超越肉類 (BYND) 2024 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Beyond Meat fourth quarter and full year 2024 conference call. (Operator Instructions)

下午好，歡迎參加 Beyond Meat 2024 年第四季和全年電話會議。（操作員指令）

Please note that this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Paul Sheppard, Vice President, FP&A and Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

請注意，該事件正在被記錄。現在，我想將會議交給 FP&A 和投資者關係副總裁 Paul Sheppard。先生，請繼續。

Thank you. Hello, everyone, and thank you for your participation on today's call. Joining me are Ethan Brown, Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Lubi Kutua, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. By now, everyone should have access to our fourth quarter and full year 2024 earnings press release filed today at a market close. This document is available in the Investor Relations section of Beyond Meat's website at www.beyondmeat.com.

謝謝。大家好，感謝您參加今天的電話會議。與我一起的還有創辦人、總裁兼執行長 Ethan Brown；以及財務長兼財務主管 Lubi Kutua。到目前為止，每個人都應該能夠看到我們今天收盤時提交的第四季度和 2024 年全年收益新聞稿。文件可在 Beyond Meat 網站 www.beyondmeat.com 的投資者關係部分找到。

Before we begin, please note that all the information presented today is unaudited and that during the course of this call, management may make forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. 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.

在我們開始之前，請注意，今天提供的所有資訊均未經審計，並且在本次電話會議期間，管理層可能會根據聯邦證券法做出前瞻性陳述。這些聲明是基於管理階層目前的預期和信念，涉及風險和不確定性，可能導致實際結果與這些前瞻性聲明中所述的結果有重大差異。

Forward-looking statements in our earnings release, along with the comments on this call, are made only as of today, and will not be updated as actual events unfold. We refer you to today's press release, our quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 28, 2024, and our annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024, to be filed with the SEC along with other filings with the SEC for a detailed discussion of the risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements made today.

我們收益報告中的前瞻性陳述以及對本次電話會議的評論均僅截至今天做出，並且不會隨著實際事件的展開而更新。我們請您參閱今天的新聞稿、我們截至 2024 年 9 月 28 日的季度 10-Q 表季度報告以及截至 2024 年 12 月 31 日的財政年度的 10-K 表年度報告，這些報告將與向美國證券交易委員會提交的其他文件一起提交給美國證券交易委員會，以詳細討論可能導致可能導致的重大陳述與今天存在重大的風險陳述與今天存在重大風險的結果。

Please also note that on today's call, management may reference adjusted EBITDA, adjusted loss from operations and adjusted net loss, which are non-GAAP financial measures. While we believe these non-GAAP financial measures provide useful information for investors, any reference to this information is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the financial information presented in accordance with GAAP. Please refer to today's press release for a reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to their most comparable GAAP measures.

另請注意，在今天的電話會議上，管理層可能會參考調整後的 EBITDA、調整後的營業虧損和調整後的淨虧損，這些都是非 GAAP 財務指標。雖然我們認為這些非 GAAP 財務指標為投資者提供了有用的信息，但對這些信息的任何引用都不應被孤立地考慮或作為按照 GAAP 呈現的財務信息的替代。請參閱今天的新聞稿，以了解這些非 GAAP 財務指標與最具可比性的 GAAP 指標的對帳。

And with that, I would now like to turn the call over to Ethan Brown.

說完這些，我現在想將電話轉給 Ethan Brown。

Thank you, Paul, and good afternoon, everyone. I'll begin my remarks by highlighting milestones achieved in the full year 2024, briefly summarize our Q4 performance and then turn to our strategic focus for 2025. I believe the past year reflects an important inflection point in Beyond Meat's journey.

謝謝你，保羅，大家下午好。我將首先強調 2024 年全年的里程碑，簡要總結我們第四季的業績，然後談談我們 2025 年的策略重點。我相信過去的一年是 Beyond Meat 發展歷程中的重要轉捩點。

In the second half of the year, we registered two consecutive quarters of year over year net revenue growth following more than two years of declining sales. This encouraging sign comes as a category and our brand continues to endure a significant reset, one driven by broad consumer confusion regarding the value proposition of our product lines, among other factors.

在經歷了兩年多的銷售額下滑之後，今年下半年我們連續兩個季度淨收入年增。這一令人鼓舞的跡象表明，我們的產品類別和品牌正在經歷重大的重置，其中最主要的原因是消費者對我們產品線的價值主張感到困惑等因素。

I am proud the team took this ambiguity, much of it engineered by incumbent industry interest, head on and vigorously went on the offensive, leaving no stone unturned from product design and emphasis to marketing and partnerships. . I've often summarized the team's response with such commentary as iron sharpens iron, and the toughest wins make the strongest branches, and I'm truly grateful that they took considerable adversity and use it to make our products even better.

我很自豪團隊直面這種模糊性，其中很大一部分是由現有產業利益所造成的，團隊積極發起攻勢，從產品設計和重點到行銷和合作夥伴關係不遺餘力。。我經常用這樣的評論來總結團隊的反應，即鐵磨鐵，最艱難的勝利造就最強大的樹枝，我真的很感激他們承受了巨大的逆境並利用它來使我們的產品變得更好。

Specifically, we will launch it Beyond 4, the Sun sausage line and the recent extension of our award-winning Beyondsate platform, all of which enjoy various accreditations from the American Heart Association American Diabetes Association and Clean Label project. Beyond Meat is making eating delicious plant-based center-of-the-plate protein even healthier and at the same time, making a statement.

具體來說，我們將推出Beyond 4、Sun 香腸系列以及我們屢獲殊榮的Beyondsate 平台的最新擴展，它們均獲得了美國心臟協會、美國糖尿病協會和清潔標籤項目的各項認證。Beyond Meat 讓食用美味的植物性主食蛋白質變得更加健康，同時也彰顯了其品牌主張。

No matter the level of misinformation and misdirection, all of which do is serious to service to the consumer who may otherwise make positive changes in their diets, lives and health. We will stay the course, continue to innovate and perfect our craft and ultimately prevail for the benefit of the consumer, our shareholders, the planet and the rest of life with whom we share it.

無論錯誤訊息和誤導的程度如何，它們對消費者的服務都是認真的，否則消費者可能會在飲食、生活和健康方面做出積極的改變。我們將堅持到底，不斷創新，完善我們的工藝，最終為消費者、股東、地球以及與我們共享的其他生命帶來利益。

Needless to say, the key to staying the course and winning is having a sustainable business model. We made great strides in this direction in 2024.

毋庸置疑，堅持下去並取得勝利的關鍵是擁有可持續的商業模式。2024年，我們朝著這個方向邁出了一大步。

Mainly, we took out just over $50 million in operating expenses, excluding a $7.5 million settlement and dramatically improved adjusted EBITDA, all while as stated earlier, delivering two consecutive quarters of year over year net revenue growth after nine quarters of decline.

主要是，我們扣除了 5000 多萬美元的營運費用（不包括 750 萬美元的和解金）並大幅提高了調整後的 EBITDA，同時如前所述，在經歷了九個季度的下滑之後，連續兩個季度實現了淨收入同比增長。

For the full year, we generated $326.5 million in net revenues. While this was down 4.9% versus 2023, one can see that the rate of decline slowed substantially versus the previous two years as we produced growth in the last two quarters of the year, as previously mentioned. Gross margin reached 12.8% for the full year. And while lower than our expectations, it reflects strong progress across COGS.

全年我們實現淨收入 3.265 億美元。雖然與 2023 年相比下降了 4.9%，但可以看出，由於我們在去年最後兩個季度實現了增長，因此與前兩年相比，下降速度大幅放緩，正如前面提到的。全年毛利率達12.8%。雖然低於我們的預期，但它反映了 COGS 的強勁進步。

Specifically, full year 2024 COGS per pound of $4.07 with roughly $0.40 or 9% lower than 2023 after adjusting for the impact of certain noncash charges, but our Q4 COGS per pound achievement of $3.91 represented our best quarterly achievement in Q2 2021. However, relative to our expectations, these COGS gains were somewhat obscured by lower-than-expected net revenue per pound, reflecting changes in product sales mix, a slower build of the US price increase than anticipated and unfavorable changes in foreign currency exchange rates.

具體而言，2024 年全年每磅銷貨成本為 4.07 美元，在調整某些非現金費用的影響後，比 2023 年低約 0.40 美元或 9%，但我們第四季度每磅銷貨成本達到 3.91 美元，代表了 2021 年第二季度的最佳季度業績。然而，相對於我們的預期，這些 COGS 收益在一定程度上被低於預期的每磅淨收入所掩蓋，反映了產品銷售組合的變化、美國價格上漲的速度低於預期以及外匯匯率的不利變化。

We achieved these improvements in net revenues and gross margin while significantly reducing expenses. The combination of these factors drove a nearly $100 million year over year improvement in adjusted EBITDA after adjusting for the impact of certain noncash charges.

我們在大幅削減開支的同時，實現了淨收入和毛利率的提升。這些因素的綜合作用推動調整後 EBITDA 在扣除某些非現金費用的影響後較上年同期增加了近 1 億美元。

Now turning more specifically to the fourth quarter. I'll briefly mention a few key highlights. We generated net revenues of $76.7 million, reflecting a 4% increase year over year. The combination of higher pricing, lower promotional spending and reduction in COGS per pound strengthened gross margin to 13.1%, up substantially year over year. Operating expenses in the fourth quarter were $47.8 million, a $29.1 million reduction from $76.9 million in the year ago period or approximately $11.5 million after adjusting for the impact of certain noncash charges.

現在更具體地談談第四季。我將簡要提及幾個主要亮點。我們的淨收入為 7,670 萬美元，年增 4%。定價提高、促銷支出減少以及每磅銷貨成本下降等因素綜合作用，使毛利率升至 13.1%，較上年同期大幅增長。第四季營運費用為 4,780 萬美元，比去年同期的 7,690 萬美元減少 2,910 萬美元，調整某些非現金費用的影響後減少約 1,150 萬美元。

The net effect of these outcomes was a meaningful reduction in adjusted net loss year over year.

