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spk00: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the Very Good Food Company's third quarter 2021 earnings call for the period ended September 30, 2021. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during a conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Komini Hitkari, Chief Financial Officer of the Very Good Food Company. Please go ahead.
spk02: Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for the Very Good Food Company's third quarter 2021 financial statements conference call. I am Komini Hitkari, Chief Financial Officer. Joining me today is Mitchell Scott, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer. After today's prepared remarks, we will hold a question and answer session. A replay of this call will be archived on the investor relations section of Very Good's website at www.verygoodfood.com slash investors until December 22, 2021. Let's start with a reminder that certain matters discussed in today's conference call or answers that may be given to questions asked constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of Canadian and U.S. security laws. that are subject to the risks and uncertainties relating to the Very Good Food Company's future financial or business performance. These statements are based on management's current expectations and beliefs and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in these forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties are detailed in Very Good's Annual Information Form for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020, filed with Canadian Securities Regulatory Authorities and are available on Very Good CDAR Profile at www.cdar.com and as an exhibit to the registration statement on Form F-10 filed with the FCC. Forward-looking statements made on this call are made only as of today and will not be updated as events unfold other than as required by applicable security laws. Please also note that on today's call, management will refer to adjusted EBITDA, adjusted general and administrative expense, and adjusted gross profit, which are non-GAAP financial measures. While VeriGood believes that these non-GAAP financial measures provide useful information for investors, the presentation of this information is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the financial information presented in accordance with IFRS. For definitions and reconciliations of the non-GAAP measures disclosed in the relevant reported measures, please consult our third quarter 2021 MD&A which will be filed on CDAR and with the SEC. I would now like to turn the call over to introduce Mitchell. Please go ahead, Mitchell.
spk01: Thank you, Kamini, and good morning, everyone. Welcome to Very Good's third quarter 2021 earnings call. Our team has been working relentlessly to deliver on our strategy to drive long-term value creation. We've come a long way since the end of 2020, growing our store count from 300 to 1,400, launching into U.S. retail, commissioning our own facility, and creating and rolling out the award-winning Butcher Select gluten and soy-free premium line. We've had another strong quarter delivering year-over-year revenue growth across our e-commerce and wholesale channels. During the third quarter, we strategically prioritized retail orders over e-commerce by reserving inventory for the wholesale channel to secure long-term in-store listings and meet fill requirements on orders received. We focused on building inventory to support our August US retail launch and new retailers coming online, as well as planned e-commerce promotions in the fourth quarter of 2021, relating to both Canadian and U.S. Thanksgiving and the holiday season. We were excited to announce earlier in November that we achieved record revenue in October of $1.5 million, a 202% increase as compared to October of last year, an indication of the effectiveness of this strategy and the continued stronghold that meat alternatives are forging in the food industry, as many consumers look to change their diet to reduce their reliance on animal-based products and positively impact the environment. We continue to deliver on our growth strategy that enables the distribution and sale of our products through our two main channels, e-commerce and wholesale. Our success over the past year in building these channels is a testament to the demand for our products. Our strategy is grounded in our mission and purpose, our pride in establishing and maintaining strong relationships with our customers through differentiated products, and finally, our commitment to long-term growth. As part of our strategy, we remain focused on expanding our product portfolio and production capacity. By the end of Q3, our product portfolio consisted of 25 products, 20 meat alternatives developed under the Very Good Butchers brand, and five cheese alternatives developed under the Very Good Cheese Co. brand. Our