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Coronavirus won't stop Beyond Meat from entering China in 2020: CEO Ethan Brown

Brian Sozzi
·Executive Editor
Updated ·2 min read

Beyond Meat (BYND) founder and CEO Ethan Brown is keeping his foot on the growth pedal.

And he is ready to drive right into China this year for the first time, despite the onset of the coronavirus.

When asked if the coronavirus will prevent Beyond Meat from entering China in 2020, Brown told Yahoo Finance in an interview, “no, it doesn’t.” When asked if Beyond Meat will be a thing in China this year, Brown responded “yeah, absolutely.”

Brown added, “It adjusts some of our plans, but I am not taking my foot off the gas.”

Beyond Meat hamburger is seen in a pub in Milan, Italy, on January 04 2020. Beyond Meat is a Los Angeles-based producer of plant-based meat substitutes founded in 2009 by Ethan Brown. The company's initial products became available across the United States in 2012.The company has products designed to simulate chicken, beef, and pork sausage.According to a life cycle assessment (LCA) of the Beyond Burger from the University of Michigan, the Beyond Burger generates 90% less greenhouse gas emissions, requires 46% less energy, has >99% less impact on water scarcity and 93% less impact on land use than a ¼ pound of U.S. beef. (Photo by Mairo Cinquetti/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Beyond Meat hamburger is seen in a pub in Milan, Italy, on January 04 2020. (Photo by Mairo Cinquetti/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Beyond Meat’s entry into China this year was initially speculated back in January when the company’s executive chairman Seth Goldman spoke at a conference.

The debut in China follows Beyond Meat’s entry into Europe last year. Aggressive global expansion is what investors have wanted from the upstart Beyond Meat, and it appears Brown is ready to give it to them..

Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and co-anchor of The First Trade at Yahoo Finance. Watch The First Trade each day here at 9:00 a.m. ET or on Verizon FIOS channel 604. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.

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