Jan Bredack (born 9 April 1972) is a German entrepreneur who co-founded Veganz in 2011, Europe's first dedicated vegan supermarket chain.[1] The company, rebranded as Planethic Group AG in September 2025, has undergone multiple strategic pivots from vegan retail to branded wholesale to food technology holding and has been the subject of sustained investor criticism due to persistent financial losses, a stock decline of over 95% since its 2021 initial public offering, a bond default, and governance controversies surrounding related party transactions and leadership instability.[2][3]
Bredack served as chief executive officer from the company's founding until 30 September 2025, when he stepped down to become Managing Director of OrbiFarm GmbH, an indoor farming subsidiary he had overseen selling to an undisclosed buyer for €30 million while still CEO. He remains Planethic's largest shareholder and in Board.[4][5]
Early life and education
Bredack was born on 9 April 1972 in Salzwedel, a town in what is now Saxony-Anhalt, in the German Democratic Republic. He grew up in East Berlin in what he has described as a difficult family environment: his father worked for the Stasi, his mother taught Russian, and his brother was active in right-wing extremist circles, with whom Bredack later severed contact.[6][7] Bredack has described himself as having been "red to the core" during the GDR era, deeply shaped by the state's socialist ideology.[8]
After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Bredack completed vocational training as a motor vehicle mechanic (Kfz-Mechaniker) and passed the master craftsman's examination (Meisterprüfung).[9] He later attended management programmes at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland.[9]
Career at Daimler (1992–2011)
Bredack joined Daimler-Benz in the early 1990s as a breakdown service assistant (Pannenhelfer), an entry-level position in the company's commercial vehicle division.[9] He rose through the organisation over approximately 19 years, building the customer service function for the German truck sales division. By age 30 (c. 2002), he had been promoted to Head of Sales and Service for Commercial Vehicles in Germany.[12]
He subsequently transferred to Mercedes-Benz Trucks Vostok, a joint venture between Daimler AG and the Russian truck manufacturer KAMAZ, serving as Technical Director in the executive management. In this capacity, he oversaw the construction of the first Mercedes truck production plant in Russia and the development of the local sales organisation.[9][12] He left Daimler in 2011 following his 2008 burnout to found Veganz.[10]
Veganz
Founding and early expansion (2011–2015)
On 12 February 2011, Bredack opened Europe's first exclusively vegan supermarket in Berlin's Prenzlauer Berg neighbourhood, trading as Veganz GmbH.[1] The concept was inspired by his travels to Scandinavia, the United States, and Russia, where he found vegan products more widely available than in Germany.[10][13]
The chain expanded rapidly to up to ten stores across German cities, with additional franchise locations in Vienna and Prague.[14] Stores featured integrated cafés and were designed as experiential spaces for the vegan lifestyle. By 2015, Veganz reported annual revenues of approximately €24 million.[15]
OrbiFarm
OrbiFarm was an indoor farming and vertical farming technology platform developed within the Veganz Group using systems licensed from the Fraunhofer Institute.[5] The initiative formed part of Bredack's strategy to diversify Veganz beyond consumer products into agricultural technology.
In April 2025, Veganz Group established OrbiFarm GmbH as a standalone subsidiary to centralise patents, licences, and branding related to the technology.[32] In June 2025, Bredack as CEO oversaw the sale of 100% of OrbiFarm GmbH to an undisclosed buyer for €30 million, payable in installments through 2028. Planethic retained a 25% profit participation in OrbiFarm's future earnings.[5][33]
The transaction generated a €30 million book gain, which constituted the entirety of the company's positive H1 2025 EBITDA of €25.3 million; the adjusted EBITDA excluding the OrbiFarm gain was negative €4.3 million.[26]
Restructuring and rebranding (2025)
In August 2025, shareholders at the annual general meeting approved the spin-off of Veganz's operating divisions Mililk Food Tech (plant-based milk via 2D printing technology), Happy Cheeze, Peas on Earth, and Veganz (consumer products) into standalone subsidiaries under a holding structure.[32] The company rebranded as Planethic Group AG, with the change entered in the commercial register on 8 September 2025.[35]
Additional acquisitions in September 2025 included Suplabs GmbH (dietary supplements, e-commerce) and IP Innovation Partners Technology GmbH (2D printing machine technology) the latter from a company controlled by Supervisory Board Deputy Chairman Sascha Voigt (see below).[31][36]
The Mililk subsidiary was established with a pre-money valuation of €80 million approximately 16 times the total market capitalisation of the parent company at the time and management announced a potential Nasdaq listing for the second half of 2026.[37]
Leadership crisis and governance controversies
Three CEOs in eight weeks (October–November 2025)
The period from October to November 2025 saw three successive CEOs within eight weeks:
The bond-focused publication BondGuide characterised the leadership changes as "erneutes Stühlerücken" (renewed game of musical chairs).[3]
- 1) Jan Bredack stepped down on 30 September 2025.[4]
- 2) Rayan Tegtmeier, announced as successor on 5 August 2025, took office on 1 October 2025 and was dismissed with immediate effect on 21 November 2025 after 52 days. The official statement cited "mutual agreement" and the "specific requirements and operational complexity" of the transformation process.[38]
- 3) Sascha Voigt, previously Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board and a major shareholder, assumed the CEO role on 24 November 2025.
Vitiprints litigation
In September 2024, US-based Vitiprints LLC filed a lawsuit against Veganz Group AG in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Case No. 1:24-cv-06845), alleging misappropriation of trade secrets under the Defend Trade Secrets Act. The complaint alleged that Veganz independently developed and marketed products using Vitiprints' patented dehydration technology for producing shelf-stable "flat milk" after the termination of a December 2022 licensing agreement.[43]
The dispute was apparently resolved when Planethic and Vitiprints announced a new global licensing agreement in October 2025.[44]
Early controversies
In 2011–2012, reports from Berlin's vegan activist community alleged that Bredack, at a staff meeting, demanded that customers wearing Thor Steinar clothing a brand associated with Germany's far-right scene be served without objection, and that he referred to a local NPD politician as a "friendly neighbour." Staff members who raised concerns were reportedly dismissed. Bredack's representatives rejected the allegations as unfounded.[45] The claims have not been independently verified by established media outlets.
Separately, in 2014, Bredack shared a link to a text on vitamin B12 authored by adherents of Germanic New Medicine, a pseudoscientific ideology; one of the authors, Karl Probst, is a self-identified Reichsbürger. Bredack subsequently distanced himself from the authors' views.[46]
Publications
- Vegan für alle: Warum wir richtig leben sollten (with Helmut Kuhn), Piper Verlag, 2014. ISBN 978-3-492-05630-4[12]
Awards
These recognitions were awarded during the company's early expansion phase. The subsequent financial trajectory including the 2016 insolvency, persistent losses, stock decline, and governance controversies has been noted by financial commentators as contrasting with the company's earlier public profile.[47]
External links
References
- How I built world's first vegan supermarket chain The Local Germany, 7 August 2014, retrieved 2026-03-18^
- Planethic Group Aktie boerse.de, retrieved 2026-03-18^
- Planethic Group: neuerliches Stühlerücken an der Führungsspitze