Beyond Meat is developing plant-based bacon
Beyond Meat has established itself as a $5.7 billion meat-alternative company that is loved by vegan and carnivores alike. If there's one thing that can make Beyond Meat even more admired, it's bacon. On Wednesday, Beyond Meat Inc. announced it's cooking up just that.
The company is creating a plant-based alternative to the beloved breakfast meat, according to Bloomberg. There is no launch date yet, but the development of bacon falls in line with Beyond Meat's recent foray into breakfast.
Beyond Meat has teamed up with Tim Hortons to serve up meatless sausage breakfast sandwiches at nearly 4,000 of its locations, Bloomberg reports.
Beyond Meat also said Wednesday that it would be bringing its plant-based meats to Dunkin' breakfast sandwiches. Dunkin' locations in Manhattan have begun serving Beyond Sausage Breakfast Sandwich — the first restaurant chain in the U.S. to do so, according to Beyond Meat.
Beyond Meat is in talks with potential customers who will provide consumers its bacon product in the future. "We're looking forward to trying their bacon whenever we can," Emily Murphy, director of specialty procurement at produce-focused distributor Baldor Foods, told Bloomberg. "We understand from Beyond that it's in the works."
Beyond Meat Inc.'s CEO Ethan Brown said the bacon is improving as it goes through development.
In the first quarter of its IPO, Beyond Meat took in $40.2 million and its stock price surged 18% in June to more than $100 a share at the time. At last check Wednesday evening, the stock price was more than $200 a share.
Alternative meat companies hope to replicate the success of the non-dairy milk industry, which has grown to about 13% of the milk market. Beyond Meat has said in its filings that the vegan meat market can similarly grow to about $35 billion of the $250 billion domestic meat industry.
With the introduction of one of America's most beloved breakfast meats, Beyond Meat could be on its way to dominating the meat industry — and beyond.