超越肉類 (BYND) 2021 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon, and welcome to Beyond Meat's Fourth Quarter Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) Please note that this event is being recorded.

下午好，歡迎來到 Beyond Meat 的第四季度收益電話會議。 （操作員說明）請注意，此事件正在記錄中。

Now I'd like to turn the call over to Mr. Lubi Kutua, VP of FP&A and Investor Relations. Thank you very much, everyone. Please go ahead, sir.

現在我想把電話轉給 FP&A 和投資者關係副總裁 Lubi Kutua 先生。非常感謝大家。請繼續，先生。

Thank you. Good afternoon, and welcome. Joining me on today's call are Ethan Brown, Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Phil Hardin, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. By now, everyone should have access to the company's fourth quarter earnings press release and investor presentation filed today after market close. These documents are available on the Investor Relations of Beyond Meat's website at www.beyondmeat.com.

謝謝你。下午好，歡迎。和我一起參加今天電話會議的還有創始人、總裁兼首席執行官 Ethan Brown；以及首席財務官兼財務主管菲爾·哈丁（Phil Hardin）。到目前為止，每個人都應該可以在今天收市後獲得該公司第四季度收益新聞稿和投資者報告。這些文件可在 Beyond Meat 的投資者關係網站 www.beyondmeat.com 上找到。

Before we begin, please note that all information presented on today's call is unaudited. And 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，請注意今天電話會議中提供的所有信息都未經審計。在本次電話會議期間，管理層可能會做出聯邦證券法含義內的前瞻性陳述。這些陳述基於管理層當前的預期和信念，涉及可能導致實際結果與這些前瞻性陳述中描述的結果大不相同的風險和不確定性。

Forward-looking statements in the earnings release that we issued today, along with the comments on this call, are made only as of today and will not be updated as actual events unfold. Please refer to today's press release, the company's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended October 2, 2021, the company's annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021, to be filed with the SEC, and 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.

我們今天發布的收益報告中的前瞻性陳述以及對本次電話會議的評論僅在今天發布，不會隨著實際事件的發展而更新。請參閱今天的新聞稿，該公司截至 2021 年 10 月 2 日止季度的 10-Q 表格季度報告，該公司截至 2021 年 12 月 31 日止財政年度的 10-K 表格年度報告，將提交給美國證券交易委員會，以及向 SEC 提交的其他文件，以詳細討論可能導致實際結果與今天做出的任何前瞻性陳述中明示或暗示的結果存在重大差異的風險。

Please note that on today's call, management may make reference to adjusted EBITDA, adjusted gross profit 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 or the investor presentation for a reconciliation of adjusted EBITDA, adjusted gross profit and adjusted net loss to their most comparable GAAP measures.

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、調整後的毛利和調整後的淨虧損，這些都是非公認會計原則的財務指標。雖然我們認為這些非公認會計原則財務措施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替代根據公認會計原則提供的財務信息。請參閱今天的新聞稿或投資者介紹，了解調整後的 EBITDA、調整後的毛利潤和調整後的淨虧損與其最具可比性的 GAAP 指標的對賬。

I would now like to turn the call over to Ethan Brown.

我現在想把電話轉給 Ethan Brown。

Thank you, Lubi, and good afternoon, everyone. Like many, we saw challenges throughout 2021 including the fourth quarter. Before delving more specifically into our quarterly and full year 2021 results, I'd like to share a broad view. Since 2018, our last year as a private company, we've grown our business 428% or 3-year CAGR of 74%. Though we posted growth of 37% in 2020, we saw a much more modest increase of 14% in 2021, recording net revenues of approximately $465 million. In the fourth quarter, that was roughly flat at $101 million or negative 1% year-over-year.

謝謝你，Lubi，大家下午好。像許多人一樣，我們在整個 2021 年（包括第四季度）都看到了挑戰。在更具體地研究我們的 2021 年季度和全年業績之前，我想分享一個廣泛的觀點。自 2018 年以來，我們作為一家私營公司的最後一年，我們的業務增長了 428% 或 74% 的 3 年復合年增長率。儘管我們在 2020 年實現了 37% 的增長，但我們在 2021 年看到了 14% 的溫和增長，淨收入約為 4.65 億美元。在第四季度，這一數字大致持平，為 1.01 億美元，同比下降 1%。

The key question is whether this reduced growth rate is an aberration or a harbinger of things to come. As our 2022 guidance suggests, we believe last year's growth rate to be temporary and that growth will build to higher levels this year. Our confidence springs from 4 general factors, among others: one, we do not expect certain positive consumer trends that appear related to COVID and that did not favor our category to persist. Chief among these trends were diminished focused on health-oriented eating choices, with consumers opting instead for comfort foods and a reduced openness and ability to trial.

關鍵問題是，這種下降的增長率是失常還是預示著即將發生的事情。正如我們的 2022 年指引所示，我們認為去年的增長率是暫時的，今年的增長將達到更高水平。我們的信心來自 4 個一般因素，其中之一是：第一，我們預計某些與 COVID 相關且不利於我們類別的積極消費趨勢不會持續存在。這些趨勢中最主要的趨勢是關注以健康為導向的飲食選擇，消費者選擇舒適食品，開放度和嘗試能力降低。

As you may recall, in 2021, we prepared to launch our largest in-store sampling program to date, only to scuttle those plans as the Delta variant took hold. Today, after 2 years with only relatively scarce in-store sampling, in the first half of this year, we expect to resume robust in-store sampling programs for retail items. These effective programs have long been a staple of our field marketing efforts, given our conviction that tasting is believing.

您可能還記得，在 2021 年，我們準備啟動迄今為止最大的店內採樣計劃，但隨著 Delta 變體的流行而破壞了這些計劃。今天，在店內抽樣相對稀缺的兩年後，今年上半年，我們預計將恢復針對零售商品的穩健的店內抽樣計劃。這些有效的計劃長期以來一直是我們現場營銷工作的主要內容，因為我們堅信品嚐是相信的。

Two, throughout COVID, we've been investing heavily in product innovation and scaling with our strategic partners. In many cases, together, we have awaited the pandemic's abatement and the resolution of labor and supply chain challenges before further market activity. As with the resumption of our broader sampling program, this period of delay appears to be coming to an end, and several products are in various stages of market entry or expansion.

第二，在整個 COVID 期間，我們一直在大力投資於產品創新並與我們的戰略合作夥伴一起擴大規模。在許多情況下，我們共同等待大流行病的緩解以及勞動力和供應鏈挑戰的解決，然後再進行進一步的市場活動。隨著我們更廣泛的抽樣計劃的恢復，這段延遲似乎即將結束，一些產品處於市場進入或擴張的不同階段。

These include the recently concluded expanded test of Beyond The Original Orange Chicken at Panda Express; advertised tests occurring in McDonald's in Dallas and San Francisco of the McPlant, featuring a plant-based patty co-developed with Beyond Meat; the core menu placement of McPlant featuring Beyond Meat on McDonald's across the U.K.; the core menu placement of Beyond Italian Sausage Crumbles at Pizza Hut locations throughout Canada; and the core menu placement of 3 Beyond Meat toppings at Pizza Hut delivery locations across the U.K.; and the recent national limited-time offering of Beyond Fried Chicken at KFC locations nationwide. And in retail, in the coming weeks, we plan to launch an exciting and brand-new product line via the PLANeT partnership, our joint venture with PepsiCo.

其中包括最近在 Panda Express 完成的 Beyond The Original Orange Chicken 的擴展測試； McPlant 在達拉斯和舊金山的麥當勞進行廣告測試，其中包括與 Beyond Meat 共同開發的植物肉餅； McPlant 在英國各地麥當勞的核心菜單佈局，其中包括 Beyond Meat； Beyond Italian Sausage Crumbles 在加拿大各地的必勝客地點的核心菜單佈局；以及在英國各地必勝客送貨地點的 3 種 Beyond Meat 配料的核心菜單；以及最近在全國肯德基分店的全國限時供應超越炸雞。在零售方面，我們計劃在未來幾週內通過我們與百事可樂的合資企業 PLANeT 合作推出令人興奮的全新產品線。

Three, as we discussed, despite the strong and steady progress we're making with the strategic QSR partners, the majority of our food service business, nearly 80% in 2021, has remained concentrated across independent operators, smaller chains, hotels, universities and others that were most impacted by COVID-related disruptions. In the absence of another variant or unforeseen disruption, we expect to build on our recent momentum in this segment in 2022, furthering our overall foodservice business growth.

第三，正如我們所討論的，儘管我們與 QSR 戰略合作夥伴取得了強勁而穩定的進展，但我們的大部分食品服務業務（2021 年近 80%）仍然集中在獨立運營商、小型連鎖店、酒店、大學和其他受與 COVID 相關的中斷影響最大的人。在沒有其他變體或不可預見的中斷的情況下，我們預計將在 2022 年鞏固我們在這一領域的近期勢頭，進一步推動我們的整體餐飲服務業務增長。

Fourth, over the last 2 years, we've invested significant resources in our top priority global markets, the EU and China. These investments have yielded a solid footing for growth or a key part of our efforts to support global QSR partners and have opened sizable retail and food service opportunities for existing and planned products in these markets. Across 2021, we saw a 77% year-over-year growth in our international business, and we expect to see continued positive results in 2022.

第四，在過去的兩年裡，我們在我們最優先的全球市場——歐盟和中國投入了大量資源。這些投資為增長奠定了堅實的基礎，或者是我們支持全球 QSR 合作夥伴努力的關鍵部分，並為這些市場的現有和計劃中的產品開闢了可觀的零售和食品服務機會。整個 2021 年，我們的國際業務同比增長 77%，我們預計 2022 年將繼續取得積極成果。

Finally, before providing a more detailed discussion of Q4 results, it will be helpful to share our thoughts on operating expenses to be expected in 2022. As I've said before, it remains our objective to insulate our long-term strategy from short-term conditions. Throughout 2021, when faced with the decision to maximize short-term outcomes or pursue longer-term strategy, we chose the latter and made significant investments in future growth here in the U.S., EU and China. The long-term bench of our decision-making further burdened, from an OpEx and margin perspective, a quarter that was already impacted by lower volumes.

最後，在對第四季度業績進行更詳細的討論之前，分享我們對 2022 年預期運營費用的看法將很有幫助。正如我之前所說，我們的目標仍然是使我們的長期戰略與短期戰略相隔離。條款條件。在整個 2021 年，當面臨最大化短期成果或追求長期戰略的決定時，我們選擇了後者，並對美國、歐盟和中國的未來增長進行了大量投資。從運營支出和利潤率的角度來看，我們決策的長期替補進一步加重了已經受到銷量下降影響的四分之一。

Despite the adverse impact on the quarter, we are highly confident that these investments in terms of team, infrastructure, product scaling and more generally setting up strategic partnerships for success, will generate strong returns in the years ahead. With this solid foundation now in place, though we will continue to invest in core parts of our business, we do not plan to grow operating expenses significantly in 2022. For example, we do not anticipate expanding our headcount to save select critical positions or actively increasing the efficiency of our operations and have concluded certain consulting contracts, among other measures. If 2021 was a year of investment in scaling as we planned for the resumption and expansion of market activity, 2022 is the year of execution.

儘管對本季度產生了不利影響，但我們非常有信心，這些在團隊、基礎設施、產品擴展以及更普遍地建立成功的戰略合作夥伴關係方面的投資將在未來幾年產生強勁的回報。有了這個堅實的基礎，儘管我們將繼續投資於我們業務的核心部分，但我們不計劃在 2022 年大幅增加運營費用。例如，我們預計不會擴大員工人數以節省選定的關鍵職位或積極提高我們的運營效率，並簽訂了某些諮詢合同等措施。如果說 2021 年是我們計劃恢復和擴大市場活動的規模化投資年，那麼 2022 年就是執行年。

With that by way of context, I will now review our overall business performance in Q4 and full year 2021. In the U.S., results across our retail and foodservice channels were mixed. For the year, sales to U.S. foodservice customers increased 26% to a record $76.5 million, rebounding nicely from the COVID-induced lows of 2020. However, growth in U.S. foodservice was more than offset by a decline in U.S. retail, which decreased 8% year-over-year. Broadly, we believe the 2021 U.S. retail outcome reflects 3 main developments. These are slowed category growth, heightened competitive activity and our own decision to focus on finalizing and scaling innovation for upcoming QSR and strategic partner launches versus bringing more new items, which are generally a source of growth to retailers in 2021.

