Competing products & information.... I thought I would follow up on my post of a few weeks ago.
No responses or posts addressing my question about competition or acquisition multiples paid for reasonably close competitors, so I did some digging and asked a few buddies of mine in the investment industry. It looks like there is an 800lb gorilla in the veggie-based non dairy space....
There is a company out there named Daiya that apparently was sold to a large Japanese outfit for over $400 million a few months ago. Google it and you will see the news releases. Word in the investment community (I was told) is that the multiple on sales was around 4x. So I asked why such a big number and big multiple. The answer from one of my California-based buddies was this: growth and market share. Apparenly Daiya was growing at over 50% each year and has many products that are top-sellers in their category. Things like YOGURT, SALAD DRESSING, PIZZAS, CREAM CHEESE, CHEESECAKE AND SHREDDED AND BLOCK CHEESES.
A different contact of mine, a vegan, said that Daiya was "the original" non-dairy product to be made from tapioca, pea protein and other veggie ingredients. So squarely in the same space as Veggemo, but way better financially backed and with a 7 year head start. Apparently their products are available in over 25,000 stores in North America. Have any of you guys heard anything about this company ?
So I looked at Evil Knievel's link to the Veggemo investor deck and sure enough, on Slide #4 there is one of Daiya's products. So they are used as an example but not acknowledged as a major competitor ?
Also, one thing that was notably absent from the Veggemo investor presentation: sales numbers of any kind. In fact, there has been nothing said about how many "containers" have been shipped to China now, and how much volume has been sold to the US distribution channel.