Many observers speculated that the alternative meat company and others like it had found the next great success story in the country’s rapidly evolving consumer market.
But barely three years after launching its direct-to-consumer channels in 2022, Beyond Meat announced in February that it would suspend its China business. Its online stores were closed last month, and it has laid off most of its employees and halted production at its factory in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province, according to media reports.
The American company, which received backing from Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and a host of celebrity investors in its early years, entered China to great fanfare in 2020, sealing partnerships with Starbucks, KFC, Pizza Hut and retailers such as Sam’s Club and Costco.
Gu Shuyu, from the Tractus Asia management consultancy, said China’s vegan meat bust was ultimately not an issue of price, taste or technology; the product, he contended, never had a real, sustainable use case.
