Mama's Creations, Inc. — Call Transcript 2026

George Kelly with ROTH. Excited to have Adam Michaels with me today from Mama's Creations. We don't have a ton of time, 25 minutes. I'll pause every once in a while to take questions, so if folks have questions, please shout them out. I'll get it kicked off. The three main topics I want to cover are, first, growth. Said you're growing like a weed, in organic, inorganic. There's a lot to cover there. Then margin, and then I want to talk about M&A. Oh, that's it? I think so. Okay. I guess we'll see how this morphs. Starting with growth, I want to first hit on some of your key customers and key retail partners. You recently laid out a target for this year, this fiscal year, to grow double-digit organically, and you've had a lot of success. Let's start with Sam's Club. That's been a great partner of yours. Costco. The club channel's been big. Maybe walk through your expectations this year in that channel, and Costco, a lot of recent news. I guess there's a fair amount to cover in club, but if you could lay out your expectations for this year and what you're most excited about. Thanks George, and thank you guys for having me. We're very focused. We believe strongly that club and mass are the two areas that are going to grow the most and win in this environment, and that's where we're focusing our efforts, our new product development efforts, our promo efforts, our marketing efforts. Yeah. We have a really broad-based success in that. You mentioned, actually, BJ's. You may not have mentioned, but BJ's is doing very well. Always adding new items there. Some really good non-protein items. It's good from a margin perspective. We just did this tortellini salad, roasted sweet potatoes. Costco has been a real winner for us last year. Actually, for the past 10 years. Some of you might have seen, we had our first ever MVM. This is their multi-vendor mailer. That's their highest ROI promo in Q4. That did pretty okay. Earnings haven't come out yet. We already announced that because of that success, we actually became an everyday item, at least in the Northeast. We haven't heard back from the other seven regions, but that has been really good. This is a business that's continuing to grow. Literally, just when I started, I think the first year, we had $570,000 of sales total, and I just started three and a half years ago. $570,000. Last year, meaning two years ago, we did roughly around $10 million of sales. In Q1 last year, we did $10 million alone in sales. We haven't shared our Q4 numbers, but the MVM should be doing better than what we did in Q1. Now we're an everyday item. Costco continues to do well, and not just with one product. They're playing around with lots of different products, new products. They're a great partner of ours. The last is Sam's Club, like you said, another long-standing customer, great partnership, multiple items there. From a club perspective, I feel great and I know we're winning share in that space, seeing great increases in velocities, which is very important to us. That's the long-term success. When you're seeing velocities increase, you know you have something right, and we're seeing that in all three of our club channels. Mass is new for us. Just go back a year and a half and there was no mass. We got into Walmart at the end of, I guess two years ago. What was it? November or December of- A year and a half ago. A year and a half ago. Calendar a year and a half ago. Calendar. Yep. That's amazing. We had one major item there. Actually, they did so well, actually, we got a second item in. I swear to God I didn't even know about it. How's that for keeping my hand on the wheel of the company? We just announced at Chris is doing just an absolute incredible job, our head of sales, and his team. He has built an amazing team. We just announced at our investor day last month that we got seven additional items in in one shot at Walmart. That is absolutely unheard of. Chris has something magic. Walmart's doing incredibly well, and again, I see it every week. Velocities continue to move up there. Actually next week, we will launch our first item at Target. Yes, from a top-line perspective, we are doing pretty okay. If we go back to Costco, you mentioned getting everyday status in the Northeast. What's the chances of you earning everyday status in other regions over the next few quarters? Who knows? I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Yeah. Look, we have a great product that's moving really nice from a velocity perspective. It's a differentiated offering that consumers are liking. I feel really good. There's nothing magical in the Northeast that's not as magical in the Midwest or Southeast or Texas or. Actually, there's three regions in California. California's a big state. I didn't realize that. Yeah. We're doing pretty okay. We talked about this this morning. You shared with us that the MVM success was pretty broad-based, right? It wasn't just the Northeast where the MVM. No performed well. Actually, I'm not sure. I don't think, actually, the Northeast was even the lead market from a velocity perspective. Yes, it is a beef meatballs play in all regions, which is a good thing. I've been in the food space for most of my career, and you name it, from kombucha to refrigerated nutrition bars. I've played with some pretty esoteric items. There's only so big kombucha, right, will ever get. It's a niche-y type thing. One thing that made Mama's so attractive to me was, I would really challenge you that there's anyone that won't eat one of our offerings. If you don't like beef, our meatloaf, sausage, and peppers, meatballs, great. We have chicken. If you don't like our chicken, we got sausage and peppers. You don't like sausage and peppers, we have paninis. My Nashville Hot Panini is my go-to lunch. Great, you don't like bread, we got salads, Mediterranean farro. You don't like salads, we have olives. You don't like olives, I could just keep going. I would challenge any of my 330 million friends in America who can't eat something from Mama's, and that's pretty powerful. On Sam's Club, you built a big business there primarily on two products. I guess you had a third seasonal item for part of last- Yeah. That did well fiscal year. paninis, actually. That did well. It did really well, yeah. Is there an opportunity this year, you think, to add more SKUs at Sam's Club? Chris, better. Yeah. Yeah, there's no reason. Again, I've been sharing this, and I'm being very honest with myself and to you guys, that I could tell you I could look anybody in the eye here and tell you we're everywhere. We're in all 50 states. Albertsons on the West Coast, Ahold on the East Coast, every Costco, BJ's, Sam's, Publix down South. I could look you in the eye and tell you we're everywhere. I swear to God, I could look you all in the eye and say, "We're nowhere." Because we're just so thinly distributed. We have roughly maybe seven items, seven SKUs in each store. We should be 27 items. That's without innovation. Yeah. Yes, am I happy with Sam's? It's tens of millions of dollars of sales, profitable sales. Yeah, it's great, but that's pathetic. Two items. It's shame on me. Okay, a lot of opportunity. Yeah, go ahead. All this growth, capacity additions, how are you planning for that? I planned for it by hiring Skip Tappan a year and a half ago. Skip is our COO, our first-ever COO. He ran logistics at companies you haven't heard of, like Walmart, Campbell's, and chief supply chain officer at Gordon Food Service. He has built an amazing team, an amazing infrastructure. We made an acquisition, a division of Sysco, last year, and doubled our manufacturing footprint. Skip is just doing an incredible job, driving efficiency through the plants. I think Skip shared at the investor day, we could double our revenue with our footprint. That was the thing. Yeah. I think you've got a $1 billion revenue goal. No, no, we will be $1 billion. It's not in a goal. Okay. Sounds like that's so terrible. What is your plan for after that? Have you planned it? After that? My wife said I got to take a day off, sleep a little bit. I don't know. Go to $2 billion. $1 billion is pretty pathetic. This is a $40 billion category. That's a 2.5 share. That is the lowest share I've ever had in my professional career. That is nothing to be proud of. That is something to build off of, but that's not that impressive. On M&A, can you address that? What do you look for when you're looking at acquisitions? Got you. I'm a pretty simple man. Three things. One, it has to be in the deli. Ideally incremental. Incremental could be incremental customers, like with the Sysco deal, we got two of their top three biggest customers we didn't have. That got us incremental customers. Incremental categories gets us into new subcategories within the deli. Incremental capabilities. One thing that actually the Crown business had, a really good MAP technology, modified atmosphere packaging, all natural, but doubles the shelf life naturally. Capabilities, anything like that. That's number 1. 2, has their own manufacturing. That's my secret way of adding capacity. I've had a lot of experience building facilities at PepsiCo and Nabisco, and I have failed 100% of the time, which you got to appreciate my consistency. Putting up four walls is the easy part of building a facility. It's building that culture within the facility that makes everything. That's number 2, has their own manufacturing. Third, my boys like to ski, so if you guys could find me a facility at the base of Aspen or Deer Valley, give me a call. That's it. Three things. Super simple strategy. Can you expand on number 2? You were telling us this morning just about the culture element in more detail about tenure. I think that was really an interesting. Actually, that was my secret question. Thanks. Strike the record. Look, there's a lot of great companies out there, lots of companies that have revenue, lots of companies, there's fewer of them, but lots of companies that have profitable revenue. For me, culture is everything. I spend a lot of time walking the lines. Every day I spend walking the lines, but particularly looking at acquisitions. To me, what's very important is understanding the tenure of the blue-collar workers. Most blue-collar industries, tenure is actually measured in months. Not even years, literally months. Mama's is a special place, right? Our tenure is literally in the high single digits in years. That's how cool it is. I believe that's what differentiates us in the marketplace when we have these crazy Costco rotations and just how could you possibly make that many meatballs or breasts of chicken or whatever. It's because our team does amazing things, because we've been doing it for years together, and everyone rolls up their sleeves, and that means possibly working an extra hour or having to come in on the weekends or whatever they have to do. That's why we win. It's our team. If I see a company that, for whatever reason, their tenure's 12 months, 18 months, that's