Mama's Creations Inc (MAMA) 2023 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Greetings, and welcome to MamaMancini's Fourth Quarter and Fiscal 2023 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.

您好，歡迎來到 MamaMancini 的第四季度和 2023 財年收益電話會議。 （操作員說明）提醒一下，正在錄製此會議。

It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Adam Michaels, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Thank you, sir. You may begin.

現在我很高興向大家介紹主持人、董事長兼首席執行官亞當·邁克爾斯。謝謝你，先生。你可以開始了。

Thank you, operator, and thank you to everyone for joining us today. I'd like to welcome you to our fourth quarter fiscal 2023 financial results conference call.

謝謝接線員，也感謝大家今天加入我們。歡迎大家參加我們的 2023 財年第四季度財務業績電話會議。

Throughout the second half of fiscal '23, we continued to execute our [3C] strategy delivering another strong quarter on our sustainable path to profitability, further building the foundations for a national deli solutions company. In the fourth quarter, we saw significant increases in margins and sustained growth and profitability. 68% sequential growth in net income to $1.8 million in the fourth quarter to be exact. We continue to execute on our goal of accelerating and expanding our existing family of brands, while strategically leveraging incremental consumer-driven innovation and accretive potential acquisitions to fill out gaps in our portfolio as needed.

在整個 23 財年下半年，我們繼續執行我們的 [3C] 戰略，在我們可持續盈利的道路上創造了另一個強勁的季度，進一步為一家全國熟食解決方案公司奠定了基礎。在第四季度，我們看到了利潤率的顯著增長以及持續的增長和盈利能力。確切地說，第四季度淨收入環比增長 68%，達到 180 萬美元。我們繼續執行我們的目標，即加速和擴大我們現有的品牌系列，同時戰略性地利用增量消費者驅動的創新和增加潛在的收購來根據需要填補我們產品組合中的空白。

Our vision is to become a one-stop shop for prepared foods for grocery, mass, club and convenience channels, addressing the $40 billion-plus food service and prepared foods market with our grocer partners. With food inflation for 2022 rounding out at 12.5%, unemployment at 3.5% with underemployment closer to 7% and recessionary pressures abound, consumers are choosing to eat out less and are transitioning even faster and in greater numbers to grocery food store prepared foods. Even with these pressures, there is still an intense consumer desire for quality with many focusing more than ever on quick, clean and fresh meals made with better ingredients at a price more affordable than eating out.

我們的願景是成為食品雜貨、大眾、俱樂部和便利渠道的一站式預製食品商店，與我們的雜貨商合作夥伴一起解決價值超過 400 億美元的食品服務和預製食品市場。隨著 2022 年的食品通脹率達到 12.5%，失業率達到 3.5%，就業不足率接近 7%，經濟衰退的壓力比比皆是，消費者選擇減少外出就餐，並且越來越多地轉向食品雜貨店準備的食品。即使有這些壓力，消費者仍然對質量有著強烈的需求，許多人比以往任何時候都更加關注用更好的食材製作的快捷、乾淨和新鮮的飯菜，而且價格比外出就餐更實惠。

Recent studies show that the private label food and beverage category is growing at twice the rate of branded with 73% of consumers having developed a taste for private label brands with no plan to switch back even after the economy approves, a tailwind for our hybrid strategy of pursuing an even mix of branded and unbranded opportunities.

最近的研究表明，自有品牌食品和飲料類別的增長速度是品牌的兩倍，73% 的消費者已經對自有品牌產生了興趣，即使在經濟批准後也沒有計劃轉回去，這是我們混合戰略的順風尋求品牌和非品牌機會的均勻組合。

On the other side of the counter, retailers today continue to face significant supply chain and labor challenges and are seeking labor efficient, reliable solutions for their hot bar, deli and grab-and-go offerings. As we move through 2023 and beyond, today's recessionary pressures will continue to focus our consumers and retailers on high-quality, easy to prepare and affordable meal solutions, all of which MamaMancini's delivers on. We feel our offerings position us well for any foreseeable macroeconomic forces.

在櫃檯的另一邊，零售商如今繼續面臨著重大的供應鍊和勞動力挑戰，並且正在為其熱賣店、熟食店和外賣產品尋求勞動力高效、可靠的解決方案。隨著 2023 年及以後的發展，今天的經濟衰退壓力將繼續讓我們的消費者和零售商關注高質量、易於準備和負擔得起的膳食解決方案，所有這些都是 MamaMancini's 提供的。我們認為我們的產品能夠很好地應對任何可預見的宏觀經濟力量。

The realization of our goal to shape MamaMancini's into a one-stop shop for these deli prepared food solutions has required a step change in our corporate structure in many ways. Throughout the year, we are highly focused on the continuous foundational improvement of our 3C strategy; cost, controls and culture. New approaches to cost management have driven noticeable improvements in procurement, an area we expect to improve further with the recent hiring of our first ever Chief Procurement Officer. In manufacturing, where we're making strategic high ROI CapEx investments to enhance throughput and margins as well as in logistics management where our recent hiring of a dedicated logistics lead has noticeably driven down our freight costs by consolidating our shipments into fewer but fuller truckloads.

實現我們將 MamaMancini's 打造成提供這些熟食熟食解決方案的一站式商店的目標，需要在許多方面對我們的公司結構進行逐步改變。全年，我們高度關注 3C 戰略的持續基礎改進；成本、控制和文化。成本管理的新方法推動了採購方面的顯著改進，我們希望通過最近聘用我們的第一位首席採購官來進一步改進這一領域。在製造業，我們正在進行戰略性的高投資回報率資本支出投資，以提高吞吐量和利潤率，以及在物流管理方面，我們最近聘請了一名專門的物流主管，通過將我們的貨物整合為更少但更滿的卡車裝載量，顯著降低了我們的貨運成本。

Under the mantra of what gets measured, gets improved, we now track order profitability on a weekly basis and have implemented the first customer-level profitability reviews on a monthly basis. This allows us to track input costs better and bring more agility to our pricing and supplier cost management. Understanding customer-level profitability also allows us to decide on trade promotion strategies more efficiently as we are willing to invest more with customers who invest in us. As Matt will mention later, our efforts to more efficiently manage labor costs, particularly over time, outbound logistics and cold storage are realizing noticeable returns, allowing us to reinvest in our business.

