Starbucks is joining the Beyond Meat wave as it adds the plant-based meat to its menus across Canada.
The Seattle-based coffee chain said it will add a sandwich with Beyond Meat's sausage, egg and cheddar cheese to its Canadian stores' spring menu, when it launches Tuesday.
Shares of Beyond Meat rose around 6% Wednesday morning, on pace for its first positive day in five and its best day since Jan. 21.
The news comes after Starbucks announced its sustainability commitment last year. As part of its far-reaching goal to become "resource positive," Starbucks said it planned to offer more plant-based options on its menu. Among foods, animal protein was the highest contributor to its carbon and water footprints through 2018.
Alternative meats from companies such as Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, coupled with studies that have shown the negative environmental impacts of meat consumption, have led many consumers to reduce their meat intake and eat more plant-based foods.
The NPD Group found that 18% of Americans are trying to reduce their meat consumption. The U.S. market for meat substitutes reached $1.44 billion in 2018, according to Euromonitor data.
Starbucks is the latest chain to partner with Beyond Meat, which is competing with Impossible Foods for sought-after partnerships with North American restaurants. Since it went public in May, Beyond Meat has announced partnerships with Subway, Del Taco, KFC, Dunkin' Brands, Denny's and others.
On Tuesday, Impossible Foods announced that it has partnered with Disney to make the Impossible Burger the "preferred plant-based burger" of Disneyland, Disney World and the Disney Cruise Line.
Since its initial public offering in May, Beyond Meat has been a volatile stock. Shares jumped 163% on the first day of trading. Its highest closing price of nearly $235 in July was more than $200 above its initial public offering price.
The stock then sank. When a lockup from the IPO expired at the end of October, allowing early investors and insiders to sell their shares, the stock fell below $100 per share. On Tuesday, shares closed just under $110 per share, which gives Beyond Meat a market cap of $6.8 billion.
—CNBC's Amelia Lucas contributed to this report.
