The plant-based industry is rapidly evolving, with new companies and products entering the market at a breakneck pace. Among the pioneers shaping this space is Danny O’Malley, the visionary behind Before the Butcher and its Uncut line of plant-based meat alternatives.
In the latest episode of the Plant Based On Fire podcast, Danny shares his journey from working at Beyond Meat to launching his own company, offering insights into what it takes to thrive in this competitive industry.
Danny’s Journey into Plant-Based Entrepreneurship:
Danny O’Malley’s foray into the plant-based market began a decade ago when he joined Beyond Meat as one of the earliest members of their sales team.
“I was in the food industry for most of my adult career, and when the opportunity to join Beyond Meat came, I knew it was the perfect fit,”
Danny recalls. His time at Beyond Meat not only gave him a front-row seat to the plant-based revolution but also equipped him with the knowledge and experience to launch his own venture, Before the Butcher, in 2016.
Starting Before the Butcher wasn’t without its challenges. Danny’s initial products were plant-based crumbles and grounds, which were easier to develop than the now-iconic plant-based burgers.
“We reverse-engineered what Beyond and Impossible had done, figuring out in months what took them years,”
Danny says. His commitment to innovation and quality allowed Before the Butcher to quickly establish itself in the market.
Differentiating Before the Butcher in a Crowded Market:
In a market dominated by giants like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, differentiation is key. For Danny, this meant focusing on nutrition and variety.
“Right from the beginning, we knew it was important to work on the nutritional aspects,”
Danny explains. Before the Butcher’s burgers, for instance, contain significantly less sodium than their competitors—260 milligrams compared to nearly 500 milligrams in other brands.
Another unique aspect of Before the Butcher is its extensive product line, which includes everything from burger patties to chicken chunks and pulled pork. This variety has allowed the company to cater to diverse consumer needs and secure a strong foothold in the food service industry.
Scaling Challenges and Future Goals:
Scaling a plant-based business is no small feat, especially in an industry as young and dynamic as plant-based meats.
“Scaling up is a real challenge,” Danny admits. “You have to be in a facility where you can grow and anticipate what's going to happen going forward.”
COVID-19 threw a wrench in many of Before the Butcher’s plans, but the company has managed to navigate these challenges and is poised for its biggest year yet in 2024.
Danny’s strategic approach includes leveraging private label partnerships and expanding into new product categories like plant-based pepperoni and beef sticks. These innovations are set to hit the market by the end of the year, promising to further solidify Before the Butcher’s position in the industry.
Insights You'll Gain From This Episode:
Navigating the Plant-Based Industry: Learn how Danny leveraged his experience at Beyond Meat to build a successful plant-based business.
Product Innovation: Discover the importance of focusing on nutrition and variety when developing plant-based products.
Scaling Up: Gain insights into the challenges of scaling a plant-based startup and how to overcome them.
Strategic Partnerships: Understand the value of private label partnerships in expanding market reach and securing long-term success.
Future Trends: Get a sneak peek into the future of Before the Butcher and what’s next in plant-based innovation.
Danny O’Malley’s journey with Before the Butcher is a testament to the power of innovation, perseverance, and strategic thinking in the plant-based industry. As the market continues to evolve, companies like Before the Butcher are not just keeping pace—they're setting the standard.
Tune in to the full episode of Plant Based On Fire to hear more about Danny’s journey and his vision for the future of plant-based eating.
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Episode’s Transcript
Please understand that a transcription service provided the transcript below. It undoubtedly contains errors that invariably take place in voice transcriptions.
Bryan (00:00.696)
Hello everybody. And welcome to plant based on fire, where we talk about plant based businesses and their inspiring stories to thrive in our industry. I'm your host Brian. And the best way you can support our podcast is to click that subscribe link below and tell some other entrepreneurs in the plant based space about this awesome podcast. So I'd love to hear from you on what you love about this episode or recommend some other awesome guests that we should have.
