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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Yum Brands

Beyond Meat Deal Expands its China Footprint with KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell

Yum China Holdings announced a deal yesterday to bring Beyond Meat’s plant-based burgers to select KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell stores in mainland China for a limited time this month. The move expands Beyond’s presence in China, which has been a priority for the company.

As part of the deal, KFC and Pizza Hut will both offer the Beyond Burger, while the Taco Bell locations will offer a taco made with Beyond meat. All three restaurants are offering the plant-based alternatives for just a limited time.

The Yum deal follows a similar partnership Beyond announced in April, when Starbucks in China added three dishes made with Beyond’s meat product. Beyond has a particular focus on Asia and has a goal of producing its plant-based burgers in the region before the end of this year.

All of these QSR deals help Beyond establish a foothold in China before its rival, Impossible Foods has a chance to do the same. China is something of a holy grail for plant-based meat companies. As we explained last year:

  • China has the largest population in the world
  • China produces the most meat in the world
  • China consumes the most meat in the world, and its hunger for protein is growing

Additionally, pork is the most consumed meat in Asia, and earlier this year Impossible debuted its plant-based pork product at CES.

We can expect to see Beyond make more deals like the Yum one in the coming months. And for it’s part, Impossible has been ramping up production and its retail presence here in the U.S. over the past year, and seems to be prepping a direct to consumer sales channel.

Plant-based meal sales were already skyrocketing, and that trend isn’t likely to ease up as the COVID-19 pandemic has raised new questions about the health and safety of eating animal-based meat. The business of faux burgers is very much real.

Week in Restaurants: More Legislation for Food Delivery In Store, Unlimited Coffee From Panera

Between hanging out with the Basque Culinary Center folks earlier this week, flying over the Atlantic, and making it back to NYC just in time for The Spoon’s Customize event, I’ve had limited time to go in-depth into restaurant tech. That means this weekly roundup is as much a catch-up session for me as it is for you. And there’s a lot to catch up on this week. Read on for a few notable news bits from around the web this week. 

Panera Launches Unlimited Coffee Subscription

In what’s likely a move to entice more customers to its loyalty program, Panera this week launched the MyPanera+Coffee subscription service. Membership can only available by signing up for a MyPanera loyalty/rewards program then adding the $8.99/month (plus tax) subscription service to your account. Those who do can walk into a Panera every two hours and refill their mug, regardless of its size, without incurring any additional charges beyond the monthly fee. The same goes for iced coffee and hot tea, too.

NYC Introduces Six Bills to Regulate Food Delivery

The New York City council introduced a series of bills this week that aim to regulate the third-party food delivery industry. Six bills in total would would regulate different areas of delivery. Restaurant commission fees, third-party services’ control over menu pricing, erroneous charges to restaurants, tamper-evident packaging, and special licenses for delivery services are just some of the issues the proposed legislation addresses. (Read the full breakdown here.) If one or more of these bills are signed into law in NYC, the impact could have a ripple effect across the delivery industry in the rest of the country.

Yum! Brands to Phase Out Polystyrene Packaging

The parent company of Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC is getting onboard with saving the oceans. This week, Yum announced it will stop its use of polystyrene packaging globally by 2022. Right now, the material is used mostly for side dishes on delivery/takeout orders for Yum Restaurants. Yum hasn’t yet said what it will replace polystyrene with, but that phasing it out will eliminate 100 million foam containers per year across the company’s restaurant portfolio. 

Taco Bell Launches Nationwide Delivery With Grubhub

Today, Taco Bell announced an expanded partnership with Grubhub for nationwide delivery.

The news comes a year after Taco Bell parent company Yum! Brands bought $200 million of common stock in Grubhub and started testing delivery in a limited number of markets. With the nationwide expansion, delivery is now available at roughly 65 percent of Taco Bell locations (via Grubhub, of course).

For the nationwide rollout, the two companies reportedly worked for months to directly integrate Grubhub into Taco Bell’s POS system. An integration like that means (hopefully) fewer inaccuracies on delivery orders, since workers won’t have to take an order then manually rekey it into a Grubhub tablet, as is the usual process for restaurants. The integration is Grubhub’s largest to date.

It won’t hurt Grubhub’s ongoing expansion, which is currently stretching to second- and third-tier U.S. markets (aka smaller cities). Grubhub has reportedly increased its fleet of drivers to accommodate the Taco Bell deal, which will reach many of those smaller cities.

Taco Bell has some serious growth plans in the works. Besides expanding its delivery program, the Irvine, CA-based chain plans to grow to 9,000 stores worldwide by 2022. The company will also install self-service kiosks in every U.S. restaurant by the end of 2019. Two years ago, that might have seemed like a risky business decision. But kiosks are everywhere these days, it seems, from trendy food halls to McDonald’s.

Taco bell also plans to start testing vegan and vegetarian menus in 2019. While the chain already offers some vegetarian combos, this will be the first dedicated menu for meat-free and vegan options.

That will happen a little later in 2019. In the meantime, the chain will celebrate its nationwide delivery launch by dropping the delivery fee on orders of $12 or more for a limited time.

KFC Will Convert to Renewable Plastic Sources By 2025

KFC announced today it plans to eliminate non-reusable, plastic-based packaging from its supply chain by 2025, Nations Restaurant News reports.

To meet that pledge, the chain will work with suppliers worldwide to identify alternative plastic sources for items like lids, cutlery, straws, and plastic bags. Additionally, the chain said via press release it will conduct audits of its franchises current systems to find areas for reducing plastic waste. Though the chain hasn’t said what could potentially replace plastic, KFC franchisees will be able to create their own sustainable packing agenda, so materials could vary based on markets.

“With environmental sustainability as a core aspect of how we do business, this commitment represents a public acknowledgment of the obligation we have to address these serious issues.” KFC CEO, Tony Lowings, said in the press release.

Some KFC stores have already taken large steps in the direction of cutting down on plastics. In 2018, the company stopped offering lids and straws for drinks at 84 of its Singapore locations — though that only applies to customers eating at the restaurant. Locations in France and Romania, meanwhile, are looking to replace plastic straws with paper ones.

KFC’s pledge follows similar moves by the likes of McDonald’s and Starbucks to reduce single-use plastics. In January of 2018, McDonald’s announced its goal of having 100 percent of its restaurants use fully recyclable packaging by 2025. Also in 2018, Starbucks launched its open-source “Greener Stores” initiative, of which reducing waste is one part. Prior to that, the coffee giant had announced it would eliminate single-use plastic straws from more than 28,000 locations by 2020.

Like those chains, KFC’s reach is wide, as the company operates 22,000 restaurants in 135 countries across the globe. It’s also involved in the the NextGenCup Consortium, a partnership amongst food-service leaders to address the 250 billion cups produced annually that wind up, for the most part, in landfills. Working with partners like McDonald’s, Starbucks, The Coca-Cola Company, and KFC’s parent company, Yum Brands, the consortium fosters innovation towards finding a more sustainable cup design for quick-service restaurants.

Finding the perfect cup and then getting it into stores will be something of an uphill battle, given the dizzying inconsistencies over what can be recycled where, not just in the U.S. but worldwide. You also have to get consumers to actually recycle, which sounds like a no-brainer but will be a challenge, given that, in the U.S., 91 percent of plastic isn’t recycled.

Still, it’s nice to see mega brands signing on to make steps towards change. I expect we’ll hear more rumblings around this in the coming months, and 2020 so far looks to be the year major change starts happening when it comes to finding more sustainable ways to do quick-service food.