Planethic Group AG (formerly Veganz Group AG, and before that Veganz GmbH) is a German public company headquartered in Ludwigsfelde, Brandenburg. Founded in 2011 by Jan Bredack and Juliane Kindler as the first vegan supermarket chain in Europe, the company has since undergone multiple strategic pivots: from vegan retail to branded plant-based manufacturing to a food technology holding company.
Listed on the Scale segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since November 2021, the company's share price has declined over 95% from its IPO price of â¬87 to an all-time low of â¬3.83 in March 2026. Planethic has never achieved sustained annual profitability. Between October and November 2025, the company cycled through three CEOs in eight weeks amid governance controversies involving related party transactions and insider dealings.
Veganz was founded in 2010 by Jan Bredack, a former senior manager at Mercedes-Benz, and his then-wife Juliane Kindler. Wanting to simplify vegan food shopping by bundling vegan products in one sales point, they started to build a chain of vegan supermarkets. The company opened its first store in Berlin's Prenzlauer Berg neighbourhood on 12 February 2011, with 250 square metres of space. Bredack told the Berliner Zeitung that he had anticipated 100 customers a day, but instead averaged 400.
More supermarkets were opened across Germany, reaching up to ten stores including franchise outlets in Vienna and Prague. In parallel, Veganz entered wholesale distribution, supplying chains including Edeka, Rewe, Metro, dm, and Rossmann.
In the spring of 2015, the company launched its own brand of vegan products. By the end of the year, a range of around 50 plant-based products was available.
However, the sales volume in the stores declined as conventional supermarkets expanded their vegan offerings a trend that Veganz's own wholesale operations had accelerated. In December 2016, the retail subsidiary Veganz Retail GmbH filed for self-administered insolvency (Planinsolvenz) at the Charlottenburg District Court. Bredack stated the stores were losing up to â¬500,000 per month and declared the model of the pure vegan supermarket obsolete. Bredack dismissed media coverage of the insolvency as "bullshit" and "fake news," although the subsidiary was in fact insolvent.
At least four of nine stores were closed immediately. The remaining Berlin locations closed by 2022âÂÂ2023. The parent company Veganz GmbH was not affected by the filing.
Following the insolvency, Veganz pivoted to branded plant-based manufacturing and wholesale. In 2019, the company was restructured as Veganz Group AG and issued bonds in 2020 with a 7.5% interest rate. The group turnover increased by 28% to â¬26.6 million in 2019. By 2021, Veganz offered over 120 own-brand products in approximately 22,000 retail locations across 26 countries.
On 10 November 2021, Veganz Group AG went public in the Scale segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange at an issue price of â¬87 per share near the bottom of the marketed range of â¬85âÂÂ105 raising approximately â¬33.8 million in gross proceeds. Legal advisors were Goodwin Procter and Noerr. Bredack held 26.3% of shares; the initial market capitalisation exceeded â¬106 million.
The primary stated use of proceeds a new production facility in Werder (Havel) was abandoned in 2022 after costs exceeded projections by approximately 30%.
The stock traded below the issue price from its first day. On 24 May 2022, shares fell approximately 50% in a single session following poor quarterly results. By March 2026, the stock had reached an all-time low of â¬3.83 a loss exceeding 95% from the IPO price with market capitalisation of approximately â¬5 million.
In August 2025, shareholders approved the spin-off of operating divisions Mililk Food Tech (2D-printed plant milk), Happy Cheeze, Peas on Earth, and Veganz into standalone subsidiaries. The company was renamed Planethic Group AG on 8 September 2025.
The Mililk subsidiary was established with an internal pre-money valuation of â¬80 million approximately 16 times the parent company's total market capitalisation at the time and management announced a potential Nasdaq listing for H2 2026.
Additional acquisitions in September 2025 included Suplabs GmbH (dietary supplements) and IP Innovation Partners Technology GmbH (2D printing machine technology) the latter from a company controlled by the Deputy Supervisory Board Chairman (see below).
OrbiFarm was an indoor farming technology platform developed within the Veganz Group using systems licensed from the Fraunhofer Institute. Spun off as a standalone subsidiary in April 2025, it was sold in June 2025 by then-CEO Bredack to an undisclosed buyer for â¬30 million, payable in instalments through 2028, with Planethic retaining a 25% profit participation.
On 1 October 2025 the day Bredack left the CEO role he became Managing Director of OrbiFarm, the entity he had just sold, while remaining Planethic's largest shareholder. The buyer's identity has not been disclosed.
The â¬30 million book gain accounted for the entirety of the company's reported H1 2025 EBITDA of â¬25.3 million; adjusted EBITDA excluding this one-off was negative â¬4.3 million.
