Vital Farms, Inc. (VITL)

Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

The following discussion contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results may differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including those set forth in Part I, Item 1A, “Risk Factors,” and “Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” included elsewhere in this Annual Report. The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with our audited financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this Annual Report.

Overview

Our mission is to bring ethical food to the table, and we carry out this mission by raising the standards in the food industry and disrupting industrial, factory food norms. Our approach has allowed us to bring high-quality products from our network of family farms to a national audience and has enabled us to become the leading U.S. brand of pasture-raised eggs and the second-largest U.S. egg brand by retail dollar sales. Our ethics are exemplified by our focus on animal welfare and sustainable farming practices. We believe our standards produce happy hens with varied diets, which produce better eggs. There is a seismic shift in consumer demand for natural, traceable, clean-label, great-tasting and nutritious foods. Supported by a steadfast adherence to the values on which we were founded, we have designed our brand and products to appeal to this consumer movement.

Our purpose is to improve the lives of people, animals and the planet through food. We are committed to Conscious Capitalism, which prioritizes positive, long-term outcomes with all of our stakeholders – farmers and suppliers, customers and consumers, communities and the environment, employees, who we refer to as crew members, and stockholders. We make decisions based on what is sustainable for all our stakeholders. For us, it is not about short-term outcomes or a trade-off between purpose and profit. We are fierce business competitors who believe that prioritizing the long-term viability of all stakeholders will produce stronger outcomes for everyone, over time. These principles guide our day-to-day operations and, we believe, help us deliver a more sustainable and successful business. Our approach has been validated by our financial performance and our impact on the food industry. We are also a Delaware public benefit corporation and a Certified B Corporation, a designation reserved for businesses that balance profit and purpose to meet the highest verified standards of social and environmental performance, public transparency and legal accountability.

We source our eggs from a network of over 425 family farms. We have strategically designed our supply chain to ensure high production standards and optimal year-round operation. We are motivated by the positive impact we have on rural communities and enjoy a strong relationship and reputation with our network of farmers.

We primarily work with our farms pursuant to buy-sell contracts. Under these arrangements, the farmer is responsible for all of the working capital and investments required to produce the eggs and manage the farm, including purchasing the birds and feed supply. As a result of ongoing elevated construction costs associated with our new farms, we incurred incremental farm recruitment costs in 2024 that were required to be paid in advance of these farms beginning to produce eggs, and we expect such incremental costs to continue into fiscal 2025. These costs are expected to be recognized over the term of the related buy-sell contracts with the new farms, which are generally four to five years in length. The impact to fiscal 2024 was approximately $15.0 million to working capital. We believe the impact to our working capital resulting from these upfront costs could range from $7.0 million to $10.0 million in fiscal 2025. We are contractually obligated to purchase all of the eggs produced by the farmer during the term of the contract at an agreed-upon price that depends upon pallet weight and is adjusted quarterly for changes in feed cost.

We believe we are a strategic and valuable partner to retailers. We have continued to command premium prices for our products, including our shell eggs. Our loyal and growing consumer base has fueled the expansion of our brand from the natural channel to the mainstream channel. We believe the success of our brand demonstrates that consumers are demanding premium products that meet a higher ethical standard of food production. We have a strong presence at The Kroger Co., Sprouts Farmers Market, Target Corporation and Whole Foods Market, Inc., or Whole Foods, and we also sell our products at Albertsons Companies, Inc., Publix Super Markets, Inc. and Walmart, Inc. We offer 23 retail stock keeping units, or SKUs, through a multi-channel retail distribution network. We believe we have significant room for growth within the retail and foodservice channels through growing brand awareness, gaining additional points of distribution and new product innovation.

Our shell eggs are collected from farmers by a third-party freight carrier and placed in cold storage until we pack them for shipping to our customers at our state-of-the-art shell egg processing facility, Egg Central Station. Egg Central Station is approximately 153,000 square feet and utilizes highly automated equipment to grade and package our shell egg products. Egg Central Station is capable of packing approximately six million eggs per day and has an SQF Excellent rating, the highest level of such certification from the Global Food Safety Initiative.

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To help support continued supply and further growth, we announced in 2024 that we plan to locate a second egg washing and packing facility in Seymour, Indiana, which we anticipate will be fully operational in 2027. We intend to build upon the foundational key learnings and successes from our Egg Central Station facility in Missouri with this second facility and further expand our already resilient supply chain. To help meet the continued demand for our shell eggs, we announced in January 2025 that we plan to install an additional Moba egg grading system, the primary automation technology used in washing, sorting, and packing shell eggs, at Egg Central Station. Installation of this new system is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2025 and to be fully operational by the end of fiscal 2025.

In fiscal 2024, we purchased approximately 1,040 acres of farmland in Indiana for approximately $7.5 million. Our intent is to develop this farmland (along with other potential parcels to be purchased in the future) and utilize it for “accelerator farms” to provide learning and development opportunities within our farm network and to help ensure adequate supply for our future egg washing and packing facility in Seymour, Indiana, while preserving the ability in the future to sell turnkey farms to interested farmers.

Our products are primarily distributed through a broker-distributor-retailer network whereby brokers represent our products to distributors and retailers who will in turn sell our products to consumers. We serve the majority of natural channel customers through food distributors, which purchase, store, sell and deliver our products to our customers. We serve mainstream retailers by arranging for delivery of our products directly through their distribution centers. We also leverage distributor relationships to fulfill orders for certain independent grocers and other customers.

We have experienced consistent sales growth. We had net revenue of $606.3 million and $471.9 million, net income of $53.4 million and $25.6 million, and Adjusted EBITDA of $86.7 million and $48.3 million in the fiscal years ended December 29, 2024 and December 31, 2023, respectively. Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial measure. See the section titled “—Non-GAAP Financial Measures—Adjusted EBITDA” below for the definition of Adjusted EBITDA, as well as a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to net income, the most directly comparable financial measure stated in accordance with GAAP.

Known Trends, Events and Uncertainties

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) and Other Agricultural Diseases

Since initial outbreaks of HPAI in early 2022, we have been closely following the progression of the virus and working with our farmers, veterinarians, government health officials and animal welfare auditors to ensure that our flocks are kept as safe as possible. In fiscal 2024, we experienced an outbreak at one of our farms.

In fiscal 2024, we were made aware of an outbreak of a virus called Egg Drop Syndrome (EDS) in the Midwest, and nine of our farms were impacted in fiscal 2024. EDS is characterized by the production of pale, thin-shelled, soft-shelled, or shell-less eggs by seemingly healthy laying hens.

In fiscal 2024 and continuing into fiscal 2025, HPAI-related disruptions in the supply of conventional eggs resulted at times in increased demand for premium egg products such as ours, which occasionally resulted in shortages of these eggs on shelves at our retail customers. While we have not experienced material disruptions to our egg supply due to HPAI and EDS outbreaks, if a substantial portion of our farms or production facilities were affected, this could materially and negatively affect our supply chain and operating results. Additionally, agricultural diseases such as HPAI or EDS have resulted and could continue to result in supply shortages and price increases across the egg market, including shortages of eggs on shelves at our retail customers. We are confident in the measures we have taken to reduce the risk of HPAI and EDS on our farms and production facilities (including through procurement of newly available vaccinations for EDS), as well as our ability to mitigate impacts on supply. However, given continued uncertainty about future outbreaks and governmental responses to such outbreaks, we cannot predict the ultimate impact that agricultural diseases such as HPAI and EDS will have on our business.

Economic Uncertainties

The current inflationary environment may affect our business and corresponding financial position and cash flows. Inflationary factors, such as increases in the cost of materials and supplies, interest rates and overhead costs, may adversely affect our operating results. Elevated interest rates also present a recent challenge impacting the U.S. economy and could make it more difficult for us to obtain traditional financing on acceptable terms, if at all, in the future. We work closely with our farmers, suppliers and third-party manufacturers to manage our supply chain activities and mitigate potential disruptions to our product supplies as a result of supply chain disruptions associated with such uncertainties. We currently expect to have an adequate supply of our products, packaging and freight through fiscal 2025.

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Liquidity and Capital Resources Overview

With cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities of $160.3 million as of December 29, 2024 and $60.0 million available under our credit facility agreement with JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., or the Credit Facility, we anticipate having sufficient liquidity to make investments in our business to support our long-term growth strategy. We expect that our cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities as of December 29, 2024, together with cash provided by our operating activities and availability of borrowings under our Credit Facility, will be sufficient to fund our operating expenses for at least the next 12 months and to make investments in our business in support of our long-term growth strategy.

Our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including our pace of new and existing customer growth, our investments in innovation, our investments in acquisitions or other growth opportunities, our investments in partnerships and unexplored channels and ongoing costs associated with expansions of our production capacity. We may be required to seek additional equity or debt financing. However, a significant disruption of global financial markets (including a disruption due to public health pandemics, geopolitical tensions and wars, inflation or other factors) may result in our inability to access additional capital, which could in the future negatively affect our operations. In the event that we require additional financing, we may not be able to raise such financing on terms acceptable to us or at all. If we are unable to raise additional capital or generate cash flows necessary to expand our operations and invest in continued innovation and product expansion, we may not be able to compete successfully, which would harm our business, operations and results of operations. For additional information, see the section titled “Liquidity and Capital Resources” below.

Our Fiscal Year

We report on a 52-week or 53-week fiscal year, ending on the last Sunday in December. In a 52-week fiscal year, each fiscal quarter consists of 13 weeks. The additional week in a 53-week fiscal year is added to the fourth quarter, making such quarter consist of 14 weeks. Our first 53-week fiscal year as a public company occurred in fiscal 2023, which began on December 26, 2022 and ended on December 31, 2023. See “Nature of the Business and Basis of Presentation” in Note 1 to our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report for additional details related to our fiscal calendar.

