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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by S at Beyond (talk | contribs) at 15:50, 31 August 2021 (→Edit request). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Quarterly results

@PassioEtDesiderium: Your justification for removing this does not make much sense. First up, as I already said in my edit summary when I replaced it, that this is the only quarterly result included is not a reason to remove it. If other quarterly results attract attention in reliable sources, then please add them, here's one from a few days ago. If you think it's in the wrong section, then move it somewhere else, don't remove it entirely. Why do you think it contravenes WP:NPOV? WP:Relevance is an essay, meaning that it has little standing, and in addition you have misinterpreted what it means by "twice removed" - it is referring to something similar to twice removed like a cousin, i.e. two degrees of separation, not whether the content has been removed by two different editors. WP:WEIGHT (part of NPOV) is the relevant policy which governs what material should be included and per the source "This is the first big quarterly miss for the company" which is a pretty clear indication that it is worth including. SmartSE (talk) 22:35, 1 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Edit request

Hi everyone, Soo from Beyond Meat, here. I am hoping to update the article with current and notable details as well as to improve the clarity and style of the existing text. Due to my conflict of interest, I won't make these edits myself, but am proposing them here instead. Below is a detailed proposal for improvements to the lead, and the beginning of a new breakdown for the history section complete with updates and sources. If anything seems out of place to you, please let me know and I will work to improve it as per your suggestions. Thank you so much for your help.

Lead:

  • Link to "Ethan Brown" in the lead - Ethan Brown (executive)
  • Replace "plant-based meat substitutes" (which is redundant) with simply "plant-based meat."
  • Replace: "The company has products designed to emulate beef, meatballs, ground meat, and pork sausage links and patties."
    With: "The company offers plant-based options in the beef, pork and poultry categories" (which is a more appropriate level of generality for the lead, per MOS:LEAD).
  • Add the following sentence: As of March 2021, Beyond Meat products are available in approximately 118,000 retail and foodservice outlets in over 80 countries worldwide.[1]

History section:

  • Replace the first five paragraphs of the History section, as well as the "Finances" subsection, with the following, which is expanded and organized better in new subsections:

Founding

The company was founded by Ethan Brown in 2009 to combat climate change.[2] Brown initially contacted two University of Missouri professors, Fu-hung Hsieh and Harold Huff, who had already been refining their meatless protein for years.[2][3] Upon licensing Hsieh and Huff's technology, Beyond Meat launched its first product, Beyond Chicken Strips (originally called "Chicken-Free Strips"),[4] in Whole Foods location in 2012 and expanded nationally in 2013.[2][3][5] In 2014, Beyond Meat developed its first plant-based beef product, Beyond Beef Crumbles, and has since expanded into plant-based pork.[6] The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals named Beyond Meat as its Company of the Year for 2013.[7][8]

IPO and finance

Over the years 2013-16, the company received venture funding from GreatPoint Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Obvious Corporation, Bill Gates, Biz Stone, the Humane Society[9][10] and Tyson Foods.[11] Tyson Foods purchased a 5% stake in Beyond Meat in October 2016[12], but sold its 6.5% stake and exited the investment in April 2019, ahead of the company's initial public offering.[13] By 2018, Beyond Meat had raised US$72 million in venture financing.[14] Beyond Meat is also backed by celebrity and athlete investors such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Jessica Chastain, Snoop Dogg, Liza Koshy, Chris Paul, Kyrie Irving, DeAndre Hopkins and others.[15][16][17]

In May 2019, Beyond Meat went public and trades on the United States NASDAQ exchange under the symbol BYND.[18] It is the first plant-based company to go public.[19] On the day of its IPO, the company was valued at $3.8 billion and was the best-performing public offering by a major U.S. company in almost two decades.[20] As of June 2021, Beyond Meat had a market cap of $9.44 billion.[21] In November 2020, Beyond Meat announced sales had only grown by 2% year-on-year compared to an expected increase of 40% due to the impact of COVID-19 on foodservice sales. Beyond Meat shifted its focus to grocery, convenience stores and other forms of distribution during the COVID-19 pandemic.[22] Sales grew by 3.5% in Q4 2020 and by 11.4% in Q1 2021. At the end of 2020, the company reported net revenues of $406.8 million the full year, an increase of 36.6% year-over-year.[23]

