Beyond Meat's 'day is not done' with transforming US fast food

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Beyond Meat (BYND) CEO Ethan Brown joins Yahoo Finance Executive Editor Brian Sozzi to discuss his vision for the future of the company as it focuses on capturing market share and delivering quality products at a reasonable price.

Brown explains that his vision for Beyond Meat is for it to be a "global protein company that rivals, some day, in size JBS (JBSAY) or Tyson (TSN) or these large animal protein." He emphasizes that the company is focused on social, health, and environmental factors, and adds, "our best days are ahead of us."

Beyond Meat has capitalized on the move away from animal meat in both the US and Europe, garnering praise and endorsements from the health and nutrition communities. Brown specifically highlights how the brand's nuggets and burgers are being offered in McDonald's (MCD) locations across Germany.

While Brown sees more traction in Europe when it comes to fast food, he believes that "our day is not done here in the US." He tells Yahoo Finance, "One of the things that did happen after we went public is a lot of companies came into the category, and they were less choiceful about the ingredients, less choiceful about the health benefits of their products. So as those companies go away and Beyond Meat continues to lead, we're bringing, I think, consumers back."

He expects to see a consolidation in the industry as a lot of Beyond Meat's competitors start to run low on money. Moving forward, Brown says the company is focused on the most important thing — fundamentals. As the company focuses on lowering its spending, Brown says its debt "is not something that keeps me up." He continues, "What I'm focused on is continuing to grow the fundamentals of the business. I've become a lean convert. I'm very interested in lean management and lean principles, and that's helping us to strip cost out of our structure."

"The promise that we made when we went into the markets is the promise we're going to fulfill, which is there'll be a day when you can have Beyond Meat at a price that is under that of animal protein. Today, the task we have is to make sure consumers understand how healthy this is, how great it tastes. But over time, you'll see us also be able to address pricing globally," he adds.

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This post was written by Melanie Riehl

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