Burger King is gathering the rewards for taking the plunge, as McDonald’s
is waiting to jump into substitutes of plant-based meat.
It was announced by the Restaurant Brands International chain on April 1
that “a vegetarian-friendly version of its Whopper was being tested made
with the plant-based Impossible Burger, which is acknowledged for
“bleeding” the same as an actual burger patty. Burger King said it would
launch the product countrywide this year as it has brought the Impossible
Whopper to three new cities.
Dori Robau Alvarez, spokeswoman of Burger King said, “In our test
markets the Impossible Whopper is doing very well, and it continued
driving new traffic to our restaurants”.
According to a report, in April, St. Louis outperformed the chain’s national
foot traffic average by 18.5% amongst all the locations in the test market of
Burger King. The study shows that “U.S. stores saw foot traffic drop off by
1.75% from March’s average number of visits, outside St. Louis”.
The lure of the Impossible Whopper can change the slowing sales growth of
Burger King. On Tuesday, Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst Bryan
Spillane gives a statement in research about Impossible Foods’ chief rival
Beyond Meat. The statement was, “These plant-based alternatives of the
next generation are in a position to disturb the meat category in the same
way that plant-based milks interrupt dairy and energy drinks interrupts
caffeinated beverages”.
To meet the high demand for its patties, Impossible has struggled but is
raising the number of hours as well as employees at its California and
Oakland plant. The company announced recently, that working with Little
Caesars for putting a plant-based sausage on the pizza chain also.
As it went public at the start of the month, Beyond Meat has seen its stock
rate surge 218%. A deal is signed with Zandbergen World’s Finest Meat for
making its plant-based meat products at a Dutch facility which is
anticipated to start production in the first quarter of 2020, Beyond Meat
said on Tuesday.
