Both plant-based meat major players, Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, saw their sales take a tumble as hype surrounding their plant-based meat replacement failed to live up to expectactions.
Earlier this year, Beyond Meat was forced to lower their selling price by 20% to attract more consumers to their product.
Plant-Based Meat’s Lack of Success
The failure to meet expectations has led to stock analysts and financial publications to address the plant-based meat companies’ issue.
Barrons reported:
“Privately held Impossible Foods plans to lower the price of its plant-based patties by 20% at grocery stores in the U.S. That means that the suggested retail price of an Impossible Burger would be $5.49 in thousands of grocery stores across the country, with similarly planned price cuts for other markets, from Canada to Hong Kong.
“The move is part of a longer-term plan to achieve price parity with ground-beef prices. In the first week of the year, Impossible Foods announced what was then its second price cut in a year, bringing the price of a patty to $6.80. While the most recent move gets the company closer to its goal, it’s still roughly double the cost of a $2-to-$3 beef patty.”
While plant-based meat prices tumble, consumers have failed to be enticed by the alternative. A study also found that social pressure was the most effective tool to convince consumers to make the switch to plant-based meats.
In addition to Impossible Food’s woes, Beyond Meat is yet to turn an annual profit despite two quarters showing promise.
According to Market Watch:
“Beyond Meat Inc. stock fell 7% late Thursday after the plant-based protein maker reported a much larger-than-expected quarterly loss and sales that also missed the mark, saying that the pandemic continues to hamper its foodservice business.
“Beyond Meat BYND, 0.47% said it lost $27.3 million, or 43 cents a share, in the first quarter, versus earnings of $1.8 million, or 3 cents a share, in the year-ago period.
“Adjusted net loss was $26.2 million, or 42 cents a share.
“Sales rose 11% to $108.2 million, as rising retail sales were offset in part by a decline in the foodservice business “due to the continued impact of COVID-19 on foodservice demand,” Beyond Meat said in a statement.
“Analysts polled by FactSet had expected Beyond Meat to report an adjusted loss of 19 cents a share on sales of $112.6 million.
“U.S. retail sales rose 28% year-on-year while U.S. foodservice sales fell 26%.”
The pandemic has been pointed to as one of the main reasons behind the plant-based meat replacements’ lackluster sales — despite ample promotion.
A recent study found that almost three-quarters of Australian men would rather die 10 years early than cut out meat.
Texas lawmakers zeroed in on plant-based meats and passed a bill demanding plant-based meat companies to drop meat-related labels such as “beef” or “chicken” as it is deemed to be misleading to consumers.
There is a cause for concern as there appears to be an inorganic push to promote plant-based “meat” over the real thing. Plant-based substitutes are loaded with vegetable oils and phytoestrogens while failing to provide equal nutrition.
A low-fat vegetarian diet is also linked with significantly lowered testosterone levels. Animal fat is necessary for a healthy, functioning brain.
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