這些結果的淨效果是調整後淨虧損年減。

I applaud our team for these large strides towards sustainable operations and know they share in my enthusiasm for continued progress to this end in 2025. Globally, in the fourth quarter of 2024, we continue to see encouraging momentum, though inconsistent in its distribution.

我對我們團隊在永續營運方面取得的巨大進步表示讚賞，並知道他們和我一樣熱衷於在 2025 年繼續朝著這個目標前進。在全球範圍內，在 2024 年第四季度，我們繼續看到令人鼓舞的勢頭，儘管其分佈並不一致。

For example, in France, McDonald's launched Vegemite plant nuggets in more than 1,500 restaurants joining McDonald's in 7 other European countries offering beyond products. We are encouraged by this progress as well as broader consumer trends in France, where 68% of the population is reducing meat consumption and 27% regularly incorporates plant-based alternatives according to a 2023 study. Moreover, in France, beginning this month, we launched Beyond stake in retail.

例如，在法國，麥當勞在 1,500 多家餐廳推出了 Vegemite 植物塊，並加入了其他 7 個歐洲國家的麥當勞行列，提供超越產品。我們對這一進展以及法國更廣泛的消費趨勢感到鼓舞，根據 2023 年的一項研究，法國 68% 的人口正在減少肉類消費，27% 的人口定期採用植物性替代品。此外，從本月開始，我們在法國推出了 Beyond 零售股份。

This expands our presence in this important EU market where we already sell Beyond Burger beyond mints, beyond chicken, beyond meat balls and beyond sausage.

這擴大了我們在這個重要的歐盟市場的影響力，我們在這個市場上已經銷售漢堡、薄荷糖、雞肉、肉丸和香腸等產品。

Other areas of recent expansion in Europe include the introduction of Smashburger Tesco UK and the planned Burger at Wendy's for a limited time in the country of Georgia. Looking forward, having cut operating expenses, expanded gross margin and made substantial progress in adjusted EBITDA across 2024. We now look ahead to 2025 with a clear governing objective, position the business to achieve run rate EBITDA positive operations by year-end 2026. We expect to do so by attacking 4 key goals for 2025.

近期在歐洲的其他擴張區域包括在英國 Tesco 推出 Smashburger 以及計劃在格魯吉亞限時推出 Wendy's 漢堡。展望未來，我們將削減營運費用、提高毛利率並在 2024 年調整後 EBITDA 方面取得實質進展。我們現在展望 2025 年，並​​制定了明確的管理目標，力爭在 2026 年底前實現 EBITDA 運作率正成長。我們希望透過實現 2025 年的 4 個關鍵目標來實現這一目標。

These are as follows: one, deliver comparable year over year top line net revenues. Though we welcome substantial growth in 2025. It is more important that the team understand the premium importance of achieving EBITDA positive operations and active discipline when considering near-term growth opportunities that may conflict with this governing objective.

具體如下：一、實現與上年同期相當的淨收入。儘管我們在 2025 年將大幅成長。更重要的是，在考慮可能與此治理目標相衝突的近期成長機會時，團隊必須理解實現 EBITDA 正向營運和積極紀律的極端重要性。

Accordingly, we are targeting roughly comparable net revenues with, as a note below considerably less operating expenses and higher gross margin. Moreover, we expect to regain as well as increase distribute in certain channels that should help with margin accretive top line performance. Finally, with respect to top line performance, we will continue to lean into and expand or health-related products and marketing as we bring new innovation to market this year; two, improve gross margin to approximately 20% on a path to longer-term gross margin exceeding 30%, and having nearly completed the consolidation of our production network.

因此，我們的目標是實現大致相當的淨收入，如下所述，營業費用將大幅減少，毛利率將提高。此外，我們期望恢復並增加某些通路的分銷，這將有助於提高利潤率和營收表現。最後，就營收表現而言，隨著今年我們向市場推出新的創新產品，我們將繼續傾向並擴大與健康相關的產品和行銷；二、將毛利率提升至20%左右，並努力實現長期毛利率超過30%的目標，同時生產網路的整合已基本完成。

The focus for the year is stabilizing and then optimizing our internal production processes while making targeted investments in equipment, automation, and consolidated lines to further expand gross margin. We believe that these measures, together with select pricing actions and the restoration of distribution in certain channels that are important to overall mix will support further gross margin expansion; three, further reduce operating expenses over the two-year period 2025 and 2026.

今年的重點是穩定和優化我們的內部生產流程，同時對設備、自動化和整合生產線進行有針對性的投資，以進一步擴大毛利率。我們相信，這些措施，加上選擇性定價行動以及對整體組合很重要的某些通路分銷的恢復，將支持毛利率進一步擴大；三、2025年至2026年兩年內進一步削減營運費用。

As implied by our guidance, we are pursuing further meaningful reductions in operating expenses this year. To this end, yesterday, we initiated an additional reduction in force have identified and aggressively reducing programmatic spend in the US and are suspending our operational activities in China.

正如我們的指引所暗示的，我們今年將進一步大幅削減營運費用。為此，昨天，我們啟動了進一步裁員，確定並大幅削減美國的項目支出，並暫停在中國的營運活動。

As I hope is clear, we deeply value our employees in making this necessary adjustment to our operating base is not done lightly. We are fortunate to have a tremendously talented, dedicated and resilient team and beyond and parting with folks who have done so much for beyond our customers, consumers, shareholders and mission over the years is difficult.

我希望大家清楚的是，我們非常重視我們的員工，對我們的營運基礎進行這項必要的調整並不是輕率之舉。我們很幸運擁有一支才華橫溢、敬業且堅韌不拔的團隊，與多年來為我們的客戶、消費者、股東和使命做出如此巨大貢獻的人們告別是件很難的事。

We are truly and deeply grateful for their many contributions.

我們真誠而深切地感謝他們的諸多貢獻。

Four, strengthen our balance sheet. In 2025, we will continue to evaluate options to further improve liquidity and optimize our capital structure, so we're well positioned to achieve our growth plans and unlock long-term value. We have no secured debt and our unsecured indenture provides us with significant flexibility to pursue a range of potential transactions. In closing, we look back at 2024 as a key year of transition for Beyond Meat.

四、加強我們的資產負債表。2025年，我們將繼續評估進一步提高流動性和優化資本結構的選擇，以便我們能夠實現成長計畫並釋放長期價值。我們沒有擔保債務，而我們的無擔保契約為我們提供了極大的彈性來進行一系列潛在交易。最後，我們回顧 2024 年，這是 Beyond Meat 轉型的關鍵一年。

From this vantage point, we eagerly look forward to executing our four strategic priorities for 2025 and remain highly confident in our ability to lead the category through what has been a challenging correction on a manufactured ambiguity and believe unequivocally in the inevitable and central role that plant-based meat will play in our global future.

從這個有利位置出發，我們熱切期待執行 2025 年的四大戰略重點，並對我們帶領該類別度過對人為模糊性的艱難糾正的能力充滿信心，並毫不含糊地相信植物肉將在我們的全球未來中發揮不可避免的核心作用。

I look forward to taking your questions later and will now turn the call over to Lubi.

我期待稍後回答您的問題，現在將電話轉給 Lubi。

Thank you, Ethan, and good afternoon, everyone. I'll review our financial results for the fourth quarter of 2024, and will then provide our outlook for 2025, followed by some preliminary thoughts on our longer-term financial objectives.

謝謝你，伊桑，大家下午好。我將回顧我們 2024 年第四季的財務業績，然後提供我們對 2025 年的展望，並對我們的長期財務目標提出一些初步想法。

In the fourth quarter of 2024, net revenues increased 4% to $76.7 million compared to $73.7 million in the year ago period. The increase in net revenues was primarily driven by a 6.3% increase in net revenue per pound, partially offset by a 2.1% decrease in volume of products sold. The increase in net revenue per pound was primarily driven by lower trade discounts compared to the year ago period as well as price increases of certain of our products, partially offset by changes in product sales mix and unfavorable changes in foreign currency exchange rates.

2024 年第四季度，淨收入較去年同期的 7,370 萬美元成長 4% 至 7,670 萬美元。淨收入的成長主要得益於每磅淨收入成長 6.3%，但部分抵銷了銷售產品數量下降 2.1% 的影響。每磅淨收入的成長主要歸因於與去年同期相比貿易折扣的降低以及某些產品的價格上漲，但部分被產品銷售組合的變化和外匯匯率的不利變化所抵消。

Breaking this down by channel, US retail net revenues increased 5.7% to $33.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2024 compared to $32.1 million in the year ago period, primarily due to a 10.6% increase in net revenue per pound partially offset by a 4.5% decrease in volume of products sold. Net revenue per pound benefited from lower trade discounts, price increases of certain products and changes in product sales mix while the decrease in volumes sold primarily reflected soft category demand and print elasticity effects. These results in US retail, which comprises almost half of our total net revenues we're encouraging given that they represented a second consecutive quarter of year over year growth despite a macro environment that remains challenged.

按通路細分，2024 年第四季美國零售淨收入為 3,390 萬美元，較去年同期的 3,210 萬美元增長 5.7%，主要原因是每磅淨收入增長 10.6%，但銷售產品數量下降 4.5% 部分抵消了這一增長。每磅淨收入受惠於較低的貿易折扣、某些產品的價格上漲以及產品銷售組合的變化，而銷售量的下降主要反映了品類需求疲軟和印刷彈性效應。美國零售業的業績占我們總淨收入的近一半，儘管宏觀環境依然充滿挑戰，但我們仍感到鼓舞，因為該業績連續第二個季度實現同比增長。

In 2025, we hope to continue these positive, albeit moderate trends in this important channel by pursuing incremental distribution opportunities among some of our existing items and expanding our product assortment in segments where we have historically under-indexed.

2025 年，我們希望透過尋求部分現有產品的增量分銷機會以及擴大我們歷史上未充分關注的細分市場的產品組合，繼續在這一重要管道中保持積極但溫和的趨勢。

Turning to Foodservice. US Foodservice net revenues decreased 2.1% to $10.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2024 compared to $10.7 million in the year ago period. The year over year decrease was primarily driven by an 11% decrease in volume of products sold, mainly reflecting lower burger sales to a large QSR customer. The decrease in volumes sold, however, was partially offset by a 10% increase in net revenue per pound, primarily driven by price increases of certain products and lower trade discounts, but partially offset by changes in product sales mix.

