Plant-based burger company Beyond Meat intends to cut 8% of its global workforce as it reduces its sales forecast to between $330m-$340m (£270m-£278.4m), down a fifth compared with 2022.
The company’s current workforce will decrease by approximately 65 employees, representing approximately 19% of the Company’s global non-production workforce.
Beyond Meat estimated third-quarter net revenue of $75m (£61.4m), below analysts’ expectations of around $88m (£72m).
The company said that revenues were effected by weaker than expected sales volumes in the US, primarily reflecting ”ongoing and further demand softness in the plant-based meat category”, alongside lower than anticipated promotional effectiveness.
Beyond Meat President and CEO Ethan Brown said: “We anticipated a modest return to growth in the third quarter of 2023 that did not occur, reflecting further sector-specific and consumer headwinds.
He added that the company would pursue a ”further, sizable reduction of operating expenses to improve our cost structure.”
Alongside workforce cuts, this includes a review of its global operations, narrowing its commercial focus to certain growth opportunities, and accelerating activities that prioritize gross margin expansion and cash generation.
Brown added, “We intend to pursue five main actions to improve our cost structure and overall operating performance.
”One, we are executing an approximate 19% reduction in our global non-production workforce, an immediate step in a broader program to reduce expenses; two, we are reviewing our pricing strategy to support gross margin expansion; three, we are continuing to utilize inventory management to reduce working capital; four, we are intensifying focus on channels and geographies that are exhibiting revenue growth; and five, in U.S. retail, we are using our portfolio and marketing to directly counter misinformation about our products and category.”
