Planted, the Swiss FoodTech pioneer for plant-based meat made exclusively from clean ingredients, is further investing in capacity expansion with the addition of a new production facility in southern Germany.
Based on fermentation technology, it is said the site will become the most modern production facility for plant-based meat in Europe. Green technology plays a central role in the construction of the new plant.
Research and production have been carried out at the main site in Kemptthal, Switzerland, since 2020. The German market now makes the largest contribution to the approximately 75% share of exports. With the aim of producing as close and locally to consumers as possible, Planted has now decided to build another production site in Memmingen, Bavaria, Germany.
An old brewery site is being revitalised. Commissioning is planned for the first quarter of 2025, and the final expansion stage will create more than 50 technical and operational jobs while producing more than 20 tons of plant-based meat per day in the medium-term.
The headquarters in Kemptthal will continue to maintain its production and importance, particularly for the Swiss market.
“Our international expansion follows the strategic decision to bolster our biotechnological expertise and locations abroad, closer to our consumers. Our goal is to quickly bring innovative products from our fermentation platform to the market. In particular the planted.steak, which currently uses our most advanced and disruptive fermentation technology in terms of scalability, flavour and product quality,” explains Lukas Böni, co-founder and member of the Executive Board at Planted.
“The investment in the additional production site enables us to meet the rapidly growing market demand and produce even closer to our German consumers.”
Green technology plays a central role in the construction of the new plant. The site will be operating almost completely CO2 neutral and will be entirely free of fossil fuels – instead, a well cooling system, district heating from wood burning and photovoltaics will be used. This ensures that all the energy used to manufacture Planted meats at the new plant come from renewable sources.
Planted is implementing the project in Memmingen together with the local Alois Müller Group, who specialises in sustainable energy and the strategic development of decentralised infrastructures supplied with sustainable energy.