Key Factors Affecting Our Business

We believe that the growth of our business and our future success are dependent upon many factors. While each of these factors presents significant opportunities for us, they also pose important challenges that we must successfully address to enable us to sustain the growth of our business and improve our results of operations.

Expand Household Penetration

We have positioned our brand to capitalize on growing consumer interest in natural, clean-label, traceable, ethical, great-tasting and nutritious foods. We believe there is substantial opportunity to grow our consumer base and increase the velocity at which households purchase our products. U.S. household penetration for the shell egg category is approximately 97%, while the household penetration for our shell eggs is approximately 9.2%. We intend to increase household penetration by continuing to invest significantly in sales and marketing to educate consumers about our brand, our values and the premium quality of our products. We believe these efforts have helped and will continue to help educate consumers on the attractive attributes of our products, generate further demand for our products and ultimately expand our consumer base. Our ability to continue to attract new consumers will depend, among other things, on the perceived value and quality of our products, the offerings of our competitors and the effectiveness of our marketing efforts. Our performance depends significantly on factors that may affect the level and pattern of consumer spending in the U.S. natural food market in which we operate. Such factors include consumer preference, consumer confidence, consumer income, consumer perception of the safety and quality of our products and shifts in the perceived value for our products relative to alternatives.

Grow Within the Retail Channel

We believe that our ability to increase the number of customers that sell our products to consumers is an indicator of our market penetration and our future business opportunities. We define our customers as the entities that sell our products to consumers. With certain of our retail customers, like Whole Foods, we sell our products through distributors. We are not able to precisely attribute our net revenue to a specific retailer for products sold through such channels. We rely on third-party data to calculate the portion of retail sales attributable to such retailers, but this data is inherently imprecise because it is based on gross sales generated by our products sold at retailers, without accounting for price concessions, promotional activities or chargebacks in the ordinary course of business, and because it measures retail sales for only the portion of our retailers serviced through distributors. Based on this third-party data and internal analysis, Whole Foods accounted for approximately 23% of our retail sales for each of the fiscal years ended December 29, 2024 and December 31, 2023.

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As of December 2024, there were approximately 24,000 stores selling our products. We expect the retail channel to be our largest source of net revenue for the foreseeable future. By capturing greater shelf space, driving higher product velocities and increasing our SKU count, we believe there is meaningful runway for further growth with existing retail customers. Additionally, we believe there is significant opportunity to gain incremental stores from existing customers as well as by adding new retail customers. We also believe there is significant further long-term opportunity in additional distribution channels, including the convenience, drugstore, club, military and international markets. Our ability to execute this strategy will increase our opportunities for incremental sales to consumers, and we also believe this growth will allow for margin expansion. To accomplish these objectives, we intend to continue leveraging consumer awareness of and demand for our brand, offering targeted sales incentives to our customers and utilizing customer-specific marketing tactics. Our ability to grow within the retail channel will depend on a number of factors, such as our customers’ satisfaction with the sales, product velocities and profitability of our products.

Expand Footprint Across Foodservice

We believe there is significant demand for our products in the foodservice channel since we offer versatile ingredients with high menu penetrations across commercial and non-commercial operator segments. We see considerable opportunity to continue to grow the channel in the medium- to long-term with our two-pronged sales approach to values-aligned foodservice operators and their distributors. We are working with ROOTED Food Sales Agency, a foodservice sales and marketing agency, to increase our category share in broad-line distribution and to access additional national and regional restaurant menus.

We are also leveraging foodservice as a critical consumer touchpoint to drive brand awareness, and we are investing in co-marketing to reach new households. We believe co-marketing is mutually beneficial to foodservice operators because it helps to differentiate their brands, enhances their perceived customer value and drives loyalty.

Expand Our Product Offerings

We intend to continue to strengthen our product offerings by investing in innovation in new and existing categories. We have a history of product introductions and intend to continue to innovate by introducing new products from time to time. Eggs and egg-related products generated $581.0 million, or approximately 96%, of net revenue in fiscal 2024. We expect eggs and egg-related products to be our largest source of net revenue for the foreseeable future. We believe that investments in innovation will contribute to our long-term growth, including by reinforcing our efforts to increase household penetration. Our ability to successfully develop, market and sell new products will depend on a variety of factors, including the availability of capital to invest in innovation, as well as changing consumer preferences and demand for food products.

Key Components of Results of Operations

Net Revenue

We generate net revenue primarily from sales of our products, including eggs and butter, to our customers, which include natural retailers, mainstream retailers, distributors and foodservice customers. We sell our products to customers on a purchase-order basis. We serve the majority of our natural channel customers and certain independent grocers and other customers through food distributors, which purchase, store, sell and deliver our products to these customers.

We periodically offer promotional incentives to our customers, including customer rebates, temporary price reductions, off-invoice discounts, retailer advertisements, product coupons and other trade activities. At the end of each accounting period, we recognize a liability for an estimated promotional allowance reserve. We periodically provide credits or discounts to our customers in the event that products do not conform to customer expectations upon delivery or expire at a customer’s site. We treat these credits and discounts as a reduction of the sales price of the related transaction at the time of sale. We anticipate that these promotional activities, credits and discounts could materially impact our net revenue and that changes in such activities could impact period-over-period results.

Our shell eggs are sold to consumers at a premium price point, and when prices for commodity shell eggs fall relative to the price of our shell eggs (including due to any price increases we may implement), price-sensitive consumers may choose to purchase commodity shell eggs offered by our competitors instead of our eggs. As a result, low commodity shell egg prices may adversely affect our net revenue. We increased prices on certain of our products in each of fiscal years 2022, 2023 and 2024. While we have not seen significant decreases in sales volume due to previous price increases, if we further increase prices to offset higher commodity prices or other costs, we could experience lower demand for our products, decreased ability to attract new customers and lower sales volumes. Net revenue may also vary from period to period depending on the purchase orders we receive, the volume and mix of our products sold, and the channels through which our products are sold.

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Cost of Goods Sold

Cost of goods sold consists of the costs directly attributable to producing our products which include labor, raw material and packaging costs as well as overhead. The labor cost is comprised of wages and related costs for our processing crew members. The raw material is comprised of those items necessary to process our finished egg and butter products and the packaging costs are the cost of the packaging materials our finished products are sold in. Overhead costs in cost of goods sold include utilities, insurance, inbound freight, storage fees related to our warehouse and depreciation and amortization expenses related to our assets used in production. We expect cost of goods sold to increase in the future in connection with the development and staffing of our second egg washing and packing facility in Indiana.

Selling, General and Administrative

Selling, general and administrative expenses consist primarily of broker and contractor fees for sales and marketing, as well as personnel costs for sales and marketing, finance, human resources and other administrative functions, including salaries, benefits, bonuses, stock-based compensation expense and sales commissions. Selling, general and administrative expenses also include advertising and digital media costs, agency fees, travel and entertainment costs, and costs associated with consumer promotions, product samples, sales aids incurred to acquire new customers, retain existing customers and build our brand awareness, overhead costs for facilities, including associated depreciation and amortization expenses related to our non-production facilities and assets, and information technology-related expenses. We expect selling, general and administrative expenses to increase in the future in connection with the expansion of the business and increased marketing costs.

Shipping and Distribution

Shipping and distribution expenses consist primarily of costs related to third-party freight for our products. We expect shipping and distribution expenses to increase in absolute dollars in the medium-to-long term as we continue to scale our business, and there is a risk that such expenses could continue to increase due to economic uncertainty, geopolitical tensions or wars.

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Result of Operations

We report on a 52-week or 53-week fiscal year, ending on the last Sunday in December. In a 52-week fiscal year, each fiscal quarter consists of 13 weeks. The additional week in a 53-week fiscal year is added to the fourth quarter, making such quarter consist of 14 weeks. Fiscal 2024 was a 52-week fiscal year, as compared to a 53-week fiscal year for fiscal 2023.

Comparison of Fiscal Years Ended December 29, 2024 and December 31, 2023

The following table sets forth our consolidated statements of income data expressed as a percentage of net revenue for the periods presented:

(1)
Includes stock-based compensation expense of $9,972 and $7,157 in selling, general and administrative for the fiscal years ended 2024 and 2023, respectively, and $296 and $260 in cost of goods sold for the fiscal years then ended, respectively.

(2)
As described in the notes to our financial statements elsewhere in this document, fiscal 2024 was a 52-week fiscal year as compared to a 53-week fiscal year for fiscal 2023.

Net Revenue

The increase in net revenue of $134.5 million, or 28%, was primarily driven by volume-related increases of $103.0 million and price-related increases of $31.5 million. The volume favorability was primarily driven by increases at both new and existing customers. Net revenue from sales through our retail channel was $582.4 million and $445.8 million for fiscal years ended 2024 and 2023, respectively.

The extra week in fiscal 2023, which was 53 weeks compared to 52 weeks in fiscal 2024, partially offset the increase in net revenue in fiscal 2024 by $8.5 million. Excluding the extra week, net revenue increased 30.9% in fiscal 2024.

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Gross Profit and Gross Margin

The increase in gross profit of $67.6 million, or 42%, was driven by higher net revenue generated during the fiscal year ended December 29, 2024. The increase in gross margin during the fiscal year ended December 29, 2024 compared to the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023 was primarily driven by price/mix benefits, including price increases on our organic egg portfolio in January 2024 and fully realizing our February 2023 price increase across the entire shell egg portfolio, as well as benefits of scale, operational efficiencies and more favorable commodity and diesel costs. This was partially offset by an increase in labor and overhead costs.

