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Beyond Meat and Pizza Hut unveil plant-based pizza, after a dramatic Monday for the faux 'meat' maker

Nov 10, 2020, 18:33 IST
Business Insider
Pizza Hut is the first national chain to roll out a plant-based pizza.Pizza Hut
  • Pizza Hut and Beyond Meat partnered to create a plant-based sausage pizza, the companies announced on Tuesday.
  • Pizza sales are booming at a time when many restaurants — including the majority of Beyond Meat's customers — are struggling.
  • Beyond Meat had a dramatic Monday, as its shares spiked and plummeted due to confusion around McDonald's McPlant and an earnings miss.
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Beyond Meat is teaming up with Pizza Hut to create plant-based pizzas.

On Tuesday, the companies debuted Beyond Italian Sausage, which will be available on two pan pizzas: the Beyond Italian Sausage Pizza and Great Beyond Pizza. The new dishes are the first plant-based pizzas available at a national chain.

"I think it's the perfect marriage. Who doesn't love pizza, first off," Beyond Meat chief marketing officer Stuart Kronauge told Business Insider. "You see the growth of pizza during the pandemic and also the growth of plant-based — to me, it's just the perfect hand-in-hand opportunity to give people what they want without the sacrifice."

With pizza sales booming during the pandemic, Pizza Hut is in a far better position than the majority of Beyond Meat customers. Beyond Meat's foodservice sales declined by 11% in the most recent quarter, the company reported on Monday, as most restaurants outside of the fast-food industry see sales slump.

Read more: One-fifth of all indie restaurants will shutter in 2020 — with chains like Wendy's, Wingstop, and Starbucks likely there to take over real estate leases

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David Graves, Pizza Hut's chief brand officer, told Business Insider that the chain had been talking about rolling out the plant-based product for some time.

"This is a growing trend in the space," Graves said, adding that the partnership brings "instant credibility" to the new pizzas.

The new partnership comes at a dramatic time for Beyond Meat

Beyond Meat CEO Ethan Brown.Beyond Meat

The new partnership comes after a dramatic Monday for Beyond Meat.

The company's shares dropped Monday morning after McDonald's announced plans to launch its own plant-based lineup, called the McPlant. Shares recovered when a Beyond Meat representative said the company "co-created" a burger patty with McDonald's.

McDonald's confirmed to Business Insider that it is relying on suppliers to produce plant-based meat, but the chain has not yet announced which suppliers will be involved in the McPlant project. The company declined to confirm if it has a current partnership with Beyond Meat.

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Beyond Meat's quarterly earnings sent shares plummeting, dropping more than 22% after hours. The company reported earnings after the market closed, with a net loss of $19.3 million, or $0.31 per share.

"Our financial results reflect a quarter where for the first time since the pandemic began, we experienced the full brunt and unpredictability of COVID-19 on our net revenues and accordingly, throughout our P&L," CEO Ethan Brown said in a statement.

Brown answered multiple analysts' questions about the McDonald's partnership, quipping that he could quote Mark Twain in saying "reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated." Brown said that Beyond Meat worked "very hard" with McDonald's to develop the patty that the chain tested in Canada earlier this year, as well as the patty that will be in the McPlant.

"I respect their decision to refer to the McPlant platform in the generic sense," Brown said. "We are working very closely with them on a number of matters."

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