Plant-Based Beyond Meat Denies It’s Filing For Bankruptcy Amid Falling Sales

Beyond Meat, the plant-based food company that makes vegan burgers that look like the real thing, is denying rumors it is planning to file for bankruptcy soon amid plummeting sales.

The company, which pioneered and popularized hyper-realistic plant-based “meat” products that resemble burgers, chicken tenders, and more has been struggling financially, and recent media reports suggested it is headed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

“We have not filed, nor are we planning to file, for bankruptcy,” a Beyond Meat spokesperson said in a statement to Plant Based News, calling the rumors “unequivocally false.”

However, the numbers do not look good.

Beyond Meat’s revenue fell 19% year-over-year to $75 million in the second quarter this year. It has seen a total net loss of $29.2 million and an operating loss of $34.9 million this year.

The company’s CEO Ethan Brown said they were “disappointed” with the low numbers and blamed “ongoing softness in the plant-based meat category.”

In the wake of its money problems, the company has slashed its workforce and says it plans to eliminate about 6% of its workers in hopes of becoming profitable by 2026. It also suspended operations in China.

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Beyond Meat is also doing a major rebrand — it will reportedly drop “Meat” from its name and be known as simply Beyond to distance itself from meat and emphasize its plant protein ingredients.

Some of Beyond Meat’s vegan burgers are concocted in a way that makes them sizzle, sear, and even bleed like real burgers.

However, after years of promises that vegan “meat” was here to stay, plant-based meat companies are still grappling with the fact that Americans overwhelmingly prefer real meat, which is also usually cheaper.

Also, in the years since Beyond Meat’s launch, grocery stores like Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s, as well as other food companies, have launched their own versions of vegan “meat” products, eating into Beyond Meat’s market.

The company’s share price has plummeted 97% over the past five years despite much hoopla when the company went public in 2019. At its peak, Beyond Meat was trading at a whopping $10 billion. Now its market capitalization is around $200 million.

Other vegan meat companies like Impossible Foods, known for its “Impossible Burger,” are also struggling — the company has had multiple rounds of layoffs despite originally attracting billions in funding from investors like Bill Gates and Google Ventures.

The CEO of Impossible Foods even suggested his company might start blending real beef into its burgers in a bid to attract people who eat both real meat and plant-based meat.