Beyond Meat
Beyond Meat CEO Ethan Brown wants to be the Amazon of the meat industry.
Beyond Meat CEO Ethan Brown wants his company to be the Amazon of the meat industry.
Brown made a direct connection between the plant-based meat alternative company and the e-commerce giant on a call with investors on Monday, drawing comparisons between food industry giants' expansion into plant-based products and traditional retailers entering e-commerce to compete with Amazon.
While Beyond reported better-than-expected third-quarter earnings on Monday, shares fell as much as 24% on Tuesday as the post-IPO lock-up period expired. On Wednesday, Business Insider asked Brown why he made the connection between Beyond Meat and Amazon.
"It was very obvious to even the layman consumer such as myself back in the day, when they were building, that this is what they were going to do in terms of personal books, etc.," Brown said. "And, despite the best efforts to stop them, nobody did."
"Same with Tesla, right? Like, why is Tesla able to do what it does?" Brown added. "There is a DNA to certain companies that allow them to get an insight into an industry and get far enough ahead before others catch on. And then the game is to just stretch that lead and continue to play into your strengths."
Beyond Meat has been facing new competition from traditional food-industry giants. Kellogg's has been building out its plant-based "meat" options, including Morningstar Farms' "Incogmeato" line. In September, Nestlé's Sweet Earth brand debuted its own plant-based burger in grocery stores.
Brown said that companies like Amazon demonstrate how a single company can reset an entire industry on a global level by staying a step ahead of the competition - even when these rivals have historically dominated the market.
Beyond Meat is expanding aggressively in Europe and Asia, Brown said, with 58,000 points of distribution in 53 countries. The company also made headlines with high-profile partnerships with restaurant brands, including tests with KFC and McDonald's. Dunkin' is adding breakfast sandwiches made with Beyond Meat's sausage to the menu, the company's largest national roll-out with a restaurant chain yet.
"If you think about the scale of hog processing today - how incredibly big that is. Just the sheer volume moving through that system of pigs being raised and slaughtered," Brown said. "Now here comes a company that's been around a little over a decade and has a very small comparative footprint in terms of production. And, we're already able to be on a national menu at a price that is the same as the traditional industry."
"Imagine as we start to get scale what we can do," Brown continued. "We can make high-quality products available to consumers at a price they can afford, that's under that of animal protein. And that, I think, is going to reset the $1.4 trillion meat industry."
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