Joining us today is Danny O'Malley. is a plant -based eating advocate and visionary behind Before the Butcher's Uncut product line of retail and food service meat alternatives. Welcome to the show, Danny.
Danny O'Malley (00:41.225)
Thanks, Brian. Thanks for having me
Bryan (00:44.898)
I appreciate you hanging out with me for a little bit, like take us back to the beginning. Like what inspired you to start before the butcher and enter into this like plant -based meat alternative market?
Danny O'Malley (00:57.016)
Well, I'll roll you through it here. I've been in the food industry for most of my adult career, and I was working for one of the major...
food service distributors about 10 years ago and I had a gentleman give me a call and asked if he could meet with me. I was a director at this distributor and he then I said, sure. And he came in, sat down with me and he happened to be the national sales manager for Beyond Meat.
Now, 10 years ago, not everybody knew who Beyond Meat was. It was a totally different industry back then. And he was a little frustrated because we were in Los Angeles and probably one of the best places to be able to sell his products. And we had it in the back of the book and weren't really out pushing it. And so he enlisted my help and said, hey, please, anything you can do to help me.
we would love to be able to expose this product to more people and get it out there on the market, especially in Southern California. And I said, yeah, I agree with you. I think this is a great product for us to have. And certainly, this is the right place for it to be on the market. And so right before he left, he said, hey, one other thing, we're a pretty small company right now. We only have two sales persons working one
one food service and we're looking for one other person to kind of cover it. He says, I'm on the East Coast, believe it or not, even though beyonds on the West Coast and we need somebody out here to kind of meet me in the middle. And I said, okay, well, I'll think about it. And if I could think of somebody, I'll reach out to you. So I reflected on for a little bit and after about an hour, I called him up and I said, I know the perfect person. And he said, well, who's that? And I said, that's me. And so I interviewed with
Danny O'Malley (03:01.472)
the founders the next week and I think within two weeks I was working for Beyond Meat and that was that was my start about 10 years ago now believe it or not. So I guess it kind of makes me one of the OGs there aren't a lot of people that have been around that long it's a young industry right plant -based meat and alternates a young industry. So I spent three years there and then left to start before the butcher about seven years ago and been rolling forward since then.
Bryan (03:11.564)
Wow, that is awesome.
Bryan (03:17.058)
That's right. That's right.
Bryan (03:27.31)
Very cool. That is awesome. And so you've been creating your version of this, you know, and you're one of the old school creators of this. So I'm so excited to talk with you. Like, how do you describe the process of like, developing that first plant based burger? And what were some of your challenges?
Danny O'Malley (03:47.074)
Well, we didn't start with a burger. We started with what we perceive as probably the easier products to make, which are crumbles and grounds. And we had some, in fact, our first seven items were our.
beef like crumble, which is like beef grunt, and then Italian crumble, chorizo, we had a pulled pork, chicken chunks and beef tips, all kind of ingredient type of products. At that time, you know, before I left, Beyond had just released their burger and Impossible released theirs. So these were really unique and special products at the time. Nobody else had them. It was a really unique time. So we needed a little bit
catching up to figure out how to do it basically reverse engineered what they did and figured it out in about three or four months what took impossible and beyond a couple of years to put together.
But once that initial product gets out, you see what's on the ingredient list and anybody that really understands how to make these type of products could figure it out. And now it doesn't take rocket science anymore to do it, but to do it right, you've got to have some pretty talented people to be able to make these type of products.
Bryan (04:45.998)
That's awesome.
Bryan (05:07.916)
Yeah. And I, mean, I've been, you know, coaching businesses in this space for a little bit and like not so much the food creation, but just any plant based business. it's so interesting. know, you've got this passion in this idea, but then you have all these other avenues of it, you know, like you have to make sure it can be frozen and transported and all this other stuff that goes into making it besides just making it taste good when I cook it
kind of a thing. So there's so much more that goes into it. So I commend you on this journey that you've been on. I'm curious, like, how do you how do you see yourself, you know, taking before the butcher and differentiating yourself with the the burgeoning influx of all these players into this market, and you've got the two big guys impossible and beyond. So how do you how do you play to differentiate?
