- Shares of El Segundo-based Beyond Meat fell to less than $1 after a debt deal, down from their 2019 peak of nearly $235.
- The plant-based meat maker has seen sales plunge from $465 million in 2021 to $326 million last year as consumers return to animal protein.
- Second-quarter sales dropped 20%, part of a broader 18% decline across the U.S. plant-based meat industry over the last two years.
What does it cost a company when it’s no longer in the zeitgeist? For stockholders in Beyond Meat, perhaps as much as 99% of their money, if they bought at the top of the market.
Shares of the El Segundo maker of plant-based meats, an investors’ darling a few year ago, collapsed this week to less than $1 after the company wrapped up a deal to reduce its debt burden. The deal involves issuing up to 326 million new shares to the note holders.
The stock-diluting deal was spurred by declining sales at the company, which makes pea-based foods that mimic the taste of beef, chicken and pork.
It’s a stark reversal for Beyond Meat, whose products were in big demand early in the COVID-19 pandemic but are now less so as consumer tastes have shifted back to animal meats amid a surge of interest in protein.
“Animal meats are in the true cyclical fashion of consumer trends, having a moment that currently leaves less room for our products and brand,” founder and Chief Executive Ethan Brown told analysts during the company’s August conference call. “You’ve got these cultural moments that occur. And we happen to be on the other side of the particular moment.”
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