legitimately a year from now, what did I buy? Everyone's gone. That's really important to me. Culture is everything when it comes to both identification and then also continuing to build our culture within the company. I'm so proud that Crown acquisition has been doing great. Skip has been leading the charge. A lot of it has to do with the culture of the employees. I love these guys, and they're taking on expanded roles. People are moving more around the business. That's what's pretty special. Great. Still on M&A, what kind of size targets are you most interested in? Crown was such a unique Maybe it wasn't unique. Tell us if there's more Crowns out there, but the dynamics and the valuation and the proximity, it checked so many boxes for you. With whatever you're looking at next, what's in the pipeline, like size, and should we expect things that are similar to Crown or maybe think more institutional-looking businesses? It was pretty special. It was cool. If you go back to the Creative Salads deal, who would've thought we could buy an amazing business for half times revenue, right? That was supposed to be an anomaly. We bought Chef Inspirational at a third times revenue. Okay, well, we just got lucky twice. That must have been an anomaly. We bought the Crown business at 0.3 times revenue. I don't know. Yeah. I think two points determine a line. Three points, sounds like something more than that. Okay. We'll see. Look, the beauty is there's two verbs that I talk about a lot that, this might sound silly, but make all the difference in the world. I want to buy other companies. I don't need to buy other companies. Our business is growing, what, 20% the past many quarters. That puts us in a much different place to be able to not have to jump at something because, and again, I promise you, my time at Mondelez, I had this experience. It's a so-so okay deal. At least it gets us an extra $100 million of revenue, and Wall Street gets off our back for a couple of months until the next one. I don't have to worry about that. I have a great business, and if I can't find an awesome business at a very attractive price, I'll just give Skip more money to build more facilities. I'll give Chris more money to put into trade. I'll give Lauren more money to put into marketing. That's a great ROI for me. The difference between want and need makes all the difference in the world. Is there, though, a minimum size that, if it's below, I don't know what kind of revenue threshold would- Yeah, I think it's not a number as much as Look, I've been doing this for a little bit of time now, right? Both at Mondelez and here, and I find that integrations take time, and it's actually not correlated to revenue. If anything, I haven't done the math. My son's a data analytics at school. Maybe I should have him do the correlation and see what it is. I'll bet you $1 it's inversely correlated. I have found that the bigger the deal is, actually the easier because they're a little more structured. These small businesses, you are what? That makes it pretty hard. Look, we bought a $50 million business when we were $150 million. Now we're 200 going north of 200. I don't know. Hopefully, it has three digits. Okay. Other questions from the group? Not including the cents at the end. Other questions from the group? No. Okay. I've got one. Yeah. What's the KPI or two that you're most focused on to measure your success? My personal success? Wow. I think he means work. The board is looking at you and not the stock price at some point. One of the things that I'm really proud of that we did when I came in was we redid all of the way we did compensation. Everybody on the team has six goals. Three team goals and three individual goals. This is important because when I first got here, literally the sales team job was just a revenue number. Sell at a loss because they'd get a bigger bonus. Right now we have a top line, bottom line cash management, and Skip could totally try to mess up with Chris and not sell, but that means he doesn't get his bonus. The fact that literally half of our bonus, we have to help each other out, makes all the difference in the world. For me, particularly because when I got here, this was an unprofitable business, margin for me, gross margin for me is most important. I can't pay my team if I'm not making any money. There's a lot of margin metrics. I would happily forego revenue to improve margin. That's important. I've created these 10 mantras for the company, and the first one is the most important one, is what gets measured gets improved. I track everything. Sunday is my work day. Don't feel guilty. I want to do this. I get up at 5:00 A.M., I work till 5:00 P.M., and by 4:59 P.M., I am the smartest guy in the company. I track everything. I am looking at profitability of every order, profitability of every customer. I'm looking at shipments. I'm looking at everything. Sunday is my day that no one's bothering me, and that's when I get smarter. The team knows they get lots of love notes on Sunday. The order went out wrong, customer, if there's an item that seems to be not as profitable as it was. Literally, I'm looking at our top 25 SKUs weekly profitability, and you don't get one week off. If it goes down a percentage point. This happened on Sunday. One of our items, one customer, for some reason, the margin went down literally four points in one week. Again, I'm pretty close to this business, so I know these prices didn't change. I know I didn't take a price increase or decrease. Carlene got a love note on Sunday. "Hey, what happened?" She sent me, "It's Monday today? I don't even know what day it is. Monday? Yeah. Monday. She sent me a note saying, "Adam, got your note. I'll get you back as to what happened." I don't let anything go to chance. I think the most interesting thing that maybe I'm doing a little differently than my predecessor is I don't hope that costs come down. I don't hope that commodities change. I don't hope anything. Actually, the best money we spent is actually Alberto, our Procurement Leader, helped us get this thing called Expana that has literally actual prices of commodities and forecasts for like 8 trillion items in every country. It's the wildest thing ever. If you want to go down a rabbit hole, I do that every Sunday. When we see that they're forecasting beef or chicken to move, Chris is already getting a love note on, "Hey, this is what happens. Let's call the customer in advance to say, 'Hey, I'm not asking for a price increase now, but I'm submitting something because you're not going to be playing a game with me that let me wait three months before I get my price increase.' Let me submit something. If nothing happens, great. I'll un-submit it or you can reject it. If it does move like this data Expana says, this third party, has nothing to do with me, says." Not only do I not hope things change, I'm proactively making recommendations. Is that a common practice among food companies? How do the clients respond? I don't know. That's George's. He knows all the food companies. I don't know. Okay. I know what I do. Well, I meant the grocers. Your clients. What's really cool is it took me a couple of years. I love the margin we have in our legacy business. I'm still working on the Crown acquisition. I told you guys that I'd have a year to fix the business, which we're doing, and Skip's ahead of plan. For the original business before we acquired Crown, I love where we are. The margins are perfect. That means I don't have to quote unquote "fix anything." However, if chicken goes up $1, I'm getting a $1 increase. I'm not asking for more profit. I'm just asking for the same profit that I had that you and I agreed to before. I think the fact that I'm not asking for anything. I'm telling you, I'm showing you, I'm not looking to get more profitable. I'm just looking to hold the level of profitability. By having that data, I think it's easier. Now, Chris would say, "Adam, you're smoking something," and it's really hard, but Chris is a magician at that, too. Why can't the customer, the grocer, substitute away from you and the competitors if they're not making the price? They could. How often does that happen? Another thing that our friend Jack Welch taught us, remember back in the 1800s, remember he said, he wants to be number 1 or number 2 in the industry or get out. I look at that the same way of our products. We're not just in Sam's. George said we're in Sam's. No, we're not just in Sam's. We are the number 1 item in the deli set in the entire country. We're not just in BJ's. We're the number 1 item. We're not just in Publix. We're one of the number 1 items in the entire set. You're absolutely right. If you just want to be in a customer, and you want to be the 83rd item in that customer, you do not have a lot of power. If you're the number 1 item, and I'm not asking for anything egregious, I'm just asking for where we are. It happens. That's why we choose which customers we want to be into. There are some customers that are strictly on price. We're never going to win there. Right? Year ago back if you had a $1 cut, you say we maybe cut it for you? I'm sorry, I don't have any clue what you just said. Meaning- I'm joking. No. Sometimes. Some customers might do that, and I'm open-minded, but that's, I don't know. Have you ever seen OREO go down in price in your lifetime? No. I learn from a lot of people. I guess, just quick, the grocers talk about the margin profile for the fresh deli for the grocer. It's a big margin category. Yeah. The other thing is it's a real win-win for everybody. The center aisle margin in a grocery store is about 30%. Right? They make about 30% on their OREO or Frito-Lay chips. Meat section, seafood, maybe let's call it a 40% margin. Deli's a 50% margin. That means that if I'm selling that to them for $5, they're selling it to you for $9.99. First, it's one of the most profitable parts of the store. Bakery's slightly better. Second, it drives more trips. Right? You don't just go into the store to pick up toilet paper. Maybe toilet paper, but if you forgot OREO, you'll wait till next week. This is your dinner that night, so you're going in. Third, George is very focused, but most of us will go in if we're going to get the meal. Ooh, OREO came out with a new flavor, I picked that up." The baskets are bigger. That sort of trifecta makes the deli space really attractive. They're adding more shelf space, more linear feet of space. It's win-win. It's awesome for the retailer. It's terrific for the consumer. Right? You can't even Ian's body is a temple, but have you guys been to McDonald's recently? No, of course not. I've been to McDonald's recently. You can't get out of there for more than $10. Right? This is a better-priced item. Right? Our products, I want it to be $9.99. Chris will end up selling it for $8.99, but that's fine. It's pretty okay for the manufacturer. We got to end it there. Apologies, we're already over. Thank you very much. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thanks everybody.