Danny O'Malley (05:57.987)
Well.
We've pretty much done that already. We look at our separation a couple of different ways. One is nutritionally. Right from the beginning, I knew it was important to work on the nutritional aspects and ingredient bases of what we did. They weren't paying that much attention back then as they are today because everybody was just so involved and interested and thought it was so cool.
So back then we looked at what Beyond and Impossible did with their burgers and some of the first...
somewhat negative feedback right from the beginning was, hey, these products have a lot of sodium in it. And there's a couple of ingredients we don't quite sure know what they are. And so I looked at it and worked with my team and said, hey, guys, we've got to figure out how to do it. Beyond at that time was saying, there's only so much we can do with the sodium. And there's a lot of truth to that. So when we're creating the natural flavors and spices, sodium is included in that. And so you
with your flavor companies to help you do that and hopefully be able to reduce the sodium to a certain point. And then of course you don't want to add any additional sodium to it. So Beyond Impossible were close to 500 milligrams of sodium in their original burgers and we came out at 260. Now to give you a little bit of reference a four ounce beef burger is around 100 maybe a little bit more a little bit less. So there are some challenges reducing and then of course with that
Bryan (07:26.061)
Wow.
Danny O'Malley (07:36.552)
you know, we said from the very beginning, we weren't trying to create a burger with a flavor profile. We wanted to create a burger that, you know, tasted like ground beef, is ground beef by itself is fairly bland. I mean, there's no, if you're just eating ground beef, ground up meat.
You got the fat in there. You got that umami fat in there, they're not adding sodium. They're not adding spices and flavors to it like we do to kind of create that. So we wanted to do that because for two reasons. One is when you offer it to an operator, a restaurateur, they're likely to put their flavor blend on it. So they might put a little McCormick seasoning or just some salt and pepper on it, but they're going to season it somehow. And we didn't want them to have to adjust their normal way of cooking a burger for our burger.
If you've got a beef burger on the griddle and you put the plant -based burger on the other side of the griddle and you sprinkle a little salt and pepper on the beef burger, do the same thing with ours. So you're matching that. When you did that with Beyond or Impossible, you're adding a lot more sodium to something that's already got a fair amount of sodium in it. So that was one of things we focused on was our nutritional aspects. We still do that today after seven years. It's really important to us. And then the variety. We started with seven different products right out the gate.
that's kind of unusual, especially in such a unique and startup type of operation like we had in an industry that was so young. I just happen to have a really good R &D team and my lead on the R &D team has been making these type of products for years. He was part of the original Soyriiso team that made Soyriiso 15 or 20 years ago. So I was fortunate to
Bryan (09:21.376)
Okay.
Danny O'Malley (09:26.192)
the right team and we just focused on you know grabbing the coattails of the two leaders and and running with them because Those guys were out there spending tens hundreds of millions of dollars on PR and marketing I didn't have that that kind of money So they opened it up for us to just roll in behind them and capture You know that what was trailing and there was tons of it trailing there and plus at the beginning both of them had troubles just meeting demand and we did that we filled
Bryan (09:50.411)
Mm -hmm.
Bryan (09:54.498)
Yeah.
Danny O'Malley (09:55.876)
a lot and we've been able to keep a lot of that business since then.
Bryan (10:00.76)
That is awesome. And it's, it's interesting because like I was shopping with a friend the other day and I, you know, I'm the vegan, right? So I don't eat the, I don't eat the, the meat at the meat section. And he wanted to get some bacon and it was just, I haven't looked at bacon prices in years and it was just really shocking to see the prices of bacon. So, so high on the shelves. I mean, I don't even know what I used to buy it for on that front. So I see the prices of meat.
continuing to rise up. And I guess I'm curious, like, what do you see as that price parity comes into view for you? And then like, also, like just like you mentioned, I think, you know, what, what were some of the challenges you faced in scaling up and how did you, you know, meet the meat demand?
