there and just had anoverwhelming reaction to it.
Um, I would basically spend likea week in my kitchen at home
making as much meat as I curved,and then it would sell out in a
(02:56):
couple of hours at the farmer'smarket.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
But by me, you mean this has been derived a plant
based food or is there otherelements involved?
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Yeah, so that's basically a like beans, organic
wheat, vegetables, hubs, spices,um, kind of as organic as we can
, um, still kind of getting afew different ingredients, try
to source organically.
Um, but we will be gettingorganically certified or like
our first five products,hopefully in the next six
(03:25):
months.
Okay.
Um, when you answer messagereactions back and then, um,
they kinda Mitchell came alongand he tried it and he'd been
vegetarian for a long time.
Mmm.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
And like I said, a lot of not very good burgers
that was, you know, I'm prettyimpressed with, with what he
saw.
Right.
And, uh, decided let's try andmake it a business.
Right.
So my, my baseline is the, uh,the one you get from Costco that
comes in the frozen package.
So, so what do you guys do?
That's I imagine a little betterthan that.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
I think, yeah, I've got bigger kind of differences
are the quality of theingredients we get.
So it's all, um, it's organicvegetables or it's kind of queen
or bank Bali.
You're getting oil everywhere.
We can go organic.
We have, and then it's minimallyprocessed.
So imagine kind of making asuper home, that's kind of where
(04:17):
we start with that kind of base.
And then we add our, um, highprotein wheat flour and then
find everything makes it, thatgives it, that meeting too.
Again, that's where the organicwe, um, so it's, it's, it's
basically, I try to be asmentally approached as possible.
Everything that you see on thepackage you'll understand, you
potentially have it in yourkitchen or home.
Um, and that's kind of how wewant to, we want to keep things
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Right.
So if I, uh, my next questionwas for Mitchell, the, um, the,
your origin as a chef.
So you were a chef in the UK.
I've, I've detected an accent,but I also read your biography.
So, um, and so the, this, thisculinary training that you had,
which obviously led to yourability to be creative in the
(05:00):
kitchen with these ingredients,um, what did, what did you know,
or when did you bring the tablefrom your culinary experience
that helped you do this?
But I also want to know, whatdid you have to unlearn, uh,
which I assume when you were inculinary school, they were
teaching you all the differentways you can cook me and all the
ways you can make sauce off me,but they weren't necessarily
telling you how to make a beanbased meat substitute.
(05:21):
No.
So I think the biggest thingthat I brought from the colory
world is just an understandingof flavor and has great flavor.
Um, I think that's the biggestthing let's see, when you having
a product like meat it's comesdown to texture and face.
Um, so we've, all of theproducts are used flavors that
you would associate with thatproduct.
So I, when I first made asausage, I was like using leaks
(05:44):
and apples and Sage time, um,
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Those kinds of, those kind of flavors that you would
already associate with a sausage, um, and then trying to add in
some more like umami flavorswith various,
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Um, different ingredients, um, just to try and
, uh, kind of get that meatinessas well.
Yeah.
The texture is important, right?
The texture is already blown.
Yeah.
And that's where the weightcomes in.
It's um, for a bedtime productsthat protein really acts kind of
like a, the proteins you find inlike the muscles of anatomy, it
gives it that amazing shirtright now.
(06:21):
They tell, I was going to say,because not too many businesses
end up on the public marketsthat started in Denman.
So Denman for those watching.
So if you're going on VancouverIsland, you're going up the
highway and you decided to gopass in an IMO and you find
yourself somewhere in the couchand Valley, you'll actually find
a little ferry terminal.
I forget the name, but I, I I'vebeen there.
(06:42):
A Buckley Buckley Bay, I shouldsay, to decide, you're going to
go to Demond Island.
You're not going to go shuckingoysters that day.
You go to Denman Island, yousay, okay, I'm not going to go
to Hornby Island, which is thesecond Island you can get to
from there.
It's beautiful.
It's actually gorgeous.
I highly recommend you go there,but stay in Denman and go to the
market and you end up findingyour products.
(07:02):
So I assume this was sort oflike the proving ground, um, as
James alluded to you guys wereselling this product, but I
imagine this was a reallyimportant time in the formation
of the company to learn whatpeople were responding to and
maybe what they didn't like, andreally that, that proving
ground.