team of chefs, scientists, and food technology experts are continuously working to develop innovative new plant-based products that are superior in taste and texture. We have a deep R&D pipeline of new, innovative plant-based alternatives built from our specialized knowledge of plant-based proteins, which we look forward to introducing into the market over the next year. In August 2021, we began online sales of our highly anticipated Butcher Select product line, with the retail rollout now underway. The Butcher Select suite of products is a premium line of non-GMO verified, gluten- and soy-free, extra-meaty artisanal meats made with minimally processed ingredients. A testament to the line's premium quality, its Meatballs product won a coveted Nexty Award, a leading industry award recognizing the most progressive, innovative, inspiring, and non-GMO-verified trustworthy products in the natural products industry. Butcher Select is a cut above other plant-based meats currently available. The new product line diversifies Very Good's portfolio of plant-based meats and positions a Very Good Butchers brand in the alternative meat substitute category where products are created to directly simulate their animal-based counterparts, and which has been largely dominated by Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods. The Butcher Select line is not only appealing to households interested in a more plant-based diet, but also to the estimated 30% of Americans who avoid gluten. Given growing demand, we continue to increase our production capabilities. Our Vancouver-based Rupert facility remains a key priority in our 2021 strategic plan. Line 1, which began commercial production in May, continued to ramp up, recently achieving a key production capability target of 40,000 pounds in a single day, and is well on its way to achieving its next capacity milestone of 60,000 pounds produced in a single day, which we expect to achieve in early Q1 2022. We are building for the future, with additional capacity allowing us to build inventory levels at each distribution warehouse, enabling quick delivery times to our customers, as well as supporting the future production required to meet growing demand. Commissioning of Line 2 at the Rupert facility has been delayed due to global supply chain pressures, slowing plant preparation and equipment delivery. It is now planned to be commissioned in Q3 2022, with food production starting mid-Q4 2022. With both Line 1 and 2 fully operational, the Rupert facility will be able to produce 37 million pounds of product annually. In September, food production began on commercial-grade kitchen equipment at our Patterson facility, fast-tracking the production of our taco stuffer, one of Very Good's most in-demand SKUs. Completion of Patterson's Line 1 is expected in Q3 2022. Once commissioned, this line will produce the Very Good Butcher's various unique products which have not yet been scaled, including the popular holiday roast, the Stuffed Beast, and the Jackfruit-based Ribs. The production of taco stuffer will also be transitioned to Line 1 once commissioned, which is expected to produce an average of 27 million pounds of product per year when fully operational. The Patterson facility can accommodate up to four production lines, allowing for potential capacity of up to 98.5 million pounds of product per year. Like many companies, we're managing unprecedented delays in receipt of production equipment and labor shortages, both Vancouver and California, due to the evolving impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although we are already seeing some improvements with respect to labor shortages, we anticipate that these challenges will continue in the near term and potentially slow the targeted ramp-up plan to meet the fast-growing demand for our products globally. We are taking action to ensure our long-term strategy isn't impacted, including offering increased salaries to attract talent and working with the distribution networks to optimize the wait time for equipment delivery. Our e-commerce store, accessible through the company's websites and Amazon US, sells very good products both individually and in box sets. along with a limited variety of third-party products that complement our core offerings. In addition, we offer a monthly subscription service, which allows customers to receive monthly box sets at a discount. In October 2021, we rolled out a pilot program offering same-day delivery of our plant-based meats arriving direct to consumer stores in 30 minutes, with orders being fulfilled by online food delivery services like Uber Eats, Grubhub, and DoorDash. This new offering will feature some of our most popular products, including a mix of the Very Good Butcher's carefully crafted plant-based meat, like our new gluten and soy-free Butcher Select Flippin' Good Burger, Cajun Sausage, Bratwurst Sausage, Meatballs, and Breakfast Sausage. Although still early