YouSaid · the spoken record

Peter McGuinness

lines on the record: 35
first: 2024-12-31
most recent: 2024-12-31
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“You're trying to change eating habits over hundreds and thousands of years It just doesn't happen overnight. It really doesn't.”
2024-12-31 · Masters of Scale · Replay: Plant-based foods need a makeover, with Peter McGuinness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“For the consumer. Look, to make a plant-based burger that tastes like an animal burger, there is technology involved. It ain't easy. Trust me. But it's how you communicate about your products. I joke around with the team at Impossible, so I said, I'm going to split the difference. We're a tech enabled food company. So we'll innovate like a tech company. We're going to operate like a food company, right? And that's, I believe in that, right? How we communicate to a consumer to get you to buy it, you got to lead the taste and follow up in nutrition and then maybe tertiarily get into animal welfare and climate.”
2024-12-31 · Masters of Scale · Replay: Plant-based foods need a makeover, with Peter McGuinness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I know that's counterintuitive, Bob. In the end of the day, we have a calculator on our website. It's the simplest thing. The more plant-based meat that's consumed, Less water is used, the less land is cleared, and the less GHG is emitted. So when this industry was launched, we're a tech company. You don't eat technology. We're a climate company. Well, you don't eat climate. So what we need to do is get more people eating these products, and that's going to do the most good, not only for your own nutrition, health and well-being, but the planets. So I think we just went about it. I mean, I hate to say it. We may just have to admit we're a food company.”
2024-12-31 · Masters of Scale · Replay: Plant-based foods need a makeover, with Peter McGuinness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I don't believe we do right now. Now, it would be nice if the government looked at this thing in a very intuitive way. I mean, the math is the math and the facts are the facts. So the fact this was omitted. I mean, food's the most important thing. It's the largest industry in the world. The one thing we have to do. You can live without a car. You can't live without eating. So it's pretty mind-boggling that this was completely omitted and missed. But we didn't lobbied hard enough too, so we're to blame as well.”
2024-12-31 · Masters of Scale · Replay: Plant-based foods need a makeover, with Peter McGuinness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I mean, look, the ultimate mission is to reverse climate change, right? How you go about that can be debated and discussed, right? Yeah. The biggest lever to do that is agriculture. Now, the problem is people don't equate it, right? Now, I would love the government, there's a sweeping climate bill, and you're getting $8,000 tax relief checks. Buy an EV, there's nothing about food. So I would love the government to assist in availability awareness and also incentives without making it political.”
2024-12-31 · Masters of Scale · Replay: Plant-based foods need a makeover, with Peter McGuinness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The awareness 80% hasn't heard of the 60,000 out of 1.4 million, the 1,000 out of 8,000. By the way, these are all movable, doable things. Food companies have done it for 20, 30 years. So the challenges we have as an industry, yes, narrative, right? formidable competitors like the meat industry. But most of the challenges are things like making it more available, you know, selling more into stores. Just get a sales force. This is not high math stuff. It's doable.”
2024-12-31 · Masters of Scale · Replay: Plant-based foods need a makeover, with Peter McGuinness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So we only hit retail two and a half, three years ago. You couldn't buy it at a grocery store. And now we're in retail. We have about 1,000 total distribution points, but there's 8,000 in total. So we have 7,000 more to go. It's a really, really good start, I tell the team. We're Walmart, we're at Target, we're now at Whole Foods, but not in every store, not with all of our SKUs. So that's why I tell everyone, like, the industry's dead. It hasn't even gotten started. When you look at the household penetration, right? Under 10%. So 90% of the country hasn't even tried a plant-based option. That's a huge opportunity”
2024-12-31 · Masters of Scale · Replay: Plant-based foods need a makeover, with Peter McGuinness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, we're in iHop and we're in Applebee's, and you know, we're in Burger King and we're in Starbucks, so food service is a big deal. We have like 58,000 food service locations, but there's 1.4 million in America. So I tell the team, great job, but you're not done yet. You barely started. So that's the scale of this thing, right? We're number one in food service in all of plant-based, and we have less than 60,000 locations out of 1.4.”
2024-12-31 · Masters of Scale · Replay: Plant-based foods need a makeover, with Peter McGuinness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I think the tide rises all boats, so I think when we advertise, everything works better. We love our Burger King relationship. It's five years strong, right? No one's had five year relationships in food service and were in all Burger Kings in the US. We're in all Starbucks, one of their best food performing items in Starbucks is our impossible sausage sandwich. It's not a vegan build. It's got an egg and cheese on it. But the meat is not pork, so it's still a win. And that's another reason why I'm saying we should do this practically.”
