EL SEGUNDO, CALIF. — Beyond Meat, Inc.’s financial performance continued to deteriorate during the first quarter of fiscal 2025 as some retailers carrying the company’s products moved them out of the fresh meat case to the frozen food aisle. That shift contributed to an 11% decrease in volume of products sold during the quarter.

“… As we discussed in our previous earnings call, certain large retail customers in the United States elected to transition plant-based meat from the refrigerated to the frozen aisle within their stores,” said Ethan Brown, president and chief executive officer, during a May 7 conference call to discuss first-quarter results. “In more than one retailer, this transition led to an interruption in availability of some of our core products throughout Q1 2025.”

In response to an analyst’s question, Brown added some color to the shift and said at one retailer the transition was over a sustained period that encompassed all the first quarter.

“I think about 70% of our declines or so could be explained in the first quarter by that distribution gap,” he said.

The company experienced volume declines in three of its four business units, with US Retail volume falling 23%, US Foodservice volume declining 22% and International Retail falling 9%. Only in International Foodservice did the company add volume of 14%.

Lubi Kutua, chief financial officer, added that consumer takeaway in the United States progressively weakened during the quarter.

“Although it is too early to tell and difficult to quantify, we believe broader macroeconomic concerns and reduced consumer confidence are negatively impacting our and other categories in general,” he said.

For the quarter ended March 29, Beyond Meat recorded a loss of $53 million, nearly equal to the same period of the previous year when the company recorded a loss of $54 million.

Quarterly sales fell to $69 million from $76 million the year before.

The company withdrew its guidance for fiscal 2025 citing an elevated level of uncertainty, and said it expects sales during the second quarter to fall in a range of $80 million to $85 million.

 Brown said one reason for the sales increase is he expects US Retail sales to advance now that the retailers moving products from fresh to frozen have completed the shift.