(Reuters) -Beyond Meat Inc's quarterly losses ballooned, as the plant-based protein maker spent heavily on product launches and offered big discounts as it tried to guard its market share against deep-pocketed players and nimble upstarts. The company's stock slid 20% in extended trading on Wednesday, as Beyond Meat reported a gross margin of 0.2% for the first quarter ended April 2, a 30 percentage point slide from a year earlier. The company blamed higher manufacturing and shipping costs as well as its move to launch a plant-based jerky with PepsiCo Inc for poor quarterly performance. "To launch a first-time product at such a large scale and prior to the establishment of our own dedicated and streamlined process, we had to do so in an expensive and inefficient manner," Chief Financial Officer Philip Hardin said on an earnings call.