Heather Mills accuses meat industry of ‘gaslighting’ as she blames a ‘litany of lies’ and ‘corporate greed’ for collapse of her vegan food firm ‘VBites’ which has plunged into …
- Heather Mills launched VBites in 1993 and she said that she is ‘devastated’
By Martin Robinson, Chief Reporter[1]
Published: 12:35, 12 December 2023 | Updated: 12:47, 12 December 2023
Heather Mills has blamed ‘gaslighting’, ‘nefarious practices’ and a ‘litany of lies’ from the meat and dairy industry – as well as Brexit, the Tories[2] and energy companies – for the collapse of her vegan[3] food empire, it was revealed today.
Sir Paul McCartney[4]‘s ex-wife, 55, claims that dark forces within rival food industries undermined VBites – one of the leading manufacturers of plant-based meat and cheese in the UK.
She wrote last night that vegan firms are under attack from the meat and dairy industries – and the celebrities they employ. She claimed they run dirty advertising campaigns ‘joking about plant milk, insulting lactose intolerant people as well as ethical environmental animal lovers’.
Heather also blasted ‘a litany of lies and misinformation’ and ‘well-funded gaslighting initiatives that detract from the facts and sow the seeds of doubt in consumers who deserve to know the truth’.
Ms Mills founded VBites with the ‘sole purpose of furthering the plant-based movement’ and set up a factory in County Durham with the plan of turning her native north-east of England into ‘Silicon Valley of plant-based foods’ such as vegan sausages, burgers and fish fingers.
The collapse of Heather’s food business came in a grim year for vegan brands as demand for meat-free products slowed after a pandemic rush with a study revealing today that companies should now consider not putting vegan on labels if they want them to succeed with weary consumers.
After her split from the Beatles genius and bitter divorce battle that saw her hurl water on Sir Paul’s barrister Fiona Shackleton, Ms Mills, a former model and ski instructor set about her mission to promote veganism and animal rights and become the UK’s ‘vegan queen’.
The collapse of VBites will have hurt Heather deeply. It was a path that coincidentally pitted her against Sir Paul’s late first wife, Linda, whose vegetarian food remains a best-seller.
Heather Mills lost a leg after she was hit by a police motorcyclist on a 999 call in 1993. She said that discovering veganism contributed to her ‘miraculous recovery’. She has sought to become the UK’s ‘vegan queen’ but VBites has gone into administration
Sir Paul McCartney’s ex-wife Heather had made it her mission to promote veganism and animal rights. She has blamed the meat and dairy industries and Brexit for the failure of her fir
VBites makes vegan sausages, burgers and fish fingers, and had previously had a deal to supply McDonald’s.
The business also supplied meat-free products to Europe including ski resorts and even ran vegan cafes in chichi Chester and Hove.
The company was founded as Redwood Wholefood in 1993, Mills took control in 2007 and changed its name to VBites.
But the administrators have now been called in, with Ms Mills blaming celebrity campaigns promoting milk, cheese and meat for a decline in demand for the vegan foods VBites offered.
The former model, who was awarded GBP24.3million in her divorce from Sir Paul, has said she was devastated by the collapse of her vegan food empire just before Christmas, claiming she had invested ‘tens of millions of pounds’ of her own money into the business – as well as ‘blood, sweat and tears’ to try to save it.
She paid tribute to her 112 staff, whose jobs are at risk just two weeks before Christmas.
On her website, she said: ‘It’s with regret that VBites Foods, a company very dear to my heart, is entering into administration. I offered every solution I feasibly could to keep it going.’
Her manufacturing site in Peterlee, County Durham and in Corby, Northamptonshire, will continue to run until a new buyer is found.
Heather Mills said she was devastated by the company’s demise, putting 112 jobs at risk just weeks before Christmas
Heather split from Beatles legend Sir Paul McCartney in 2006, after four years of marriage and the birth of daughter Beatrice. (Mills is pictured with him in 2003)
Heather asked for GBP125m in the divorce from Sir Paul, but a High Court judge awarded her just a fifth of that sum — GBP24.3m’. (Above, the Beatle with his drenched lawyer Fiona Shackleton leaving the High Court in March 2008 after she was soaked by Heather)
Heather Mills, 53, exchanged rings with boyfriend Mike Dickman, 36, just before Christmas. He is head of marketing for GFinity, a company which specialises in competitive gaming, and which last year reported an operating loss of more than GBP5m, and has been working on tie-ups with blue-chip firms such as Cadbury and Samsung. (Pictured together in November 2019)
Heather’s first marriage, at age 21, was to businessman Alfie Karmal in 1989 (pictured). They split two years later
Before Sir Paul, Heather was engaged to documentary maker Chris Terrill (pictured)
Mills also blamed rising energy costs and Brexit[5] for the collapse of the business.
