Dive Brief:
- Meatable, a foodtech company looking to deliver cultivated meat at scale, appointed Jeff “Trip” Tripician as CEO, effective June 17. Tripician will succeed current CEO and co-founder Krijn de Nood, who will continue to serve on the Board of Directors.
- Tripician currently serves as CEO for Grass Fed Farms, a platform which provides grocers and foodservice customers a convenient, turnkey solution to help sell grass-fed beef products in the U.S.
- The company said the hire comes as Meatable is focused on expanding into the U.S., and on the heels of its planned commercial launch in Singapore later this year.
Dive Insight:
The incoming executive has over 30 years of experience in the food and beverage industry, specifically in growing brands, but Tripician has yet to take a role in the alternative protein space.
Before his role at Grass Fed Farms, Tripician served as president of Perdue Premium Meat Company. He also has experience in the U.S. meat market, specifically in supply chain operations, marketing of sustainable meat products, fundraising and M&A.
While at Grass Fed Farms, Tripician completed a merger between Teton Waters Ranch and SunFed Ranch, two farms it sources from, which positioned it as the foremost regeneratively-focused grass-fed beef platform in the U.S., according to the company.
During his time at Perdue, he spearheaded the company’s growth in premium meat brands such as Niman Ranch, Coleman Natural and SiouxPreme. He also led the acquisition and integration of Panorama Organic Grass-Fed Meats and Alexander & Hornung.
Tripician said he thinks Meatable has the technology to produce cultivated meat at the most competitive price on the market.
“Meatable is positioned to lead the industry in a paradigm shift that will address key global issues including climate change, water use, soil quality, humane animal care, food security, and, importantly, consumer acceptance,” said Tripician. “The meat industry should be at the forefront of this initiative through innovation, and Meatable will play a major role in driving this meaningful change.”
In March, the company announced it had halved the production time to produce cultivated meat — from eight days to four — which the company said is now the fastest in the industry.
Meatable said its breakthrough will be able to get its product to cost parity with animal-based meat. This process now requires nearly half as many bioreactors at scale, cutting costs and enabling more efficient use of production space.
The company has a planned restaurant launch in Singapore later this year, which the Dutch company said is critical for its long-term strategy to offer cultivated meat in the broader Asian market.
The company also added Dean Banks, former president and CEO of Tyson Foods, to its board of directors, as part of its commitment to its U.S. market entry.
Banks, currently the CEO of Flagship Pioneering, a leading biotechnology company said “Meatable has enormous potential to disrupt the cultivated meat space with its unique approach to product development and commercialization.”
But the company may run into more issues as U.S. states retaliate against cultivated meat products.