在此背景下，我現在將回顧我們在第四季度和 2021 年全年的整體業務表現。在美國，我們零售和餐飲服務渠道的業績喜憂參半。今年，對美國餐飲服務客戶的銷售額增長 26%，達到創紀錄的 7650 萬美元，從 COVID 引發的 2020 年低點很好地反彈。然而，美國餐飲服務的增長被美國零售業下降 8% 所抵消。一年又一年。總的來說，我們認為 2021 年美國零售業的結果反映了 3 個主要發展。這些是品類增長放緩、競爭活動加劇以及我們自己決定專注於為即將推出的 QSR 和戰略合作夥伴推出的最終確定和擴展創新，而不是帶來更多新產品，這通常是 2021 年零售商的增長來源。

Let me now offer more detail on these 3 factors. First, growth in the plant-based meat category decelerated meaningfully in U.S. retail from 45% in 2020 to negative 0.4% in 2021. We believe a number of factors contributed to this, some of which I touched on earlier in my remarks. These include a tough year-ago comparison as the onset of COVID in 2020 spurred unprecedented consumer stockpiling, which did not repeat in 2021. Consumer migration to fast food, particularly those with drive-thru, where we were largely absent, and consumer trends around food choice as well as a reduction in our ability to sample.

現在讓我提供有關這三個因素的更多詳細信息。首先，美國零售中植物性肉類的增長顯著放緩，從 2020 年的 45% 降至 2021 年的負 0.4%。我們認為有許多因素促成了這一點，其中一些我在前面的發言中談到了。其中包括與一年前的艱難比較，因為 2020 年 COVID 的爆發刺激了前所未有的消費者囤積，這種情況在 2021 年沒有重演。消費者轉向快餐，尤其是那些我們基本上缺席的得來速快餐，以及消費趨勢食物選擇以及我們採樣能力的降低。

As I noted, we view these developments to be primarily pandemic-related and indicative of an unstable period in the U.S. and global economy. Accordingly, we expect to be able to drive and realize renewed growth in retail sales, provided the pandemic continues to recede. We expect these gains to occur via expanded distribution, the launch of new products, reinstitution of our in-store sampling and the implementation of our 2022 marketing program.

正如我所指出的，我們認為這些事態發展主要與大流行有關，並表明美國和全球經濟處於不穩定時期。因此，如果大流行繼續消退，我們預計能夠推動並實現零售額的新增長。我們預計這些收益將通過擴大分銷、推出新產品、重新安排店內樣品和實施 2022 年營銷計劃來實現。

Our marketing initiative leverages and ties into relevant advertising by some of our larger QSR partners as well as that of our PLANeT partnership joint venture with PepsiCo. This integrated approach, which represents our most comprehensive marketing program to date, will meet the consumer across QSR, convenience and grocery.

我們的營銷計劃利用我們一些較大的 QSR 合作夥伴以及我們與百事可樂的 PLANeT 合作夥伴合資企業的相關廣告並與之聯繫。這種綜合方法代表了我們迄今為止最全面的營銷計劃，將在 QSR、便利店和雜貨店滿足消費者的需求。

Second, competitive activity in U.S. retail intensified in 2021, marked by frequent aggressive discounting and new entrants to the category. We continue to believe that a competitive environment featuring high-quality products and compelling marketing is a positive as it tends to grow the category. During the case of 2021, we experienced intense increased competition during the period when the size of the prize did not expand. In this difficult dynamic, we were quite pleased that we exited the year as we began, the #1 brand in the category for refrigerated plant-based meats. Further, our brand awareness, the highest across all plant-based meats, continued to climb despite the number of companies vying for consumer attention.

其次，2021 年美國零售業的競爭活動加劇，其特點是頻繁的激進折扣和該類別的新進入者。我們仍然相信，以高質量產品和引人注目的營銷為特色的競爭環境是積極的，因為它往往會增加該類別。在 2021 年的情況下，我們在獎金規模沒有擴大的時期經歷了激烈的競爭。在這個艱難的動態中，我們很高興我們在年初就退出了這一年，這是冷藏植物肉類別中的第一品牌。此外，我們的品牌知名度是所有植物性肉類中最高的，儘管有許多公司在爭奪消費者的注意力，但它繼續攀升。

Third, as we look at U.S.-focused innovation in 2021, we made the decision to prioritize delivering on a number of QSR relationships and preparing a product line for the first launch of our joint venture. As a result, whereas in 2020, we launched several new bill items, including Beyond Breakfast Sausage Patties, Beyond Breakfast Sausage Links and Beyond Meatballs, in 2021, we brought to retail markets Beyond Burger 3.0, and to a more limited extent, a fall launch of our Beyond Chicken Tenders. Though this allocation of focus may have had short-term implications for our retail growth, we believe it was the right long-term prioritization for our business, particularly given the ongoing reduced ability in 2021 to sample new products in U.S. retailers.

第三，當我們著眼於 2021 年以美國為重點的創新時，我們決定優先提供一些 QSR 關係，並為我們的合資企業的首次推出準備一條產品線。因此，雖然在 2020 年，我們推出了幾個新的賬單項目，包括 Beyond Breakfast Sausage Patties、Beyond Breakfast Sausage Links 和 Beyond Meatballs，但在 2021 年，我們將 Beyond Burger 3.0 帶入零售市場，並且在更有限的程度上下降了推出我們的超越雞肉招標。儘管這種重點分配可能對我們的零售增長產生了短期影響，但我們認為這對我們的業務來說是正確的長期優先事項，特別是考慮到 2021 年美國零售商對新產品進行抽樣的能力持續下降。

Turning to supply chain. Our full year gross margin of 25.2% was lower by approximately 500 basis points year-over-year. Phil will walk you through more detail on margin. For now, I'll provide general comments on the nature and endurance of some of the higher costs we faced. This overview can be summarized across 3 main areas. First, we shifted a significant amount of volume to external co-manufacturers for the following reasons: one, given the level of scaling activities underway to support tests and launches with strategic partners, we made the decision to shift production volume away from our internal facility in Pennsylvania and toward external manufacturers in order to free up line time for commercialization.

轉向供應鏈。我們的全年毛利率為 25.2%，同比下降約 500 個基點。 Phil 將向您介紹有關保證金的更多詳細信息。現在，我將就我們面臨的一些較高成本的性質和承受能力提供一般性評論。此概述可概括為 3 個主要領域。首先，我們將大量產量轉移給外部合作製造商，原因如下：第一，鑑於正在進行的規模化活動以支持與戰略合作夥伴的測試和發布，我們決定將生產量從我們的內部設施轉移出去在賓夕法尼亞州和外部製造商，以騰出生產線時間進行商業化。

Though we knew these actions would effectively replace lower-cost internal production with higher external tolling fees as well as generate additional transportation and logistics costs, this allocation was the right decision given the long-term importance of the supported projects. We believe such tradeoffs should be alleviated once we complete our planned commercialization center here in Los Angeles, a large percentage of which we expect to be operational in the back half of this year.

雖然我們知道這些行動將有效地用更高的外部通行費取代低成本的內部生產，並產生額外的運輸和物流成本，但鑑於支持項目的長期重要性，這種分配是正確的決定。我們認為，一旦我們在洛杉磯完成了我們計劃中的商業化中心，這種權衡應該會得到緩解，我們預計其中很大一部分將在今年下半年投入運營。

Two, we experienced longer-than-expected downtime on one of our lines to complete repairs, necessitating greater use of external capacity. And three, we sought to prioritize volume to certain co-manufacturers to maintain network capacity necessary for planned production in 2022.

第二，我們的一條生產線完成維修的停機時間比預期的要長，因此需要更多地利用外部產能。第三，我們試圖優先考慮向某些合作製造商提供產量，以維持 2022 年計劃生產所需的網絡容量。

Next, we scaled new products that are at the beginning of their cost-down curve. As with many of our product launches, we introduced Beyond Chicken Tenders in the latter half of 2021 for foodservice and more limited retail sales at a higher cost than what we expect the long-term run rate to be. In these launches, we used higher-cost co-manufacturing partners, experienced lower throughput levels and other supply chain inefficiencies, all typical of early production runs. We do not expect these higher costs to persist indefinitely, having already achieved improvements in production efficiency for our chicken products, in some cases, more than doubling throughput.

接下來，我們擴展了處於成本下降曲線起點的新產品。與我們的許多產品發布一樣，我們在 2021 年下半年推出了 Beyond Chicken Tenders，用於餐飲服務和更有限的零售，其成本高於我們預期的長期運行率。在這些發布中，我們使用了成本更高的聯合製造合作夥伴，經歷了較低的吞吐量水平和其他供應鏈效率低下，所有這些都是早期生產運行的典型特徵。我們預計這些較高的成本不會無限期地持續下去，因為我們的雞肉產品的生產效率已經有所提高，在某些情況下，產量會增加一倍以上。

In similar fashion, as we ramped up for an exciting new and entirely novel to us product launch, which will be announced later this quarter, we incurred several of the same early production inefficiencies I just described for chicken. We expect these higher costs to persist for at least the first half of this year with significant improvements expected by year-end.

以類似的方式，當我們準備推出令人興奮的全新產品時，我們將在本季度晚些時候宣布推出全新的產品，我們遇到了我剛剛描述的雞肉早期生產效率低下的幾個相同的問題。我們預計這些較高的成本將至少持續到今年上半年，預計到年底會有顯著改善。

And lastly, we've experienced a substantial increase in our manufacturing conversion costs recently, most of which we consider transitory. Key explanatory factors include: one, pivoting to external partners drove higher transportation costs as we move inventory across our network in response to the aforementioned factors; two, as we reallocated certain volumes, we nonetheless absorbed fixed overhead costs at our facility without the corresponding output; three, like others, we faced broad inflationary challenges related to transportation costs; four, as we added production capacity in North America, the EU and China during a period of lower volume, our depreciation cost per unit has steadily increased, although we expect this trend to stabilize and soon reverse the volume growth, especially in our nascent international locations.

最後，我們最近經歷了製造轉換成本的大幅增加，其中大部分我們認為是暫時的。關鍵的解釋性因素包括：一，由於我們在整個網絡中移動庫存以應對上述因素，因此轉向外部合作夥伴推動了更高的運輸成本；第二，當我們重新分配某些數量時，我們仍然在我們的設施中吸收了固定的間接成本，而沒有相應的產出；第三，與其他人一樣，我們面臨與運輸成本相關的廣泛通脹挑戰；四、隨著我們在北美、歐盟和中國的產能下降期間增加產能，我們的單位折舊成本穩步上升，儘管我們預計這一趨勢將趨於穩定並很快扭轉銷量增長，尤其是在我們新興的國際市場地點。

Importantly, though we expect continued near-term headwinds from some of these considerations, we are confident that none are structural in nature. In most cases, initiatives are already underway to return margins to higher levels, including directing volume back toward internal capacity as we complete our commercialization center, simplifying production networks for our new items and achieving higher throughput rates, particularly on these newer items. At the same time, despite all the noise in our COGS this quarter, we have reduced material costs, the output of our global cost-down program and a subject I will return to before concluding my remarks.