days, our entry into on-demand delivery services is going well, and it enables us to drive brand awareness and cut down our delivery times. Over Q3, we prioritized the U.S. retail launch by reserving inventory for the Wholesale Channel. building inventory to support new retailers coming online and planned e-commerce holiday promotions in Q4 2021. So, while benefiting from a strong increase in wholesale revenue, our e-commerce orders dropped by just over 25% to 17,546 as compared to the previous quarter. Very Good's expansion into North American retail continues to be a key focus in our growth strategy. In Q3, we continued our coast-to-coast expansion in Canada through our wholesale distribution partner with Horizon Grocery & Wellness. where we signed on with Save On Foods, Canada's largest Western-based grocery retailer, the carrier suite of products in 184 of its retail stores across Canada. This includes Save On Foods stocking our top five SKUs, including the Very Good Burger, Smoke and Bangers, Taco Stuffer, Very Good Pepperoni, and the Very Good Dog in 177 of its retail stores and seven urban fair locations across Canada. We also expanded our product offering within Sobeys Retail Network, and our popular The Very Good Butchers product line is available for the first time in Quebec, at Rochelle Berry Health Food Stores, and online throughout the Greater Toronto Area via Sobeys Voila, their online home delivery service. By the end of Q3, our products were in 805 retail stores across Canada, including major retailers like Whole Foods Market, Thrifty Foods, Fresh Street Market, Choices Markets, IGA, and Farm Boy, as well as smaller independent grocers. Expanding our Canadian and U.S. wholesale distribution points is a key part of our strategic focus to meet demand and increase customer awareness. Wholesale retail distribution in the U.S. is a key component of our 2021 and future growth strategy. Our partnerships with Greenspoon, Unify, and Kehei announced earlier this year are significantly boosting VeryGood's wholesale retail distribution in the U.S. These value distribution partners have relationships with major grocers, including Harman's Grocery, Erewhon, Organic Grocer, Sprouts Farmers Market, Whole Foods, Thrive Market, and Associated Food Stores. During the quarter, we increased our points of distribution by 331% to 4,551 at the end of the quarter compared to the end of Q3 last year, mainly a result of new wholesale partnership agreements. We expect to continue to expand our reach to more grocery stores in both Canada and the US in Q4 and through 2022. We're proud to say that by the end of Q3 2021, Very Good's products were placed in 396 U.S. stores in 20 cities across 15 states, bringing the total number of stores across North America to just over 1,200. This number continues to grow as following quarter end, we added an additional 200 U.S. stores in October and November and have over 2,000 locations confirmed in Q1 2022, adding approximately 5,600 distribution points. We expect this to continue to grow as we execute against our strategic plan and to anticipate both Q1 and Q2 2022 will see a significant jump following major retailers fall 2021 product category review periods. VeryGood is on a mission to make plant-based foods not only nutritious and delicious, but approachable and accessible across the globe. E-commerce is a key channel for VeryGood as it amplifies our speed to market strategy and raises brand awareness for our products. In August 2021, we launched a UK e-commerce website expanding our reach and allowing UK-based customers to order Very Good's butcher boxes. Consumer demand for plant-based foods is growing at a rapid pace in the UK. In fact, Google Trends listed the UK as the number one growing country searching veganism, and a recent survey conducted by Finder shows that the number of vegans in the UK increased by 40% in 2020. We are excited to bring our delicious and nutritious products to this growing market. We also recently announced plans for a pilot program in China for the beginning of 2022. to offer our carefully crafted plant-based meats under our flagship brand, The Very Good Butchers. We are working with partners in China to assess the importation of our products and supply chain logistics, key to executing a successful launch there. Moving to our work in the capital markets. In October 2021, we were excited to be listed on the NASDAQ. This listing is a significant milestone in our growth as a publicly traded company, and we believe this unlocks various opportunities to enhance corporate visibility, increase liquidity, and broaden overall awareness of the Very Good Food Co. to a larger investor base. We're excited about our future, both our growth plans and developing a track record of delivering on our strategy. With that, I would like to turn the call over to our CFO, Kamini Hikari, to review our financial results in more detail. Kamini, please go ahead.