Danny O'Malley (10:49.358)
Well, I'll talk about the price parity real quick and then get into some of the scaling up challenges along the way. Price parity is a bit of a challenge for us for a couple of reasons. One is most of us consider our products premium products, which they are. And we're not just taking an animal, slaughtering it and putting it into a certain form or shape that everybody's familiar with and wants. We also don't get subsidized. And big cattle,
You know the pig industry the chicken industry the dairy industry are all subsidized by the government To keep the prices in line and to help them support them as farmers And on up the chain, we don't we don't get that so we we're dealing with hey This is what it is and being able to put all these ingredients together and take plant -based ingredients and Make them into something that's familiar and an animal
Bryan (11:44.718)
Mm -hmm.
Danny O'Malley (11:49.281)
type protein and we're mimicking that.
It's not easy. So I know everybody thinks, wow, know, soy is not that expensive. Pea is not that expensive. These ingredients shouldn't. Why is it so expensive? It's so expensive because we're doing something that, you know, we're taking natural products and making something that isn't natural, you know, and trying to mimic something that you're familiar with and comfortable with. And so that costs. And so we we look at all the costs there and we try to be as conservative as possible. But the best way to compare type of
Bryan (12:16.098)
Yep, that's right.
Danny O'Malley (12:24.348)
we do is against premium animal based protein products. Now we have come up with a lineup we call mainstream, which goes beyond our before the butcher lineup. And mainstream is our what we call our affordable plant based protein line. have a burger right now. And what we did there was we instead of sourcing all the high end, more expensive gourmet type ingredients and everything non GMO, gluten free and so on and so
Bryan (12:29.844)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
Danny O'Malley (12:54.144)
and providing the best of the best, what we did was we looked at the commodity products because that's what we're competing against, against animal -based proteins more often than not. And we started buying the commodity soy and the commodity seasonings and things like that. Not as premium, but still a very good product. And we're able to be much more competitive there and reduce our costs even in our production facility by about 30 % to hit the market and actually be competitive.
Bryan (13:23.138)
Yeah.
Danny O'Malley (13:24.919)
I think what you're going to see over time, and I think we're seeing it all, I mean you mentioned the price of bacon. I'm like, you know, I've been vegan for about 10 years so I don't pay that much attention to animal -based proteins. But everything is naturally going up and from time to time there's a spike in the industry on the animal -based protein side and our our side is pretty level. Yes, soy goes up and we have to deal with some of the prices. What we're affected more by than anything else is just the cost of labor.
you know, and the cost of the facility and maintaining the facility equipment and stuff, that probably cost us more than what it costs us, you know, increases in ingredients. And so we've tried to keep our prices as stable as possible. And you don't see the fluctuations in the plant -based meat market like you see in animal -based proteins, because we're able to stabilize it a little bit. You know, we try to buy based on, you know, anticipated
Bryan (13:54.38)
Yeah.
Bryan (14:16.066)
Yeah, for sure.
Danny O'Malley (14:24.238)
and projected volumes and we're able to hold on a little bit longer that way.
Bryan (14:28.738)
That's right. Yep. The, the soy future market. That's right.
Danny O'Malley (14:33.324)
Yeah, yeah. And then scaling up, it's a whole different game, my friend. It's scaling up. You just have to do your best. I don't know what else to say. You got to be able to be in a facility where you can grow. And you have to try to anticipate what's going to happen going forward. It has been a wild and crazy ride and something none of us could project with COVID because it threw us upside down. And all the projections we had went out
Bryan (14:37.916)
Mm
Danny O'Malley (15:03.2)
window and went out the window not not for six months, but a couple of years. And we're in that recovery mode to this is going to be our biggest year ever. But it took us now since you know, 2020 to 2024 before I can finally say, hey, we're out of it. It's been a scramble for the last three years. And it hasn't been easy. And fortunately, you know, we can hold our heads up high and say we're still out here. And there's a lot of my friends and other companies that
Bryan (15:20.738)
Yeah.