Speaker 2: George Kelly with ROTH. Excited to have Adam Michaels with me today from Mama's Creations. We don't have a ton of time, 25 minutes. I'll pause every once in a while to take questions, so if folks have questions, please shout them out. I'll get it kicked off. The three main topics I want to cover are, first, growth. Said you're growing like a weed, in organic, inorganic. There's a lot to cover there. Then margin, and then I want to talk about M&A. George Kelly with ROTH. george kelly with roth Excited to have Adam Michaels with me today from Mama's Creations. excited to have adam michaels with me today from mama's creations We don't have a ton of time, 25 minutes. we don't have a ton of time 25 minutes I'll pause every once in a while to take questions, so if folks have questions, please shout them out. i'll pause every once in a while to take questions so if folks have questions please shout them out I'll get it kicked off. i'll get it kicked off The three main topics I want to cover are, first, growth. the three main topics i want to cover are first growth Said you're growing like a weed, in organic, inorganic. said you're growing like a weed in organic inorganic There's a lot to cover there. there's a lot to cover there Then margin, and then I want to talk about M&A. then margin and then i want to talk about m&a

Speaker 1: Oh, that's it? Oh, that's it? oh that's it

Speaker 2: I think so. I think so. i think so

Speaker 1: Okay. Okay. okay

Speaker 2: I guess we'll see how this morphs. Starting with growth, I want to first hit on some of your key customers and key retail partners. You recently laid out a target for this year, this fiscal year, to grow double-digit organically, and you've had a lot of success. Let's start with Sam's Club. That's been a great partner of yours. Costco. The club channel's been big. Maybe walk through your expectations this year in that channel, and Costco, a lot of recent news. I guess there's a fair amount to cover in club, but if you could lay out your expectations for this year and what you're most excited about. I guess we'll see how this morphs. i guess we'll see how this morphs Starting with growth, I want to first hit on some of your key customers and key retail partners. starting with growth i want to first hit on some of your key customers and key retail partners You recently laid out a target for this year, this fiscal year, to grow double-digit organically, and you've had a lot of success. you recently laid out a target for this year this fiscal year to grow double-digit organically and you've had a lot of success Let's start with Sam's Club. let's start with sam's club That's been a great partner of yours. that's been a great partner of yours Costco. costco The club channel's been big. the club channel's been big Maybe walk through your expectations this year in that channel, and Costco, a lot of recent news. maybe walk through your expectations this year in that channel and costco a lot of recent news I guess there's a fair amount to cover in club, but if you could lay out your expectations for this year and what you're most excited about. i guess there's a fair amount to cover in club but if you could lay out your expectations for this year and what you're most excited about

Speaker 1: Thanks George, and thank you guys for having me. We're very focused. We believe strongly that club and mass are the two areas that are going to grow the most and win in this environment, and that's where we're focusing our efforts, our new product development efforts, our promo efforts, our marketing efforts. Yeah. We have a really broad-based success in that. You mentioned, actually, BJ's. You may not have mentioned, but BJ's is doing very well. Always adding new items there. Some really good non-protein items. It's good from a margin perspective. We just did this tortellini salad, roasted sweet potatoes. Costco has been a real winner for us last year. Actually, for the past 10 years. Some of you might have seen, we had our first ever MVM. This is their multi-vendor mailer. That's their highest ROI promo in Q4. Thanks George, and thank you guys for having me. thanks george and thank you guys for having me We're very focused. we're very focused We believe strongly that club and mass are the two areas that are going to grow the most and win in this environment, and that's where we're focusing our efforts, our new product development efforts, our promo efforts, our marketing efforts. we believe strongly that club and mass are the two areas that are going to grow the most and win in this environment and that's where we're focusing our efforts our new product development efforts our promo efforts our marketing efforts Yeah. yeah We have a really broad-based success in that. we have a really broad-based success in that You mentioned, actually, BJ's. you mentioned actually bj's You may not have mentioned, but BJ's is doing very well. you may not have mentioned but bj's is doing very well Always adding new items there. always adding new items there Some really good non-protein items. some really good non-protein items It's good from a margin perspective. it's good from a margin perspective We just did this tortellini salad, roasted sweet potatoes. we just did this tortellini salad roasted sweet potatoes Costco has been a real winner for us last year. costco has been a real winner for us last year Actually, for the past 10 years. actually for the past 10 years Some of you might have seen, we had our first ever MVM. some of you might have seen we had our first ever mvm This is their multi-vendor mailer. this is their multi-vendor mailer That's their highest ROI promo in Q4. that's their highest roi promo in q4 That did pretty okay. Earnings haven't come out yet. We already announced that because of that success, we actually became an everyday item, at least in the Northeast. We haven't heard back from the other seven regions, but that has been really good. This is a business that's continuing to grow. Literally, just when I started, I think the first year, we had $570,000 of sales total, and I just started three and a half years ago. $570,000. Last year, meaning two years ago, we did roughly around $10 million of sales. In Q1 last year, we did $10 million alone in sales. We haven't shared our Q4 numbers, but the MVM should be doing better than what we did in Q1. Now we're an everyday item. Costco continues to do well, and not just with one product. That did pretty okay. that did pretty okay Earnings haven't come out yet. earnings haven't come out yet We already announced that because of that success, we actually became an everyday item, at least in the Northeast. we already announced that because of that success we actually became an everyday item at least in the northeast We haven't heard back from the other seven regions, but that has been really good. we haven't heard back from the other seven regions but that has been really good This is a business that's continuing to grow. this is a business that's continuing to grow Literally, just when I started, I think the first year, we had $570,000 of sales total, and I just started three and a half years ago. $570,000. literally just when i started i think the first year we had $570,000 of sales total and i just started three and a half years ago $570,000 Last year, meaning two years ago, we did roughly around $10 million of sales. last year meaning two years ago we did roughly around $10 million of sales In Q1 last year, we did $10 million alone in sales. in q1 last year we did $10 million alone in sales We haven't shared our Q4 numbers, but the MVM should be doing better than what we did in Q1. we haven't shared our q4 numbers but the mvm should be doing better than what we did in q1 Now we're an everyday item. now we're an everyday item Costco continues to do well, and not just with one product. costco continues to do well and not just with one product They're playing around with lots of different products, new products. They're a great partner of ours. The last is Sam's Club, like you said, another long-standing customer, great partnership, multiple items there. From a club perspective, I feel great and I know we're winning share in that space, seeing great increases in velocities, which is very important to us. That's the long-term success. When you're seeing velocities increase, you know you have something right, and we're seeing that in all three of our club channels. Mass is new for us. Just go back a year and a half and there was no mass. We got into Walmart at the end of, I guess two years ago. What was it? November or December of- They're playing around with lots of different products, new products. they're playing around with lots of different products new products They're a great partner of ours. they're a great partner of ours The last is Sam's Club, like you said, another long-standing customer, great partnership, multiple items there. the last is sam's club like you said another long-standing customer great partnership multiple items there From a club perspective, I feel great and I know we're winning share in that space, seeing great increases in velocities, which is very important to us. from a club perspective i feel great and i know we're winning share in that space seeing great increases in velocities which is very important to us That's the long-term success. that's the long-term success When you're seeing velocities increase, you know you have something right, and we're seeing that in all three of our club channels. when you're seeing velocities increase you know you have something right and we're seeing that in all three of our club channels Mass is new for us. mass is new for us Just go back a year and a half and there was no mass. just go back a year and a half and there was no mass We got into Walmart at the end of, I guess two years ago. we got into walmart at the end of i guess two years ago What was it? what was it November or December of- november or december of-

Speaker 2: A year and a half ago. A year and a half ago. a year and a half ago

Speaker 1: A year and a half ago. A year and a half ago. a year and a half ago

Speaker 2: Calendar a year and a half ago. Calendar a year and a half ago. calendar a year and a half ago

