Heather Mills blames 'corporate greed' as vegan food company collapses
Heather Mills has announced her vegan food company has gone into administration – and blamed Brexit and 'corporate greed' for its demise.
The 55-year-old, who was once married to Sir Paul McCartney, launched VBites in 1993 as the ‘original vegan plant-based food pioneers’. Since then the UK-based firm has sold over 100 products in 28 countries and won numerous awards. But despite their success in the meat, fish and dairy-free sector, Heather released a statement on her website and on social media today revealing her vegan empire had collapsed, putting scores of jobs at risk.
She wrote: “With great regret, I am sorry to announce that after 30 years of pioneering plant-based production and innovation in the meat-free, fish-free and dairy-free sectors, VBites Food Ltd, a company very dear to my heart, is entering into administration this week.
“This is extremely distressing for me on a personal level, but also for my wonderfully loyal and hard-working staff. My team and I have undertaken 30 years of product creation and evolution, as well as personally investing tens of millions of pounds into the business and offering every solution I feasibly could to keep it going, but sadly mine and my staff’s efforts have been thwarted by a demand that I stepped away from day to day management in order to secure essential investment and a combination of corporate greed and poor management.”
Heather Mills launched her pioneering vegan food business 30 years ago (Newcastle Chronicle)The statement blamed Brexit, the cost of living crisis, price rises in global ingredients and energy bills and “the current state of manufacturing in Britain.” Heather continued: “Anyone that knows me well, knows the blood, sweat and tears that my team and I have put into the business, for the sole purpose of furthering the plant-based movement, of which we have been the pioneers of for over 30 years and effecting a major shift in global human health, the preservation of the environment and the protection of animal welfare.”
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Explaining how it had all gone wrong for the company, Heather said: “The plight of VBites is not an isolated case and I think it’s important to take stock and highlight the various factors that are contributing to the struggles of companies like ours in the current market.”
She went on to blast the ‘Got Milk’ campaign backed by “select celebrities”, which encouraged the consumption of milk and dairy products and said the plant-based industry needed to work harder to demonstrate the long-term profitability of plant-based farming and manufacturing.
“Another major issue we must content with is the influence of corporate greed in our market,” she said. “Sadly, I have many close friends and business owners in the sector that have had similar experiences and have either been forced out of their companies or gone under in the last few years... Brexit has been an utter disaster for the supply and maintenance of the sector and the government doubtless has a lot to answer for. So do the opportunistic utility companies and their broker networks, that through an array of nefarious practices now under investigation have hiked up prices so that companies simply cannot afford to operate.”
Heather ended the post by saying: “As you can most likely tell, this is a passionate topic for me and I am hopeful that as a unified force we can turn things around – hopefully before it is too late.” Praising staff, she added: “I hope that you can take some solace from knowing that you have had a huge positive impact on the world through the work that you have done over the last 30 years.”
Administrators are now seeking a buyer for the business, which has factories in Corby and Peterlee. James Clark, joint administrator and managing director at Interpath Advisory told the Mirror’s regional sister paper Chronicle Live: “VBites is one of the UK’s leading manufacturers of vegan food products but unfortunately, and in common with many other companies across the food manufacturing sector, had seen trading impacted by rising commodity and energy prices. Our immediate priority is to provide support and assistance to those employees impacted by redundancy, as well as seeing a buying for the business and its assets. We would encourage any interested parties to make contact with us at the earliest opportunity.”
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