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More and more fast-food and take-out restaurants are adding a Beyond Meat option to their menus. Now, Pizza Hut has joined the club! They've introduced a new, vegan version of their "pepperoni!"
Pizza Hut’s New Deal
CNBC
Beyond Meat has done a truly fantastic job of becoming the go-to seller of delicious meat substitutes in the United States. Since its founding 12 years ago, Beyond Meat has not only started its own line, available in most grocery stores, but also partnered with some of the biggest brands in the world. Currently, the meat substitute creator has deals with McDonald's, KFC, Dunkin' Donuts, Taco Bell, and Pepsi Co., among many others. And, seeing as the same company, Yum! Brands, owns Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut, it should come as no surprise that the pizza company came next...
Now, vegetarians and vegans can return to their days of staying up late and eating pepperoni pizza from Pizza Hut! This marks the second collaboration between Beyond Meat and Pizza Hut. Previously, they only offered a Beyond Italian Sausage Pizza, which used vegan sausage. However, the company hopes that this new vegan pepperoni will provide customers with even greater variety. "With this new plant-based option, we're giving customers more choices and more reasons to love Pizza Hut," said Georgeanne Erickson, the chief brand officer of Pizza Hut said.
Want to try this new vegan pepperoni? Well, it's quickly expanding across the county!
Trying Beyond Meat
Beyond Meat
Currently, nearly 70 Pizza Hut locations around the United States carry the Beyond Meat Pepperoni Pizza, including spots in Albany, New York; Macon, Georgia; Columbus, Ohio; and Jacksonville, Florida. However, one big question remains: just how successful will this new vegan initiative be? Well, the answer might surprise you...
Believe it or not, despite all the praise and publicity, Beyond Meat's partnerships with restaurants have resulted in mixed success. The products it has created with the likes of Taco Bell and McDonald's may generate high investor interest, but they tend not to stick around on the menu for very long. This is a clear sign that the Beyond Meat products might not actually be selling that well. Even the Dunkin' meatless breakfast sandwich, one of the longest-lasting Beyond Meat products that stayed on the menu for a few years, was recently pulled from the menu.
What Pizza Hut's new meatless pepperoni pizza meet the same fate? Only time will tell. However, as stated, the short-lived nature of these menu items has not scared away investors. Both Pizza Hut's parent company Yum! Brands and Beyond Meat have enjoyed very profitable years. Yum's stock has grown by a whopping 22% this year, while Beyond Meat's shares have risen nearly 5%. That puts their market value at $39.8 billion and $8.12 billion, respectively. Not too shabby at all!
Sources: MSN, Yahoo! Finance