2024-12-31 · Masters of Scale · Replay: Plant-based foods need a makeover, with Peter McGuinness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Of a small category that's declining. And I'm not trying to be negative. I just think we all have to kind of co-own that, and I think we all have to admit that to move forward.”
2024-12-31 · Masters of Scale · Replay: Plant-based foods need a makeover, with Peter McGuinness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Look, in the end of the day, and I tell this to my team, I tell this to anyone who listen, and it's okay to admit it's nobody's fault, we failed. This thing was supposed to be massive. That's why I said, is it a correction? Is it cooling? Whatever. It's $2.5 billion in the US. That is a pebble in an ocean. Right? And I'm not trying to denigrate the industry I'm in. I'm just saying we all have to take a long look at ourselves and be open to change. And so I think we have to rewrite the playbook. I think if you think you're going to do the same thing over and over again Expect a different outcome, right? Definition of insanity. I strongly believe that we all in plant-based meat have to completely overhaul and change how we go to market, how we communicate, and how we product develop. Why? Because I think we have a brilliant case study.”
2024-12-31 · Masters of Scale · Replay: Plant-based foods need a makeover, with Peter McGuinness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's a good question, Bob. I think, look, at the end of the day, I'm not a prophet or an oracle or the ultimate expert here. First and foremost, I'm paid to grow impossible. But that does not mean that has to be the expense of the categories. So I do try to help. And I do reach out and I do attend a lot of conferences and I do speak regularly to many other plant-based CEOs. Because in the end of the day, that's the right thing to do. That's the category we're in. And they're not the competition. You know, worst case scenario, they're forenemies, but they're really friends, right? And again, that doesn't move the needle. If I steal from the $8 billion pie and don't go after the $1.4 trillion pie, we have an advanced value of the company for a shareholders and we sure have an advanced climate.”
2024-12-31 · Masters of Scale · Replay: Plant-based foods need a makeover, with Peter McGuinness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“To get a good narrative out there. It wasn't sinister, it wasn't, there was no malice intended. Everybody's just fighting for their own survival, right? And kind of got tunnel vision. Where the meat industry said, you know what? We're just going to combine wits, we're going to combine money, we're going to combine muscle, and we're going to erase them. So I don't blame them. Yeah. You know.”
2024-12-31 · Masters of Scale · Replay: Plant-based foods need a makeover, with Peter McGuinness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I mean, look, we're not going to out advertise and outspend the meat industry. We need to outsmart them. We don't have the resources, not even close to the resources. They have a lot of cash. They're extremely large. They're very well coordinated and they're very well lobbied. We don't have the luxury of any of that. So we're going to have to be scrappier and smarter, and we're better together than we are apart. Now, the other thing we've done in this crazy industry is we've been all about ourselves because we've had our own unique challenges of scaling, of profit margins, of lack of profitability. Many are going under out of business. And so it's kind of survival, and we have them banded together in a cohesive, collaborative way”
2024-12-31 · Masters of Scale · Replay: Plant-based foods need a makeover, with Peter McGuinness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“People think it's going to taste terrible because it's a climate burger. It can taste good. It's a really interesting psychological thing. So you don't lead with climate. There's not enough people that care about it. It's unfortunate. It's our job to make more people care about it, but it's not your broadest marketing vehicle. Delicious, tastes good, good for me. First, because I care about me. And oh, by the way, then it's good for the planet, it's good for animals. So it's not like we're not going to talk about climate, we're just not going to lead with climate.”
2024-12-31 · Masters of Scale · Replay: Plant-based foods need a makeover, with Peter McGuinness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, like it's meat. But what we led with in the campaign was deliciousness. This is really good food. You should try it. In the end of the day, we have less than 20% awareness and impossible. So 80% of the country hasn't heard of us. That's a very easy thing to fix through paid owned nerd media. We just never did it before. And so message hierarchy value propositions critical here. For 10 years, the industry led with climate. We do research when you tell someone you're about to eat a burger that's good for the climate. The taste cues drop in half.”
2024-12-31 · Masters of Scale · Replay: Plant-based foods need a makeover, with Peter McGuinness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We didn't do it yet. I mean, look, we did change our packaging because the green packaging wasn't appetizing. You eat with your eyes, right? So we didn't want to be greenwashed with everyone else. We leaned into red. Like animal products.”