Manufacturing

In the United States, Beyond Meat has several manufacturing facilities in the United States, including in Columbia, Missouri, and Pennsylvania.[24] In June 2018, Beyond Meat opened its second production facility in Columbia, Missouri, resulting in a three-fold increase of the company's manufacturing space.[25] In 2020, Beyond Meat acquired a manufacturing facility in DeVault, Pennsylvania.[26] In Europe, Beyond Meat has two facilities in the Netherlands: a co-manufacturing facility in Zoeterwoude owned and operated by Dutch company Zandbergen, and an owned facility in Enschede. These two facilities service the distribution network across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.[27]

In China, Beyond Meat operates an owned manufacturing plant in Jiaxing. It is the company’s first "end-to-end manufacturing facility" outside of the United States and began full-scale production in 2021.[28]

Research and innovation

In 2018, Beyond Meat opened a 26,000-square foot R&D lab in El Segundo, California housing nearly 100 employees.[29][30] In January 2021, Beyond Meat announced that it will be opening its new global headquarters in El Segundo, CA later that year. According to the company, the facility will house three to four times its current number of R&D team members once the three-phase opening of the campus is complete.[31]

  • Move the remaining three paragraphs ("In March 2019..." to "...directly to consumers") to a new subsection called "Partnerships and distribution", which I will suggest expansions for in a future edit request.

References

  1. ^ "Beyond Meat- Investor Presentation". Beyond Meat. May 6, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  2. ^ a b c Bronner, Stephen J. (January 22, 2018). "With $72 Million in Funding, the Entrepreneur Behind Beyond Meat Pursues Innovation Over Profit". Entrepreneur.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. ^ a b "Need to Know: Tastes like chicken, made in a lab". america.aljazeera.com.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. ^ Andrews, Joe (July 29, 2019). "Beyond Meat's chicken came first, and it was a failure. Wall Street and investors don't care". CNBC.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. ^ Manjoo, Farhad (2012-07-26). "Beyond Meat's Fake Chicken Tastes So Real That It Will Freak You Out". Slate Magazine.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  6. ^ foodnavigator-usa.com (April 3, 2014). "Beyond Meat founders: 'We're a meat company that makes products from plants'". foodnavigator-usa.com.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  7. ^ "Meet the man behind "Beyond Meat" plant-based protein substitute". www.cbsnews.com. February 13, 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  8. ^ Jane Black (February 2, 2014). "43. Beyond Meat". Fast Company. Archived from the original on 3 September 2016. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
  9. ^ Darrell Etherington (May 7, 2013). "We're 80% of the way to fake meat that's indistinguishable from the real thing". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 3 July 2014. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
  10. ^ "Where's the beef? Not in these new plant-based burgers". USA TODAY. Archived from the original on 2017-09-08. Retrieved 2017-09-07.
  11. ^ "Tyson Foods Invests in Beyond Meat". 10 October 2016. Archived from the original on 5 January 2018. Retrieved 4 January 2018.
