From greenqueen.com.hk
By Anay Mridul
Beyond Meat has rebranded to Beyond The Plant Protein Company as it expands into whole-food proteins and drinks – is the vegan pioneer having an identity crisis reflective of the times?
As with many food businesses post-pandemic, stability has been hard to come by for the pioneer of the modern meat-free burger.
Over the last year, on the back of decreasing sales, Beyond Meat has significantly expanded its distribution, relaunched its Starbucks collaboration in the UK, and raised more money than any other plant-based company.
Concurrently, the plant-based meat giant has witnessed its share price fall to an all-time low, to the point that it became a meme stock, received a delisting warning from Nasdaq, and was forced to deny rumours of bankruptcy.
The firm’s turnaround plan has hinged on a move, well, beyond meat, with a new fava bean mince that doesn’t intend to mimic animal protein, and a line of sparkling protein drinks that sold out quickly in the initial drop.
All this is wrapped neatly in a rebrand for Beyond Meat, which is now called Beyond The Plant Protein Company – although the change has officially yet to be announced and reflected on its social channels.
“We plan to use ‘Beyond’ more frequently as our primary brand name going forward. We’ve already been using the shorter name in some places, and we think it better reflects who we are today,” a spokesperson for the company told Green Queen.
“It puts less focus on mimicry, an increasingly complicated and limiting frame, and more focus on the high-quality plant protein products we offer. It also gives us room to grow beyond centre-of-the-plate protein and meet a broader range of consumer protein needs over time,” they added.
“In the coming months, we’ll share more about how we’re continuing to roll this out and expanding our use of the Beyond brand.”
Beyond Meat’s rebrand has been rolled out in phases
Courtesy: Beyond Meat/Green Queen
The first time Beyond Meat publicly announced a rebrand was in July 2025, when founder and CEO Ethan Brown told Fortune that he planned to drop the word ‘Meat’ from the company’s name to spotlight traditional plant proteins and reflect its forthcoming product diversification.
“If you’re the best in the world at making plant proteins, why confine yourself to the centre of the plate?” he said. “Instead of thinking about a simple replacement for animal protein, what if you just thought about your daily protein consumption, and I started to try to replace as much of that as I can with plant protein, any form that I could?”
Brown hinted at everything from a centre-aisle offering with 30g of protein and zero fat to post-workout products inspired by Roman gladiators. “You’ll see us come out with things like, maybe, lentil sausage,” he said. “Or chickpea hot dogs.”
His comments were followed by the launch of Beyond Ground, the first product to be marketed under just the ‘Beyond’ label. Almost as a reinforcement of its original identity, it was rolled out alongside the much-anticipated whole-cut mycelium steak on its new Beyond Test Kitchen website.
The accompanying press release referred to the brand as ‘Beyond’, but the rebrand still hadn’t been made official, and subsequent announcements – whether it was a partnership with Hard Rock Café or the launch of a new value pack in Canada – continued to use the full Beyond Meat name.
Beyond Meat ‘remains committed’ to meat alternatives
This was true even for the January introduction of Beyond Immerse, a range of protein-infused carbonated beverages that marked the firm’s second foray away from meat-mimicking proteins. The announcements for the initial launch and the flavour expansion last month both spotlighted ‘Beyond Meat’ as the brand name.
“We plan to bring our pioneering expertise in unlocking the power of plants to a variety of categories to meet today’s consumer needs, starting with a functional beverage line,” the spokesperson said when asked about Beyond Meat’s future product plans.
Despite the diversification, meat is still very much in its sights. “As the company expands into new categories, Beyond remains committed to category leadership in plant-based meat,” they said.
“Our expansion into additional protein categories builds on our core competencies in an innovation-first approach, culinary standards, and sustainability principles that define us, and strengthens our ability to meet more consumer needs.”
The rebrand raises some largely unanswered questions about its future direction. Does it now change its logo, which features a cow? Is the refresh only for the US and Canada, or its international business too? The company’s representative did not respond to these questions when approached by Green Queen. As it stands, its websites in other countries still have the Beyond Meat name.
Marketing experts are divided over Beyond Meat’s rebrand
Courtesy: Damian Dovarganes/AP
Some marketing experts remain sceptical about the name change. “‘Beyond Meat’ told you what it was straight away. ‘Beyond The Plant Protein Company’ feels much looser,” Anita Moorthy, co-founder of B2B marketing solutions platform RockSalt, said in a LinkedIn post.
“It could cover meat alternatives, drinks, bars, supplements, pretty much anything in the protein aisle. Maybe that breadth is the point, but it also strips out a lot of the distinctiveness the original name had,” she added.
“They’re distancing themselves from the category while still playing in it. How’s that going to work?” commented Archana Kalegaonkar, a brand strategist. “The name is clumsy, so ding on the memorability and mental availability.”
She continued: “And what happens when protein is no longer the flavour of the day? They could have just kept it to Beyond, in my opinion – that would have retained their core promise of a brand that goes beyond existing options and allowed flexibility to evolve the product portfolio without losing brand equity.”
Others laud the move. “I think it’s very smart. It’s reality,” Lu Ann Williams, co-founder and president of Innova Market Insights, told Green Queen at the Future Food-Tech conference in San Francisco this month.
“I don’t know if it’s going to work because it comes down to the execution. What’s the price? How do they communicate to consumers? What’s the nutrition?” she said. “But in terms of a total pivot, I think they were going to have a hard time trying to just do a pure meat mimic.”
Not the moment for plant-based meat?
The most prominent instance of Beyond Meat’s drive to reshape its identity came during Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, California, earlier this month, when the company overhauled its website to largely remove the ‘Meat’ moniker and introduce itself as Beyond The Plant Protein Company, or simply Beyond.
Still, the shift doesn’t seem to have fully been implemented yet. The company’s stall at Expo West featured the new branding, though the business’s legal name remains Beyond Meat.
Curiously, its social media accounts still carry the original name. That wasn’t always the case – when Beyond officially announced its new identity online, it altered its name to Go Beyond (at least on LinkedIn), before changing it back to Beyond Meat.
The move indicates an evolution of the company’s mission from feeding a better future by shifting from animal- to plant-based meat, to doing so with “clean plant-based protein”. Its motivations – or at least the ones it thinks consumers care about – have shifted from a focus on the climate and animal rights to centring human health.
“Our mission has always been about unlocking the power of plants to transform how we think about protein. As we continue to innovate and expand beyond meat mimicry, this updated positioning reflects our commitment to offering nutritious plant protein options made with clean, simple ingredients across a variety of categories, and designed to meet the evolving needs of today’s consumers,” the spokesperson said.
“For me, it is an opportunity to reshape the company around very real food that is directly from plants,” Brown told the Associated Press. “It’s about delivering all those benefits of the plant kingdom to the consumer in ways that they’re going to be able to easily integrate it into their lives.”
Doubling down on the diversification past meat alternatives, he said these products will be a “much more dominant choice” over the next decade or two. He added that Beyond Meat is currently tackling “a period of confusion” for the sector. “It’s just not the moment for plant-based meat right now,” he said.
He isn’t wrong. Sales of plant-based meat have fallen by 26% over the last two years, according to NielsenIQ data cited by the AP. Beyond itself posted a 13.3% year-over-year decline in revenue in Q3 2025, revising its final-quarter forecast to $60-65M, below analysts’ estimates of $70M.
Can repositioning itself as a plant protein company bring back the fame that engulfed Beyond Meat in the late 2010s?
https://www.greenqueen.com.hk/beyond-meat-the-plant-protein-company-rebrand/