Operating Expenses

Selling, General and Administrative

The increase in selling, general and administrative expenses of $32.2 million, or 32%, was primarily driven by:

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an increase of $15.5 million in employee-related costs, including stock-based compensation, driven by an overall increase in employee headcount to support our continued growth;

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an increase of $11.1 million in marketing and brokerage-related expenses due to the expansion of the business;

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an increase of $3.8 million in legal and professional service expenses due to the expansion of the business; and

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an increase of $1.8 million in technology and software-related expenses due to the expansion of the business.

Shipping and Distribution

The increase in shipping and distribution costs of $5.1 million, or 19%, was driven by higher sales volumes, partially offset by favorable linehaul and fuel rates.

Interest Expense

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The increase in interest expense of $0.2 million, or 29%, was primarily driven by an increase in finance leases which generated an increase in interest expense related to those leases.

Interest Income

The increase in interest income of $2.7 million, or 106%, was primarily driven by higher interest income on our available-for-sale securities portfolio.

Other Expense, net

The change in other expense, net of $2.6 million was primarily driven by losses on our commodity derivative instruments during the fiscal year ended December 29, 2024.

Income Tax Provision

The change in the income tax provision of $7.5 million, or 113%, was primarily driven by the increase in net income before income taxes earned in the fiscal year ended December 29, 2024.

Comparison of Fiscal Years Ended December 31, 2023 and December 25, 2022

For the discussion of the financial condition and results of operations for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023 compared to the fiscal year ended December 25, 2022, refer to “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Components of Results of Operations” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 7, 2024.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

Adjusted EBITDA

We report our financial results in accordance with GAAP. However, management believes that Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP financial measure, provides investors with additional useful information in evaluating our performance.

We calculate Adjusted EBITDA as net income, adjusted to exclude:

•
Depreciation and amortization;

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•
Stock-based compensation expense;

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Benefit or provision for income taxes, as applicable;

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Interest expense; and

•
Interest income.

Adjusted EBITDA is a financial measure that is not required by, or presented in accordance with, GAAP. We believe that Adjusted EBITDA, when taken together with our financial results presented in accordance with GAAP, provides meaningful supplemental information regarding our operating performance and facilitates internal comparisons of our historical operating performance on a more consistent basis by excluding certain items that may not be indicative of our business, results of operations or outlook. In particular, we believe that the use of Adjusted EBITDA is helpful to our investors as it is a measure used by management in assessing the health of our business, determining incentive compensation and evaluating our operating performance, as well as for internal planning and forecasting purposes.

Adjusted EBITDA is presented for supplemental informational purposes only, has limitations as an analytical tool and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for financial information presented in accordance with GAAP. Some of the limitations of Adjusted EBITDA include the following:

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It does not properly reflect capital commitments to be paid in the future;

•
Although depreciation and amortization are non-cash charges, the underlying assets may need to be replaced and Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect these capital expenditures;

•
It does not consider the impact of stock-based compensation expense, as such expenses in any specific period may not directly correlate to the underlying performance of our business operations and can vary significantly between periods as a result of the timing of grants of new stock-based awards;

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It does not reflect other non-operating expenses, including interest expense; and

•
It does not reflect tax payments that may represent a reduction in cash available to us.

In addition, our use of Adjusted EBITDA may not be comparable to similarly titled measures of other companies because they may not calculate Adjusted EBITDA in the same manner, limiting its usefulness as a comparative measure. Because of these limitations, when evaluating our performance, you should consider Adjusted EBITDA alongside other financial measures, including our net income and other results stated in accordance with GAAP.

The following table presents a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to net income, the most directly comparable financial measure stated in accordance with GAAP, for the periods presented:

(1) Amount also includes finance lease amortization.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

Since inception, we have funded our operations with proceeds from sales of our capital stock, proceeds from borrowings and cash flows from the sale of our products. We had net income of $53.4 million for the fiscal year ended December 29, 2024 and retained earnings of $83.1 million as of December 29, 2024.

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Funding Requirements

We expect that our cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities, together with cash provided by our operating activities and available borrowings under our existing JPMorgan Credit Facility, will be sufficient to fund our operating expenses for at least the next 12 months. We further believe that we will be able to fund potential operating expenses and cash obligations beyond the next 12 months, through a combination of existing cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities, cash provided by our operating activities and available borrowings under our JPMorgan Credit Facility.

Our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including our pace of new and existing customer growth, our investments in innovation, our investments in acquisitions, partnerships and unexplored channels and the potential costs associated with future expansion of our production capacity. As of December 29, 2024, future minimum lease payments under non-cancelable operating leases totaled $7.2 million and future minimum lease payments under non-cancelable finance leases totaled $13.2 million.

Additionally, in 2024 we acquired land in Seymour, Indiana for a planned additional egg washing and packing facility. We anticipate that we will incur approximately $8.0 million to $11.0 million in capital expenditures related to the new egg washing and packing facility in the next 12 months and will incur further expenditures in the years following. In January 2025, we announced that we plan to install an additional Moba egg grading system at our Egg Central Station facility in Missouri. We anticipate that we will incur approximately $12.0 million to $16.0 million in capital expenditures related to the new Moba egg grading system in the next 12 months. We also anticipate that we will incur approximately $20.0 million to $30.0 million in capital expenditures over the next 12 months related to the development of accelerator farms on previously acquired farmland in Indiana or the purchase and development of future parcels, with further expenditures incurred in the years following. Finally, we anticipate increased expenditures in marketing during fiscal 2025 to support progress toward our long-term marketing goals.

Credit Facility

On April 9, 2024, we entered into the JPMorgan Credit Facility with JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. and the other lenders party thereto, which provides for a five-year, $60.0 million revolving credit facility. The JPMorgan Credit Facility replaced the PNC Credit Facility, which terminated concurrently with our entry into the JPMorgan Credit Facility. The JPMorgan Credit Facility includes a $5.0 million letter of credit sub-limit and an accordion option that would allow us to increase the aggregate revolving commitments or add incremental term loans in an aggregate amount not to exceed the greater of (i) $35.0 million and (ii) an amount equal to 100% of consolidated adjusted EBITDA.

Any borrowings under the JPMorgan Credit Facility bear interest, at our election, at either (i) an adjusted term Secured Overnight Financing Rate or adjusted daily Secured Overnight Financing Rate plus 0.10% plus a margin of either 0.75%, 1.00% or 1.25% depending on our net leverage ratio, or (ii) an alternative base rate plus a margin of either 1.75%, 2.00% or 2.25%, depending on our net leverage ratio. We are required to pay a commitment fee on the undrawn portion of the aggregate commitments that accrues at either 0.20% or 0.375% per annum depending on our revolving exposure. Additionally, we are required to pay a participation fee on the account of each lender for each outstanding letter of credit at a rate equal to the applicable rate used to determine the interest rate applicable to term benchmark revolving loans.

The JPMorgan Credit Facility is secured by liens on substantially all of our assets, including certain intellectual property assets and investment securities. It requires us to maintain (i) a net leverage ratio of no greater than 3.25 to 1.00, subject to two increases up to 4.00 to 1.00 for a certain period following material acquisitions, and (ii) a fixed charge coverage ratio of no less than 1.35 to 1.00. The JPMorgan Credit Facility contains other customary covenants, representations and events of default. As a result of the limitations contained in the JPMorgan Credit Facility, certain of the net assets on our consolidated balance sheet as of December 29, 2024 are restricted in use. As of December 29, 2024, there was no outstanding balance under the JPMorgan Credit Facility, and we were in compliance with all covenants under the JPMorgan Credit Facility.

See “Long-Term Debt—JPMorgan Credit Facility” in Note 14 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report for additional details related to our JPMorgan Credit Facility.

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Cash Flows

The following table summarizes our cash flows for the periods indicated:

Operating Activities

The increase in net cash provided by operating activities during the fiscal year ended December 29, 2024 compared to the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023 was due primarily to higher net income in the current fiscal year due to higher sales, gross margin improvements and better leveraging of selling, general and administrative costs. The increase was also attributable to an increase in depreciation and amortization and stock-based compensation expenses in fiscal 2024. These increases were partially offset by changes in operating assets and liabilities, driven by payments on operating lease liabilities.

Investing Activities

The change in cash (used in) provided by investing activities during the fiscal year ended December 29, 2024 was primarily due to an increase in purchases of property, plant and equipment and fewer proceeds received on the maturities of our available for sale securities during the year ended December 29, 2024 compared to the year ended December 31, 2023.

Financing Activities

The change in cash provided by (used in) financing activities during the fiscal year ended December 29, 2024 compared to the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023 was primarily due to an increase in the proceeds received from the exercise of stock options.

Seasonality

Demand for our products fluctuates in response to seasonal factors. Demand tends to increase with the start of the school year and is highest prior to holiday periods, particularly Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter, and is lowest during the summer months. As a result of these seasonal and quarterly fluctuations, comparisons of our sales and results of operations between different quarters within a single fiscal year are not necessarily meaningful comparisons.

Critical Accounting Estimates

The preparation of our consolidated financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires us to make estimates and judgments that affect the amounts reported in the financial statements and related notes thereto. Critical accounting estimates are those estimates that, in accordance with GAAP, involve a significant level of estimation uncertainty and have had or are reasonably likely to have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements. Management has determined that our most critical accounting estimates are those relating to revenue recognition and trade promotions, income taxes, and contingencies. Although we believe that the estimates we use are reasonable, due to the inherent uncertainty involved in making these estimates, actual results reported in future periods could differ materially from those estimates. The following is a summary of certain accounting estimates we consider critical. For further discussion about our accounting policies, see Note 2 “Summary of Significant Accounting Policies” to our consolidated financial statements appearing elsewhere in this Annual Report.