轉向餐飲服務。2024 年第四季度，美國食品服務淨收入為 1,050 萬美元，較去年同期的 1,070 萬美元下降 2.1%。年比下降主要由於銷售產品數量下降 11%，這主要反映了對大型 QSR 客戶的漢堡銷售下降。不過，銷售量的下降被每磅淨收入 10% 的成長部分抵消了，這主要由於某些產品的價格上漲和貿易折扣的降低，但部分被產品銷售組合的變化所抵消。

In our international channels, International retail net revenues decreased 1.7% to $13.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2024 compared to $13.3 million in the year ago period, primarily due to a 10.4% decrease in volume of products sold, partially offset by a 9.6% increase in net revenue per pound.

在我們的國際通路，2024 年第四季國際零售淨收入較去年同期的 1,330 萬美元下降 1.7% 至 1,310 萬美元，主要原因是銷售產品數量下降 10.4%，但每磅淨收入增長 9.6% 部分抵消了這一影響。

The decrease in volumes sold primarily reflected lower sales of ground beef and chicken products in the EU, while the increase in net revenue per pound was primarily driven by lower trade discounts and changes in product sales mix partially offset by unfavorable impact from FX and price decreases of certain products.

銷售量下降主要反映了歐盟地區牛肉和雞肉產品銷售的下降，而每磅淨收入的成長主要得益於貿易折扣的降低和產品銷售組合的變化，但外匯和某些產品價格下降帶來的不利影響部分抵消了這一影響。

International Foodservice net revenues increased 9.2% to $19.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2024 compared to $17.6 million in the year ago period, primarily due to an 8.9% increase in volume of products sold. This increase in volume mainly reflected increased sales of chicken products to a large QSR customer in the EU. Net revenue per pound in International Foodservice was up slightly year over year, primarily reflecting lower trade discounts and price increases of certain products partially offset by changes in product sales mix and unfavorable impact from FX.

2024 年第四季度，國際食品服務淨收入較去年同期的 1,760 萬美元成長 9.2% 至 1,930 萬美元，主要歸因於銷售產品數量成長 8.9%。銷售成長主要反映了對歐盟一家大型 QSR 客戶的雞肉產品銷售增加。國際食品服務每磅淨收入同比略有增長，主要反映了貿易折扣的降低和某些產品價格的上漲，但產品銷售組合的變化和外匯的不利影響部分抵消了這一影響。

Moving down the P&L. Gross profit in the fourth quarter of 2024 was $10 million or gross margin of 13.1% compared to a loss of $83.9 million or gross margin of negative 113.8% in the year ago period. Recall that gross profit and gross margin in the year ago period included certain noncash charges totaling $77.4 million consisting of $66.9 million in charges associated with our global operations review and $10.5 million from other specific noncash charges.

降低損益表。2024 年第四季的毛利為 1,000 萬美元，毛利率為 13.1%，而去年同期的虧損為 8,390 萬美元，毛利率為負 113.8%。回想一下，去年同期的毛利和毛利率包括某些非現金費用，總額為 7,740 萬美元，其中包括與我們的全球營運審查相關的 6,690 萬美元費用和來自其他特定非現金費用的 1,050 萬美元。

Although gross profit and gross margin improved meaningfully year over year, both were below our expectations largely due to lower-than-expected net revenue per pound, reflecting high international foodservice sales and unfavorable changes in FX. We were nonetheless pleased with the continued sequential improvement in cost of goods sold per pound from Q3 to Q4, and which remains a key focus area for our team as we look to drive longer-term gross margin back to 30% or higher over time.

雖然毛利和毛利率比去年同期大幅提高，但都低於我們的預期，主要是由於每磅淨收入低於預期，反映了國際餐飲服務銷售額高企以及外匯的不利變化。儘管如此，我們對第三季到第四季每磅銷售成本的持續連續改善感到滿意，這仍然是我們團隊關注的重點領域，因為我們希望隨著時間的推移將長期毛利率推回到 30％或更高。

On a year over year basis, the decrease in cost of goods sold per pound primarily reflected lower inventory provisions, lower manufacturing costs, including depreciation and lower material costs, partially offset by higher logistics costs. . Turning to OpEx.

與去年同期相比，每磅銷售成本的下降主要反映了庫存準備金的減少、製造成本的降低（包括折舊和材料成本的降低），但被物流成本的提高部分抵消。。轉向 OpEx。

Operating expenses were $47.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2024 compared to $76.9 million in the year ago period. Operating expenses in the year ago period included certain noncash charges totaling $17.6 million associated with the global operations review. Excluding the impact of these noncash charges, the decrease in operating expenses in the fourth quarter of 2024 was primarily driven by reduced marketing expenses, lower consulting fees and reduced nonproduction headcount expenses.

2024 年第四季的營運費用為 4,780 萬美元，而去年同期為 7,690 萬美元。去年同期的營運費用包括與全球營運審查相關的某些非現金費用，總額為 1,760 萬美元。除去這些非現金費用的影響，2024 年第四季營業費用的下降主要是因為行銷費用減少、諮詢費用減少和非生產員工費用減少。

Below the line, total other expense net was $7 million in the fourth quarter of 2024 compared to total other income net of $5.7 million in the year ago period. The increase in total other expense net was primarily due to higher net realized and unrealized foreign currency transaction losses.

低於這一水平的是，2024 年第四季的其他費用淨總額為 700 萬美元，而去年同期的其他收入淨總額為 570 萬美元。其他費用淨額的增加主要是由於已實現和未實現的淨外幣交易損失增加。

Net loss - Overall, net loss was $44.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2024 compared to $155.1 million in the year ago period. Net loss per common share was $0.65 in the fourth quarter of 2024. And compared to $2.40 in the year ago period. Net loss in the year-ago period included certain noncash charges totaling $95 million or the equivalent of $1.47 per common share.

淨虧損－整體而言，2024 年第四季的淨虧損為 4,490 萬美元，而去年同期的淨虧損為 1.551 億美元。2024 年第四季每股普通股淨虧損為 0.65 美元。而去年同期則為 2.40 美元。去年同期的淨虧損包括某些非現金費用，總額為 9,500 萬美元，相當於每股 1.47 美元。

Adjusted EBITDA was a loss of $26 million or a negative 33.9% of net revenues in the fourth quarter of 2024 totaled and compared to an adjusted EBITDA loss of $125.1 million or negative 169.9% of net revenues in the year ago period, which included the impact of certain noncash charges.

2024 年第四季調整後的 EBITDA 虧損 2,600 萬美元，淨收入為負 33.9%，而去年同期調整後的 EBITDA 虧損 1.251 億美元，即淨收入為負 169.9%，其中包括某些非現金費用的影響。

Turning now to the balance sheet and cash flow. Our cash and cash equivalents balance, including restricted cash, was $145.6 million and total outstanding debt was $1.1 billion as of December 31, 2024. The and cash used in operating activities was $98.8 million in the year ended December 31, 2024, compared to $107.8 million in the year ago period.

現在來看看資產負債表和現金流。截至 2024 年 12 月 31 日，我們的現金及現金等價物餘額（包括受限現金）為 1.456 億美元，未償還債務總額為 11 億美元。截至 2024 年 12 月 31 日止年度，經營活動所用現金為 9,880 萬美元，去年同期為 1.078 億美元。

Capital expenditures for the full year 2024 totaled $11 million compared to $10.6 million in the year ago period, including proceeds from the sale of certain fixed assets during the year, Net cash used in investing activities was $6.2 million in the year ended December 31, 2024, compared to $9.5 million in the year ago period. Net cash provided by financing activities was $45.8 million in the year ended December 31, 2024, compared to net cash used in financing activities of $0.5 million in the year ago period.

2024 年全年資本支出總計 1,100 萬美元，而去年同期為 1,060 萬美元，其中包括年內出售某些固定資產的收益，截至 2024 年 12 月 31 日止年度，投資活動所用淨現金為 620 萬美元，而去年同期為 950 萬美元。截至 2024 年 12 月 31 日止年度，融資活動提供的淨現金為 4,580 萬美元，而去年同期融資活動所用的淨現金為 50 萬美元。

As previously communicated, we deployed our at-the-market or ATM program in the fourth quarter of 2024, which generated net proceeds of approximately $46.7 million through the sale of approximately 9.75 million new shares of common stock. The proceeds raised through the ATM are intended to help us continue to invest in our business, grow revenues and reduce costs.

如前所述，我們在 2024 年第四季度部署了按市價或 ATM 計劃，透過出售約 975 萬股新普通股產生了約 4,670 萬美元的淨收益。透過 ATM 籌集的收益旨在幫助我們繼續投資業務、增加收入並降低成本。

As discussed on prior earnings calls, we continue to evaluate alternatives to improve our liquidity and address our capital structure to achieve our growth plans. We will provide further updates if and when appropriate, but do not plan to comment on this further during our call today.

正如在先前的收益電話會議上所討論的那樣，我們將繼續評估其他選擇，以提高我們的流動性並解決我們的資本結構，從而實現我們的成長計劃。如果合適，我們將提供進一步的更新，但不打算在今天的電話會議上對此發表進一步評論。

Finally, I'll provide some comments on our outlook for 2025. We -- for the full year 2025, we expect net revenues to be in the range of $320 million to $335 million, and gross margin is expected to be approximately 20%. We Operating expenses are expected to be in the range of $160 million to $180 million, and capital expenditures are expected to be in the range of $15 million to $20 million.

最後，我將對我們對 2025 年的展望發表一些評論。我們預計 2025 年全年淨收入將在 3.2 億美元至 3.35 億美元之間，毛利率預計約為 20%。我們預計營運費用在 1.6 億美元至 1.8 億美元之間，資本支出預計在 1,500 萬美元至 2,000 萬美元之間。

For the first quarter of 2025, net revenues are expected to be roughly comparable to Q1 of 2024. Although we are not providing formal guidance beyond 2025 at this time, -- as Ethan mentioned, we are currently implementing a broad set of initiatives, which are intended to position the company for sustained EBITDA positive operations on a run rate basis by the end of 2026.