Danny O'Malley (15:33.325)
similar things to what we do and they're not in business anymore. And last couple of years are very difficult.
Bryan (15:37.336)
That's right. Yeah. And I, you know, like I'm more in the service side of things with, you know, business coaching and business advising and stuff. And I tell people that are going into this manufacturing space that it takes a tremendous amount of money. And like you said, really smart team members that have been there and done that, like you have to have everything firing on all cylinders to meet that demand. So I'm curious,
You know, what, what was your experience with securing funding and really driving forward a manufacturing plant based startup and what tips and tricks do you have for other entrepreneurs wanting to enter into this kind of a space?
Danny O'Malley (16:13.742)
Don't do it. That's my tip. Look, we're now in an industry that has got, we're past the quote unquote startup stage of plant -based meat alternates. This industry is now, you could comfortably say we're 10 years plus with Beyond and Impossible. I mean, if you really wanted, what's that?
Bryan (16:15.31)
Right?
Bryan (16:36.118)
Almost a teenager, right? Yeah. Almost a teenager. That's right.
Danny O'Malley (16:40.896)
Yeah, exactly. I mean, if you really wanted to focus on when this industry opened and really started forging forward in a big way where people started recognizing beyond and impossible, that was with the burgers when they both released the burgers about eight years ago. So, I mean, you could take that as the time if you wanted to say, hey, here's the startup, the burgers came out. That's it. Eight years ago, we're looking at and it was right around this time, maybe a couple of months
Bryan (16:57.88)
Mm -hmm.
Danny O'Malley (17:10.82)
for this eight years ago when Beyond released and then about a month later, later Impossible released theirs. So let's just say eight years. Eight years is still very young, but still in, in the respect of a small industry. And we are a small industry compared to the animal based protein industries. we're, we're, you know, eight years, there's enough of us out there that anybody that comes into the market is really going to already have to fight for it, you know, and, and have to have something
Bryan (17:28.438)
Mm -hmm.
Danny O'Malley (17:40.692)
a unique different special, whether it's on the marketing end or on the product end, you can't just drop in with a burger. You're not going to be successful. Burgers have been oversaturated for a couple of years now. And it is what it is. There's enough burgers out there. You're not going to win with that. You have to find something else unique. And scaling up is a real challenge. mean, you're going to have to come into an industry that is fighting for space, generally with
Bryan (17:47.852)
Yep, that's right.
Danny O'Malley (18:10.766)
the meat industry because most of our products go on the same line and use the same equipment as meat uses. there's really outside of an extruder, which has been around for 50, 60 years, because extruders were used for cereal 50, 60, maybe even 70 years ago. So it's not a unique piece of equipment outside of that specifically. You can throw this on to almost any line in any, if you're making a hamburger, if you go to any
Bryan (18:12.333)
Mm -hmm.
Bryan (18:18.69)
Mm
Danny O'Malley (18:40.792)
that's making hamburgers, meat burgers, they can make ours. They can make a plant -based burger. So it's not really that unique in that way, but being able to secure that space and find a cold packer, because you're not going to want to spend the millions of dollars for your own equipment.
I've seen it happen a couple of times. Big companies said, okay, we'll spend $56 million and then they shut it down and they're selling the equipment off for dimes on the dollar.
Bryan (18:58.434)
That's right,
Bryan (19:12.344)
That's right.
Danny O'Malley (19:13.314)
The best bet is to find yourself a co -packer and there's not a lot of them out there that will co -pack these type of products and it's become risky. It's become risky because these startups get started. They're able to secure money somehow. It's difficult today, but a couple of years ago, money was out there two, three years ago and they would get millions of dollars and you'd be surprised how fast millions of dollars goes. It disappears really, really fast. So for us, I was
Bryan (19:38.079)
I know it.
