McDonald’s Corp (NYSE:MCD) has indicated that it will expand its Beyond Meat Inc.’s (NASDAQ:BYND) plant-based burger to over 50 stores in Canada. The fast-food giant calls its vegan burger P.L.T., which stands for the plant, lettuce, and tomato.
Vegan burger available in 52 more locations in Ontario
In September last year, the fast-food chain rolled out the vegan burger in 28 restaurants in South Western Ontario. It now wants to expand the trials to around 52 locations in Ontario, including Guelph, Kitchener-Waterloo, and surrounding areas. The company will carry a 12-weeks trial as of January 14.
The company is yet to introduce the P.L.T. burger in any of its 14,000 restaurants in the US. The company has not indicated how successful the initial trial has been, but they continue to laud the plant-based burger.
McDonald’s Canada’s Culinary Innovation Manager Jeff Anderson stated that the initial trial allowed the fast-food chain to learn about guest demand. He added that it enabled the company to know how to integrate the burger into their menu while ensuring they offer customers a quality product. The expansion of the trial will enable the company to learn more about customer tastes.
McDonald’s to sell 250 million burgers annually by expanding across the States
According to analysts, the company could sell more than 250 million vegan burgers yearly if they extend the partnership with Beyond Meat across the States. The trial expansion could rack around $325 million in sales for beyond, according to investment banking company UBS.
Analyst Steven Strycula indicated that Beyond Meat has a first-mover advantage currently, but it seems there is an opening for McDonald’s to redefine plant-based burger offerings before launching it in the US. Equally, it is not clear whether McDonald’s will single source its product for the US market.
Impossible Foods recently said that it was not trying to win the deal to be a supplier of the plant-based burgers to McDonald’s. The company said that it can’t supply McDonald’s.