重要的是，儘管我們預計其中一些考慮因素會在短期內持續存在不利因素，但我們相信這些因素本質上都不是結構性的。在大多數情況下，我們已經在採取措施將利潤率恢復到更高的水平，包括在我們完成商業化中心時將銷量引導回內部產能、簡化新產品的生產網絡並實現更高的吞吐量，特別是在這些新產品上。與此同時，儘管本季度我們的 COGS 存在諸多噪音，但我們已經降低了材料成本、我們的全球成本降低計劃的產出，以及在結束我的發言之前我將回到的一個主題。

With that broad reflection on 2021 complete, let me now briefly discuss our fourth quarter results. We generated strong growth across 3 of our 4 sales channels. However, our results in U.S. retail, where we saw a decline, offset gains from the other 3 channels. Looking at recent trends in consumer takeaway in U.S. retail, according to SPINS data for the 12-week period ended December 26, 2021, sales of Beyond Meat products were down 2.7% year-over-year compared to an increase of 0.4% for the category. For our brand, modest growth in MULO was more than offset by a decline in natural and specialty channels, where we over-index relative to the category and where category growth has been especially challenged of late.

完成對 2021 年的廣泛反思後，現在讓我簡要討論一下我們第四季度的業績。我們在 4 個銷售渠道中的 3 個實現了強勁增長。然而，我們在美國零售業的業績出現下滑，抵消了其他 3 個渠道的收益。從美國零售業消費者外賣的近期趨勢來看，根據 SPINS 數據顯示，截至 2021 年 12 月 26 日的 12 週期間，Beyond Meat 產品的銷售額同比下降 2.7%，相比之下，Beyond Meat 產品的銷售額同比增長 0.4%。類別。對於我們的品牌而言，MULO 的適度增長被自然和專業渠道的下降所抵消，在這些渠道中，我們相對於該類別而言指數過高，並且最近類別增長尤其受到挑戰。

For perspective, total category sales in natural and specialty channels declined 8.6% year-over-year during the 12-week period compared to a 1.6% increase in MULO. To be clear, the challenges in natural and specialty extend beyond the plant-based meat category. Expanded offerings of natural and organic foods at conventional grocers have likely contributed to the deceleration in natural and specialty. We plan to reinvigorate our growth in this important channel through product differentiation versus our offerings in conventional grocers, increase in-store sampling and the introduction of new innovation.

從長遠來看，在 12 週期間，天然和特殊渠道的總類別銷售額同比下降 8.6%，而 MULO 則增長 1.6%。需要明確的是，天然和特種肉類的挑戰超出了植物性肉類的範疇。傳統雜貨店增加的天然和有機食品供應可能導致天然和特色食品的減速。我們計劃通過產品差異化與我們在傳統雜貨店中的產品差異化、增加店內抽樣和引入新的創新來重振我們在這一重要渠道的增長。

Despite a 20% reduction in year-over-year U.S. retail sales for Q4, as measured by our net revenue versus aforementioned consumer takeaway data, we continue to see enduring brand strength across the channel. As noted, Beyond Meat remains the #1 brand in the refrigerated plant-based meat category. Moreover, according to SPINS IRI consumer panel data for the 52 weeks ended December 26, 2021, household penetration for the Beyond Meat brand continues to increase, rising 20 basis points sequentially to 6.6% and 110 basis points on a year-over-year basis.

儘管根據我們的淨收入與上述消費者外賣數據衡量，第四季度美國零售額同比下降 20%，但我們繼續看到整個渠道的持久品牌實力。如前所述，Beyond Meat 仍然是冷藏植物肉類別中的第一品牌。此外，根據 SPINS IRI 消費者面板數據，截至 2021 年 12 月 26 日的 52 週，Beyond Meat 品牌的家庭滲透率繼續增加，環比增長 20 個基點至 6.6%，同比增長 110 個基點.

Additionally, our buyer rate, purchase frequency and repeat rates continue to stack up well against our competition, trailing only 2 category incumbents, each of whom enjoy the benefit of significantly broader product portfolios than us. In U.S. MULO, we are encouraged by our continued strength in terms of velocity. We're on an absolute basis for the 12 weeks ended December 26, 2021. Our brand velocity ranked highest among any of the top 20 plant-based meat brands and was 2.6x greater than the category average. This industry-leading velocity is joined by our brand awareness, where total and unaided brand awareness for the Beyond Meat brand in the U.S. increased to 65% and 34%, respectively, each highest among all plant-based meat brands.

此外，我們的買家率、購買頻率和重複率繼續與我們的競爭對手相媲美，僅落後於 2 個類別的老牌企業，他們每個人都享有比我們更廣泛的產品組合的好處。在美國 MULO，我們對我們在速度方面的持續實力感到鼓舞。在截至 2021 年 12 月 26 日的 12 週內，我們以絕對值計算。我們的品牌傳播速度在前 20 大植物性肉類品牌中排名最高，是該類別平均水平的 2.6 倍。這一行業領先的速度與我們的品牌知名度相輔相成，Beyond Meat 品牌在美國的總體品牌知名度和獨立品牌知名度分別提高到 65% 和 34%，在所有植物性肉類品牌中均處於最高水平。

We believe these and other robust brand metrics provide strong momentum for our retail business as we expand our product offerings and distribution footprint, continue to improve our existing products on shelf, and over time, lower price points as we unlock savings via our cost-down program.

我們相信這些和其他強大的品牌指標為我們的零售業務提供了強勁的動力，因為我們擴大了我們的產品供應和分銷範圍，繼續改進我們現有的貨架產品，並且隨著時間的推移，我們通過降低成本來節省成本，從而降低價格點程序。

Turning to U.S. foodservice. As I alluded to earlier, our performance during the year rebounded solidly from the COVID-driven lows of 2020 to record net revenues of $76.5 million. We reached this milestone despite limited activities with our major QSR partners in 2021. In the fourth quarter, net revenues increased 35% year-over-year, and we began to see the gradual return of trial activity in the QSR space. And according to NPD data, for the 3 months ended December 2021, we maintained our #1 brand position, with sales of Beyond Meat products increasing 55% year-over-year in the data set, which you will recall, primarily capture sales through broadline distributors and generally excludes large QSR customers who tend to distract.

轉向美國餐飲服務。正如我之前提到的，我們在這一年的表現從 2020 年 COVID 驅動的低點穩步反彈，達到創紀錄的 7650 萬美元的淨收入。儘管 2021 年與主要 QSR 合作夥伴的活動有限，但我們還是達到了這一里程碑。第四季度，淨收入同比增長 35%，我們開始看到 QSR 領域的試驗活動逐漸恢復。根據 NPD 數據，在截至 2021 年 12 月的 3 個月中，我們保持了我們的第一品牌地位，Beyond Meat 產品的銷售額在數據集中同比增長 55%，您會記得，主要通過以下方式獲取銷售額廣泛的分銷商，通常不包括傾向於分散注意力的大型 QSR 客戶。

In international, we wrapped up a strong year with retail channel sales up 123% year-over-year and foodservice channel sales up 40% year-over-year. I'm proud of our progress in Europe where we more than doubled the size of our business across retail and foodservice channels in 2021. In the fourth quarter, total international net revenues increased 23% year-over-year with retail sales up 11% year-over-year and foodservice channel sales up 36% year-over-year.

在國際市場，我們以零售渠道銷售額同比增長 123% 和餐飲服務渠道銷售額同比增長 40% 結束了強勁的一年。我為我們在歐洲取得的進步感到自豪，我們在 2021 年將零售和餐飲服務渠道的業務規模擴大了一倍以上。第四季度，國際淨收入總額同比增長 23%，零售額增長 11%同比和餐飲服務渠道銷售額同比增長 36%。

In international foodservice, growth was driven primarily by QSRs, which again is encouraging. We are excited to build on the momentum in our international business in 2022, leveraging the investments in team, infrastructure and capabilities that we've made in the EU and China.

在國際餐飲服務領域，增長主要由 QSR 推動，這再次令人鼓舞。我們很高興能夠利用我們在歐盟和中國對團隊、基礎設施和能力的投資，在 2022 年鞏固我們國際業務的勢頭。

With that review, I will now provide more detail on some of the exciting 2022 strategic initiatives I mentioned earlier and which represented the focus of much of our commercialization and scaling investments across 2021. On January 5, following a highly successful 250-store test in the U.K., McDonald's rolled out its first-ever plant-based burger, featuring a patty co-developed by Beyond Meat to every restaurant across the U.K. and Ireland, nearly 1,500 stores. The U.K. and Ireland launch is being supported by a robust joint marketing program that spans across TV, radio, out-of-home, social, PR, influencer, mobile and digital elements.

通過那次審查，我現在將詳細介紹我之前提到的一些令人興奮的 2022 年戰略舉措，這些舉措代表了我們在 2021 年大部分商業化和擴大投資的重點。1 月 5 日，在 250 家門店的成功測試之後在英國，麥當勞向英國和愛爾蘭的每家餐廳以及近 1,500 家門店推出了其首個植物基漢堡，其中包括由 Beyond Meat 共同開發的肉餅。英國和愛爾蘭的推出得到了強大的聯合營銷計劃的支持，該計劃涵蓋電視、廣播、戶外、社交、公關、影響者、移動和數字元素。

In short succession after the McDonald's U.K. news, KFC launched a nationwide test of Beyond Fried Chicken in over 4,000 U.S. locations on January 10. The test marked the largest plant-based chicken launch ever in the QSR industry, and we are pleased that the consumer response and feedback in the media has been filled with positive excitement. Being selected to create a plant-based version of one of the most iconic menu items of one of the world's most popular brands is a testament to the strength of our innovation and the recognition of these capabilities by industry giants.

在麥當勞英國消息傳出後不久，肯德基於 1 月 10 日在美國 4,000 多個地點啟動了 Beyond Fried Chicken 的全國測試。該測試標誌著 QSR 行業有史以來最大規模的植物性雞肉發布，我們很高興消費者媒體的反應和反饋已經充滿了積極的興奮。被選中為世界上最受歡迎的品牌之一的最具標誌性的菜單項目之一創建基於植物的版本，這證明了我們的創新實力以及行業巨頭對這些能力的認可。

Only days later, we followed these 2 exciting announcements with yet another. Together with Pizza Hut Canada, we announced the debut of Beyond Italian Sausage Crumbles, the permanent menu offering nationwide at over 450 locations. The expansion followed a successful trial in Toronto and Edmonton last summer. With a reported rise in flexitarian diets occurring in Canada, we are excited to increase the accessibility of plant-based protein for Canadians everywhere.

僅僅幾天后，我們在這兩個激動人心的公告之後又發布了另一個。我們與加拿大必勝客一起宣布推出 Beyond Italian Sausage Crumbles，這是全國 450 多個地點的永久菜單。去年夏天，在多倫多和埃德蒙頓進行了一次成功的試驗之後，此次擴建。據報導，加拿大的彈性素食飲食有所增加，我們很高興為世界各地的加拿大人增加植物蛋白的可及性。

Separately, as we jointly announced on January 20, McDonald's expanded its U.S. test of the McPlant Burger to approximately 600 participating locations in the San Francisco Bay and Dallas-Fort Worth areas beginning on February 14. Also on Valentine's Day, A&W launched a limited-time offering, the Jalapeno Lime Beyond Meat Burger at all of its locations nationwide in Canada. This product represents A&W's first fully plant-based burger build and furthers our strong partnership with one of our earliest QSR partners. Lastly, as I alluded to earlier, we have been working diligently toward the launch of an exciting new product, which we expect to announce in coming weeks.

另外，正如我們在 1 月 20 日聯合宣布的那樣，從 2 月 14 日開始，麥當勞將 McPlant Burger 在美國的測試擴大到舊金山灣和達拉斯-沃斯堡地區的大約 600 個參與地點。同樣在情人節那天，A&W 推出了限量版-時間提供，在加拿大全國所有地點的墨西哥胡椒石灰超越肉類漢堡。該產品代表了 A&W 的第一個完全以植物為基礎的漢堡製作，並促進了我們與最早的 QSR 合作夥伴之一的牢固夥伴關係。最後，正如我之前提到的，我們一直在努力推出一款令人興奮的新產品，預計將在未來幾週內發布。

Turning to our ongoing cost-down initiatives. It's important to not let the aforementioned short-term 2021 processing and logistics noise obscure the progress we're making on material cost reduction, where we successfully run $0.26 per pound from direct materials on a year-over-year basis in Q4. We will continue to drive our global cost-down program and remain confident we can achieve our goal of price parity with animal protein within at least 1 category within the next 2.5 years. As we've shared before, we are working through a robust pipeline of cost reduction opportunities, including in the area of (inaudible) procurement savings, waste reduction, throughput improvement, network optimization, warehousing and transportation efficiencies, local sourcing and production in our global markets and packaging optimization.