spk02: Thank you, Mitchell, and good morning, everyone. In Q3 2021, we achieved revenue of $2.5 million, representing an 85% increase from the same period in fiscal 2020 and $2.8 million in the second quarter of 2021. The growth in revenue was driven by an increase of 58% in e-commerce sales and 173% increase in wholesale revenue due to the company's scaling of production and distribution to meet demand in both sales channels. Of the increase in revenue, slightly over $750,000 was attributed to U.S. sales from the launch into U.S. retail in the quarter. a key growth opportunity for both the e-commerce and wholesale channels in 2021 and beyond. Year-to-date revenue grew to $8 million for the period ended September 30, 2021, an increase of 184% compared to $2.8 million in the same period of 2020. Year-to-date e-commerce orders fulfilled were 64,784 through the end of September, exceeding the 26,742 orders fulfilled in the same period of fiscal 2020 by 142%. This increase was driven by the scaling of production and distribution to meet demand and an increase in key marketing initiatives to drive higher sales volume in both Canada and the U.S. Wholesale revenue increased 173% to $847,000 in the third quarter of 2021 compared to $310,000 in the same period of fiscal 2020 and increased 86% from the second quarter of 2021. Largely, this growth is driven by an increase in our wholesale distribution points, where we added 937 locations since the end of the third quarter last year and 719 locations since the end of the second quarter of 2021. As Mitchell mentioned, we continue to execute on our manufacturing strategy to increase our operational footprint. During the third quarter, we sold 288,645 units of product. an increase of 77% when compared to the same period of fiscal 2020. Adjusted gross profit was 783,000 or 31% of revenue in the third quarter of 2021 compared to adjusted gross profit of 316,000 or 28% of revenue in the third quarter of 2020 and 39% of revenue in the second quarter of 2021. The decrease in adjusted gross profit since the second quarter is due to the change in sales mix between e-commerce and wholesale channels, which, as we mentioned, was weighted more towards wholesale this quarter as we strategically prioritized retail orders over e-commerce. Adjusted general and administrative expense increased 63% to $4 million in the third quarter of 2021, compared to $1.5 million in the same period in fiscal 2020. The increase was primarily driven by the expansion of the management team to support planned growth and general office expenses related to the higher volume of business activities. Adjusted EBITDA loss was 8.3 million in the third quarter of 2021, compared to a loss of 3.1 million in the same period of fiscal 2020, and a loss of 5.7 million in the second quarter of 2021. This loss is mainly attributed to the ramping up of production and building the infrastructure to support sales, higher general and administrative expense due to the hiring of employees, and increased office expense to support growth. In the third quarter, we prioritized digital marketing initiatives to raise brand awareness and increase e-commerce traffic and conversion. This resulted in marketing and investor relations expense to increase 37% compared to the third quarter of 2020. Net cash used in operating activities for the nine months ended September 30, 2021 was 22.5 million. while net cash used in investing activities for the same period was $12.6 million. The net cash used in investing activities was primarily used for capital expenditures and leasehold improvements for the commissioning of the Rupert facility. Cash received from financing activities was from the issuance of common share units and from the exercise of warrants and stock options during the quarter. As you know, we also closed an oversubscribed $20.7 million bought deal in July, which supported the scale-up of key initiatives such as our Patterson facility, expansion of our distribution network, and the U.S. retail launch to drive growth and build our brand into a household name. Following the quarter end, we added strength to our balance sheet by closing registered direct offerings for aggregate gross proceeds of $30 million USD. The funds will be used to scale operations and expand our geographical reach, for accretive acquisitions within the plant-based food sector, for research and development, for marketing initiatives, and for general working capital purposes. Our primary objective when managing capital is to maintain a capital structure that allows financing options that enable very good to benefit from potential opportunities as they arise. We continue to strengthen our operational and distribution capabilities to meet the strong demand for our products in Canada, the U.S., and globally, and we anticipate that it will continue to have a positive impact on our long-term financial growth. We also wanted to provide a brief update on the related party transactions announced last week. We have amended the loans to Mitchell and James to accelerate repayment to the company. For further details on this, please refer to our earnings press release and, when available, our financial statements and management discussion and analysis. I'd like to turn the call back to Dean, our operator, for the question and answer section of this call. Thank you.
spk00: Thank you. At this time, we will start with the Q&A session. The first question is, can you provide an update on the raise that closed on October 19th? Can you share any upcoming plans where the net proceeds will be used?