2024-12-31 · Masters of Scale · Replay: Plant-based foods need a makeover, with Peter McGuinness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, listen, I think we didn't launch oat milk at Chibani against the dairy industry because 99% of our business was dairy. So we actually called oat milk lactose free milk. Who the hell likes lactose, whether you're a vegetarian, vegan, or consume animal products, right? We could launch Impossible as zero cholesterol meat. Who likes cholesterol, where the Republican Democrat, young, old, rich, poor, educated, not educated, you know cholesterol is not a good thing. So you could simplify this.”
2024-12-31 · Masters of Scale · Replay: Plant-based foods need a makeover, with Peter McGuinness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And you don't get it, and you're stupid. Well, almost the majority of America are flexitarians. And I knew this, you know, when we launched oat milk and chibani. And we see a lot of impossible folks. Five burgers a month is what the average American consumes. If two of them were impossible, your cholesterol would go down by 50 points and we'd grow 500%. The scale is so large. So you don't have to say stop eating an animal burger. Start incorporating this into your diet? See if you like it And so, just how we went about it was all wrong. It was very judgmental, and it was kind of angry. And there was a lot of rhetoric. And frankly, a lot of zealot behavior. It didn't work”
2024-12-31 · Masters of Scale · Replay: Plant-based foods need a makeover, with Peter McGuinness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But so the industry should be for something We're making better food for more people. We're putting good options for people to try. I don't have a problem with cattle farmers. They're hardworking people. America doesn't want a civil war against, you know, it's just silly. So let's be for something. Let's be inclusive. Let's invite meat eaters to try our products because we believe in our products and then we think they're delicious and nutritious. Let's not insult them. Let's not judge them for eating meat. People have been eating meat for thousands of years. And oh, by the way, it was also launched as a either or if you eat meat, you're a Neanderthal.”
2024-12-31 · Masters of Scale · Replay: Plant-based foods need a makeover, with Peter McGuinness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But it's coming down, so animals gone up 20% in the last year and a half because their input costs are way, way lower. So the elite isn't charges not quite as much.”
2024-12-31 · Masters of Scale · Replay: Plant-based foods need a makeover, with Peter McGuinness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And created. It was launched as an industry against something. We are against the cattle industry. We are against cattle farmers. We are against the slaughter cartel. And it was very politicized, very politically charged, it was very partisan. And it pissed people a lot of people off, and it was very polarizing. And regular people in America was like, oh, that's just the elitists. Talking, and that's the coasts, and that's academia.”
2024-12-31 · Masters of Scale · Replay: Plant-based foods need a makeover, with Peter McGuinness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, flash in the pan or up were not sure. I think it was pretty quick. But look, I think this goes back to how the plant-based industry was launched.”
2024-12-31 · Masters of Scale · Replay: Plant-based foods need a makeover, with Peter McGuinness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“70% of the grocery stores process. So that's another, it's a very clever word, right? So you go to any grocery store, 70% of the store will have a processed food. The way I define processed is food that doesn't deliver nutrition. So, a Twinkie's processed. There's nothing good about a Twinkie, it does taste pretty good, but it delivers no nutritional value and it's highly artificial. Right now, that to me is the textbook definition of processed. To your point, anything that's derived from something is technically processed, which is why it's a very clever word they chose.”
2024-12-31 · Masters of Scale · Replay: Plant-based foods need a makeover, with Peter McGuinness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So the way I kind of look at this, and I think we've gotten it all wrong for so long, is look, we're making delicious nutritious food. If you want to go down the rabbit hole of animal welfare and climate change and GHG and trees and land and all that kind of stuff, we can do that. There's very few people that want to, but everybody wants good nutritious food. You can't argue with that. So we're focusing a little bit more on taste. Followed by nutrition because if it doesn't taste good, it is a non-starter.”
2024-12-31 · Masters of Scale · Replay: Plant-based foods need a makeover, with Peter McGuinness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Listen, I think I admire beyond meat and I want them to succeed. Everyone has their own playbook. I've been in the food industry a long time reformulating your food is always not the wisest. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, because people, a lot of people who liked it the way it was. So that's a risk. Look, we're on Burger 4.0 right now. We're not reformulating. We're just revising, curating. I think that's continuous improvement. I think that's just smart, good business. Medical experts are fine. In the end of the day, it's food. People want it to be delicious first.”
2024-12-31 · Masters of Scale · Replay: Plant-based foods need a makeover, with Peter McGuinness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, you're going to tell me that impossible burgers are not healthy compared to the animal product? I mean, it's kind of ridiculous. But again, we need to play offense and set the record straight. And we have not done that individually as impossible. We have not done that collectively as a category. So it's a bit of a shame on us. And we're starting to now put the gloves on and fight fire with fire. But we've let it happen for too long and it has hurt this industry.”
