EL SEGUNDO, CALIF. – Beyond Meat, Inc. continues to reduce costs to achieve a cost structure that will allow the company to one day reach profitability. On Feb. 26, management said it would be laying off approximately 17% of its non-production workforce, exiting China, consolidating its manufacturing footprint in Columbia, Mo., and rationalizing its distribution warehouse footprint in 2025.
The new initiatives follow past decisions to consolidate the company’s manufacturing network, discontinue some product lines and draw down inventory to improve the business’ cost structure.
The additional cost-reduction moves come against a backdrop of continued sales weakness during the year and falling volumes as soft demand continues to plague the market for plant-based meat alternatives.
For the year ended Dec. 31, 2024, Beyond Meat recorded a loss of $160.4 million, which is an improvement over 2023 when the company recorded a loss of $334.2 million. Impairment charges associated with the discontinuation of Beyond Jerky product contributed to the loss in 2023.
Annual sales fell 5% in 2024 to $326.5 million from $343.4 million the year before.
Volume of products sold during the year fell 10% to 70 million lbs from 78.1 million lbs in 2023. Contributing the most to the volume decline was US Retail, which fell 12.4% to 28.9 million lbs from 33 million lbs in 2023.
During a Feb. 26 conference call to discuss the results, management promoted the fact that Beyond Meat’s fourth-quarter sales rose 4% to $76.7 million in 2024 from $73.7 million in 2023. The increase was driven by pricing taken during the quarter. Fourth-quarter volume of products sold fell 2% to 17 million lbs from 17.4 million lbs in 2023.
“In the second half of the year, we registered two consecutive quarters of year-over-year net revenue growth following more than two years of declining sales,” said Ethan Brown, president and chief executive officer, on Feb. 26. “This encouraging sign comes as a category and our brand continues to endure a significant reset, one driven by broad consumer confusion regarding the value proposition of our product lines, among other factors.”
Beyond Meat is guiding 2025 sales to be in a range of $320 million to $335 million.
“ … We are targeting roughly comparable net revenues with … considerably less operating expenses and higher gross margin,” Brown said. “Moreover, we expect to regain as well as increase distribution in certain channels that should help with margin accretive top line performance.”
