Joseph C. Barsalona II Quoted in Bloomberg Law, “Vegan Food Companies Grapple With High Costs, Slim Customer Pool”

Joseph C. Barsalona II, partner in the Bankruptcy, Restructuring and Creditors’ Rights practice at Pashman Stein Walder Hayden P.C., was recently quoted in an article in Bloomberg Law titled, “Vegan Food Companies Grapple With High Costs, Slim Customer Pool.” The article discusses vegan restaurant chain Planta being part of a wave of restaurant defaults as specialty dining grapples with rising food, rent, and operating costs and a smaller customer base than conventional eateries.

Joseph C. Barsalona II, who is currently representing Planta, said the chain’s upscale dining appeals to a narrow niche of a limited clientele. He also noted a broader decline in demand for plant-based offerings.

“It leaves you a subset of consumers still focused on eating healthy,” he said. “It’s still a very strong contingent of people, but you don’t have the same math that you could have going to these types of restaurants.”

Planta, which filed for bankruptcy in May, has restaurants in Florida, Georgia, California, New York, Illinois, Maryland, and Washington, D.C.During the pandemic, the surge in plant-based food popularity helped drive Planta’s expansion.

“Based on that demand at that time, the valuation for Planta was very high, and they were able to take private equity financing to have an aggressive growth, because this was seen as the future,” Barsalona said. “Veganism is not going away, but it’s not going to be generally accepted amongst regular burger-eating Americans, and so some of these stores never even got off the ground.”

Planta is planning to reorganize. It will cease operations at some locations in California, including West Hollywood, as well as in Brooklyn, N.Y., and West Palm Beach, Fla., among others. Barsalona said Planta will pursue a sale.

To read the full article in Bloomberg Law, click here.