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spk00: Good morning and welcome to the Freshie, Inc. fourth quarter and fiscal 2021 earnings conference call. All participants will be in a listening 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. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Paul Hughes, General Counsel. Please go ahead.
spk01: Thank you, and welcome to Freshie's fourth quarter and fiscal 2021 earnings conference call. Joining me today is Matthew Koren, our founder, chairman, and chief executive officer, and Daniel Hurun, chief financial officer. Please note that remarks in this conference call may provide certain information regarding our expectations, future plans, and intentions that may constitute forward-looking statements. I would refer you to our most recently filed management discussion and analysis, which includes a summary of the significant assumptions underlying such forward-looking statements and certain risks and factors that could affect our future performance and our ability to deliver on these forward-looking statements. The fourth quarter and fiscal 2021 earnings release, the related financial statements, and the management discussion and analysis are available on CDAR, as well as the investor relations section of Freshy's website at freshy.inc. All figures discussed on this conference call are in Canadian dollars, unless otherwise noted. Following our prepared remarks, we will open the line for questions. As we will not be conducting any follow-up calls this morning, we encourage you to use this question period to ask us any questions you might have about our results and our business in general. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to our CEO, Matthew Korn.
spk05: Thanks, Paul. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. In Q4 2021, Our North America franchise restaurant segment recorded double digit growth in same store sales and adjusted EBITDA. Our new restaurant development pipeline is stronger than it has been since the onset of the pandemic. Our consumer packaged goods business more than doubled its sales in the quarter versus the prior year. And our recent acquisition of majority control of Natura Market, the fast growing online health and wellness retailer, has begun to nicely integrate into the freshy culture and continues to grow sales. At the parent level, we maintained our healthy balance sheet through the fourth quarter with a cash position of $30.8 million as of year end. We saw parent level revenue more than double in Q4 versus Q4 2020 as a result of sales growth across all business lines, as well as the completion of the Matura market transaction on November 1st. The company repurchased $.8 million in Class A shares through our NCIB in the fourth quarter and continued deployment of the $1 million investment fund directly into our franchise restaurant segment to help in the acceleration of our franchise restaurant network's recovery and growth coming out of the pandemic. I'd like to share some specific trends for each of our new reporting segments. I will start with our North American franchise restaurant segment. In the fourth quarter, our North American franchise restaurant segment recorded same-store sales of 10.1% and adjusted EBITDA growth of 15%. This adjusted EBITDA growth was achieved even as Freshie continued to invest significant corporate dollars back into our restaurant network to assist our franchise partners in improving operations, driving sales, and shouldering the ongoing impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on some of our stores. The quarter sales improvements were contributed to by our continuing digital sales growth, with Freshie's app sales up 58% versus prior year. Another driver of our sales trajectory was Freshie's continued strong menu innovation. In Q4, as the weather got colder in key markets, Freshie launched a revamped soup menu, featuring a delicious butternut squash soup, as well as popular stables like spicy lemongrass and tortilla soup. During the LTO period, our soup sales mix doubled compared to prior year. We believe the menu innovation that we have planned for 2022 will resonate with our restaurant guests and continue to drive traffic and profitability to our stores and digital sales channels. In Q4, Freshie opened five North American franchise restaurants and closed four, resulting in a positive net store growth of one location. In terms of future restaurant growth, our new store development pipeline is strong. Our franchise partners have continued to demonstrate their commitment to continued expansion, and as you will have read in our press release, since November 2021, we have signed franchise agreements with current franchise partners for 42 new freshie restaurants in Canada and the US. I often view development from existing franchise partners to be the single greatest lead indicator of the health and momentum of our business, I am thrilled that so many existing partners are continuing to reach their entrepreneurial goals through further Freshie development. I want to thank them for their continued trust in the Freshie mission. As I mentioned, our development pipeline is as strong as it has been since the pandemic began. We believe we have the ability to grow our franchise pipeline with both new and existing franchise partners in the quarters to come. I would now like to discuss some updates in retail and e-commerce segments. I'll start with some specifics on our consumer packaged goods business. In the fourth quarter, Freshie's CPG business continued to grow its sales and expand its points of distribution. The CPG business recorded