The plant-based meat maker intends to use the store to boost sales in the world’s largest meat market.
Consumer interest in meat alternatives is low in the Asia region and the US-based Beyond Meat intends to utilise the newly-launched online JD.com store to expand the availability of its products in four major cities including Beijing and Shanghai, and eventually in 300 cities across China. Currently, its products are mainly available in China through its partnerships with Starbucks Corp, Yum China Holdings and Alibaba Group’s Freshippo markets. Expanding into the retail segment by selling on JD.com will help the brand reach a wider audience in the country.
Alongside their usual range of meat-free products, Beyond Meat is also adding Beyond Park to its offering on JD, which has been specially created for the Chinese market, which eats a lot of pork products and meals. It will also sell ingredients that are used in the cooking of local dishes such as stir-fry, dumplings, mapo tofu, zhaijang noodles and lion’s head meatballs.
Beyond Meat’s move into direct retail follows a similar move by Nestle in December, which launched a range of plant-based burgers, sausages, nuggets and other dishes that are suited to Chinese cooking.
