Raisio to divest plant protein business to Valio in €7M deal amid market shift

Finnish food company Raisio is selling its plant protein business and fava bean brands Härkis and Beanit to Valio for €7 million (US$7.28 million). The sale agreement also includes fixed assets such as the equipment of the factory producing plant protein products in Kauhava, Finland, and the transfer of employees to Valio.

This comes as Raisio’s plant protein business’ net sales dropped to €74.5 million in 2024 from €75.5 million in 2023. 

“Promoting the food transition with plant-based food and innovating new things will continue to be key parts of Raisio’s strategy and operations, even though we have now decided to divest this business,” says Pasi Flinkman, CEO of Raisio.

The business is expected to be transferred to Valio in an all-cash deal in March. Additionally, Raisio has been a lessee in the Kauhava factory property and will sublease it to Valio.

Shift in consumer behavior

Raisio updated the financial targets for its strategy period 2022-2025 in December 2022. Since then, the company noticed a “sharp change” in consumer behavior in 2023, which reflected in Raisio’s business as a halt in net sales growth. However, the firm says its profitability has “improved significantly” since then.

Raisio is currently in the final stages of its strategy process for its plant-based food business, says CEO Pasi Flinkman.“Raisio still has confidence in the long-term growth potential of its key categories, but the growth is slower than expected in the short-term due to challenging market conditions,” underscores the company.

In 2024 and 2023, the comparable EBIT of the food ingredient supplier’s plant protein business was negative; in 2024, the loss was €-2.6 million, and in 2023, €-3.2 million. However, the sale of the business “is not expected to have a significant impact on the 2025 EBIT,” states Raisio.

For Valio, the acquisition is a move forward in its strategy to expand from a dairy company to a food company, says executive VP Tuomas Salusjärvi.

“The food system of the future will include plant-based and animal-based food, as well as food produced by cellular agriculture. All of these are needed to provide enough food for a globally growing population.” 

“In addition to milk-based products, we as a food company are now also investing in growth in foods based on other raw materials,” he adds.

Raisio recently spoke to Food Ingredients First to discuss oats as a healthy and sustainable gluten-free option for consumers.