McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) fast food franchise, which until now has focused only on providing meat-based fast food to its customers, has recently made the decision to test a plant-based burger referred to as the "McPlant" in U.S. location starting in 2021. The burger is entirely meat-free, made in collaboration with Beyond Meat (NASDAQ: BYND).
To create this plant-based burger, McDonald's expanded their relationship with Beyond Meat (NASDAQ: BYND), a producer of plant-based meat substitutes based in California. The fast-food chain has previously tested a product called the "P.L.T."--plant, lettuce, tomato--using the Beyond Burger in restaurant locations in Canada with some success.
After finally learning how to collaborate with McDonald's on the creation of the McPlant to come up with a final product, both companies expect to work together in the future to refine the effects and taste of the McPlant. The McPlant is thought to be unique from other vegetarian options, and may be available in whole food markets across America next year.
Beyond Meat and McDonald's plan to leverage their partnership to benefit their individual long-term growth strategies. Beyond Meat is expected to grow exponentially in the years as consumers become more familiar with the brand and the plant-based meat substitute continues to expand is deals with restaurants and grocery stores. Beyond also expects to continue collaborations with McDonald's, both for this project and possibly future projects. But McDonald's is still testing the waters in terms of how they want to bring such growth strategies to consumers.
In order to become more of a competition with other franchises like Wendy's (NASDAQ: WEN), McDonald's has introduced the apple fritter, cinnamon roll, and blueberry muffin on the breakfast menu. While they have always been renowned for their breakfast items like the Egg McMuffin, in introducing these new types of food, McDonald's is expected to take hold of the fast food industry in unexpected ways as they constantly come up with newer and more effective ways to attract hungry consumers throughout all daily meals. McDonald's is also planning to launch a new crispy chicken sandwich product to compete with the "chicken wars" between Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen (NYSE: QSR) and Chick-fil-A in 2021.
The array of new growth strategies of McDonald's as a corporation do not just include food improvements. They also include specific tactics that are utilized in order to maximize the potential of what the corporation stands for as a whole, and to involve consumer engagement as much as possible. Some of these growth strategies involve marketing maximization, commitment to core values of the franchise itself, delivering food as quickly and efficiently as possible, utilizing technology; all new strategies are working to help the company recover and excel beyond the coronavirus pandemic.
Although McDonald's is not yet fully familiar with the development of future products such as the McPlant, they are nevertheless attempting to launch this product to enhance the profitability of the franchise as a whole. By working together with Beyond Meat, McDonald's will not only enhance their profitability, but also marketability and other such factors. Consumers will more likely view McDonald's as a place for healthier options rather than the cliché depiction of fast food that has been created for them in the past, thus painting a much more rounded picture of them as a whole.