system sales growth of 135% for the quarter and grew points of distribution by 42% versus Q4 2020. For fiscal 2021 as a whole, Freshie's CPG business reported 83% growth in its system sales versus 2020. This sales growth was driven in part by the strong performance of Freshie's Energy Byte and Elixir Wellness Shot platforms. Energy Bytes, Freshie's well-known better-for-you snack offering, saw sales increase of 226% in the fourth quarter versus the prior year, with our Elixir Wellness Shots also up 155% over the same period. Our CPG team continues to innovate our product set, particularly in the energy bite category that is proving popular with both retail partners and customers. Our peppermint cocoa energy bite was a successful holiday period limited time offer in both retail and freshie restaurants, and our team has plans for more energy bite innovation in the coming quarters. Following year end, our CPG division announced a new partnership with 7-Eleven in Canada, which is now in its early stages across 600 locations. Going forward, the focus of the CPG team will be to continue to drive sales, grow the list of retail partners offering our products, and expand points of distribution. We expect this continued focus growth will allow us to drive further profitability improvements through scale. Staying with the retail and e-commerce segment, I'll now share some specifics on the Natura Market business. On November 1st, we completed the acquisition of majority control of Natura Market. As a reminder, Natura Market is a growing online retailer that makes on-trend healthy products available at scale across Canada. The Natura business had sales of $20.2 million in fiscal 2021, including 20% sales growth following the transaction on November 1st through year end as compared to the corresponding period in the prior year, and over 100% growth as compared to the corresponding period in 2019. As part of the continuing positive sales growth trajectory, we are particularly pleased with Natura Markets Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales performance in the fourth quarter, which was a record sales performance since Natura's founding. Natura has made an immediate positive impact on Freshie's overall business revenue and significantly expanded our presence and capability in the delivery and digital commerce spaces. The way people access health and wellness is evolving and the acquisition of majority control in the term market ensures that Freshie is well positioned to meet the next generation of our customers where they are. During Q4, we took significant strides forward as an omni-channel health and wellness brand. Our restaurant division has recorded ongoing sales recovery, and grown its development pipeline. We also completed the Natura Market transaction and grew our Better For You CPG sales, product lineup, and reach in a quarter. I'd like, again, to thank our franchise partners, our retail partners, and our HQ and Natura Market team members for their essential contributions to Freshy's mission. I'm so proud to work alongside all of the great people in our organization. I'll now turn the call over to our CFO, Dan Haroon.
spk04: Thanks, Matthew, and good morning, everyone. I will be reviewing our Q4 results with a focus on the consolidated metrics, as well as an overview of Natura Market's impact on our balance sheet, and then provide some color on each business' 2022 priorities. In Q4, consolidated revenue was just under $8.5 million, an increase of $4.6 million versus Q4 of 2020, driven by the inclusion of approximately eight weeks of Natura Market results the continued shift in our CPG business to a buy-sell model, and strong underlying growth in both our CPG and North American franchise restaurant businesses. Q4 SG&A was up $1.9 million versus Q4 of 2020, again driven by the inclusion of Natura Market, as well as the one-time professional fee reversal in Q4 of 2020. Q4 Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA was negative $0.3 million which represents an improvement of 0.3 million versus Q4 of 2020, even as we made considerable investments in each segment. This was the first quarter of year-over-year improvement in adjusted EBITDA since the onset of the pandemic. As a reminder, Q4 and Q1 are typically our smallest revenue quarters from a seasonality perspective. Q4 net loss was 7.3 million, which includes the derecognition of deferred tax assets of 5.8 million. These assets are primarily tax losses that remain available to be utilized and do not expire until 2037 at the earliest. Under IFRS, given the onset of two years of pandemic-driven taxable losses in 2020 and 2021, these losses were de-recognized until we return to positive taxable income as the impact of the pandemic subsides in the coming years. Adjusted net loss for the quarter after excluding this impact and one-time acquisition costs was $0.8 million, which represents a slight improvement versus the prior year. In the fourth quarter, we finalized our purchase price allocation of the Natura market acquisition. As a reminder, we acquired 60% of Natura market in November for a combination of upfront cash, a holdback, and 2022 earn-out based on EBITDA. In 2024 and 2025, there are put call options that allow Freshy to acquire the remaining 40% stake of the company. As a result of the Natura market acquisition, there are five key impacts to our balance sheet I will highlight for you. First, the cash impact. $4.6 million was paid in the fourth quarter, and you will see that in our cash flow statement. Second, the increase in inventory and accounts payable, which are largely offsetting each other. These