Can you talk a bit about howimportant that experience was to
have that environment and wantme to hear your voice?
Speaker 4 (07:25):
Oh, absolutely.
Yeah.
Um, so it, yeah, so as Jamesmentioned, um, so that was like
the summer of 2016.
Who's selling them at thefarmer's market, actually tried
the products at a familybarbecue.
So we're, um, somehow related.
So James, his wife's brother ismarried to my sister, so it's,
you know, some sort ofstepbrother type situation.
So anyways, basically.
(07:47):
Yeah.
So that's how I kind of firstgot introduced to the products.
And I think that piece of it wascrucial.
Cause that's when you're findingproduct market fit, he's testing
it one week, you know, he'stweaking the recipe slightly the
next week.
I'm just getting that kind ofinstantaneous feedback.
Um, and that's how we kind of,we took that model when we
decided to kind of expandthings.
Um, so after that first summeron Demond at the farmer's
(08:09):
markets, uh, we decided to teamup, uh, one of the first events
we did was a little pop upmarket in Victoria, a little
Christmas market.
Uh, so we showed up with, youknow, two coolers full of meat.
And over two days we sold outeverything.
I had a few hundred people showup, we'd post on a local kind of
Facebook group before.
Um, this was in the Victoriapublic market as kind of a big
indoor market.
(08:29):
Um, while we were there, wenoticed that a full time retail
space available, um, and themarket manager approached us and
said, Hey, you know, you guysare, people are loving your
meat, you should, uh, try one ofthese retail spaces.
Um, so we've kind of justdecided to go for it.
And then a few months afterthat, we opened the first vegan
butcher shop on the West coastof Canada, which is where we are
today.
Um, we've got about a thousandpeople show up in our opening
day and we actually had to shutdown for a week after that, just
(08:51):
to restock everything.
Um, so for that first I was, uh,it was pretty incredible.
Um, and having that butcher shopexperience really allows us to
test and innovate and justswitch things up.
And also obviously, cause wewere production limited
initially, you know, we'rerolling sausages by hand, we're
pressing burgers by hand, uh,that direct to consumer sales
model makes a lot more sense.
(09:11):
You're maintaining more of themargin.
You're also building acommunity, you're building a
customer base more so than if wewere just to create a product
and sell it in a traditionalwholesale, a wholesale channel.
I think it really allows us toform that bond with our customer
, um, and build that kind ofstrong community.
Um, so like today we've gotaround 55, 60,000 followers on
(09:32):
Facebook and Instagram combinedand that's really just helped
fuel all our, of our otherefforts and projects and things
we're working on.
So do you ever get, uh, thepeople who are traditional
butchers come up to you guys andgo, you can't kill yourself, put
yours as your meatatarian orwhatever, what era vegetarian,
vegetarian, is there any, isthere any friction there with
(09:52):
the traditional butchercommunity with, um, even using
the term?
I'd say when we first started,there was definitely a bit of
blowback, cause it was verylike, people had never heard of
a vegan butcher before, um,which actually worked great for
us cause of all the peopletalking like there was the blow
back then there's the peoplesupporting it and it ended up
just multiplying and it was likeCTV news.
It was their most commented andshared in like Facebook posts of
(10:15):
the year.
So then they came and did afollowup story on us.
Um, I'd say maybe a couple timesa year we'd get an angry email
from someone or, or someoneshows up trying to get an ox
bone or something here and itgets confused, but I think it's
becoming more and more commonlike plant-based to the past few
years has just really, reallytaken off.
Um, so I think it's, I thinkpeople, people for the most part
(10:37):
are open to it.
At least that's what it's called,
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Sorry as a proving ground, because there's so many
different food options there.
I think it's the mostrestaurants per capita in the
country.
Last time I lived there, um,you've got a very much, uh, a
growing, um, youth population.
It's traditionally been an oldercity, but it's gotten a lot
younger over the last few yearsI imagined, um, almost just
cause it has to, but it's uh,and it's got a nice core.
(11:03):
It's got a bit downtown thatisn't too big.
So you often have your three orfour favorite places you go.
Um, so talk to me then about youguys ended up on, on your track
to, to raising capital and youdecided you're not just going to
be a vendor at food fairs,you're going to go and actually
expand and create a enterprise.
