Wicked Kitchen has acquired Good Catch, North America's best-selling plant-based seafood brand, in a deal that extends Wicked Kitchen's multi-category plant-based offerings to frozen and ambient seafood products.

The two purpose-driven brands support one mission: creating amazing foods that work toward improving the environment and the lives of humans, animals and sea life by inspiring the world to eat more plants. "By folding Good Catch's plant-based seafood offerings into Wicked Kitchen's North American footprint, we will have the largest variety of animal-free consumer packaged goods in the industry available at more than 30,000 distribution points," said Pete Speranza, CEO, Wicked Kitchen. The two brands' product lines include a variety of products—"from appetizers to desserts," he said—with broad appeal.

Good Catch has won two NEXTY Awards since its inception: 

No Evil won a 2017 Expo East NEXTY Award for Best New Packaging Innovation for its Comrade Cluck product.

Related:How Good Catch Foods hooked consumers on plant-based seafood

In the all-stock transaction, Gathered Foods, the parent company of Good Catch, will become a shareholder of Wicked and will gain a seat on the company's board. Gathered will focus on its core strength in development and production of exceptional and innovative plant-based proteins.

"Gathered Foods is a leading pioneer in plant-based proteins," said Chris Kerr, Gathered's executive chair. "Wicked's greatest strength is consumer reach, branding, and most importantly, culinary delight. Together, this is an outstanding path forward allowing both companies to bring their greatest strengths to the consumer market. This partnership with Wicked is the first of several steps Gathered is taking in this direction."

Wicked Kitchen will take over Good Catch's brand in North America to ramp up product innovation, research and development, as well as food service with Chad Sarno at the helm. With its regional and national food service and restaurant partnerships, including a previous alignment with Long John Silvers, Good Catch brings seasoned expertise to help accelerate Wicked Kitchen's presence in that category.

"When creating Wicked Kitchen and Good Catch, our goal for both brands was to develop culinary-driven, industry-changing products that would challenge the way consumers think about their food choices and experiences," said Chad Sarno, who will be the chief culinary officer for both brands. "By coming together as one team and one mission, we will have a broader positive impact."

While the two brands will prioritize working together on product innovations that are always animal-free, particularly in the frozen and ambient foods categories, they will continue to operate business as usual in terms of branding, current product availability, distribution, and fulfillment.

"By bringing Wicked Kitchen and Good Catch together, we are incredibly excited to embrace being true thought leaders in the plant-based space with our approach of creating culinary-forward foods with broad appeal for all to enjoy," Speranza said.

Source: Wicked Kitchen