轉向我們正在進行的降低成本的舉措。重要的是不要讓前面提到的 2021 年短期加工和物流噪音掩蓋我們在降低材料成本方面取得的進展，我們在第四季度成功地從直接材料中實現了每磅 0.26 美元的同比成本。我們將繼續推動我們的全球成本降低計劃，並有信心在未來 2.5 年內實現與至少 1 個類別的動物蛋白價格持平的目標。正如我們之前分享的那樣，我們正在努力通過一系列強大的成本降低機會，包括在（聽不清）採購節約、減少浪費、吞吐量提高、網絡優化、倉儲和運輸效率、本地採購和我們的生產領域。全球市場和包裝優化。

Finally, before closing, I'd like to highlight 2 key additions to our global leadership team. In December, we welcomed Doug Ramsey and Bernie Adcock as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Supply Chain Officer, respectively. Both Doug and Bernie join us from Tyson Foods and bring a wealth of experience and proven track records of impressive operational excellence in the protein industry. Through Doug's tenure at Tyson, he held top leadership positions, including group president of poultry. In this role, he oversaw all domestic poultry business units, driving market share through strategic integrated planning, business acquisitions and integration, lean manufacturing and cost reduction. He also served as president of the global McDonald's business for Tyson.

最後，在結束之前，我想強調我們全球領導團隊的 2 個重要補充。 12 月，我們迎來 Doug Ramsey 和 Bernie Adcock 分別擔任首席運營官和首席供應鏈官。 Doug 和 Bernie 都從 Tyson Foods 加入我們，他們在蛋白質行業帶來了豐富的經驗和令人印象深刻的卓越運營記錄。在道格在泰森的任職期間，他擔任過高層領導職務，包括家禽集團總裁。在這個職位上，他負責監督所有國內家禽業務部門，通過戰略整合規劃、業務收購和整合、精益製造和降低成本來提高市場份額。他還擔任泰森全球麥當勞業務總裁。

As with Doug, Bernie arrives with a strong background of highly relevant leadership, including most recently as Tyson's Chief Supply Chain Officer, helping to scale the company's poultry business through cross-functional strategic oversight and the integration of innovative technologies across the supply chain. Doug and Bernie are already adding tremendous value, and I have full confidence in their abilities to guide our company in the next phases of growth and production cost optimization.

與 Doug 一樣，Bernie 擁有高度相關的領導背景，包括最近擔任泰森公司的首席供應鏈官，通過跨職能戰略監督和整個供應鏈中創新技術的整合，幫助擴大公司的家禽業務。 Doug 和 Bernie 已經在增加巨大的價值，我對他們能夠指導我們公司下一階段的增長和生產成本優化充滿信心。

With that, I will turn it over to Phil to walk us through our fourth quarter financial results and our outlook for 2022.

有了這個，我將把它交給菲爾，讓我們了解我們第四季度的財務業績和我們對 2022 年的展望。

Thanks, Ethan. We achieved net revenues of $100.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2021, representing a decrease of 1.2% compared to the fourth quarter of 2020. The decrease in net revenues was primarily driven by a 19.5% year-over-year decrease in U.S. retail net revenues, partially offset by growth in U.S. foodservice, international foodservice and international retail. All channels were negatively impacted by 5 fewer shipping days in Q4 2021 versus Q4 2020. For Q4 2021, average net revenue per pound was $5.19, down from $5.59 per pound in Q4 2020, primarily driven by mix to lower-priced SKUs, especially in international foodservice and increased trade discounts.

謝謝，伊桑。我們在 2021 年第四季度實現了 1.007 億美元的淨收入，與 2020 年第四季度相比下降了 1.2%。淨收入下降的主要原因是美國零售淨額同比下降 19.5%收入，部分被美國餐飲服務、國際餐飲服務和國際零售的增長所抵消。與 2020 年第四季度相比，2021 年第四季度的所有渠道都受到了減少 5 天的運輸天數的負面影響。對於 2021 年第四季度，每磅的平均淨收入為 5.19 美元，低於 2020 年第四季度的每磅 5.59 美元，這主要是由於混合到低價 SKU，尤其是在國際餐飲服務和增加的貿易折扣。

Moving down the P&L to gross profit. Gross profit during Q4 2021 was $14.2 million or 14.1% of net revenues as compared to $25.4 million or 24.9% of net revenues in Q4 2020. In addition to lower net revenue per pound year-over-year, cost per pound increased to $4.46 per pound in Q4 2021, up $0.26 versus Q4 2020, which was driven primarily by increases in manufacturing costs, including depreciation and logistics costs, partially offset by improvements in materials costs and decreases in inventory write-offs and reserves.

將損益表向下移動到毛利潤。 2021 年第四季度的毛利潤為 1420 萬美元，占淨收入的 14.1%，而 2020 年第四季度的毛利潤為 2540 萬美元，占淨收入的 24.9%。除了每磅淨收入同比下降外，每磅成本增加至每磅 4.46 美元英鎊在 2021 年第四季度比 2020 年第四季度上漲 0.26 美元，這主要是由於製造成本（包括折舊和物流成本）的增加，部分被材料成本的改善以及庫存沖銷和儲備的減少所抵消。

Manufacturing costs, including depreciation, increased by $0.48 per pound, a reflection of both expensive inventory created in Q3 as well as increased costs in Q4, with a pervasive headwind from new product launches, both launched and still to be launched, less volume than anticipated earlier in the year and variability of demand across products. Costs increased for both the manufacturing we do within our own facilities as well as the manufacturing we contract out to co-manufacturers. In our own finished goods manufacturing, we produced fewer units, resulting in significantly increased variable and fixed cost per unit versus prior periods.

包括折舊在內的製造成本每磅增加 0.48 美元，這反映了第三季度創建的昂貴庫存以及第四季度成本增加，以及新產品發布的普遍不利因素，無論是已發布還是即將發布，數量低於預期今年早些時候以及跨產品需求的變化。我們在自己的設施內進行的製造以及我們外包給聯合製造商的製造成本都增加了。在我們自己的製成品製造中，我們生產的單位更少，導致每單位的可變和固定成本與前期相比顯著增加。

We disrupted steady-state manufacturing for multiple reasons, including to run commercialization trials, to run production of new product, planned repairs to one of our lines, demand variance to forecast and recovery from severe weather. Although not a large driver of our margin change in Q4, to combat difficulty in hiring and maintaining our production staff and we raised factory wages in Q4.

我們出於多種原因中斷了穩態製造，包括進行商業化試驗、生產新產品、計劃對我們的一條生產線進行維修、預測需求變化以及從惡劣天氣中恢復。雖然不是我們第四季度利潤率變化的主要驅動力，但為了應對招聘和維持生產人員的困難，我們在第四季度提高了工廠工資。

In our co-manufacturer network, we incurred increased fees to secure capacity for new product launches and utilized certain high-cost producers based on availability. We also saw headwinds from depreciation associated with additional capacity coming online, both in North America as well as in the EU and China.

在我們的聯合製造商網絡中，我們增加了費用以確保新產品發布的能力，並根據可用性使用了某些高成本的生產商。我們還看到了與額外產能上線相關的折舊阻力，無論是在北美，還是在歐盟和中國。

Logistics costs, including those associated with internal transportation and warehouse costs, increased $0.13 per pound in Q4 2021 versus Q4 2020. Note, this excludes the outbound freight associated with shipping finished goods to our customers, which is included in our SG&A expenses. The increase in transportation and warehouse cost per pound was primarily caused by increased transportation costs where we experienced headwinds in both an increase in cost per mile caused by increases in the overall freight market as well as our use of spot market transportation rates in certain instances; increased miles driven per pound as we navigated new manufacturing networks required for initial product launches as well as reallocated materials and volume to help our existing network recover from difficulties outlined in last quarter's call.

與 2020 年第四季度相比，2021 年第四季度的物流成本（包括與內部運輸和倉庫成本相關的成本）每磅增加了 0.13 美元。請注意，這不包括與將成品運送給我們的客戶相關的出境運費，這包含在我們的 SG&A 費用中。每磅運輸和倉儲成本的增加主要是由於運輸成本增加造成的，因為整體貨運市場的增加導致每英里成本增加以及在某些情況下使用現貨市場運輸費率，我們都遇到了不利因素；隨著我們導航初始產品發布所需的新製造網絡以及重新分配材料和數量以幫助我們現有的網絡從上季度電話會議中概述的困難中恢復過來，每磅行駛里程增加了。

We view these increased costs as temporary and are making immediate steps to calm the network and push more volume into our manufacturing facilities. Trials are currently progressing as part of our cost-down program to increase manufacturing throughput, standardize work and more efficiently use our assets and labor. Some examples of recent success include increasing the throughput of one of our extra datelines by 130% through downtime reduction efforts and installation of an automated cutter. Another is the increase of 50% in capacity in finished good line throughput improved -- through improved staffing plans, streamlining start-up activities and reduction of line downtime.

我們認為這些增加的成本是暫時的，並正在立即採取措施來穩定網絡並將更多的產量推入我們的製造設施。作為我們降低成本計劃的一部分，目前正在進行試驗，以提高製造產量、標準化工作並更有效地利用我們的資產和勞動力。最近成功的一些例子包括通過減少停機時間和安裝自動切割機將我們的一個額外日期變更線的吞吐量提高了 130%。另一個是通過改進人員配備計劃、簡化啟動活動和減少生產線停機時間，成品線吞吐量提高了 50%。

We also have the opportunity to postpone or avoid entirely some additional capital expenditures as we push our machinery to begin to run closer to manufacturer-specified throughput capability. We're also working to rationalize our co-manufacturing network, eliminating high-cost options and reallocating volume to our best-performing and lowest cost producers. We recently launched our new transportation management software that we believe over time will allow us to run our network more efficiently. And we continue to actively seek to shorten miles driven per pound produced through optimizing for location, smarter scheduling and ensuring our trucks are full.

我們也有機會推遲或完全避免一些額外的資本支出，因為我們推動我們的機器開始運行更接近製造商指定的生產能力。我們還在努力使我們的聯合製造網絡合理化，消除高成本選擇，並將產量重新分配給我們表現最佳和成本最低的生產商。我們最近推出了新的運輸管理軟件，我們相信隨著時間的推移，它將使我們能夠更有效地運行我們的網絡。我們繼續積極尋求通過優化位置、更智能的調度和確保我們的卡車滿載來縮短每磅生產的行駛里程。

In Q4 2021, as Ethan noted, the ingredients and packaging costs decreased by $0.26 per pound versus Q4 2020. Materials costs are impacted by mix, yield and ingredient costs. Approximately $0.04 of the improvement in materials costs was due to a charge from a supplier in Q4 2020 that we did not incur in Q4 2021. Also, approximately $0.03 of the decrease was due to a onetime rebate received in Q4 2021.

正如 Ethan 所指出的，在 2021 年第四季度，與 2020 年第四季度相比，原料和包裝成本每磅降低了 0.26 美元。材料成本受到混合、產量和原料成本的影響。大約 0.04 美元的材料成本改進是由於 2020 年第四季度供應商收取的費用，而我們在 2021 年第四季度沒有發生這種費用。此外，大約 0.03 美元的減少是由於 2021 年第四季度收到的一次性回扣。

As part of our cost-down program, further decreasing materials cost is a continuing area of focus for us, and we have multiple efforts underway to negotiate more favorable pricing, utilize less costly ingredients and streamline our packaging. These efforts take time, and in many cases, we are in the midst of soliciting bids. But we've seen initial success in some cases where incumbent suppliers have offered us lower prices when forced to competitively bid their products and in others with big opportunities to reduce costs by shifting to alternate suppliers. We are currently qualifying these new lower-cost suppliers, and we'll continue to phase in the lower-cost ingredients as testing shows they meet our quality bar.

