Reporter | Liu Yujing
Editor | Yahan Xiang
After giants such as Unilever, Coca-Cola, and Nestlé have increased their investment in plant-based markets, food and beverage giant Pepsi has also begun to accelerate its layout.
Food and beverage giant Pepsi recently officially announced that it will launch plant-based snacks and beverages in the first half of 2022, produced by The PLANeT, a joint venture established by Pepsi and artificial meat company Beyond Meat.
The two parties announced a joint venture in January this year, and so far, no specific disclosure of possible products in the future. However, it seems that the joint venture will benefit both parties: Pepsi can use Beyond Meat's technology and R&D capabilities to develop new products, while Beyond Meat can accelerate its production and global layout of new products through Pepsi's global factory and distribution channels.
The joint venture between Pepsi and Beyond Meat is more about resource integration considerations.
According to Forbes data, Pepsi is now the world's third largest food and beverage company, behind Nestlé and Budweiser. Beyond Meat is a star company in the field of plant meat and the most market share in North America. It was officially listed on the New York Stock Exchange in May 2019, and its stock price soared by 163% on the day of listing.
At present, giants such as Nestlé and Unilever have long begun to plan for plant-based fields and have accumulated certain resources. Pepsi choice to cooperate with Beyond Meat is actually a more efficient approach. Compared with developing or acquiring a brand by yourself, the process is shorter and can be based on Beyond Meat's technical R&D capabilities.
For Beyond Meat, working with large food and beverage companies can bring new growth opportunities. At present, in many markets, Beyond Meat and its competitors such as Impossible Foods have the most fierce competition and the highest sales share are the B-end catering channels. With the gradual fierce competition with catering chains, cooperating with fast-moving consumer goods companies such as Pepsi to develop products is a new choice to develop business.
In the Chinese market, plant-based competition among major food and beverage chains has long been launched. On the one hand, emerging brands such as Beyond Meat are actively deploying in the Chinese market, and their Chinese factories were officially unveiled in April this year; on the other hand, fast-moving consumer giants who have been deeply rooted in China for many years have also begun to make efforts.
Coca-Cola introduced its AdeZ brand oat milk products in 2019, while Unilever cooperated with Shuangta Food at the end of 2020, including establishing a cooperative relationship in the production and sales of products with plant-based protein as the main raw material. The first batch of orders purchased reached 1,000 tons, and Unilever's plant meat brand The Vegetarian Butcher also officially landed in China.
Pepsi's products include beverage brands such as Pepsi Cola and Qixi, as well as snacks such as Leslie potato chips, Quaker cereal, Doritos, and Cheetos, mainly soft drinks and salty snacks. In the overseas market, Quaker cereal, a subsidiary of Pepsi, has launched an oat milk product; at present, Pepsi does not have many plant-based products in the Chinese market. Baicaowei, which it successfully acquired in 2020, launched the first domestic plant-based meat snack product - a plant-based meat smoked small intestine that year, which can be eaten immediately by opening a bag.
The cooperation between Pepsi and Beyond Meat does not mention the Chinese market at the moment, but if Pepsi continues to increase its investment in the Chinese plant-based market in the future, the cooperation with Beyond Meat may also become one of its competitive advantages.