在衡量、改進的口號下，我們現在每週跟踪訂單盈利能力，並每月實施第一次客戶級盈利能力審查。這使我們能夠更好地跟踪投入成本，並為我們的定價和供應商成本管理帶來更大的靈活性。了解客戶層面的盈利能力還使我們能夠更有效地決定貿易促進策略，因為我們願意對投資我們的客戶進行更多投資。正如馬特稍後會提到的，我們為更有效地管理勞動力成本所做的努力，尤其是隨著時間的推移，出站物流和冷庫正在實現顯著的回報，使我們能夠對我們的業務進行再投資。

Commodity prices continued to improve in the quarter as well, providing significant tailwinds for our margin profile driving a fourth quarter gross margin improvement of over 950 basis points year-over-year and 260 basis points sequentially enabling us to achieve $1.8 million of net income in the fourth quarter alone. Without what I expect will be a onetime book-to-tax adjustment that improved our net income by approximately $0.5 million, our net income still saw robust sequential improvement to $1.3 million, representing net income margins in the high 5% range, in line with our expectations in the mid-single-digit range.

本季度大宗商品價格也繼續上漲，為我們的利潤率狀況提供了巨大的推動力，推動第四季度毛利率同比提高 950 個基點以上，環比提高 260 個基點，使我們在 2018 年實現 180 萬美元的淨收入僅第四季度。如果沒有我預期的一次性賬面稅改調整將我們的淨收入提高約 50 萬美元，我們的淨收入仍然強勁地連續增長至 130 萬美元，代表淨收入利潤率處於 5% 的高範圍內，符合我們的預期在中個位數範圍內。

On the controls front, late last year, we brought in our new CFO, Anthony Gruber as well as our new Controller, Peter Manche who have helped to build a strong foundational finance rigor along with the entrepreneurial spirit critical to succeed. We put new financial and operational controls in place to help our teams and provide agility for sales and operations staff.

在控制方面，去年年底，我們聘請了新的首席財務官 Anthony Gruber 和新的財務總監 Peter Manche，他們幫助建立了強大的基礎財務嚴謹性以及對成功至關重要的企業家精神。我們實施了新的財務和運營控制，以幫助我們的團隊並為銷售和運營人員提供敏捷性。

For example, deductions have parentally been a profit center for freight operators and retailers by putting in place dedicated resources, a regular cadence of check-ins and real-time analytics to track deductions, deduction reasons and invoices, we have dramatically reduced deductions directly improving our bottom line.

例如，通過部署專用資源、定期簽到和實時分析來跟踪扣減、扣減原因和發票，扣減一直是貨運運營商和零售商的利潤中心，我們大大減少了扣減直接改善我們的底線。

Operationally, we recently strengthened our corporate governance with 2 qualified independent director appointments. Meghan Henson's deep knowledge and experience in the human resources field will be an invaluable asset to the company as we evolve into a truly national platform company. Shirley Romig's corporate governance skills and experience, building and leading public companies through various stages of maturity using digital-first social media strategies further strengthens our board and will enable us to better connect with new demographics. I want to thank both of them for their passion, trust and commitment to MamaMancini's.

在運營方面，我們最近加強了公司治理，任命了 2 名合格的獨立董事。隨著我們發展成為一家真正的全國性平台公司，Meghan Henson 在人力資源領域的深厚知識和經驗將成為公司的寶貴資產。雪莉·羅米格 (Shirley Romig) 的公司治理技能和經驗，以及使用數字優先社交媒體戰略在不同成熟階段建立和領導上市公司的經驗，進一步加強了我們的董事會，將使我們能夠更好地與新的人口統計數據建立聯繫。我要感謝他們兩人對 MamaMancini's 的熱情、信任和承諾。

And last, but certainly not least, building a company culture that is geared for and incentivizes profitable growth. Our people are at the core of what we do and hiring, promoting and retaining talent is paramount to our long-term success. We often speak of our vision to reaffirm, reinforce and remind all of our employees that our one-stop shop deli solutions strategy. We have performed full talent assessments for our management level, investing in our people and upgrading our talent not only to support today, but to build for tomorrow. Our newly created performance reviews provide actionable feedback for our teams with not only the what being measured, but also the how. Our new Chief Financial Officer and Chief Procurement Officer, are just the beginning.

最後但同樣重要的是，建立一種適合併激勵盈利增長的公司文化。我們的員工是我們工作的核心，招聘、提拔和留住人才對我們的長期成功至關重要。我們經常談到我們的願景，即重申、加強和提醒我們所有的員工我們的一站式熟食店解決方案戰略。我們對我們的管理水平進行了全面的人才評估，投資於我們的人才和提升我們的人才，不僅是為了支持今天，而且是為了明天。我們新創建的績效評估為我們的團隊提供了可操作的反饋，不僅包括衡量的內容，還包括衡量方式。我們新的首席財務官和首席採購官，僅僅是個開始。

I am proud of the rapid progress we have made to strengthen our finance and operational organizations. With the confidence I now have in these 2 functions, we have a solid foundation from which to grow. Now we could focus on the necessary build-out of our understaffed sales and marketing organization. We are already in the process of recruiting best-in-class talent to grow our brand voice and our feet on the street to take our sales reach to the next level, leveraging our passionate followers and fresh, clean products to more aggressively sell into both new and existing customers. We plan to have this supercharged sales and marketing organization firmly in place in the coming months, which will enable more robust organic growth for the combined company going forward.

