EL SEGUNDO, CALIF. — Beyond Meat Inc.’s financial performance improved during the third quarter of fiscal 2024, with the company recording a loss of $26.6 million for the period ended Sept. 28 compared with a loss of $70.5 million the year before. Supporting the improvement were price increases that compensated for a volume-of-product sold decline of 7% during the quarter.
Quarterly sales rose 8% to $81 million from $75 million the year before.
“Compared to the year-ago period, net revenue per lb rose 15.8%, including a 22.6% increase in our US retail channel net revenue per lb and a 10.5% increase in our international retail channel net revenue per lb,” said Ethan Brown, president and chief executive officer, during a Nov. 6 conference call with analysts. “Increases were driven by a full quarter benefit of price increases on certain products in the US, combined with substantially reduced trade discounts in both US and international retail. These factors generated our highest net revenue per lb since the fourth quarter of 2022.”
Brown added that the company had seen improvements in year-over-year volume trends in three of its four sales channels, which he called an encouraging sign.
For the quarter, Beyond Meat sold 16,718 lbs of product, down 7% from the year before when the company sold 17,995 lbs of meat alternatives. Volumes in the international foodservice channel fell 22% and in the US retail channel it fell 7%. The company made gains in US foodservice and international retail of 8% and 6%, respectively.
Brown said some of the volume loss in the United States was related to a difference between “sell-in” and the consumption data.
“I think we should see more of a true-up in the fourth quarter,” he said.
The company narrowed its full-year outlook to sales being in a range of between $420 million and $330 million. During the second quarter, the company had guided year-end sales in a range of $315 million and $345 million. Beyond Meat ended fiscal 2023 with sales of $343.4 million.
During the conference call, Brown also discussed the pending launch of the Beyond Steak Filet, a meat alternative formulated with mycelium, the root-like structure of mushrooms, legume protein and a “limited number” of ingredients.
“I personally love this product not only for its texture and savory taste, but its concise and clean ingredient list, coupled with very high levels of protein contrasted with very low levels of saturated fat,” Brown said.