[ad_1]
Beyond Meat said Monday it fell in the third quarter after the coronavirus pandemic weakened demand for its meat substitutes in restaurants.
CEO Ethan Brown said the blame for its poor performance lies in consumer storage. Panic buying at the start of the crisis pushed Beyond’s grocery sales up in the previous quarter, but as the pandemic dragged on into the fall, the trend stabilized.
Shares of the company plunged 27% in after-hours trading, capping an already hectic day for the action. Actions were halted twice on Monday after news broke that McDonald’s was adding plant-based products to its menu.
Here’s what the company reported compared to what Wall Street expected, based on an analyst survey by Refinitiv:
- Loss per share: 28 cents, adjusted, vs. expected profit of 5 cents per share
- Revenue: $ 94.4 million versus $ 132.8 million expected
For the third quarter ended Sept. 26, Beyond reported a net loss of $ 19.3 million, or 31 cents per share, compared with net income of $ 4.1 million, or 7 cents per share, a year over early. The company spent $ 700,000 repackaging items for grocery stores and $ 1.1 million in write-offs of foodservice inventory deemed unsaleable.
Excluding the $ 1.8 million in costs related to the pandemic and other items, the company lost 28 cents a share, missing the 5 cents a share profit expected by analysts polled by Refinitiv.
Net sales rose 2.7% to $ 94.4 million, missing expectations of $ 132.8 million. Sales in its US foodservice segment, which includes restaurants, corporate food services and universities, fell 11% in the quarter.
Brown said there were “strong signs that some major [quick-service restaurants] are planning menu additions, “but declined to provide further details due to uncertainty over the pandemic. Fast food restaurants, which have rebounded from the crisis much faster, account for about a third of service sales food from Beyond.
Sales of grocery products in the United States jumped 40.5%, but they barely made up for weaker demand from restaurants. Brown told analysts on the conference call that food manufacturers in other categories saw similar trends after initial storage affect their third quarters.
Brown also announced during the call that Beyond products will be sold on CVS sites.
The business is also growing rapidly outside of the United States. In September, it agreed to build two factories near Shanghai with the aim of strengthening its presence in China. International revenues fell 45% in the quarter, penalized by a 65% drop in foodservice sales.
Read the full revenue report here.
This is breaking news. Please come back for updates.
[ad_2]
Source link