Miyoko Schinner, the chef and entrepreneur who helped define the modern vegan cheese movement, has confirmed that she failed to win back Miyoko’s Creamery, the company she founded in 2014 and was pushed out of two years ago.
“I didn’t get it. The company that bears my name went to someone else with a higher bid,” she wrote in a candid LinkedIn post.
Schinner said the liquidator overseeing the brand’s sale had a fiduciary duty to accept the highest offer, and hers wasn’t it. Her comments follow a whirlwind 48-hour campaign to assemble a rescue bid for the Sonoma County-based company, which entered liquidation earlier this fall.
“There simply wasn’t enough time,” she wrote, noting that more than 1,600 people had donated to her GoFundMe in an effort to help her buy back the brand. “So many others reached out offering $100,000 or more, a couple of people even offered $1 million. 48 hours wasn’t enough to solidify deals, figure out the structure of a new entity, and make sure that the funds would not be a simple spin on a roulette wheel.”
Photo illustration by Richard Bowie
In conversation with VegNews, the founder reflected on this support. “I was incredibly touched by everyone rallying around me,” Schinner said via phone call. “I think it’s a reflection of the times, of what’s happening across the country politically, where people are saying ‘We’re done with the way things have been done. We want to put our money where someone’s ethics are truly there.’”
Schinner said she will begin refunding donations now that her offer has been rejected. “GoFundMe says it takes seven to 10 days for the funds to be returned, so please be patient,” she wrote on LinkedIn.
A second act
The sale stems from Miyoko’s Creamery’s financial struggles that culminated in an Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors, a liquidation process similar to bankruptcy but handled outside the courts. Under the process, assets—including the company’s name, recipes, and intellectual property—are sold by an assignee to pay off creditors.
Miyoko’s Creamery
Speaking to AgFunderNews earlier this month, Schinner said she quickly assembled a small team of investors and industry veterans to prepare a bid, insisting that she was “the best person to be the face of the brand.” Her plan, she explained, was not to return as chief executive but to guide innovation and mission. “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,” she told the outlet.
That urgency reflected not only the limited auction window but also her emotional connection to the brand. Schinner revealed she learned of the sale “through word of mouth, through the public sphere,” describing the experience as both shocking and triggering.
“Had the company approached me at the outset and offered to sell it back to me, this might have been a different story,” she wrote. “It was shock, and honestly, PTSD for me.”
Industry headwinds
Schinner’s attempt to regain control comes at a time when the plant-based cheese category is struggling. According to SPINS data reported by AgFunderNews, US retail sales of refrigerated vegan cheese fell 8.5 percent to $220.3 million in the 52 weeks ending Sept. 7, 2025. The sliced and snack cheese segment dropped 13 percent, while plant-based butter sales fell nearly 15 percent to $157 million.
For a brand that once symbolized the promise of the category, the numbers highlight just how difficult the market has become. Miyoko’s Creamery built its reputation on artisanal-style cashew cheeses and cultured butters, drawing comparisons to dairy-based European counterparts. But as competition intensified and category growth slowed, the company struggled to maintain momentum.
Jo-Anne McArthur | We Are Animals
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“People are ready to support brands that really do stand for something and are unapologetically willing to fight for those beliefs,” Schinner told VegNews. “Those that are thinking, ‘This is a great opportunity. Butter is a great skew. We could capitalize on this,’ I don’t think that’s what people are interested in anymore. It’s doesn’t matter how good the product is.”
The founder highlighted the importance of listening to consumers. “People are talking, but those that have the power, that have the money, are not listening,” Schinner explained. “They still think they’re smarter than everybody else. And it’s something I faced many, many times—people just telling me I was flat out wrong, that my intuition was wrong. But, you know, I kind of think my intuition was right the way things have shaken out,” she continued.
Schinner herself was removed as CEO in 2022, a separation that led to dueling lawsuits between her and the board. Both sides settled the dispute the following year.
Mission beyond the brand
While Schinner failed to win back her namesake company, she has hinted at future plans. “Although I thought I wouldn’t consider it, I might yet start something anew—a different sort of food company,” she wrote on LinkedIn. “The kind I envision wouldn’t exist in the current consolidated food system, so I have to think deeply about how I can live my ethics within the one we currently have.”
Her remarks underscore a broader tension between ideals and scale in the plant-based sector.
“My hope is to make an impact not just for animals but the food system, to take it back from the venture capitalists, private equity, and the multi-national corporations that are now running the food system and determining what we eat,” she wrote on GoFundMe.
Even in disappointment, she expressed gratitude for her supporters, calling the past few days “the most exhilarating experience” of her career. “It has encouraged me to become bolder in speaking my thoughts about food, the food system, animals, and what we as humans need to do to be truthful to ourselves and others,” she wrote. “You can take the product out of the person, but you can’t take the person out of the product.”
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