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Revenue Recognition and Trade Promotions

We recognize revenue for the sale of our product at the point in time when our performance obligation has been satisfied and control of the product has transferred to our customer, which generally occurs upon delivery to the customer based on terms of the sale. Revenue is measured by the transaction price, which is defined as the amount of consideration we expect to receive in exchange for providing goods to customers. The transaction price is adjusted for estimates of known or expected variable consideration, which include trade promotions as well as chargebacks such as coupons, discounts, rebates, spoils, and other programs. Variable consideration related to these programs is recorded as a reduction to revenue, at the time of sale, based on the amount we expect to incur.

The transaction price contains estimates of known or expected variable consideration. We base these estimates on current forecasted activity and historical experience. We review our expected promotional rates and volumes each period, as well as our historical experience related to customer deductions for wrong, missing, damaged or aged product and update these estimates regularly until the incentives or product returns are realized. The impact of any adjustments is recognized in the period the adjustments are identified.

We do not believe it is reasonably likely that there will be a material change in the estimates or assumptions used to recognize revenue. As noted above, estimates are made based on historical experience and other factors. Typically, programs that are offered have a short duration and historical differences between actual experience compared to estimated volumes, performance and redemptions have not been significant to the quarterly or annual financial statements. However, if the level of redemption rates, volumes or performance were to vary significantly from our estimates, we may be exposed to gains or losses that could be material. We have not made any material changes in the accounting methodology used to recognize revenue during the past three fiscal years.

Income Taxes

We determine our effective tax rate by estimating our permanent differences resulting from differing treatment of items for financial and income tax purposes. We are periodically audited by taxing authorities and consider any adjustments made as a result of the audits in computing our income tax expense. Any audit adjustments affecting permanent differences could have an impact on our effective tax rate.

Deferred income taxes relate primarily to depreciation expense and share-based compensation programs accounted for differently for financial and income tax purposes. Changes in tax laws and rates could materially affect recorded deferred tax assets and liabilities in the future. Valuation allowances are recorded when it is more likely than not that a tax benefit will not be realized for a deferred tax asset. Changes in projected future earnings could affect our recorded valuation allowances, if any, in the future.

We record unrecognized tax benefit liabilities for known or anticipated tax issues for which the benefit is more likely than not based on our analysis of whether, and the extent to which, additional taxes will be due. However, due to the complexity of some of these uncertainties, the ultimate resolution may result in a payment that is materially different from the current estimate of the tax liabilities. To the extent we prevail in matters for which unrecognized tax benefit liabilities have been established or are required to pay amounts in excess of our recorded liability, our effective tax rate in a given financial statement period could be materially affected.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

See the sections titled “Summary of Significant Accounting Policies—Recently Adopted Accounting Pronouncements” and “—Recently Issued Accounting Pronouncements Not Yet Adopted” in Note 2 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report for a discussion of recent accounting pronouncements.

Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

The following discussion contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results may differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including those set forth in Part I, Item 1A, “Risk Factors,” and “Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” included elsewhere in this Annual Report. The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with our audited financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this Annual Report.

Overview

Our mission is to bring ethical food to the table, and we are disrupting the U.S. food system by developing a framework that challenges the norms of the incumbent food model, allowing us to bring high-quality products from our network of family farms to a national audience. This framework has enabled us to become the leading U.S. brand of pasture-raised eggs and the second-largest U.S. egg brand by retail dollar sales. Our ethics are exemplified by our focus on animal welfare and sustainable farming practices. We believe our standards produce happy hens with varied diets, which produce better eggs. There is a seismic shift in consumer demand for natural, traceable, clean-label, great-tasting and nutritious foods. Supported by a steadfast adherence to the values on which we were founded, we have designed our brand and products to appeal to this consumer movement.

Our purpose is rooted in a commitment to Conscious Capitalism, which prioritizes the long-term benefits of each of our stakeholders (farmers and suppliers, customers and consumers, communities and the environment, crew members and stockholders). We make decisions based on what is sustainable for all our stakeholders. Our collective sustainable business practices will enable us to fulfill our purpose of improving the lives of people, animals, and the planet through food, now and long into the future. For us, it is not about short-term outcomes or a trade-off between purpose and profit. We are fierce business competitors who believe that prioritizing the long-term viability of all stakeholders will produce stronger outcomes, for everyone, over time. These principles guide our day-to-day operations and, we believe, help us deliver a more sustainable and successful business. Our approach has been validated by our financial performance and our January 2022 recertification as a Certified B Corporation, a designation reserved for businesses that balance profit and purpose to meet the highest verified standards of social and environmental performance, public transparency and legal accountability.

We source our eggs from a network of over 300 family farms. We have strategically designed our supply chain to ensure high production standards and optimal year-round operation. We are motivated by the positive impact we have on rural communities and enjoy a strong relationship and reputation with our network of farmers.

We primarily work with our farms pursuant to buy-sell contracts. Under these arrangements, the farmer is responsible for all of the working capital and investments required to produce the eggs and manage the farm, including purchasing the birds and feed supply. During the last quarter of fiscal 2023, as a result of increasing construction costs associated with our new farms, we incurred incremental farm recruitment costs that will be required to be paid in advance of these farms beginning to produce eggs, and we expect such incremental costs to continue into fiscal 2024. These costs are expected to be recognized over the term of the related buy-sell contracts with the new farms, which are generally four to five years in length. We believe the unfavorable impact to our working capital resulting from these upfront costs could range from $10.0 million to $12.0 million during fiscal 2024. The impact to fiscal year 2023 working capital was immaterial, and the impact to our gross margin is also expected to be immaterial during the term of these agreements. We are contractually obligated to purchase all of the eggs produced by the farmer during the term of the contract at an agreed-upon price that depends upon pallet weight and is adjusted quarterly for changes in feed cost.

We believe we are a strategic and valuable partner to retailers. We have continued to command premium prices for our products, including our shell eggs. Our loyal and growing consumer base has fueled the expansion of our brand from the natural channel to the mainstream channel. We believe the success of our brand demonstrates that consumers are demanding premium products that meet a higher ethical standard of food production. We have a strong presence at The Kroger Co., or Kroger, Sprouts Farmers Market, or Sprouts, Target Corporation and Whole Foods Market, Inc., or Whole Foods, and we also sell our products at Albertsons Companies, Inc., Publix Super Markets, Inc. and Walmart, Inc. We offer 23 retail stock keeping units, or SKUs, through a multi-channel retail distribution network. We believe we have significant room for growth within the retail and foodservice channels through growing brand awareness, gaining additional points of distribution and new product innovation.

Our shell eggs are collected from farmers by a third-party freight carrier and placed in cold storage until we pack them for shipping to our customers at our state-of-the-art shell egg processing facility, Egg Central Station. Egg Central Station is approximately 153,000 square feet and utilizes highly automated equipment to grade and package our shell egg products. Egg Central Station is capable of packing approximately six million eggs per day and has an SQF Excellent rating, the highest level of such certification from the Global Food Safety Initiative.

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Our products are distributed through a broker-distributor-retailer network whereby brokers represent our products to distributors and retailers who will in turn sell our products to consumers. We serve the majority of natural channel customers through food distributors, which purchase, store, sell and deliver our products to our customers. We serve mainstream retailers by arranging for delivery of our products directly through their distribution centers. We also leverage distributor relationships to fulfill orders for certain independent grocers and other customers.

We have experienced consistent sales growth. We had net revenue of $471.9 million and $362.1 million, net income of $25.6 million and $1.2 million, and Adjusted EBITDA of $48.3 million and $16.2 million in the fiscal years ended December 31, 2023 and December 25, 2022, respectively. Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial measure. See the section titled “—Non-GAAP Financial Measures—Adjusted EBITDA” below for the definition of Adjusted EBITDA, as well as a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to net income, the most directly comparable financial measure stated in accordance with GAAP.

Known Trends, Events and Uncertainties

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI)

Since the initial outbreaks of HPAI in early 2022, we have been closely following the progression of the virus and working with our farmers, veterinarians, government health officials and animal welfare auditors to ensure that our flocks are kept as safe as possible. To date, we have experienced outbreaks at four of our farms, one located in Missouri, one in Tennessee and two in Kansas. While we have not experienced material disruptions to our egg supply due to HPAI outbreaks, if a substantial portion of our farms or production facilities were affected, this could materially and negatively affect our supply chain and operating results. Additionally, HPAI has at times resulted in supply shortages and price increases across the egg market. We are confident in the measures we have taken to reduce the risk of HPAI on our farms and production facilities, as well as our ability to mitigate impacts on supply. However, given continued uncertainty about future outbreaks and governmental responses to such outbreaks, we cannot predict the ultimate impact that HPAI will have on our business.

Economic Uncertainties

The current inflationary environment may affect our business and corresponding financial position and cash flows. Inflationary factors, such as increases in the cost of materials and supplies, interest rates and overhead costs, may adversely affect our operating results. Elevated interest rates also present a recent challenge impacting the U.S. economy and could make it more difficult for us to obtain traditional financing on acceptable terms, if at all, in the future. Additionally, some economic observers suggest that we should expect a higher recession risk to continue over the next year, which, together with the foregoing, could result in further economic uncertainty and volatility in the capital markets in the near term, and could negatively affect our operations. Furthermore, such economic conditions have at times produced downward pressure on share prices. We have experienced and may continue to experience increases in our operating costs, including our labor costs and research and development costs, due to supply chain constraints, consequences associated with global health pandemics, geopolitical tensions, and employee availability and wage increases, all of which may result in additional stress on our working capital resources. We work closely with our farmers, suppliers and third-party manufacturers to manage our supply chain activities and mitigate potential disruptions to our product supplies as a result of supply chain disruptions associated with such uncertainties. We currently expect to have an adequate supply of our products, packaging, and freight through fiscal year 2024. However, while we are currently ramping up capacity with our new supplier of butter, recent volatility in the markets for raw materials could affect supply of our butter products in fiscal year 2024.

