{"id":284353,"date":"2025-11-11T01:34:04","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T01:34:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/284353\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T01:34:04","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T01:34:04","slug":"miyoko-schinner-fails-to-buy-back-namesake-brand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/284353\/","title":{"rendered":"Miyoko Schinner fails to buy back namesake brand"},"content":{"rendered":"

Miyoko Schinner did not win her 11th hour bid to buy back<\/a> the plant-based dairy brand she created.<\/p>\n

A chef, author, and animal rights activist, Schinner founded Miyoko\u2019s Creamery in 2014 and was removed as CEO by the board in 2022 following disagreements over strategy that became public in 2023. <\/a><\/p>\n

Schinner, who says she only recently discovered the brand was up for sale after entering the Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors<\/a> (ABC) process last month, raised $102k via GoFundMe<\/a> in a last minute bid to \u201creclaim\u201d the company, but told AgFunderNews this afternoon (Nov 10) that she was not successful.<\/p>\n

The winning bidder has not yet issued a public statement, while Resolution Financial Advisors<\/a>, which handled the ABC process, has not responded to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

In a LinkedIn post<\/a> penned on Sunday, Schinner acknowledged that it was a long shot, and promised to refund donations should she be unsuccessful: \u201cIt is highly unlikely I will be the winning bidder, as the liquidator has a fiduciary responsibility to accept the highest bid. I don\u2019t believe mine was.<\/p>\n

\u201c48 hours wasn\u2019t enough to solidify deals, figure out the structure of a new entity, and make sure that the funds would not be a simple spin on a roulette wheel. I would like to add that had the company approached me at the outset and offered to sell it back to me, this might have been a different story.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cI might yet start something anew: a different sort of food company.\u201d<\/p>\n

Insolvency<\/p>\n

According to documents seen by AgFunderNews, California-based Miyoko\u2019s determined that it was \u201cunable to pay its debts in full\u201d and entered the ABC process on October 6.<\/p>\n

The ABC process is a means of concluding the affairs of an insolvent company as an alternative to the Chapter 7 bankruptcy procedure. In an ABC, the insolvent company transfers its assets (in this case, the brand, trademarks, formulas etc) to an assignee (\u201cMiyoko Liquidation\u201d) in trust who handles their sale in the best interests of creditors.<\/p>\n

A turbulent few years<\/p>\n

The insolvency follows a turbulent few years at Miyoko\u2019s, which was founded by chef, author, and animal rights activist Miyoko Schinner in 2014. It launched with artisanal cheese wheels made from cultured cashews and later expanded into plant-based butter, mozzarella, cream cheese, spreads, shreds and slices.<\/p>\n

The firm, which has raised more than $70 million to date in public filings (and likely more than $100 million say sources close to the firm) from backers including GroundForce Capital and Obvious Ventures, hit the headlines in early 2023 after it emerged Schinner had been removed as CEO by the board the previous year.<\/p>\n

Schinner claimed she\u2019d had disagreements with the board over strategy, while James Joaquin at key investor Obvious Ventures told reporters he was looking for a CEO with \u201cproven P&L experience who has scaled a larger business.\u201d\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

The company followed up with a lawsuit accusing Schinner of \u201chatching a plot\u201d to steal its IP<\/a> while Schinner responded with a\u00a0countersuit<\/a>\u00a0alleging she was forced out of her own company after complaining to HR about male executives who \u201copenly denigrated women.\u201d<\/p>\n

The parties subsequently resolved their differences after going through a\u00a0court-mandated mediation process<\/a>. In August 2023, ex-Coca-Cola exec Stuart Kronauge was brought in as CEO, telling us she saw \u201csignificant untapped potential\u201d<\/a> in the brand.<\/p>\n

As part of a plan to drive efficiency, the firm later announced plans to close its production facility in Petaluma, California,<\/a> which had struggled to produce the products economically, and work exclusively with co-manufacturers.<\/p>\n

In a letter sent to shareholders in late 2023\u00a0quoted by Bloomberg,<\/a> Kronauge said Miyoko\u2019s was implementing a \u201cfinancial stabilization plan\u201d and exploring a \u201crange of strategic alternatives, including selling the business\u201d. According to the letter, sales hit $40 million in 2021 but dropped to $33 million in 2022.<\/p>\n

Speaking to AgFunderNews last week<\/a>, Schinner said: \u201cI believe I am the best person to be the face of the brand. I\u2019ve got some values aligned people with whom I am talking right now, and we\u2019re hoping to put something together very, very quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

>>More to follow\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Miyoko Schinner did not win her 11th hour bid to buy back the plant-based dairy brand she created.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,451,3,452,453],"class_list":{"0":"post-284353","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}