{"id":477924,"date":"2022-01-20T19:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-20T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vegnews.com\/2022\/1\/mcplant-test-expand"},"modified":"2022-01-20T20:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-01-20T20:00:00","slug":"path-to-national-launch-mcdonalds-expands-meatless-mcplant-to-600-more-locations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/01\/20\/path-to-national-launch-mcdonalds-expands-meatless-mcplant-to-600-more-locations\/","title":{"rendered":"Path to National Launch: McDonald’s Expands Meatless McPLant to 600 More Locations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On February 14, fast-food chain McDonald\u2019s will expand the test of its first meatless burger, the McPlant, to an additional 600 locations in the San Francisco Bay area and the Dallas-Fortworth region. McDonald\u2019s first began testing the McPlant\u2014which it developed in partnership with vegan brand Beyond Meat\u2014in early November at eight test locations in Irving, TX; Carrollton, TX; Cedar Falls, IA; Jennings, LA; Lake Charles, LA; Manhattan Beach, CA; and El Segundo, CA.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The meatless burgers feature a plant-based patty made from peas, potatoes, and rice that comes topped with tomato, lettuce, pickles, onions, mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, and a slice of American cheese. Both the mayonnaise and cheese are not vegan and the burger\u2019s patty is cooked on a shared surface with animal products. \u201cMcDonald\u2019s USA is expanding\u202fthe\u202ftest\u202fto\u202fselect\u202frestaurants in your area\u202fto help us understand customer demand,\u201d the chain said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Prior to this expansion announcement, Wall Street analysts were optimistic that McDonald\u2019s would expand the McPlant sooner than expected due to its successful performance in test markets. After only a month on the menu, the McPlant was hitting its sales targets of 70 burgers per day at each of the eight test locations. Analyst Michael Lavery, from investment banking company Piper Sandler, believes that a national rollout of the McPlant to McDonald\u2019s more than 13,600 US restaurants can occur as early as the end of the first quarter of 2022. Back in December, analyst Peter Saleh, of global finances firm BTIG, correctly predicted that the meatless burger will hit an additional 700 test locations in February. Saleh\u2019s prediction is that the McPlant<\/a> will go national in 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"VegNews.McDonaldsVeganMcPlant\"<\/p>\n

McDonald\u2019s goes meatless\u00a0<\/h2>\n

In 2019, McDonald\u2019s tested the meatless P.L.T.<\/a> (which stood for \u201cPlant, Lettuce, and Tomato\u201d) burger made with Beyond Meat\u2019s Beyond Burger patty at 28 locations in Ontario, Canada. The test resulted in a three-year development<\/a> deal between the vegan brand and fast-food giant to create the McPlant platform that will result in a global roll-out of region-specific plant-based items. While the partnership has thus far resulted in the launch of the McPlant<\/a> burger, additional items\u2014from plant-based chicken to breakfast options\u2014are also in the works.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The McPlant burger made its debut earlier this year in several European countries, including in Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Austria. Last month, a fully vegan version of the McPlant<\/a>\u2014featuring vegan mayonnaise and cheese and cooked on a separate grill\u2014landed at 250 locations across the United Kingdom with a full national rollout expected next year. In the UK and Ireland, McDonald\u2019s aims to become a category leader in the plant-based space to help it become a net-zero business in the region by 2040 and globally by 2050.<\/p>\n

\"VegNews.EthanBrownBeyondMeat\"<\/p>\n

Beyond Meat meets its McDonald\u2019s goal<\/h2>\n

In 2016, when Beyond Meat Founder and CEO Ethan Brown initially launched the Beyond Burger, the entrepreneur already had his sights set on McDonald\u2019s. \u201cI\u2019ve set a goal for the company and for myself, and it is very personal to me,\u201d Brown told Fortune that year. \u201cBy the time my kids are 16\u2014they are 11 and 12 today\u2014they should be able to walk into a McDonald\u2019s or Burger King and be able to buy a Beyond Burger.\u201d Brown\u2019s children have now hit that age and his goal of them ordering a Beyond Burger at McDonald\u2019s anywhere in the country might soon become a reality.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are proud to enter into this strategic global agreement with McDonald\u2019s, an exciting milestone for Beyond Meat, and look forward to serving McDonald\u2019s as they bring expanded choice to menus globally,\u201d Brown told VegNews in November. \u201cWe will combine the power of Beyond Meat\u2019s rapid and relentless approach to innovation with the strength of McDonald\u2019s global brand to introduce craveable, new plant-based menu items that consumers will love.\u201d<\/p>\n

In December, Beyond Meat<\/a> brought on board two new executives, Bernie Adcock and Doug Ramsey, each with decades of experience working for meat giant Tyson. Ramsey\u2014who previously oversaw Tyson\u2019s McDonald\u2019s business\u2014is now Beyond Meat\u2019s COO and will help the company navigate its expansion plans with McDonald\u2019s.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For more about plant-based at McDonald\u2019s, read:<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>How To Eat Vegan At McDonald\u2019s\u2014Before The McPlant<\/em><\/a>258 McDonald\u2019s Serve the McPlant Plus Everything Else You Need to Know<\/em><\/a>McDonald\u2019s UK Announces Goal to Become Leader in Vegan Fast Food<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n \n

This post was originally published on VegNews.com<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The McPLant\u2014McDonald\u2019s first meatless burger made in partnership with Beyond Meat\u2014will hit 600 more locations in California and Texas next month.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5788,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477924"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5788"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477924"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":483029,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477924\/revisions\/483029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}