Plant-based food manufacturer Forbidden Foods has launched on the Australian Stock Exchange after an initial public offering (IPO) that raised $6 million from investors.
Forbidden Foods manufactures plant-based organic food, healthy snacks, baby food and industrial food service/food manufacturing markets. It started in 2010.
It has three primary brands – Forbidden, Sensory Mill and Funch.
The IPO was comprised exclusively of primary capital with the issue of 30 million shares at $0.20. The IPO values the company at a market capitalisation of $15 million.
Forbidden Foods said it was pleased to gain strong support from new and existing institutional and private investors in the IPO.
The proceeds will enable to company to accelerate sales, marketing and brand development activities both domestically and internationally.
Forbidden Foods co-founder and CEO Marcus Brown said: “We aim to launch new innovative product lines, deepen our existing market penetration and broaden our international focus. We expect the demand for healthy ‘better for you’ and plant-based food products to only increase, and we believe Forbidden Foods is well placed to establish and grow market share in our targeted sectors of the food and beverage industry.
“From the start, we established Forbidden Foods as a globally oriented, internationally scalable business. We have focused on developing an asset-light, flexible production model through which we outsource manufacturing and packaging to groups with high-quality facilities and operational expertise. This allows our team to drive growth by focusing on identifying key consumer trends for specialty food products and securing new distribution opportunities.
“Having successfully completed our IPO, we now plan to grow our brands’ accessibility at key retail touch points in supermarkets, specialty organic and health food outlets as well as through our e-commerce channels.
“We are now executing on our growth strategy as we strive to realise our vision of a diversified, multi-channel, international provider of premium products in the attractive plant-based food, healthy snack and baby food markets.
“We continue to enjoy the support of our first investors who are still with us on this journey as we begin life as a listed company. I’m also delighted that our independent directors Mark Hardgrave, chair and Colleen Lockwood have joined the board.”
The company is currently launching a new Funch range of 100 per cent Australian sourced and manufactured baby food products, suitable for both domestic distribution and distribution into Asia, the UK and US.
BW Equities acted as Lead Manager, Cadmon Advisory acted as Corporate Adviser and Clarendon Lawyers acted as legal adviser to Forbidden Foods for the IPO.