Danny O'Malley (19:43.548)
We started with a angel investor with just a couple of hundred thousand dollars and that couple hundred thousand dollars turned into millions. And the guy was ready to get out. He said, look, I was just there to kind of help you guys get started. I was so excited. We were all excited and growing and everything was great. But he says, I, you know, I need to get out. And so I started looking around venture capital, individual investors. And I went to, we were at that point in time,
Bryan (19:53.528)
That's awesome.
Danny O'Malley (20:13.34)
We were producing all the products ourselves that were simplistic enough for us to make. And the exception to that was the burger. When we started our patty line, so we had our original lineup was a burger, a chicken burger, turkey burger, and a breakfast sausage patty.
award -winning breakfast sausage patty. Really great one. So we had a co -factor down in San Diego making those products for us probably about six or eight months. so I went to the CEO of the company and I said, hey, look, just heads up because you're probably going to hear it. We're looking for money, right? Everybody was looking for money and money was out there. wasn't, it was a matter of, hey, where are you going to get it? What's your best choice?
which direction you want to go because you're to have to give up some of the company to do it, right? So we talked a lot of venture capitalists, companies, investors, and so on and so forth. And when I mentioned it to the CEO of the company that we're co -packing with, he said, hey, I think we might be interested. He said, let me talk to my investors and the investors that own that meat company.
Bryan (21:04.96)
That's right.
Danny O'Malley (21:27.336)
and let me get back to you. And he got back to me really quick. He says, you know what? They're really interested. Why don't you come down? Let's all have a meeting. And we sat down to have a meeting with them. And they said, look, we're not interested in just investing in company. We'd like to acquire your company.
Bryan (21:32.942)
Very cool.
Danny O'Malley (21:42.57)
And I said, well, you know, I wasn't quite ready for that. I was like, okay, let's talk through this. And we ended up working through it and they acquired the majority portion of the company at the time. And that ended up being probably the smartest thing I ever did. I had the advantage of having my then became my sister company because we both are separate corporations with the same parent company. It was my co packer. We in fact,
Bryan (21:43.104)
wow.
Bryan (21:57.806)
It's
Danny O'Malley (22:11.446)
I have my team down there, it's their labor, it's my management team. So we still say we make our own products because it's all the same company, which we do.
Bryan (22:20.878)
Absolutely,
Danny O'Malley (22:24.215)
And so it has been about five years with them. And it's been, I wouldn't call it the dream, but I'll tell you what, it's been very fortunate for me and the company to have them as partners. Because getting through COVID, I'm not sure how we would have gotten through that.
the investors came to me and said, hey, Danny, you need some money. Because before that, we became profitable almost immediately. And then COVID hit and it was 100 % the opposite, you know what I mean? And they came and said, hey, you need some money? We'll loan you that money. We're not going to take it out of your piece of the company and you pay us back. And so that's what we did.
Bryan (22:53.582)
That's awesome.
Bryan (22:59.487)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm.
Bryan (23:07.47)
That's awesome.
Danny O'Malley (23:08.158)
And so it was a really fantastic opportunity, very unique. think I don't know anybody that has that same story that can say they've walked through it that way. But every story is unique. we were fortunate and that's why we're still around. That company, that meat company now has a plant based division. They purchased a couple of other plant based companies and now we're building off of that. they're basically rounding out some of the things that we don't do.
So we will have plant -based seafood and some other things that we weren't working on as part of our portfolio. So I'm really excited about going forward by, you know, if we sat down and talk this time next year, I'm going to be talking about a lot of other products that we have under the same portfolio, the same roof.
Bryan (23:44.814)
That's awesome.
