Stryve Foods, Inc.

Good morning, and welcome to the Strive Foods Incorporated fourth quarter and year-end 2022 earnings call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Sandy Martin of Three Part Advisors. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator, and welcome to the Strive Foods fourth quarter and full year earnings conference call. With me today are Strive's chief executive officer, Chris Beaver, and chief financial officer, Alex Hawkins. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that part of our discussion today will include forward-looking statements that are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements by their nature are uncertain and outside of the company's control. Actual results could differ materially from these expectations. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and therefore undue reliance should not be placed upon them. We do not undertake to update these forward-looking statements at a later date and they refer only to today. In addition, today's call will include a discussion of non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EPS. Non-GAAP financial measures should be considered as a supplement to and not a substitute for GAAP financial measures. We refer you to the reconciliation of non-GAAP to the nearest GAAP measure included in today's earnings press release for further detail. This call is being webcast and can be accessed through the audio link on the news and events page of the investor section at ir.strive.com. Also, the earnings press release is posted on our website, and a copy of the release has been included in the Form 8K submitted to the SEC. With that, I would now like to turn the call over to Chris Beaver. Chris?

Thank you, Sandy. Welcome, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our year-end earnings call. I will start today by discussing recent updates in our business from an operational standpoint in 2023. we are beginning to see traction in our growth agenda as numerous market and channel retail leaders have confirmed new and expanded distribution with our great quality, great products, and now even better merchandising than we will have ever experienced. I am highly encouraged by the broad acceptance of our new, better quality products, our first round of innovation, the packaging renovations, and our partnership with Full Diviner. When the board hired me to join Strive in May of 2022, the company was in the throes of a national promotional event with a large retailer. From a tonnage perspective, the 2022 second quarter was the largest in the company's history. This event resulted in outstanding brand exposure and consumer trial. It also led to organizational opportunities to learn and become better together. The level of customer takeaway in combination with the highest operational volume has prepared us for what the new Strive is, which is a focused, lean operating company that will deliver growth above the category and become profitable. In August of last year, I communicated our transformation plan, or Strive 2.0. that hit every aspect of our business. We have created a lean organization with better capabilities, improved the board composition, announced and executed a portfolio rationalization, strategically repositioning our core brands, delivered three new innovation platforms, and introduced our category growth solution to our valued retailers. Since then, we have unlocked quality, with a breakthrough that further separates our consumer promise from our category peers. We have executed value-based pricing, created and implemented a productivity program that will accelerate both gross margins and EBITDA. We are better focused and maniacal about reducing costs and improving cash conversion. The new 2.0 strategy impacted how we run our business. And today, we can see that these changes have made a material positive impact on the company's sales and marketing strategy with operational and productivity efficiencies that significantly lowered cash burn. This is a new company that is now better positioned, and we will deliver profitable volume growth. We will grow well above the category level. We will expand margins. and we will become profitable. I would like to thank all my Strive team members for their dedication and commitment to creating what is now a true operating company. We have accomplished an incredible amount in just a few short quarters. I am enthusiastic and confident about the new Strive. This is now our time to deliver for our retail partners, delight our consumers, and perform for our investors. Before I cover specific progress on initiatives, let me briefly reiterate our business and the unique positioning we have in the market. Stride Foods represents a collection of brands that hold a unique and differentiated position as a delicious, healthy snack alternative for consumers, especially lovers of traditional meat snacks. We start with high-quality steak, seasoned, air-dried, with minimal processing, Our unique process delivers a superior consumer experience of taste and texture, along with more protein per ounce than beef jerky. With no sugar, no water, no broth, no nitrates, no gluten, no MSG, nothing artificial. Truly all natural ingredients. Our products taste great. They are more nutrition and better for you. And our brands have a much broader appeal than traditional meat snacks. Consumers continue to search for healthier snacks that deliver higher nutritional value without compromising taste. Our high-quality, great-value brands are adding new consumers. We are innovators and we will further disrupt category norms, leading to higher category penetration and growth. Strive is now well-positioned to delight our expanding consumer base and, importantly, better positioned to collaborate with our valued retail partners on category growth solutions. I am pleased with the speed and progress we made in 2022 on our