Costco now sells packages of Beyond Meat meatballs

Bulk-sized plant-based meatballs from Beyond Meat will now grace the oversized shopping baskets at warehouse king Costco. Yahoo Finance’s Myles Udland, Brian Sozzi and Julie Hyman share the details.

Video Transcript

MYLES UDLAND: One company we love talking about here at Yahoo Finance is Beyond Meat. Those shares are up about 2 and 1/2% right now. The company earlier today announcing that its Beyond Meatballs will now be in Costcos, 10 bucks for two dozen, Brian Sozzi. Not surprising to see the stock up on this news. Anytime anyone can say, we're now working with Costco, we're now in Costcos, that's going to be a positive thing for the company. But in your story you outline, as you'd expect, a nice bulk discount here for folks who are acquiring these at a Costco.

BRIAN SOZZI: Yeah, Myles, and it's not the first time that Beyond Meat has entered Costco. They originally entered in, I believe in late 2019, with their Beyond Burger, but this is a bigger deal for them. These meatballs are good. They taste good. I eat them all the time. It's just the reality of the situation, but a lot of people have never even tried Beyond Meat products before, probably, certainly not in Costco, because they've never been there.

So they're offered that discount upfront, try to drive trial, try to get people acclimated with the product. And this comes on the heels of them introducing two new lower fat burgers a couple of weeks ago. Also inking a deal with Pizza Hut. We know we had founder Ethan Brown on, Beyond Meat founder, Ethan Brown, on to discuss, so they're ending the year on a high note, and for them it's good, because they had a challenging third quarter, and the stock really got slaughtered.

JULIE HYMAN: Brian Sozzi, we've been talking a lot about Beyond Meat lately. We have not talked as much about Impossible, which, of course, is its privately held competitor. We haven't talked as much about Nestle, for example. It's one of the other big food companies that are developing their own products on this front, but they're out there. I mean, when I go to the grocery store now, I see more selections, more choices than ever in the freezer case or in the fridge case where they have these types of things, so I still wonder about-- I mean, yes, Beyond Meat probably has the best brand recognition, but I still wonder about those other entrants and those other competitors, and how that's going to play out.

BRIAN SOZZI: No, there's definitely a battle here, Julie. Beyond Meat is though, is though, I think, separating from the pack a little bit, just in terms of the pace there have, they have been able to go to ink some of these deals with the Yum Brands, with the Costco, but Impossible Foods, certainly right there. They're getting into a lot of doors, and you have companies like Unilever. These companies want to play in this market. It's growing fast, but 2021 is going to be a big year. It's going to be an interesting year if Beyond Meat can see their growth rates re-accelerate after the challenging third quarter, in large part because restaurants have been closed, but also because there's a lot more competitors in the market to your point.

MYLES UDLAND: Yes, certainly, a maturing space to say the least, Sozzi, and I think the way that these companies try to, you know, I don't know, pull the levers of growth, as corporate leaders love to say.