REDWOOD CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Elohi Strategic Advisors and The Independent Broker Alliance (IBA) launched a partnership in May 2018 to increase availability of the award-winning Impossible Burger at restaurants and other foodservice outlets nationwide.
The partnership will increase availability of Impossible Foods’ flagship product at traditional restaurants as well as corporate canteens, museums, hotels and other locations.
Made entirely from plants, the award-winning Impossible Burger has no added hormones, antibiotics or artificial flavors. It uses about 75% less water, generates about 87% fewer greenhouse gases and requires around 95% less land than conventional ground beef from cows.
The Impossible Burger is already available at about 2,000 outlets -- from America’s hottest “better burger” concepts to the nation’s original fast-food franchise, White Castle. It’s served at a growing number of professional sports stadiums, corporate canteens and universities.
BEEFING UP SALES AT RESTAURANTS NATIONWIDE
The Impossible Burger is often the top-selling burger in many restaurants, even outselling conventional, cow-derived ground beef. Based on point-of-sale data from a national better burger chain that sells several types of plant-based burgers, the Impossible Burger outsells the conventional “veggie burger” more than three to one.
“The Impossible Burger is one of the most popular menu items in many restaurants because it offers zero compromise on taste or sustainability,” said Stephanie Lind, Senior Vice President of Global Sales for Impossible Foods. “It’s one of the few menu items that can single-handedly boost sales.”
Restaurateurs can order the Impossible Burger through distributors including Sysco, US Foods, Gordon Food Service, Food Services of America and more, as well as the nation’s largest food redistributor DOT -- and now leading broker IBA, in collaboration with Elohi, are expanding the brand’s availability across the foodservice channel.
“This partnership is a no-brainer and we are ecstatic to add IBA as a partner in our ongoing relationship with Impossible Foods,” said Elohi Chief Executive Officer Kevin Smith. “The synergy among our companies and corporate cultures will provide incredible opportunities for existing and emerging brands in the channel. We are very excited for the future.”
“We’ve wanted to represent the Impossible Burger since it debuted in 2016,” said Tish Fidler-Tate, Executive Board Member for IBA. “This product will have a monumental, positive effect on the environment, and we’re proud of this three-way collaboration.”
BIG TASTE, SMALL FOOTPRINT
In development since 2011, the Impossible Burger debuted in July 2016 at Chef David Chang’s Momofuku Nishi in Manhattan. The Impossible Burger is the only plant-based burger to win a 2017 Tasty Award and a 2018 Fabi Award from the National Restaurant Association, and it’s beefing up sales at restaurants nationwide.
The Impossible Burger is now available in about 2,000 restaurants nationwide, including beloved “better burger” concepts Fatburger, Umami Burger, Hopdoddy, The Counter, and B Spot, the Midwest burger restaurant owned by Chef Michael Symon. White Castle is currently the largest single restaurant group to serve Impossible Foods’ flagship product, with the $1.99 Impossible Slider featured at 140 outlets.
Impossible Foods launched production in September at its first large-scale manufacturing plant, in Oakland, Calif. With demand still outstripping supply, the company is now hiring for a second shift to double production this summer. Impossible Foods launched with top chefs in Hong Kong in April, and availability of the Impossible Burger has already expanded to premium hotels.
The Impossible Burger is made from simple ingredients, including water, wheat protein, potato protein and coconut oil. One special ingredient — heme — contributes to the characteristic taste of meat and catalyzes all the other flavors when meat is cooked.
Impossible Foods discovered a scalable, affordable way to make heme without animals: The company engineers and ferments yeast to produce a heme protein naturally found in plants, called soy leghemoglobin. The heme in the Impossible Burger is identical to the essential heme humans have been consuming for hundreds of thousands of years in meat — and while it delivers all the craveable depth of beef, it uses far fewer resources.
ABOUT IMPOSSIBLE FOODS
Based in Redwood City, Calif., Impossible Foods makes delicious, nutritious meat and dairy products directly from plants — with a much smaller environmental footprint than meat from animals. The privately held company was founded in 2011 by Patrick O. Brown, M.D., Ph.D., formerly a biochemistry professor and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at Stanford University. Investors include Khosla Ventures, Bill Gates, Google Ventures, Horizons Ventures, UBS, Viking Global Investors, Temasek, Sailing Capital and Open Philanthropy Project.
More information:
impossiblefoods.com
www.twitter.com/impossiblefoods
www.facebook.com/impossiblefoods
www.instagram.com/impossible_foods
Press kit:
https://impossiblefoods.app.box.com/v/presskit
To order the Impossible Burger for your restaurant:
hello@impossiblefoods.com
ABOUT ELOHI STRATEGIC ADVISORS
Elohi Strategic Advisors is a national, WBENC-certified, woman-owned advisory firm. Based in Marion, Illinois, Elohi employs a team of experts across the country to assist emerging natural and sustainable foodservice brands in distribution and growth. Clients begin their journey in a proprietary boot camp that prepares them for entering the world of foodservice profitably. The team at Elohi believes that the only way to change the world is to change the way the world eats.
More information:
https://www.elohi.us/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/elohi-strategic-advisors/
https://www.facebook.com/elohistrategicadvisors/
ABOUT THE INDEPENDENT BROKER ALLIANCE
The Independent Broker Alliance (IBA) is an alliance of 30 independently owned and operated foodservice sales agencies who engage with industry clients at local, market, regional and national levels. The IBA Approach rests on a foundation of strategic, results-driven commitment to delivering objectives that ultimately produces a portfolio of success. The Team of over 500 professionals with extensive sales, marketing and merchandising experience is based on a foundation of integrity, commitment, passion and performance. The Culture of execution creates an environment where clients develop partnerships with our IBA teams to build their businesses utilizing collaborative processes and solutions tailored to meet their individual needs. The members of the IBA are known for and proud of their culture of innovation, execution and entrepreneurialism.
More Information:
http://www.ibafoodservice.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/iba-foodservice/