Impossible Foods is on the march – now, breaking news this morning suggested that stores like Wegmans that are expanding on the East Coast are also buying into the meatless gourmet philosophy, and embracing the company’s products, in a bigger way.
Jon Porter at The Verge reports 102 east coast stores, including some Wegmans and Fairway locations, will start to offer impossible burgers and other meatless products based on the company’s proprietary research and design. That’s in addition to other stores in California and elsewhere looking to take on IF plant-based meat substitutes.
“The launch means that the Impossible Burger is now available in 129 stores, along with over 17,000 restaurants around the country,” Porter writes. “Impossible Foods has previously said it hopes to sell its burgers in grocery stores in every region of the US by mid-2020.”
Porter points out that Impossible Foods still has some growth to do to catch up with Beyond Meat, which has been exploding lately and is already publicly traded at prices many times higher than the IPO. A recent trial of BYND meatless chicken at mega-chain Kentucky Fried Chicken saw products sell out in less than five hours under heavy consumer demand. If these “laboratory” programs are any indication, the meatless revolution will come sooner rather than later.
Impossible Foods, on the other hand, has not yet gone public, which presents specific opportunities to investors.
Look for the meatless wars to heat up based on very real and quantifiable consumer factors – doctor recommendations to eat less meat, the perils of factory farming, and our quickly warming planet are just a few. By ushering in new logistically feasible meatless options to our dinner plates, these companies could be seeing big paydays in the months and years to come.
