Merit Functional Foods goes into receivership

Merit Functional Foods has been placed into receivership. This follows a court order pursuant to an application filed by lenders Farm Credit Canada and Export Development Canada.

In a LinkedIn post, Ryan Bracken, the company’s co-CEO, said, “This means the end to Merit as it stands today…. This has not yet sunken in and will take time for me to truly comprehend. Merit was founded in 2019 with the goal of enabling the next generation of plant-based foods & beverages. Sadly, while our proteins have been formulated into countless products globally, we couldn’t quite get to the level of cashflow needed to operate the business profitably, quick enough. The current external environment is tougher now than ever before on start-ups.”

He highlighted some of the pandemic-related challenges that caused the company’s closure. They are:

• doubling of raw material inputs to heights never seen before;
• borders being closed to essential services during start-up;
• commissioning of a novel product taking 12X longer than promised;
• customers R&D labs being shuttered and new product development coming to a standstill globally;
• interest rates rising exponentially; and
• risk appetite from lenders and/or investors drying up.