Beyond Meat shares bleed on bleak revenue forecast as retail demand dips

Beyond Meat Inc (BYND.O) on Friday cut its third-quarter revenue forecast, blaming a host of factors including a drop in demand from grocery stores and a labour shortage that led to delays in restocking shelves, sending its shares down 15 per cent.

The company, which gets the bulk of its revenue from retailing, has suffered from a weakening trend of people stockpiling faux meat burgers and sausages at home as they started dining out.

It also said new orders from a distributor servicing one of the company’s large customers did not materialize, while severe weather caused damage to inventory stored at one of its facilities.

Beyond Meat’s forecast cut comes a few months after the company said its restaurant customers were placing more conservative orders due to uncertainty over to the Delta variant of the coronavirus.

The red-hot faux meat startup is also facing other challenges including growing competition from Impossible Foods and others, and surging raw material prices.

Beyond Meat said it now expects third-quarter net revenue of about $106 million, compared with its prior forecast of $120 million to $140 million.

Beyond Meat, which fell 13 per cent this year up to last close, is due to report its full third-quarter results on Nov. 10.