Beyond Meat Executive Arrested After Allegedly Biting Man’s Nose in Fight

Upon being booked into jail, Mr. Ramsey listed his occupation as chief operating officer, according to a county official. Washington County records didn’t identify Mr. Ramsey’s company. An address listed for Mr. Ramsey on the county detainee record related to the Saturday arrest matched one listed by Beyond Meat for the executive in an earlier regulatory filing. 

Beyond Meat said Tuesday that Mr. Ramsey has been suspended effective immediately and that

Jonathan Nelson,

senior vice president of manufacturing operations, would oversee operations on an interim basis. Mr. Ramsey didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Beyond Meat shares fell 6% Tuesday, closing at $16.03, an all-time low for the company.

Mr. Ramsey joined Beyond Meat in December following a 30-year career at

Tyson Foods Inc.,

where he oversaw the meat giant’s domestic poultry and global

McDonald’s Corp.

businesses. He was one of two meat industry veterans Beyond Meat hired that month to expand the company’s operations as it sought to scale its business worldwide. 

Mr. Ramsey’s arrest is the latest setback for California-based Beyond Meat, which has struggled with languishing sales and fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic. The plant-based meat company, which uses yellow peas and other ingredients to make products that imitate sausages, burger patties and meatballs, has reported losses in recent quarters due partly to weaker demand for its products in grocery stores. 

According to a preliminary police report dated Saturday, Mr. Ramsey got into a fight with another male in a parking garage near the University of Arkansas football stadium on Saturday night following a traffic dispute. During the incident, Mr. Ramsey punched through the back windshield of the other individual’s Subaru, the report said. The incident followed a University of Arkansas football game. 

“The owner got out and the victim stated Mr. Ramsey pulled him in close and started punching his body,” the arresting officer wrote in the report, referring to the owner of the Subaru. “Mr. Ramsey also bit the owner’s nose, ripping the flesh on the tip of the nose.” Mr. Ramsey also threatened to kill the Subaru’s owner, according to the officer’s report, which cited the owner and a witness.

Beyond Meat has worked to scale up its supermarket presence since the pandemic hurt its restaurant business, launching a jerky product with

PepsiCo Inc.

in March and planning to introduce a sliced-steak product in retail stores this year.

At the time of Mr. Ramsey’s hire, Beyond said it had tapped him and another former Tyson executive during a time of “rapid innovation and commercialization” for the company. It said the pair would play an important role in building the company’s operations, supply chain, and manufacturing, and that they would work to achieve cost savings as Beyond seeks to make some of its products match the price of traditional meat. 

In February, Beyond said its U.S. grocery sales had fallen sharply in previous months due to factors such as lower demand, increased discounts and lost market share. In May, the company said cost-intensive measures required to support product launches pressured its bottom line. Last month, Beyond said it would cut 4% of its global workforce as part of a plan to reduce costs at a time when inflation is driving consumers to buy less-expensive protein. The company also trimmed its full-year sales forecast in August. 

Some of Beyond’s restaurant products have also struggled, and uncertainty around the growth prospects for meat mimics have weighed on the company. Beyond’s stock price has fallen about 86% in the past 12 months.

Write to Jesse Newman at jesse.newman@wsj.com