The Plant-Based Boom

Had a plant-based sausage or some non-dairy cheese lately? Meat replacements and dairy alternatives have become increasingly popular over the past decade. Not only are these foods more environmentally friendly, but they are also a part of an extremely lucrative market: the plant-based food market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 11.9% from 2020 to 2027 to reach $74.2 billion by 2027.

This week, we are using Revelio Labs' data analytics software tools to look at the workforce trends of large plant-based food producers. Since 2016, vegan food companies have doubled their workforce size, our labor market analytics show.

Which companies have grown the most in the past two years? Swedish oat milk producer Oatly, which has grown by an impressive 187% since 2019, followed by meat replacement companies Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat.

What is the makeup of these companies? By leveraging our job taxonomy to look at the workforce composition of vegan firms, we see that engineers make up the largest group of employees, underscoring the heavy focus on food engineering, research and development at these companies.

But the rest of the food production world is not dormant: large food corporations like Kraft Heinz, Nestle, and Danone have been introducing their own plant-based lines and products. Below shows the percent change of employees at large food corporations with the keyword “vegan” or “plant-based” in their job descriptions, which has grown by 400% since 2016.

Key Takeaways:

• Employment at vegan food companies has grown by 100% since 2016, our labor market analytics reveal.
• Oatly, Impossible Foods, and Beyond Meat are the three fastest growing companies since 2019.
• Engineers represent the greatest share of plant-based food companies' workforce composition, according to the Revelio job taxonomy.
• Large food corporations like Nestle and Danone have also increased hiring of roles with plant-based product focus.

For more information about Revelio Labs and its suite of data analytics software tools, please feel free to reach out.