  12. ^ Strom, Stephanie (10 October 2016). "Tyson Foods, a Meat Leader, Invests in Protein Alternatives". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 21 February 2017. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  13. ^ "Tyson sells stake in plant-based meat maker Beyond Meat". Reuters. April 24, 2019. Archived from the original on 2019-04-24. Retrieved 2019-04-25.
  14. ^ Bronner, Stephen J. (2018-01-22). "With $72 million in funding, the entrepreneur behind Beyond Meat pursues innovation over profit". Entrepreneur. Archived from the original on 2021-02-03. Retrieved 2021-01-26.
  15. ^ "Snoop Dogg On How He Introduced Plant-Based Meat to His Family". The Beet. June 16, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  16. ^ Sprung, Shlomo (February 20, 2019). "DeAndre Jordan, Kyrie Irving, Chris Paul Invest In Plant-Based Food Company Beyond Meat". Forbes.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  17. ^ "Vegan-Friendly, Celeb-Backed Beyond Meat Has 2019's Best U.S. IPO". Time. May 2, 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  18. ^ "Summary for Beyond Meat, Inc., BYND". Yahoo Finance. 30 July 2019. Archived from the original on 30 July 2019. Retrieved 31 July 2019.
  19. ^ Popper, Nathaniel (May 2, 2019). "Beyond Meat's Share Price Surges on First Day of Trading". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
  20. ^ Murphy, Mike (May 5, 2019). "Beyond Meat soars 163% in biggest-popping U.S. IPO since 2000". MarketWatch.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  21. ^ "Beyond Meat, Inc. (BYND) Valuation Measures & Financial Statistics". finance.yahoo.com.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  22. ^ "Beyond Meat craters after big Q1 earnings loss amid 'slow thaw' from COVID-19". money.yahoo.com. May 6, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  23. ^ Inc, Beyond Meat (2021-02-25). "Beyond Meat® Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2020 Financial Results". GlobeNewswire News Room. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  24. ^ "Beyond Meat acquires co-packer to tackle unit costs". Supply Chain Dive. November 11, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  25. ^ Watson, Elaine (29 June 2018). "Beyond Meat triples manufacturing footprint". foodnavigator-usa.com. William Reed Business Media. Archived from the original on 19 February 2020. Retrieved 7 July 2018.
  26. ^ "Beyond Meat acquires co-packer to tackle unit costs". Supply Chain Dive. November 11, 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  27. ^ White, Martin (June 11, 2020). "Beyond Meat expands plant-based meat production in Europe". www.foodbev.com.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  28. ^ Agomuoh, Fionna (April 7, 2021). "Beyond Meat Opens China Plant, First Facility Outside U.S." TheStreet.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  29. ^ Raphael, Rina. "Inside Beyond Meat's innovative future food lab". fastcompany.com. Archived from the original on 2019-10-25. Retrieved 2019-12-16.
  30. ^ Pomranz, Mike. "Beyond Meat's Massive New Lab Sounds Like Something Out of a Sci-Fi Novel". foodandwine.com. Archived from the original on 2019-12-16. Retrieved 2019-12-16.
  31. ^ Fool, Contributor Rhian Hunt The Motley (January 15, 2021). "Beyond Meat Leases Gigantic New Headquarters Building". www.nasdaq.com. {{cite web}}: |first= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: url-status (link)