預計 2025 年第一季的淨收入將與 2024 年第一季大致相當。雖然我們目前還沒有提供 2025 年以後的正式指導，但正如 Ethan 所提到的，我們目前正在實施一系列廣泛的舉措，旨在使公司在 2026 年底之前實現持續的 EBITDA 正運作。

The reduction in force we announced today as well as our decision to suspend our operational activities in China, two measures among the largest set of initiatives we are pursuing in service of this 2026. Beyond operating expense reductions, we are also pursuing opportunities to accelerate our revenue growth, including by focusing on incremental distribution opportunities within our existing portfolio and we are investing incremental capital to drive further production efficiency and gross margin expansion.

我們今天宣布的裁員以及暫停在中國的營運活動的決定是我們為迎接2026年而採取的最大舉措之一。除了降低營運費用外，我們還在尋求加速收入成長的機會，包括專注於現有產品組合中的增量分銷機會，並且我們正在投資增量資本以進一步提高生產效率和擴大毛利率。

We believe it is critically important to steer our organization towards this long-term profitability objective as quickly as possible. to ensure that Beyond Meat remains a leader in the plant-based need category for the foreseeable future and is well positioned to benefit from the eventual upturn in the sector, which we continue to believe remains on the horizon.

我們認為，引導我們的組織盡快實現這一長期獲利目標至關重要。以確保 Beyond Meat 在可預見的未來繼續保持植物性需求類別的領先地位，並且能夠從該行業的最終復甦中獲益，我們仍然相信這一復甦即將到來。

With that, I'll turn the call back over to the operator to open it up for your questions.

說完這些，我將把電話轉回給接線員，以便回答您的​​問題。

(Operator Instructions) Ben Theurer, Barclays.

(操作員指示) 巴克萊銀行的 Ben Theurer。

Than Lubi. Good stuff. So two quick ones on my side. So number one, I just wanted to understand a little bit about the consumer perception market dynamics? Because it seems you guys were able to increase at least the price points, particularly in retail in the US

比盧比。好東西。我這邊有兩個簡短的問題。所以首先，我只是想了解一點消費者感知市場動態？因為看起來你們至少能夠提高價格點，特別是在美國零售方面

and volume impact wasn't as significant maybe as in the past. So maybe if you could shed a little bit more light on like the elasticities here and what you've been doing different in terms of like your go-to-market strategies, particularly in retail in the US? And then I have a quick follow-up.

而且銷售影響或許也不像過去那麼顯著。所以，您是否可以進一步闡明這裡的彈性，以及您在市場進入策略方面做了哪些不同的事情，特別是在美國零售業？然後我有一個快速的後續問題。

Great. This is Ethan. Good question, and it's very astute to look at that. If you -- if you think about what we saw in US retail, were up 5.7% and volume is only down 4.5%.

偉大的。這是伊森。這個問題問得好，而且看起來非常明智。如果你想想我們在美國零售業看到的情況，零售額成長了 5.7%，而銷售量只下降了 4.5%。

I mean, that's a pretty good outcome. And that's on top of all the noise, which continues to impact Vector around ingredients and process and all this which we are confident will die down. but it's about providing a very clean and simple product to a consumer that's willing to pay more for it. And that's what we're finding, and that's the continued direction of the brand. So I think that messaging around, look, these are very clean, very simple ingredients.

我的意思是，這是一個非常好的結果。除此之外，所有的噪音都會持續影響 Vector 的原料和工藝，我們相信這些噪音都會逐漸消失。而是向願意支付更多錢的消費者提供非常乾淨、簡單的產品。這就是我們的發現，這也是品牌持續發展的方向。所以我認為，傳遞的訊息是，看，這些都是非常乾淨、非常簡單的成分。

We're going to charge you a little bit more. It seems to be working, and we were pleased to see the elasticity.

我們將向您收取稍多一點的費用。它似乎正在發揮作用，我們很高興看到它的彈性。

Okay. Got it. And then my follow-up, just real quick to clarify on the guidance that, call it, more or less flat on the top line. I assume that obviously accounts for the China suspension of operations. So I just want to make sure if you could maybe help us understand a little bit the size of China within your international piece, such as that we kind of like maybe adjusted revenues just to see what the impact of China suspension is?

好的。知道了。然後我的後續問題，只是非常快速地澄清一下指導意見，稱之為或多或少在頂線上持平。我認為這顯然是導致中國暫停營運的原因。因此，我只是想確保你能幫助我們了解你國際業務中中國業務的規模，例如我們可能調整後的收入，看看中國業務暫停的影響是什麼？

And is that temporary? Or how should we think about this? Because it doesn't seem like -- it doesn't sound so permanent. So I just want to understand a little bit more on the China suspension comments.

這是暫時的嗎？或者說我們該如何思考這個問題？因為它看起來不像——聽起來不是那麼永久。所以我只是想多了解一下有關中國暫停的評論。

Great. Thanks. So we don't break out by that specific geography, the performance -- but what I will say is that the overall conservatism in our guidance is really driven by my desire to not distract the team into any near-term revenue generation activities that would work against the EBITDA positive goal that we've set I think this EBITDA positive goal is a very important milestone, obviously, for the company and our willingness to put it out there publicly.

偉大的。謝謝。因此，我們不會根據特定的地理位置和表現進行細分，但我要說的是，我們指引中的整體保守主義實際上是由我不想分散團隊的注意力到任何短期創收活動中而驅動的，因為這些活動會與我們設定的 EBITDA 正目標背道而馳。

It is the next step in the evolution of Beyond Meat, and I want everybody entirely focused on that. And so the revenue guidance that we're providing is really focusing more on that than anything else, looking to try to optimize for margin, optimize for EBITDA and stay away from things that would distort or conflict with those goals.

這是 Beyond Meat 發展歷程的下一步，我希望每個人都全神貫注於此。因此，我們提供的收入指導實際上比其他任何事情都更關注這一點，試圖優化利潤率，優化 EBITDA，並遠離扭曲或與這些目標相衝突的事物。

Kaumil Gajrawala, Jefferies.

傑富瑞 (Jefferies) 的 Kaumil Gajrawala。

Can you maybe talk about your kind of core consumer and if it's -- if the consumer has evolved and who they are, maybe demographics, maybe income level or anything like that as you sort of roll out new products, new marketing, you're sort of evolving your message. Can you talk about -- have you observed any changes in who your core customer is?

您能否談談您的核心消費者？您能談談—您是否觀察到您的核心客戶發生了任何變化？

I think we're getting much more focused on the health-oriented consumer. And it's just such a time of I wouldn't say turbulence, but there's just puts and takes all over the place regarding kind of where the category is headed, where the brand is headed. Like if you look at the consumer's interest in what we're doing, it remains extremely high.

我認為我們越來越關註註重健康的消費者。現在正值這樣一個時期，我不會說這是動盪時期，但對於產品類別的發展方向、品牌的發展方向，到處都充滿了不確定性。如果你看看消費者對我們所做的事情的興趣，你會發現他們的興趣仍然非常高。

If you look at Time Magazine, I think we were awarded one of the world's best brands, Newsweek, I think the world's most trusted brands Fortune Change the World brand, things of this nature are showing up on all these lists Independence top 100 climate change. So there's still a very strong interest in what we're doing, but there's also a very strong counter current, which is this narrative around being highly processed and full of questionable ingredients, which is a manufactured narrative.

如果你看《時代》雜誌，我認為我們被評為世界最佳品牌之一；如果你看《新聞周刊》，我認為我們是世界上最值得信賴的品牌、《財富》改變世界的品牌，諸如此類的事情都出現在《獨立報》百強氣候變遷榜單上。因此，人們對我們所做的事情仍然非常感興趣，但也有非常強烈的反潮流，即關於高度加工和充滿可疑成分的敘述，這是一種捏造的敘述。

It's not one that's actually has science behind it or much truth to it. But it is a very powerful incumbent industry campaign that's got picked up by certain pundits and kind of what we call the Carneros on Instagram and podcasts, that are misinformed. And so our consumer is increasingly that sort of more educated, someone who can see through that noise. And they are the ones that are carrying us back to growth.

它實際上並沒有任何科學根據或太多真實性。但這是一場非常強大的現任行業運動，被某些權威人士和我們在 Instagram 和播客上稱之為卡內羅斯的人所接受，但他們被誤導了。因此，我們的消費者越來越有知識，能夠看穿這些噪音。正是他們帶領我們重回成長。

And if you look at 24 in terms of the year, right, in the last two quarters of the year, return to growth across the year, we improved margin by about 14 percentage points. used operating expense where we're doing that by about $50 million and then delivered about $100 million improvement in adjusted EBITDA.

如果你從年度角度來看，那麼在今年最後兩個季度，我們全年恢復成長，利潤率提高了約 14 個百分點。我們將營業費用減少了約 5,000 萬美元，然後實現了調整後 EBITDA 約 1 億美元的改善。

So all these actions are taking the business towards a sustainable operation, and we're focused on that for very obvious reasons. But One of the reasons, right, is that we continue to see a very strong long-term trends toward what we're doing. And if you look at some of the examples that we gave in my prepared remarks, with retail being up 5.7% that occurred where as we just talked about in the previous question, where the decline in volumes sold is slowing pretty significantly.

因此，所有這些行動都是在推動業務走向永續運營，我們專注於此，原因非常明顯。但其中一個原因是，我們繼續看到我們所做的事情呈現出非常強勁的長期趨勢。如果你看一下我們在我準備好的發言中給出的一些例子，零售額增長了 5.7%，而正如我們剛才在上一個問題中談到的那樣，銷售量下降的趨勢正在明顯放緩。

You look at international food service, that's another really nice bright spot where we're up about 9% in dollar sales, but also up about 9% in volume. And this is particularly on the back of something that's pretty special that's happening with a certain customer in a certain market.