major transformation, results of which can be seen with our significant improvement in margins, lower operating expenses, and performance in measured channels. We have improved Q4 gross margins to 22.3% versus 11% margins in the prior year quarter. And once again, delivered the best quarter in the company history in terms of adjusted EBITDA. Our productivity initiatives are having an impact, which will accelerate meaningfully in Q2 and going forward. The progress across, up, and down the organization has delivered positive financial outcomes. I have and I will continue to work with our sales and marketing team on demand generation. and we are leveraging consumer, shopper, and retailer insights to better focus and prioritize resources against our core portfolio. We identified and implemented both renovation and incremental innovation opportunities that have been introduced to our customers and will soon be evident in the market. I am pleased and appreciative of our customers' response, which further validates our strategic plan. While we've been successfully gaining distribution in the past, we will experience larger and more meaningful distribution advancements in the coming quarters. We have executed our pricing strategy, and with the organizational foundation now in place, we will deliver quality revenue where we can invest for return and further grow. As I have consistently stated, our fact-based discipline demand agenda is clear, focused, intentional, and mindful of enterprise resources, including capital planning. Our team works hard to address known historical objections from retail partners, along with addressing consumer barriers from gaining big awareness and trial. We have exceptional-tasting, on-trend products that now will work harder for us at retail. The meat snack category offers large assortments with many brands, varieties, and sizes. This creates challenges for shoppers looking at the product or brand of choice. Brand innovation has been historically low in meat snacks compared to other categories. And as a newer brand, with a differentiated offering, it is crucial we express the features and benefits in an impactful, appealing, and structured manner. We have done that with our packaging renovations that will be in the market starting in late Q2. Our research confirmed that consumers need to quickly understand what's in the bag and why it is a better-for-you solution. Our new packaging accomplishes this by utilizing appealing food photography, maintaining trend-forward fashion branding, while further expressing our features and benefits in a simplified manner. Last year, we embarked upon a rapid SKU rationalization initiative that simplified and streamlined the portfolio, directing resources away from lower priorities that have less potential to ones that have greater potential and deliver better returns. We also added the nutrition business early in the fourth quarter last year. As you may recall, we successfully eliminated over 180 SKUs. That was a significant initiative for simplifying the enterprise. However, change of the scale was required. While executing this, we faced higher levels of inventory industry-wide, ultimately slowing the timeline for completing the initiative. We continue to execute on our promise to grow quality revenue and stay focused on the core of our portfolio. As I have stated previously, I have successfully implemented similar initiatives multiple times in my career. And while it's never easy, this has proven to be successful time and time again. The rationalization program impacted revenues in 2022. We booked inventory reserves to cover our sell-throughs from December that continued into Q1. Alex will discuss our full year results in a few moments and provide 2023 sales guidance. We are on a parallel path for renovation of our core portfolio, coupled with creating a funnel of innovation platforms for the future. Only price and package is important. so our renovation of packaging was unveiled in Q4. We are currently selling our category solution of these new offerings, and we are receiving very positive feedback and further excitement about our future. Our new packaging is securing win after win for us, resulting in significantly expanded distribution starting in Q2. Finally, we continue to see volatility and meet prices since last fall, but at a far less range of variance. As previously communicated, we have an enterprise-wide process where we review and adjust continuously, and we will take swift action when market dynamics in fact support it. We deliver the best value on a per gram of protein in the entire category. I expect that value will continue to impact consumer choices and will rise with the economic environment. We are marketing and informing the consumer on the value of our products, which is a direct result of our minimally processed, clean ingredient position. As I like to say, the consumer gets just lean and clean protein. There are no preservatives or fillers. Therefore, we deliver more protein for us. Protein is the number one reason a consumer purchases in the category. and we deliver the most. We continue to operate our business in a complex environment, and our strategies are more sophisticated today than a year ago. We have institutionalized our processes and procedures in order to build a world-class CPG company. Our commitment with Strive 2.0 is to deliver profitable growth with a mindset centered around zero waste. Embedded in our late 2022 renovation innovation projects, we have reduced materials use, redesigned formulas, products, and services to be less resource intensive. We've recaptured historical waste as a resource to manufacture new materials and products. This is the circular economic value approach that is now part of our culture. With that, I will turn the call over to Alex to discuss financial results and liquidity. I will come back to discuss progress on key initiatives.