Eat Well Investment Group Inc C.EWG

integrated Agri-business/plant-based - substantial upside

[drd8]

Rockshield Capital has bought three Agri-businesses.
 
Rockshield is a vertically integrated, seed-to-brand business with over $60 million revenue and $5-$10 million of positive EBITDA. The goal here will be a large plant-based food & ingredients company--with a focus on SNACKS--which they say is the most profitable part of the food market.
 
Think of farming as upstream, legume or pulse processing as midstream and retail brands as downstream. Rockshield is mostly a midstream company now, but I expect that to change in the next 12 months to a more balanced but mostly downstream company.
 
That's because one of the companies they have purchased--Sapienta Ltd., out of Dallas--has much of the team that managed the development of the CHEETOS snack line for PEPSICO. And their first product will be an all plant based CHEETOS style snack.
 
It's a product they are very confident in, saying that it could sell tens of millions of dollars in Year One.
 
The Investment Thesis
 
Rockshield Capital has put together a vertically integrated plant-based food company – and they have done it in just 3 months.
 
1.    BOKU SuperFoods
2.    Sapientia Technology Inc (Sapientia)
3.    Prairie Plant Farms Pulse Processor
 
 
The acquisitions include a branded organic powders business, a food science business run by the team that managed the famous snack brand of Cheetos, and a mid-stream processor of pulse crops.
 
Together these acquisitions turn Rockshield into a “seed-to-market” operation.  From the processing of raw ingredients to premium consumer packaged goods.
 
 
Plant-Based Foods – A Growth Business
 
 
Plant-based foods: think Beyond Meat, Oatley, and Tattooed Chef.
 
Rockshield plans to sell plant-based products into the stores and through online channels. But unlike the competition, Rockshield plans to be far more vertically integrated. 
 
The vision is to own the entire chain--which essentially do with these acquisitions.
 
Plant-based foods are still a relatively small segment of the food market--but it's getting much bigger very quickly!

 

Prairie Plant is a processor of pulse crops - dried peas, fava beans, lentils and chickpeas. Pulse crops are the core of Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods products.
 
Prairie Plant is an established player in the market. They have been around for 40 years. They produce over 93,000 metric tonnes of pulse crops annually.

 

 

 
The management team has a network that they have developed over decades. It comprises large scale ingredient vendors, strategic food companies, leading-edge processors and AgTech developers, and a global advisory board at the highest level of consumer-package-goods, plant-based innovation, and investments. 
 
As Mark Coles, strategic advisor and head of M&A describes it, “we have the total supply chain and the technology to know how to make food. And so that's kind of the overriding picture here. Not only is it a superior product, less fat, less calories, etc. The product comes with significantly more attractive margins than our competitors.”
 
In addition, the team has experience in name-brand consumer products companies like Frito Lay, Gatorade, and Quaker Oats.
 
New product development will fall on Sapientia Technology, the food technology company out of Dallas.

 

 

 
Sapientia has the food scientists that can develop plant-based products.
 
The central figure is Sapientia’s CEO, Dr. Eugenio Bortone. Bortone has an impressive background - he was the lead developer for the Cheetos brand, inventor of the Twisted Cheetos, and has 25 years in food product development and commercialization.
 
One of Rockshield first plans is to market a plant-based Cheetos product.   Sapienta’s IP allows you to make an equivalent Cheetos out of a pulse. Bortone brings with him the experience of 24 patents and a team of 5 food scientists.
 
The plant-based Cheetos will be the first of hopefully many that leverage Bortone’s team to develop new products that will fill out the brands.  The focus will be snack-based foods.
 
He says snack-based foods are THE most profitable food product in the market.
 
And he also has very high expectations of himself and his team--he thinks a plant based Cheetos can be tens of millions of dollars of revenue in Year One. It has the potential to be a lead product for Rockshield that will make establish the brand and make it very easy for follow-on products to also be hugely successful.
 
How quickly they can develop and roll out this plant-based Cheetos will really determine how fast the stock can move.
 
Rockshield’s other acquisition, Boku Super Foods, has products that are already on the shelves. Boku has a portfolio with 45 SKUs driven through Amazon. They are expected to expand that distribution to Costco, Shopify and Sysco in 2022.

Boku’s products are organic plant-based superfoods, immunity, protein and fiber powders used in shakes--for both nutrition and convenience.

 

[tinkvid]

just gotta wait for the deal to be finalized. Going to be a good story going forward...Plant based has so many benefits for the world economy.