Bryan (23:56.824)
Well, that, that is awesome. I hope to take a trip out there and hang out with you and try some of these things. That's exciting to hear all these new things coming out in the market. And I was like, you know, it goes back to that question in my mind of like, how do you build the brand? Like, what do you think some of those key factors are building a brand and, and stuff, you know, impossible just went through their big rebranding thing on that front. how have you seen you trying to bring, you know, beyond
before the butcher forward as a
Danny O'Malley (24:28.579)
Well,
I think, and I've said this since the beginning, that you really have to get grassroots as much as possible. You know, these big companies beyond and impossible, they've got hundreds of millions of dollars for their PR and marketing and all the things that they need to do to get the word out about their products. For us, it's been different because we're looking to secure our customer base through really great products at reasonable prices in the right place.
that they can get it. And most of our business today is in food service. We do some private label and in some what I call industrial business. maybe somebody that's making a pizza or burrito or bowl for a grocery store will use our ingredients in there. You know, I have a lot of people and I'm not super inflated about having the name of our company out there. What I'm really is important to me is being a profitable company. And I can say that and those other two
They can't say that and they struggle in other ways. We all struggle. It's not an easy road, believe me. If I didn't have Beyond Meat for three years, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing today. So I always feel fortunate that I had my time there to give me a base route to understand the industry and what I needed to do to be successful. But for us, we just continue to plug forward and we listen.
Bryan (25:34.455)
Yeah,
Danny O'Malley (25:55.916)
we take the time to listen to the consumer and what they want. you know, even to this day, the latest product that we just developed and getting ready to launch is our Vegburg. And it's an old school veggie burger, but it's vegan, right? So a lot of veggie burgers aren't vegan. don't know, a lot of people don't realize that, but veggie burgers more often not have real cheese or real egg or both in there. And so they're vegetarian, but they're not vegan. So we're making ours with a plant -based cheese
Bryan (26:10.84)
Yeah.
Bryan (26:16.173)
That's right.
Bryan (26:19.928)
Mm -hmm. Yep.
Danny O'Malley (26:25.852)
plant -based egg and this thing is killer man you can see the vegetables that this is what our customers ask for they say hey we love what you've done we we're not gonna stop eating your products but we want to see
We want to see our veggies every once in too, right? So we've got our carrots and our zucchini and our mushrooms and onions. And this is a killer product. mean, we just launched into eight stores of 110 unit chain on the East Coast. as a matter of fact, this week we're running a full truckload and that truckload is going out in August. And we've got 110 unit chain on the East Coast that will have this veggie burger on the menu.
Bryan (26:42.392)
That's right.
Bryan (27:05.858)
That's awesome. Well, I'm in Charlotte. So you let me know when they hit my market over here and I'll be one of the first ones to get it for sure. think, think, you know, congrats. I want to say you're online in a few places, but you've also managed to secure whole foods. And I think you're in whole foods a little bit,
Danny O'Malley (27:09.346)
Yeah, well.
Danny O'Malley (27:21.166)
Yeah, yeah, we actually do private label for Whole Foods as well. So if you go in there and you look for their little chicken bites, they're usually in the refrigerated Whole Foods 365 label, but we make it for them. So we developed that specifically for them. And we do private labels, the burger and the ground for Cisco Food Service, their private label, we do that too. So private label has been good for us. And I tell people all the time, I say, where can we find your products? I said, look, if you go into almost any
Bryan (27:32.012)
Yeah, very cool. Yeah.
Danny O'Malley (27:51.17)
store across the country that has a plant -based product you know that has maybe crumbles or chunks or things like that it's a good chance it's ours on top of that pizza or ours in that burrito or you know because most of them who are further processors don't make the product that goes inside of it just like a burrito company is not going to have you know not going to be slaughtering cattle who put beef in their product right they're going to buy it so it works for us on our side too.
Bryan (28:10.2)
That's right.
Bryan (28:16.216)
That's right. Yep.
And it's a hidden little world if you haven't explored the private label side of it, because there's so many people that want to worry about the brand and the name and all that stuff. And you can, you can glide in there and help them in a big way. You've kind of teased a few of these new products in the pipeline. So I'm curious, like, you know, if you can tell us anything on the inside scoop and where do you see before the butcher in the next five years and some of your longer term goals for the company.