Speaker 1: Calendar. Yep. That's amazing. We had one major item there. Actually, they did so well, actually, we got a second item in. I swear to God I didn't even know about it. How's that for keeping my hand on the wheel of the company? We just announced at Chris is doing just an absolute incredible job, our head of sales, and his team. He has built an amazing team. We just announced at our investor day last month that we got seven additional items in in one shot at Walmart. That is absolutely unheard of. Chris has something magic. Walmart's doing incredibly well, and again, I see it every week. Velocities continue to move up there. Actually next week, we will launch our first item at Target. Yes, from a top-line perspective, we are doing pretty okay. Calendar. calendar Yep. yep That's amazing. that's amazing We had one major item there. we had one major item there Actually, they did so well, actually, we got a second item in. actually they did so well actually we got a second item in I swear to God I didn't even know about it. i swear to god i didn't even know about it How's that for keeping my hand on the wheel of the company? how's that for keeping my hand on the wheel of the company We just announced at Chris is doing just an absolute incredible job, our head of sales, and his team. we just announced at chris is doing just an absolute incredible job our head of sales and his team He has built an amazing team. he has built an amazing team We just announced at our investor day last month that we got seven additional items in in one shot at Walmart. we just announced at our investor day last month that we got seven additional items in in one shot at walmart That is absolutely unheard of. that is absolutely unheard of Chris has something magic. chris has something magic Walmart's doing incredibly well, and again, I see it every week. walmart's doing incredibly well and again i see it every week Velocities continue to move up there. velocities continue to move up there Actually next week, we will launch our first item at Target. actually next week we will launch our first item at target Yes, from a top-line perspective, we are doing pretty okay. yes from a top-line perspective we are doing pretty okay

Speaker 2: If we go back to Costco, you mentioned getting everyday status in the Northeast. What's the chances of you earning everyday status in other regions over the next few quarters? Who knows? If we go back to Costco, you mentioned getting everyday status in the Northeast. if we go back to costco you mentioned getting everyday status in the northeast What's the chances of you earning everyday status in other regions over the next few quarters? what's the chances of you earning everyday status in other regions over the next few quarters Who knows? who knows

Speaker 1: I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. i'm keeping my fingers crossed

Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. yeah

Speaker 1: Look, we have a great product that's moving really nice from a velocity perspective. It's a differentiated offering that consumers are liking. I feel really good. There's nothing magical in the Northeast that's not as magical in the Midwest or Southeast or Texas or. Actually, there's three regions in California. California's a big state. I didn't realize that. Yeah. We're doing pretty okay. Look, we have a great product that's moving really nice from a velocity perspective. look we have a great product that's moving really nice from a velocity perspective It's a differentiated offering that consumers are liking. it's a differentiated offering that consumers are liking I feel really good. i feel really good There's nothing magical in the Northeast that's not as magical in the Midwest or Southeast or Texas or. there's nothing magical in the northeast that's not as magical in the midwest or southeast or texas or Actually, there's three regions in California. actually there's three regions in california California's a big state. california's a big state I didn't realize that. i didn't realize that Yeah. yeah We're doing pretty okay. we're doing pretty okay

Speaker 2: We talked about this this morning. You shared with us that the MVM success was pretty broad-based, right? It wasn't just the Northeast where the MVM. We talked about this this morning. we talked about this this morning You shared with us that the MVM success was pretty broad-based, right? you shared with us that the mvm success was pretty broad-based right It wasn't just the Northeast where the MVM. it wasn't just the northeast where the mvm

Speaker 1: No No no

Speaker 2: performed well. performed well. performed well

Speaker 1: Actually, I'm not sure. I don't think, actually, the Northeast was even the lead market from a velocity perspective. Yes, it is a beef meatballs play in all regions, which is a good thing. I've been in the food space for most of my career, and you name it, from kombucha to refrigerated nutrition bars. I've played with some pretty esoteric items. There's only so big kombucha, right, will ever get. It's a niche-y type thing. One thing that made Mama's so attractive to me was, I would really challenge you that there's anyone that won't eat one of our offerings. If you don't like beef, our meatloaf, sausage, and peppers, meatballs, great. We have chicken. If you don't like our chicken, we got sausage and peppers. You don't like sausage and peppers, we have paninis. My Nashville Hot Panini is my go-to lunch. Actually, I'm not sure. actually i'm not sure I don't think, actually, the Northeast was even the lead market from a velocity perspective. i don't think actually the northeast was even the lead market from a velocity perspective Yes, it is a beef meatballs play in all regions, which is a good thing. yes it is a beef meatballs play in all regions which is a good thing I've been in the food space for most of my career, and you name it, from kombucha to refrigerated nutrition bars. i've been in the food space for most of my career and you name it from kombucha to refrigerated nutrition bars I've played with some pretty esoteric items. i've played with some pretty esoteric items There's only so big kombucha, right, will ever get. there's only so big kombucha right will ever get It's a niche-y type thing. it's a niche-y type thing One thing that made Mama's so attractive to me was, I would really challenge you that there's anyone that won't eat one of our offerings. one thing that made mama's so attractive to me was i would really challenge you that there's anyone that won't eat one of our offerings If you don't like beef, our meatloaf, sausage, and peppers, meatballs, great. if you don't like beef our meatloaf sausage and peppers meatballs great We have chicken. we have chicken If you don't like our chicken, we got sausage and peppers. if you don't like our chicken we got sausage and peppers You don't like sausage and peppers, we have paninis. you don't like sausage and peppers we have paninis My Nashville Hot Panini is my go-to lunch. my nashville hot panini is my go-to lunch Great, you don't like bread, we got salads, Mediterranean farro. You don't like salads, we have olives. You don't like olives, I could just keep going. I would challenge any of my 330 million friends in America who can't eat something from Mama's, and that's pretty powerful. Great, you don't like bread, we got salads, Mediterranean farro. great you don't like bread we got salads mediterranean farro You don't like salads, we have olives. you don't like salads we have olives You don't like olives, I could just keep going. you don't like olives i could just keep going I would challenge any of my 330 million friends in America who can't eat something from Mama's, and that's pretty powerful. i would challenge any of my 330 million friends in america who can't eat something from mama's and that's pretty powerful

Speaker 2: On Sam's Club, you built a big business there primarily on two products. I guess you had a third seasonal item for part of last- On Sam's Club, you built a big business there primarily on two products. on sam's club you built a big business there primarily on two products I guess you had a third seasonal item for part of last- i guess you had a third seasonal item for part of last-

Speaker 1: Yeah. That did well Yeah. yeah That did well that did well

Speaker 2: fiscal year. fiscal year. fiscal year

Speaker 1: paninis, actually. paninis, actually. paninis actually

Speaker 2: That did well. That did well. that did well

Speaker 1: It did really well, yeah. It did really well, yeah. it did really well yeah

Speaker 2: Is there an opportunity this year, you think, to add more SKUs at Sam's Club? Is there an opportunity this year, you think, to add more SKUs at Sam's Club? is there an opportunity this year you think to add more skus at sam's club

Speaker 1: Chris, better. Chris, better. chris better

Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. yeah

Speaker 1: Yeah, there's no reason. Again, I've been sharing this, and I'm being very honest with myself and to you guys, that I could tell you I could look anybody in the eye here and tell you we're everywhere. We're in all 50 states. Albertsons on the West Coast, Ahold on the East Coast, every Costco, BJ's, Sam's, Publix down South. I could look you in the eye and tell you we're everywhere. I swear to God, I could look you all in the eye and say, "We're nowhere." Because we're just so thinly distributed. We have roughly maybe seven items, seven SKUs in each store. We should be 27 items. Yeah, there's no reason. yeah there's no reason Again, I've been sharing this, and I'm being very honest with myself and to you guys, that I could tell you I could look anybody in the eye here and tell you we're everywhere. again i've been sharing this and i'm being very honest with myself and to you guys that i could tell you i could look anybody in the eye here and tell you we're everywhere We're in all 50 states. we're in all 50 states Albertsons on the West Coast, Ahold on the East Coast, every Costco, BJ's, Sam's, Publix down South. albertsons on the west coast ahold on the east coast every costco bj's sam's publix down south I could look you in the eye and tell you we're everywhere. i could look you in the eye and tell you we're everywhere I swear to God, I could look you all in the eye and say, "We're nowhere." Because we're just so thinly distributed. i swear to god i could look you all in the eye and say "we're nowhere." because we're just so thinly distributed We have roughly maybe seven items, seven SKUs in each store. we have roughly maybe seven items seven skus in each store We should be 27 items. we should be 27 items That's without innovation. Yeah. Yes, am I happy with Sam's? It's tens of millions of dollars of sales, profitable sales. Yeah, it's great, but that's pathetic. Two items. It's shame on me. That's without innovation. that's without innovation Yeah. yeah Yes, am I happy with Sam's? yes am i happy with sam's It's tens of millions of dollars of sales, profitable sales. it's tens of millions of dollars of sales profitable sales Yeah, it's great, but that's pathetic. yeah it's great but that's pathetic Two items. two items It's shame on me. it's shame on me

Speaker 2: Okay, a lot of opportunity. Yeah, go ahead. Okay, a lot of opportunity. okay a lot of opportunity Yeah, go ahead. yeah go ahead