Veganz supermarkets originally sold only vegan goods, offering an assortment of over 4,500 products from more than 30 countries, including 45 different kinds of plant milk and cream, vegan ice-creams, vegan cheeses such as Happy Cheeze (now Dr Mannah's), mayonnaise and other dressings, mock meats, fish substitutes, breads, pastries, vegan chocolate, biscuits, sweets, food for companion animals, coffee, toiletries and cosmetics. 85 percent of the sold products were certified organic.
As of March 2026, the Planethic Group operates the following brands:
Products are distributed in the DACH region through retail partners including Edeka, Rewe, Spar International, Rossmann, dm, and wholesale via Transgourmet.
Veganz's mock-cheese 'The Gourmet', based on cashews, won the PETA vegan food award in 2020. The company also launched a vegan smoked salmon alternative based on Atlantic seaweed, opening a dedicated production facility in Neubrandenburg in June 2022.
Veganz/Planethic has not achieved sustained annual profitability since its founding. Revenue declined from a peak of â¬30.4 million in 2021 to â¬10.8 million in 2024, while cumulative net losses since the IPO exceed â¬38 million.
<small>Sources: presseportal.de (2019); annual reports, Bundesanzeiger (2021âÂÂ2024); pressetext.com (H1 2025).</small>
Total board compensation in 2023 amounted to â¬795,000 against revenue of â¬16.4 million and a net loss of â¬9.5 million.
The company was unable to repay its 7.5% bond 2020/2025 (ISIN: DE000A254NF5, outstanding volume: â¬9.853 million) at maturity in February 2025. A first bondholder vote in November 2024 failed to reach the required quorum. The SdK Schutzgemeinschaft der Kapitalanleger organised a bondholder interest group and submitted counter-motions demanding annual 5% partial repayments from 2026 and interest payments linked to market capitalisation. In a second vote on 17 December 2024, bondholders approved a five-year extension to February 2030; interest payments for 2024 and 2025 were suspended entirely.
SdK spokesman Michael Kunert commented that the company had "merely bought time and is far from out of the woods."
During 2025, multiple capital increases raised the share count from approximately 1.25 million to over 2.12 million approximately 54% dilution. Several issuances excluded subscription rights for existing shareholders. Of the newly issued shares, 200,000 were used as payment for the IP Innovation Partners Technology acquisition (see below). Total equity raised was approximately â¬8.44 million.
Between October and November 2025, the CEO position changed hands three times:
The bond-focused publication BondGuide characterised the changes as "erneutes Stühlerücken" (renewed game of musical chairs).
Tegtmeier had previously been a shareholder and managing director of the Brillant Firmengruppe, a German staffing group with approximately 2,000 employees and â¬70 million in annual revenue that filed for insolvency in March 2021. JOBZ GmbH, where Tegtmeier served as managing director, underwent insolvency proceedings concluded in July 2025âÂÂconcurrent with his appointment at Planethic.
In September 2025, Planethic acquired 100% of IP Innovation Partners Technology GmbH a spin-off from IP Innovation Partners GmbH, described in the ad hoc filing as a "long-standing service provider" to Planethic for â¬3 million paid in 200,000 newly issued shares with no contractual lock-up period.
IP Innovation Partners GmbH was founded and led by Sascha Voigt, who at the time simultaneously served as Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board (the body responsible under ç 111aâÂÂc AktG for approving related party transactions), as a major shareholder of Planethic, and as CEO of the selling entity. No independent fairness opinion has been publicly disclosed. Whether Voigt recused himself from the Supervisory Board's deliberation has not been addressed in public filings.
Two months later, Voigt was appointed CEO, assuming operational control over the technology and IP assets his own company had sold to Planethic.
Former Supervisory Board Chairman Roland Sieker, a former Unilever vice president, resigned two days after the August 2025 annual general meeting. He was replaced by Evgeni Kouris, himself a Planethic shareholder.
At the same meeting, Maja Bredack the founder's spouse was elected to the Supervisory Board despite objections from the SdK Schutzgemeinschaft der Kapitalanleger on grounds of insufficient independence.
In January 2026, CEO Voigt announced plans to elect founder Bredack to the Supervisory Board at an extraordinary general meeting a step that would place the company's largest shareholder and former CEO in the body overseeing the current CEO.
In September 2024, US-based Vitiprints LLC sued Veganz Group AG in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Case No. 1:24-cv-06845), alleging trade secret misappropriation under the Defend Trade Secrets Act. Vitiprints claimed Veganz had independently marketed products using its patented 2D food-printing technology after terminating a December 2022 licence agreement.
The dispute was apparently resolved when Planethic and Vitiprints signed a new global licensing agreement in October 2025.