看看國際食品服務，這是另一個非常好的亮點，我們的美元銷售額增長了約 9%，而且銷量也增長了約 9%。這主要是因為某個市場中某個客戶發生了一些非常特別的事情。

And I can't promise that these trends will persist, but nor can I promise at the areas where we underperformed will persist. If you look at US foodservice and international retail, there's just a lot of things moving up and down as people try to figure out this category. But I am very certain that the category and the brand will, over time, fulfill the promise of the brand, right? And that's -- I've used examples before, whether it's the manufactured ICE industry, where first people -- the incumbent industry set was contaminated about 135 years ago now, but it's a great case study.

我無法保證這些趨勢會持續下去，但我也無法保證我們表現不佳的領域會持續下去。如果你觀察美國的餐飲業和國際零售業，你會發現當人們試圖弄清楚這個類別時，很多事情都是起起伏伏的。但我非常確信，隨著時間的推移，該類別和品牌將實現品牌的承諾，對嗎？這就是——我以前用過例子，無論是製造內燃機行業，第一批人——現有的行業大約在 135 年前就受到了污染，但這是一個很好的案例研究。

It turned out it wasn't, right?

但事實證明並非如此，對吧？

It turned out that we all now use artificial or manufactured ICE. You probably use some today to cool your drink or pull something in your house. if you look at electric cars, right, people are saying, well, electric cars are never going to have the range. It turns out they range enough, right? And then if you look at solar and wind, they'll never scale.

事實證明，我們現在都使用人造或製造的冰。您今天可能會用一些來冷卻飲料或在家裡拉一些東西。如果你看看電動車，人們就會說，電動車的續航里程永遠不會達到那樣的水平。事實證明它們的範圍足夠大，對嗎？如果你看看太陽能和風能，它們永遠無法擴大規模。

Well, it turns out it did. I got all my roof. I'm sitting on the port of my farm. I can see huge wind turbines up on the hills where 40 years ago, it was just about getting coal out of the sales, right? So all of these things just take time.

嗯，事實證明確實如此。我得到了全部屋頂。我正坐在我農場的港口。我可以看到山上有巨大的風力渦輪機，而 40 年前，這裡只是為了銷售煤炭，對嗎？所以所有這些事情都需要時間。

It's taking a lot more time when we thought, but if you look at the trends and you look at what's going on in animal agriculture, there are some things that are going on in existential threats, right?

正如我們所想的，這需要花費更多的時間，但如果你觀察趨勢並觀察動物農業中正在發生的事情，你會發現有些事情正在威脅生存，對嗎？

If you look at the beef prices today, they're starting to rise. What's that about? In part, that's about drought right? So that's not something that a government or industry can solve, right? If you look at the Avian livestock industry, prices are going up, right?

如果你看看今天的牛肉價格，你會發現它們開始上漲。那是關於什麼的？從某種程度上來說，這與乾旱有關，對嗎？所以這不是政府或產業可以解決的問題，對嗎？如果你看看禽畜業，價格正在上漲，對嗎？

What's that about? That's not something that's easy to containable, right? That's about the bird flu. So all of these things are going to worsen with a warming climate -- and Miami is going to do what it does, right? We're going to continue to innovate.

那是關於什麼的？這不是一件容易控制的事情，對吧？這是關於禽流感的事。所以，隨著氣候變暖，所有這些情況都會惡化——邁阿密也會出現同樣的情況，對嗎？我們將繼續創新。

We're going to continue to offer clean, simple ingredients to consumers who are willing to look through a lot of the noise and do something that's better for their family and better themselves. We're also putting factors at some point, serious people need to step forward and deal with these problems, and we're there to help. -- right? And so whether it's the doctors that we're putting together, the nutritionists, the dietitians to help consumers see the benefits of eating plant-based meat and to not believe all the noise, right?

我們將繼續向那些願意排除乾擾、為家人和自己做一些有益的事情的消費者提供乾淨、簡單的食材。我們也在某些時候考慮了一些因素，需要嚴肅的人站出來解決這些問題，我們會提供協助。 - 正確的？因此，我們召集的醫生、營養師和營養師都應該幫助消費者了解食用植物肉的好處，不要相信所有的謠言，對嗎？

We're putting together this data to show that, right? And then you're looking at our partnerships with the American Heart Association, the American Diabetes Association, the clean label product. We're putting together organizations to help cut through all of this noise -- so it's a period of uncertainty, right? But we're doing the right things. We continue to innovate and make the products healthier and healthier.

我們正在匯總這些數據來證明這一點，對嗎？然後您將看到我們與美國心臟協會、美國糖尿病協會以及清潔標籤產品的合作關係。我們正在組建一些組織來幫助消除所有這些噪音——所以這是一個不確定的時期，對嗎？但我們所做的事情是正確的。我們不斷創新，讓產品越來越健康。

We continue to surround ourselves with the best minds in science and public opinion around health. And over time, that smaller consumer group now that's buying the products will expand into the general population as we break through the miss, break through a lot of the noise and provide people with great-tasting food, that's really good for them. So my view is that this consumer base will continue to evolve into a much broader base but it's just taking time.

我們將繼續匯聚健康領域最優秀的科學和公眾輿論人才。隨著時間的推移，隨著我們突破差距，消除噪音，為人們提供美味的食物，現在購買產品的較小消費者群體將擴大到普通民眾，這對他們來說真的很好。因此，我的觀點是，這個消費者群體將繼續演變成更廣泛的群體，但這需要時間。

Okay. Got it. Last follow-up question on that ICE comment, but we can chat about that a follow-up later.

好的。知道了。這是關於 ICE 評論的最後一個後續問題，但我們可以稍後再討論該後續問題。

A terrific paper written by -- I can't remember say it's a VC firm or they compare the growth of the manufacturing industry to literally to plant-based meat and talk about how there was a very concerted effort by folks who were cutting is out of lakes and rivers. -- to scare the public away from it. And they said it was contaminated and it took a long time for that to wear off. It did turn out there was contamination. -- turned out that the ice coming from the rivers during the period of industrialization was contaminated, not the ice being made in these machines.

一篇出色的論文——我不記得它是否是一家風險投資公司寫的，或者他們將製造業的增長與植物肉進行比較，並討論人們如何齊心協力減少湖泊和河流中的植物污染。 ——以此嚇跑公眾。他們說，它被污染了，需要很長時間才能消退。事實證明確實存在污染。 ——事實證明，工業化時期從河流流出的冰受到了污染，而不是這些機器製造的冰。

Ken Goldman, JPMorgan.

摩根大通的肯‧戈德曼。

I wanted to just dig in a little bit more, if we could, on the outlook for the gross margin in 2025. You did give some reasons distribution gains that could help mix reasons for it to increase to this degree. But it's quite an uptick in terms of basis points that you're looking for versus 2024. Obviously, margins in general are more of a priority for you. I'm just trying to get a little bit better sense of what the major drivers are and which ones you have the most visibility into at this time, if possible?

如果可以的話，我想更深入地探討一下 2025 年毛利率的前景。您確實給出了一些可能有助於將分配收益增加到這種程度的原因。但與 2024 年相比，您所期望的基點數量有相當大的上升。顯然，總體而言，利潤對您來說更重要。我只是想更了解主要的驅動因素是什麼，以及如果可能的話，您目前最了解哪些驅動因素？

Great. Ken, thanks price. So if you look at the progress we made over the last year, that kind of 14 percentage point increase in margin. The increase that we're projecting for 2025, right, does not exceed that. So what happened over the last year is really remarkable in terms of what our team did.

偉大的。Ken，謝謝價格。所以如果你看看我們去年的進展，利潤率增加了 14 個百分點。我們預測的 2025 年增幅不會超過這個數字。所以，就我們團隊所取得的成就而言，過去一年所發生的事情確實非常了不起。

They took a very fragmented production network with over 13 different sites, co-packers and consolidated that into our own internal manufacturing and then one other co-packer that took an enormous amount of effort and complexity to break all that down, all logistics work and then to build up into our own facilities. And we're not completely done. But I would hardly say many times in innovation and in fields like this, you talk about repair and the bicycle, while you're riding it, right? That was absolutely that effort.

他們將一個非常分散的生產網絡（包含超過 13 個不同站點和聯合包裝商）整合到我們自己的內部製造中，然後與另一個聯合包裝商整合，這需要付出巨大的努力和複雜性才能將所有這些分解，然後完成所有的物流工作，最後建成我們自己的工廠。我們還沒有完全完成。但我很少會在創新以及類似的領域中多次提到，當你騎自行車時你會談論修理和自行車，對嗎？那絕對是那樣的努力。

Right? native opportunity with a more stable production process to really start to grind away at that. So if the thought is that we can't sort of get 7 or 8 percentage points out of that now that we're stabilized, we're able to get better overhead absorption. I think we can. And I think I'm very optimistic that we can and, in fact, potentially do better because we've stabilized things.

正確的？擁有更穩定的生產流程的本土機會，可以真正開始實現這一目標。因此，如果我們認為在穩定下來之後我們無法再獲得 7 或 8 個百分點的收益，那麼我們就能夠獲得更好的間接費用吸收。我想我們可以。我認為我非常樂觀，我們可以做得更好，事實上，因為我們已經穩定了局勢。

And so now it's about we're making some incremental investments in our facilities to increase automation. We're doing another RFP for materials and ingredients. So all of these things allow us maybe to take a breath and to now focus on optimizing three or four years ago, we were scrambling to build out this network, right? Okay? And then we had to go to reverse all that.

因此，現在我們要對我們的設施進行一些增量投資，以提高自動化程度。我們正在針對材料和成分進行另一份 RFP。所以所有這些事情也許可以讓我們喘口氣，現在專注於優化三、四年前我們一直在努力建立這個網絡，對嗎？好的？然後我們必須去扭轉這一切。

So there's just -- in both cases, there was just kind of fixing the bicycle riding it. Now it's in the shop. We have opportunity to really drill down on how to make this thing on. And so I'm looking forward to what the teams can do this year. I'm sorry.

