There is a disappointing report on the early reception by consumers to the McPlant burger created by McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD -0.7%) and Beyond Meat (BYND -1.1%).
Channel checks from BTIG indicate that sales of the McPlant menu item at the roughly 600 McDonald’s (MCD) restaurants testing the product have underperformed franchisee expectations. The checks suggested that restaurants in the Dallas-Fort Worth region and San Francisco Bay Area are selling about 20 McPlant sandwiches per day, while restaurants in more rural areas of East Texas are selling only 3 to 5 sandwiches per day
Analyst Peter Saleh said the assessment from McDonald’s (MCD) franchisees is that there is not enough evidence to support a national McPlant rollout in the near future and that lower sales volumes were slowing down service times due to the product being cooked to order.
“We expect both McDonald’s and Beyond Meat to continue to tweak the product and messaging to drive broader acceptance, as our franchise contacts emphasized plant-based efforts would continue. Our conversations definitely temper any expectations for a national launch, though we don’t believe such a launch is reflected in shares at the current price.”
BTIG kept a Neutral stance on Beyond Meat.
Shares of Beyond Meat (BYND) have fallen more than 50% since the Seeking Alpha Quant Rating flipped to Strong Sell last year.