Beyond Meat Expands Partnership With Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s

(Bloomberg) -- Beyond Meat Inc. is deepening its partnership with Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr., by offering more menu items and expanding to new locations.

The chains, both owned by parent CKE Restaurants, will offer Beyond Meat products on their breakfast, lunch and dinner menus this month. Carl’s Jr., which already had the Beyond Burger, will now offer breakfast burritos and sandwiches with Beyond’s sausage. Hardee’s, which had been testing sausage and burger menu offerings at some locations, will now bring them to all of their restaurants.

“It really is a validation that the brand is performing well in the QSR chains,” says Charles Muth, chief growth officer at Beyond Meat, referring to the fast-food segment by the acronym for quick-service restaurants.

Carl’s Jr. has sold more than 6.7 million Beyond Famous Star Burgers to-date, according to CKE, making it the company’s most successful product launch of the past two years.

As consumers eat more plant-based products, the big fast food chains have been racing to jump on the trend. While major companies are developing new products and improving existing ones, for now the competition in the U.S. has mainly centered on Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods Inc.

This year saw a number of major tie-ups, including Burger King offering Impossible Whoppers at more than 7,000 locations and Dunkin’ Brands Group Inc. putting Beyond Breakfast Sandwiches on the menu at its more than 9,000 U.S. locations in November.

Beyond has worked with restaurant chains individually to develop differentiated products. The Hardee’s breakfast sausage, for example, is different than the one at Dunkin’. This is one way for chains to keep consumers interested even as plant-based options proliferate.

“Restaurants need to focus on making these items their own,“ says Amanda Topper, associate director of food service at Mintel, a research and consulting firm.

To contact the reporter on this story: Deena Shanker in New York at dshanker@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sally Bakewell at sbakewell1@bloomberg.net, Jonathan Roeder

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.