作為我們降低成本計劃的一部分，進一步降低材料成本是我們持續關注的領域，我們正在進行多項努力以協商更優惠的價格、使用成本更低的成分並簡化我們的包裝。這些努力需要時間，而且在許多情況下，我們正在招標中。但是，在某些情況下，我們已經看到了初步的成功，其中現有供應商在被迫對其產品進行競爭性投標時向我們提供了更低的價格，而在其他情況下，通過轉向替代供應商來降低成本的機會很大。我們目前正在對這些新的低成本供應商進行資格認證，並且我們將繼續逐步採用低成本成分，因為測試表明它們符合我們的質量標準。

Also, since we use average costing in our inventory, we begin to see the benefits as we bring in ingredients at the lower cost, which will grow over time as we mix to a higher proportion of the inventory at that lower cost. We expect to continue making progress in this area. Inventory write-offs also improved $0.09 year-over-year, although the comparable period included approximately $0.20 attributable to the initial surge of COVID-19.

此外，由於我們在庫存中使用平均成本，我們開始看到以較低成本引入原料的好處，隨著我們以較低成本混合到更高比例的庫存，這種好處將隨著時間的推移而增長。我們希望在這一領域繼續取得進展。庫存沖銷也同比增加了 0.09 美元，儘管可比期間包括約 0.20 美元，這歸因於 COVID-19 的初始激增。

Moving down the P&L to OpEx. Operating expenses for Q4 2021 were $91.9 million, up $42 million from Q4 2020. The year-over-year increase was driven by increases in marketing, including an acceleration of spending in the EU to drive brand awareness, which lags that of the U.S. G&A, primarily driven by an increase in newly established consulting agreements. By increasing non-production headcount costs based primarily on hiring that occurred earlier in 2021 as we've paused incremental hiring except for a few critical areas; by increased commercialization spending as we work to commercialize new products and by increased restructuring fees associated with the ongoing litigation.

將損益表向下移動到運營支出。 2021 年第四季度的運營費用為 9190 萬美元，比 2020 年第四季度增加了 4200 萬美元。同比增長是由營銷增長推動的，包括在歐盟加速品牌知名度的支出，這落後於美國的 G&A ，主要是由於新建立的諮詢協議的增加。通過增加主要基於 2021 年初發生的招聘的非生產人員成本，因為我們已經暫停了除少數關鍵領域外的增量招聘；隨著我們努力將新產品商業化，增加了商業化支出，並增加了與正在進行的訴訟相關的重組費用。

Turning to our balance sheet and cash flow highlights. Our cash and cash equivalents balance was $733.3 million, and total debt outstanding was approximately $1.1 billion as of December 31, 2021. For the 12 months ended December 31, 2021, net cash used in operating activities was $301.4 million compared to $40.0 million in the year-ago period. Capital expenditures totaled $136.0 million for the 12 months ended December 31, 2021, compared to $57.7 million for the year-ago period. The increase in capital expenditures was primarily driven by continued investments in production equipment and facilities related to capacity expansion initiatives.

轉向我們的資產負債表和現金流亮點。截至 2021 年 12 月 31 日，我們的現金和現金等價物餘額為 7.333 億美元，未償債務總額約為 11 億美元。截至 2021 年 12 月 31 日的 12 個月，用於經營活動的現金淨額為 3.014 億美元，而去年同期為 4000 萬美元一年前的時期。截至 2021 年 12 月 31 日的 12 個月的資本支出總額為 1.36 億美元，而去年同期為 5770 萬美元。資本支出的增加主要是由於對與產能擴張計劃相關的生產設備和設施的持續投資。

Next, I will provide some commentary about our 2022 outlook. For the fiscal year 2022, we expect net revenues to be in the range of $560 million to $620 million, corresponding to year-over-year net revenue growth of between 21% and 33%. We expect flat to modest net revenue growth in Q1, accelerating through the year, primarily due to newly secured distribution expansion in the U.S. retail, new product launches, acceleration in international markets as a result of EU price resets and extended shelf life driving incremental distribution as well as growth in China; anticipated limited-time offerings at QSR customers and as we lap easier comparison periods in the back half of the year.

接下來，我將對我們的 2022 年展望發表一些評論。對於 2022 財年，我們預計淨收入將在 5.6 億美元至 6.2 億美元之間，對應於 21% 至 33% 的同比淨收入增長。我們預計第一季度淨收入增長持平至適度，全年加速增長，主要是由於美國零售業新獲得的分銷擴張、新產品發布、歐盟價格重置導致國際市場加速以及延長保質期推動增量分銷以及在中國的增長；預計 QSR 客戶將提供限時產品，並且我們在今年下半年進行了更輕鬆的比較期。

Although we are not providing full year margin guidance at this time, we did want to provide some additional context for our Q1 2022 margins. We expect gross margin in the first quarter to fall well below more normalized levels again, driven by the aforementioned short-term higher manufacturing and logistics costs that are in existing inventory, with added pressure from a new product that we'll launch in the coming weeks. The new product initially uses an expensive process, which we expect to streamline significantly later this year, but it will represent an additional drag to our Q1 gross margin.

儘管我們目前沒有提供全年利潤率指導，但我們確實想為 2022 年第一季度的利潤率提供一些額外的背景信息。我們預計第一季度的毛利率將再次遠低於更正常的水平，受上述現有庫存中短期較高的製造和物流成本的推動，以及我們即將推出的新產品帶來的額外壓力週。新產品最初使用昂貴的流程，我們預計今年晚些時候會大幅簡化流程，但這將對我們第一季度的毛利率造成額外的拖累。

In 2021, OpEx grew to 63% of revenue. This percentage is a function of lower-than-expected sales amidst continued investment to serve our strategic partners, commercialize new products, build operations in the EU and China and advance our innovation, brand and team objectives. We believe our OpEx base is now largely adequate for our midterm growth objectives, and as such, we intend to reduce our rate of spending growth substantially. While we still believe we are in the early stages of what we expect will be a far larger business over the long term, we are significantly reducing hiring, holding many of our teams flat, have concluded certain consulting engagements and are holding flat or reducing other areas of discretionary spending.

2021 年，運營支出增長到收入的 63%。這一百分比是由於持續投資於服務我們的戰略合作夥伴、將新產品商業化、在歐盟和中國建立業務以及推進我們的創新、品牌和團隊目標而導致銷售額低於預期。我們認為，我們的運營支出基數現在基本上足以實現我們的中期增長目標，因此，我們打算大幅降低支出增長率。雖然我們仍然相信我們仍處於我們預期的長期規模更大的業務的早期階段，但我們正在顯著減少招聘，使我們的許多團隊保持不變，已經完成了某些諮詢業務，並且保持不變或減少其他可自由支配的支出領域。

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

有了這個，我會將電話轉回給接線員，以便為您解答問題。謝謝你。

(Operator Instructions) First question comes from Alexia Howard of Bernstein.

（操作員說明）第一個問題來自 Bernstein 的 Alexia Howard。

So I appreciate all the detailed explanations and remedial actions that you're taking to reaccelerate sales, particularly in the retail channels like the sampling, marketing innovation and expanded distribution. Could you say how quickly you expect to see that reacceleration, particularly in the retail side? Is it Q1? Is it already happening? Do we have to wait until Q2?

因此，我感謝您為重新加速銷售而採取的所有詳細解釋和補救措施，特別是在零售渠道，如抽樣、營銷創新和擴大分銷。您能否說一下您希望看到這種重新加速的速度有多快，尤其是在零售方面？是Q1嗎？它已經發生了嗎？我們必須等到第二季度嗎？

And then as a follow-up, how do you expect this reacceleration in the top line to materialize without incurring meaningfully incremental extra operating costs? Or put simply, was Q4 the low point on gross margin, EBITDA and cash burn? And should we expect sequential improvements from here or do we have to wait until the second half? It sounds as though that new product launch in Q1 could actually drag the gross margins and perhaps profits down even further in the near term.

然後作為後續行動，您如何期望收入的重新加速在不產生有意義的額外運營成本的情況下實現？或者簡單地說，第四季度是毛利率、EBITDA 和現金消耗的低點嗎？我們應該期待從這裡開始的連續改進還是我們必須等到下半年？聽起來好像第一季度推出的新產品實際上可能會在短期內進一步拖累毛利率甚至利潤。

Thank you, Alexia. I appreciate it. So I think the way that we're looking at this is we saw a very good growth across 3 of our 4 channels. Folks have obviously focused on U.S. retail as they should. And I think it's -- our approach to that really is around not necessarily waiting for that category to resume growth but rather taking action across our distribution to bring growth independent of whether or not the category starts to recover. We certainly think the category is going to recover, and as it does, we are in a great position. We still have the #1 brand in the category. Our household penetration continues to rise, the #1 brand velocity among all plant-based -- among top 20 plant-based meats and we've got the #1 brand awareness.

謝謝你，亞歷克西亞。我很感激。所以我認為我們看待這個問題的方式是，我們在 4 個渠道中的 3 個看到了非常好的增長。人們顯然應該關注美國零售業。而且我認為這是 - 我們的解決方法實際上是不一定要等待該類別恢復增長，而是在我們的分銷中採取行動，以實現獨立於該類別是否開始恢復的增長。我們當然認為該類別將會恢復，而且確實如此，我們處於有利位置。我們仍然擁有該類別中的第一品牌。我們的家庭滲透率繼續上升，在所有植物性肉類中排名第一——在前 20 名植物性肉類中，我們的品牌知名度排名第一。

So should that start to accelerate on its own, I think we're well efficient. But independent of that, we have a number of actions that we've taken that will allow us to see new growth. And that's new distribution, new innovation coming into the market, a lot of in-store sampling, as you referenced, tactical shopper marketing programs that seek to reengage the consumer with our brand in retail, and then broader high-level marketing that continues to track attention to our brand and retail.

因此，如果這種情況開始自行加速，我認為我們的效率很高。但除此之外，我們已經採取了一些行動，讓我們看到新的增長。正如您所提到的，這是新的分銷，新的創新進入市場，大量的店內抽樣，旨在重新吸引消費者與我們的零售品牌的戰術購物者營銷計劃，然後是更廣泛的高級營銷，繼續跟踪對我們品牌和零售的關注。

So we feel good about our strategy for U.S. retail, but we're not relying on that alone for growth, obviously. If you think about this past year, and I'll touch on this most likely in a number of questions, we didn't look at the short-term impact of COVID and say, you know what, we're going to stop pursuing our long-term opportunity. Our view on this opportunity is that it's a very, very large one over a long period of time. We are well positioned as the #1 brand in our category in retail, the #1 brand in foodservice. We have the best partnerships out there in terms of QSRs and CPG companies.

因此，我們對我們的美國零售戰略感覺良好，但顯然我們並不僅僅依靠這一戰略來實現增長。如果你想想過去的一年，我很可能會在一些問題中提到這一點，我們沒有看到 COVID 的短期影響並說，你知道嗎，我們將停止追求我們的長期機會。我們對這個機會的看法是，在很長一段時間內，它都是一個非常非常大的機會。我們很好地定位為我們零售領域的第一品牌，餐飲服務的第一品牌。在 QSR 和 CPG 公司方面，我們擁有最好的合作夥伴關係。

So we wanted to continue to invest and we spent much of 2021 making very significant investments throughout our business. We are now in a position having done that scaling. And if you look at the scaling we've done, it's evident in the market today, whether it's the products we have with McDonald's in the U.K. or Ireland, the tests that are going on in Dallas and San Francisco with McDonald's and KFC launch that recently occurred at an LTO, Panda Express, which recently concluded. Pizza Hut menu placement there in Canada and the U.K. and then, of course, this upcoming launch that we've referenced with our joint venture with Pepsi.