我為我們在加強財務和運營組織方面取得的快速進展感到自豪。有了我現在對這兩個功能的信心，我們就有了發展的堅實基礎。現在我們可以專注於對人手不足的銷售和營銷組織進行必要的擴建。我們已經在招聘一流的人才，以擴大我們的品牌影響力，並在街頭站穩腳跟，將我們的銷售提升到一個新的水平，利用我們熱情的追隨者和新鮮、乾淨的產品來更積極地銷售這兩個市場新客戶和現有客戶。我們計劃在接下來的幾個月裡讓這個強大的銷售和營銷組織穩固到位，這將使合併後的公司在未來實現更強勁的有機增長。

While margin will remain our first, second and third priorities, we continue to strengthen our partnerships with new and existing customers. We received our first orders from a new West Coast grocery chain as well as from Roundy's, a Midwest Kroger subsidiary. We continue to grow our Costco partnership, expanding our strong Northeast relationship into the Midwest region as well as the Pacific Northwest region. Our initial success in these new regions have opened the door to meetings with a further 2 regions. While new customers are great, we continue to believe that getting more items into existing stores is even more powerful. And here, our sales and marketing team did not disappoint. After terrific work by our sales team, we received commitments from another major warehouse club chain to expand our offerings from 5 items to 9, all hitting in Q1. Average items carried grew in Ahold, Albertsons, Weis and others.

雖然保證金仍將是我們的第一、第二和第三優先事項，但我們將繼續加強與新老客戶的合作夥伴關係。我們從一家新的西海岸雜貨連鎖店以及克羅格中西部子公司 Roundy's 收到了第一批訂單。我們繼續發展與 Costco 的合作夥伴關係，將我們強大的東北關係擴展到中西部地區以及太平洋西北地區。我們在這些新地區的初步成功為與另外 2 個地區的會議打開了大門。雖然新客戶很棒，但我們仍然相信，將更多商品引入現有商店會更加強大。在這裡，我們的銷售和營銷團隊沒有讓人失望。經過我們的銷售團隊的出色工作，我們收到了另一家大型倉儲俱樂部連鎖店的承諾，將我們的產品從 5 種擴展到 9 種，全部在第一季度實現。 Ahold、Albertsons、Weis 等地的平均攜帶物品有所增加。

You will also be hearing more next quarter about our successful portfolio expansion. Our 3 businesses, MamaMancini's, T&L Creative Salads and Olive Branch are now working well together as one united team. I mentioned on our last earnings call, how by working together, we saw tremendous freight efficiencies, representing north of 200 basis points of savings. As we closed out the fiscal year, the sales team began working together, resulting in cross-selling successes at a warehouse club chain, Delhaize and Fresh Market. The results have exceeded our already high expectations. In the coming weeks, you will be hearing how we are leveraging our T&L Creative Salads' product offerings to expand and strengthen our MamaMancini's branding, heritage and packaging.

您還將在下個季度聽到更多關於我們成功的投資組合擴展的信息。我們的 3 家企業，MamaMancini's、T&L Creative Salads 和 Olive Branch 現在作為一個團結的團隊合作得很好。我在上次財報電話會議上提到，通過合作，我們看到了巨大的貨運效率，節省了超過 200 個基點。在我們結束財政年度時，銷售團隊開始合作，在倉儲俱樂部連鎖店 Delhaize 和 Fresh Market 取得了交叉銷售的成功。結果超出了我們已經很高的期望。在接下來的幾週內，您將了解到我們如何利用 T&L Creative Salads 的產品來擴展和加強我們 MamaMancini 的品牌、傳統和包裝。

To better reflect our transition into a national deli solutions platform company, at our next annual meeting, we will pursue a corporate name change to Mama's Creations, along with a ticker change to MAMA which we have currently reserved with NASDAQ. To be clear, the consumer-facing brand, MamaMancini's will remain unchanged, anchoring our authentic Italian heritage products. In addition to serving as the corporate name of the parent company for our family of brands, we envision Mama's Creations to be a consumer-facing brand for select non-Italian products that don't fit under the MamaMancini's brand, such as Mama's Asian creations for our General Tso's Chicken or Mama's Tex-Mex creations for our fajitas or our Mama's Indian creations for our Chana Masala.

為了更好地反映我們向全國熟食解決方案平台公司的轉變，在我們的下一次年會上，我們將尋求將公司名稱更改為 Mama's Creations，同時將股票代碼更改為我們目前在納斯達克保留的 MAMA。需要明確的是，面向消費者的品牌 MamaMancini's 將保持不變，主打我們正宗的意大利傳統產品。除了作為我們品牌系列母公司的公司名稱外，我們還設想 Mama's Creations 成為一個面向消費者的品牌，用於銷售不屬於 MamaMancini 品牌的精選非意大利產品，例如 Mama's Asian creations為我們的左宗棠將軍的雞肉或媽媽的 Tex-Mex 創作為我們的法士達或我們媽媽的印度創作為我們的 Chana Masala。

We believe this name and ticker change better reflects our identity as a national one-stop shop deli platform company and look forward to unveiling this brand to the industry in early June at the IDDBA or the International Dairy Deli Bakery Association, a major industry trade show. From there, we expect to finalize a corporate name and ticker change this summer.

我們相信這個名稱和代碼的變化更好地反映了我們作為全國一站式熟食店平台公司的身份，並期待在 6 月初的 IDDBA 或國際乳製品熟食烘焙協會（一個主要的行業貿易展）上向行業展示這個品牌.從那時起，我們預計將在今年夏天完成公司名稱和股票代碼的變更。

Taking a look ahead, we believe that supported by strong organic growth and successful cross-selling efforts to grow the average items carried by our grocer partners throughout the pending build-out of our sales and marketing organization in the coming months, we will continue to gain market share for our peers in a highly profitable manner. Given the aforementioned margin tailwinds, I believe we can improve our normalized gross margin profile from the mid-20s -- mid-20 range to the upper 20-range in the near term.

展望未來，我們相信，在強勁的有機增長和成功的交叉銷售努力的支持下，在未來幾個月我們的銷售和營銷組織的待定擴建過程中，我們的雜貨商合作夥伴所攜帶的平均商品增加，我們將繼續以高利潤的方式為我們的同行贏得市場份額。鑑於上述利潤率順風，我相信我們可以在短期內將我們的正常毛利率狀況從 20 年代中期 - 20 年代中期提高到 20 年代上限。

Longer term, with the recent appointment of our new Chief Procurement Officer, Logistics Director and the continuous optimization of our operations, we could return to a gross margin profile north of 30%, while we are currently targeting mid-single-digit net income margins, I firmly believe that over the long term, we can improve this figure to approximately 10%, with adjusted EBITDA margins in the teens percentage range.