Liquidity and Capital Resources Overview

With cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities of $116.8 million as of December 31, 2023 and $20.0 million available under our credit facility agreement with PNC Bank, National Association, or the Credit Facility, we anticipate having sufficient liquidity to make investments in our business to support our long-term growth strategy. We expect that our cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities as of December 31, 2023, together with cash provided by our operating activities and availability of borrowings under our Credit Facility, will be sufficient to fund our operating expenses for at least the next 12 months and to make investments in our business in support of our long-term growth strategy.

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Our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including our pace of new and existing customer growth, our investments in innovation, our investments in acquisitions or other growth opportunities, our investments in partnerships and unexplored channels and ongoing costs associated with expansions of our production capacity. We may be required to seek additional equity or debt financing. However, a significant disruption of global financial markets (including a disruption due to public health pandemics, geopolitical tensions and wars, inflation or other factors) may result in our inability to access additional capital, which could in the future negatively affect our operations. In the event that we require additional financing, we may not be able to raise such financing on terms acceptable to us or at all. If we are unable to raise additional capital or generate cash flows necessary to expand our operations and invest in continued innovation and product expansion, we may not be able to compete successfully, which would harm our business, operations and results of operations. For additional information, see the section titled “Liquidity and Capital Resources” below.

Our Fiscal Year

We report on a 52-week or 53-week fiscal year, ending on the last Sunday in December. In a 52-week fiscal year, each fiscal quarter consists of 13 weeks. The additional week in a 53-week fiscal year is added to the fourth quarter, making such quarter consist of 14 weeks. Our first 53-week fiscal year as a public company occurred in fiscal 2023, which began on December 26, 2022 and ended on December 31, 2023. See “Nature of the Business and Basis of Presentation” in Note 1 to our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report for additional details related to our fiscal calendar.

Key Factors Affecting Our Business

We believe that the growth of our business and our future success are dependent upon many factors. While each of these factors presents significant opportunities for us, they also pose important challenges that we must successfully address to enable us to sustain the growth of our business and improve our results of operations.

Expand Household Penetration

We have positioned our brand to capitalize on growing consumer interest in natural, clean-label, traceable, ethical, great-tasting and nutritious foods. We believe there is substantial opportunity to grow our consumer base and increase the velocity at which households purchase our products. U.S. household penetration for the shell egg category is approximately 96.5%, while the household penetration for our shell eggs is approximately 7.5%. We intend to increase household penetration by continuing to invest significantly in sales and marketing to educate consumers about our brand, our values and the premium quality of our products. We believe these efforts will educate consumers on the attractive attributes of our products, generate further demand for our products and ultimately expand our consumer base. Our ability to attract new consumers will depend, among other things, on the perceived value and quality of our products, the offerings of our competitors and the effectiveness of our marketing efforts. Our performance depends significantly on factors that may affect the level and pattern of consumer spending in the U.S. natural food market in which we operate. Such factors include consumer preference, consumer confidence, consumer income, consumer perception of the safety and quality of our products and shifts in the perceived value for our products relative to alternatives.

Grow Within the Retail Channel

We believe that our ability to increase the number of customers that sell our products to consumers is an indicator of our market penetration and our future business opportunities. We define our customers as the entities that sell our products to consumers. With certain of our retail customers, like Whole Foods, we sell our products through distributors. We are not able to precisely attribute our net revenue to a specific retailer for products sold through such channels. We rely on third-party data to calculate the portion of retail sales attributable to such retailers, but this data is inherently imprecise because it is based on gross sales generated by our products sold at retailers, without accounting for price concessions, promotional activities or chargebacks, and because it measures retail sales for only the portion of our retailers serviced through distributors. Based on this third-party data and internal analysis, Whole Foods accounted for approximately 23% of our retail sales for each of the fiscal years ended December 31, 2023 and December 25, 2022, respectively.

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As of December 2023, there were approximately 24,000 stores selling our products. We expect the retail channel to be our largest source of net revenue for the foreseeable future. By capturing greater shelf space, driving higher product velocities and increasing our SKU count, we believe there is meaningful runway for further growth with existing retail customers. Additionally, we believe there is significant opportunity to gain incremental stores from existing customers as well as by adding new retail customers. We also believe there is significant further long-term opportunity in additional distribution channels, including the convenience, drugstore, club, military and international markets. Our ability to execute this strategy will increase our opportunities for incremental sales to consumers, and we also believe this growth will allow for margin expansion. To accomplish these objectives, we intend to continue leveraging consumer awareness of and demand for our brand, offering targeted sales incentives to our customers and utilizing customer-specific marketing tactics. Our ability to grow within the retail channel will depend on a number of factors, such as our customers’ satisfaction with the sales, product velocities and profitability of our products.

Expand Footprint Across Foodservice

We believe there is significant demand for our products in the foodservice channel since we offer versatile ingredients with high menu penetrations across commercial and non-commercial operator segments. We see considerable opportunity to continue to grow the channel in the medium- to long-term with our two-pronged sales approach to values-aligned foodservice operators and their distributors. We are working with Acxion Foodservice, a foodservice sales and marketing agency in the consumer packaged goods industry, to increase our category share in broad-line distribution and to get on national and regional restaurant menus.

We are also leveraging foodservice as a critical consumer touchpoint to drive brand awareness, and we are investing in co-marketing to reach new households. We believe co-branding is mutually beneficial to foodservice operators because it helps to differentiate their brands, enhances their perceived customer value and drives loyalty.

A multi-unit example from our successful foodservice program is True Food Kitchen, an award-winning restaurant brand and a pioneer of wellness-driven dining with locations across the United States that shares our values for improving the lives of people, animals, and the planet through ethically produced food.

Expand Our Product Offerings

We intend to continue to strengthen our product offerings by investing in innovation in new and existing categories. We have a history of product introductions and intend to continue to innovate by introducing new products from time to time. Eggs and egg-related products generated $449.0 million, or approximately 95%, of net revenue in fiscal 2023. We expect eggs and egg-related products to be our largest source of net revenue for the foreseeable future. We believe that investments in innovation will contribute to our long-term growth, including by reinforcing our efforts to increase household penetration. Our ability to successfully develop, market and sell new products will depend on a variety of factors, including the availability of capital to invest in innovation, as well as changing consumer preferences and demand for food products.

Key Components of Results of Operations

Net Revenue

We generate net revenue primarily from sales of our products, including eggs and butter, to our customers, which include natural retailers, mainstream retailers and foodservice customers. We sell our products to customers on a purchase-order basis. We serve the majority of our natural channel customers and certain independent grocers and other customers through food distributors, which purchase, store, sell and deliver our products to these customers.

We periodically offer promotional incentives to our customers, including rebates, temporary price reductions, off-invoice discounts, retailer advertisements, product coupons and other trade activities. At the end of each accounting period, we recognize a liability for an estimated promotional allowance reserve. We periodically provide credits or discounts to our customers in the event that products do not conform to customer expectations upon delivery or expire at a customer’s site. We treat these credits and discounts as a reduction of the sales price of the related transaction at the time of sale. We anticipate that these promotional activities, credits and discounts could materially impact our net revenue and that changes in such activities could impact period-over-period results.

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Our shell eggs are sold to consumers at a premium price point, and when prices for commodity shell eggs fall relative to the price of our shell eggs (including due to any price increases we may implement), price-sensitive consumers may choose to purchase commodity shell eggs offered by our competitors instead of our eggs. As a result, low commodity shell egg prices may adversely affect our net revenue. We increased prices on certain of our products in each of fiscal year 2022, fiscal year 2023 and fiscal year 2024. While we have not seen significant decreases in sales volume due to previous price increases, if we further increase prices to offset higher commodity prices or other costs, we could experience lower demand for our products, decreased ability to attract new customers and lower sales volumes. Net revenue may also vary from period to period depending on the purchase orders we receive, the volume and mix of our products sold, and the channels through which our products are sold.

Cost of Goods Sold

Cost of goods sold consists of the costs directly attributable to producing our products which include labor, raw material and packaging costs as well as overhead. The labor cost is comprised of wages and related costs for our processing crew members. The raw material is comprised of those items necessary to process our finished egg and butter products and the packaging costs are the cost of the packaging materials our finished products are sold in. Overhead costs in cost of goods sold include utilities, insurance, inbound freight and storage fees related to our warehouse.

Selling, General and Administrative

Selling, general and administrative expenses consist primarily of broker and contractor fees for sales and marketing, as well as personnel costs for sales and marketing, finance, human resources and other administrative functions, including salaries, benefits, bonuses, stock-based compensation expense and sales commissions. Selling, general and administrative expenses also include advertising and digital media costs, agency fees, travel and entertainment costs, and costs associated with consumer promotions, product samples, sales aids incurred to acquire new customers, retain existing customers and build our brand awareness, overhead costs for facilities, including associated depreciation and amortization expenses, and information technology-related expenses.

Shipping and Distribution

Shipping and distribution expenses consist primarily of costs related to third-party freight for our products. Even though shipping and distribution expenses have decreased in absolute dollars in the short-term, we expect shipping and distribution expenses to increase in absolute dollars in the medium-to-long term as we continue to scale our business, and there is a risk that such expenses could continue to increase due to economic uncertainty, geopolitical tensions or wars.

