• Maple Leaf Foods, a Canada-based leader in the food manufacturing industry, recorded a 15.1% YoY dip in revenue (down 18.4% YoY excluding the forex impact) to CAD 40.8 million (~USD 31.7 million) in Q2 2022 for its plant-based meat segment Plant Protein Group. Its revenue was impacted by lower volumes in retail products which more than offset price increases and growth in food service volumes.

• The segment reported a gross loss of CAD 10.1 million (~USD 7.8 million) in Q2 2022 compared to a gross profit of CAD 0.3 million (~USD 0.2 million) in Q2 2021 due to ​​inflationary costs and increased overhead and short-term costs resulting from strategic investments in capacity ahead of anticipated demand.

• The company has announced it has cut down Greenleaf Foods plant-based division by 25% due to lower than expected sales volume and migrate some of the excess capacity reserved for Greenleaf to growth opportunities in the meat business. Despite the cutback, Maple Leaf is continuing on with its investment in the plant-based sector and plans to earn revenue through sale of plant-based proteins. The company is confident it will be able to bounce back once the economic conditions turn favorable.

<ul><li> AnalystQuickTake: 2022 has not been the most favorable year for the plant-based meats sector. Maple Leaf Foods themselves revised its growth rate forecasts for the plant-based meat sector in 2022 during their results release for FY2021. Other plant based meat companies such as Beyond Meat fell below analyst expectations for both Q1 2022 and Q2 2022 which led to l aying off 4% of its staff .</ul>