從長遠來看，隨著我們最近任命了新的首席採購官、物流總監以及我們運營的不斷優化，我們可以恢復到 30% 以上的毛利率，而我們目前的目標是中等個位數的淨利潤率，我堅信，從長遠來看，我們可以將這個數字提高到大約 10%，調整後的 EBITDA 利潤率在十幾歲的百分比範圍內。

In summary, I believe we are well positioned to continue this level of operational and financial execution in fiscal '24 and beyond. As we improve our internal processes firm-wide to become brilliant at the basics, we are building a more resilient and flexible organization that I believe can deliver sustainable value to my fellow shareholders for years to come. I look forward to continuing to update you on our achievements as we seek to further unlock MamaMancini's unrealized potential.

總之，我相信我們有能力在 24 財年及以後繼續這種水平的運營和財務執行。隨著我們在整個公司範圍內改進我們的內部流程以在基礎上變得出色，我們正在建立一個更具彈性和靈活性的組織，我相信它可以在未來幾年為我的股東們提供可持續的價值。在我們尋求進一步釋放 MamaMancini 未實現的潛力時，我期待著繼續向您介紹我們取得的成就。

With that, I'd like to turn the call over to Anthony Gruber, our Chief Financial Officer, to walk through some key financial details from the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023. Anthony?

有了這個，我想把電話轉給我們的首席財務官 Anthony Gruber，讓他談談 2023 財年第四季度的一些關鍵財務細節。安東尼？

Thank you, Adam. Revenue for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023 increased 64% to $22.8 million as compared to $13.9 million in the same year ago quarter. Revenue for fiscal 2023 increased 98% to $93.2 million as compared to $47.1 million in the prior year. This increase was well balanced between volume and price largely attributable to strong organic growth across all divisions, chiefly through cross-selling as well as by inorganic growth through the acquisition of T&L and Olive Branch.

謝謝你，亞當。 2023 財年第四季度的收入增長 64% 至 2280 萬美元，而去年同期為 1390 萬美元。與上一年的 4710 萬美元相比，2023 財年的收入增長了 98%，達到 9320 萬美元。這一增長在數量和價格之間取得了很好的平衡，這主要歸因於所有部門的強勁有機增長，主要是通過交叉銷售以及通過收購 T&L 和 Olive Branch 實現的無機增長。

Further -- to provide further color, the organic growth we saw from T&L and Olive Branch in their first year post acquisition exceeded our initial expectations by over 150%. Gross profit increased 147% to $6.4 million or 28.2% of total revenues in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023, as compared to $2.6 million or 18.7% of total revenues in the same year-ago quarter. Gross profit increased 64% to $19.4 million, or 20.8% of total revenues in fiscal 2023 as compared to $11.9 million or 25.2% of total revenues in the prior year.

此外——為了提供更多的顏色，我們在 T&L 和 Olive Branch 收購後的第一年看到的有機增長超出了我們最初的預期 150% 以上。 2023 財年第四季度毛利增長 147% 至 640 萬美元，佔總收入的 28.2%，而去年同期為 260 萬美元，佔總收入的 18.7%。毛利潤增長 64% 至 1,940 萬美元，佔 2023 財年總收入的 20.8%，而上一年為 1,190 萬美元，佔總收入的 25.2%。

The increase in gross margin was attributable to the normalization of commodity costs, successful pricing actions and improvements in operational efficiencies across the organization. The company continues to identify procurement and logistics efficiencies and cost savings through stronger buying power created through the acquisition of T&L and Olive Branch.

毛利率的增長歸因於商品成本的正常化、成功的定價行動以及整個組織運營效率的提高。該公司繼續通過收購 T&L 和 Olive Branch 創造的更強大的購買力來確定採購和物流效率以及成本節約。

Operating expenses totaled $4.5 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023 as compared to $4 million in the same year ago quarter. As a percentage of sales, operating expenses decreased in the fourth quarter of 2023 to 19.9% from 28.8% in the same year ago quarter. Operating expenses totaled $16.6 million in fiscal 2023 as compared to $11.8 million in fiscal '22. As a percent of sales, operating expenses decreased in fiscal 2023 to 17.8% of sales as compared to 25% in the prior year. Operating expenses as a percentage of sales benefited from synergies created through acquisitions of T&L and Olive Branch.

2023 財年第四季度的運營支出總計 450 萬美元，而去年同期為 400 萬美元。營業費用佔銷售額的百分比從去年同期的 28.8% 下降到 2023 年第四季度的 19.9%。 2023 財年的運營支出總計 1660 萬美元，而 22 財年為 1180 萬美元。營業費用佔銷售額的百分比在 2023 財年下降至佔銷售額的 17.8%，而上一年為 25%。營業費用佔銷售額的百分比受益於通過收購 T&L 和 Olive Branch 產生的協同效應。

Net income for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023 was $1.8 million or $0.06 per diluted share as compared to a net loss of $1.3 million or minus $0.04 per diluted share in the same year ago quarter. Net income for fiscal 2023 was $2.3 million or $0.06 per diluted share as compared to a net loss of $0.3 million or minus $0.01 per diluted share in the prior year. The fourth quarter was impacted by a onetime book-to-tax adjustment that improved net income by approximately $0.5 million.

2023 財年第四季度淨收入為 180 萬美元或稀釋後每股收益 0.06 美元，而去年同期淨虧損為 130 萬美元或稀釋後每股收益減去 0.04 美元。 2023 財年的淨收入為 230 萬美元或稀釋後每股收益 0.06 美元，而上一年為淨虧損 30 萬美元或稀釋後每股收益減去 0.01 美元。第四季度受到一次性賬面稅收調整的影響，該調整使淨收入增加了約 50 萬美元。

Without this onetime benefit, net income still saw robust sequential improvements to $1.3 million, representing net income in the high 5% range in line with the company's expectation in the mid-single-digit range.

