Pizza Hut to bring Beyond Meat’s meatless pepperoni to five markets

Pizza Hut offers Beyond Meat’s Meatless Pepperoni as a topping in five US cities, starting Tuesday.

The limited-time offer is the latest extension of the partnership between the meat-substitute maker and Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell parent company, Yum Brands. The formal strategic partnership was announced in February, but the two companies were already used to working together. Last November, Pizza Hut rolled up two different limited-time pizzas made from Beyond Sausage, which uses peas as a source of protein.

Customers will be able to find the pepperoni substitute in nearly 70 locations across Houston; Albany, New York; Macon, Georgia; Columbus, Ohio; and Jacksonville, Florida.

For Pizza Hut, the limited-time offer could help attract more orders from consumers who don’t eat meat or who are trying to reduce their meat consumption. These new or returning customers could be especially valuable to Pizza Hut as it tries to tackle pizza fatigue after the pandemic food boom.

Beyond reported sales of $ 24 million to US food service establishments, such as college restaurants and cafeterias, in its most recent quarter. The company has made less than a quarter of its U.S. revenue from restaurant sales, but partnerships with fast food chains like Pizza Hut can help introduce its meat substitutes to customers who don’t have them. never tried before, leading them to seek out his sausage or meatless beef. in grocery stores.

Beyond’s success with these partnerships has been mixed. High-profile deals like those with Yum and McDonald’s have sparked investor enthusiasm, but many of its menu items don’t tend to stay on fast food menus.

Dunkin ‘, one of the few big chains to offer its meatless sausage all the time, recently rolled out the meatless breakfast sandwich in several of its restaurants as it reduced its menu. On the other hand, Beyond reported on Monday that Panda Express locations in Southern California had sold Beyond’s chicken alternative in less than 10 days.

Shares of Beyond Meat are up 3% this year, giving it a market value of $ 8.12 billion. Yum’s stock climbed 22% at the same time, bringing its market value to $ 39.8 billion.