Beyond Meat to capitalize on plant-based popularity, introduce breakfast sausage in 5,000 new locations
The plant-based company will more than double its retail distribution of its Breakfast Beyond sausage patties
Beyond Meat will introduce its frozen breakfast sausage patties to nearly 5,000 locations, including retail giants Target, Walmart and Kroger, by the end of September.
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The expansion comes as an addition to the company’s retail presence in approximately 26,000 retail outlets and 112,000 retail and foodservice outlets, driven by demand for plant-based alternatives. With its new locations, the company will more than double its retail distribution of its Breakfast Beyond Sausage Patties.
The breakfast patties, which are one of the many items in Beyond Meat’s faux-meat portfolio, are designed to taste like pork breakfast sausage patties and are ready-to-eat in under five minutes.
"Our goal is to increase access to plant-based meat and expanding our retail footprint by bringing products like Beyond Breakfast Sausage to more grocery store shelves brings us one step closer to achieving that goal," Chief Growth Officer of Beyond Meat Chuck Muth told FOX Business in a statement. "COVID-19 drove a significant shift in our business, but we quickly pivoted to take advantage of emerging opportunities and address the change in consumer demand."
In response to restaurant closures and restrictions, Beyond Meat has focused on strengthening distribution in channels like club and convenience stores, including Costco, BJ's Wholesale and Sam's Club, according to Muth. The retail and foodservice ratio shifted from a 50-50 split to 88% retail and 12% foodservices after the onset of the pandemic. As a result, the company's retail channel net revenue grew 192% year-over-year, reported in its most recent quarterly earnings.
SPINS data indicates that frozen plant-based breakfast meats have accelerated growth over a 4-week period from July to August, with sales up 46%. Beyond Meat clocked in as the top selling brand in all refrigerated plant-based meats.
In its recent efforts to grow its presence and accessibility to consumers, Beyond Meat launched an e-commerce platform in August to sell bulk packs and product bundles, in addition to trial packs and limited-time offers. Through its direct-to-consumer platform, customers can purchase items like the burger and beef combo packs, beef bulk packs and even a trial pack that includes a variety of its plant-based meats. Beyond sausage breakfast patties are also among the available items.
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This year alone, Beyond Meat has partnered with Starbucks and entered international markets like Brazil and most China. The plant-based company will continue to capitalize on the up-and-coming health-based sub-industry.
A report by SPINS shows that plant-based categories are on track for double-digit growth, and the pandemic has contributed to expanding its market base. As more consumers stock up on groceries and explored plant-based options, many new-time customers have converted to regulars. Plant-based meat retail sales grew at 61% for the four weeks following the panic buying peak, twice the rate as animal-based meat.
"After launching the Beyond Breakfast Sausage Patties in March, we heard an enthusiastic and overwhelmingly positive response from consumers who wanted increased distribution so we're confident this news will be well received by fans," Muth said.
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