如果沒有這一一次性收益，淨收入仍然實現強勁的環比增長，達到 130 萬美元，淨收入處於 5% 的高位區間，符合公司中個位數區間的預期。

Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP term, increased to $2.3 million for the quarter -- fourth quarter of fiscal 2023 as compared to an adjusted EBITDA loss of $0.8 million in the same year ago quarter. Adjusted EBITDA increased to $4.3 million in fiscal 2023 as compared to $1.1 million in the prior year.

調整後的 EBITDA（非 GAAP 術語）在本季度（2023 財年第四季度）增至 230 萬美元，而去年同期調整後的 EBITDA 虧損為 80 萬美元。 2023 財年調整後的 EBITDA 增至 430 萬美元，而上一年為 110 萬美元。

Cash and cash equivalents as of January 31, 2023, were $4.4 million as compared to $0.9 million as of January 31, 2022. The increase in cash and cash equivalents was driven by $2.3 million in cash flow from operations in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023. $1.3 million of which was used to pay down the company's long-term debt, bringing the total debt retired in the second half of fiscal 2023 to $3.2 million.

截至 2023 年 1 月 31 日的現金和現金等價物為 440 萬美元，而截至 2022 年 1 月 31 日為 90 萬美元。現金和現金等價物的增加是由 2023 財年第四季度運營產生的 230 萬美元現金流推動的. 其中 130 萬美元用於償還公司的長期債務，使 2023 財年下半年償還的債務總額達到 320 萬美元。

This completes my prepared comments, I'd like to now turn over the call to Matt Brown, our President and Chief Operating Officer for an operations update. Matt?

這完成了我準備好的評論，我現在想把電話轉給我們的總裁兼首席運營官馬特布朗，以獲得運營更新。馬特？

Thanks, Anthony. It's great when the last chapter of the year ends on a high note and with momentum into the next fiscal year.

謝謝，安東尼。當這一年的最後一章以高調結束並在下一個財政年度充滿活力時，這真是太棒了。

Operationally, fiscal Q4 2023 did not disappoint. As Adam and Anthony have both mentioned, but it's worth repeating, gross margins in the fourth quarter improved 950 basis points year-over-year to 28.2% further illustrating that fiscal 2023 was a tale of 2 halves. We were successful in reversing the challenging first half numbers and beating our own estimates while laying the foundation for profitability for years to come.

在運營上，2023 財年第四季度沒有令人失望。正如亞當和安東尼都提到的，但值得重複的是，第四季度的毛利率同比提高 950 個基點至 28.2%，進一步說明 2023 財年是一個兩半的故事。我們成功地扭轉了具有挑戰性的上半年數字並超出了我們自己的預期，同時為未來幾年的盈利能力奠定了基礎。

Now let's talk about how we achieved this level of success in the fourth quarter. First, we addressed labor. As with Q3, our management team in East Rutherford continued to hold the line with regards to overtime in Q4. To keep a positive working environment, overtime costs were replaced with strategic incentive programs to get more productivity in less time. The cost of the incentives were surpassed by the additional volume the plant was able to generate and the results was a reduction in labor cost of 220 basis points year-over-year and 70 basis points sequentially.

現在讓我們談談我們如何在第四季度取得這種成功。首先，我們解決了勞動力問題。與第三季度一樣，我們在東盧瑟福的管理團隊在第四季度繼續堅持加班。為了保持積極的工作環境，加班費被戰略激勵計劃所取代，以在更短的時間內提高生產力。工廠能夠產生的額外產量超過了激勵措施的成本，結果是勞動力成本同比減少 220 個基點，環比減少 70 個基點。

Second, we continue to work hard at leveraging the combined purchase power of our 2 facilities to drive down our prices with suppliers of key raw and packaging materials. We took advantage of commodity softening to buy in at aggressive prices, which held through Q4. Carefully watching the ag market in Q4 helped us lock in at a low price just prior to a 90% increase in the category. Overall, we were successful in reducing raw and packaging costs in East Rutherford by 785 basis points year-over-year.

其次，我們繼續努力利用我們兩個工廠的綜合購買力來降低我們與主要原材料和包裝材料供應商的價格。我們利用大宗商品走軟的機會以激進的價格買入，該價格一直持續到第四季度。仔細觀察第四季度的農業市場幫助我們鎖定在該類別增長 90% 之前的低價。總體而言，我們成功地將東盧瑟福的原材料和包裝成本同比降低了 785 個基點。

Finally, we tackled logistics. Our newly formed logistics team continued to be aggressive in Q4 and challenged our freight carriers to provide best-in-class service at fair prices. By continuing to bid out our outbound and inbound orders, we were successful in reducing our costs in fiscal Q4 by another 70 basis points sequentially, while the second half of 2023 saw savings of over 180 basis points as compared to the first half of 2023.

最後，我們解決了物流問題。我們新成立的物流團隊在第四季度繼續積極進取，並挑戰我們的貨運公司以公平的價格提供一流的服務。通過繼續投標出境和入境訂單，我們成功地將第四財季的成本連續降低了 70 個基點，而與 2023 年上半年相比，2023 年下半年節省了超過 180 個基點。

Last quarter, we spoke about a plan to begin the consolidation of 6 cold storage facilities. And by the end of fiscal Q3, we had eliminated the least 2 efficient operations. In Q4, We continued with the program in place and eliminated a further 2 locations, while at the same time successfully negotiating a better pallet rate at the remaining 2 locations. While the consolidation efforts have been successful at eliminating costs that were not creating value, we still have work to do in researching future cold storage options including, but not limited to, investing in a centralized facility between the business units that we would control.