因此，我們希望繼續投資，並且在 2021 年的大部分時間裡，我們在整個業務中都進行了非常重大的投資。我們現在處於完成縮放的位置。如果你看看我們所做的擴展，它在今天的市場上很明顯，無論是我們在英國或愛爾蘭與麥當勞的產品，在達拉斯和舊金山進行的麥當勞和肯德基推出的測試最近發生在最近結束的LTO，熊貓快遞。必勝客菜單在加拿大和英國的位置，當然還有我們與百事可樂的合資企業提到的即將推出的新品。

So all of those things are incredibly resource-intensive in terms of scaling those products and getting them ready to go to market. We have some other launches that are coming this year. With that activity done, we're now in execution mode. And so it's really about bringing those opportunities to the consumer. So we believe we can do that, as Phil alluded to, without substantially increasing the amount of OpEx. So the growth rate there, I think you'll see, moderating quite a bit. So it's an opportunity to leverage the investments we've made, realize the growth that's ahead of us in the QSR and foodservice space while taking discrete steps in retail to reinvigorate growth independent of the category.

因此，在擴展這些產品並準備上市方面，所有這些事情都非常耗費資源。今年我們還有一些其他的發布。完成該活動後，我們現在處於執行模式。因此，這實際上是將這些機會帶給消費者。因此，我們相信我們可以做到這一點，正如 Phil 所暗示的那樣，而不會大幅增加 OpEx 的數量。所以那裡的增長率，我想你會看到，放緩了很多。因此，這是一個利用我們所做投資的機會，實現我們在 QSR 和餐飲服務領域的增長，同時在零售領域採取離散步驟以重振獨立於該類別的增長。

In terms of the cadence across the year, I think there will be more activity in the second, third and fourth quarters than there is in the first. This is due to things like resets and our own product launches, et cetera. But we feel very good about the year, we're optimistic and think we did the right thing throughout 2021, ignoring the short-term noise and continue to invest against our long-term strategy.

就全年的節奏而言，我認為第二、第三和第四季度的活動將比第一季度更多。這是由於重置和我們自己的產品發布等原因。但我們對這一年感覺非常好，我們很樂觀，認為我們在整個 2021 年都做了正確的事情，忽略了短期的噪音，繼續投資於我們的長期戰略。

To add on the gross margin question, so as I alluded to in the prepared remarks, we do have some expensive inventory. We will sell that, and then there is additional pressure from the new product launch on gross margin. So we do anticipate Q1 will get worse and then we should get better throughout the year, I think, particularly in the second half as we already have a line of sight to a more cost-effective way to manufacture the product.

補充毛利率問題，正如我在準備好的評論中提到的那樣，我們確實有一些昂貴的庫存。我們會賣掉它，然後新產品的推出會給毛利率帶來額外的壓力。所以我們確實預計第一季度會變得更糟，然後我們應該會在全年變得更好，我認為，尤其是在下半年，因為我們已經看到了一種更具成本效益的產品製造方式。

Next question comes from Ken Goldman of JPMorgan.

下一個問題來自摩根大通的 Ken Goldman。

I wanted to ask, Ethan, it's a fairly wide range, understandably, for the top line. I know you gave -- in terms of your guidance. I know you gave some of these parameters, but I just wanted to sort of get a little bit of a better sense of as you're thinking about what's driving the bottom end of that range, what's driving the top end of that range, what are some of the considerations that you're thinking about, sort of signposts we should look for as we kind of think about how to get to that top end or the bottom end?

我想問一下，Ethan，這是一個相當廣泛的範圍，可以理解，對於頂線。我知道你給了 - 就你的指導而言。我知道你給出了其中一些參數，但我只是想更好地了解一下，因為你正在考慮是什麼驅動了該範圍的底端，什麼驅動了該範圍的高端，是什麼是您正在考慮的一些考慮因素，在我們考慮如何到達頂端或底端時我們應該尋找的路標？

Sure. So I think it's -- in this case, because we've relied so much on our own activities within retail in terms of new distribution, bringing new innovation into stores and things of that nature, I feel pretty good about those forecasts. But would increase the upside quite a bit would be if the category were to kind of reinitiate growth.

當然。所以我認為這是 - 在這種情況下，因為我們在新的分銷方面非常依賴我們自己在零售業的活動，將新的創新帶入商店和類似的事物，我對這些預測感覺很好。但是，如果該類別重新開始增長，將會大大增加上行空間。

On the foodservice side, what you should see from us is continued -- I think we had 35% or so U.S. foodservice growth in the fourth quarter. You should expect to see some continued growth there throughout the year. But these launches that we have with our large strategic partners, the cadence of those, particularly in the second half of the year should signal that the investments we're making are moving forward.

在餐飲服務方面，你應該從我們這裡看到的情況還在繼續——我認為我們在第四季度的美國餐飲服務增長了 35% 左右。您應該期望看到全年持續增長。但是，我們與大型戰略合作夥伴的這些發布，它們的節奏，特別是在今年下半年，應該表明我們正在進行的投資正在向前發展。

So I would look for things like that. So an uptick in the traction that you're getting from our products in retail, particularly the new ones that we're introducing, as well as the QSR activities and continued growth in U.S. foodservice, those things will take us to the higher part of our range.

所以我會尋找類似的東西。因此，您從我們的零售產品中獲得的牽引力增加，特別是我們推出的新產品，以及 QSR 活動和美國餐飲服務的持續增長，這些事情將把我們帶到更高的部分我們的範圍。

Next question will be from Robert Moskow of Credit Suisse.

下一個問題將來自瑞士信貸的羅伯特莫斯科。

I think you kind of answered the question, Ethan, but are you saying that there's incremental upside if your big QSR customers put these items on their permanent menu in the second half? Is that kind of like the unknown right now? I know in the past, you've tried to be conservative there in terms of whether you put those things in your forecast or not. Like KFC and McDonald's are big chunky customers, but it's unclear, I guess, to me whether these items are going to be on the permanent menu. Is that really the swing factor?

我想你有點回答了這個問題，Ethan，但你是說如果你的 QSR 大客戶在下半年將這些項目放在他們的永久菜單上，會有增量的好處嗎？像現在這樣的未知數嗎？我知道過去，你在是否將這些事情納入預測方面都試圖保持保守。像肯德基和麥當勞一樣，他們都是大塊頭的顧客，但我想我還不清楚這些項目是否會出現在永久菜單上。這真的是搖擺因素嗎？

I think it's one of the elements, but continued recovery in foodservice generally is another one and continued trials and LTOs with some of the customers that we've been involved with in the past. But we are obviously working toward more permanent menu placement with all of our QSR partners. And should that start to materialize in the second half of the year, that would be a benefit to our plan.

我認為這是其中一個因素，但餐飲服務的持續復甦通常是另一個因素，並且與我們過去參與的一些客戶繼續進行試驗和 LTO。但我們顯然正在與我們所有的 QSR 合作夥伴一起努力實現更永久的菜單放置。如果這在今年下半年開始實現，那將有利於我們的計劃。

Okay. And maybe a modeling follow-up. Like SG&A, I think you said you'll have a slower growth rate of your spend, but you're also trying to increase more marketing, more advertising. So can you just kind of give us a range of growth here in terms of SG&A? It might be the one of the easier things for us to model, if so.

好的。也許是建模跟進。像 SG&A 一樣，我認為您說過您的支出增長率會較慢，但您也在努力增加更多的營銷、更多的廣告。那麼，您能否在 SG&A 方面給我們一些增長？如果是這樣的話，它可能是我們更容易建模的事情之一。

Yes. I mean I think what I can say is just it will be very meaningfully moderated. And the way we're accomplishing that is if you just think about the sheer number of products that we're bringing to market with different customers and partners this year, it's really time for us to focus on executing those at a steady-state production versus the amount of scaling that we were doing in 2021. So we expect to bring some costs out of that.

是的。我的意思是我認為我能說的只是它將被非常有意義地緩和。我們實現這一目標的方式是，如果您只考慮今年我們與不同客戶和合作夥伴一起推向市場的產品數量，那麼我們真的是時候專注於在穩定生產中執行這些產品了與我們在 2021 年所做的擴展量相比。因此，我們預計會帶來一些成本。

On the marketing side, we made some pretty big investments in the fourth quarter, particularly in Europe and so we are seeing good results from that. So I think if you look at our marketing for the balance of 2022, it's a really good position to be in because we're marketing with our strategic customers, with our QSRs, you see activities, whether it's with KFC or with McDonald's.

在營銷方面，我們在第四季度進行了一些相當大的投資，尤其是在歐洲，因此我們看到了不錯的結果。所以我認為，如果你看一下我們在 2022 年剩餘時間的營銷，這是一個非常好的位置，因為我們正在與我們的戰略客戶、我們的 QSR 進行營銷，你會看到活動，無論是與肯德基還是麥當勞。

Then you look at our joint venture with Pepsi, you'll see some activity from us and them there in terms of the PLANeT partnership and then, of course, our own marketing. So we're going to be coming at the consumer from a number of different touch points in their lives and feel good about that. But because of the ability to run more efficiently some of the rest of our business, I don't think that will materially raise our OpEx for the year.

然後你看看我們與百事可樂的合資企業，你會看到我們和他們在 PLANeT 合作方面的一些活動，當然還有我們自己的營銷活動。因此，我們將從消費者生活中的許多不同接觸點接觸消費者，並對此感覺良好。但由於能夠更有效地運行我們的其他業務，我認為這不會大幅提高我們今年的運營支出。

Adam Samuelson from Goldman Sachs with the next question.

高盛的亞當·薩繆爾森提出下一個問題。

This is Arthur, on for Adam. I was hoping you could provide details on your plans to lower unit costs on a per pound basis, specifically on the items that you mentioned, what time line and how much in incremental savings you may achieve within that time line and what those plans might cost.

這是亞瑟，為亞當而戰。我希望您能提供有關降低每磅單位成本的計劃的詳細信息，特別是您提到的項目、時間線以及在該時間線內您可以實現的增量節省多少以及這些計劃可能花費的成本.

Yes. So as you know and we've talked about, we have a very robust and global cost-down program. And I set a goal almost 3 years ago to, within one category, be able to get price parity. We're below with animal protein and I still feel good about that and we feel good about that as a team. And we -- as we mentioned, we are making good material progress in that regard.

是的。如您所知，我們已經討論過，我們有一個非常強大的全球成本降低計劃。大約 3 年前，我設定了一個目標，即在一個類別中，能夠實現價格平價。我們低於動物蛋白，我仍然對此感覺良好，我們作為一個團隊對此感覺良好。正如我們所提到的，我們在這方面取得了良好的實質性進展。

There's a lot of noise in our system right now because the sheer number of activities and scaling and launching we've done. But from an alternate supplier perspective, from being able to negotiate some better terms to yield to mix, all of these things, we're seeing some good progress and have a major program in place. So that's actually one that I feel quite good about. But Phil, do you want to give a little detail?

現在我們的系統中有很多噪音，因為我們已經完成了大量的活動、擴展和啟動。但從另一個供應商的角度來看，從能夠談判一些更好的條款到產量到混合，所有這些事情，我們都看到了一些良好的進展，並且有一個主要的計劃到位。所以這實際上是我感覺很好的一個。但是菲爾，你想提供一點細節嗎？

Sure. So we've got it split up across several work streams, and I'll give you a very high-level overview of each of those. Each work stream has an owner who has signed up for a goal for the year that we measure against. And we, as part of our monthly business reviews, give a green, amber, red status on that and talk about how we get back to green if we get off-course.

當然。所以我們把它分成了幾個工作流，我會給你一個非常高級的概述。每個工作流都有一個所有者，他已經簽署了我們衡量的年度目標。我們，作為我們每月業務審查的一部分，給出綠色、琥珀色、紅色狀態，並討論如果我們偏離軌道，我們如何恢復綠色。

I would expect a lot of these take time. So in the first example, something like P-protein, we already have seen some good savings there, which came through, to some degree, in the material savings. But a lot of the work that we've got to do there is -- there's a tremendous amount of difference in the price per pound of P-protein from different suppliers, but it's not as simple as just swapping one out for another. They can tend to have slightly different characteristics. And so there's a lot of testing to make sure the ingredients [meet] our quality bar.