Speaker 3: All this growth, capacity additions, how are you planning for that? All this growth, capacity additions, how are you planning for that? all this growth capacity additions how are you planning for that

Speaker 1: I planned for it by hiring Skip Tappan a year and a half ago. Skip is our COO, our first-ever COO. He ran logistics at companies you haven't heard of, like Walmart, Campbell's, and chief supply chain officer at Gordon Food Service. He has built an amazing team, an amazing infrastructure. We made an acquisition, a division of Sysco, last year, and doubled our manufacturing footprint. Skip is just doing an incredible job, driving efficiency through the plants. I think Skip shared at the investor day, we could double our revenue with our footprint. I planned for it by hiring Skip Tappan a year and a half ago. i planned for it by hiring skip tappan a year and a half ago Skip is our COO, our first-ever COO. skip is our coo our first-ever coo He ran logistics at companies you haven't heard of, like Walmart, Campbell's, and chief supply chain officer at Gordon Food Service. he ran logistics at companies you haven't heard of like walmart campbell's and chief supply chain officer at gordon food service He has built an amazing team, an amazing infrastructure. he has built an amazing team an amazing infrastructure We made an acquisition, a division of Sysco, last year, and doubled our manufacturing footprint. we made an acquisition a division of sysco last year and doubled our manufacturing footprint Skip is just doing an incredible job, driving efficiency through the plants. skip is just doing an incredible job driving efficiency through the plants I think Skip shared at the investor day, we could double our revenue with our footprint. i think skip shared at the investor day we could double our revenue with our footprint

Speaker 3: That was the thing. That was the thing. that was the thing

Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. yeah

Speaker 4: I think you've got a $1 billion revenue goal. I think you've got a $1 billion revenue goal. i think you've got a $1 billion revenue goal

Speaker 1: No, no, we will be $1 billion. It's not in a goal. No, no, we will be $1 billion. no no we will be $1 billion It's not in a goal. it's not in a goal

Speaker 4: Okay. Okay. okay

Speaker 1: Sounds like that's so terrible. Sounds like that's so terrible. sounds like that's so terrible

Speaker 4: What is your plan for after that? Have you planned it? What is your plan for after that? what is your plan for after that Have you planned it? have you planned it

Speaker 1: After that? My wife said I got to take a day off, sleep a little bit. I don't know. Go to $2 billion. $1 billion is pretty pathetic. This is a $40 billion category. That's a 2.5 share. That is the lowest share I've ever had in my professional career. That is nothing to be proud of. That is something to build off of, but that's not that impressive. After that? after that My wife said I got to take a day off, sleep a little bit. my wife said i got to take a day off sleep a little bit I don't know. i don't know Go to $2 billion. $1 billion is pretty pathetic. go to $2 billion $1 billion is pretty pathetic This is a $40 billion category. this is a $40 billion category That's a 2.5 share. that's a 2.5 share That is the lowest share I've ever had in my professional career. that is the lowest share i've ever had in my professional career That is nothing to be proud of. that is nothing to be proud of That is something to build off of, but that's not that impressive. that is something to build off of but that's not that impressive

Speaker 4: On M&A, can you address that? What do you look for when you're looking at acquisitions? Got you. On M&A, can you address that? on m&a can you address that What do you look for when you're looking at acquisitions? what do you look for when you're looking at acquisitions Got you. got you

Speaker 1: I'm a pretty simple man. Three things. One, it has to be in the deli. Ideally incremental. I'm a pretty simple man. i'm a pretty simple man Three things. three things One, it has to be in the deli. one it has to be in the deli Ideally incremental. ideally incremental Incremental could be incremental customers, like with the Sysco deal, we got two of their top three biggest customers we didn't have. That got us incremental customers. Incremental categories gets us into new subcategories within the deli. Incremental capabilities. One thing that actually the Crown business had, a really good MAP technology, modified atmosphere packaging, all natural, but doubles the shelf life naturally. Capabilities, anything like that. That's number 1. 2, has their own manufacturing. That's my secret way of adding capacity. I've had a lot of experience building facilities at PepsiCo and Nabisco, and I have failed 100% of the time, which you got to appreciate my consistency. Putting up four walls is the easy part of building a facility. It's building that culture within the facility that makes everything. That's number 2, has their own manufacturing. Incremental could be incremental customers, like with the Sysco deal, we got two of their top three biggest customers we didn't have. incremental could be incremental customers like with the sysco deal we got two of their top three biggest customers we didn't have That got us incremental customers. that got us incremental customers Incremental categories gets us into new subcategories within the deli. incremental categories gets us into new subcategories within the deli Incremental capabilities. incremental capabilities One thing that actually the Crown business had, a really good MAP technology, modified atmosphere packaging, all natural, but doubles the shelf life naturally. one thing that actually the crown business had a really good map technology modified atmosphere packaging all natural but doubles the shelf life naturally Capabilities, anything like that. capabilities anything like that That's number 1. 2, has their own manufacturing. that's number 1 2 has their own manufacturing That's my secret way of adding capacity. that's my secret way of adding capacity I've had a lot of experience building facilities at PepsiCo and Nabisco, and I have failed 100% of the time, which you got to appreciate my consistency. i've had a lot of experience building facilities at pepsico and nabisco and i have failed 100% of the time which you got to appreciate my consistency Putting up four walls is the easy part of building a facility. putting up four walls is the easy part of building a facility It's building that culture within the facility that makes everything. it's building that culture within the facility that makes everything That's number 2, has their own manufacturing. that's number 2 has their own manufacturing Third, my boys like to ski, so if you guys could find me a facility at the base of Aspen or Deer Valley, give me a call. That's it. Three things. Super simple strategy. Third, my boys like to ski, so if you guys could find me a facility at the base of Aspen or Deer Valley, give me a call. third my boys like to ski so if you guys could find me a facility at the base of aspen or deer valley give me a call That's it. that's it Three things. three things Super simple strategy. super simple strategy

Speaker 2: Can you expand on number 2? You were telling us this morning just about the culture element in more detail about tenure. I think that was really an interesting. Can you expand on number 2? can you expand on number 2 You were telling us this morning just about the culture element in more detail about tenure. you were telling us this morning just about the culture element in more detail about tenure I think that was really an interesting. i think that was really an interesting

Speaker 1: Actually, that was my secret question. Thanks. Actually, that was my secret question. actually that was my secret question Thanks. thanks

Speaker 2: Strike the record. Strike the record. strike the record

Speaker 1: Look, there's a lot of great companies out there, lots of companies that have revenue, lots of companies, there's fewer of them, but lots of companies that have profitable revenue. For me, culture is everything. I spend a lot of time walking the lines. Every day I spend walking the lines, but particularly looking at acquisitions. To me, what's very important is understanding the tenure of the blue-collar workers. Most blue-collar industries, tenure is actually measured in months. Not even years, literally months. Mama's is a special place, right? Our tenure is literally in the high single digits in years. That's how cool it is. I believe that's what differentiates us in the marketplace when we have these crazy Costco rotations and just how could you possibly make that many meatballs or breasts of chicken or whatever. Look, there's a lot of great companies out there, lots of companies that have revenue, lots of companies, there's fewer of them, but lots of companies that have profitable revenue. look there's a lot of great companies out there lots of companies that have revenue lots of companies there's fewer of them but lots of companies that have profitable revenue For me, culture is everything. for me culture is everything I spend a lot of time walking the lines. i spend a lot of time walking the lines Every day I spend walking the lines, but particularly looking at acquisitions. every day i spend walking the lines but particularly looking at acquisitions To me, what's very important is understanding the tenure of the blue-collar workers. to me what's very important is understanding the tenure of the blue-collar workers Most blue-collar industries, tenure is actually measured in months. most blue-collar industries tenure is actually measured in months Not even years, literally months. not even years literally months Mama's is a special place, right? mama's is a special place right Our tenure is literally in the high single digits in years. our tenure is literally in the high single digits in years That's how cool it is. that's how cool it is I believe that's what differentiates us in the marketplace when we have these crazy Costco rotations and just how could you possibly make that many meatballs or breasts of chicken or whatever. i believe that's what differentiates us in the marketplace when we have these crazy costco rotations and just how could you possibly make that many meatballs or breasts of chicken or whatever It's because our team does amazing things, because we've been doing it for years together, and everyone rolls up their sleeves, and that means possibly working an extra hour or having to come in on the weekends or whatever they have to do. That's why we win. It's our team. If I see a company that, for whatever reason, their tenure's 12 months, 18 months, that's legitimately a year from now, what did I buy? Everyone's gone. That's really important to me. Culture is everything when it comes to both identification and then also continuing to build our culture within the company. I'm so proud that Crown acquisition has been doing great. Skip has been leading the charge. A lot of it has to do with the culture of the employees. I love these guys, and they're taking on expanded roles. It's because our team does amazing things, because we've been doing it for years together, and everyone rolls up their sleeves, and that means possibly working an extra hour or having to come in on the weekends or whatever they have to do. it's because our team does amazing things because we've been doing it for years together and everyone rolls up their sleeves and that means possibly working an extra hour or having to come in on the weekends or whatever they have to do That's why we win. that's why we win It's our team. it's our team If I see a company that, for whatever reason, their tenure's 12 months, 18 months, that's legitimately a year from now, what did I buy? if i see a company that for whatever reason their tenure's 12 months 18 months that's legitimately a year from now what did i buy Everyone's gone. everyone's gone That's really important to me. that's really important to me Culture is everything when it comes to both identification and then also continuing to build our culture within the company. culture is everything when it comes to both identification and then also continuing to build our culture within the company I'm so proud that Crown acquisition has been doing great. i'm so proud that crown acquisition has been doing great Skip has been leading the charge. skip has been leading the charge A lot of it has to do with the culture of the employees. a lot of it has to do with the culture of the employees I love these guys, and they're taking on expanded roles. i love these guys and they're taking on expanded roles People are moving more around the business. That's what's pretty special. People are moving more around the business. people are moving more around the business That's what's pretty special. that's what's pretty special