上個季度，我們談到了開始整合 6 個冷藏設施的計劃。到第三財季末，我們已經淘汰了效率最低的 2 個運營。在第 4 季度，我們繼續實施該計劃並取消了另外 2 個地點，同時成功地在其餘 2 個地點協商了更好的托盤率。雖然整合工作成功地消除了無法創造價值的成本，但我們在研究未來的冷藏選項方面仍有工作要做，包括但不限於在我們將控制的業務部門之間投資一個集中設施。

In Q3, we talked about researching better technology to further increase our plants' capacities and efficiencies. In Q4, we made a purchase of a continuous spiral cooking oven for our East Rutherford facility. Our current oven is over 5 years old and is reaching the end of its useful life. We anticipate the new oven to increase throughput by 40% over our current oven while still maintaining the same physical footprint. Our 30-foot ceilings gave us the idea to increase the height of the new oven, enabling us to get more rotations inside the chamber. The acquisition was completed in Q4, and with lead times and repiping of gas lines to accommodate, we expect to fire it up over the summer.

在第三季度，我們討論了研究更好的技術以進一步提高我們工廠的產能和效率。在第 4 季度，我們為我們的東盧瑟福工廠購買了一個連續螺旋烹飪烤箱。我們目前的烤箱已使用 5 年多，使用壽命即將結束。我們預計新烤箱的吞吐量將比我們當前的烤箱提高 40%，同時仍保持相同的物理佔地面積。我們的 30 英尺天花板給了我們增加新烤箱高度的想法，使我們能夠在室內獲得更多的旋轉。此次收購已於第四季度完成，考慮到交貨時間和天然氣管道的重新佈置，我們預計將在夏季啟動。

Assuming a 5-year 60-month useful life, we expect a 46.7% modified IRR on this purchase. Both Farmingdale and East Rutherford spent a portion of Q4 preparing for our annual SQF or food safety audits, which took place in early Q1 of fiscal 2024. I'm proud to say that both facilities pass the audits with scores of 96% and 98%, respectively. These scores provide assurances to our bigger customers that we adhere to strict policies and procedures when it comes to the quality and safety of our food production.

假設 5 年 60 個月的使用壽命，我們預計此次購買的修正 IRR 為 46.7%。 Farmingdale 和 East Rutherford 都花了第四季度的一部分時間為我們的年度 SQF 或食品安全審計做準備，該審計發生在 2024 財年第一季度初。我很自豪地說，這兩個工廠都以 96% 和 98% 的分數通過了審計， 分別。這些分數向我們的大客戶保證，我們在食品生產的質量和安全方面遵守嚴格的政策和程序。

Finally, Adam briefly mentioned our latest hire in the area of procurement with the 2 facilities, it is critical that we implement a best practices model with regards to how we manage our inventories and capital expenditures. Our new Chief Procurement Officer, Joselina Peralta, comes to us with years of experience doing just that. She will be working with her team across both locations to standardize our material specs and provide guidance with regards to future CapEx, investments to ensure that we are making smart decisions when it comes to ROIs.

最後，Adam 簡要提到了我們在 2 個設施的採購領域的最新僱員，我們在如何管理庫存和資本支出方面實施最佳實踐模型至關重要。我們的新任首席採購官 Joselina Peralta 帶著多年的採購經驗來到我們這裡。她將與她在兩個地點的團隊合作，使我們的材料規格標準化，並就未來的資本支出和投資提供指導，以確保我們在投資回報率方面做出明智的決策。

Now before we begin our question-and-answer session, I'd like to turn the call back to Adam for some closing remarks. Adam?

現在，在我們開始問答環節之前，我想把電話轉回給亞當，讓他做一些結束語。亞當？

Thank you, Matt. Our aspiration is to build upon the strong foundation and vision outlined here today, driving sequential increases in profitability throughout this fiscal year, enabled through an increase -- enabled by increasing our average items carried, penetrating new retailers and further strengthening our margin profile. Accomplishing this through the impending build-out of our sales and marketing organization paired with the future acquisitions to further build out our in-house capabilities and product suite will allow us to become a first-of-kind national deli solutions company. All with the goal of delivering sustainable long-term value to my fellow shareholders.

謝謝你，馬特。我們的願望是在今天這裡概述的堅實基礎和願景的基礎上，推動本財年盈利能力的連續增長，通過增加實現——通過增加我們的平均攜帶物品、滲透新零售商並進一步加強我們的利潤率。通過即將建立我們的銷售和營銷組織以及未來的收購來實現這一目標，以進一步建立我們的內部能力和產品套件，將使我們成為一流的全國熟食解決方案公司。所有這一切的目標都是為我的股東夥伴們提供可持續的長期價值。

With that, I'll turn it over to the operator to begin our question-and-answer session. Operator?

有了這個，我會把它交給接線員開始我們的問答環節。操作員？

(Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Ryan Meyers with Lake Street Capital Markets.

（操作員說明）我們的第一個問題來自 Lake Street Capital Markets 的 Ryan Meyers。

Nice work on the quarter. It's always good to see another solid quarter of execution. As we think about the gross margin at 27.5% that you guys reported, is this the new baseline for the business that we should think about? And as we look at FY '24, the goal is going to be to kind of meet or exceed that? Or is there any seasonality going on that we saw here in Q4 that was kind of stronger than, I guess, expected gross margin? Or how should we think about that?

本季度表現出色。看到另一個穩定的執行季度總是好的。當我們考慮你們報告的 27.5% 的毛利率時，這是我們應該考慮的業務的新基準嗎？當我們展望 24 財年時，我們的目標是達到或超過那個目標嗎？或者我們在第四季度看到的季節性是否比預期的毛利率強？或者我們應該如何考慮？

Yes. Thanks, Ryan, and I appreciate the fine words. A great team effort. I think as we said in our calls, we're working to be -- to move from the mid-20s to the high 20s. I think that we'll have to continue to watch commodity prices. We see beef prices moving up and chicken. But I think equally, I'm really excited to see what the team is able to do. There's still tons of stuff that I know Matt is working on, Joselina and others. So I think we're targeting that upper end of the high 20s, maybe the low end of the high 20s, but that's what we're shooting for. And I think that's what the team is working towards every quarter.