我預計其中很多都需要時間。所以在第一個例子中，像 P 蛋白這樣的東西，我們已經看到了一些很好的節省，這在某種程度上是通過材料節省來實現的。但是我們要做的很多工作是——不同供應商的每磅 P 蛋白的價格存在巨大差異，但這並不像將一種換成另一種那麼簡單。它們往往具有略微不同的特徵。所以有很多測試來確保成分[符合]我們的質量標準。

Once we pass those tests, we then change our manufacturing process to incorporate that other ingredient. And then it takes time because you start shifting over time and things have to work its way into your inventory. And so all that means that for an initiative like that, you'll likely see more progress in the latter part of 2022.

一旦我們通過了這些測試，我們就會改變我們的製造工藝以加入其他成分。然後這需要時間，因為你開始隨著時間的推移而變化，事情必須進入你的庫存。因此，所有這一切都意味著，對於這樣的計劃，您可能會在 2022 年下半年看到更多進展。

Another one for us is manufacturing. We alluded to a couple of anecdotes that we've already seen in the prepared remarks there. A lot of that is really around just how do you run your equipment and your workforce as efficiently as possible, standardizing work, replicating what works on one machine as best practice to all of your others. Some of that can be pretty fast. It doesn't necessarily require more capital. It's largely just how do you standardize the process.

對我們來說，另一個是製造。我們提到了一些我們已經在準備好的評論中看到的軼事。其中很多實際上是關於如何盡可能高效地運行設備和勞動力，標準化工作，將一台機器上的工作作為最佳實踐複製到所有其他機器上。其中一些可能非常快。它不一定需要更多的資金。這主要是您如何標準化流程。

And you'll see results there in the form of better leverage on fixed costs over time and better even leverage on your variable workforce costs there. Ingredients is similar to P-protein. We've got a large request for pricing exercise going on there. As I mentioned in the prepared remarks, in some cases, you find that existing suppliers, we were scrambling to find to get supply through the very early phases of Beyond Meat. And so when we go back in a more formalized approach, we've been able to see some good wins with better pricing there. In other cases, we'll have to look at alternative suppliers to supply some of the same ingredients as well as, over time, figuring out less expensive ingredients to build into products. That's probably a longer arc.

隨著時間的推移，您會以更好地利用固定成本的形式看到結果，甚至可以更好地利用可變勞動力成本。成分類似於P-蛋白。我們收到了很大的定價請求。正如我在準備好的評論中提到的那樣，在某些情況下，您會發現現有的供應商，我們正在爭先恐後地尋找通過 Beyond Meat 早期階段的供應。因此，當我們以更正式的方式回歸時，我們已經能夠看到一些不錯的勝利，那裡有更好的定價。在其他情況下，我們將不得不尋找替代供應商來提供一些相同的成分，並且隨著時間的推移，找出更便宜的成分來構建產品。這可能是一個更長的弧線。

Packaging, also, how do we take cost out of packaging? We think there's opportunities to also be better from an environmental standpoint there. That will be a fairly time-consuming one, too, because we have to get -- we have to redesign and then roll it through and we have existing inventory. Logistics, how do we fill our trucks more? I think there's some probably quick wins we can get there. We've been sort of running trucks throughout the network, as we mentioned in the prepared remarks. How do we consolidate loads to make sure we're not running [existing] loads? How do we get good quotes and move away from spot wherever we can through better planning?

包裝，還有，我們如何從包裝中扣除成本？我們認為從環境的角度來看，也有機會變得更好。這也將是一個相當耗時的過程，因為我們必須得到 - 我們必須重新設計然後滾動它並且我們有現有的庫存。物流，我們如何讓我們的卡車裝得更多？我認為我們可以實現一些快速的勝利。正如我們在準備好的評論中提到的那樣，我們一直在整個網絡中運行卡車。我們如何整合負載以確保我們沒有運行 [現有] 負載？我們如何通過更好的計劃獲得好的報價並儘可能遠離現場？

And then there's a couple of others that are also in the early phases. So I would look to see -- we'll try to continue to give you some anecdotes as we go, but a lot of this will not really take effect until later in the year as we can sort of adopt new practice and work through. In the case of something like bringing in cheaper ingredients, we're on average cost. So it has to find its way into our inventory, into our product and then ultimately get sold.

還有其他幾個也處於早期階段。所以我想看看——我們會試著繼續給你一些軼事，但其中很多要到今年晚些時候才會真正生效，因為我們可以採用新的做法並解決問題。在諸如引入更便宜的成分之類的情況下，我們的平均成本。所以它必須找到進入我們的庫存，進入我們的產品，然後最終被出售的方式。

Next question will come from Peter Galbo of Bank of America.

下一個問題將來自美國銀行的 Peter Galbo。

I guess I wanted to go back to an earlier question just around cash burn. Over the past 3 quarters now, you've run anywhere from $120 million to $140 million of cash burn, including CapEx per quarter. I just want to understand, on a go-forward basis, whether or not that gets better or what causes that to get better. And if not, kind of what's the minimum level of cash you're willing to run with?

我想我想回到之前關於燒錢的問題。在過去的 3 個季度中，您的現金消耗從 1.2 億美元到 1.4 億美元不等，包括每季度的資本支出。我只是想了解，在前進的基礎上，這是否會變得更好，或者是什麼導致它變得更好。如果沒有，您願意使用的最低現金水平是多少？

No, it's fair. So as I alluded to, we had a very resource-intense year in terms of getting ready for a lot of the launches we're doing, a lot of the activity with strategic partners. We also spent a lot to stand up GM-led organizations and facilities in China and in the EU. And as I mentioned, we did some marketing over in Europe toward the latter part of the year. So all of these things did contribute to a pretty high level of investment for the year, but we don't see them as ongoing.

不，這是公平的。因此，正如我所提到的，我們在為我們正在進行的許多發布以及與戰略合作夥伴的許多活動做好準備方面，度過了非常資源密集的一年。我們還花了很多錢在中國和歐盟建立由通用汽車領導的組織和設施。正如我所提到的，我們在今年下半年在歐洲進行了一些營銷。因此，所有這些事情確實促成了今年相當高水平的投資，但我們認為它們不會持續進行。

We have the ability, and we're taking the steps to moderate the growth in OpEx. And I really try to separate this in terms of what we've been investing over the course of 2021. We set up some really fantastic opportunities for us to execute against in the next 12 to 18 months, and we're moving into that phase now. We're actually going to start bringing out some costs, getting more efficient, sweating our assets better, doing better inventory management because we're now able to run some steady-state production and things of that nature and take other measures to bring down the level of investment.

我們有能力，我們正在採取措施來緩和 OpEx 的增長。我真的試圖將其與我們在 2021 年期間的投資分開。我們為我們在未來 12 到 18 個月內設置了一些非常好的機會來執行，我們正在進入那個階段現在。我們實際上將開始降低一些成本，提高效率，更好地利用我們的資產，進行更好的庫存管理，因為我們現在能夠進行一些穩定的生產和類似性質的事情，並採取其他措施來降低投資水平。

I don't think about this in terms of the kind of near-term metrics. I think about it more in terms of just keeping enough powder to continue to invest as opportunities present themselves. And I feel pretty good about our plan, both on the revenue and on the OpEx side, to be able to have cash to make future investments without taking us to [tooth and align]. So I know it's not the most exact answer, but it's what we can give right now. I think that the biggest piece of information we can give is that you'll see a moderation in investment levels '22 to '21.

我不從短期指標的角度考慮這一點。我更多地考慮保持足夠的粉末以在機會出現時繼續投資。而且我對我們的計劃感到非常滿意，無論是在收入方面還是在運營支出方面，能夠有現金進行未來的投資，而不會讓我們[牙齒和對齊]。所以我知道這不是最準確的答案，但這是我們現在可以給出的。我認為我們可以提供的最大信息是，您將看到 22 年至 21 年的投資水平有所放緩。

Got it. No, that's helpful. And maybe even just to go back to retail, in your prepared remarks, you kind of commented on, you're not expecting or rather that you're expecting kind of the health-oriented consumer to come back versus more the comfort food. Just what are you seeing internally or in your own data that's suggesting that, that's kind of the reverse that's going to happen? Or is it more aspirational at this point?

知道了。不，這很有幫助。甚至可能只是回到零售業，在你準備好的評論中，你有點評論說，你不期望或者更確切地說，你期望以健康為導向的消費者回來而不是更多的舒適食品。您在內部或您自己的數據中看到了什麼暗示，這會發生相反的情況？還是在這一點上更有抱負？

Sure. So what we've tried to do is set aside, for the moment, the category of performance. This is -- so what can we control? What can we do? We have seen installation about whether this is signaling something bigger about the category. And I think as attractive as it is to try to posit particular theories on what's going on, there's so much noise in the market just because of the instability around pandemic, the different variants, behaviors, foodservice to retail, that we're just kind of sitting out of that discussion and saying, "Here are the things we can control. We're going to go after those as hard as we possibly can and we're going to grow our business."

當然。因此，我們暫時將性能類別放在一邊。這是——那麼我們能控制什麼？我們能做些什麼？我們已經看到有關這是否表明該類別的更大意義的安裝。我認為，儘管嘗試就正在發生的事情提出特定的理論很有吸引力，但由於大流行病的不穩定性、不同的變體、行為、餐飲服務到零售，市場上存在如此多的噪音，我們只是善良坐在討論之外並說，“這是我們可以控制的事情。我們將盡可能努力地追求那些，我們將發展我們的業務。”

My sense is that from what we're seeing out of the QSR space in terms of all the studies we've done with our partners, what we're seeing in other economies, that as things normalize and consumers get back to normal behavior, taking off sweats, putting on slacks, going to work, things like that, you'll see a resumption of growth in the retail space as we get in there and start to demo.

我的感覺是，根據我們與合作夥伴所做的所有研究，我們在 QSR 領域看到的情況，我們在其他經濟體看到的情況，隨著事情正常化和消費者恢復正常行為，脫掉汗水，穿上休閒褲，去上班，諸如此類的事情，當我們進入那裡並開始演示時，您將看到零售空間的恢復增長。

One of the things we did in '21 was we really focused on getting ready for some of these strategic launches in foodservice, both here in the U.S. and in Europe. And we didn't do as much, as I mentioned in my remarks, retail innovation. And that's okay. We have a major product, which I actually have in my hands right now and I've been snacking on during the call. That took an enormous amount of time and energy to get ready and it's a fantastic product, and we're launching it with our partners at Pepsi, and that's going to bring excitement, I think, to the retail space. And we have some other products that come out later this year. So you'll see us get back on the retail game in a big way in '22.

我們在 21 年所做的一件事是，我們真正專注於為在美國和歐洲的餐飲服務中的一些戰略推出做好準備。正如我在講話中提到的那樣，我們沒有做太多的零售創新。沒關係。我們有一個主要產品，我現在實際上已經在我手中，而且我在通話期間一直在吃零食。這需要大量的時間和精力來準備，這是一個很棒的產品，我們正在與百事可樂的合作夥伴一起推出它，我認為這會給零售領域帶來興奮。我們還有一些其他產品將在今年晚些時候推出。所以你會看到我們在 22 年重回零售遊戲。

Next question will be from Michael Lavery, Piper Sandler.

下一個問題將來自 Michael Lavery，Piper Sandler。

Just want to follow up on the Pepsi JV and you've got excitement around those products. And I think in the answer to the SG&A question, touched on some of the spending. But how should we think about that, given that it's a joint venture? Is that structured somehow that, that rolls through your operations? And are those revenues included in part of your guidance?

只想跟進百事可樂合資企業，您就會對這些產品感到興奮。我認為在回答 SG&A 問題時，觸及了一些支出。但是，鑑於這是一家合資企業，我們應該如何考慮呢？這種結構是否以某種方式貫穿您的運營？這些收入是否包含在您的指導中？

This is Phil, I'll take that one. So we sell product into the joint venture, and so you would see the revenue and costs directly that way. The other place, you see this in our income statement, is the joint venture income or loss line. And so if you're paying attention in the release, you probably saw a step-up actually in our portion of the loss there. And so we're selling product in and then we split the profit or loss from the JV based on kind of what they sell into retail then.

