Beyond Meat Boosts Europe Presence As Global Expansion Continues

Plant-based meat pioneer Beyond Meat (BYND) has announced the company’s first co-manufacturing capabilities in Europe with the opening of the Zandbergen co-manufacturing facility in Zoeterwoude, the Netherlands.

The new facility, which is owned and operated by Zandbergen, will produce the Beyond Burger and Beyond Sausage, and BYND hopes it will enable more efficient distribution of Beyond Meat’s products across EMEA.

This week, Beyond Meat also snapped up its first manufacturing facility in Europe in Enschede, the Netherlands. This Beyond Meat owned facility will be the first outside of Missouri, USA to handle Beyond Meat’s texturizing of plant proteins, the first step in the company’s manufacturing process.

The new Beyond Meat facility is expected to be operational by the end of 2020 allowing for end-to-end manufacturing capabilities in Europe.

“This latest investment in production capacity reflects our continued commitment to serving global markets,” said Ethan Brown, CEO of Beyond Meat. “Our new facility in Enschede… is expected to allow us to leverage local supply chains, improving our cost structure and sustainability of operations.”

Shares in Beyond Meat soared 22% on June 8 after the company announced a partnership with food distributor Sinodis to expand the reach of its famous plant-based beef in China.

Sinodis, a subsidiary of French group Savencia, is a distributor of imported food products to more than 4500 wholesalers, restaurant chains, and hotels in China.

Beyond Meat has already announced a partnership with Starbucks (SBUX) in China, and teamed with fast-food chains Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) and Pizza Hut.

Shares in BYND have now more than doubled year-to-date, and as a result the stock now shows a cautious Hold consensus. The $85.78 average analyst price target also indicates 45% downside potential from current levels. (See Beyond Meat stock analysis on TipRanks)

However, BTIG analyst Peter Saleh has a buy rating and $173 price target on Beyond Meat, writing: “While we recognize the hurdles the company faces to become a ubiquitous brand [in China], including increasing manufacturing capacity and driving frequency at quick-service restaurants, we believe partnerships with restaurant operators… will quickly elevate Beyond to a national scale and provides a flywheel effect for sales in the grocery channel.”