Do you know what America’s most popular snack is right now?
If you guessed Cheetos, then you’re right on the mark. Cheetos is the number one cheesy snack brand in America, which makes sense since it rakes in almost $1 billion a year.1
There’s a good reason why we can’t get enough of Flaming Hot Cheetos. Medical professionals have compared it to “mild opiate addiction.”
The burning sensation we get from the peppers in Hot Cheetos causes a release of natural opioids (endorphins) in our bodies. It makes us feel good (at least until the opiate is gone) and then we feel the need to eat more.2
Now imagine what would happen if there was a better, healthier substitute that still had the same great taste and crunchiness of your regular Hot Cheetos. Chances are pretty high that a significant number of consumers would opt for it instead.
Fortunately, you don’t have to imagine it as one little plant based company has developed what could be the perfect replacement for Flaming Hot Cheetos.
While there has been some controversy over who invented Flamin Hot Cheetos, there has been no doubt about who invented Twisted Cheetos. The inventor of the Twisted Cheeto is our featured company’s Chief Technology and Chief Operating Officer and is bringing America a high-protein, plant-based healthier version of Cheetos that tastes just like the original.
This under-the-radar company goes by the name of Eat Well Investment Group Inc. (CSE:EWG) (OTC:EWGFF) and is one of the most unique seed-to-market operations that we’ve seen. This company covers it all; raw ingredients, processing, pulse fractionation, unique IP, and premium consumer packaged goods.
The company’s stock has had a meteoric rise since the end of July but we believe that there’s still plenty of upside potential left for what could be the next plant-based food company to break out.
6 Reasons
to Invest In Eat Well Investment Group (CSE:EWG) (OTC:EWGFF)
1
Diversification: EWG gives investors the opportunity to invest across the entire value chain from seed-to-market instead of a single brand or piece of the value chain. This includes raw ingredients, processing, pulse fractionation, unique IP, and premium consumer packaged goods.
2
EWG is significantly undervalued: The company has a revenue forecast of $60 million for 2021 with strong positive EBITDA but trades at a much lower multiple compared to peers which should make it attractive to value investors. Currently valued at just 2.4x EV/Revenue compared to an industry average of 11.7x.
3
Incredibly large market opportunity: The plant-based food market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 11.9% from 2020 to 2027, reaching $74.2 billion by 2027.
4
Eat Well Investment Group Inc. (CSE:EWG) (OTC:EWGFF) leverages individual strengths to streamline operations with a focus on increasing efficiencies while dramatically improving margins and revenue.
5
Well seasoned leadership: EWG is led by a strong team with over 40+ years experience in the food industry and previous record of creating significant shareholder value.
6
Eat Well Investment Group Inc. (CSE:EWG) (OTC:EWGFF) is well financed with $13.1 million in cash and marketable securities.
Controlling Every Point of the Value Chain With Large Strategic Acquisitions
Eat Well Investment Group Inc. (CSE:EWG) (OTC:EWGFF) is a leading vertically integrated seed-to-market agribusiness and food-tech company that is at the heart of the world’s plant-based food ecosystem.
Eat Well Investment Group Inc. (CSE:EWG) (OTC:EWGFF) controls every point of the value chain, from regenerative agriculture to food tech, global commerce, and through to consumer packaged goods, and is quickly becoming one of the largest alternative protein, food, and ingredients companies globally.
If you think of farming as upstream, legume or pulse processing as midstream and retail brands as downstream Eat Well Investment Group Inc. (CSE:EWG) (OTC:EWGFF) would be classified as a midstream company, but this will soon change with a transition to a more balanced, mostly downstream and CPG company. As such, the company is in the process of launching its CPG division with snack foods, which the seasoned team, including new President Marc Aneed, states is the most profitable category within the food market.
The company’s seed-to-market approach involves combining complementary companies
with highly synergistic strategies and to this end Eat Well Investment Group Inc. (CSE:EWG) (OTC:EWGFF) has made a number of strategic investments.
Back in August, Eat Well Investment Group Inc. (CSE:EWG) (OTC:EWGFF) acquired award-winning Belle Pulses Ltd. one of the largest processors of plant-based ingredients in Canada for C$30 million.3 Belle has over 40 years of legacy and global growth and currently, produces nearly 100,000 tons of fully traceable seed/product, yielding over 26,000 tons of pure plant protein.
The acquisition of Belle Pulses firmly establishes Eat Well Investment Group Inc. (CSE:EWG) (OTC:EWGFF) as a global leader in the plant-based food supply-chain.
