Heather Mills saves vegan empire by blaming the meat industry for its collapse

VBites was founded by Ms. Mills in 1993. Photo: Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images Europe

Heather Mills has won a £1 million rescue deal for her vegan food business after accusing the meat industry of «gaslighting» it for causing falling sales.

According to a report from Interpath administrators, the company was on the verge of extinction due to soaring prices and consumers switching to cheaper vegan alternatives.

VBites was in debt for totaling over £8.3 million at the time. during its collapse, suffering losses of £3.1 million in the year to March 2023.

Despite the deal to save the company's assets, including factories in County Durham and Northamptonshire, it did not protect VBites and the remaining 64 staff were made redundant.

However, Ms Mills has since promised to rehire 40 staff, which was first announced reported The Grocer.

In comments on social media, Ms Mills said VBites had been forced into administration «unnecessarily» in just three days.

She added: “That’s why I decided to revive the company myself, and with great difficulty.” personal expenses and take control of operations, returning personally to the North East to ensure we can still make a positive contribution to the future of our global food economy.»

VBites was founded in 1993 and produces a wide range of plant-based products, including sausages, burgers and fish fingers. Previously, it acted as a supplier for McDonald's.

Ms Mills criticized «corporate greed and poor management» when the business collapsed in December, and also criticized celebrity campaigns promoting the dairy and meat industry.

She said: “Many of the campaigns we see, such as the dairy industry's 'Got Milk' campaign, making jokes about plant milk, insulting people with lactose intolerance, as well as ethical organic animal lovers, are well-funded gaslighting initiatives that undermine the facts. and sow seeds of doubt among consumers who deserve to know the truth.

“The plant-based industry must take the lead from the dairy industry and unite its voice, but as a force for good and promoting the facts, not a long list of lies and misinformation.” .

Ms Mills first experimented with a vegan diet as an alternative to traditional medicine and said eliminating animal products from her diet helped her. was recovering from a 1993 traffic accident in which she lost her left leg.

VBites was just one of several vegan food companies that have struggled in the past year amid slowing demand for plant-based alternatives .

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Meatless Farm went bankrupt in June and was bought by rival vegan company VFC. Yorkshire sausage company Heck was also forced to cut its range of vegan sausages from 15 to two last year due to falling demand.