spk01: Yes, happy to talk about this. First, a primary area where we're deploying proceeds from the offering is in the continuous scaling of our operations through ongoing investments in our infrastructure and supply chain capabilities to support our North American strategic growth plans of increasing production capacity and expansion of our distribution network. The commissioning of our various facilities and the investment in automation and technology is very capital intensive, as well as building the foundation of our distribution network. The Rupert facility alone is approximately a $25 million project, and Patterson, with the ability to put in three to four production lines, is easily upwards of $50 million USD. Second, the proceeds from the offering will also be used to help expand our geographical reach. Following our launch into U.S. retail, as well as our new UK e-commerce platform in August, We are currently working towards entry into other European markets and targeting other strategic international markets, such as China, as part of our growth plan. We are very focused on increasing retail distribution in the U.S. over the next two to three years, but we also don't want to lose out on the opportunity of expanding into these new markets. Third, we've allocated proceeds towards our M&A strategy in order to allow us to execute swiftly on the right opportunity at the right time in the competitive plant-based industry. And fourth, we're investing significantly in research and development to support the expansion of our product portfolio and bring new products and technology to market. Fifth, we're making investments in marketing aimed at building brand awareness and equity. These initiatives may include affiliate, sponsorship, and celebrity endorsement opportunities. And lastly, the net proceeds are also being used towards general corporate and working capital expenditures to support our growth, which requires capital in all facets of our business.
spk00: Thank you. The second question we have is, can you provide more information about the China pilot commencing in early 2022?
spk01: Yeah, absolutely. So with the complex set of local market and political nuances to consider in China, we're looking at this pilot project not only as an initial product launch, but also as a key market research initiative. China represents a potentially sizable market for plant-based products such as ours, so moving quickly on this opportunity is important to us. We're currently working with partners in China to assess the importation of its products and supply chain logistics to execute a successful plan.
spk00: Thank you. We have another question. How are you tracking the trends in your industry?
spk01: Good question. It's part of our mission to deliver innovative and nutritious plant-based foods to our consumers. And in a rapidly evolving industry and marketplace, this means being committed to product innovation and portfolio expansion. So we are continuously monitoring industry trends to meet the expectations and needs of our customers and to mitigate industry pressures. For example, our recently announced the Very Good Butcher steak is ready to compete in a nascent segment of the plant-based meat alternative category by tackling more sophisticated whole meat muscle products, such as strip loin and fillets.
spk00: Thank you. And the next question is, how will you maintain or surpass Q3 2021's performance in the next few quarters?
spk02: I can take this one. Thank you for the question. In the short term, we're working to deliver a solid Q4 2021 performance. Key indicators of this include the strong demand for our seasonal items, such as the stuffed beast and holiday boxes, as well as our growing store listings, both in Canada and in the US. So we're expecting robust year-over-year growth in terms of overall annual revenue. As short-term pressures on labour and supply chain continue, we will remain flexible and agile in our approach adjusting quickly in line with evolving trends. Looking forward to the medium term, we believe that the strategic investments we're making in our production facility, distribution expansion, and product innovations positions us to deliver in 2022 and beyond. We already have over 2,000 retail stores across North America committed to carrying the Very Good Butchers products on their shelves during Q1 2022, and expect more retailers to come online, especially in the U.S., during the year.
spk00: Excellent. Thank you. We have another question. We've heard from other players in the industry that there are a number of growth challenges within the plant-based protein category right now. What is your take on that looking forward to 2022?
spk01: As we head into the first quarter of 2022, like many others, our industry is facing near-term pressures, including supply chain disruption. But we believe that as the pandemic subsides against the backdrop of the real climate change challenges we are seeing, The demand for nutritious and accessible plant-based food will be greater than ever. And, guided by our core mission, our team is focused on executing on our growth plan and strategy every day, laying the foundation for long-term value.
spk00: Thank you. At this point, there are no further questions. I'd like to turn the call back over to Mitchell for concluding remarks.
spk01: I'd just like to thank our investors and consumers for their continued support and to thank our employees for their hard work and dedication to making Very Good a leading plant-based food technology company. Our top key priorities in 2021 are to increase our production capacity to meet the growing demand for our products, to strengthen our North American e-commerce sales through digital marketing initiatives, to deepen our wholesale distribution in Canada, and to expand our retail reach into the US and other regions. We are committed to our purpose and vision of bringing you innovative, high-quality, nutritious, and delicious plant-based products. Thank you for attending today, and we look forward to connecting with you again on our next call.
spk00: Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating and ask that you please disconnect your line.
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