Press Releases
- Eat Well Group Provides Operational Update on Plant-Based FoodTech Portfolio Company
- Prince Khaled Joins Plant-Based Investment Firm, Helping To Save 89,000 Tons Of Methane A Year
- Eat Well Investment Group Inc. Announces New US Symbol, EWGFF
- Eat Well Investment Group Inc. Name & Symbol Change Takes Effect
The Rise of FoodTech
The importance of food tech whether ‘low’ (how the product is sold/distributed) or ‘high’ (how the product is produced)4 can’t be overstated as it marks a pivotal shift in the way the industry will operate going forward.
The acquisition of Belle Pulse complements Sapientia Technology, solidifying Eat Well Group’s position in the high tech food category placing the company well ahead of rivals like Beyond Meat and Oatly because of its vertical integration
In addition to this, Eat Well Investment Group Inc. (CSE:EWG) (OTC:EWGFF) also acquired Sapientia Technology LLC,5 by issuing 3.7 million common shares in capital of Eat Well and a cash payment of $6.4 million.
Sapientia is an industry-leading processing and forming technologies company that creates the latest generation of delicious, high nutrition, high taste & texture plant-based foods. Eat Well Investment Group’s (CSE:EWG) (OTC:EWGFF) acquisition of Sapientia provides access to vast amounts of food tech across all product categories.
Sapientia has developed plant-based products with ground-breaking IP in foods & beverages, including four foundational patents, two trade secrets, and the proprietary formula for approximately one dozen product categories.
Products include plant-based meats and plant-based meat snacks, plant-based dairy milks and yogurts, and pulse-based “puffed/twisted” snack foods, prioritizing high protein, low fat, nutritious products with delicious taste & texture for both human and pet foods.
Sapientia is led by Dr. Eugenio Bortone, a preeminent food scientist with a Ph.D. in Food Engineering, an MS in Nutrition, 25 issued patents, and over 25 years of food, snack foods, pet foods, formulation, product development, process scale-up, and commercialization experience.
Dr. Bortone is well-known in the industry for being the lead developer in the multi-billion-dollar, award-winning Cheetos brand franchise of Frito Lay, a division of PepsiCo, including the invention of Twisted Cheetos, which drove over $2 billion in revenue.
Thanks to these strategic investments, Eat Well Investment Group Inc. (CSE:EWG) (OTC:EWGFF) expects to generate over $60 million in revenue including nearly $15 million in gross profit in 2021.
To top that off, Eat Well just bolstered its already very impressive team with the addition of two exciting new members. The first was Saudi Arabia’s Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal Al, a pioneer in plant-based food investing as a strategic advisor, who is likely to drive up EWG’s corporate profile thanks to his deep network of international industry-specific contacts.6
Then on September 23, Eat Well Investment Group Inc. (CSE:EWG) (OTC:EWGFF) added award-winning food innovation pioneer and President of the Saskatchewan Food Industry Development Centre., Daniel Prefontaine, to its strategic advisory board. Dan Prefontaine has been active in the plant-based food industry for over 35 years and led the Food Centre to assist over 400 companies, including some of the most well-known plant-based CPG brands from around the world, to develop over 900 new food products ranging from a wide variety of ingredients and consumer packaged goods (CPG).
The Company Behind The Biggest Plant-Based Food Brands in the World
Science shows that a plant based diet is better for health and wellness lifestyles as vegetarians have a lower risk of death related to cancers, heart problems & obesity.
This is why over the past couple of years, the plant-based food market has exploded and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 11.9% from 2020 to 2027, reaching $74.2 billion by 2027.7
Unsurprisingly, plant-based food sales in 2020 grew 2x faster than overall food sales.8
The biggest plant based food companies like Beyond Meat and The Tattooed Chef have been capitalizing on this opportunity and have created immense shareholder value. Beyond Meat for instance reported Q2 2021 net revenue of $149.4 million an increase of 31.8% year-over-year9 driven by increased product offerings and expansion of distribution channels.
On the other hand, The Tattooed Chef announced that six of its plant-powered products will be newly available for purchase in Target stores nationwide10 and also expanded its pizza offering with the launch of five new plant-based pizzas.11 The company has been gradually expanding its retail footprint and also announced that it would be launching its original vegetable products in Whole Foods Market stores12 and branded products across multiple categories in approximately 1,800 Kroger stores nationwide.13
While these two companies may have different products and go to market strategies, they have one thing that they share in common. They all get their ingredients from companies similar to Eat Well Investment Group Inc. (CSE:EWG) (OTC:EWGFF).
China’s food-processing factories provide most of what goes into vegan burger patties and other meat replacements made by market leaders Beyond Meat and Impossible foods. In fact, Beyond Meat recently signed a significant deal with Shuangta Foods located in China which will provide 85% of the pea protein for its products.14
Undoubtedly, this has been a cause for concern among consumers especially since China has been plagued by food safety scandals over the years. In 2007, for instance, plant-based proteins sourced from China were used to produce pet food that killed nearly 4,000 cats and dogs across the United States.15
With Eat Well Investment Group’s (CSE:EWG) (OTC:EWGFF) recent acquisition of award-winning Belle Pulses, one of the largest processors of plant-based ingredients in Canada, Eat Well and the fact that it has complete control over its value chain such concerns are not likely to come up.