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Result of Operations

We report on a 52-week or 53-week fiscal year, ending on the last Sunday in December. In a 52-week fiscal year, each fiscal quarter consists of 13 weeks. The additional week in a 53-week fiscal year is added to the fourth quarter, making such quarter consist of 14 weeks. Fiscal year 2023 was a 53-week fiscal year as compared to a 52-week fiscal year for fiscal year 2022.

Comparison of Fiscal Years Ended December 31, 2023 and December 25, 2022

The following table sets forth our consolidated statements of income data expressed as a percentage of net revenue for the periods presented:

(1)
Includes stock-based compensation expense of $7,157 and $5,852 in selling, general and administrative for the fiscal years ended 2023 and 2022, respectively, and $260 and $188 in cost of goods sold for the fiscal years then ended, respectively.

(2)
As described in the notes to our financial statements elsewhere in this document, fiscal year 2023 was a 53-week fiscal year as compared to a 52-week fiscal year for fiscal year 2022.

Net Revenue

The increase in net revenue of $109.8 million, or 30%, was primarily driven by price-related increases of $59.4 million and volume-related increases of $50.5 million. The volume favorability was primarily driven by increases at both new and existing customers. Net revenue from sales through our retail channel was $445.8 million and $348.9 million for fiscal years ended 2023 and 2022, respectively.

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The extra week in fiscal year 2023, which was 53 weeks compared to 52 weeks in fiscal year 2022, contributed $8.5 million in net revenue, or 2.3%, to growth. Excluding the extra week, net revenue increased 28.0% in fiscal year 2023.

Gross Profit and Gross Margin

The increase in gross profit of $52.9 million, or 48%, was driven by higher net revenue generated during the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023. The increase in gross margin during the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023 compared to the fiscal year ended December 25, 2022 was primarily driven by volume increases, in addition to pricing increases across the entire shell egg portfolio in January 2023. The price increases offset an increase in input costs across our shell egg business (inclusive of commodity, packaging and labor impacts).

Operating Expenses

Selling, General and Administrative

The increase in selling, general and administrative expenses of $24.5 million, or 32%, was primarily driven by:

•
an increase of $10.3 million in marketing-related expenses related to continued investment in brand and product marketing;

•
an increase of $10.2 million in employee-related costs, including stock-based compensation, driven by an overall increase in employee headcount to support our continued growth;

•
an increase of $2.4 million in legal and professional service expense to support increased operations and expansion of the business;

•
an increase of $900,000 in brokerage-related and selling-related expenses due to expansion of the business;

•
an increase of $600,000 in technology and software-related expenses to support increased operations and employee headcount

Shipping and Distribution

The decrease in shipping and distribution costs of $2.8 million, or 9%, was driven by favorable freight rates and internal operational efficiency, partially offset by higher sales volumes.

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Interest Expense

The increase in interest expense of $0.7 million, or 586%, was primarily driven by an increase in finance leases which generated an increase in interest expense related to those leases.

Interest Income

The increase in interest income of $1.6 million, or 156%, was primarily driven by higher interest income on our available-for-sale securities portfolio.

Other Expense, net

The change in other expense, net of $2.7 million was primarily driven by losses on our commodity derivative instruments during the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023.

Income Tax Provision

The change in the income tax provision of $5.0 million, or 314%, was primarily driven by the increase in net income before income taxes earned in the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023.

Comparison of Fiscal Years Ended December 25, 2022 and December 26, 2021

For the discussion of the financial condition and results of operations for the fiscal year ended December 25, 2022 compared to the fiscal year ended December 26, 2021, refer to “Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Components of Results of Operations” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 25, 2022, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 9, 2023.

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Non-GAAP Financial Measures

Adjusted EBITDA

We report our financial results in accordance with GAAP. However, management believes that Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP financial measure, provides investors with additional useful information in evaluating our performance.

We calculate Adjusted EBITDA as net income, adjusted to exclude:

•
Depreciation and amortization;

•
Stock-based compensation expense;

•
Costs related to the discontinuation of our convenient breakfast product line (see Note 12 “Product Exit Costs” to our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this report);

•
Costs related to the dissolution of the Ovabrite, Inc. variable interest entity;

•
Benefit or provision for income taxes, as applicable;

•
Interest expense;

•
Change in fair value of contingent consideration; and

•
Interest income.

Adjusted EBITDA is a financial measure that is not required by, or presented in accordance with, GAAP. We believe that Adjusted EBITDA, when taken together with our financial results presented in accordance with GAAP, provides meaningful supplemental information regarding our operating performance and facilitates internal comparisons of our historical operating performance on a more consistent basis by excluding certain items that may not be indicative of our business, results of operations or outlook. In particular, we believe that the use of Adjusted EBITDA is helpful to our investors as it is a measure used by management in assessing the health of our business, determining incentive compensation and evaluating our operating performance, as well as for internal planning and forecasting purposes.

Adjusted EBITDA is presented for supplemental informational purposes only, has limitations as an analytical tool and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for financial information presented in accordance with GAAP. Some of the limitations of Adjusted EBITDA include the following:

•
It does not properly reflect capital commitments to be paid in the future;

•
Although depreciation and amortization are non-cash charges, the underlying assets may need to be replaced and Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect these capital expenditures;

•
It does not consider the impact of stock-based compensation expense, as such expenses in any specific period may not directly correlate to the underlying performance of our business operations and can vary significantly between periods as a result of the timing of grants of new stock-based awards;

•
It does not include the costs related to the discontinuation of our convenient breakfast product line as these costs are infrequent, unusual and we do not anticipate that we will incur similar significant costs for product exits in the foreseeable future;

•
It does not reflect the dissolution of the Ovabrite, Inc. variable interest entity due to the infrequent nature of this transaction and we do not expect to experience similar dissolutions in the foreseeable future;

•
It does not reflect other non-operating expenses, including interest expense;

•
It does not consider the impact of any contingent consideration liability valuation adjustments; and

•
It does not reflect tax payments that may represent a reduction in cash available to us.

In addition, our use of Adjusted EBITDA may not be comparable to similarly titled measures of other companies because they may not calculate Adjusted EBITDA in the same manner, limiting its usefulness as a comparative measure. Because of these limitations, when evaluating our performance, you should consider Adjusted EBITDA alongside other financial measures, including our net income and other results stated in accordance with GAAP.

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The following table presents a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to net income, the most directly comparable financial measure stated in accordance with GAAP, for the periods presented:

1 Amount also includes finance lease amortization.

2 Amount reflects the change in fair value of a contingent consideration liability in connection with our 2014 acquisition of certain assets of Heartland Eggs.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

Since inception, we have funded our operations with proceeds from sales of our capital stock, proceeds from borrowings and cash flows from the sale of our products. We had net income of $25.6 million for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023 and retained earnings of $29.7 million as of December 31, 2023.

Funding Requirements

We expect that our cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities, together with cash provided by our operating activities and available borrowings under our existing Credit Facility, will be sufficient to fund our operating expenses for at least the next 12 months. We further believe that we will be able to fund potential operating expenses and cash obligations beyond the next 12 months, through a combination of existing cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities, cash provided by our operating activities and available borrowings under our Credit Facility.

Our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including our pace of new and existing customer growth, our investments in innovation, our investments in acquisitions, partnerships and unexplored channels and the potential costs associated with future expansion of our production capacity. As of December 31, 2023, future minimum lease payments under non-cancelable operating leases totaled $9.8 million and future minimum lease payments under non-cancelable finance leases totaled $15.6 million. In addition, as a result of increasing construction costs associated with our new farms, we incurred incremental farm recruitment costs that will be required to be paid in advance of these farms being able to produce eggs, and we expect such incremental costs to continue into fiscal 2024. These costs are expected to be recognized over the term of the related buy-sell contracts with the new farms, which are generally four to five years in length. Additionally, we are currently in the process of exploring potential sites and designs for an additional egg packing facility. We anticipate that we will incur approximately $10.0 million in capital expenditures related to this goal in fiscal 2024 (including capital expenditures initially planned for fiscal 2023) and will incur further expenditures in the years following. Finally, we anticipate increased expenditures in marketing during fiscal 2024 to support progress toward our long-term marketing goals.

Credit Facility

We originally entered into our Credit Facility with PNC Bank, National Association, or PNC Bank, in October 2017. The Credit Facility initially included a $4.7 million term loan, a $10.0 million revolving line of credit and an equipment loan with a maximum borrowing capacity of $1.5 million.

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Subsequently, terms of the Credit Facility were modified at various times between fiscal 2018 and fiscal 2023. Such amendments (i) amended various definitions, (ii) waived a technical default in May 2020 which was triggered by exceeding the capital expenditure limit, (iii) increased borrowing capacity and (iv) extended the maturity date. The Ninth Amendment to the Credit Facility in April 2021 eliminated the term loan and equipment loan. The Tenth Amendment to the Credit Agreement in December 2022 modified certain covenants related to commodity hedging, consented to the dissolution of immaterial subsidiaries and implemented changes related to the discontinuation of LIBOR. The Eleventh Amendment to the Credit Facility, effective July 26, 2023, extended the maturity date by one year, from April 2, 2024 to April 2, 2025.

The maximum borrowing capacity under the revolving line of credit is currently $20.0 million. Interest on borrowings under the revolving line of credit, as well as loan advances thereunder, accrues at a rate, at our election at the time of borrowing, equal to (i) the secured overnight financing rate as administered by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York plus 2.00% or (ii) 1.00% plus the alternate base rate, as defined in the Credit Facility.

