Lightlife facts for kids
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| Wholly-owned | |
| Industry | Food |
| Genre | Food manufacturing |
| Founded | 1979 |
| Headquarters |
Turners Falls, Massachusetts
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United States
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Key people
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| Products |
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| Owner |
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Lightlife Foods is a company that makes food for people who eat plant-based diets. This means their products are made from plants, not animals. The company is famous for its plant-based hot dogs called "Smart Dogs," which first came out in 1993. In 2019, Lightlife also launched a plant-based burger to compete with other popular brands like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat. Lightlife Foods is also a carbon-neutral company, which means they try to balance out the carbon they release into the air.
Contents
How Lightlife Foods Started
Lightlife was started in Greenfield, Massachusetts in 1979 by Michael Cohen and Chia Collins. They first called their company Tempeh Works. In 1998, they moved their business to Turner Falls, Massachusetts.
When they first began, they made tempeh, which is a food made from fermented soybeans. Chia Collins, who was the company's president, said they were just interested in vegetarian eating and the benefits of soybeans. They didn't plan for the company to become so big!
Over time, Lightlife started making other plant-based meat alternatives. Some of their early products included Tofu Pups, Fakin Bacon, and Phoney Bologna. Later, they updated these products with new recipes and names like Smart Sausage, Smart Bacon, and Smart Deli. They also created a popular product called Gimmie Lean Sausage.
Growing Bigger: New Owners and Products
In the summer of 2000, a large food company called ConAgra Foods bought Lightlife Foods. Lightlife was making about $25 million in sales each year at that time. This sale happened because other small natural food companies were also being bought by bigger companies like Kellogg's and Kraft Foods. Lightlife knew it would be hard to compete with such huge companies on its own.
Michael Cohen, who was Lightlife's CEO, made sure that the company would stay in Turners Falls and keep its 145 employees. He also wanted to make sure Lightlife continued its focus on being a good company for the community.
In 2010, ConAgra moved some of Lightlife's office jobs to its main office. But Lightlife still remained one of the biggest employers in the area by 2013. The company also continued to support its local community by donating to events like the Green River Festival and the Greenfield Triathlon.
New Owners and the Plant-Based Burger
In September 2013, another company called Brynwood Partners bought Lightlife Foods from ConAgra Foods. At this time, Lightlife had about 90 employees.
Then, in 2017, a company called Maple Leaf Foods bought Lightlife Foods for $140 million. This was a big step for Lightlife. In 2019, Lightlife introduced its new plant-based burger. This burger is made with pea protein, garlic powder, and beet powder, which gives it a meat-like color. Lightlife first sold this burger in restaurants before bringing it to grocery stores.
Lightlife is known for using soy protein and tempeh in its products. However, for the new plant-based burger, they used pea protein and coconut oil. Pea protein gives the burger a texture that is more like meat. Another competitor, Beyond Meat, also uses pea protein in its plant-based burgers.
Meeting High Demand
To make enough products for everyone, Lightlife Foods' parent company, Greenleaf Foods, started building a huge new food processing plant in Shelbyville, Indiana, in 2019. This plant was planned to be "North America's biggest plant-based protein facility" once it was fully ready. It cost $310 million and was expected to make 60 million pounds of plant-based meat every year!
Around March 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic became widespread, sales of plant-based meats were already growing fast. By May 2020, sales of fresh meat alternatives jumped by 255%. This was partly because it was harder to get traditional meat during the pandemic, which made more people try plant-based options. Even though Lightlife lost some business from restaurants during the pandemic, they still expected their sales to grow by 30% in 2020. In fact, their sales increased by about $25 million compared to the year before.
Partnerships and Expansion
In 2019, Lightlife Foods announced a partnership with Soldier Field in Chicago. This meant that Lightlife's plant-based burgers would be sold at home games for the Chicago Bears football team.
In October 2020, Lightlife also made a deal with Bowlero Corporation, which owns many bowling alleys in North America. As part of this deal, Lightlife's plant-based burger would be sold at Bowlero and Bowlmor Lanes locations. Lightlife also sponsored the 2020 PBA Tour, which is a professional bowling tour.
In January 2021, Greenleaf Foods, Lightlife's parent company, announced they would buy another food processing plant in Indianapolis, Indiana. This plant would be used only to make tempeh products. The cost of this purchase was about $100 million. Dan Curtin, the President of Greenleaf Foods, said that Lightlife Tempeh made up about 80% of all tempeh sales in the U.S. in 2020. Lightlife's tempeh products are now sold in over 18,500 stores, including 3,500 Walmart stores since November 2020.
Products
Lightlife Foods makes many different products using tempeh, soy protein, and pea protein.
- Smart Dogs - These plant-based veggie dogs were first launched in 1993. They were originally made with soy protein. In 2012, they were updated with a new recipe that included pea protein along with soy protein.
- Plant-Based Burger - Launched in 2019, the Lightlife Plant-Based Burger is made with pea protein, coconut oil, and beet powder. This burger was sold at Harvey's restaurants in Canada and at Dave & Buster's restaurants in the United States and Canada. However, Harvey's stopped selling the Lightlife burger in July 2022.
- Plant-Based Chicken - Lightlife Smart Tenders are plant-based chicken pieces made with soy protein. In August 2020, Lightlife plant-based chicken became a regular menu item at KFC restaurants in Canada.
Advertising Campaigns
Lightlife has created some interesting advertising campaigns to promote its products.
"A Taste of Honesty" Campaign
In 2019, Lightlife launched a campaign called "A Taste of Honesty." It featured actors Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard. The campaign included a two-minute video shared on social media with the hashtag #ATasteOfHonesty. This ad was even chosen as the "ad of the day" by AdWeek on October 8, 2019.
Clean Break Campaign
On August 25, 2020, Lightlife published an open letter in famous newspapers like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. In this letter, Lightlife challenged its competitors, Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat. Lightlife claimed that these companies used "unnecessary additives, fillers, and fake blood" in their plant-based burgers.
In response, Impossible Foods wrote a blog post calling Lightlife's "Clean Break" campaign a "disingenuous, desperate disinformation campaign." They said Lightlife was trying to make people doubt their products.
Lightlife Foods also partnered with vegetarian late-night host Lilly Singh for an Instagram campaign called "Make a Clean Break with Lilly Singh" in October 2020. This campaign continued the "Clean Break" theme. In the campaign, Lilly Singh gave advice to her followers about making a "clean break" from things in their own lives.
See also