Pinging MaynardClark, who helped me with the Ethan Brown (executive) page.

Thanks again, S at Beyond (talk) 16:13, 27 July 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Most of this request is promotional, WP:PROMO, and should only selectively be reviewed and/or used by an impartial editor. S at Beyond has a WP:COI and should not be editing the article or taking part in talk page discussions, WP:NPOV. Zefr (talk) 16:17, 27 July 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Just to clarify: that Beyond should not take part in this discussion is Zefr's opinion, not what WP:COI and WP:NPOV say. WP:COI says you [COI editors] may propose changes on talk pages. WP:COI also has some good tips for regular editors on how to deal with COI editors :) ‎⠀Trimton⠀‎‎ 00:21, 3 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]
I agree with Zefr. It's absolutely ludicrous that you are suggesting that we call Beyond Meat's products "meat" instead of "meat substitutes". Also, let's compare the rather glowing Sales grew by 3.5% in Q4 2020 and by 11.4% in Q1 2021. At the end of 2020, the company reported net revenues of $406.8 million the full year, an increase of 36.6% year-over-year. sourced to a press release with CNBC's summary published the same day The company fell short of Wall Street’s estimates for its fourth-quarter revenue, and it reported a wider-than-expected quarterly loss. This is hardly encouraging and demonstrates to me that Beyond Meat are not here to improve the article but to spin it to their own favour. To anyone else responding - note that this is the latest iteration of them trying to WP:OWN this article through using undisclosed paid editors, going back seven years right to when this was created and continuing through to [year]. It is encouraging that S at Beyond has disclosed their relationship, but I would suggest that we be extremely cautious in integrating any changes suggested. SmartSE (talk) 20:11, 27 July 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Hey, nice to meet you. This seems to have heated up quite quickly and I just want to clarify that I am not connected to any undisclosed editing that occurred in the past- I am approaching this with fresh eyes and hope you will judge me and my requests on their own merits rather than in light of editors who have no connection to me. I certainly appreciate the need to maintain the neutrality of the article, and if you feel I have failed to do so, I am happy to discuss and work to improve it. Thank you, S at Beyond (talk) 15:57, 28 July 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The content suggested in the "Founding" and "Manufacturing" sections above are not controversial nor read as promotional. I wouldn't object to including those paragraphs. Psychologist Guy (talk) 20:26, 2 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]
I agree, except for two bits:
    • "to combat climate change" should be replaced by something more hedged like "with the stated mission". Otherwise you're making it seem like they're actually combating climate change, which probably isn't backed up by refs. Wikipedia prohibits original research via its WP:OR Policy.
    • you must use neutral vocabulary (See wp:npov (Wikipedia Policy) and wp:claim). Usually you can just substitute words with the easiest synonyms you can think of and they will become neutral. E.g. "to service" --> to supply, to sell. "claimed"--> said, wrote. ‎⠀Trimton⠀‎‎ 23:51, 2 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Hi S at Beyond, Wikipedia tends to be skeptical of claims about individuals and organisations, rightfully so, since there are incentives to exaggerate. The research and innovation section has too much wp:puffery. Most refs you provide are wp:selfpublished. we need reliable sources WP:RS (Wikipedia Guideline), especially for WP:EXTRAORDINARY claims such as fourfold increases. WP:RSP is a list of what Wikipedia counts as RS. Wikipedia Policy means we have to adhere to it in >99% of cases. Not all pages linked in the WP:X/wp:x format are Policy, though. Anyone can create such a link, and they are usually used for Policies, Guidelines, and Essays. Guidelines are weaker forms of Wikipedia rules, and Essays are the views of individual editors or factions. They are not binding (see WP:RULES for an overview). To the other editors, I hope I can inspire you to cite some policy and guidelines, too, when making arguments :) ‎⠀Trimton⠀‎‎ 23:28, 2 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Also S at Beyond, the article currently only depicts your food. Could you upload some pictures to Wikimedia Commons that go—further than—food? Photos of your production sites, people, campaigns perhaps. Make sure it makes sense to use them, under WP:IMGCONTENT (Policy).‎⠀Trimton⠀‎‎ 00:06, 3 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Hi @Trimton and Psychologist Guy: Thanks for joining the conversation and for being so willing to work constructively with me! I appreciate you taking the time. I will try to address each of your points clearly:
  • Here is the revised Founding section, as per your suggestions:

The company was founded by Ethan Brown in 2009 with the stated mission of combating climate change.[1] Brown initially contacted two University of Missouri professors, Fu-hung Hsieh and Harold Huff, who had been developing their meatless protein for years.[1][2] Upon licensing Hsieh and Huff's technology, Beyond Meat launched its first product, Beyond Chicken Strips (originally called "Chicken-Free Strips"),[3] in Whole Foods location in 2012 and expanded nationally in 2013.[1][2][4] In 2014, Beyond Meat developed its first plant-based beef product, Beyond Beef Crumbles, and has since expanded into plant-based pork.[5] The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals named Beyond Meat as its Company of the Year for 2013.[6][7]


  • Research and innovation- I can't find any self-published references in this section, but tried to eliminate any language or information that could be seen as promotional below:

In 2018, Beyond Meat opened a 26,000-square foot R&D lab in El Segundo, California.[8][9] In January 2021, Beyond Meat announced that it will be opening a new global headquarters in El Segundo, CA later that year. The company says the facility will house three to four times its current number of R&D team members once the campus is complete.[10]

  • Regarding the other sections- forgive me, but I don't see any WP:EXTRAORDINARY claims backed up by self-published references. Can you show me an example from my draft, so that I may work to improve the remaining content? I believe the only content included with self-published sources falls under the WP:ABOUTSELF guidelines (but please do correct me if I am wrong), and that all other claims are backed by third-party references.


  • I will work on uploading pictures.

