Beyond Meat and its competitor Impossible Foods continue their blitz of North American quick-service restaurants.
Privately held Subway restaurants announced Wednesday a partnership with Beyond Meat (ticker: BYND) to test Beyond Meat-ball subs at 685 participating restaurants in the U.S. and Canada. Barron’s tried to find one of those 685 units in Manhattan and failed.
That...
Beyond Meat and its competitor Impossible Foods continue their blitz of North American quick-service restaurants.
Privately held Subway restaurants announced Wednesday a partnership with Beyond Meat (ticker: BYND) to test Beyond Meat-ball subs at 685 participating restaurants in the U.S. and Canada. Barron’s tried to find one of those 685 units in Manhattan and failed.
That left us eating lunch on Thursday at a Restaurant Brands (QSR) Burger King outlet, which rolled out the Impossible Whopper in New York recently. Barron’s ordered a No. 3 combo, so our Whopper came with fries and a Coke. It was tasty, but we like Whoppers.
Impossible Foods told Barron’s the Impossible Burger is now available in more than 15,000 locations, including Burger King, Red Robin, Cheescake Factory, Umami Burger, Fat Burger, Bareburger, Qdoba, White Castle and Dine Brands ’ (DIN) Applebee’s outlets.
Beyond Meat is sold in more than 53,000 outlets, including Del Taco, Carl’s Jr., A&W Canada, Restaurant Brands’ Tim Hortons outlets in Canada, BurgerFi, DogHaus, Chronic Tacos and Luna Grill.
Eating our way through the new and growing industry is fun, but ultimately investors want to know what the stocks are worth. Barron’s recently wrote we would sit on the sideline and avoid Beyond Meat shares because of the sky-high valuation. We still feel that way.
Still, the growth of the industry is something to behold, and vegetable protein’s potential is rippling through the traditional animal-based industry. Prepared-meat producer Maple Leaf Foods (MFI.Canada) talked about its plant-based business on its second-quarter earnings call on Monday. “During the quarter and moving forward, we are stepping up our game in the exploding plant-based protein market,” CEO Michael McCain said.
Of course, Tyson Foods (TSN) plans to offer animal, plant and blended protein options in the future.
Everyone wants a piece of Beyond Meat’s valuation multiple. With a market capitalization of almost $10 billion, the stock trades for about 24 times estimated 2020 sales. Maple Leaf Foods and Tyson trade for 1 times and 0.7 times, respectively. Beyond Meat grows much faster, but existing protein players are going to try to draw on its success and that of Impossible Foods.
Beyond Meat shares are down from a peak of almost $235 a share to $162, just above the $160 price of the company’s secondary stock offering. News of the secondary stock sale, announced with second-quarter earnings, disappointed some investors. Beyond Meat stock, however, remains up almost 550% from the $25 IPO price and 250% from the $46 opening trade on May 2.
Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com