Beyond Meat has announced the construction of new global headquarters in California, in a move that will reportedly accelerate its plant-based product innovation.
The company is entering a 12-year lease in a new, nearly 300,000 square-foot space at 888 N. Douglas Street in El Segundo, California.
The building – which will serve as the company’s new global headquarters – is currently under development by Hackman Capital Partners and is expected to be completed in spring 2021.
Beyond Meat claims the facility will be one of the world’s largest and most technologically advanced plant-based research centres. The new headquarters marks a substantial increase in the company’s footprint, which will support innovation with its advanced research labs.
Anticipated to open in autumn this year, the headquarters will include increased pilot space to support multiple product lines, while enabling space to grow its research personnel by three to four times its current level.
The campus will also feature ‘future-forward’ research incubators that Beyond Meat says will enable the development of new technologies and more innovative products utilising artificial intelligence and machine learning.
“Our ambitious new campus and truly state-of-the-art research facilities reflect our commitment to providing our consumers, customers, and strategic partners with the very best in science, technology, and culinary arts as we together answer the global protein challenge,” said Ethan Brown, founder and CEO of Beyond Meat.
He added: “The new campus and facilities will house cutting-edge fundamental and applied research, alongside globalised product development teams, all in service to a single goal: creating meat from plants that is indistinguishable from its animal protein equivalent. It is on this campus that we expect to advance ever more rapidly against our taste, nutrition, and cost metrics, inviting and empowering more and more consumers around the world to Go Beyond.”
Last year, Beyond Meat announced that it was opening a new plant-based meat production facility in China.
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