Everyone knows Beyond Meat as the company that sells burgers that look, smell and taste like meat, but don’t contain meat at all. The Los Angeles-based company plans to revolutionize the food system and its first step: to go public next week.
People who are aware of Beyond Meat’s impressive performance the past years say that its initial public offering is a sign that the company is serious in its plight to change the food system.
Beyond Meat’s products are already carried by top food chains like Del Taco, T.G.I. Friday’s and Carl’s Jr. You may also find their products on the shelves of major supermarket chains like Target, Whole Foods, and Kroger.
The non-meat company said that its products are also available in more than 35,000 establishments in the country. Beyond Meat is available from college campuses to hotels and from grocery outlets to sporting arenas. Revenues have soared as well from $32.6 million in 2017 up to $87.9 million last year.
Beyond Meat has filed for an IPO with the Securities and Exchange Commission and is scheduled to offer shares starting next week. The company will be offering shares between $19 and $21 per share and will be listed as BYND on NASDAQ.
This will support the company’s plans to gather $183 million to fund its expansion including additional manufacturing equipment, research, and development as well as improvements in sales. Should Beyond Meat’s stocks sell higher, the company will be assessed at $1.2 billion.
Beyond Meat’s Humble Beginnings
The Los Angeles company started in 2009 by now CEO, Ethan Brown. After just four years, its products were sold in local supermarkets. Its popularity was seen as extraordinary considering that the food industry is one of the hardest to break into. What helped Beyond Meat was its high customer demand and rising investor interest in their meatless products.
In 2018, they lost around $29 million, but its rapid growth has quickly turned things around for the company. This quick turnaround has captured the eyes of investors.
Good Food Institute’s Bruce Friedrich commented on Beyond Meat’s impact in the food system. He said that the company was the first to set the bar on developing meat coming from plants. This could provide the qualities of meat that meat lovers love about meat. Good Food Institute creates policies as well as investment for companies focused on meat alternatives.
Friedrich added that even before Beyond Meat, people had this idea that plant-based food items were meant for vegetarians. Brown also commented that Beyond Meat could create plant-based food that meat eaters love.
Beyond Meat will be the first plant-based meat company that will go public and it looks like other similar companies will be following its footsteps. Many are saying that Beyond Meat has the edge in the food industry and also the world.
The Rise of Plant-Based Meat Manufacturing
It’s alarming that there’s very little being done to improve the food system. For a long time, animals are being raised in farms to produce meat. This practice creates a large number of greenhouse gases and environmentalists agree that it would be challenging to deal with climate change without focusing on the problems regarding the increasing emissions in agriculture.
There are many unacceptable practices in animal farming that should also be highlighted. Animals kept in small quarters are fed low-dose antibiotics on a regular basis to prevent sickness. This leads to antibiotic resistance, a condition that poses a huge threat to public health. In addition to this, animals found in farms are mostly treated cruelty with severe living conditions.
The only way to end this terrible problem is to support meat-less products just like products manufactured by Beyond Meat. This appalling condition in animal farming has also inspired many people to choose meatless alternatives.
Support for products like vegetable burgers, soy and almond milk, fake chicken and others is growing. These meatless products have also evolved into foods that are harder to identify when pitted with animal-based food.
It is also surprising that Beyond Meat’s customers are not just vegetarians. Most of the customers who purchase from Beyond Meat also buy and eat natural meats. This trend proves that the meat-less company has managed to challenge the norm and become accepted even by meat eaters.
Creating A New Generation Of Meat-Less Eaters
Beyond Meat may have created a new generation of eaters. Its journey to become the first ever plant-based meat business to trade publicly shows its massive success. Another remarkable thing about this venture is that usually, food companies shy away from going public. The reason for this is that the industry is very much centralized. Most companies are either mergers or become acquisitions by large food companies, Friedrich said.
There was news last year about Tyson Foods’ plans to buy Beyond Meat. However, the company remained independent. Still, another sign that it was trying to improve its public image as a large company was when it included the chief financial officers of the beverage giant Coca-Cola and Twitter in their board.
And it looks like Beyond Meat is starting to inspire other plant-based meat companies to take a step forward. Last week, Qdoba mentioned that it would be partnering with Impossible Foods, Beyond Meat’s nearest competitor. Tyson and Purdue are also developing their plant-based products. Last year, only a few restaurants were serving the Impossible Burger, but now it can be found in more than 5,000 establishments.