Beyond Meat has cut its third-quarter revenue forecast, blaming a host of factors including a drop in demand from grocery stores and a labour shortage that led to delays in restocking shelves, sending its shares down 15% on Friday.
The company, which gets the bulk of its revenue from retailing, has suffered from a weakening trend of people stockpiling faux meat burgers and sausages at home as they started dining out.
Inventory Issues
It also said new orders from a distributor servicing one of the company's large customers did not materialise, while severe weather caused damage to inventory stored at one of its facilities.
Beyond Meat's forecast cut comes a few months after the company said its restaurant customers were placing more conservative orders due to uncertainty over to the Delta variant of the coronavirus.
'While the company continues to study the drivers behind this quarter’s performance, the company believes demand was impacted by broader ongoing macro and micro-economic factors, including among others, the effects of the COVID-19 Delta variant,' it said.
The red-hot faux meat startup is also facing other challenges including growing competition from Impossible Foods and others, and surging raw material prices.
Beyond Meat, which recently launched an online store on JD.com, said it now expects third-quarter net revenue of about $106 million, compared with its prior forecast of $120 million to $140 million.
Beyond Meat, which fell 13% this year up to last close, is due to report its full third-quarter results on 10 November.
News by Reuters edited by Donna Ahern, Checkout. For more A Brands stories click here. Click subscribe to sign up for the Checkout print edition.