是的。謝謝，瑞安，我很欣賞這些美言。一個偉大的團隊努力。我認為正如我們在電話中所說的那樣，我們正在努力成為 - 從 20 多歲到 20 多歲。我認為我們將不得不繼續關注大宗商品價格。我們看到牛肉價格上漲，雞肉價格上漲。但我同樣認為，我真的很高興看到團隊能夠做些什麼。我知道 Matt、Joselina 和其他人還在做很多事情。所以我認為我們的目標是 20 多歲的高端，也許是 20 多歲的低端，但這就是我們的目標。我認為這就是團隊每個季度都在努力的目標。

Got it. And then can you quantify the revenue during the quarter and how much of that came from cross-selling versus how much of it was just kind of strength in the existing products?

知道了。然後你能否量化本季度的收入，其中有多少來自交叉銷售，有多少只是現有產品的優勢？

Yes. So we don't do customer by customer, but I can say that, first of all, all 3 of our businesses grew double digits. So all 3 of our businesses are growing organically double digits. I think cross-selling certainly helped a lot. Our sales lead would tell you that it is much easier to sell a plethora of offerings, whether it be beef or chickens or salads or sandwiches versus just historically selling meat balls or just sausages and peppers. So I think the cross-selling is actually working, and I shared some examples of some of the customers that we're getting cross-selling for.

是的。所以我們不會逐個客戶，但我可以說，首先，我們的 3 家企業都實現了兩位數的增長。因此，我們所有 3 項業務都實現了兩位數的有機增長。我認為交叉銷售肯定有很大幫助。我們的銷售主管會告訴您，與過去只銷售肉丸或香腸和辣椒相比，銷售過多的產品要容易得多，無論是牛肉、雞肉、沙拉還是三明治。所以我認為交叉銷售確實有效，我分享了一些我們正在為其進行交叉銷售的客戶的一些例子。

I would use this time to mention we spoke a little bit about future growth. I continue -- we continue to be very focused on margin. There are -- in the first half of this year, there was a club rotation that we elected not to renew because we didn't feel it met our margin thresholds. That customer is actually doing great, literally growing double digits but that particular rotation, we -- again, we decided that the focus is on margin. I think that the first half of the year is going to be a little more muted, but I do expect the second half of the year to be growing double digits.

我想利用這段時間提一下我們談到了未來的增長。我繼續——我們繼續非常關注保證金。在今年上半年，我們選擇不續簽俱樂部輪換，因為我們認為它沒有達到我們的保證金門檻。那個客戶實際上做得很好，實際上增長了兩位數，但是那個特定的輪換，我們 - 再一次，我們決定把重點放在保證金上。我認為今年上半年會更平靜一些，但我確實預計今年下半年會實現兩位數的增長。

Got it. Yes. No, that's helpful. And then just kind of a bigger picture question. As we look at FY '24, what do you feel like are the biggest milestones that we should be paying attention to? As far as getting a good understanding of the execution of the business and how you're continuing to build this?

知道了。是的。不，那很有幫助。然後只是一個更大的問題。當我們回顧 24 財年時，您認為我們應該關注的最大里程碑是什麼？至於對業務的執行有很好的了解以及您將如何繼續構建它？

Yes. No, thank you. So I mentioned earlier that I am super proud of what Anthony has built in finance and what Matt has built in operations. I said the next thing that we have to go after is continue to build up our sales and marketing organization. That is the -- again, after margin, that is the focus. So I think the big thing that I need, I hope you guys see from us is, one, we get the team in place. You see what we did when we get great finance talent, you see what happens. You see what happens to our margin when you get great operations talent, you see what happens. I want you to see the same thing. So we are very focused on HR to bring in great marketing talent and great sales talent. I think that's the thing that if you see that in the first half of the year, we feel good that in the back half of the year, those investments will reap return.

是的。不，謝謝。所以我之前提到過，我對 Anthony 在財務方面的成就以及 Matt 在運營方面的成就感到非常自豪。我說我們接下來要做的是繼續建立我們的銷售和營銷組織。這就是 - 保證金之後，這就是重點。所以我認為我需要的最重要的事情是，我希望你們能從我們這裡看到，第一，我們讓團隊就位。當我們獲得優秀的金融人才時，你會看到我們做了什麼，你會看到會發生什麼。當您獲得出色的運營人才時，您會看到我們的利潤會發生什麼變化，您會看到會發生什麼。我希望你看到同樣的事情。所以我們非常專注於人力資源，以引進優秀的營銷人才和銷售人才。我認為這就是如果你在今年上半年看到這一點，我們感覺很好，在今年下半年，這些投資將獲得回報。

So the last thing I'll say is immediately, what's great, you're seeing an immediate impact when it comes to margin on these new hires. So this is like found money. The ROI is huge when you bring in great talent, and that's what we've seen in the past, and that's what I expect to see with our sales and marketing team that we're hopefully able to hire in the future.

所以我要說的最後一件事是立即，這很棒，當涉及到這些新員工的利潤時，你會看到立竿見影的影響。所以這就像找到錢一樣。當你引進優秀人才時，投資回報率是巨大的，這就是我們過去所看到的，這也是我希望我們未來能夠聘用的銷售和營銷團隊看到的。

(Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from Howard Halpern with Taglich Brothers.

（操作員說明）我們的下一個問題來自 Howard Halpern 和 Taglich Brothers。

Congratulations, guys on great quarter and great year. In terms of migrating into the convenience store market, how some of those tests have gone throughout the year?

祝賀你們，你們度過了一個偉大的季度和偉大的一年。在進軍便利店市場方面，其中一些測試在全年進行得如何？

Yes. So thanks. And Howard, so thanks for talking about the Meatballs-in-a-Cup. I'm really excited. Actually, the team has been working on it, and you're going to see some even more excitement at IDDBA, where we'll be unveiling a portfolio of sorts of Meatballs-in-a-Cup, which has been doing well.

是的。那謝謝啦。還有霍華德，謝謝你談論杯裝肉丸。我很激動。實際上，該團隊一直在努力，您將在 IDDBA 看到更多令人興奮的事情，我們將在會上推出一系列表現良好的肉丸杯裝產品。

I think the tests have been great. The tests have actually done exactly what we hoped it would do, which is give us additional information. You'll see some slight tweaks to the new product that gets unveiled in June, and we're getting great feedback from the customers. I think post-IDDBA, you're going to see us talk about more items, more customers and again, opening creating that billboard effect. I think one item is a challenge. Now I think you're going to see at IDDBA that we have a number of offerings that's going to make it actually easier to drive velocity of the products. So very excited.

