Founder of Plant‑Based Pioneer Bids to Reclaim Her Brand Amid Liquidation of Miyoko’s Creamery

The vegan cheese and butter brand Miyoko’s Creamery, founded in 2014, is undergoing a sale process after entering an Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors (ABC) on October 6, 2025, in California. Schinner, who was removed from her CEO role in 2022, is mobilising a team of aligned stakeholders and has launched a crowdfunding effort as part of her bid to reacquire the company’s assets and build a new chapter for the brand.

Schinner stated, “I believe I am the best person to be the face of the brand,” emphasising that while she would not resume a day‑to‑day CEO role, she intends to lead product development and restore the company’s founding mission. According to documentation seen by AgFunderNews, the ABC process has the brand’s trademark, formulas and other assets being managed by an assignee to maximise creditor recovery — and the bid deadline was set for November 7, 2025.

Return to roots and revised strategy

Under Schinner’s planned vision, the brand would pivot back to its original values of clean‑label, premium plant‑based dairy analogue products and emphasise early‑adopter consumers rather than a broad mass market. As she explained:

“You can’t go straight to the total addressable market and try to launch with cheeses that are speaking to the mass consumer … You’ve got to target the people that are, and they are looking for premium products that are clean label, that are nutritious.”

She also highlighted what she sees as a broader identity shift in consumer behaviour:

“People are not interested in whitewashed, middle‑of‑the‑road, me‑too brands. People want brands that have an opinion, a point of view, that stand for something, and that is what I would try to revive: a brand that stands for truth, equity, and sustainability.”

Schinner further revealed a novel approach to structure: a more lateral, mutually‑supportive organisation “not reliant on what investors say, that is not top down” — echoing a cooperative or federation model.

Challenges in the category

The bid comes at a difficult moment for the plant‑based dairy sector in the U.S. According to SPINS data, refrigerated plant‑based cheese retail sales fell 8.5 % to US$220.3 million in the 52 weeks to Sept 7, 2025, and plant‑based butter sales declined 14.9 % to US$157 million in the 52 weeks to Oct 5, 2025.

These figures underscore the difficulty of scaling plant‑based dairy analogues and suggest that Schinner’s turnaround effort will need to navigate both strategic repositioning and category headwinds.

Background and turmoil

Miyoko’s Creamery attracted more than US$70 million in investment from backers over its lifetime. Schinner was removed as CEO in 2022, following disagreements with the board about growth strategy and the evolution of the business. The company then filed a lawsuit accusing her of attempting to steal proprietary information, while Schinner filed a countersuit alleging she was forced out after raising gender discrimination concerns — both matters were resolved via mediation in 2023.

In late 2023, under a new CEO, the company disclosed plans to close its production facility in Petaluma and shift exclusively to co‑manufacturing, as part of cost‑cutting and strategic‑review efforts. Sales had reportedly declined from US$40 million in 2021 to US$33 million in 2022.

Despite those measures, the company deemed itself “unable to pay its debts in full” and entered the ABC process.

The race is on

While Schinner is mounting her bid, she is not alone: other investors are understood to be preparing separate offers, though no public statements have been made. Schinner acknowledged that her crowdfunding campaign (which raised more than US$100,000 in two days) may not be enough for a winning bid, given the fiduciary obligation of the assignee to accept the highest offer.

She stated:

“It is highly unlikely I will be the winning bidder, as the liquidator has a fiduciary responsibility to accept the highest bid. There simply wasn’t enough time.”

Nevertheless, Schinner remains determined, saying:

“I’ve got some values‑aligned people with whom I am talking right now, and we’re hoping to put something together very, very quickly.”

Why it matters

This development holds significance on several levels:

1. Founder‑led rescue: It offers a rare instance of a brand founder trying to reclaim her company after board ouster and operational decline — highlighting tension between values‑driven entrepreneurship and investor–growth models.

2. Plant‑based dairy fragility: The category’s current contraction amplifies the stakes of the bid; a successful turnaround could provide a blueprint for similar brands, while failure may deepen investor scepticism.

3. Brand authenticity as competitive edge: Schinner’s emphasis on activism, mission and authenticity speaks to a growing consumer expectation that food brands stand for more than convenience or price.

4. Timing and strategic reset: With the company in formal liquidation process, the bid underscores the urgency of repositioning brands in a crowded, challenged plant‑based space.

As the deadline for bids looms, the outcome remains uncertain. Whether Miyoko’s Creamery can successfully reposition under Schinner’s renewed leadership and clear values remains to be seen — but this bid represents a compelling intersection of food-tech, entrepreneurship, values, and market challenge. Even if Schinner is not the winning bidder, her campaign underscores a deeper question in the plant-based sector: can alignment between mission, product, and consumer purpose revive momentum, or are structural headwinds too strong to overcome?, according to AFN.