Danny O'Malley (28:28.204)
Yeah. Yeah.
Danny O'Malley (28:48.494)
We're definitely gonna keep pushing on the private label and what I call the ingredient or industrial side because I know where my profit is there. I mean, it's a straight sale. I don't have to worry about PR, marketing, billbacks, all the things that cost the company a lot of money and are kind of hidden costs where companies have a lot of trouble. We pull back a lot on the retail side because it's very difficult to make money in retail. Food service, I get it. I know how to do it.
everybody wants a piece and it's very very difficult and you have to continue to promote and PR and everything on the shelf as well. So it's difficult we are planning to launch back into retail in a pretty big way by the end of this year and this may be our most exciting product of all. I mean this is gonna be a cool one. We're in the final stages of making a pepperoni stick and a beef stick and I'm gonna tell you what Brian.
Now I'm biased because this is my company, right? most people, there's no way they will know. And what's really, really cool about this product is we've got a really unique protein source. Our source for this is sunflower, sunflower protein.
Bryan (30:10.765)
wow. Okay.
Danny O'Malley (30:12.11)
So I don't know anybody else doing it. I know there may be some of these things may be happening over Europe, but not here in the US. And by the end of the year, I should have a new product on the market with sunflower protein that's shelf stable. That could be in your local 7 -Eleven or any other grocery store. mean, you could go into Lowe's or Home Depot and find anything where they hang on the side. You see those beef sticks. We expect to be right next to it.
Bryan (30:39.746)
That's right.
Danny O'Malley (30:42.404)
And so we're really excited about this product. Yeah, this is a cool cool product and nobody's there's a couple companies that have tried to do it plant -based But nothing like what we're doing. This is gonna be a really unique special product and hopefully by the end of the year I'll be able to tell you where it's at and we're gonna come in hot and heavy with this one back into the retail market and and you'll know us It will be it will be called the butcher stick. So get ready for it
Bryan (30:43.147)
I would love to see that.
Bryan (31:10.752)
Awesome. Awesome. Yeah. Well, I hope you can come back on the show sometime and tell us about some of these new products. So whenever they're ready, we'll be glad to help you be a platform to get the word out to our audience. So that begs the question. So this has been amazing, Danny. Like what else can we do to help you? How can the community of Plant Based on Fire help? And what are the best ways to get in touch?
Danny O'Malley (31:20.172)
Yeah. I appreciate it.
Danny O'Malley (31:38.306)
Well, the best way is just go to btbfoods .com or just beforethebutcher .com and you can find out more about us. If you don't know about us, you can look and see all of our products that are there. Like I said, we pull back a little bit on retail, but we'll get ready to push forward and make our products more readily available, at least online and the retail products that we have. you know, even if you went to like Hungry Root and ordered from them, they have these really great meals.
and we've got a couple of products, our taco ground and our chicken burger available with them. And you don't have to worry about doing anything. They'll ship it straight to your house and it's a full meal prepared with our products. So there's some really good stuff out there and we look to continue to expand that way and just keep your eyes and ears open and just continue to support the plant -based industry. You support the plant -based industry as a whole, you're supporting us and we appreciate it.
Bryan (32:18.382)
That's right.
Bryan (32:35.63)
That's right. I like to point that out to people all the time. You you get to tell your friends that you're vegan and why, but you gotta go out there and vote more and more and more with your wallet every chance you get.
Well, that has been awesome, Danny. We really appreciate you joining us on the show. That's all the time we have for this episode of Plant Based on Fire. BTBfoods .com is where you can check out Before the Butcher and all of Danny O'Malley's great products that are coming out. Thank you again, Danny, for joining us and sharing your insights and experiences with
Danny O'Malley (33:12.416)
I appreciate it,
Bryan (33:15.114)
Until next time everybody, keep that fire burning.
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