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| In Beyond IV, the team was able to blend high-quality proteins from fava beans, red lentils, peas, and brown rice together with fats from avocado oil in a way to deliver superior nutrition and sensory outcomes |
| And we are proud of the certifications associated with our existing product lines, such as the American Heart Association's Heart-Check Program Certification of our Beyond Steak and Beyond Beef Crumbles |
| And it's not just the composition of -- sorry, it's not just the level of the fat in our product, it's the fact that it now comes from a source that I think is very well identified as delivering benefits, not just because of the low levels, but because of what's in it |
| And so, now I think we are in a position where we start to benefit in a much more meaningful way from bringing a lot of those production volumes in-house |
| And so, they will be largely coincident, and certainly it helps that there's some premium ingredients in Beyond IV, and I think an enhanced value proposition in Beyond IV to help support that pricing |
| And an example of that is just the as we're taking production out of external networks and into internal, the utilization rates in our facilities are significantly improving over absorption, significantly improving |
| And one of the things that I have felt hasn't been fair -- not fair, but just has been unfortunate is that they're doing a really good job driving our fundamental cost structure down, right? Whether it's our facilities in Pennsylvania or Missouri, I mean, these are great operators that are really driving efficiency |
| These refinements allow focus and resources to be put against our latest product platform renovation, Beyond IV, and other SKUs which you believe have higher profitable growth potential here in the U.S |
| So, you have a product that fundamentally delivers a stronger value proposition |
| Not a whole lot to add to that, but I think just generally in speaking to sort of our confidence level, we feel pretty good about it, right? So, we did say in the guidance that we provided that we expect gross margins to be higher in the back half relative to the first half, and that's related to some of the timing around some of these actions |
| To be clear, as I've often repeated, likely the point of boredom of listeners, we are proud of the health benefits available through our current products, including, for example, those documented in the SWOT meat study, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, where participants experienced a meaningful drop in LDL or bad cholesterol, as well as a decline in TMAO, the compound in the gut associated with heart disease, after switching from animal-based meats to Beyond Meats across eight week intervals |
| So, all of these things combined, I think, give us pretty good confidence that we should be able to achieve the margin targets that we're seeking |
| It's an incredible opportunity |
| Combination of this extensive input and the talent and expertise of our research and development team is what led to what I believe is a significant breakthrough in the Beyond IV platform |
| The increase in volume sold was primarily driven by sales in our international business, where we continue to see solid growth across our retail and food service channels |
| and just get back to, hey, let's do something that's good for our health, good for the environment |
| And I think the team has done an amazing job with this product doing that |
| As I said in my prepared remarks, we really do have a set of products that today can deliver fantastic health outcomes |
| And we've been very successful over the last decade in using people in a position of influence within society to carry that message because they believe in it |
| As Ethan said, it really gives us an opportunity to sweat our assets more and benefit from the fixed cost absorption |
| But I do think there's a real opportunity to continue to offer outstanding innovation year after year that does have a more premium price on it while you continue to offer some of the rest of your portfolio at lower pricing |
| Even the reclassification of some of these fixed assets to held for sale, right, will have a beneficial impact from a depreciation perspective, right? And so, you combine all of these things together and that makes us feel pretty optimistic about where gross margins can go this year |
| Obviously, we expect to do better in certain areas |
| And I will answer your question, but the ability to solve the main issue that people are in their hands about with climate through a change in how we get protein to the center of the plate is absolutely phenomenal |
| Both of them are very strong |
| So, at 14% of daily value now, that's a significant improvement |
| And so, we're going to make sure that consumers understand that, that when we're talking about healing their body and helping them to achieve better health outcomes, we're also able to do that on the planetary side |
| As we look forward, we expect the early results from this extensive spade work, together with specific actions we plan to pursue to bolster our balance sheet to make 2024 an important, promising year for the Beyond Meat story |
| Robert Moskow Well, Ethan, I'm very impressed that you're going to McDonald's and Burger King in London when you visit there |
| So, we're very excited to have the Beyond IV come out |
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| business, where volumes declined in both our retail and food service channels, due mainly to continued category weakness and the lapping of certain business in our food service channel that did not repeat in Q4 '23 |
| I mean, it's not just the animal protein players and their lobbyists, but it's actually the pharmaceutical -- members of the pharmaceutical industry, which I find to be kind of disturbing actually |
| Net revenues decreased 7.8% to $73.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2023 compared to $79.9 million in the year-ago period |
| retail business, right, continues to be challenged |
| I think there was so much noise in the category, so much noise about the category, so much agitation outside the category with people saying negative things about the category, scaring consumers away, that pricing just wasn't that as effective a tool |
| Turning to gross profit and gross margin, gross profit in the fourth quarter of 2023 was a loss of $83.9 million compared to a loss of $2.9 million in the year-ago period, which included the negative impact of non-cash charges totaling $78 million taken in the fourth quarter of 2023 |
| Losses related to the company's joint venture with PepsiCo, the Planet Partnership, decreased by approximately $8 million year-over-year, reflecting the reduced scale of our jerky business versus the year-ago period |
| So, we're cautious in our optimism |
| Adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $125.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2023 compared to an adjusted EBITDA loss of $56.5 million in the year-ago period |
| And then, with the China anti-dumping duties in the pea protein, I imagine input costs can't be all that beneficial this year |
| Two, the broad pricing programs we put in place over the last 18 months simply didn't accomplish the goal of crossing from early adopters into the mainstream |
| The continued kind of vulnerability in U.S |
| And so, there is some assumption in there, which we hope will turn out to be conservative, but nonetheless, we've seen baseline velocity erosion in U.S |
| These charges consisted of a few different items, including the provision for certain inventory now deemed to be excess or obsolete, given changes to our strategic priorities as well as more limited internal resources following our November 2023 reduction in force |
| I mean the midpoint you're guiding to, it's about like a 25% drop from your recent sort of run rates |
| But I will say the climate here has been so -- we're politicized earlier, and clouded with this misinformation and things of that nature that we really have to straighten that out first |
| Four, as referenced above, we are nearing the completion of what has been a very difficult, but highly worthwhile consolidation of our production network |
| But if you look at all of the changes we're making, whether it's a substantial reduction in operating budget, we'll be down significantly from 2023 if we execute according to our '24 plan, as well as a very substantial reduction in cash use |
| Excluding the aforementioned charges, gross profit and gross margin were also impacted by lower net revenue per pound, partially offset by reduced logistics cost per pound compared to the year-ago period |
| In retrospect, the noise and swirl surrounding the category reached decibels that were perhaps sufficient to ground out pricing and other messages |
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