A sign promoting McDonald's 'PLT' burger with a Beyond Meat plant-based patty at one of 28 test restaurant locations in London, Ont., in 2019.MOE DOIRON/Reuters
McDonald’s Corp MCD-N said on Thursday it will expand its U.S. test of a plant-based burger it created with vegan meat maker Beyond Meat Inc BYND-Q to about 600 locations next month.
The restaurants - in San Francisco, California and Dallas-Forth Worth, Texas - will sell the so-called “McPlant” burger starting Feb. 14 for as long as supplies last in order to “help us understand customer demand,” the Chicago-based chain said in a post on its website.
Shares of Beyond Meat, which makes the McPlant patty from peas, rice and potatoes, were up more than 5% at midday.
McDonald’s initially tested the burger in eight U.S. locations in November.
In December, two Wall Street analysts forecast a major U.S. expansion of the McPlant.
One of those analysts, BTIG’s Peter Saleh, said on Thursday that the expanded test “moves the product one step closer to a national launch, which could be worth several hundred million dollars” to Beyond Meat.
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