Beyond Meat on Tuesday reported a 30.5% revenue drop in its second quarter, admitting there may be dwindling consumer demand for plant-based meat products. 

• In the quarter ending July 1, the El Segundo, California-based company raked in net revenue of $102.1 million. Gross profit was $2.3 million compared to a loss of $6.2 million in the year prior period. 
• As a result, the company has released a “more cautious” revenue outlook in the back half of the year that will “very likely delay [its] achievement of cashflow positive operations,” said CEO Ethan Brown during a call with investors yesterday. 
• Net revenues in FY 2023 are now expected to be in the range of approximately $360 million to $380 million, representing a decrease of 14% to 9% compared to 2022, while gross margin is projected to be in the mid to high single-digit range. 
• Brown said inflation and higher interest rates are “squeezing the spending power of the consumer.” Additionally, he believes ambiguity and confusion around the benefits of plant-based meat are driving away shoppers.
• To strengthen its appeal to consumers and tackle meat misinformation, Beyond Meat plans to place a heavier emphasis on its marketing efforts. The company’s newest campaign, titled “There’s Goodness Here,” launched last week and takes consumers through the “clean and simple steps” of how the ingredients for its plant-based meats are grown. 

"As a brand and category, we have significantly more work to do to reach the consumer on the health benefits of Beyond Meat and plant based meats respectively," said Brown during the call. "There is a considerable gap between the strong health potentials of our products a broader counter narrative that has now slowed, and this gap appears to have widened the two year period to 2020 to 2022."

Despite significant gains in recent years, mass-market adoption of plant-based meat, seafood, eggs and dairy remains limited by taste and pricing-related challenges, according to The Good Food Institute’s (GFI) 2022 State of the Industry report. 

Last year, plant-based meat sales were down slightly by 1% while unit sales were down 8%, according to FMI research, indicating an opportunity to further attract and retain customers in the category with products that meet consumer needs.

Beyond Meat’s Q2 earnings report comes as the company faces a class action lawsuit filed in May by institutional shareholders alleging that company executives “misled investors by boasting about the success of its product” and profited from the artificially inflated share prices. 

Elsewhere, alt-meat competitor Impossible Foods in October laid off around 6% of its 800-person workforce under a reorganization led by Peter McGuinness based on “clear supply and demand functions.” Just months earlier, Beyond Meat had laid off 4% of its own global workforce. 

Read the full recap later today on NOSH.com.

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After announcing yesterday its $2.7 billion acquisition of Sovos Brands, makers of the Raos’ Michael Angelo’s and Noosa lines of products, The Campbell Soup company wants to reassure investors that it hasn’t lost the plot. 

“The single most important thing I want you to take away from this deal is that it accelerates the strategy that we have been successfully executing against for the last five years,” said Campbell’s CEO Mark Clouse. “It will not distract us nor will we depart from our focus, it simply will strengthen it.”

On a call about the deal, Clouse reiterated to analysts that this pickup is simply part of the company’s ongoing multi-year effort to broaden its product portfolio. Now, he promised, Campbell’s can offer consumers both “mainstream” and premium offerings across its meals business, giving the company a means of encouraging shoppers to trade up from its Prego and Campbell’s Soup products. 

Despite the company not currently selling pasta, frozen pizzas, or frozen entrees (all part of the Rao’s and Michael Angelo’s portfolios), Clouse said it’s an easy transition given Campbell’s existing Pepperidge Farm cold chain network. 

One area Campbell’s does not see a long-term future with is yogurt, telling analysts it was considering strategic alternatives for the Noosa brand. In the meantime, given its stability and performance, executives feel comfortable letting the existing team continue to execute against the business. 

“[Noosa is] a terrific business, really well run and we do not see it as a distraction,” Clouse said. “I'm not worried at all about the trajectory of the business, certainly we're not assuming this is going to be the growth engine and the acquisition, but I also don't see it as a high risk or heavy liability.”

Find out more details about the deal.

Former Whole Foods Market and Target executive Don Clark has been appointed CEO of baby food brand Cerebelly. 

