Right on the heels of its much-publicized IPO, Beyond Meat has announced a new retail partnership. Meal delivery service Fresh n’ Lean has announced the addition of Beyond Meat to its online menu, providing yet-another retail path for the alt-protein giant to tread.
Fresh n’ Lean specializes in healthy meals it preps and delivers to your door, sort of like a meal kit without all the work. Customers subscribe to a weekly meal plan to get ready-made meals that just need to be popped in the oven or microwave to complete. The menu, which rotates weekly, offers several different plans, from Keto to low carb to its Performance line, for which it’s partnered with several high-profile athletes. Customers can also order items a la carte.
Beyond Meat patties will be available via the service in bulk or as part of a plant-based version of the aforementioned performance line. It appears Fresh n’ Lean is betting hard on the popularity of Beyond on its menu, with company CEO Thomas Asseo saying in a press release that the company will sell 100,000 Beyond Meat patties in 2019. Good thing Beyond fixed its product shortage issue that was hampering supply and demand a little while back.
Fresh n’ Lean isn’t the first meal kit-like company Beyond has worked with. In April, Beyond announced a partnership with meal-delivery service Trifecta, who also emphasizes health and fitness in its menus.
With the plant-based meat sector poised to explode this year, alt-meat products from major players like Beyond and Impossible are becoming a common option these days on menus and in grocery store aisles. Impossible, who was just valued at $2 billion, has invaded the quick-service restaurant space and is now available at White Castle, Red Robin, Qdoba and, soon, Burger King.
Beyond, too, is in QSRs, including Carl’s Jr. and Del Taco. It’s also maintained a significant retail presence over the last couple years, with products in grocery stores like Whole Foods and Publix. While direct-to-consumer meal delivery is a relatively new area for plant-based proteins, I expect we’ll see both Beyond and Impossible making their way online to more services’ menus throughout the rest of the year.
Fresh n’ Lean’s plant-based Performance meals will launch in summer 2019.