Beyond Meat is not having a stellar 2021.
Full year revenue guidance has been cut to just over $100m down from $120-140m, a forecast issued just 3 months ago.
The company has come up with what I consider to be lame excuses. One is ‘Delta coronavirus in the US’ and another is ‘retail labour shortages.’
These are not new phenomena. Far from it. And they are factors everyone is grappling.
The real issues are threefold. Trade distribution is weakening according to Nielsen, secondly the product’s performance is at best mediocre; and thirdly, competition is hotting up. Tell me a food business that isn’t looking at plant foods.
Beyond Meat’s stock price has almost halved from a peak in April.
In the last 5 years Beyond Meat has yet to eke out a profit. Don’t forget in 2020 losses exceeded $50m for the first time.
At this rate, without a fundamental sea change, long term investors will be famished.