Plant-based meat company Beyond Meat (BYND 2.06%) continues its international expansion, announcing it's entering Brazil, the largest economy in South America. Starting today, the company's Beyond Burgers, Beyond Sausage, and Beyond Beef will all be available in Sao Paulo at a grocery chain called St Marche.
In Beyond Meat's earnings call for the fourth quarter of 2019, CEO Ethan Brown said, "We are going to pursue a lot of activities internationally this year." Today's announcement demonstrates how serious he is.
Image source: Beyond Meat.
A global push
Earlier in 2020, Beyond Meat entered China via a partnership with Starbucks. Considering Starbucks has over 4,400 locations in that country, the deal was huge. But subsequent to landing, Beyond Meat expanded into grocery stores and got on the menu at restaurants owned by Yum China Holdings.
In Brazil, St Marche is a relatively small grocery chain; its website shows only 19 locations. So this deal isn't as big as Beyond Meat's partnership with Starbucks. But it is nonetheless significant because it's a new market. If beef lovers in Sao Paulo can be persuaded to try the plant-based alternative, perhaps investors can expect Beyond Meat's expanded distribution in Brazil in time.
That would be a big victory because Brazil is cattle country. It's the third largest consumer of beef in the world and its largest exporter. If Beyond Meat can find an audience in a country like that, it can succeed anywhere.
With growth stocks like Beyond Meat, investors want to see revenue climbing at a fast pace. The company was guiding for 64% to 71% year-over-year revenue growth in 2020. But guidance didn't include revenue from places like Brazil and China, since those deals hadn't been secured yet.