Add this to the fact that Eat Well Investment Group Inc. (CSE:EWG) (OTC:EWGFF) expects to generate $60 million in revenue this year, there’s a compelling case for a revision in its valuation.
In the News
Entering the Booming Plant-Based Snack Market with a Bang and Offering a New Twist on America’s Favorite Snack
At the moment, Eat Well Investment Group’s (CSE:EWG) (OTC:EWGFF) biggest opportunity lies in the snack market.
While the global snacks market size was valued at $439.9 billion in 2018 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 6.2% from 2019 to 2025, the vegan snack market is set to exceed a value of $73 billion by 202816 which bodes extremely well for Eat Well Investment Group Inc. (CSE:EWG) (OTC:EWGFF).
Take for example Hershey which bought Lily’s confectionery brand the better-for-you (BFY) confectionary brand, for $425 million back in June or TPG Growth’s acquisition of low-sugar candies maker SmartSweets for nearly $400 million. Motif Foodworks also recently raised $226 million to transform the flavour and performance of plant-based foods.
Clearly, the vegan savory snacks market is poised to be the next major structural snacking opportunity within the plant-based foods market and Eat Well Investment Group Inc. (CSE:EWG) (OTC:EWGFF) is ready to capitalize on the shift.
Growing consumer awareness of health and wellbeing, a rise in health problems and diseases such as diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease have led consumers to choose healthier alternatives in the form of vegan snacks are just a few of the reasons the market is primed for huge growth.
Considering how insanely popular Cheetos is in the US and how wild Americans are about Flamin Hot Cheetos thanks to what food scientist Steven Witherly describes17 as
“one of the most marvelously constructed foods on the planet, in terms of pure pleasure”
Eat Well Investment Group Inc. (CSE:EWG) (OTC:EWGFF) is perfectly positioned to grab significant market share here.
How?
With the acquisition of Sapientia Technology, its CEO Dr. Eugenio Bortone, who is now Eat Well’s Chief Technology and Chief Operating Officer the company brought onboard the lead developer for the Cheetos brand and inventor of the Twisted Cheeto.
With the help of Dr Eugenio Bortone, Eat Well Investment Group Inc. (CSE:EWG) (OTC:EWGFF) has created its own line of delicious, high protein plant-based snacks. Eat Well plans to market a plant-based Cheetos product since Sapienta’s IP allows it to make an equivalent Cheeto out of a pulse.
Going forward, there’s significant near-term opportunities in snacks of the future including
RTE (Ready to eat) products which are enjoying increasing demand in the food industry.
Sapientia’s P Curls is a great example of a RTE snack 100% vegan clean label, indulgent yet free of the guilt junk food factor.
Eat Well’s Strong Leadership Team and Unparalleled Strategic Advisor
8 Reasons
Eat Well Could Be The Next Major Player Plant-based Food
1
Eat Well Investment Group Inc. (CSE:EWG) (OTC:EWGFF) is growing rapidly and is solidifying its position in the world’s plant-based ecosystem through exceptional strategic investments. Expects to generate $60 million in revenue and $15 million in gross profit by the end of 2021.
2
Growing market opportunity in the space as the plant-based food market is expected to grow by double digits to exceed $74 billion in the next six years.18
3
Significant near term opportunity to disrupt multi-billion vegan snack market with Sapientia’s P Curls.
4
Eat Well Investment Group Inc. (CSE:EWG) (OTC:EWGFF) is significantly undervalued and has great upside potential that it’s currently valued at just 2.4x EV/Revenue compared to an industry average of 11.7x.
5
Eat Well Investment Group Inc. (CSE:EWG) (OTC:EWGFF) leverages individual strengths to streamline operations with a focus on increasing efficiencies while dramatically improving margins and revenue.
6
Well diversified since it gives investors a chance to capitalize on the entire value chain from seed-to-market instead of a single brand or piece of the value chain.
7
Well seasoned leadership: Eat Well Investment Group Inc. (CSE:EWG) (OTC:EWGFF) is led by a strong team with over 40+ years experience in the food industry and previous record of creating significant shareholder value. Previous senior leadership positions of the top management include leading multinationals and brands such as PepsiCo Inc. Frito Lay, Cheetos, The Quaker Oats Company, Gatorade and more, de-risking operations from a leadership perspective.
8
Eat Well Investment Group Inc. (CSE:EWG) (OTC:EWGFF) is well financed with $13.1 million in cash and marketable securities.