Speaker 2: Great. Still on M&A, what kind of size targets are you most interested in? Crown was such a unique Maybe it wasn't unique. Tell us if there's more Crowns out there, but the dynamics and the valuation and the proximity, it checked so many boxes for you. With whatever you're looking at next, what's in the pipeline, like size, and should we expect things that are similar to Crown or maybe think more institutional-looking businesses? Great. great Still on M&A, what kind of size targets are you most interested in? still on m&a what kind of size targets are you most interested in Crown was such a unique Maybe it wasn't unique. crown was such a unique maybe it wasn't unique Tell us if there's more Crowns out there, but the dynamics and the valuation and the proximity, it checked so many boxes for you. tell us if there's more crowns out there but the dynamics and the valuation and the proximity it checked so many boxes for you With whatever you're looking at next, what's in the pipeline, like size, and should we expect things that are similar to Crown or maybe think more institutional-looking businesses? with whatever you're looking at next what's in the pipeline like size and should we expect things that are similar to crown or maybe think more institutional-looking businesses

Speaker 1: It was pretty special. It was cool. If you go back to the Creative Salads deal, who would've thought we could buy an amazing business for half times revenue, right? That was supposed to be an anomaly. We bought Chef Inspirational at a third times revenue. Okay, well, we just got lucky twice. That must have been an anomaly. We bought the Crown business at 0.3 times revenue. I don't know. It was pretty special. it was pretty special It was cool. it was cool If you go back to the Creative Salads deal, who would've thought we could buy an amazing business for half times revenue, right? if you go back to the creative salads deal who would've thought we could buy an amazing business for half times revenue right That was supposed to be an anomaly. that was supposed to be an anomaly We bought Chef Inspirational at a third times revenue. we bought chef inspirational at a third times revenue Okay, well, we just got lucky twice. okay well we just got lucky twice That must have been an anomaly. that must have been an anomaly We bought the Crown business at 0.3 times revenue. we bought the crown business at 0.3 times revenue I don't know. i don't know

Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. yeah

Speaker 1: I think two points determine a line. Three points, sounds like something more than that. I think two points determine a line. i think two points determine a line Three points, sounds like something more than that. three points sounds like something more than that

Speaker 2: Okay. Okay. okay

Speaker 1: We'll see. Look, the beauty is there's two verbs that I talk about a lot that, this might sound silly, but make all the difference in the world. I want to buy other companies. I don't need to buy other companies. Our business is growing, what, 20% the past many quarters. That puts us in a much different place to be able to not have to jump at something because, and again, I promise you, my time at Mondelez, I had this experience. It's a so-so okay deal. At least it gets us an extra $100 million of revenue, and Wall Street gets off our back for a couple of months until the next one. I don't have to worry about that. We'll see. we'll see Look, the beauty is there's two verbs that I talk about a lot that, this might sound silly, but make all the difference in the world. look the beauty is there's two verbs that i talk about a lot that this might sound silly but make all the difference in the world I want to buy other companies. i want to buy other companies I don't need to buy other companies. i don't need to buy other companies Our business is growing, what, 20% the past many quarters. our business is growing what 20% the past many quarters That puts us in a much different place to be able to not have to jump at something because, and again, I promise you, my time at Mondelez, I had this experience. that puts us in a much different place to be able to not have to jump at something because and again i promise you my time at mondelez i had this experience It's a so-so okay deal. it's a so-so okay deal At least it gets us an extra $100 million of revenue, and Wall Street gets off our back for a couple of months until the next one. at least it gets us an extra $100 million of revenue and wall street gets off our back for a couple of months until the next one I don't have to worry about that. i don't have to worry about that I have a great business, and if I can't find an awesome business at a very attractive price, I'll just give Skip more money to build more facilities. I'll give Chris more money to put into trade. I'll give Lauren more money to put into marketing. That's a great ROI for me. The difference between want and need makes all the difference in the world. I have a great business, and if I can't find an awesome business at a very attractive price, I'll just give Skip more money to build more facilities. i have a great business and if i can't find an awesome business at a very attractive price i'll just give skip more money to build more facilities I'll give Chris more money to put into trade. i'll give chris more money to put into trade I'll give Lauren more money to put into marketing. i'll give lauren more money to put into marketing That's a great ROI for me. that's a great roi for me The difference between want and need makes all the difference in the world. the difference between want and need makes all the difference in the world

Speaker 2: Is there, though, a minimum size that, if it's below, I don't know what kind of revenue threshold would- Is there, though, a minimum size that, if it's below, I don't know what kind of revenue threshold would- is there though a minimum size that if it's below i don't know what kind of revenue threshold would-

Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's not a number as much as Look, I've been doing this for a little bit of time now, right? Both at Mondelez and here, and I find that integrations take time, and it's actually not correlated to revenue. If anything, I haven't done the math. My son's a data analytics at school. Maybe I should have him do the correlation and see what it is. I'll bet you $1 it's inversely correlated. I have found that the bigger the deal is, actually the easier because they're a little more structured. These small businesses, you are what? That makes it pretty hard. Look, we bought a $50 million business when we were $150 million. Now we're 200 going north of 200. I don't know. Hopefully, it has three digits. Yeah, I think it's not a number as much as Look, I've been doing this for a little bit of time now, right? yeah i think it's not a number as much as look i've been doing this for a little bit of time now right Both at Mondelez and here, and I find that integrations take time, and it's actually not correlated to revenue. both at mondelez and here and i find that integrations take time and it's actually not correlated to revenue If anything, I haven't done the math. if anything i haven't done the math My son's a data analytics at school. my son's a data analytics at school Maybe I should have him do the correlation and see what it is. maybe i should have him do the correlation and see what it is I'll bet you $1 it's inversely correlated. i'll bet you $1 it's inversely correlated I have found that the bigger the deal is, actually the easier because they're a little more structured. i have found that the bigger the deal is actually the easier because they're a little more structured These small businesses, you are what? these small businesses you are what That makes it pretty hard. that makes it pretty hard Look, we bought a $50 million business when we were $150 million. look we bought a $50 million business when we were $150 million Now we're 200 going north of 200. now we're 200 going north of 200 I don't know. i don't know Hopefully, it has three digits. hopefully it has three digits

Speaker 2: Okay. Other questions from the group? Okay. okay Other questions from the group? other questions from the group

Speaker 1: Not including the cents at the end. Not including the cents at the end. not including the cents at the end

Speaker 2: Other questions from the group? No. Okay. Other questions from the group? other questions from the group No. no Okay. okay

Speaker 3: I've got one. I've got one. i've got one

Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. yeah

Speaker 3: What's the KPI or two that you're most focused on to measure your success? What's the KPI or two that you're most focused on to measure your success? what's the kpi or two that you're most focused on to measure your success

Speaker 1: My personal success? Wow. My personal success? my personal success Wow. wow

Speaker 2: I think he means work. I think he means work. i think he means work

Speaker 3: The board is looking at you and not the stock price at some point. The board is looking at you and not the stock price at some point. the board is looking at you and not the stock price at some point