figures are for inventory purchases held at Natura's warehouse in the GTA, where all orders ship from. Third, the right of use asset and lease liability, which relate to Natura's GTA warehouse. Fourth, the purchase price Italian allocation was completed in the fourth quarter, with key intangible assets of Natura's brand, customer list, and website being added, and you will see those details in note four of our financial statements. Lastly, the addition of the non-controlling interest reflects the 40% of Natura Market still owned by the founder. After the completion of the investments in acquiring Natura Market, as well as the growth investments in both of our reportable segments in the fourth quarter, we ended 2021 with a strong cash position of $30.8 million Canadian and announced a new normal course issuer bid today. From a capital allocation perspective, we intend to continue to invest in growth initiatives across our business, while evaluating M&A opportunities within our reportable segments in a disciplined manner while continuing to utilize our NCIB where we determine it makes sense to do so. We intend to continue to maintain a strong liquidity position, which gives us important flexibility in making strategic investments to position the company for stronger growth and profitability in the future. I'll now end with sharing key priorities for 2022 across each of our businesses. Our North American Franchise Restaurants Division's primary focus in 2022 is the recovery of AUVs as government restrictions continue to lift in our largest markets. Our marketing team has a strong 2022 innovation calendar. We have significant digital and loyalty enhancements planned throughout the second half of 2022. And our franchise partners and operations teams are laser focused on delivering a great guest experience. From a franchisee profitability improvement perspective, our new restaurant food cost management program rollout is progressing with results ahead of our expectations. Our first pilot group of franchisees across North America that have been on the program for more than 90 days are seeing an average reduction in food costs of over 200 basis points directly attributed to the program. Our teams are working closely with our franchisees to roll this program out across the system. Our real estate and development teams are turning their focus to growth as discussed last quarter, and with the expected easing of government restrictions and the increase of traffic back to our restaurants, we are shifting targeted investments to accelerate our development efforts, both in investing in our real estate and development teams and investing in performance-based development incentives in certain trade areas in order to build our post-pandemic pipeline for 2023 and beyond. Our CPG team's 2022 focus is twofold. First, continuing to scale rapidly, and second, building the infrastructure to operate efficiently at scale. The team is tracking an aggressive roadmap of growth, innovation, and profitability initiatives for 2022 to build on the significant progress made in the second half of 2021. Finally, it's been a very good start for the Freshie and Natura market teams working closely together over the past 90 days as they ended 2021 breaking $20 million in annual revenue for the first time. The Natura Market Team's 2022 growth plans include website enhancements, assortment expansion, loyalty initiatives, and doubling down on what it is known for, being a trusted place for customers with dietary needs and preferences to access innovative, better-for-you food and snacking items, often being one of the first retailers to bring emerging U.S. brands into Canada. While there may be some periods in 2022 where we will be lapping spikes in pandemic-accelerated Natura growth, in the prior year, we are excited about the structural long-term e-commerce growth trends and see significant potential for growth at Natura Market. In conclusion, we are excited about the momentum each of our businesses has entering 2022, with each business generating double-digit growth metrics in the fourth quarter and strong plans in place to continue driving growth in fiscal 2022. At this time, we will now open up the line for questions.
spk00: Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. And the first question will come from Holkitt Sivharwal with Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead.
spk03: Hi, good morning. Congrats on the quarter. Great to see some news about the real things as well as the new leases being signed. Great to see the strong pipeline going ahead. Could you provide us some color on how urban stores are performing versus the suburban? Was there any impact on either from the Yomiya range?
spk04: Absolutely. Thanks for the question. We've continued to see each store type recover in Q4 versus the previous year with each store type in our network recording positive same-store sales. We have seen an impact from Omicron across North America more in the first, call it half of Q1 2022. But for the most part, we saw continued recovery, including some of our urban stores starting to had significant improvement versus where they were really in the second and third quarters. And as a reminder, almost 60% of our store network is what we would consider to be suburb locations that are less sensitive to office traffic.
spk03: That's very helpful. And as a follow-up, In terms of forward store of things when you're looking forward, what are you expecting in terms of store of things? Has the strategy shifted at all from pre-COVID times in terms of are you choosing to open or what kind of demographics you're targeting now?
