British American Tobacco

Following on from what I said yesterday about the FDA’s decision to crack down on e-cigarettes and menthol cigarettes, investors sold the sector off in trading yesterday with British American Tobacco shares taking the brunt and falling by over 10%, although others including Imperial Brands and Altria also fell on the news.

Given that 25% of British American Tobacco’s annual profits come from US menthol cigarettes, you can understand why the company took such a beating.

British American Tobacco’s shares have come off 40% since last year and this is just the latest blow.

It will clearly get worse if other countries adopt the FDA’s approach.

Beyond Meat

The second thing I wanted to mention today was the arrival of US company Beyond Meat’s burgers to UK shores as the plant-based “meat” start-up is to start selling its chilled and frozen products through 350 Tesco stores.

You will also be able to get them at branches of Honest Burger and All Bar One.

I thought this was very interesting given the whole vegan trend going on at the moment and it is just one of an increasing number of alternative protein companies attempting to wean us off our more traditional protein sources.

Other players include Impossible foods, which is also plant-based like Beyond Meat, and Memphis Meats which makes synthetic meat from animal cells.

I suspect this story will continue to play out but it all depends on how good the vegan burgers actually are. If they really are a viable alternative, this could be massive – and they may do to meat what Tesla did to cars! If I can get hold of one of these burgers, I’ll do a review and let you know!