所以在這兩種情況下，都只是修理自行車而已。現在它在商店裡。我們有機會真正深入研究如何實現這一點。因此，我期待各支球隊今年能有怎樣的成績。對不起。

I'll just add to that. I think Ethan covered most of the factors. I would just say, in 2025, we do expect to have basically a full year's worth of the benefit from the price increases, right, that we took in the US Obviously, those started to kick in, in Q2 of 2024. So we'll have a full year's worth of those.

我僅補充一點。我認為 Ethan 已經考慮到了大部分因素。我只想說，到 2025 年，我們確實預計基本上能從美國的價格上漲中獲得全年的收益，顯然，這些收益在 2024 年第二季開始顯現。因此我們將擁有一整年的產量。

There will be some select price increases in 2025, not nearly as broad in US Retail as we had in 2024. But there should be some impact from that. And then Evan mentioned in his prepared remarks that we are nearly complete with our network consolidation. There's still a little bit more work to be done in 2025, and we do expect to benefit from that.

2025 年美國零售業將出現部分價格上漲，但漲幅遠不如 2024 年廣。但這應該會產生一些影響。然後埃文在他的準備好的發言中提到，我們的網路整合已接近完成。2025 年還有很多工作要做，我們確實希望從中受益。

And in particular, we're actually consolidating some of our manufacturing footprint at our facilities in Columbia, Missouri. And then also -- when you look at our network of warehouses across the US, there's some work to be done there that just rationalize the footprint as well.

特別是，我們實際上正在整合位於密蘇裡州哥倫比亞市的工廠的部分製造足跡。而且，當你查看我們遍布美國的倉庫網路時，你會發現還有一些工作要做，以合理化其占地面積。

And so you combine that with what Ethan mentioned in terms of some areas where we are going to invest some incremental CapEx to drive some efficiencies and throughput, et cetera. And we feel pretty comfortable about our ability to drive that incremental improvement in gross margin.

因此，您可以將其與 Ethan 提到的某些領域結合起來，我們將在這些領域投資一些增量資本支出，以提高效率和產量等等。我們對於推動毛利率逐步提高的能力感到非常有信心。

Yes.

是的。

Robert Moskow, TD Cowen.

羅伯特·莫斯科（Robert Moskow），TD Cowen。

A couple of questions either. Just wondering about the forecast. You're up 6% or so in sales in second half, but the guidance is for, I guess, flat in first quarter. it sounds like you have a little bit of momentum. Are you seeing something in first quarter where that momentum kind of takes a step back a bit?

還有幾個問題。我只是想知道預測結果。你們下半年的銷售額成長了 6% 左右，但我預計第一季的銷售額將持平。聽起來你有一點動力。您是否發現第一季這種勢頭有所減弱？

Or are you just being a little conservative -- and then I had a question about these new customers that you're talking about. I guess you said regaining or getting into some channels that you're not normally in -- what's your visibility into that? And when will you know whether or not you got that distribution.

或者您只是有點保守——然後我對您談到的這些新客戶有一個疑問。我猜您說過重新獲得或進入一些您通常不會進入的管道——您對此有什麼看法？什麼時候您才會知道是否獲得了該分佈？

Yes. I think I wouldn't say the first quarter is really gaming or I don't mean that like trying to be conservative. As we can sell the network, there's some tightness there, and so there's some impact from that. And then we did lose some distribution as we were being switched from fresh to frozen in a major customer that we're going to be regaining but it won't be regaining until the second quarter. So there's a couple of things like that, that we don't want to come out and be too bullish on the first.

是的。我認為我不會說第一季真的是賭博，或者我並不是試圖保守。由於我們可以出售網絡，因此存在一些緊張因素，因此會產生一些影響。然後我們確實失去了一些分銷管道，因為我們的一個主要客戶從新鮮產品轉向冷凍產品，我們將重新獲得這個分銷管道，但要到第二季度才能恢復。所以有幾件類似的事情，我們不想對第一件事過於樂觀。

But across the balance of the year, we do think that the positive trends that we're seeing will continue. But again, I really want to focus -- if we show 5% growth, great. But if we show a terrific improvement in margin and drive the $30 million out of the OpEx at the high end of the range. Those things would be more important to this business over the long run. So I'm just trying to focus team on that.

但就今年而言，我們確實認為我們看到的正面趨勢將會持續下去。但我再次強調，我真的想集中精力——如果我們能實現 5% 的成長，那就太好了。但如果我們利潤率有顯著提高，並從高端營運支出中拿出 3000 萬美元。從長遠來看，這些事情對於這項業務來說更為重要。所以我只是想讓團隊集中精力於此。

SP999 And then Rob, so maybe .

SP999 然後是 Rob，也許。

To answer the second part of your question regarding distribution, I think the comments you were referring to was what I mentioned in my prepared remarks, -- it was -- it's not really about picking up new customers. about expanding our presence in different parts of the store that we historically have under-indexed. So that's various things, whether it's expanding the product assortment right, that we've recently launched two new flavors of the Beyond stake.

回答您關於分銷的問題的第二部分，我認為您所指的評論是我在準備好的演講中提到的——它實際上並不是關於吸引新客戶。關於擴大我們在商店不同領域的存在，這些領域過去我們一直關注不夠。所以這是各種各樣的事情，無論是擴大產品種類，還是我們最近推出的兩種新口味的 Beyond 產品。

As an example, -- and then also just focusing on expanding distribution for some of our core products, which, as an example, are merchandised in the frozen the store, right, where historically we've over-indexed to refrigerated, but there's opportunities we believe, to expand some distribution, right, in the frozen aisle.

舉個例子，我們也只是專注於擴大我們一些核心產品的分銷，例如，這些產品在冷凍商店中銷售，從歷史上看，我們過度依賴冷藏產品，但我們相信有機會在冷凍貨架上擴大一些分銷。

Now as far as how much visibility we have into that, some of it is we feel pretty confident about, and we believe those are coming. Others, we have to work on, right? And and look to gain that incremental distribution throughout the year. But the main point is that the distribution gains we're talking about is not necessarily picking up a whole bunch of new customers. It's more about expanding our presence within the stores within existing outlets.

現在就我們對此有多少了解而言，我們對此感到非常有信心，並且我們相信這些即將到來。其他的我們還需要努力，對吧？並期望全年獲得增量分配。但主要的是，我們談論的分銷收益並不一定意味著吸引一大批新客戶。這更多的是為了擴大我們在現有門市內的影響力。

I understand. And Lubi, a follow-up, I think we're all kind of waiting for an update on the more profound announcement on recapitalization you've been talking about it for a while, and I think the comments are kind of purposefully -- there's not a lot of material things you can say. But isn't it fair to say that like the convertible it matures in two years. Is that kind of the time frame that you have before you do have to do something much more profound.

我明白。還有盧比，接下來我想問一下，我們都在等待關於資本重組的更深層次的更新，您已經談論了一段時間了，我認為這些評論是故意的——您能說的實質性內容並不多。但是，難道不能說它像敞篷車一樣，兩年內就成熟嗎？在您確實需要做一些更深刻的事情之前，您是否擁有這樣的時間框架？

I mean, we certainly would have to do something within two years. But to the point that I made in my prepared remarks, look, we're continuing to evaluate alternatives, right? But it's -- at this point, we can't really say a whole lot about where we stand on those particular efforts. But I think we said it during the last earnings call, right, that we said we intended to put a little bit more liquidity on the balance sheet through our ATM program in Q4, and we did. And then we said we're going to in 2025 focus on the bolstering the balance sheet, right.

我的意思是，我們肯定必須在兩年內採取行動。但正如我在準備好的演講中提到的那樣，我們正在繼續評估其他選擇，對嗎？但就目前而言，我們還不能確切地說出我們在這些具體努力上的立場。但我想我們在上次財報電話會議上說過，我們打算在第四季透過 ATM 計畫為資產負債表注入更多流動性，我們確實這麼做了。然後我們說我們將在 2025 年專注於加強資產負債表，對吧。

And so we're following that plan, and we feel pretty good about it.

因此我們正在執行該計劃，並且我們對此感到非常滿意。

Alexia Howard, Bernstein.

亞歷克西亞·霍華德，伯恩斯坦。

Hi, good evening, everyone. Can I ask firstly about the price points. Are you comfortable with your price gaps to animal meat? I know there was a goal at one point of getting to price parity or below on a major product are you generally comfortable with where you are now? And then I have a follow-up.

大家晚上好。我可以先詢問一下價格嗎？您對與動物肉之間的價格差距能接受嗎？我知道曾經有一個目標是讓主要產品的價格達到或低於平價，您對現在的狀況滿意嗎？然後我有一個後續問題。

Yes. So we actually did hit that target in a particular product line with a particular customer in a particular market and it's been helpful to us in that regard and pretty remarkable. Like if you think about -- and this is again why I have such confidence in what we're doing. We did that on maybe one or two lines against an industry that has too many lines to count, right, globally, and we're already producing. And that gets back to a very simple observation made many, many years ago by people like (inaudible) pay, it's just so much more efficient to take protein directly from plants.

是的。因此，我們確實在特定市場的特定產品線上為特定客戶實現了這一目標，這在這方面對我們很有幫助，而且非常了不起。就像如果你想想——這也是為什麼我對我們所做的事情如此有信心。我們可能在一條或兩條生產線上實現了這一點，而在全球範圍內，這個行業的生產線數不勝數，而且我們已經在生產了。這又回到了很多年前由 (聽不清楚) 付等人做出的一個非常簡單的觀察，即直接從植物中獲取蛋白質效率更高。

And the reason that we struggle to get to price parity right now is really about volume. That's it. And so it is still a goal, and I think you'll see it a differentiated goal where as we push to provide very clean, very simple, very healthy ingredients to the consumer. That's going to have some burden on that goal.

而我們目前難以達到平價的真正原因就是數量問題。就是這樣。所以這仍然是一個目標，我認為你會看到它是一個差異化的目標，我們努力為消費者提供非常乾淨、非常簡單、非常健康的食材。這會給該目標帶來一些負擔。

But there are other products that are -- lend themselves more to reaching it primarily in the food service category. So we'll continue to pursue that where those economics are particularly important. So it does remain a goal. Maybe it's a little more differentiated and sector-specific than it was at the onset.

