Beyond Meat CEO on Earnings, Competition & Costs

lost more than a fifth of its value. Here with us to explain what happened Ethan Brown, President, chief executive officer and founder of Beyond Meat. Who I'm sure it's so excited to see that you put out all the numbers that he thought would blow everyone out of the water, only to see this. Well, thanks for having me. I appreciate. It's great to be here. It's been an interesting ride for sure, you know, and we look at this short term violatility is more of a technical issue and and

just look at the results. Were able to produce this quarter ninety two million revenue, the six cents per share in terms of income and the uh ebad uh, all the things that you would want out of a company that's growing at our pace. The partnerships with you know, McDonald's and UH Subway and Duncan and KFC. Um. You know that happened in a single quarter. That's pretty hard to match. So we feel really good about where we

are as a company. I think you just feel pretty good about the stock I pod back in May five. Bucks did a follow on offering in July one six, so not too bad. Stock training here at eight five. So ethan to talk to us about the marketplace. It is new to me. I am a meat eater. I don't know about this whole thing too much. Give us a sense of the market you're playing in globally and kind of where you fit in great yea, So we

we are absolutely focused on you as a consumer. Actually so um, if you look at crow Grow, the nation's largest grocer. Um, the people that are putting the Beyond Burger in their card are also putting animal protein of some form in their card as well. So we are going after what many people term the flexitarian, someone who's making some changes when they're diet right. Um. And so

it's at one point four trillion dollar industry. If you look at the global meat industry and we're focused on beef, pork, and poultry and providing consumers with all the experiences they love in terms of consuming each of those products, but doing in a way that's may be better for their bodies and better for the earth. Is it actually healthier?

There's been some reflicted reports about that. Yeah, there's been a lot of UM media coverage around that subject, and it's really appreciate you asking the question because the products are absolutely healthier, and that's one of the main drivers

behind our business. We have well over seventy scientists and engineers now that are working on making these products directly from plants and UH about come out of biomedical and they have transitioned into our field because they feel this is a way to be engaged in preventative medicine versus

treating disease after it occurs. And so take the Duncan product for example, that we're rolling out nationwide here in less than a week UM and you look at uh the saturated fat levels, you look at a total fat level, so total fat we're about fifty percent less than the leading pork sausage patty. UH saturated fat were less, sodium were thirty seven percent less, But yet we're offering more protein and more iron. It's hard to argue that's not healthier.

And then you take a step back and you look at what's in animal protein that is causing the medical community UH and academic community to begin to look at the high levels that we're consuming. And it's not just UH saturated fat or cholesterol or or or or or sodium UH. It's things like UH insolent like growth factor and T M A O and HE iron and other things that come with protein that's being delivered from animals.

Our entire thesis is the animal is taking vegetation, they're consuming it, they're consuming water, and they're using their biology to create muscle, which we then harvest is meat. What we're saying is that you can take the core inputs of meat, which are five it's basically amino acids, lipids, trace minerals, trace vitamins, and water. You can take all those directly from plants and non animal sources, and you can use heating, cooling, and pressure to essentially assemble those

in the architecture of meat. So we have the composition of meat. We're keeping all the good stuff and trying to leave out the bad stuff. All right, So let's talk about the big concern for certain analysts and for certain people in the marketplace as it relates to the fundamentals of your business, and that is competition. You guys are in there, you have a great brand in the marketplace, you're arguably kind of first to market kind of thing.

But what's to stop any other big, these big food conglomerates that come in and just snatch that market away? So how do you guys think about that? Yeah, so I think about that a lot. Um. It's a question that fascinates me independent of our business, which is, how do these disruptive businesses come into an established landscape right before the eyes of incumbents and capture the market. And there's history, as I mentioned on the call, replete with

examples of companies that have done that. And two of my favorites would be you know, Tesla and and and Amazon um And I actually on the road show always asked that question all the time, about what about all the compan business coming? And I would have turned that question with a question myself that I'd ask them to explain to me why Ford and General Motors and others allowed Tesla to do what they did right, And that's

happening here with us. If you look at the focus we have, we have a singular focus on one thing, which is to build meat directly from plants. We are not wedded to any incumbent UH supply chain. We have no sunk assets tied to a different industry. We have no debates in our company about should we fund um you know, baby food versus versus plant based meat. So

we have a biopic, almost manic focus on innovation. The only people that care the most, the people that care the most about displacing our products on the shelf or within my company and includes myself. We are always going to produce a better product next year than we did this year, and that's a goal for us. So if you're chasing us, you're gonna be chasing a ghost. I don't view the intention and the efforts of large incomments to come in and take our market and to take

our leadership position as evidence they will do so. I think it's a lot harder than people think. Just about a minute left and wonder, given effact UH, the we've seen a lot of volatility, and the shares despite any real numbers. Do you regret going public? No, not at all. It's it's look, I am in the business of growing a global protein company. You know, I want to be a forty billion dollar company. Uh. At the end of the day, that's serving protein at the center of the

plate for consumers all over the world. Um, going public was a necessary step in that, in that transition to a much larger company that has an impact on the world. Ethan Brown, thanks so much for joining us. Ethan as he founder and CEO of Beyond Meat Company reported better than expected results last night, raised guidance. The lock up did expire today, so I'm sure we've got to see about twenty million shares trading, so I'm sure some of

those shares a quantit to the market. Yeah. And uh, he's vegan, So that's the bar that you are going to be held too. So when we talk tomorrow, you're gonna come in saying you've abandoned all me you've got, You've gone completely vegan. It'll be a new Paul Sweeney'll go to Lugers tonight for one last day and then we really appreciate Ethan bron Thanks for joining me. Come back, we'll talk Maryland basketball. Uh. You never should have left the A c C. Thanks for listening to the Bloomberg

P and L podcast. You can subscribe and listen to interviews at Apple Podcasts or whatever podcast platform you prefer. I'm Paul Sweeney. I'm on Twitter at pt Sweeney. I'm Lisa Abram Woyds. I'm on Twitter at Lisa Abram Woyds. One before the podcast, you can always catch us worldwide. I'm Bloomberg Radio