Speaker 1: One of the things that I'm really proud of that we did when I came in was we redid all of the way we did compensation. Everybody on the team has six goals. Three team goals and three individual goals. This is important because when I first got here, literally the sales team job was just a revenue number. Sell at a loss because they'd get a bigger bonus. Right now we have a top line, bottom line cash management, and Skip could totally try to mess up with Chris and not sell, but that means he doesn't get his bonus. The fact that literally half of our bonus, we have to help each other out, makes all the difference in the world. For me, particularly because when I got here, this was an unprofitable business, margin for me, gross margin for me is most important. One of the things that I'm really proud of that we did when I came in was we redid all of the way we did compensation. one of the things that i'm really proud of that we did when i came in was we redid all of the way we did compensation Everybody on the team has six goals. everybody on the team has six goals Three team goals and three individual goals. three team goals and three individual goals This is important because when I first got here, literally the sales team job was just a revenue number. this is important because when i first got here literally the sales team job was just a revenue number Sell at a loss because they'd get a bigger bonus. sell at a loss because they'd get a bigger bonus Right now we have a top line, bottom line cash management, and Skip could totally try to mess up with Chris and not sell, but that means he doesn't get his bonus. right now we have a top line bottom line cash management and skip could totally try to mess up with chris and not sell but that means he doesn't get his bonus The fact that literally half of our bonus, we have to help each other out, makes all the difference in the world. the fact that literally half of our bonus we have to help each other out makes all the difference in the world For me, particularly because when I got here, this was an unprofitable business, margin for me, gross margin for me is most important. for me particularly because when i got here this was an unprofitable business margin for me gross margin for me is most important I can't pay my team if I'm not making any money. There's a lot of margin metrics. I would happily forego revenue to improve margin. That's important. I've created these 10 mantras for the company, and the first one is the most important one, is what gets measured gets improved. I track everything. Sunday is my work day. Don't feel guilty. I want to do this. I get up at 5:00 A.M., I work till 5:00 P.M., and by 4:59 P.M., I am the smartest guy in the company. I track everything. I am looking at profitability of every order, profitability of every customer. I'm looking at shipments. I'm looking at everything. Sunday is my day that no one's bothering me, and that's when I get smarter. The team knows they get lots of love notes on Sunday. I can't pay my team if I'm not making any money. i can't pay my team if i'm not making any money There's a lot of margin metrics. there's a lot of margin metrics I would happily forego revenue to improve margin. i would happily forego revenue to improve margin That's important. that's important I've created these 10 mantras for the company, and the first one is the most important one, is what gets measured gets improved. i've created these 10 mantras for the company and the first one is the most important one is what gets measured gets improved I track everything. i track everything Sunday is my work day. sunday is my work day Don't feel guilty. don't feel guilty I want to do this. i want to do this I get up at 5:00 A.M., I work till 5:00 P.M., and by 4:59 P.M., I am the smartest guy in the company. i get up at 5:00 a.m i work till 5:00 p.m and by 4:59 p.m i am the smartest guy in the company I track everything. i track everything I am looking at profitability of every order, profitability of every customer. i am looking at profitability of every order profitability of every customer I'm looking at shipments. i'm looking at shipments I'm looking at everything. i'm looking at everything Sunday is my day that no one's bothering me, and that's when I get smarter. sunday is my day that no one's bothering me and that's when i get smarter The team knows they get lots of love notes on Sunday. the team knows they get lots of love notes on sunday The order went out wrong, customer, if there's an item that seems to be not as profitable as it was. Literally, I'm looking at our top 25 SKUs weekly profitability, and you don't get one week off. If it goes down a percentage point. This happened on Sunday. One of our items, one customer, for some reason, the margin went down literally four points in one week. Again, I'm pretty close to this business, so I know these prices didn't change. I know I didn't take a price increase or decrease. Carlene got a love note on Sunday. "Hey, what happened?" She sent me, "It's Monday today? I don't even know what day it is. Monday? The order went out wrong, customer, if there's an item that seems to be not as profitable as it was. the order went out wrong customer if there's an item that seems to be not as profitable as it was Literally, I'm looking at our top 25 SKUs weekly profitability, and you don't get one week off. literally i'm looking at our top 25 skus weekly profitability and you don't get one week off If it goes down a percentage point. if it goes down a percentage point This happened on Sunday. this happened on sunday One of our items, one customer, for some reason, the margin went down literally four points in one week. one of our items one customer for some reason the margin went down literally four points in one week Again, I'm pretty close to this business, so I know these prices didn't change. again i'm pretty close to this business so i know these prices didn't change I know I didn't take a price increase or decrease. i know i didn't take a price increase or decrease Carlene got a love note on Sunday. "Hey, what happened?" She sent me, "It's Monday today? carlene got a love note on sunday "hey what happened?" she sent me "it's monday today I don't even know what day it is. i don't even know what day it is Monday? monday

Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah. yeah

Speaker 1: Monday. She sent me a note saying, "Adam, got your note. I'll get you back as to what happened." I don't let anything go to chance. I think the most interesting thing that maybe I'm doing a little differently than my predecessor is I don't hope that costs come down. I don't hope that commodities change. I don't hope anything. Actually, the best money we spent is actually Alberto, our Procurement Leader, helped us get this thing called Expana that has literally actual prices of commodities and forecasts for like 8 trillion items in every country. It's the wildest thing ever. If you want to go down a rabbit hole, I do that every Sunday. When we see that they're forecasting beef or chicken to move, Chris is already getting a love note on, "Hey, this is what happens. Monday. monday She sent me a note saying, "Adam, got your note. she sent me a note saying "adam got your note I'll get you back as to what happened." I don't let anything go to chance. i'll get you back as to what happened." i don't let anything go to chance I think the most interesting thing that maybe I'm doing a little differently than my predecessor is I don't hope that costs come down. i think the most interesting thing that maybe i'm doing a little differently than my predecessor is i don't hope that costs come down I don't hope that commodities change. i don't hope that commodities change I don't hope anything. i don't hope anything Actually, the best money we spent is actually Alberto, our Procurement Leader, helped us get this thing called Expana that has literally actual prices of commodities and forecasts for like 8 trillion items in every country. actually the best money we spent is actually alberto our procurement leader helped us get this thing called expana that has literally actual prices of commodities and forecasts for like 8 trillion items in every country It's the wildest thing ever. it's the wildest thing ever If you want to go down a rabbit hole, I do that every Sunday. if you want to go down a rabbit hole i do that every sunday When we see that they're forecasting beef or chicken to move, Chris is already getting a love note on, "Hey, this is what happens. when we see that they're forecasting beef or chicken to move chris is already getting a love note on "hey this is what happens Let's call the customer in advance to say, 'Hey, I'm not asking for a price increase now, but I'm submitting something because you're not going to be playing a game with me that let me wait three months before I get my price increase.' Let me submit something. If nothing happens, great. I'll un-submit it or you can reject it. If it does move like this data Expana says, this third party, has nothing to do with me, says." Not only do I not hope things change, I'm proactively making recommendations. Let's call the customer in advance to say, 'Hey, I'm not asking for a price increase now, but I'm submitting something because you're not going to be playing a game with me that let me wait three months before I get my price increase.' Let me submit something. let's call the customer in advance to say 'hey i'm not asking for a price increase now but i'm submitting something because you're not going to be playing a game with me that let me wait three months before i get my price increase.' let me submit something If nothing happens, great. if nothing happens great I'll un-submit it or you can reject it. i'll un-submit it or you can reject it If it does move like this data Expana says, this third party, has nothing to do with me, says." Not only do I not hope things change, I'm proactively making recommendations. if it does move like this data expana says this third party has nothing to do with me says." not only do i not hope things change i'm proactively making recommendations

Speaker 3: Is that a common practice among food companies? How do the clients respond? Is that a common practice among food companies? is that a common practice among food companies How do the clients respond? how do the clients respond

Speaker 1: I don't know. That's George's. He knows all the food companies. I don't know. I don't know. i don't know That's George's. that's george's He knows all the food companies. he knows all the food companies I don't know. i don't know

Speaker 3: Okay. Okay. okay

Speaker 1: I know what I do. I know what I do. i know what i do

Speaker 3: Well, I meant the grocers. Your clients. Well, I meant the grocers. well i meant the grocers Your clients. your clients

