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I would think this was less correlated as it’s only a contract for supply.

In any case McDonalds isn’t selling a co-branded Beyond Meat product, they’re selling the McPlant. Beyond Meat’s moat looks very shaky here.

It seems likely that Beyond Meat is only getting these contracts as it’s a relatively cheap way for McDonalds to test the substitute market before producing their own alternatives. It makes no business sense for them to hand over the core of their product to BM when it’s likely they can create something similar in-house.



Okay but Pizza Hut literally brands it as Beyond: https://www.pizzahut.com/c/content/beyond-meat-pizzas/index....

and so does KFC? https://global.kfc.com/press-releases/kfc-beyond-fried-chick...

so I think this doesn't fully explain it?


Both of those are Yum brands, so it is really a single deal. Looks like you have one deal that is branded but chicken and pizza places are not going to drive a huge amount of visibility into the segment that Beyond wants (cheap burgers) and I suspect previous comment is correct regarding McD wanting to test the waters while they work on their own solution.


Agreed. The only food items that McDs have not vertically integrated are sodas, everything else is bound to end up part of their supply chain.


Not sure what you mean by "vertically integrated" they do not own cattle ranches or potato farms. They buy Heinz or Hunts catsup, etc. They do have a lot of proprietary recipes and process, but the ingredients are mostly sourced from other wholesale producers.


The cattle ranches and potato farms don't have their names or logos on the burgers or fries. McDonalds can swap them out at any time.

Soda, on the other hand, is Coke's product and brand completely.


Yes, this is hardly different from any other restaurant.


>Beyond Meat’s moat looks very shaky here.

Beyond doesn't have a moat. They make veggie burgers.

They became super popular when impossible burger started making the rounds on the news and rode the wave of interest impossible burger created.

Impossible burger has a moat - they have yeast produced heme and I assume some patents on it.

Beyond meat makes veggie burgers. They have no moat.


Can they create something similar in-house? Beyond and particularly Impossible appear to be far ahead of the competition in meat substitutes, and presumably they each have close to 20yr left on their patents. It doesn't look so easy to rival the leaders in this space.


Exactly, and Beyond Meat is only the "preferred supplier". BM probably has to meet quantity and price targets or they are done. Good luck building up big profit margins.




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