US Burger giant Beyond Meat announced on Thursday that its burgers will now be sold at some Costco stores. The company said that its popular brand Beyond Burgers will be sold at multiple Costco Wholesale stores across the United States that includes states like Texas, Florida and New York.
Understandably, the move is in a bid to step up its strategy and reach out to more people and comes at a time when an increasing number of retailers are trying out new things to get more brand visibility by occupying more shelf space.
The company said that Beyond Burgers can be purchased from Costco Wholesale stores for $14.99 per eight-patty pack.
Plant-based meat market fast growing
The retail market for plant-based meat is lucrative with a number of new players jumping the bandwagon, as old ones try to introduce new products and variants and occupy more shelf space at grocery stores.
This has seen an increasing number of plant-based meat makers trying to tie up with grocery giants. The latest company to make a similar move is Impossible Foods. Impossible Foods, which is Beyond Meat's biggest rival, recently tied up with Costco to sell its products from its stores.
Beyond Meat's decision to retail its most popular burger brand is only likely to intensify the war. The company has been long trying to step up its marketing strategy in a move to capture more space in the plant-based meat product space.
Retailers making use of the opportunity
An increasing number people are becoming health conscious which has seen many cut down or completely shun eating meat. Moreover many are giving up meat and turning vegan on concerns of environmental impact of industrial animal farming.
This has seen plant-based meat product market growing at a fast pace. The plant-based meat products market is poised to cross more than $140 billion over the next 10 years.
The growing demand for plant-based meat products has not only intensified the war between the likes of Costco and Impossible Foods but also has seen a large number of retailers joining the race.
Kroger is one of the latest entrants after its private label brand Simple Truth started producing plant-based meat products that also includes burgers.
Also, retailers are in a race to stock more brands of plant-based products, as demand for such products grow. A couple of months back Costco started stocking vegan meat maker Don Lee Farms' burgers.