‘Brexit has been an utter disaster for the supply and maintenance of the sector and the government doubtless has a lot to answer for,’ she said.
‘So do the opportunistic utility companies and their broker networks, that through an array of nefarious practices now under investigation have hiked up prices so that companies simply cannot afford to operate’.
Mills launched VBites and it has been one of the leading manufacturers and wholesalers of plant-based meat and cheese in the UK.
Before that she was a model and also a ski instructor who fled from the Balkans when her first marriage – to a dishwasher salesman – broke down. She worked as a ski instructor in the Slovenian Alps where she fell in love with a colleague called Milos.
The pair dated for several months before deciding to end their relationship.
When civil war broke out in Yugoslavia in 1991 she soon became aware of the scale of civilian casualties. It was this that later inspired her to launch her charity campaigning against landmines.
Mills has publicly credited the vegan diet with saving her life after a car accident in 1993 left her needing her leg amputated – stating that abstaining from animal products dramatically improved her health.
She has been a devoted vegan and animal rights activist for the past three decades.
She later received a prosthetic leg and resumed her modelling career.
She confessed in 2018: ‘I didn’t go vegan for the animals or the environment it was just after I lost my leg and the infection was spreading.’
Two years ago VBites was on the up after it sealed a multimillion-pound partnership with German food giant Pfeifer & Langen – a GBP3billion turnover group which owns major brands including KP Foods, Monster Munch and Hula Hoops.
The deal resulted in Pfeifer taking a 25.1pc minority stake in the business. But sales of vegan food have been hit by rising food bills as consumers no longer have the money to splash on expensive alternatives.
In August, Beyond Meat, which supplies McDonald’s, reported that its sales had fallen 30.5pc over the previous three months and in the past year Pret A Manger has closed half its vegetarian[6] and vegan-only outlets.
Interpath Advisory have been appointed joint administrators.
Mills also blamed rising energy costs and Brexit for the collapse of the business
Famously fiery Heather would not have allowed the collapse of VBites lightly.
She notoriously tipped a jug of water over the formidable ‘Steel Magnolia’ lawyer Fiona Shackleton while wrangling over her divorce from Sir Paul McCartney in the High Court in 2008.
She also lost her prosthetic leg while scuffling with security in New York over the use of fur in fashion in 2005.
And in 2015 she raced down snowy mountains to achieve a disabled world skiing record.
Her coach Christoph Pruller observed: ‘She has no fear.’
After their engagement in 2021 she apparently tied the knot with Mike Dickman, who is almost 20 years her junior.
He is 38 to her 55, and they have been dating only since the spring of 2019, yet she has called her third husband ‘the love of my life’.
Before Paul McCartney, now 78, she was engaged to documentary-maker Chris Terrill, media executive Marcus Stapleton and bond dealer Raffaele Mincione.
Her first marriage, aged 21, was to businessman Alfie Karmal, her ‘first proper boyfriend’, but the union lasted only two years.
Karmal later told an interviewer: ‘She told me so many fibs that if she’d said it was raining, I would have checked.’
Chris Terrill was planning their wedding to her when she dumped him and flew to the U.S. to pursue a romance with Sir Paul McCartney, whom she had met at an awards ceremony.
Heather split from Beatles[7] legend Sir Paul McCartney in 2006, after four years of marriage and the birth of daughter Beatrice.
Sir Paul is now married to U.S. businesswoman Nancy Shevell, 61.
Heather asked for GBP125 million in the divorce, but a High Court judge awarded her just a fifth of that sum — GBP24.3 million which she said she was ‘very, very pleased with’.
She was also awarded GBP35,000 per annum, for a nanny and school fees for Beatrice.
Mr Justice Bennett labelled Heather a ‘less than impressive witness’, who had exaggerated the extent of her wealth before she met the former Beatle.
After the split, Heather was accused of being a ‘gold digger’ who only married Sir Paul for his money — which she denied, saying in a 2010 interview: ‘This is so far removed from who I really am.’
Her third husband Mike Dickman is the eldest son of a respectable retired insurance executive, who is a leading light at the local golf club.
References
- ^ Martin Robinson, Chief Reporter (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Tories (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ vegan (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Paul McCartney (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Brexit (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ vegetarian (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Beatles (www.dailymail.co.uk)