The Credit Facility is secured by all of our assets (other than real property and certain other property excluded pursuant to the terms of the Credit Facility) and requires us to maintain three financial covenants: a fixed charge coverage ratio, a leverage ratio and a minimum tangible net worth requirement. The Credit Facility also contains various covenants relating to limitations on indebtedness, acquisitions, mergers, consolidations, the sale of properties and liens. As a result of the limitations contained in the Credit Facility, certain of the net assets on our consolidated balance sheet as of December 31, 2023 are restricted in use. The Credit Facility contains other customary covenants, representations and events of default.

As of December 31, 2023, there was no outstanding balance under the Credit Facility, and we were in compliance with all covenants under the Credit Facility. See “Long-Term Debt” in Note 13 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report for additional details related to our Credit Facility.

Cash Flows

The following table summarizes our cash flows for the periods indicated:

Operating Activities

The increase in net cash provided by operating activities during the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023 compared to the fiscal year ended December 25, 2022 was due primarily to higher net income in the current fiscal year due to gross margin improvements and improving leverage our of selling, general and administrative costs. Increases in our accounts payable and accrued liabilities also contributed to the improved cash from operations, partially offset by an increase in our inventory. Our accrued liabilities were up across nearly all categories with the largest contributor being promotions and customer deductions.

Investing Activities

The increase in cash provided by investing activities during the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023 is primarily due to the continuing maturities of our available for sale securities and the reinvestment of these amounts into cash equivalents during the year ended December 31, 2023.

Financing Activities

The change in cash used in financing activities during the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023 compared to the fiscal year ended December 25, 2022 was primarily due to an increase of principal payments on our finance lease obligations.

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Seasonality

Demand for our products fluctuates in response to seasonal factors. Demand tends to increase with the start of the school year and is highest prior to holiday periods, particularly Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter, and is lowest during the summer months. As a result of these seasonal and quarterly fluctuations, comparisons of our sales and results of operations between different quarters within a single fiscal year are not necessarily meaningful comparisons.

Critical Accounting Estimates

The preparation of our consolidated financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires us to make estimates and judgments that affect the amounts reported in the financial statements and related notes thereto. Critical accounting estimates are those estimates that, in accordance with GAAP, involve a significant level of estimation uncertainty and have had or are reasonably likely to have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements. Management has determined that our most critical accounting estimates are those relating to revenue recognition and trade promotions, income taxes, and contingencies. Although we believe that the estimates we use are reasonable, due to the inherent uncertainty involved in making these estimates, actual results reported in future periods could differ materially from those estimates. The following is a summary of certain accounting estimates we consider critical. For further discussion about our accounting policies, see Note 2 to our consolidated financial statements appearing elsewhere in this Annual Report.

Revenue Recognition and Trade Promotions

We recognize revenue for the sale of our product at the point in time when our performance obligation has been satisfied and control of the product has transferred to our customer, which generally occurs upon delivery to the customer based on terms of the sale. Revenue is measured by the transaction price, which is defined as the amount of consideration we expect to receive in exchange for providing goods to customers. The transaction price is adjusted for estimates of known or expected variable consideration, which include trade promotions as well as chargebacks such as coupons, discounts, rebates, spoils, and other programs. Variable consideration related to these programs is recorded as a reduction to revenue, at the time of sale, based on the amount we expect to incur.

The transaction price contains estimates of known or expected variable consideration. We base these estimates on current forecasted activity and historical experience. We review our expected promotional rates and volumes each period, as well as our historical experience related to customer deductions for wrong, missing, damaged or aged product and update these estimates regularly until the incentives or product returns are realized. The impact of any adjustments is recognized in the period the adjustments are identified.

We do not believe it is reasonably likely that there will be a material change in the estimates or assumptions used to recognize revenue. As noted above, estimates are made based on historical experience and other factors. Typically, programs that are offered have a short duration and historical differences between actual experience compared to estimated volumes, performance and redemptions have not been significant to the quarterly or annual financial statements. However, if the level of redemption rates, volumes or performance were to vary significantly from our estimates, we may be exposed to gains or losses that could be material. We have not made any material changes in the accounting methodology used to recognize revenue during the past three fiscal years.

Income Taxes

We determine our effective tax rate by estimating our permanent differences resulting from differing treatment of items for financial and income tax purposes. We are periodically audited by taxing authorities and consider any adjustments made as a result of the audits in computing our income tax expense. Any audit adjustments affecting permanent differences could have an impact on our effective tax rate.

Deferred income taxes relate primarily to depreciation expense and share-based compensation programs accounted for differently for financial and income tax purposes. Changes in tax laws and rates could materially affect recorded deferred tax assets and liabilities in the future. Valuation allowances are recorded when it is more likely than not that a tax benefit will not be realized for a deferred tax asset. Changes in projected future earnings could affect our recorded valuation allowances, if any, in the future.

We record unrecognized tax benefit liabilities for known or anticipated tax issues for which the benefit is more likely than not based on our analysis of whether, and the extent to which, additional taxes will be due. However, due to the complexity of some of these uncertainties, the ultimate resolution may result in a payment that is materially different from the current estimate of the tax liabilities. To the extent we prevail in matters for which unrecognized tax benefit liabilities have been established or are required to pay amounts in excess of our recorded liability, our effective tax rate in a given financial statement period could be materially affected.

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Contingencies

We recognize the costs of legal defense for the legal proceedings to which we are a party during the periods in which the costs are incurred. After considerable analysis of the facts and circumstances of each case, we determine the amount of reserves required, if any. We evaluate whether a loss contingency exists, and if the assessment of a contingency indicates it is probable that a material loss has been incurred and the amount of the loss can be reasonably estimated, the estimated loss would be accrued.

There were no loss contingency reserves for the past three fiscal years. In May 2021, the Company and certain of its current and former officers were named as defendants in a class action complaint captioned Nicholas A. Usler et al. v. Vital Farms, Inc. et al. in the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas. The plaintiffs alleged false advertising claims on behalf of themselves and a putative class of alleged consumers of the Company’s shell egg products. The named officers of the Company were subsequently dismissed as defendants in this matter. In September 2023, the parties engaged in mediation to discuss potential settlement of remaining claims, but no agreement was reached and the lawsuit is ongoing. The Company believes the claims are without merit and is vigorously defending itself in this matter. Given the uncertainty of the litigation, the stage of the case, and the legal standards that must be met for, among other things, class certification and success on the merits, the Company is unable to reasonably estimate the possible loss or range of loss, if any, that may result from the claim. Future reserves may be required if losses are deemed reasonably estimable and probable due to changes in our assumptions, the effectiveness of legal strategies, or other factors beyond our control. Future results of operations may be materially affected by the creation of reserves or by accruals of losses to reflect any adverse determinations in these legal proceedings.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

See the sections titled “Summary of Significant Accounting Policies—Recently Adopted Accounting Pronouncements” and “—Recently Issued Accounting Pronouncements Not Yet Adopted” in Note 2 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report for a discussion of recent accounting pronouncements.

Emerging Growth Company Status

In April 2012, the JOBS Act was enacted. Section 107 of the JOBS Act provides that an “emerging growth company” may take advantage of the extended transition period provided in Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act for complying with new or revised accounting standards. Therefore, an emerging growth company can delay the adoption of certain accounting standards until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies. We have elected to use the extended transition period under the JOBS Act. Accordingly, our financial statements may not be comparable to the financial statements of public companies that comply with such new or revised accounting standards.

Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

The following discussion contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results may differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including those set forth in Part I, Item 1A, “Risk Factors,” and “Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” included elsewhere in this Annual Report. The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with our audited financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this Annual Report.

Overview

Our mission is to bring ethical food to the table, and we are disrupting the U.S. food system by developing a framework that challenges the norms of the incumbent food model, allowing us to bring high-quality products from our network of family farms to a national audience. This framework has enabled us to become the leading U.S. brand of pasture-raised eggs and the second largest U.S. egg brand by retail dollar sales. Our ethics are exemplified by our focus on animal welfare and sustainable farming practices. We believe our standards produce happy hens with varied diets, which produce better eggs. There is a seismic shift in consumer demand for natural, traceable, clean-label, great-tasting and nutritious foods. Supported by a steadfast adherence to the values on which we were founded, we have designed our brand and products to appeal to this consumer movement.

Our purpose is rooted in a commitment to Conscious Capitalism, which prioritizes the long-term benefits of each of our stakeholders (farmers and suppliers, customers and consumers, communities and the environment, crew members and stockholders). We make decisions based on what’s sustainable for all our stakeholders. Our collective sustainable business practices will enable us to fulfill our purpose of improving the lives of people, animals, and the planet through food, now and long into the future. For us, it is not about short-term outcomes or a trade-off between purpose and profit. We are fierce business competitors who believe that prioritizing the long-term viability of all stakeholders will produce stronger outcomes, for everyone, over time. These principles guide our day-to-day operations and, we believe, help us deliver a more sustainable and successful business. Our approach has been validated by our financial performance and recertification as a Certified B Corporation in January 2022, a certification reserved for businesses that balance profit and purpose to meet the highest verified standards of social and environmental performance, public transparency and legal accountability.

We source our products from a network of over 300 family farms. We have strategically designed our supply chain to ensure high production standards and optimal year-round operation. We are motivated by the positive impact we have on rural communities and enjoy a strong relationship and reputation with our network of farmers.

We primarily work with our farms pursuant to buy-sell contracts. Under these arrangements, the farmer is responsible for all of the working capital and investments required to produce the eggs and manage the farm, including purchasing the birds and feed supply. We are contractually obligated to purchase all of the eggs produced by the farmer during the term of the contract at an agreed-upon price that depends upon pallet weight and is indexed quarterly in arrears for changes in feed cost.

