Plant-based meat was once expected to transform how Americans consume protein.
Companies competed to introduce burgers, sausages, nuggets, and other products designed to recreate the taste and texture of meat without using animals.
Retailers and restaurants expanded their offerings, while investors poured billions of dollars into companies developing and manufacturing meat alternatives.
No Meat Factory was part of that expansion.
The Canadian company established a U.S. manufacturing operation in Washington state to produce plant-based products for brands, food-service companies, and private-label customers.
Now, little more than two years after the plant began operating, the company is closing the factory and eliminating its entire local workforce.
No Meat Factory closes Washington facility
No Meat Factory USA plans to permanently close its plant at 10120 269th Place NW in Stanwood, Washington, affecting approximately 113 employees.
Based on an earlier Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notice reviewed by TheStreet, the closure was supposed to take effect on September 16.
However, the company sent a new WARN notice, received by Washington State on July 28.
“Due to unforeseen business circumstances that led to immediate financial distress, we will be closing our operations effective July 27th, 2026,” according to the new filing.
The largest group affected by the closure consists of 55 production workers.
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The cuts also include night sanitation technicians, machine operators, production supervisors, and quality-assurance technicians.
Other positions eliminated include plant management, maintenance, warehouse, safety, human resources, and supply chain.
The company’s chief executive position is also listed among the affected classifications in the WARN filing.
The employees are not represented by a union.
According to the filing, workers will receive information on available benefits, final pay, continued health coverage, unemployment insurance, and workforce transition resources.
The WARN notice does not say whether production will be transferred to another facility.
Washington supported factory expansion
The Stanwood closure marks a sharp reversal from the optimism surrounding the facility only a few years ago.
In 2023, Washington state announced that No Meat Factory would take over the former Twin City Foods plant and establish its first U.S. production operation there.
The company planned to invest up to $20 million in renovations and improvements, while a $200,000 state grant helped fund upgrades to the site.
The plant was expected to produce veggie burgers, nuggets, ground-meat alternatives, seafood substitutes, sausages, and other products.
No Meat Factory said at the time that the U.S. operation would expand its manufacturing capacity, enabling it to better serve American brand partners, food-service companies, and private-label customers.
“No Meat Factory will provide the community with living wage jobs and support additional economic vitality in the area as the company continues to grow and expand its U.S. operations,” said Chris Green, Assistant Director for Commerce’s Office of Economic Development and Competitiveness.
The company also raised $42 million in a Series B funding round in early 2023 to expand production and accelerate growth, TechCrunch reported.
Now, less than four years after the expansion was announced and little more than two years after the plant began operating, the Stanwood factory is preparing to close, ending No Meat Factory’s manufacturing presence in the U.S.
Plant-based meat sales continue to fall
The closure comes during a difficult period for the U.S. plant-based meat industry.
American retail sales of plant-based meat and seafood fell 10% in dollars and 11% by unit volume in 2025, according to data analyzed by the Good Food Institute.
While plant-based milk remains the largest and most established segment of the wider plant-based food market, meat alternatives have experienced a sharper retreat from their earlier growth.
“In recent years, the plant-based market has been impacted by evolving consumer expectations around taste, price, and health, among other factors,” according to the Good Food Institute.
Plant-based alternatives remain considerably more expensive than conventional meat across many categories.
Only 11% of U.S. households purchased plant-based meat or seafood in 2025, and those households bought the products about once per month on average.
The category accounted for about 1.4% of packaged-meat retail dollar sales and approximately 0.7% of the wider meat market when random-weight meat was included.
Plant-based sector faces challenges
The downturn is not limited to plant-based meat, but has also reached restaurants and food-service suppliers.
Plant-based protein sales through major U.S. food-service distributors fell 7% in dollars and 5% by weight in 2025.
Sales of products designed to imitate meat fell even more sharply by volume.
Beyond Meat, one of the industry’s most recognizable companies, reported a 15.3% decline in revenue in its first quarter.
The company posted an operating loss of $41.1 million and warned that it continued to face significant uncertainty and volatility in its operating environment.
The company has since repositioned itself as Beyond The Plant Protein Company, adding beverages, snacks, and other protein products to its portfolio.
That shift followed a 26% decline in U.S. sales of plant-based meat alternatives over two years, according to the Associated Press.
The move reflects a broader effort by plant-based companies to appeal to consumers who may still want protein from plants but are less interested in products marketed as direct meat imitations.
The pressure has also reached plant-based restaurants.
Planta, an upscale vegan restaurant chain, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May 2025 and was later forced into Chapter 7 liquidation, TheStreet reported.
Planta’s failure also reflected broader restaurant-industry pressures, including weaker discretionary spending, and cannot be attributed solely to waning demand for vegan food.
Still, Planta’s liquidation, Beyond Meat’s declining revenue, and the No Meat Factory closure illustrate how significantly the market has changed over the years.
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