spk04: Yeah, so we've really done an extensive real estate exercise over the past 2021 and identified in our last call significant runway to more than double our unit count within Canada. Really, and there's opportunities across infilling our strong existing markets, expanding to adjacent trade areas. There's a significant opportunity for us in Quebec, but small towns as well. We've got a number of locations that do quite well in those small towns as well. And so we believe that those are opportunities for us to continue to grow as well. So we really are mindful of the the digital trends that we're starting to see, you know, the density of traffic as well. And so we'll make sure that we continue to use a data-led approach to, you know, setting our franchise partners up for success when we're signing on to these new locations.
spk03: That's very helpful. Thank you. I'll jump back in the queue.
spk00: Thank you. And the next question, before we move to that, again, if you have a question, please press star then 1. The next question will be from Kyle McPhee with Cormark. Please go ahead.
spk03: Hi, guys. Just a follow-up on one of the prior questions here.
spk02: So you gave pretty good detail on your North American suburban location count and the AUV versus pre-COVID levels. You said it's recovered 85% of 2019 AUVs for those store types. But what about for those non-suburban locations? Can you give us color on that?
spk04: um you know how much of the AUB still needs to be clawed back versus those pre-COVID levels yeah so we've got um there's the question Kyle so the the suburban locations uh we did provide uh the similar color that we've provided in previous uh quarters um for the the locations that are more sensitive to office traffic they continue to be significantly below the the pre-pandemic levels And you can kind of see that in some of the office occupancy and transit mobility data that's out there. We did start to see some nice improvement in those locations in the fourth quarter and are cautiously optimistic that with planned reopenings in many of our major markets really in the coming weeks and months that we'll continue to see office traffic recover and see those locations start to get closer to their pre-pandemic levels.
spk02: Got it. And would you, are there any, With this specific store type there, are there pockets of stores that are at risk of maybe permanent closures, or is that type of risk largely behind the company now?
spk04: Yeah, I mean, what we call our above-urban locations represent less than 10% of our North American network, and we're pleased that we're seeing a slowing of store closures. We had four in the quarter versus nine in the fourth quarter of the previous year. So that's the trend that we're obviously looking to see. And, you know, we, at this point in time, continue to work with landlords, implementing food cost management program, and other direct support to help these franchise partners get through to the other side of the pandemic and be ready to deliver great guest experience when traffic returns.
spk02: Got it. Okay. And then, so moving on to your North American franchise restaurant pipeline, these 42 new agreements you've signed, can you give us any color on that? the cadence of when these stores should be opening?
spk04: For the most part, 20 sites we talked about in the previous quarter as announced as our Texas deal, and we gave guidance on the length of that agreement and the term from a development perspective. The remaining locations were primarily in Canada, where we see an opportunity in either the existing trade area or the adjacent trade area for you know, growth and development fairly quickly. Now, as you know, the real estate process can take some time. The construction process can take some time, but these are locations that we would anticipate opening in, in, in 23 and 2024 for the, for the most part.
spk03: Okay. Thanks for that color.
spk02: And, and so all of these deals, these Canada stores, not the Texas ones, they're all under terms of your new incentive program for qualified existing partners. Is that correct?
spk04: Yeah, they're for qualified existing partners that can meet performance-based incentives. And so, you know, we've worked closely with our franchise partners, again, on the direct and adjacent trade areas. And then we continue to be in discussions with some of our larger multi-unit partners about their growth plans on the mid- to long-term plans.
spk02: So can you provide any color on the fee structure under this incentive program? Is it a change just to the upfront franchise fee or the royalty or both?
spk04: At this point, we're not going to give additional color from a competitive perspective, but I can say that there are only short-term incentives and nothing that has a significant impact on the long-term franchise term.
spk02: Got it. Okay. And then last one for me. your retail business, the CPG business, transitioning from the royalty on sales to a traditional buy-sell relationship, how much of that transition is done and will the remainder be transitioned as well or is there pushback from the retail?
spk04: Yes, I'd say there's about 60% of the business has transitioned, Kyle, and we expect that the remaining part of the business will transition gradually over the course of the coming years. And so at this point in time, we're comfortable with the transitions that have been made from a short-term perspective going customer by customer, and we'll continue to look at it as our business continues to grow and unfold.
spk00: Got it. Okay, thanks for the answers. That's it for me. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Matthew Korn for any closing remarks.
spk05: Thanks, Chad. This morning we are thinking about the people of Ukraine, particularly the friends and family of our colleagues in that region, and we hope these tragic events end soon. Thanks to everybody for joining us this morning, and we will speak to you again next quarter.
spk00: And thank you, sir. The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.
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