Speaker 1: What's really cool is it took me a couple of years. I love the margin we have in our legacy business. I'm still working on the Crown acquisition. I told you guys that I'd have a year to fix the business, which we're doing, and Skip's ahead of plan. For the original business before we acquired Crown, I love where we are. The margins are perfect. That means I don't have to quote unquote "fix anything." However, if chicken goes up $1, I'm getting a $1 increase. I'm not asking for more profit. I'm just asking for the same profit that I had that you and I agreed to before. I think the fact that I'm not asking for anything. I'm telling you, I'm showing you, I'm not looking to get more profitable. I'm just looking to hold the level of profitability. What's really cool is it took me a couple of years. what's really cool is it took me a couple of years I love the margin we have in our legacy business. i love the margin we have in our legacy business I'm still working on the Crown acquisition. i'm still working on the crown acquisition I told you guys that I'd have a year to fix the business, which we're doing, and Skip's ahead of plan. i told you guys that i'd have a year to fix the business which we're doing and skip's ahead of plan For the original business before we acquired Crown, I love where we are. for the original business before we acquired crown i love where we are The margins are perfect. the margins are perfect That means I don't have to quote unquote "fix anything." However, if chicken goes up $1, I'm getting a $1 increase. that means i don't have to quote unquote "fix anything." however if chicken goes up $1 i'm getting a $1 increase I'm not asking for more profit. i'm not asking for more profit I'm just asking for the same profit that I had that you and I agreed to before. i'm just asking for the same profit that i had that you and i agreed to before I think the fact that I'm not asking for anything. i think the fact that i'm not asking for anything I'm telling you, I'm showing you, I'm not looking to get more profitable. i'm telling you i'm showing you i'm not looking to get more profitable I'm just looking to hold the level of profitability. i'm just looking to hold the level of profitability By having that data, I think it's easier. Now, Chris would say, "Adam, you're smoking something," and it's really hard, but Chris is a magician at that, too. Why can't the customer, the grocer, substitute away from you and the competitors if they're not making the price? They could. By having that data, I think it's easier. by having that data i think it's easier Now, Chris would say, "Adam, you're smoking something," and it's really hard, but Chris is a magician at that, too. now chris would say "adam you're smoking something," and it's really hard but chris is a magician at that too Why can't the customer, the grocer, substitute away from you and the competitors if they're not making the price? why can't the customer the grocer substitute away from you and the competitors if they're not making the price They could. they could

Speaker 2: How often does that happen? How often does that happen? how often does that happen

Speaker 1: Another thing that our friend Jack Welch taught us, remember back in the 1800s, remember he said, he wants to be number 1 or number 2 in the industry or get out. I look at that the same way of our products. We're not just in Sam's. George said we're in Sam's. No, we're not just in Sam's. We are the number 1 item in the deli set in the entire country. We're not just in BJ's. We're the number 1 item. We're not just in Publix. We're one of the number 1 items in the entire set. You're absolutely right. If you just want to be in a customer, and you want to be the 83rd item in that customer, you do not have a lot of power. Another thing that our friend Jack Welch taught us, remember back in the 1800s, remember he said, he wants to be number 1 or number 2 in the industry or get out. another thing that our friend jack welch taught us remember back in the 1800s remember he said he wants to be number 1 or number 2 in the industry or get out I look at that the same way of our products. i look at that the same way of our products We're not just in Sam's. we're not just in sam's George said we're in Sam's. george said we're in sam's No, we're not just in Sam's. no we're not just in sam's We are the number 1 item in the deli set in the entire country. we are the number 1 item in the deli set in the entire country We're not just in BJ's. we're not just in bj's We're the number 1 item. we're the number 1 item We're not just in Publix. we're not just in publix We're one of the number 1 items in the entire set. we're one of the number 1 items in the entire set You're absolutely right. you're absolutely right If you just want to be in a customer, and you want to be the 83rd item in that customer, you do not have a lot of power. if you just want to be in a customer and you want to be the 83rd item in that customer you do not have a lot of power If you're the number 1 item, and I'm not asking for anything egregious, I'm just asking for where we are. It happens. That's why we choose which customers we want to be into. There are some customers that are strictly on price. We're never going to win there. Right? If you're the number 1 item, and I'm not asking for anything egregious, I'm just asking for where we are. if you're the number 1 item and i'm not asking for anything egregious i'm just asking for where we are It happens. it happens That's why we choose which customers we want to be into. that's why we choose which customers we want to be into There are some customers that are strictly on price. there are some customers that are strictly on price We're never going to win there. we're never going to win there Right? right

Speaker 3: Year ago back if you had a $1 cut, you say we maybe cut it for you? Year ago back if you had a $1 cut, you say we maybe cut it for you? year ago back if you had a $1 cut you say we maybe cut it for you

Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I don't have any clue what you just said. I'm sorry, I don't have any clue what you just said. i'm sorry i don't have any clue what you just said

Speaker 3: Meaning- Meaning- meaning-

Speaker 1: I'm joking. No. Sometimes. Some customers might do that, and I'm open-minded, but that's, I don't know. Have you ever seen OREO go down in price in your lifetime? No. I learn from a lot of people. I'm joking. i'm joking No. no Sometimes. sometimes Some customers might do that, and I'm open-minded, but that's, I don't know. some customers might do that and i'm open-minded but that's i don't know Have you ever seen OREO go down in price in your lifetime? have you ever seen oreo go down in price in your lifetime No. no I learn from a lot of people. i learn from a lot of people

Speaker 2: I guess, just quick, the grocers talk about the margin profile for the fresh deli for the grocer. It's a big margin category. I guess, just quick, the grocers talk about the margin profile for the fresh deli for the grocer. i guess just quick the grocers talk about the margin profile for the fresh deli for the grocer It's a big margin category. it's a big margin category

Speaker 1: Yeah. The other thing is it's a real win-win for everybody. The center aisle margin in a grocery store is about 30%. Right? They make about 30% on their OREO or Frito-Lay chips. Meat section, seafood, maybe let's call it a 40% margin. Deli's a 50% margin. That means that if I'm selling that to them for $5, they're selling it to you for $9.99. First, it's one of the most profitable parts of the store. Bakery's slightly better. Second, it drives more trips. Right? You don't just go into the store to pick up toilet paper. Maybe toilet paper, but if you forgot OREO, you'll wait till next week. This is your dinner that night, so you're going in. Third, George is very focused, but most of us will go in if we're going to get the meal. Yeah. yeah The other thing is it's a real win-win for everybody. the other thing is it's a real win-win for everybody The center aisle margin in a grocery store is about 30%. the center aisle margin in a grocery store is about 30% Right? right They make about 30% on their OREO or Frito-Lay chips. they make about 30% on their oreo or frito-lay chips Meat section, seafood, maybe let's call it a 40% margin. meat section seafood maybe let's call it a 40% margin Deli's a 50% margin. deli's a 50% margin That means that if I'm selling that to them for $5, they're selling it to you for $9.99. that means that if i'm selling that to them for $5 they're selling it to you for $9.99 First, it's one of the most profitable parts of the store. first it's one of the most profitable parts of the store Bakery's slightly better. bakery's slightly better Second, it drives more trips. second it drives more trips Right? right You don't just go into the store to pick up toilet paper. you don't just go into the store to pick up toilet paper Maybe toilet paper, but if you forgot OREO, you'll wait till next week. maybe toilet paper but if you forgot oreo you'll wait till next week This is your dinner that night, so you're going in. this is your dinner that night so you're going in Third, George is very focused, but most of us will go in if we're going to get the meal. third george is very focused but most of us will go in if we're going to get the meal Ooh, OREO came out with a new flavor, I picked that up." The baskets are bigger. That sort of trifecta makes the deli space really attractive. They're adding more shelf space, more linear feet of space. It's win-win. It's awesome for the retailer. It's terrific for the consumer. Right? You can't even Ian's body is a temple, but have you guys been to McDonald's recently? No, of course not. I've been to McDonald's recently. You can't get out of there for more than $10. Right? This is a better-priced item. Right? Our products, I want it to be $9.99. Chris will end up selling it for $8.99, but that's fine. It's pretty okay for the manufacturer. Ooh, OREO came out with a new flavor, I picked that up." The baskets are bigger. ooh oreo came out with a new flavor i picked that up." the baskets are bigger That sort of trifecta makes the deli space really attractive. that sort of trifecta makes the deli space really attractive They're adding more shelf space, more linear feet of space. they're adding more shelf space more linear feet of space It's win-win. it's win-win It's awesome for the retailer. it's awesome for the retailer It's terrific for the consumer. it's terrific for the consumer Right? right You can't even Ian's body is a temple, but have you guys been to McDonald's recently? you can't even ian's body is a temple but have you guys been to mcdonald's recently No, of course not. no of course not I've been to McDonald's recently. i've been to mcdonald's recently You can't get out of there for more than $10. you can't get out of there for more than $10 Right? right This is a better-priced item. this is a better-priced item Right? right Our products, I want it to be $9.99. our products i want it to be $9.99 Chris will end up selling it for $8.99, but that's fine. chris will end up selling it for $8.99 but that's fine It's pretty okay for the manufacturer. it's pretty okay for the manufacturer

Speaker 2: We got to end it there. Apologies, we're already over. Thank you very much. We got to end it there. we got to end it there Apologies, we're already over. apologies we're already over Thank you very much. thank you very much

Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you. thank you

Speaker 2: Appreciate it. Thanks everybody. Appreciate it. appreciate it Thanks everybody. thanks everybody