References

  1. ^ a b c Bronner, Stephen J. (January 22, 2018). "With $72 Million in Funding, the Entrepreneur Behind Beyond Meat Pursues Innovation Over Profit". Entrepreneur.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  2. ^ a b "Need to Know: Tastes like chicken, made in a lab". america.aljazeera.com.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. ^ Andrews, Joe (July 29, 2019). "Beyond Meat's chicken came first, and it was a failure. Wall Street and investors don't care". CNBC.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. ^ Manjoo, Farhad (2012-07-26). "Beyond Meat's Fake Chicken Tastes So Real That It Will Freak You Out". Slate Magazine.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. ^ Watson, Elaine (April 3, 2014). "Beyond Meat founders: 'We're a meat company that makes products from plants'". foodnavigator-usa.com.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  6. ^ "Meet the man behind "Beyond Meat" plant-based protein substitute". www.cbsnews.com. February 13, 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  7. ^ Jane Black (February 2, 2014). "43. Beyond Meat". Fast Company. Archived from the original on 3 September 2016. Retrieved 7 July 2014.
  8. ^ Raphael, Rina. "Inside Beyond Meat's innovative future food lab". fastcompany.com. Archived from the original on 2019-10-25. Retrieved 2019-12-16.
  9. ^ Pomranz, Mike. "Beyond Meat's Massive New Lab Sounds Like Something Out of a Sci-Fi Novel". foodandwine.com. Archived from the original on 2019-12-16. Retrieved 2019-12-16.
  10. ^ Hunt, Rhian (January 15, 2021). "Beyond Meat Leases Gigantic New Headquarters Building". www.nasdaq.com.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
Thanks again for your help, S at Beyond (talk) 15:46, 3 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@S at Beyond Sorry for my late reply. You can use the above text except for a minor suggestion inResearch and innovation: I think MOS:UNIT requires conversion to square metres or hectares (an SI unit, and a unit to be used with SI, respectively). You could use Template:Convert. {{convert|26,000|sqft|m2|sigfig=2}} gives "26,000 square feet (2,400 m2)". It uses a similar level of precision as required by MOS:CONVERSIONS. It'd be more informative and less promotional to write the absolute number of R&D employees now and after the three-to-fourfold increase ("The company says that its number of R&D staff will rise from xx to xx"). But I think the sentence is within the scope of our policies, as is. Regarding the other sections: You're right, EXTRAORDINARY doesn't apply since you indicated the self-published nature of the statement ("The company says" in your latest draft). I struck the EXTRAORDINARY part of my earlier comment. ‎⠀Trimton⠀‎‎ 22:42, 21 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Hi Trimton, thanks for taking the time to get back to me! Much appreciated. Will make the change as per your suggestion and edit the article. Regarding the absolute number of R&D employees- I was simply trying to cite the source as accurately as possible, and it doesn't mention those figures. Thank you again for your assistance. S at Beyond (talk) 21:45, 24 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]
We need to start with the "Founding" and "Manufacturing" sections, the above content should be updated to the article. Does anyone object to these changes, they are not controversial. After we have come to a consensus on this we can talk about the other material. Psychologist Guy (talk) 22:02, 24 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]
I object to the simplistic "to combat climate change" as this is clearly marketing language. We should discuss this as the stated aim somewhere in the article, but as I mentioned here before it needs to be balanced by other sources. The manufacturing section should include the court case with Donn Lee Farms and update this information as there are more recent sources available: [1] [2] [3]. SmartSE (talk) 10:43, 26 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Hi Smartse, thanks for your response! Trimton made a similar point about the climate change statement above, and I revised the draft according to his suggestion. Does the new language ("with the stated mission of combating climate change") address your issue as well? If not, I am happy to revisit. As for the court case, I have included an updated overview in my draft, and intend to propose it once this first request is agreed upon. Thanks again for your help, S at Beyond (talk) 15:50, 31 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Semi-protected edit request on 20 August 2021

There are two ands in the first paragraph when the products are being listed. The one before pork sausage links should be removed.

The company has products designed to emulate beef, meatballs, ground meat, pork sausage links and patties.

The first "and" could also be changed to "as well as" if it's supposed to be pork sausage links and pork sausage patties. AndrewTavis (talk) 13:38, 20 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]

 Done I just removed the links and patties wording. I think saying "sausage" is good enough. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 13:57, 20 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]
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