What’s Going On Here?Let’s not beat about the bush: Beyond Meat – the plant-based meat company – reported significantly worse-than-expected quarterly earnings earlier this week. What Does This Mean?Now that the mad dash to stockpile fridge-freezers has died down, Beyond Meat – which analysts expected to report a profit last quarter – ended up posting a loss. And while sales from US grocery stores jumped by 40% compared to the same time last year, that was a long way off the almost-200% growth the company managed in the first six months of 2020. Worse still, sales in its food service segment – which includes pandemic-hit restaurants and bars – are still on the decline. That led investors to put the company out to pasture: its shares dropped massively, probably because notoriously stable food companies aren’t as appealing when they’re not quite so stable after all. Why Should I Care?Zooming in: Will they, won’t they?
Plant-based menus are all the rage these days: even McDonald’s just announced it’d be launching one of its own. No one knows who its supplier will be, but the food giant did work with Beyond Meat last year to trial run a meatless burger. Beyond Meat, for its part, has been pretty vague on the issue, but if it does end up stuffing McDonald’s buns, the deal could help drive sales in its pandemic-battered food service segment. And at least Pizza Hut isn’t playing games: it’s just said it definitely will add Beyond Meat’s meat-free sausage to its menu.
Zooming out: Weed the people...
Some plants are clearly more popular than others right now: weed stocks have had a pretty staggering run in the last week after Americans voted to legalize marijuana in five states, as well as for a president who might be open to making it country-wide. Let’s just hope Aurora Cannabis – the industry heavyweight that announced lackluster results on Monday – will look at that rally and chill out, man. | 