And I imagine that's what ledyou to Dragon's den for some
(11:24):
seed capital.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
Yeah.
So, so what ended up happening?
Um, so we opened, we had athousand people show up and we
were like, Holy shit.
You know, people, sorry, Holyshooters, people, people like
this, um, there's a market here.
And then from that day on, we'vebeen production limited and art
until this day.
So there's more demand for ourproduct and we're able to
supply.
So that's demand in storedemand, it's online demand.
(11:47):
So we have an eCommerce storeand then it's also retail
demand.
Um, so we figured like, youknow, how do we, how do we scale
this up, take it to the nextlevel.
Um, so one of the first thingswe did in those, like the first
six months, uh, we launched aKickstarter campaign, uh, raised
about 74,000 from 800 differentbackers.
It was basically just a giantpreorder for our products.
Uh, we use that money to expandinto a larger butcher shop,
(12:08):
which is where we are today.
Um, so we expanded, we expandedour hot food lineup.
We expanded our productoffering.
Um, and as I was mentioning, theconcept is like that of a
traditional butcher shop.
So you get in, come in, you getto be meats and cheeses.
I stopped by the a hundred grams.
We also have a quick servicerestaurant with kind of a fast
casual food.
So that's all highlighting ourproducts.
So burgers, deli sandwiches,vegan Mac and cheese poutines,
(12:31):
just that kind of vegan comfortfood, um, that would just really
showcase our products.
Um, so we did that, um,Kickstarter campaign moved to
the bigger space and realized,you know, we're still at
capacity here.
We're a little productionkitchen in the back.
And there was eight people inthere making meat from, you
know, six in the morning till 11at night.
And we're like, we need to kindof take it to the next step.
(12:54):
Um, and so we, the Dragon's denpeople were in town just doing
their little auditions and wentdown their pitch and they said,
okay, come to Toronto.
Um, so we went to Toronto, um,had a great result on Dragon's
den.
Uh, we got handshake offers fromfive of the six dragons.
I ended up, uh, Oh, sorry.
Yeah, we got offers from five ofthe six dragons.
(13:14):
Did a handshake deal with two ofthem, uh, for 750 K and a
million dollar interest freeloan for 10%, which was like a 7
million valuation at the time,like a year or two years after
founding, which we were prettystoked on.
Um, unfortunately it ended upfalling through, um, who's
interested just out ofcuriosity.
Do you remember who it was?
(13:35):
It was laying in Michelle.
Yeah.
Michelle Romano.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then the next lane was anewer one from Colona, um, which
was so we were stoked in that.
Unfortunately the deal ended upfalling through, which is
apparently pretty common withthe Dragon's done deals.
Uh, we just ended up gettingoffered less than we were
willing to accept in the end.
Um, so we turned around and weraised around on front thunder,
(13:57):
which is an equity crowdfundingplatform.
Uh, so we raised 600,000, uh, onbasically the same terms as the
Dragon's den deal.
Uh, so it was a convertible notewith a seven and a half million
dollar cap.
Um, that was just over a yearago, maybe a year and a half
now.
Um, and then circle.
That's very cool.
Yeah.
I know, I know that if I'm infront of funder, founder, Peter
(14:17):
Paul, and uh, okay.
That's very gratifying.
Cause I know the idea was alwaysthat you would go use this
system to then, you know, bridgeinto the capital market, the
public markets, um, you know,instead of having to go do the
DVC thing like you tried to dobasically on exactly.
And then kinda kind of afterthat front, front around, I also
did the traditional kind offundraising, willing to pitch
events working in that wholething for probably six months,
(14:41):
six or eight months, um, hadsome offers, some term sheets,
none of them were that great.
And I wasn't happy with them.
Um, then we, we met a group, uh,was actually delivering a
stuffed bee.
So that's our Thanksgivingholiday, our holiday Rose out of
this, this house in a nice housein West Vancouver.
Um, and I got talking to the guythere and next thing you know,
(15:03):
he'd gotten up a few of hisbuddies and they put together a,
uh, around for us.
Um, so we raised just under$2million, uh, last July.
Um, and then the end goal of theend goal was that, so there was
a private, private placementbasically, but with a goal of
taking the public, the companypublic in the next kind of year
or so, um, this was also aroundthe time when Brianna gun
(15:23):
public, there was a ton ofinterest in the market and the
sector.
