Takeaway: BYND is a BEST idea SHORT

We are hosting a BYND SHORT call on Tuesday, January 26th, at 10 AM.

  • Participating Dialing Instructions
  • Toll-Free:
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  • UK: 0
  • Confirmation Number: 13715435

Restaurants Subscribers CLICK HERE for event details (includes video, dial-in and materials link)

THE CHAIN RESTAURANT OPPORTUNITY IS FADING – If plant-based products took a 5% share of the $235 billion in Chain Restaurant systemwide sales in the USA, that would equate to an $11.7 billion market.  If only 50% of the chain restaurants sell a plant-based product, it's only a $5.8 billion opportunity.  If we assume that BYND gets a 25% market share, the real opportunity for BYND is about $1.4 billion.  The company cites a $35 billion opportunity in the USA.  If the chain opportunity was so massive, how come no chains are signing supply agreements?

GROSS MARGIN IN THE HIGH 30's?  WHEN? - On the earnings call, management said in 2020, BYND will have the capacity to generate $1 billion in revenues.  As the company continues to build excess capacity and the real opportunity falls short of the company inflated TAM, the target of mid to high-30s gross margins will be challenging to achieve.  The current near-term Gross margins headwinds will come from volume deleveraging and repackaging costs as they repurpose specific existing foodservice inventory into retail SKUs.   Gross margin to be sequentially lower in 4Q20 and into FY21.

AGGRESSIVE INTERNATIONAL EXPANSION – On the recent earnings, call management stepped up its commentary around international expansion.  The CEO said, "looking forward, we've made significant additions to our team, including senior leadership in operations and marketing while investing in aggressive international expansion."  The pressure on customers in the international markets is no different that in the US, when looing at the pandemic's pressure on sales trends. 

A SHIFT TO ADVERTISING AND INCREMENTAL PRICE PRESSURE - One of the most significant issues I have with the bull case is the competition level already in the space better-capitalized companies than BYND.  We are led to believe that BYND can compete better against these much more large companies because of the BYND brand's strength.  How relevant is the brand strength discussion if companies like MCD don't want to put the brand name on the menu? Notably, the company cites the success of the brand so far is because "we built it with some very famous consumers and users that are lending their name and their voice to our brand, whether it's the many professional athletes or the celebrities that work with us" Celebrity or professional athletes are a build brand awareness when you are a start-up company. Still, eventually, real advertising dollars will need to be spent to drive sales.  Importantly, Impossible and the emergence of more store brands continues to drive prices lower in the Foodservice segment

 NEW INVITE | BYND | BEST IDEA SHORT  - 1 24 2021 7 39 03 AM