• Clark assumes the role from Greg Shearson, who announced his departure from the company last week.
• The company told NOSH it plans to utilize Clark’s retail experience in natural and conventional channels to expand its distribution. 
• In March, Cerebelly raised $7 million in Series A funding, saying it would use the capital for “product development and innovation, brand marketing, expanding digital presence, and retail growth.”

While there are other functional pouch producers,, Cerebelly has tried to differentiate itself from Brainiac, Once Upon A Farm and Serenity Kids by claiming to be the first U.S. patent of food composition designed to benefit infant neurodevelopment.

Gopuff wants to incentivize its members to stay in the FAM(ily) with new benefits for members of its paid loyalty program, FAM. For $7.99 per month FAM members have received free delivery and no fees -- but now members are also being promised “Lower Than Low Prices." According to a press release issued by GoPuff, that means 30% of "top selling essentials" and at least a 10% discount on all Gopuff Basically (its private label line) products. The on-demand retailer now claims it can best pricing at many big box retailers, for example selling a dozen organic eggs for $2.

So why this push on pricing? Well, according to Gopuff, 50% of its orders come from FAM members (who typically save an average of $20 per month), so it's worth it to keep these folks happy. Meanwhile, 84% of Gopuff customers are "actively searching out more deals & discounts," the press release noted, and 85% of Gopuff customers "are paying more attention to the prices of groceries and other everyday essentials."

Meanwhile, in other loyalty program news, Amazon last week announced it would open up its Fresh delivery service to non-Prime members. The main difference? Prime members save roughly $4 per order on delivery fees.

There's another fighter entering the venture arena. Jeff Afriat, a former director at Danone Manifesto Ventures, is starting up his own fund, he announced in a LinkedIn post late last week.

• Dubbed Great Circle Ventures, the early stage VC fund will invest in companies "advancing innovations at the intersection of food, health and sustainability."
• Afriat credits his time at Danone for inspiring this move, allowing him to "[witness] first-hand the transformative power of sustainable food initiatives."
• Prior to his three years at Danone (which he left in May), Afriat spent time at HBSC and held several roles heading up finance teams at assorted tech companies.
• On his LinkedIn profile, Afriat lists that he (or perhaps now the fund) is an investor in various food tech, supply chain and packaging companies.

Tyson announced during its Q3 earnings call yesterday that it will close four more chicken facilities in order to lower costs and streamline production on the back of slumping sales. The move comes after the country’s largest chicken producer previously announced the closure of two processing plants in Virginia and Arkansas in May.

• The four new plants set to close in late 2023 and early 2024 – one in Arkansas, one in Indiana and two in Missouri – employ about 3,000 people and represent about 10% of Tyson's chicken processing capacity, CFO John R. Tyson said during the earnings call.
• Along with the voluntary closures of now six chicken processing facilities, Tyson has also suffered a number of fires at processing plants in recent years. In April, a Nebraska pork plant was disrupted due to fire as well as a 2019 fire at a beef processing facility in Holcomb, Kansas which caused massive production disruptions.
• Donnie King, Tyson Foods president and CEO, said in a statement it was “a difficult decision” but a necessary long-term step that “demonstrates our commitment to bold action and operational excellence as we drive performance, including lower costs and improving capacity utilization.”
• For the quarter, sales were $13.1 million, down 3% from the same period last year and operating income was down -$350 million, down 134% YOY

Nothing like some pumpkin spice caviar to top your blini. In it's attempt to offer consumers a way to enjoy pumpkin spice in a way that's "anything but basic," oil and condiment company Chosen Foods is rolling out a limited time offering Pumpkin Spice Avocado Oil caviar. If the idea of an unholy combination of pumpkin spice and fish flavors strikes fear in your heart, don't worry, there's nary a fish egg to be found. Instead Chosen has looked to a molecular gastronomy trick, using spherification to create tiny oil olive pearls. The company suggests forgoing the usual application on potato chips or blini, instead recommending the caviar top ice cream, baked goods or yogurt. (Ten points to whoever reports in about doing a pumpkin spice caviar bump).