Um, and yeah, for us, it waskind of the, one of the best
offers that was on the table.
And we saw it as a great kind ofsomewhat different way to move
forward.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
So I'm not good at math, but you, from this point
that you've just mentioned,you've raised about two point$6
million.
So from funder, then thepre-public round with the, um,
the guys from us Vancouver, andnow you're, you've done an
offering perspective.
So what was the goal of that?
Speaker 4 (15:51):
Yeah, so we closed that out.
Uh, it was 4 million.
Um, it was yeah, oversubscribed,um, sorry, just to mention, we
did also do a small seed roundat the beginning with some
friends and family and I alsoput some money in, but it was
fairly minor.
Um, so the goal of this, theprivate round was to get us
ready to go public and alsoreally help expand our
manufacturing capacities.
(16:12):
Um, so about eight months ago,we opened up a 4,000 square foot
facility, just down the roadfrom here.
Uh, we started bringing somebigger machinery and we really,
really increased our productioncapacity there.
Um, and now with the, this,this, this round, this, this IPO
round, uh, we're expanding toVancouver, um, we've signed a
lease on a space there it'sabout 10,000 square feet.
(16:33):
It's going to be mixed use.
So, uh, butcher shop, restaurantproduction facility, R and D lab
, um, some office space kind ofall under one roof.
It's going to be kind of a,what's the word?
HQ.
HQ.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Yeah.
So, so the, the, the, the littlecompany that could out of
Victoria does have to get offthe Island.
We do things which is okay.
I mean, you already left oneIsland.
Why slowly the second?
Um, so this, this talk about the, the, the plant based business
itself.
Like there's just the industry.
(17:08):
So we know beyond meat and howexcited people were for that
product, because everyonethought everyone's going to move
off traditional meat to plantbased.
And there's been some hiccupsalong the way, but I think the
point has been proven thatpeople do want an alternatives
right now from a businessoperator perspective.
What are their advantages toworking in a plant based is a
(17:29):
better margin on, on the endproduct?
Like, can you price close toreal meat, or is it, um, are you
charging a premium, like, I, I,haven't gone and bought a meat
sausage or a meatless sausageand some time or whatever.
Um, can you just give me an ideaof the cops and what people are
looking at from a business modelperspective?
For sure.
And like for us or our inputsare relatively cheap.
Speaker 4 (17:49):
I mean, it's beans,
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Veggies, herbs, and spices.
We're not using a lot of kind ofisolates or, or chemicals or
additives or anything.
Um, so we can be pricecompetitive.
Um, that being said because ofthe quality of ingredients where
we're kind of going for thatartisan handcrafted butcher shop
style product.
Um, so we try to price it closeto what you'd see kind of in a
conventional butcher shop, uh,for sausages or patties or that
(18:12):
kind of stuff.
So beyond me, and if I go to,are they trying to tackle the
more mass production type marketwhere they can go to burger King
or they can go to a, um, youknow, Tim Horton's and sell them
an approximate Patty that peoplecan say, well, that's not me,
but, you know, I don't know.
I haven't, I've taught, I'vetried that product.
I can't say I was terribly happywith it, but I've had really
(18:34):
good plant based stuff.
There's a place here in Torontocalled Planta.
I think it's still going and youhave their burger.
You wouldn't know that you'rehaving a non traditional meat
burger.
It's phenomenal.
Um, so that's, that'sinteresting.
So you guys, you guys are notgoing to move the Island.
What other expansion plans youhave?
So you've got the very goodbutcher brand, but is there more
to this very good food companybrand, um, your empire, I should
(18:58):
say, are you guys going to moveinto different verticals?
Is there more room to grow as a,as a provider of plant based
foods
Speaker 4 (19:05):
Production?
Absolutely.
So that's kind of the end goalis we have this very good food
company then inside of that,there's a few kind of distinct
brands.
So we've got the very goodbutchers how we'd love to do the
very good cheese co uh, we'recurrently developing a few other
kind of food-related productsthat don't quite fit in our
what's your brand.
Cause they're not strictly meatalternative, but there's still a
great plant based product.
(19:25):
So that is, we have a fewcompanies under this very good
food company, umbrella, allexamples of that.
Yeah.
