Beyond Meat CEO looks to ‘win consumers’ over during meat supply shortage with ‘value packs’

Beyond Meat CEO Ethan Brown said on CNBC Wednesday he has his eyes set on introducing plant-based food to more consumers this summer as beef supplies fall and prices rise amid a coronavirus pandemic. Brown, who co-founded the meat substitute producer in 2009 and took it public 10 years later, said the company will introduce “value packs” and discounts with hopes to take market share in time for the summer grilling season “We view this as a massive opportunity for us to drive trial and win consumers over into our segment,” he told Jim Cramer in a “Mad Money” interview. Beyond Meat looks to close the price difference between the vegan burgers it markets and traditional beef burgers, which some see as a challenge to get more consumers to buy into the Beyond Burger wave. The retail price for Beyond Meat’s imitation beef were as much as double and triple the price of ground beef, Wells Fargo found. As the coronavirus forced a number of U.S. meat companies, including Tyson Foods and Smithfield, to temporarily shut down facilities and curb production in recent weeks, meat prices spiked 8% at U.S. grocery stores near the end of April, based on Nielsen data...MORE