Animal Free Dairy Maker Perfect Day Acquires 3 New Manufacturing Plants In India, Announces New U.S. Hub

California’s Perfect Day has been confirmed as the winning bidder in an auction for Mumbai-based Sterling Biotech. The reported final figure was Rs 638 crore, with the reserve set as Rs 548.46 crore. Sterling entered into the liquidation process following insolvency and a failure to provide any resolution plan. Proceedings were started in 2018 by what is now the Union Bank of India.

Multiple bidders were listed as participating in the auction. They included an Indian consortium comprised of Shamrock Pharmachemi and India Gelatine & Chemicals, Belgium’s Tessenderlo Chemie International and Progressive Star Finance, amongst others. 

Indian expansion on the cards?

Perfect Day, by acquiring Sterling, gains two manufacturing plants in Gujarat and a third in Tamil Nadu, possible a sign of planned Indian expansion plans though likely the company is also looking to reduce production costs and establish operations in Asia as it looks to expand beyond the U.S. market.

Salt Lake City on Perfect Day’s map

In addition to the India plant acquisition news, the alternative dairy leader has just announced it will be making Utah’s Salt Lake City home to its second production base. Construction is already in progress, to build out a 60,000 square foot plant within the Gateway’s BioHive center. Regarded as something of an incubator for life sciences, the campus already features a diverse blend of enterprises. 

The new location will provide support for Perfect Day’s Enterprise Biology platform, which offers B2B services to external companies. IP licencing and scaled production are two of the services offered, already with positive results. Perfect day’s partnership with Betterland Foods is a notable example. The two have so far worked together to create Betterland cow-free milk and woo chocolate bars, using Perfect Day’s signature fermented whey protein.

Utah has welcomed the news that Perfect day will be setting up shop in the state. The Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity played a role in securing the alt-dairy biotech’s new facility and is buoyed by the promise of new employment. Perfect Day has pledged that over the span of four years, it will be looking to hire more than 60 ‘highly-paid’ professionals for its Salt Lake City base.

“Perfect Day is an exciting addition to Salt Lake City, which is home to a fast growing life sciences industry,” Mayor Eric Mendenhall said in a statement. “Having evolved into a dynamic campus for life sciences companies to grow and innovate, The Gateway is a valuable partner in supporting our initiatives to grow the city’s biotech and life sciences ecosystem.” 

Alt-dairy’s investment surge

Investors’ eyes are seemingly shifting from just meat alternatives to include dairy as well. In October last year, Perfect Day scooped $350 million in a pre-IPO late-stage funding round, propelling it to unicorn status and bringing focus to the alternative dairy sector.

Over in France, Lyon-based Bon Vivant has announced its intention to become the European Perfect Day, with its cow-free dairy protein development. It recently netted €4 million to progress its precision fermentation R&D. 

A biotech in New Zealand is looking to break away from the norm by offering an alternative to the country’s conventional dairy sector. Daisy Lab secured NZ$250,000 to develop its range of cow-free products, with a particular focus on cheese. Like Perfect Day and Bon Vivant, the startup leverages precision fermentation to generate identical dairy proteins, without the use of cows.

All photos by Perfect Day.