Of which
Speaker 1 (19:31):
The last one you just mentioned, you said it's not non
meal.
Like, what do you mean?
Speaker 4 (19:35):
Yeah.
So for example, we havesomething called a Callie wings.
So it's like a breadedcauliflower in it.
It's kind of like a, like achicken wing, but it's not made
the way we make our meatalternatives.
It's, it's more of like adelicious or appetizer.
It's not quite that meat.
It's not quite as medias, butwe're not trying to imitate a
chicken wing.
(19:55):
Right.
But it still fulfills that.
Yeah.
So it just feels like, and likefor another example, we're
Wisconsin, we've got a reallygood vegan Manny as we make here
in the shop.
We'd love to put that in abottle and sell that.
It's a bit weird if it has thatvery good Pinterest branding,
right.
Cause it's not really a, youdon't expect to buy mayonnaise
from a butcher.
So that was kind of the, theidea behind rolling out this
(20:17):
very good food company.
Uh, so we can kind of expandinto other verticals, use the
very good butchers brand powerand hopefully kind of transfer
it into these other different,different plant-based verticals.
Do you want people
Speaker 1 (20:30):
To approximate the taste of your food to real meat,
or we just send a transitionperiod where eventually people
will know and accept and betotally happy with that.
The factory eating a plant basedmeat substitute and just go, I
actually prefer this, like, thisis my jam.
Whether or not you eat meat, youknow what I mean?
Like if you, if you hadexperience James where someone
has eaten something and gone,like this is actually better
(20:51):
than a hamburger or better thana sausage.
Speaker 3 (20:54):
Yeah, I think so.
Um, I think because people, whenpeople look at the ingredients
and they see what they're eatingand there was a lot of that,
like, Oh, I feel so much betterabout this product.
What about eating a competitor'sproduct, all the traditional
meat.
And so having looked at
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Beyond meat and what they've done, what do you know
you've touched on it, but I wantto get into a little more detail
as you know, they were knocked alittle bit again for product
quality in that product qualitythat you guys are bringing to
the table.
Um, I assume this is going to bethe pathway forward.
You're just going to stick withthat butcher quality.
You're not going to go massproduction unless, you know, you
want to get on a store shelf.
You've got to start makingcompromises.
(21:30):
No.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
Yeah.
I think for me, it's, it's goingto be a combination of, um, kind
of clean food tech and then ourorganic load process when the
sensibilities, if you will, intothis start.
Um, so I think to really feed alot of people and to really make
a big impact, we will need touse, um, some food tech.
(21:52):
Um, and I think that makingthose products kind of a little
bit more kind of realistic orkind of, you know, appeal to a
different market.
So then we'll, I think we'llhave both the kind of markets
covered the very sort of hypernatural.
I don't really care if it tasteslike, like meet people and then
other people are like, I can'tgive up me.
It needs to taste exactly.
Like it needs to be interesting.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
And, but you guys had mentioned beverages you're in
the beverage space at all, orjust, just the physical.
Speaker 3 (22:21):
So currently it's just, just meat alternatives, um
, looking at sauces and stuffthat at some point, very good.
Probably be nice.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Meatless beer.
Yeah.
Um, no, that's that's do youever go back to the UK James and
try to sell your friends andyour family stuff for them?
And they just,
Speaker 3 (22:40):
I don't get back there often enough, but there is
a big bump based or veganmovement in, um, in the UK
shorts.
Um, it's really taken off that.
There's going to be like the bigkind of the big brands and the
big stores, the Tescos and thewhite Jordan's full have their
own kind of line of veganproducts.
Now it's, it's, it's the height.
(23:00):
It's still the, it's the biggestgrowing sector.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
I mean, you look at a country like India.
I mean, a lot of their dietsreally based.
You just have to look outsideyour own border to see that
there's a gross acceptance ofthis style of eating.
It's not just this, it'sactually more of a North America
phenomenon.
How we, you know, put meat onher plate, you know, breakfast,
lunch, and dinner.
It's, it's a unique to what wedo actually.
So we're deprogrammingourselves.
(23:24):
It was still like that in theUK.
Yeah, no, I don't doubt itagain.
I always ask this question inthis environment during COVID,
um, you guys are growing athriving business.
What have you had to do toadjust?
