Beyond Meat just announced its plan to raise as much as $183.8 million by going public. The company plans to sell 8.8 million shares of stock at a price of somewhere between $19 and $21, which would give the meat alternative leader a valuation of over $1.2 billion. It will be listed on the Nasdaq with the ticker “BYND.”
While Beyond Meat is certainly a leader in its space, there are a few things in its S-1 filing that may give investors pause. For instance, the company has yet to make a profit. In fact, it announced losses of nearly $30 million in 2018, on top of $87.9 million in revenue. “We have a history of losses, and we may be unable to achieve or sustain profitability,” Beyond Meat’s S-1 explained.
As the company has scaled, it’s needed to up its production costs, which has hit its bottom line.
Still, Beyond Meat is riding a wave of popularity that may help it to grow and weather storms. Competitors like Impossible Foods are demonstrating their appeal even to carnivores, offering meat alternatives that are not merely edible but delicious, and more consumers have been flocking to these sorts of products as a result. In its filing, Beyond Meat says that it believes the plant-based meat industry could be worth as much as $270 billion.
However, the vegetarian meat space is not there quite yet, and companies like Beyond Meat need to figure out how to make a profit, not just tasty food.
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