Beyond Meat, a popular, trending plant-based food company, has suspended its Chief Operating Officer after he was arrested and charged with a felony, after biting a man’s nose.
NPR reported that Doug Ramsey, Beyond Meat’s Chief Operating Office, was arrested on charges of third-degree battery and for threatening after an attack on another man on Saturday, which happened in a parking garage outside a football game at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.
The Beyond Meat company issued a statement on September 20 announcing that Ramsey had been “suspended immediately.”
The police reports show that Ramsey was upset when another driver cut in front of him in a traffic lane and hit the front passenger wheel of his Ford Bronco SUV. The report alleges that Ramsey angrily got out of his Bronco and punched through the back windshield of the Subaru belonging to the other driver.
The Subaru driver told the police that when Ramsey punched his back windshield, he got out of his vehicle, and Ramsey pulled him close and started punching him. Ramsey has also been accused of biting the driver’s nose so hard that he ripped the flesh from the tip of his nose.
The driver and witnesses told the police that Ramsey had threatened to kill the other man. Passengers from both Ramsey’s and the other driver’s vehicles quickly got out and separated the two.
According to Washington County court records, authorities released Ramsey the next day on an $11,085 bond. Ramsey is expected to appear in court on October 19.
Ramsey, who is 53 years old, spent over 30 years working for Tyson Foods, based in Springdale, Arkansas. He held different top leadership positions with Tyson, including head of the poultry division and its McDonald’s supply business.
He joined Beyond Meat late last year as a Chief Operating Officer and has been instrumental in guiding the company’s partnerships with fast food companies like McDonald’s, KFC, and Panda Express.
In its statement, Beyond Meat announced that Jonathan Nelson, the company’s Senior Vice President for Manufacturing Operations, would be taking over its operations on an interim basis.
Beyond Meat has seen a lot of success in the plant-based meat industry, becoming a market leader with its competitor, Impossible Foods. It was one of the Wall Street’s heavyweights after its Initial Public Offering in 2019, but its shine has dimmed as the company struggles to meet sales targets.
Beyond Meat’s shares have fallen more than 75% since 2019. Its shares hit an all-time low of $15.97 before closing at $16 on Tuesday.
The California-based food company has struggled with customer retention because customers are dealing with high inflation. Most vegan meat consumers would rather not buy their products because they are priced high at $8.35 a pound.
The company has been saying that they want to scale up enough to bring the price of their plant-based products down to the same price as animal-based products, but according to CNN, Beyond Meat Chief Executive Officer Ethan Brown said that the company has not reached such a point yet, according to analysts.
