Vegan food maker Beyond Meat saw its sales crash by almost a third as the hyper-processed plant-based products become increasingly unpopular with consumers despite its claims it can “positively affect the planet.”
The California-based meat substitute maker, The El Segundo, reported a 30.5 percent drop in its net revenues for three months up until the end of June.
A year earlier, the company’s shares plummeted by almost 12 percent in extended trading in New York.
Beyond Meat now expects revenue between $360 million and $380 million for 2023, down from the $375 million to $415 million the fake meat company forecast at the end of the first quarter.
The company revealed on Monday the drop was due to a “softer demand in the plant-based meat category, high inflation, rising interest rates, and ongoing concerns about the likelihood of a recession.”
But it’s not just down to inflation.
Demand for plant-based meat products has dropped due to increased scrutiny over their purported health benefits.
Despite the company’s discounts, they are sill unable to shift the products.
Watch
“This change in perception is not without encouragement from interest groups who have succeeded in seeding doubt and fear around the ingredients and process used to create our and other plant-based meats,” Beyond Meat’s chief executive Ethan Brown said.
Brown said the company has reached out to some of its competitors to join forces to help change negative perceptions about vegan diets.
The Daily Fetched reported in October last year that Beyond Meat laid off about 200 employees, or 19% of its workforce, due to declining sales and stock market losses.
There have been other struggles for the company as well.
Last year, Beyond Meat’s chief operating officer was arrested by police after biting a man’s nose during an altercation in Arkansas.
53-year-old Doug Ramsey, who became COO of Beyond Meat in December, was arrested on September 17 on charges of terroristic threatening and third-degree battery, the Washington County, Arkansas, information page said.
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Umm I going to disagree here. I’m not a vegan love meat and am a member of the Rush Limbaugh PETA group(People Eating Tasty Animals) but, I did try some of the plant based meats. Most of it tastes as you expect like garbage to the nth degree except for Beyond Products. I had their burgers and some other products. The burgers stand out in my mind as it was the first thing I tried. I was hard pressed to tell the difference between them and the real thing not only in taste but, texture. I would have been hard pressed to tell the difference between a real burger and the Beyond burger. It would be ashame if the only company that is trying to make plant based products that are eatable were to go under.
They had samples of this “meat” and NO ONE was taking . The Trash can next to the kiosk was filled with have eaten samples. It tasted like greasy cardboard.
After my MD strongly recommended a switch to a primarily plant based Pescatarian diet, I tried several different brands of different burger substitutes. The only one I found good enough to stick with was the Impossible Burger brand which with the addition of other stuff like chopped mushroom, pine nuts and other creative additions could be made not only palatable but really very good. I could never make Beyond Meat into anything I would want to eat. FWIW, after two years I am now eating meat again.