What have you had to, um, youknow, pivot around to, to make
sure that you guys can keep onyour growth track, raise that
money, hit the market with yourboth be running, hitting the
ground, um, you know, withoutgetting caught up in everything,
(23:47):
that's keeping everyone at home.
Speaker 4 (23:50):
Yeah.
So, I mean, COVID definitelyslowed down our fundraising
process a little bit kind ofpushed it back by kind of a
month or two.
Um, that being said, it was kindof business as usual as, as much
as possible for us.
Um, we obviously the restaurant,what's your shot here.
We really reduce the hourspivoted to take out and delivery
only.
Um, but our online businessreally took off.
(24:12):
Part of that was COVID related.
Part of that was also productionincreases in a new marketing
partnership we brought on.
Um, and then our retailwholesale grocery store business
also went up as well, just aspeople are buying more, eating
more at home and stocking up ongroceries.
Um, so we actually had to staffup during COVID well trying to
still maintain kind of safety.
Uh, so we put on a second shiftand just really spaced employees
(24:35):
out.
Um, yeah, nothing else justseeing massive growth for it.
It's, um, it's been kind ofincredible this last few moments
, um, and it's just been tryingto keep up with that, that
demand and, um,
Speaker 1 (24:51):
Increase as far as we can, but, you know, keeping up
with the, uh, with puttingolders and, um, give me a one
that these are, these are goodproblems to have.
It's incredible.
Okay.
In the next step, as you said,is moving to HQ to, I guess,
Vancouver or somewhere inVancouver.
Um, anything else you wanted tojust mention before we get to
the wrap?
Speaker 4 (25:12):
Um, you know, I mean, we've got a few other things
that we can't really quite talkabout yet, but, uh, maybe
expecting them to anannouncement or a press release
in the next few weeks.
Um, but yeah, I mean we have bigplans and we're really kind of
ready to
Speaker 1 (25:23):
The biggest by storm and where's the best place to
follow you guys just go to verygood.
Butchers are good.
Speaker 4 (25:29):
Very good.
butchers.com.
The very good butchers onFacebook, the very good booklets
on Instagram.
So we've got our kind of, yeah,our very good your website and
we'll have an investors page upthere as well in the next kind
of day or two, a bunch more infoabout the company.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Yes.
It'd be launching the websitethe next few days.
Right.
And for those listing, you canalso go, am I looking at these
are, so these are very goodburgers.
I don't know if the light mightbe a bit on it.
Speaker 4 (25:54):
We've also got our pepperoni here and James, his
favorite are a very Britishbangers.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
That's what I meant to ask.
Yeah.
What are you guys taking homeevery night?
Speaker 4 (26:05):
You pass the beads, lays the British maggots and
where do you have to be?
Can you deliver across countryor is it just local to Victoria?
So we actually currently shipacross North America.
Um, so we, we shipped by DHLinto the state, so airmail, uh,
and then we, yeah, we ship allthe way to the East coast as
well.
We have a special insulated boxice packs.
(26:25):
Um, we're a little bit behindright now on fulfilling orders
just cause we have too manyorders.
Uh, but we're, we're, we'rescaling up quickly.
Um, and yeah,
Speaker 1 (26:35):
Beautiful, beautiful.
Well for those listening, uh,the company will be public by
the time you hear this.
So you can go to the cse.com.
All the company's disclosurewill be up there, but uh, good
luck to you guys.
I really appreciate you takingthe time to share more about the
company, uh, for those listeningor watching again, subscribe.
So if you're listening to thisas a podcast, just make sure you
(26:55):
subscribe.
If you're on iTunes or Apple orGoogle, Spotify, whatever, just
push subscribe, and you'll getmore great content like this.
If you're watching, you'rewatching and CCTV, and again, we
want you to subscribe.
We're putting out two or threevideos a week interviewing great
entrepreneurs like JamesMitchell, who are doing an
amazing job, bringing newinnovations to the market.
And I'm James I'm from the CSC.
(27:15):
And I want to thank you againfor watching until next time.
Take care.
Hey, it's James here remindingyou that if you just enjoyed
this episode of hashtag finance,there's a lot more, make sure
you subscribe to this showavailable on Apple podcasts,
Spotify, SoundCloud, Stitcher,and Google podcast shows coming
(27:38):
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(28:04):
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