Dive Brief:

• Meat alternative company Beyond Meat terminated the employment of its corporate controller and principal accounting officer, Yi (Jevy) Luo, the company announced in a securities filing Thursday. Luo’s last working day was Thursday, while his last day of employment will be Dec. 23, the company said. Also effective Thursday, Beyond Meat CFO Lubi Kutua assumed the duties of principal accounting officer as the business searches for a permanent successor. Kutua will not receive additional compensation in connection with his added responsibilities, the company said.
• The termination occurs about a month after the beleaguered El Segundo, California-based company identified a material weakness in its internal controls for finance reporting related to accounting for non-recurring and complex transactions, according to a Nov. 12 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
• Management determined that “inadequate technical resources are currently in place to effectively identify and determine the proper accounting” for such transactions, which related to compensation, debt, lease and warrant transactions, according to the filing.

Dive Insight:

Beyond Meat announced it expected to report the material weakness in a Nov. 3 notice of late filing with the SEC, where the company reported it was pushing back its third quarter earnings report by about a week. The shift was partially in order to quantify an expected non-cash impairment charge for the three-month period ended Sept. 27 related to certain long-term assets.

The company is currently reviewing its internal controls to develop a remediation plan to address the material weakness. In order to do so, Beyond Meat outlined several changes it believed it would need to implement, including allocating more resources to the accounting department, which would include “hiring additional personnel with strong technical accounting and public company reporting knowledge and expertise to ensure sufficient staffing levels for accurate and timely financial reporting,” it said in its Nov. 12 filing.

It also pointed to new training efforts for key accounting and finance personnel, engaging external accounting advisors for support, enhancing its review and approval procedures for financial reporting, and implementing a “formalized review process for all significant, non-routine financial transactions” as part of the changes.

The finance leadership shifts mark the latest twist in what has been a bumpy year for the plant-based meat provider, once a darling of the industry which has seen its stock value plunge by about 70% year-to-date amid declining demand for plant-based products, legal and corporate governance challenges.

In August, CFO Dive sister publication Food Dive reported Beyond Meat was struggling to pay its bills as sales continued to drop, citing data from CreditSafe which showed the company’s “days beyond term,” or the average time it takes a business to pay, had doubled year-over-year to 19 days.

Media reports at the time also suggested the company could soon run out of money, with a corporate spokesperson noting to Food Dive that Beyond Meat had no plans to file for bankruptcy in a statement also posted to its corporate X page.

Following a 19% sales slump for its second quarter, Beyond Meat continued to see its sales drop in its Q3, alongside its gross profit, which fell by nearly half to $7.2 million in the quarter, from $14.3 million in the prior year period. Its operating expenses included $77.4 million in non-cash impairment charges “related to certain of the Company’s long-lived assets,” according to a Nov. 10 press release.

Luo is departing after just over a year as the plant-based meat company’s corporate controller, joining Beyond Meat in the role in May 2024 from Herbalife, where he served in the same position, according to his LinkedIn profile. Kutua — an alum of Jeffries, KeyBanc Capital Markets, and Goldman Sachs — joined the business in 2019 and has held the CFO seat since October 2022, according to his LinkedIn page.

Beyond Meat did not immediately respond to requests for comment.