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Administrators to ProForm Food Group were unable to achieve a restructure of the plant-based protein company, so a resolution was passed this week to have it voluntarily wound up.
Known for the MEET brand of meat alternatives as well as Protein Plate and Bad Hunter, Sydney-based ProForm was founded by "plant-based evangelist" Stephen Dunn in 2005 and its products are currently sold at major retailers including Coles and Woolworths.
The company made headlines in November 2020 when ProForm opened what it claimed to be the country's first plant-based meat manufacturing facility in the outer northern Sydney suburb Mount Kuring-Gai, with a capacity to produce 5,000 tonnes of the MEET product annually.
Having invested more than $20 million in developing its products, in 2021 the company's prospects were lifted by a strategic investment - understood to be worth almost $8 million - from Harvest Road, an agribusiness of WA-based Tattarang which is owned by Andrew and Nicola Forrest.
"We’re thrilled to partner with Harvest Road, an organisation driven by a vision to create sustainable businesses that deliver more positive environmental outcomes, enhance food security for Australia and support local manufacturing," ProForma's CEO and founder Stephen Dunn said at the time.
"Food Frontier’s modelling conducted by Deloitte Access Economics reveals that by 2030 Australian plant-based meat sector could generate almost $3 billion in retail sales vs $185 million in sales now and could employ more than 6,000 Australians.
"We have no doubt that our strategic relationship with Harvest Road will mean that ProForm Foods will sit at the front and centre of this growth in both Australia and on the global stage."
However, major retail deals and key investor partnerships were unable to make the commercial venture viable, and in May this year ProForm appointed KPMG Australia’s Gayle Dickerson and James Dampney as voluntary administrators to the group and its subsidiaries Proform Innovation, Proform Gourmet and Proform Foods.
The company is understood to have had 30 staff at the time.
Administrators were unable to provide further commentary on the circumstances that led to the winding up resolution.
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