Beyond Solvency: Beyond Meat Facing Bankruptcy?
"...Growing concerns about processed foods are severely diminishing the appeal of Beyond Meat's product line." -Reuters report
[PJMedia.com] Faux meat-congealer Beyond Meat reported a bad third quarter last week; the company's sales were hurt in part "by weak demand for its plant-based meat products," according to Reuters, and that has The Street's Daniel Kline arguing the company is ripe for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. (Image: iStock-ChayTee)
"The company does have time to fend off a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing," Kline wrote, "but it also has limited, if any, prospects to meet its impending cash needs." The company has just $117.3 million in cash or equivalents, and debts of $1.2 billion.
The company announced layoffs and other cost-cutting measures, along with expanded distribution of the products that people are less interested in buying.
Yes, that's a real thing that happened.
"Retail sales of refrigerated plant-based meat alternative products in the US have fallen 17.2% so far this year, and frozen plant-based meat alternatives have fallen 8.1%," Reuters added, and "growing concerns about processed foods are severely diminishing the appeal of Beyond Meat's product line."
How much appeal was there to begin with, though?
Plant-based "meat" sales were estimated at just $3.4 billion in 2024. Total US beef sales last year are estimated to be $108 billion. And keep in mind that those figures aren't a ribeye-to-ribeye comparison. Fake meat typically costs about twice as much per ounce as the real thing—although perhaps not this year, during a painful beef shortage—so we aren't talking about similar units of stuff.
The Wayback Machine: 'Plant-Based Peanut Butter' Is a Thing People Buy, and I Can't Stop Laughing
In other words, $3.4 billion in fake meat is about the same amount of actual food as $1.7 billion worth of the real deal. And please accept my sincerest apologies for stretching the meaning of "actual food" beyond recognition. Subscribe for free to Breaking Christian News here
And the health benefits? Not so great, as I wrote last year...
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