Tyson Foods has taken a 5-percent ownership stake in Beyond Meat, a plant-based protein producer, both companies announced on Monday. The investment, provided through a fundraising initiative by Beyond Meat, will provide additional capital to help the company expand its production portfolio and distribution, while still leaving it an independent company.
Beyond Meat, a privately held company, is a vegan start-up based in El Segundo, California, partly backed by Bill Gates. Products produced by Beyond Meat are in 11,o00 stores nationwide. “I’m pleased to welcome Tyson as an investor and look forward to leveraging this support to broaden availability of plant protein choices to consumers,” said Ethan Brown, founder and chief executive of Beyond Meat.
“We’re enthusiastic about this investment, which gives us exposure to a fast-growing segment of the protein market. It meets our desire to offer consumers choices and to consider how we can serve an ever-growing and diverse global population, while remaining focused on our core prepared foods and animal protein businesses, said Monica McGurk, Tyson Foods’ executive vice president of strategy and new ventures and president of foodservice.
The terms of the agreement are not being disclosed.
Global sales of meat substitutes jumped to an estimated $4 billion this year, representing a 42-percent rise since 2010, according to the research firm Markets and Markets. However, globally, meat and seafood consumption amounted to 463 metric tons in 2014, dwarfing 10 million tons of alternatives such as soy-based meat replacements, according to Lux Research.
