Pizza Hut Extends Relationship With Beyond Meat With A New Plant-Based Pepperoni Pizza

In November, Pizza Hut became the first major pizza company in the U.S. to add plant-based meat to its menu with the launch of the Beyond Italian Sausage Pizza and Great Beyond Pizza.  

The company must like what it’s seen so far, announcing today an extension of its Beyond Meat

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partnership with a new Beyond Pepperoni Pizza. The offering is available for a limited time at nearly 70 Pizza Hut locations, including Albany, New York; Columbus and Macon, Georgia; Houston, Texas; and Jacksonville, Florida.

Pepperoni is Pizza Hut’s top selling pizza, as well Americans’ favorite pizza topping overall, so it will be interesting to see if that popularity translates to the chain’s alternative offering.

According to a press release, the Beyond Pepperoni is seasoned to a savory, smoky flavor “with just the right amount of subtle heat to deliver the classic Pizza Hut pepperoni experience.” It is made from ingredients like peas and rice, the company says in the release, with no GMOs, soy, gluten, hormones, antibiotics or cholesterol.

Prior to this launch, plant-based pepperoni was not included in Beyond’s growing portfolio of meat analogues. This means the company’s global partnership with Pizza Hut parent Yum Brands, signed earlier this year with an objective of co-creating menu items, is starting to yield results.

“We know there is strong consumer demand for pepperoni, and we’re thrilled to unveil a game-changing plant-based pepperoni topping as the next chapter in our innovation-focused partnership with Pizza Hut,” Dariush Ajami, Beyond Meat’s chief innovation officer, said in the release.  

Still, Yum’s

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partnership with Beyond started well before that February agreement was signed.  The company tested Beyond Fried Chicken at KFC in 2019, which sold out at an Atlanta store in less than five hours. The menu item expanded to additional U.S. cities in 2020. 

But 2019 was a different time for the industry, and some analysts have since questioned if the plant-based category would maintain that pre-pandemic momentum as restaurants simplify their operations in a struggle to stay afloat.   

Statistics suggest a continued tailwind. According to Label Insight, a NielsenIQ company, sales of plant-based meat alternatives jumped by 27% in 2020. Shipments of plant-based proteins from foodservice distributors to commercial restaurants across segments increased by 60% year-over-year in April, according to the NPD Group. 

Pizza Hut notes its expanded partnership with Beyond is in response to growing consumer demand for more diverse protein options. In a press release from that February announcement, Yum Brands’ CFO Chris Turner said the company was excited about the long-term potential of plant-based offerings, particularly among younger consumers.

Driven by this generational demand, the global plant-based meat market size is projected to grow to $13.8 billion by 2027–a compound annual growth rate of over 19%.

In the pizza category, which has largely been insulated throughout the pandemic, we’re very much on the ground floor with plant-based experimentation. Pizza Hut’s efforts in the past year has given the chain first-mover status among the major pizza players domestically, though Little Caesars launched a plant-based pepperoni pizza in July with Greenleaf Foods Field Roast after a test with Impossible Foods’ sausage in 2019. Domino’s CEO Richard Allison has also stated that his chain is testing plant-based options, while Papa John’s has a relationship with Beyond Meat in a few international markets.