我認為測試很棒。測試實際上完成了我們希望它會做的事情，這為我們提供了額外的信息。您會看到對 6 月推出的新產品進行了一些細微的調整，我們從客戶那裡得到了很好的反饋。我認為在 IDDBA 之後，你會看到我們談論更多的項目、更多的客戶，並再次打開廣告牌效果。我認為一個項目是一個挑戰。現在，我認為您將在 IDDBA 上看到我們提供了許多產品，這些產品實際上可以更輕鬆地推動產品的速度。非常興奮。

Okay. And in terms of getting the sales and marketing team in place in the first half of this year, with the product portfolio that you do have, do you envision the sales cycle being much -- just shorter or a different type of sales cycle to get into brand new customers?

好的。在今年上半年讓銷售和營銷團隊到位方面，根據您現有的產品組合，您是否設想銷售週期會更短或不同類型的銷售週期來獲得進入全新的客戶？

Yes. So I think there are a couple of things directly to your question that help us and create some tailwinds. So the first one is we have a lot of great customers that we're meeting with every single month -- existing customers, every single month and every single quarter, and it is exponentially easier to get a new product in to an existing customer versus finding a new customer, filling out the 833 forms and getting all those approvals. The first thing that we're doing is actually going after existing customers. I've spoken in the past that we're averaging only about 5 to 6 items carry per store. I'm not exaggerating. We should be at not 5 to 6, we should be at 15 to 16. We have all the products there. So I think that's going to help.

是的。因此，我認為有幾件事直接針對您的問題可以幫助我們並創造一些順風。所以第一個是我們有很多很棒的客戶，我們每個月都會見他們——現有客戶，每個月和每個季度，與現有客戶相比，將新產品引入現有客戶要容易得多尋找新客戶，填寫 833 表格並獲得所有這些批准。我們正在做的第一件事實際上是追求現有客戶。我過去曾說過，我們平均每家商店只攜帶 5 到 6 件商品。我沒有誇張。我們不應該在 5 到 6 點，我們應該在 15 到 16 點。我們有所有的產品。所以我認為這會有所幫助。

The other thing that I'm optimistic about is bringing in some new talent, specifically leadership in the direct-to-consumer space will unlock additional areas that, again, have a shorter cycle than again, finding a completely new customer. But it can and it will happen.

我樂觀的另一件事是引進一些新人才，特別是在直接面向消費者領域的領導地位將開啟更多領域，這些領域再次比尋找全新客戶的周期更短。但它可以而且會發生。

Okay. And with the incremental increasing the products on the shelf, that will only help gross margins down the road, correct?

好的。隨著貨架上產品的增量增加，這只會有助於提高毛利率，對嗎？

Absolutely. I'm glad you highlighted that. Without a doubt. So keep in mind, you get -- we're already speaking with the customers. Our trucks every day are already going there. So any chance, I know, Matt, make sure definitely reminds me. Every chance to get a full truckload, 24 pallets to a customer, the better we are, actually, to your point, freight actually declines. So yes, absolutely, that's no secret that's what my focus is.

絕對地。我很高興你強調了這一點。毫無疑問。所以請記住，你會得到 - 我們已經在與客戶交談。我們每天的卡車已經開往那裡。所以任何機會，我知道，馬特，一定要提醒我。每次有機會為客戶提供滿載卡車，24 個托盤，我們就越好，實際上，就您而言，運費實際上下降了。所以是的，絕對，這不是什麼秘密，這就是我的重點。

Okay. And then just one last one. CapEx, anything out of the ordinary for this upcoming year or it should be somewhere around the same as it was last fiscal year?

好的。然後就是最後一個。資本支出，來年有什麼不尋常的地方，還是應該與上一財年大致相同？

So I actually hope it's slightly more. The great news -- so first, the great news is we had plans, and we got approval from the Board to increase CapEx; two, we made sure that all of that CapEx, 100% is funded from cash flow from operations. We have an amazing team, an amazing relationship with our bank M&T and I actually hope I'm pushing the team to invest more. Now very specifically, I'm looking to invest more CapEx and things that are going to drive higher efficiencies in our facilities.

所以我實際上希望它稍微多一點。好消息——首先，好消息是我們有計劃，我們得到了董事會的批准以增加資本支出；第二，我們確保所有資本支出 100% 由運營現金流提供資金。我們擁有一支了不起的團隊，與我們的 M&T 銀行有著驚人的關係，我真的希望我能推動團隊進行更多投資。現在非常具體地，我希望投資更多的資本支出和能夠提高我們設施效率的東西。

Matt mentioned this, (inaudible) a 40% improvement. I'm working with Anthony Morello, who leads our Farmingdale, T&L facilities on what we can do to drive greater efficiencies in our chicken production and salad production. So I'm actually looking to increase CapEx. But again, all of that is within plan, within our margin profile and all funded through cash flow from operations.

Matt 提到了這一點，（聽不清）提高了 40%。我正在與 Anthony Morello 合作，他負責我們 Farmingdale, T&L 工廠的工作，探討我們可以做些什麼來提高雞肉生產和沙拉生產的效率。所以我實際上是在尋求增加資本支出。但同樣，所有這些都在計劃內，在我們的利潤率範圍內，並且所有資金都來自運營現金流。

There are no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the floor back over to Adam Michaels for closing comments.

目前沒有其他問題。我現在想把發言權轉回給 Adam Michaels，請他發表結束評論。

Thank you, operator, and thank you again to each of you for joining us on today's earnings conference call. We look forward to continuing to update you on our progress as we strive to deliver value to our shareholders and execute upon our vision of a national one-stop shop deli solution provider.

謝謝接線員，再次感謝你們每一位參加今天的收益電話會議。我們期待繼續向您介紹我們的最新進展，因為我們努力為股東創造價值，並實現我們成為全國一站式熟食店解決方案提供商的願景。

This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

今天的會議到此結束。此時您可以斷開線路。感謝您的參與。