這是菲爾，我要那個。所以我們把產品賣給合資企業，這樣你就可以直接看到收入和成本。另一個地方，你在我們的損益表中看到的，是合資企業的收入或虧損線。因此，如果您在發佈時注意，您可能會看到我們在其中的損失部分實際上有所增加。所以我們在銷售產品，然後我們根據他們當時零售的產品類型來分割合資企業的利潤或虧損。

Okay, that's helpful. And just coming back to the pricing piece as you try to push for parity or better against animal protein. I know we've seen some inflation, those costs are higher than they've been. But assuming that alone doesn't bridge the gap, I know you're pushing your own costs down. I guess just what would make you back off of that ambition? Is it sort of set at almost all costs? Or does it depend on hitting the right hurdles and sort of measured steps along the way?

好的，這很有幫助。當你試圖推動動物蛋白的平價或更好時，回到定價部分。我知道我們已經看到了一些通貨膨脹，這些成本比過去要高。但是假設僅憑這一點並不能彌合差距，我知道您正在降低自己的成本。我想是什麼會讓你放棄那個雄心壯志？它幾乎是不惜一切代價設置的嗎？或者它是否取決於在此過程中遇到正確的障礙和某種可衡量的步驟？

Yes. Yes, I don't think we're going to back off of that. I know your question is what would make you -- if we had some sort of immovable obstacle that weren't able to overcome, we'd obviously signal that and say, but everything seems to be going on the material side in the right direction, albeit slowly. But we're able to get, I think, in the next 2.5 years, the kind of production we need to see, particularly in one category.

是的。是的，我認為我們不會放棄這一點。我知道你的問題是什麼會讓你——如果我們有某種無法克服的不可移動的障礙，我們顯然會發出信號並說，但一切似乎都在朝著正確的方向發展，雖然很慢。但我認為，在接下來的 2.5 年內，我們能夠獲得我們需要看到的那種產品，尤其是在一個類別中。

And so we do feel quite good about that. All of this noise where we've been, we shut down for a while, one of our -- part of one of our facilities just to do commercialization and that forced us to put new production or production in some of our co-packers as we explained. So there's just a lot of noise in the system. Those things are reversible and we can affect that. And these decisions, again, just like the investments, I am always thinking about how do we capture the biggest future opportunity and the biggest future value. And we're well aware of the headlines that might generate things of that nature.

所以我們確實對此感覺很好。我們曾經去過的所有這些噪音，我們關閉了一段時間，我們的一個 - 我們的一個設施的一部分只是為了進行商業化，這迫使我們在我們的一些合作包裝機中投入新的生產或生產我們解釋了。所以系統中只有很多噪音。這些事情是可逆的，我們可以影響它。而這些決定，就像投資一樣，我一直在思考我們如何抓住最大的未來機會和最大的未來價值。我們很清楚可能會產生這種性質的頭條新聞。

But it's very -- it's the right thing to do and asking people to judge the quality of our investments in the same quarter that we're making them, I think, is probably a difficult and productive ask. What we're asking to do is look at these investments 18 to 24 months from now, and let's see how you feel about them because I think they're strong. And whether it's in a reduced margin today for something later on, we're willing to make those trade-offs. And so in the area of the price parity goal, we'll tease it out a little bit this year in certain markets. You'll see us run some programs to test the elasticity around it. But overall, we're making progress in that area.

但這非常 - 這是正確的做法，並且要求人們在我們進行投資的同一季度判斷我們的投資質量，我認為，這可能是一個困難且富有成效的問題。我們要求做的是從現在開始 18 到 24 個月看看這些投資，讓我們看看你對它們的看法，因為我認為它們很強大。無論是今天的利潤減少，我們都願意做出這些取捨。因此，在價格平價目標方面，今年我們將在某些市場上進行一些梳理。你會看到我們運行一些程序來測試它周圍的彈性。但總的來說，我們在這方面取得了進展。

Next question, John Baumgartner with Mizuho.

下一個問題，瑞穗的約翰·鮑姆加特納。

Ethan, with regard to retail, you mentioned, I think, that the disruption is temporary and you did lag a pretty massive comp in 2021. But at the same time, this industry right now is pretty narrow in being built around ground meat items. And I get the household penetration opportunity on paper. But how do you balance the total addressable market with the potential that, I guess at some point, demand just gets exhausted.

Ethan，關於零售，我認為，你提到的中斷是暫時的，你確實落後於 2021 年的大規模競爭。但與此同時，這個行業目前在圍繞碎肉製品建立方面非常狹窄。我在紙上獲得了家庭滲透機會。但是，您如何平衡整個潛在市場與我猜在某個時候需求會枯竭的潛力。

I mean at what point do you migrate into structured products, whether it's steaks or chicken breasts to sort of capture a broader range of consumption occasions? I mean is there a need for that at this point? And I guess if there is, how far away is that technology do you think?

我的意思是你在什麼時候轉向結構化產品，無論是牛排還是雞胸肉，以捕捉更廣泛的消費場合？我的意思是此時有必要這樣做嗎？我想如果有的話，你認為這項技術有多遠？

Yes, sure. That's a good question. So I think there's still a tremendous amount of room in the core product categories, whether it's ground or the burger or sausage. And as we continue to improve the taste profile, continue to make clear to the consumer, the -- not only the health benefits but as climate becomes more of a front page issue for people, I think we have a really strong case to make there and then ultimately, price as we continue to march toward price parity.

是的，當然。這是個好問題。所以我認為核心產品類別仍然有很大的空間，無論是地面、漢堡還是香腸。隨著我們繼續改善口味，繼續向消費者闡明——不僅是健康益處，而且隨著氣候成為人們的頭版問題，我認為我們有一個非常有力的理由來實現這一點然後最終，價格隨著我們繼續朝著價格平價邁進。

Just unwavering commitment to those 3 things, regardless of what's going on, I think, will give us wins over the next several years. But certainly, proliferating the portfolio is something that we're equipped to do. We've been working on some of the retail launches that you'll see from us in the future. We'll certainly do that and we're excited about those products. We tasted some of them yesterday. I think they're very strong.

我認為，只要堅定不移地致力於這三件事，無論發生什麼，都會讓我們在未來幾年內取得勝利。但可以肯定的是，擴大投資組合是我們有能力做的事情。我們一直在努力開發一些您將來會從我們這裡看到的零售產品。我們肯定會這樣做，我們對這些產品感到興奮。我們昨天嚐了一些。我認為他們非常強大。

So you'll see us continue to evolve the portfolio. And as you see things go into foodservice, whether it's with the QSRs or in -- up and down the street, mom-and-pop businesses, bringing those into retail in those different form factors, those different cuts, breaded items, et cetera, I think will help spur the retail growth again. We are the leading brand, as I mentioned, in the category. And I think when we emphasize and put so much effort into the strategic partnerships, which is the right thing to do in '21, we didn't put as much energy into retail and have the real opportunity in '22, given the innovation we've done over the last year to do that. So we think that will help the category as well.

因此，您將看到我們繼續發展產品組合。正如你所看到的，食品服務行業，無論是 QSR 還是街頭巷尾、夫妻店，以不同的形式進入零售業、不同的切割方式、麵包屑的物品等等，我認為將有助於再次刺激零售增長。正如我所提到的，我們是該類別中的領先品牌。而且我認為，當我們強調並為戰略合作夥伴關係付出如此多的努力時，這在 21 年是正確的做法，但鑑於我們在 22 年的創新，我們並沒有在零售業投入那麼多精力並擁有真正的機會'在過去的一年中已經做到了這一點。因此，我們認為這也將有助於該類別。

Next question will be from Ken Zaslow, Bank of Montreal.

下一個問題將來自蒙特利爾銀行的 Ken Zaslow。

Let me ask 2 questions. One is, what is the process for you guys to be able to convert an LTO to a permanent item? And how much do you -- are you able to affect the change?

讓我問2個問題。一個是，你們能夠將 LTO 轉換為永久物品的過程是什麼？你有多少——你能影響改變嗎？

Yes. I mean the process is for us to make great products to have the right consumer fit there and to be the best partner we can be and the rest is really up to our partners. And a lot of them have worked, not everyone has. And that has to do with different QSRs or different segments of the economy, and the value proposition is clear to some than others, depending on where you are.

是的。我的意思是這個過程是為了讓我們生產出適合消費者的優質產品，並成為我們可以成為的最佳合作夥伴，剩下的事情真的取決於我們的合作夥伴。他們中的很多人都工作過，不是每個人都有。這與不同的 QSR 或不同的經濟部門有關，價值主張對某些人來說比其他人更清楚，這取決於你在哪裡。

So -- but overall, if you look at our track record, we've done well with continuing to maintain the relationships with our QSRs, continue to go from test to trials and then from trials to LTOs and then from there to full launches. And so -- but there's nothing in particular we can do other than just perform well in each stage.

所以 - 但總的來說，如果你看看我們的記錄，我們在繼續保持與 QSR 的關係方面做得很好，繼續從測試到試驗，然後從試驗到 LTO，然後從那裡到全面發布。所以——但是除了在每個階段都表現出色之外，我們無能為力。

And then you've hired several new management additions. When you think about this in a year from now or 1.5 years from now, how will your operations be different than they are now? And what are these people going to truly add as a change agent?

然後你又僱傭了幾個新的管理人員。一年後或 1.5 年後，當您考慮這一點時，您的運營將與現在有何不同？作為變革推動者，這些人將真正添加什麼？

Yes. No, great question and one I'm very pleased to talk about. So if it gets back to this theme of thinking about the long-term opportunity and how to capture as much value as possible here in the United States, in Europe and in China. And so when you make decisions to, for example, bring on Doug and Bernie, who have been great additions to the team, as I mentioned, or Dana or Phil or others, these are forward decisions that these folks are coming from very large organizations and often global in nature.

是的。不，很好的問題，我很高興談論這個問題。因此，如果回到思考長期機會的主題，以及如何在美國、歐洲和中國獲取盡可能多的價值。因此，當您做出決定時，例如，請 Doug 和 Bernie，正如我所提到的，他們是團隊的重要補充，或者 Dana 或 Phil 或其他人，這些都是來自非常大的組織的前瞻性決定並且通常是全球性的。

And since the most recent ones are the adds we made in operations, I'll talk a little bit about that, just the sense of beginning to sweat our assets more, beginning to be able to manage our inventory better, beginning to drive this cost-down program in an even more aggressive way that you get when you're in the room with these guys is exciting. They've done it before at a massive scale, and they're bringing that type of thinking to Beyond Meat, and we're giving them plenty of freedom to do that. So it's something that I think from my own perspective through to the organization, down to the lines that we have up to the Board, we feel great about the team we've put together. And again, we're coming out of '21 with a lot of investment in place, a really strong team. The mask mandate's coming off on Friday here in Los Angeles, tomorrow. We feel pretty good.

由於最近的一些是我們在運營中增加的，我會稍微談一下，只是開始更多地為我們的資產出汗的感覺，開始能夠更好地管理我們的庫存，開始推動這個成本當你和這些傢伙在房間裡時，以一種更激進的方式進行 -down 計劃是令人興奮的。他們以前曾大規模地這樣做過，他們將這種思維方式帶到 Beyond Meat 中，我們給予他們足夠的自由來這樣做。因此，我認為從我自己的角度到組織，再到我們對董事會的意見，我們對我們組建的團隊感到非常滿意。再一次，我們從 21 年開始進行了大量投資，這是一支非常強大的團隊。明天在洛杉磯，口罩命令將於週五生效。我們感覺還不錯。

That concludes our question-and-answer session. Now I'd like to turn the call back over to Mr. Ethan Brown for closing remarks. Please go ahead.

我們的問答環節到此結束。現在，我想將電話轉回給 Ethan Brown 先生，以致閉幕詞。請繼續。

I have none other than sit tight. We're going to be coming back, I think, the latter part of this year and giving you guys some good results. And looking forward to talking about it then. Thanks very much.

我只有坐穩了。我想，我們會在今年下半年回來，給你們一些好成績。並期待著談論它。非常感謝。

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。您現在可以斷開連接。