但還有其他產品更適合主要在食品服務類別中實現這一目標。因此，我們將繼續在經濟尤為重要的領域追求這一目標。所以它仍然是一個目標。或許，它比一開始時更加差異化，並且針對特定行業。

Great. And then as a follow-up, can I ask about the relative growth rates of the markets in Europe versus the US? Is Europe growing faster because the consumer demand is there. And as I think about the US, is there any catalyst that could accelerate the growth of the market from here or are we in steady state now? I'm thinking about hybrid products with cultivated fats.

偉大的。然後作為後續問題，我可以問歐洲市場和美國市場的相對成長率嗎？歐洲是否因為有消費需求而成長更快？當我想到美國時，是否存在什麼催化劑可以加速市場從現在開始的成長，或者我們現在處於穩定狀態嗎？我正在考慮含有培養脂肪的混合產品。

I mean how close are those kinds of ideas in? Is that two years, five years out? Is it something you would participate in? Just curious.

我的意思是這些想法有多接近？那是兩年還是五年後？這是你會參加的事情嗎？只是好奇。

Yes. That's all really good question, guys. So Europe is not homogeneous in regard to its growth rates. There are some markets that are better than others. And there's also some headwinds in some of the European markets that are starting to look a little bit like the US in terms of processed argument. The ag lobby is not as strong there. So it's certainly not as significant or strong, and there's still a lot of good pockets of growth in Europe. But it gets back to the consumer there, particularly being motivated around climate.

是的。大家，這都是非常好的問題。因此，歐洲的成長率並不均勻。有些市場比其他市場更好。一些歐洲市場也面臨一些阻力，從加工角度來看，它們開始變得有點像美國。那裡的農業遊說團體並不那麼強大。因此，其影響肯定沒有那麼顯著或強勁，歐洲仍有許多良好的成長空間。但它最終還是回歸了消費者身上，尤其是受到氣候因素的推動。

They're just seeing the world differently and much more to lean in. On the question like cultivated and things of that nature, we certainly look at everything. We're agnostic to technology. It's really about the outcome. But I think the trend is actually in the ops direction is how simple can we make these products, how much can we assure the consumer that the noise they're hearing about being processed is an industry incumbent industry trying to protect itself, right?

他們只是以不同的眼光看待世界，並且更依賴他人。對於諸如栽培之類的問題，我們當然會全面考慮。我們對科技持不可知論態度。這真的關乎結果。但我認為趨勢實際上是在營運方向上的，我們能把這些產品做得多麼簡單，我們能在多大程度上向消費者保證，他們所聽到的正在處理的噪音是一個行業現任行業試圖保護自己，對嗎？

We make our products on a machine that's used to make pasta, right? We take protein from plants that are grown in a variety of places, including in the Upper Midwest, by farmers that are now making more money than they used to make growing corn and wheat. And we extract that protein using Beyond state as an example. We track that in an air chamber Spire does for us.

我們用製作義大利麵的機器來製作我們的產品，對嗎？我們從包括美國中西部北部在內的各個地方種植的植物中獲取蛋白質，這些農民現在賺的錢比過去種植玉米和小麥賺的錢更多。我們以 Beyond 狀態為例萃取該蛋白質。我們在氣室中追蹤 Spire 為我們做的事情。

It separates just naturally because of the particle sizes between, different between starch and protein. And we run that protein through heating, cooling and pressure on a machine that makes Pasta, right? And then we put that into a mixer, we mix in the flavor and that's beyond me. That's it. Simple.

由於澱粉和蛋白質之間的顆粒大小不同，所以它們會自然分離。然後我們在製作義大利麵的機器上對蛋白質進行加熱、冷卻和加壓，對嗎？然後我們把它放入攪拌機，加入調味料，這超出了我的理解範圍。就是這樣。簡單的。

And so I think the catalyst for the growth of this category is the truth. How many people can we get to understand that our product is simple, it's clean and it's really good for you and it tastes great. right? Those are the things that are going to move this category forward. And it will happen.

所以我認為這個類別成長的催化劑是真相。我們能讓多少人明白我們的產品簡單、乾淨、對您非常有益而且味道很好。正確的？這些都是推動這個類別向前發展的因素。而且它會發生。

As I mentioned, all this noise around electric car is not working, solar, not working, ice being contaminated. It's all part of a process. And I thought we were going to get through it. I thought we'd beat it, but we went through it, and we're going through that and what they call the trough. I think we're coming out of the trough where -- we're starting to go up what they call the slope of enlightenment and innovation literature.

正如我所提到的，圍繞電動車的所有這些噪音都不起作用，太陽能不起作用，冰被污染了。這都是過程的一部分。我以為我們能夠渡過難關。我以為我們會戰勝它，但是我們還是經歷了它，我們正在經歷這個以及他們所說的低谷。我想我們正在走出低谷，開始爬上所謂的啟蒙和創新文學的斜坡。

And what will bring the consumer back is a fundamental understanding that this is a very simple and clean product tastes great, and it's really good for you. And -- the more and more consumers understand that, the more you see the market come back. But it's inevitable.

而讓消費者回頭的則是從根本上體認到這是一個非常簡單、乾淨的產品，味道很好，而且對你真的很有好處。而且——越來越多的消費者意識到這一點，你就越能看到市場復甦。但這是不可避免的。

I mean all of this posturing around we're going to do regenerative agriculture any serious scientists around regenerative beef will tell you that's just a nonstarter -- you can have some beef out in the past here, but you have to have far, far less, right? So that's not going to serve -- to provide a global protein solution. there's not that many other options, right? And so we will get to where we need to go. It's about educating the consumer, and we're doing that.

我的意思是，所有圍繞著我們將進行再生農業的姿態，任何研究再生牛肉的嚴肅科學家都會告訴你，這根本行不通——你過去可以在這裡生產一些牛肉，但你必須生產少得多的牛肉，對嗎？所以這並不能提供全球蛋白質解決方案。沒有那麼多其他的選擇，對吧？這樣我們就能到達我們需要去的地方。這是為了教育消費者，我們正在這樣做。

Peter Salehm, BTIG.

彼得·薩利姆（Peter Salehm），BTIG。

Great. These topics have been touched upon, but I didn't want to ask maybe in a different way. Ethan, about a little over a year ago, you had mentioned that in 2020, percent of customers thought plant-based meat was a healthy alternative. And then by 2022, I think that number had declined to about 38%. And has continued to decline.

偉大的。這些話題已經被涉及過，但我不想以不同的方式詢問。伊森，大約一年多前，你提到，2020 年，% 的顧客認為植物肉是健康的替代品。到 2022 年，我認為這個數字將下降到 38% 左右。並持續下降。

I'm curious if you guys are still tracking that. And if -- have we bottomed on that? Are we bottomed and starting to see that kind of maybe tick up a little bit, given some of the work you've been doing? And then I have a follow-up.

我很好奇你們是否還在追蹤這件事。如果──我們已經觸底了嗎？考慮到您一直在做的一些工作，我們是否已經觸底並且開始看到這種可能略有回升？然後我有一個後續問題。

Yes, great question. Yes. So we don't track that from a category perspective as close as we do for our own brand. And we are starting to see a change in that within our own brands. And we had a lot of help from a lot of really constructive people with is Joy Bauer, who is a top nutritionist and MBC, all of this, who's a consultant for us and has done a lot of reformulation work with us and or it's the doctors that we use or the Stanford work we've done.

是的，很好的問題。是的。因此，我們不會像追蹤我們自己的品牌那樣從類別角度進行密切追蹤。我們開始看到我們自己的品牌內部所發生的變化。我們得到了很多真正有建設性的人的幫助，其中包括喬伊鮑爾 (Joy Bauer)，他是一位頂級營養師和 MBC，他是我們的顧問，與我們一起做了很多重新配方的工作，或者是我們聘請的醫生，或者是我們在斯坦福大學所做的工作。

I mean there's no brand in the world. I don't think that worked harder on really bringing into the core of our product, the concern for human health.

我的意思是，世界上不存在品牌。我不認為我們能更努力地真正體現產品的核心，也就是對人類健康的關注。

I mean we have worked so hard to make sure -- and mind you, like my parents eat this product, my children need it, I eat it is extraordinarily important to me that this product furthers human health. And so it is with much frustration that I hear these industry lobbyists and they're highly paid and slick folks who care their water integrate what we're trying to do. But I'm very confident that over time, that percentage will continue to increase for people like beyond me, makes sense. It's -- I can have a burger and I can have 75% less saturated fat. I can have fat from avocado oil versus stuff that's going to my arteries and require me to my chest opened up when I'm 60 years old to have my orders cleaned.

我的意思是我們一直努力確保——請注意，就像我的父母吃這種產品、我的孩子需要它、我也吃它一樣，這種產品促進人類健康對我來說極為重要。因此，當我聽到這些行業說客，以及那些高薪又精明的人，關心他們的水資源整合，而我們正在努力做的事情時，我感到非常沮喪。但我非常有信心，隨著時間的推移，這個比例會繼續增加，對我以外的人來說，這是有道理的。也就是說——我可以吃一個漢堡，而且飽和脂肪的攝取量可以減少 75%。我可以從酪梨油中獲取脂肪，而這些脂肪會進入我的動脈，當我 60 歲時，就需要打開我的胸腔來清理我的訂單。

I mean knockout out if that's the outcome you want. But if you want a different outcome, come over to be on meat and have a burger that tastes great, and has a clean source of oil, which is avocado oil, right? And that's the message we've got to get out, and that's the message we are getting out of the state product. We just launched a couple of new versions of it. American Heart Association certified.

我的意思是，如果這是你想要的結果，那就淘汰吧。但如果你想要一個不同的結果，那就來吃肉吧，吃一個美味的漢堡，而且還有乾淨的油源，那就是酪梨油，對嗎？這就是我們必須傳達的訊息，也是我們從國家產品中傳達的訊息。我們剛剛推出了它的幾個新版本。美國心臟協會認證。

Again, if you don't want that, don't have it. But if you're concerned about your health and won't have a great dinner, go ahead and get the onset can happen. I mean just -- it makes sense. It's a smarter thing to do it's a smarter thing to do from the environmental perspective, right? Like think about all the energy that's in the plant, right?