2024-12-31 · Masters of Scale · Replay: Plant-based foods need a makeover, with Peter McGuinness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“War with the animal industry because I don't think that's the way to grow plant based, but meat is a animal meat is a class one carcinogen. We're made from soybeans that come from a seed that was put in the earth and that's harvested. And we also hear our stuff's bad for you. It's from China and all the stuff. It's grown in America, made in America. And look, we have as much, if not more, in some cases protein than the animal product. as much, if not more, iron. We have more fiber. We have zero cholesterol, and we have half the saturated fat.”
2024-12-31 · Masters of Scale · Replay: Plant-based foods need a makeover, with Peter McGuinness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, sure. It is the elephant in the room. I don't know that we let it happen, but it happened. So maybe we did let it happen. Look, I think it's a bit of a smear campaign. There's a lot of myths and misconceptions around what plant-based meat is and what it isn't. And the meat industry threw a couple terms around, they threw a lot of things around, but there's a few that stuck. And we need to admit it as an industry fake faux processed. And they stuck. And if you say it enough, people will believe it. And so they just keep hammering away at that. And we've done a really bad job of refuting it. So is there stuff not healthy? No, it's complete BS. It's made from plants. And I don't want to get into...”
2024-12-31 · Masters of Scale · Replay: Plant-based foods need a makeover, with Peter McGuinness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The $8 billion global space, it's really to go after the $1.4 trillion addressable animal market, chicken beef, pork globally, $1.4 trillion. That's the market, right? That's going to drive the value for the company. It's going to drive the value for the consumer. It's going to drive the value for the planet. And we don't need to rearrange the deck chairs within plant-based. And unfortunately, there's a little bit of that happening. We're way, way up in share, and it's coming from other plant-based companies. But that's not the intent, that's not the goal, that's not sustainable, nor is it the end state.”
2024-12-31 · Masters of Scale · Replay: Plant-based foods need a makeover, with Peter McGuinness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And in this case, you want plant-based to be bigger because that means the animal industry be smaller, and you're actually moving the needle on animal welfare and climate change. We're doing well, but that's not an award I want to win. I don't want to be the fastest and only growing plant-based meat company in America. I'd actually like us all to grow, us to grow more, but I don't want everyone else declining and us the only one up. I don't think that's a great thing. My interest is not to steal share from other plant-based meat companies.”
2024-12-31 · Masters of Scale · Replay: Plant-based foods need a makeover, with Peter McGuinness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think in the stock market goes down a thousand points. Is that cool or it was just overheated? And so I think some of the novelties wearing off, I think some of it was a bit overblown. And so some of it's a correction. Some of it is a cooling. And some of it is a reality that we need to change. So we saw it coming. We didn't know the depth and degree. And it's really up to us to reverse it, right? And not be a victim. But yeah, the category's down, the sector's down, there is a bit of a cloud around it for a whole host of reasons. And it's not good.”
2024-12-31 · Masters of Scale · Replay: Plant-based foods need a makeover, with Peter McGuinness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And they certainly don't think about it when they're having a burger or they're having a hot dog. They're not sitting there saying, oh, there's more land being cleared and there's more water being used. There's more GHG being admitted. I like the hot dog. It's a moment. I'm having a moment at a baseball game. I'm having a beer with it. It's fun. So I don't think people want to bring a heaviness to their food either. So it's complicated.”
2024-12-31 · Masters of Scale · Replay: Plant-based foods need a makeover, with Peter McGuinness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, definitely trying to change. It's not top of mind. It's not directly linked. And so it's an education process. It's a complicated thing, right?”
2024-12-31 · Masters of Scale · Replay: Plant-based foods need a makeover, with Peter McGuinness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I strongly believe that we all in plant based meat have to completely overhaul and change how we go to market, how we communicate, and how we product develop. We're not going to out-advertise and outspend the meat industry. We need to outsmart them. And we're better together than we are apart. Do speak regularly to many other plant based CEOs. They're not the competition. If I steal from the $8 billion Pie and don't go after the $1.4 trillion pie, we haven't advanced the value of the company for our shareholders and we sure have an advanced climate. So that's why I tell everyone the industry's dead hasn't even gotten started.”
2024-12-31 · Masters of Scale · Replay: Plant-based foods need a makeover, with Peter McGuinness · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT