2.5 billion was Beyond Meat’s market cap the day the company went public.
14.1 billion was the companies market cap three months later.

Today, Beyond Meat is worth 2 billion dollars, holding the lowest valuation it has had since going public and a 90% loss since peak.

Beyond Meat had a deal with McDonald’s, to offer a plant based burger at certain stores called the “McPlant”, but McDonald’s just ended the deal.

Two questions come from this.

1. Why did Beyond Meat flop?
2. Is plant based meat a fad?

First up, the downfall of Beyond Meat.

Figuring that out, it’s just searching a list of plant based meat brands.

From a quick search, the biggest sellers are the following.

Impossible Foods
Beyond Meat
Tofurkey
Gardein
Morningstar Farms
Lightlife
Boca Burger
Garden Burger

All currently selling some form of plant based burgers, with the biggest company involved being Kellogg’s, which owns Morningstar Farms.

Kellogg’s bought MorningStar in 1999 for 307 million dollars, when they catered more for the veggie burger market, versus plant based meats, which are meat imitations, that they sell today.

This brings up an issue, which is valuation.

Kellogg is currently valued at 24 billion dollars.

In 2019, it was about 18 billion dollars, meaning it was only 30% more valuable over Beyond Meat during its peak.

Kellogg had 13.6 billion in revenue and 900 million in profit, during 2019.

Beyond Meat in 2019 made 298 million dollars, with a 12 million dollar loss.

Kellogg made 3x in profit what Beyond Meat made in revenue, but the two had similar valuations.

This is why Beyond Meat stock flopped.

It was hyped as a tech stock, but doesn’t have large margins and there’s nothing very unique that Impossible Foods or others aren’t/can’t do.

There are also more investments than ever, where it was reported 7 billion dollars in the last twelve months has in VC investments have gone into tech for lab grown or plant based meats/dairy products.

Beyond Meat just doesn’t have enough going on and larger companies are outselling them with similar products.

That’s the fall of Beyond Meat, but the next question is the impact this has on plant based meat as a whole.

Checked on the numbers, which shows mixed signs.

39% of adults want to reduce meat consumption.
40% don’t believe in plant based meats as a good alternative.

Also, the growth in the sector was 80% less in 2021, versus 2020 or 2019.

Despite that, plant based meats only being 2.7% of the US market for meat products, which would mean growth can happen.

Even companies like Beyond Meat have issues, where growth is stagnating.

2019-298 million
2020-407 million

A 36.5% growth

2021, revenue was 465 million, for a 14% growth.

2022, will likely see growth fall by even more.

The good news is plant based milks, yogurts, cheese and eggs are growing much faster, but the meats aren’t seeing growth levels the industry wanted.

So, was it a fad?

I don’t think so.

The market clearly showed interest, where when Burger King introduced a plant based burger, it was the highest selling new item in years.

There’s a clear market interest, but two problems.

Problem A-Mediocre products

Impossible and Beyond Meat have redone their burgers several times, trying to improve a recipe which they know for most consumers doesn’t stand up to meats.

Also, looking at the labels, the sodium content is so high, it doesn’t really please the crowd of people looking to leave meat.

Problem B-Fast food probably isn’t the best starting place.

When the Impossible Whopper launched at Burger King, vegans tried suing Burger King after learning most Burger King’s were cooking them on the same stove meat touched and meat grease was still on.

Fast food places tend to not have a customer base which wants this product or a staff/franchise ecosystem that understands vegan food.

Final thoughts

McDonald’s discontinued the McPlant, but likely due to them being years behind Burger King, Dunkin and KFC, which all did similar products.

There was no novelty in it for them and anything sold, would just be a hundred million dollar marketing campaign for them.

There’s still a huge market here, but better products need to happen.