再說一遍，如果你不想要，就不要擁有它。但是，如果您擔心自己的健康並且不想吃一頓豐盛的晚餐，那就繼續吧。我的意思是——這很有道理。從環境角度來看，這是一個更明智的做法，對嗎？想想工廠裡的所有能量，對吧？

That's coming from the sun. It's creating the raw materials of life through photosynthesis, we're just taking that protein directly from the plants, right? We're taking the nitrogen out of the air. It's going back into the soil. It's helping the solar regenerate naturally.

那是來自太陽的光。它透過光合作用創造生命的原料，我們只是直接從植物中獲取蛋白質，對嗎？我們正在從空氣中去除氮氣。它會回歸土壤。它正在幫助太陽自然再生。

There's not a lot of synthetic fertilizers being used -- we're then harvesting that. We're running through a simple process of heating cooling the pressure. There are folks out there that want you to think there's a boogiemanin there. There's something to it not -- what there is really good stuff for the earth and really get off your body. We'll get the consumer nurse on that someday.

我們使用的合成肥料並不多——然後我們就開始收穫它們。我們正在運行一個簡單的加熱冷卻壓力的過程。有些人想讓你認為那裡有惡魔。這其中有一定的道理——這對地球來說是真正好的東西，而且真的能從你的身體中去除。將來有一天我們會請消費者護理師來處理這件事。

And then, Lubi, just a question on that long-term kind of target ultimately getting back to 30% on gross margin. Can you just help us a little bit what's embedded in that? I assume you need a more meaningful improvement in industry trends. Just curious if industry trends stay at kind of low to mid-single-digit type growth -- can you still get to that number? Or just help us get to that on a longer-term basis.

然後，Lubi，我有一個問題，關於長期目標，最終將毛利率恢復到 30％。您能否稍微幫助我們了解一下其中的涵義？我認為您需要在行業趨勢方面取得更有意義的進步。只是好奇，如果行業趨勢保持在低到中等個位數的成長水平——你還能達到這個數字嗎？或者只是幫助我們長期實現這一目標。

Yes. It's a really good question. Look, I think certainly, if industry trends improved, right, we would welcome that, and that would be hugely beneficial. But I think one of the reasons why we are focusing on increasing our presence, like I mentioned a little while ago in parts of the store where we have under-indexed is we think there's actually an opportunity to grow our business, right, even in this environment, simply by gaining some market share because we at our core, we're an innovation company, we believe our products are second to none, and we believe we have a right to win in some of these areas, even if we have not played in certain segments of the category in a much more meaningful way historically.

是的。這真是一個好問題。我認為，如果行業趨勢有所改善，我們當然會對此表示歡迎，這將帶來巨大的好處。但我認為，我們專注於提高存在感的原因之一，就像我剛才提到的，在我們指數較低的部分商店中，我們認為實際上有機會發展我們的業務，對吧，即使在這種環境下，只需獲得一些市場份額，因為我們的核心是一家創新公司，我們相信我們的產品是首屈一指的，我們相信我們有權在其中一些領域獲勝，即使我們歷史上沒有更有意義的方式。

And so I think there's an opportunity to -- for us to continue to grow our top line by capturing incremental market share, but I think your general comment is correct in that for us to get to the desired outcomes on EBITDA positive and eventually position our business to be self-sustaining and ultimately cash flow positive, right?

因此，我認為我們有機會透過增加市場份額來繼續增加我們的營業收入，但我認為您的整體評論是正確的，即我們可以實現 EBITDA 正增長的預期結果，並最終實現業務自我維持，並最終實現現金流量正增長，對嗎？

We do need to either maintain or accelerate some of the recent positive momentum we've seen in terms of top line growth, we need to expand gross margin, and then we need to drive some additional savings in operating expenses. So I think we've talked a little bit about the sales and gross margin.

我們確實需要維持或加速近期營收成長的一些正面勢頭，我們需要擴大毛利率，然後我們需要在營運費用上再節省一些開支。所以我想我們已經討論了一些關於銷售額和毛利率的問題。

On the operating expense side, obviously, we've taken some measures, a difficult measure for sure with this reduction in force that we announced and then also shutting down or suspending our operations in China. But there's other incremental opportunities that we're looking at as well to reduce our operating expenses, including -- I think we've discussed this before on previous calls, that our facility -- our headquarters facility here in El Segundo, there is some excess space that we may look to sublease. We -- if you looked at 2024 and certainly prior to that, quite a bit of dollars were invested in commercialization activities, right?

在營運費用方面，我們顯然採取了一些措施，這對我們宣布的裁員以及關閉或暫停我們在中國的業務來說無疑是一項艱難的措施。但是，我們也在尋找其他增量機會來降低我們的營運費用，包括——我想我們之前在電話會議上討論過這個問題，我們的設施——我們位於埃爾塞貢多的總部設施，有一些多餘的空間我們可能會考慮轉租。我們 — — 如果您看一下 2024 年，當然在此之前，已經有相當多的資金投入商業化活動中，對嗎？

And particularly some work that we were doing with large QSR customers, I think we'd expect that level of activity, at least in the near term, to be a little bit lower.

特別是我們與大型 QSR 客戶合作的一些工作，我認為我們預計至少在短期內活動水平會稍微低一些。

So we won't be investing quite as much in commercialization. And then there are some nonrecurring fees like consulting fees, as an example, which we would expect to be lower on a go-forward basis. And then, of course, we're just tightening our belts across the board and making sure that we're running very tight budgets. So combining all those things together and hopefully being able to drive the top line growth, expand the gross margins and drive incremental savings in operating expenses, we think is going to get us to where we need to be.

因此我們不會在商業化方面投入太多。然後還有一些非經常性費用，例如諮詢費，我們預計這些費用在未來會降低。當然，我們全面勒緊褲帶，確保預算非常緊張。因此，將所有這些因素結合起來，希望能夠推動營收成長、擴大毛利率並推動營運費用的逐步節省，我們認為這將使我們達到我們需要的目標。

And just to add to that, very thorough answer. I if you look at the goal we set to become EBITDA positive by the end -- and you know that we're not suggesting any kind of outsized growth. This really is going to come from just continuing to trim the P&L and continue to reduce operating expense in a way that's responsible. And that's, I think, what you'll see over '25 and '26 to get us there, just becoming more and more efficient. The other comment just on does the category need to grow for us to grow at a healthy clip.

補充一下，這是一個非常透徹的答案。如果你看一下我們設定的最終實現 EBITDA 正成長的目標——你就會知道我們並沒有建議任何形式的超額成長。這實際上將透過繼續削減損益並以負責任的方式繼續降低營運費用來實現。我認為，在 25 年和 26 年，你們將會看到我們達到這個目標，並且變得越來越有效率。另一條評論是關於該類別是否需要成長才能讓我們以健康的速度成長。

And that will be the answer was spot on. If you go in the supermarket today, it's a category and transition. it's -- you've got certain products in certain places. And it's often actually hard to find some of our key products, right, because there's so much change going on in the supermarket between fresh and frozen and things of that nature. And so our goal, right, is to go back to large brand blocks, and I'm increasingly agnostic about where they're in fresh or frozen.

這就是正確的答案。如果你今天去超市，這是一個類別和轉變。就是－你在特定的地方有特定的產品。但實際上，我們經常很難找到一些關鍵產品，因為超市裡的新鮮食品和冷凍食品以及諸如此類的東西發生了很大的變化。因此，我們的目標是回到大品牌區塊，而我越來越不清楚它們是新鮮的還是冷凍的。

But what I do want to see is the consumer be able to easily identify in the store where they can buy our products and when you see a retailer, I'll take Myer as an example, where they do a really nice job of displaying the products all in the same place, it's a clear brand block. You tend to see pretty good momentum there, right? And so that's one of the tools we have toolkit here to continue to drive growth, even if the category doesn't respond and grow along with us, we also, as Lubi, I mean, our products are second and not in my view. We've got a terrific innovation team. We continue to make them cleaner, simpler and we can go after some of that low-hanging fruit and intend to.

但我確實希望看到消費者能夠在商店中輕鬆識別他們可以在哪裡購買我們的產品，當您看到零售商時，我以邁爾百貨（Myer）為例，他們非常出色地將所有產品展示在同一個地方，這是一個清晰的品牌區塊。您往往看到那裡的勢頭相當良好，對嗎？因此，這是我們在這裡擁有的工具之一，可以繼續推動增長，即使該類別沒有響應並與我們一起增長，我們作為 Lubi，我的意思是，我們的產品是第二位的，而不是在我看來。我們擁有一支出色的創新團隊。我們將繼續使它們變得更清潔，更簡單，我們可以追求一些唾手可得的成果，我們打算這麼做。

It's not my dream to do that necessarily. We have a much bigger goal in view, but for right now in terms of just stabilizing, hitting this EBITDA-positive goal, there's some revenue we can go get through just taking our brand, our approach into a category that has a ton of innovation recently.

這不一定是我的夢想。我們有一個更大的目標，但就目前而言，僅就穩定和實現 EBITDA 正值目標而言，我們可以透過將我們的品牌和方法帶入最近出現大量創新的類別來獲得一些收入。

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Ethan Brown for any closing remarks.

我們的問答環節到此結束。我想將會議交還給 Ethan Brown 並請他作最後發言。

I appreciate the very thoughtful questions and we continue to drive the business towards this goal. -- and took some tough decisions over the last several months to bring operating expense down even further, and we'll continue to do that. And get the operating base to fit the near-term revenue and hit our goal of being sustainable Thanks, everybody.

我很感謝這些非常深思熟慮的問題，我們將繼續推動業務朝著這一目標邁進。 ——並在過去幾個月做出了一些艱難的決定，進一步降低營運費用，我們將繼續這樣做。並使營運基礎適應近期收入並實現永續發展的目標。

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

會議現已結束。感謝您參加今天的演講。您現在可以斷開連線。