Sit-down restaurant chain Denny's on Monday said it would serve more of Beyond Meat's (BYND) plant-based burgers in more of its restaurants, while fast-casual burger chain Habit Restaurants (HABT) said it planned to start selling a plant-based burger from rival Impossible Foods. Beyond Meat stock jumped on the news.
XDenny's said it would offer a plant-based patty from Beyond Meat in more than 1,700 restaurants in the U.S. and Canada. The wider service, Denny's said, followed an "overwhelmingly successful" launch of the burger in its Los Angeles restaurants.
Putting the Beyond Meat patty on more menus, the chain said, helped it meet diners' "desire to move toward a flexitarian diet." So-called flexitarianism — a largely vegan or vegetarian diet that allows some meat — has grown as more people express concern about the environment and product sourcing from big agricultural suppliers.
Restaurant industry analysts have debated how much of that desire actually exists and how long it might last. A Burger King franchisee said last week that sales of its Impossible Whopper, made by Impossible Foods, had eased.
Habit Restaurants' 'Impossible' Plans
Meanwhile, Habit Restaurants said it wanted to serve a plant-based burger from Impossible Foods at its Habit Burger locations during the second half of the year, according to Reuters.
Habit and Impossible did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Habit has more than 270 restaurants in 13 states and internationally.
Habit, which agreed to be bought by Yum Brands (YUM) earlier this month, tested the Impossible Burger at nine locations in 2018.
But, as Reuters noted, management, during a conference call in October, said it was "pleased with the results of that test. But when we spoke to the Impossible people, we learned it was impossible to secure supply chain ... really throughout this year, 2019."
Beyond Meat Stock
Beyond Meat stock rose 4.4% to close at 124.75 in the stock market today. The advance marks the latest move higher for the stock, even as questions linger about demand and fake-meat makers' ability to meet it for bigger restaurants.
Beyond Meat stock has a 46 Composite Rating and a 39 EPS Rating. The stock is well off highs of near 240 reached over the summer, as more analysts began to believe that years of sales gains were already priced into the stock.
Yum Brands — the parent of KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut — lost 0.6%. KFC in August said it would test imitation chicken from Beyond Meat. Pizza Hut, similarly, has tested a plant-based sausage by Kellogg's (K) Incogmeato.
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