The cavalry has arrived on stalks of celery... We unofficially hit peak plant-based meat last week as established food icons jumped on the bandwagon (don't worry — it's a Prius). You can decide whether the market — looks/tastes/bleeds like animal meat, but smaller environmental impact — is bigger or smaller than its cousin industry, plant-based milk.
The iMEATation game... Here are major new brands/partnership announced just this month. The primary theme is aggressive creativity around the names:
- Kellogg's plant-based burger: "Incogmeato"
- Hormel's plant-based beef: "Happy Little Plants"
- Kroger's plant-based deli meats: "Simple Truth"
- Tyson's plant-based shrimp: "New Wave" (it invested in the company). It also unveiled its own plant-based option "Raised & Rooted" in August.
- Nestle's plant-based "Awesome Burger" is already testing with McDonald's in Germany.
One of Beyond Meat's advantages is gone... The only publicly traded company that's 100% plant-based meat had a tailgate-worthy IPO (rival Impossible Foods is big, but private). Beyond's stock though has fallen 35% since July, and a hefty portion of that is from increased competition. Here's how its 2 divisions are doing:
- Grocery Stores = 50% of sales: Weak first-mover advantage 🌾. Beyond's brand is better known than the rest, but it could become a price war in the confusing aisle getting packed with more not-called-veggie veggie burgers,
- Fast Food Partnerships = 50% of sales: Strong first-mover advantage 💪. Beyond has partnered with Dunkin, KFC, Subway, and more. Those chains aren't likely to switch just because there's competition. And as McDonald's looks for a plant-based partner, it'll probably want one with a vegan track record.