Vegan food maker Beyond Meat has seen its sales crash by almost a third as consumers reject its hyper-processed, plant-based products despite substantial price cuts and claims its customers can “positively affect the planet.”
The El Segundo, California-based meat substitute maker says net revenues fell by 30.5 percent for the three months to the end of June, compared to a year earlier, while shares of the company fell by almost 12 percent in extended trading in New York.
Beyond Meat now expects revenue between $360 million and $380 million for the year, AP reports. That’s down from the $375 million to $415 million it forecast at the end of the first quarter.
On Monday, the company said it had been affected by “softer demand in the plant-based meat category, high inflation, rising interest rates, and ongoing concerns about the likelihood of a recession”.
Demand has also been hit by an increased scrutiny of the claimed health benefits of hyper-processed vegan products, Beyond Meat’s chief executive Ethan Brown conceded.
“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,” Brown added during an earnings call.
Brown said Beyond Meat has reached out to some of its competitors to discuss working together on ads that would help change negative perceptions about veganism.
In the interim it will cut around 200 jobs to save an estimated $39m in costs over 12 months.
The company has often touted itself as a “future” meat alternative to better combat climate change and change the world in the process, one vegan burger at a time.