We believe we are a strategic and valuable partner to retailers. We have continued to command premium prices for our products, including our shell eggs. Our loyal and growing consumer base has fueled the expansion of our brand from the natural channel to the mainstream channel. We believe the success of our brand demonstrates that consumers are demanding premium products that meet a higher ethical standard of food production. We have a strong presence at Kroger, Sprouts, Target and Whole Foods, and we also sell our products at Albertsons, Publix and Walmart. We offer 25 retail stock keeping units, or SKUs through a multi-channel retail distribution network. We believe we have significant room for growth within the retail and foodservice channels through growing brand awareness, gaining additional points of distribution and new product innovation.

Our shell eggs are collected from farmers by a third-party freight carrier and placed in cold storage until we pack them for shipping to our customers at our state-of-the-art shell egg processing facility, Egg Central Station. Egg Central Station is approximately 153,000 square feet and utilizes highly automated equipment to grade and package our shell egg products. Egg Central Station is capable of packing approximately six million eggs per day and has achieved Safe Quality Food, or SQF Good rating, the highest level of such certification from the Global Food Safety Initiative. In addition, as of January 2020, Egg Central Station is the only egg facility to receive, and we are one of only six companies globally to have received, the SQFI Select Site certification.

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Our products are distributed through a broker-distributor-retailer network whereby brokers represent our products to distributors and retailers who will in turn sell our products to consumers. We serve the majority of natural channel customers through food distributors, such as UNFI, US Foods and KeHE, which purchase, store, sell and deliver our products to Whole Foods (UNFI and US Foods) and Sprouts (KeHE). We serve mainstream retailers by arranging for delivery of our products directly through their distribution centers. We also leverage distributor relationships to fulfill orders for certain independent grocers and other customers. UNFI, US Foods and KeHE sales as a percentage of the Company's net revenue is presented below:

The increase in the percentage of net revenue for UNFI for fiscal 2022 is due to a net shift in the Company’s distribution channels away from US Foods during fiscal 2021. The decrease in percentage of net revenue for KeHE is due to general shifts in the Company's distribution channels.

We have experienced consistent sales growth. We had net revenue of $362.1 million and $260.9 million, net income of $1.2 million and $2.4 million, and Adjusted EBITDA of $16.2 million and $8.0 million in the fiscal years ended December 25, 2022 and December 26, 2021, respectively. Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial measure. See the section titled “—Non-GAAP Financial Measures—Adjusted EBITDA” below for the definition of Adjusted EBITDA, as well as a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to net income, the most directly comparable financial measure stated in accordance with GAAP.

Known Trends, Events and Uncertainties

Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza

Since the initial outbreaks of HPAI in early 2022, we have been closely following the progression of the virus and working with our farmers, veterinarians, government health officials and animal welfare auditors to ensure that our flocks are kept as safe as possible. To date, we have experienced outbreaks at two of our farms, one located in Missouri and one in Tennessee. While we have not experienced material disruptions to our egg supply due to HPAI outbreaks, if a substantial portion of our farms or production facilities were affected, this could materially and negatively affect our supply chain and operating results. Additionally, HPAI has resulted in supply shortages and price increases across the egg market. We are confident in the measures we have taken to reduce the risk of HPAI on our farms and production facilities, as well as our ability to mitigate impacts on supply. However, given continued uncertainty about future outbreaks and governmental responses to such outbreaks, we cannot predict the ultimate impact that HPAI will have on our business.

Inflation and Economic Uncertainties

The recent trends towards rising inflation may also materially affect our business and corresponding financial position and cash flows. Inflationary factors, such as increases in the cost of materials and supplies, interest rates and overhead costs, may adversely affect our operating results. Rising interest rates also present a recent challenge impacting the U.S. economy and could make it more difficult for us to obtain traditional financing on acceptable terms, if at all, in the future. Additionally, the general consensus among economists suggests that we should expect a higher recession risk to continue over the next year, which, together with the foregoing, could result in further economic uncertainty and volatility in the capital markets in the near term, and could negatively affect our operations. Furthermore, such economic conditions have produced downward pressure on share prices. We have experienced and may continue to experience increases in our operating costs, including our labor costs and research and development costs, due to supply chain constraints, consequences associated with COVID-19 and the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, and employee availability and wage increases, which may result in additional stress on the Company’s working capital resources. We work closely with our farmers, suppliers and third-party manufacturers to manage our supply chain activities and mitigate potential disruptions to our product supplies as a result of supply chain disruptions associated with such uncertainties. We currently expect to have an adequate supply of eggs, butter, packaging, and freight to meet anticipated demand through mid-2023, as well as adequate capacity for packaging and processing our eggs.

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Liquidity and Capital Resources Overview

With cash and cash equivalents of $12.9 million as of December 25, 2022 and access to additional funds held as investment securities and available borrowing under our credit facility agreement with PNC Bank, National Association, or the Credit Facility, we anticipate having sufficient liquidity to make investments in our business to support our long-term growth strategy. We expect that our cash and cash equivalents as of December 25, 2022, together with cash provided by our operating activities and availability of borrowings under our existing Credit Facility, will be sufficient to fund our operating expenses for at least the next 12 months and to make investments in our business in support of our long-term growth strategy.

Our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including our pace of new and existing customer growth, our investments in innovation, our investments in acquisitions or other growth opportunities, our investments in partnerships and unexplored channels and ongoing costs associated with expansions of our production capacity. We may be required to seek additional equity or debt financing. However, a significant disruption of global financial markets (including a disruption due to public health pandemics, geopolitical tensions and wars, inflation or other factors) may result in our inability to access additional capital, which could in the future negatively affect our operations. In the event that we require additional financing, we may not be able to raise such financing on terms acceptable to us or at all. If we are unable to raise additional capital or generate cash flows necessary to expand our operations and invest in continued innovation and product expansion, we may not be able to compete successfully, which would harm our business, operations and results of operations. For additional information, see the section titled "Liquidity and Capital Resources" below.

Our Fiscal Year

We report on a 52-53-week fiscal year, ending on the last Sunday in December, effective beginning with the first quarter of fiscal 2018. In a 52-53-week fiscal year, each fiscal quarter consists of 13 weeks. The additional week in a 53-week fiscal year is added to the fourth quarter, making such quarter consist of 14 weeks. Our first 53-week fiscal year will be this year, fiscal 2023, which we expect to begin on December 26, 2022 and end on December 31, 2023. See “Nature of the Business and Basis of Presentation” in Note 1 to our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report for additional details related to our fiscal calendar.

Key Factors Affecting Our Business

We believe that the growth of our business and our future success are dependent upon many factors. While each of these factors presents significant opportunities for us, they also pose important challenges that we must successfully address to enable us to sustain the growth of our business and improve our results of operations.

Expand Household Penetration

We have positioned our brand to capitalize on growing consumer interest in natural, clean-label, traceable, ethical, great-tasting and nutritious foods. We believe there is substantial opportunity to grow our consumer base and increase the velocity at which households purchase our products. U.S. household penetration for the shell egg category is approximately 98%, while the household penetration for our shell eggs is approximately 7.0%. We intend to increase household penetration by continuing to invest significantly in sales and marketing to educate consumers about our brand, our values and the premium quality of our products. We believe these efforts will educate consumers on the attractive attributes of our products, generate further demand for our products and ultimately expand our consumer base. Our ability to attract new consumers will depend, among other things, on the perceived value and quality of our products, the offerings of our competitors and the effectiveness of our marketing efforts. Our performance depends significantly on factors that may affect the level and pattern of consumer spending in the U.S. natural food market in which we operate. Such factors include consumer preference, consumer confidence, consumer income, consumer perception of the safety and quality of our products and shifts in the perceived value for our products relative to alternatives.

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Grow Within the Retail Channel

We believe that our ability to increase the number of customers that sell our products to consumers is an indicator of our market penetration and our future business opportunities. We define our customers as the entities that sell our products to consumers. With certain of our retail customers, like Whole Foods, we sell our products through distributors. We are not able to precisely attribute our net revenue to a specific retailer for products sold through such channels. We rely on third-party data to calculate the portion of retail sales attributable to such retailers, but this data is inherently imprecise because it is based on gross sales generated by our products sold at retailers, without accounting for price concessions, promotional activities or chargebacks, and because it measures retail sales for only the portion of our retailers serviced through distributors. Based on this third-party data and internal analysis, Whole Foods accounted for approximately 23% and 29% of our retail sales for the fiscal years ended December 25, 2022 and December 26, 2021, respectively. While the amount of our retail sales to Whole Foods increased in real terms in the fiscal year ended December 25, 2022, the percentage of our net revenue attributable to Whole Foods declined in these periods as we added new customers and expanded distribution to existing customers.

As of December 2022, there were more than 22,000 stores selling our products. We expect the retail channel to be our largest source of net revenue for the foreseeable future. By capturing greater shelf space, driving higher product velocities and increasing our SKU count, we believe there is meaningful runway for further growth with existing retail customers. Additionally, we believe there is significant opportunity to gain incremental stores from existing customers as well as by adding new retail customers. We also believe there is significant further long-term opportunity in additional distribution channels, including the convenience, drugstore, club, military and international markets. Our ability to execute on this strategy will increase our opportunities for incremental sales to consumers, and we also believe this growth will allow for margin expansion. To accomplish these objectives, we intend to continue leveraging consumer awareness of and demand for our brand, offering targeted sales incentives to our customers and utilizing customer-specific marketing tactics. Our ability to grow within the retail channel will depend on a number of factors, such as our customers’ satisfaction with the sales, product velocities and profitability of our products.

Expand Footprint Across Foodservice

We believe there is significant demand for our products in the foodservice channel since we offer versatile ingredients with high menu penetrations across all commercial and non-commercial operator segments. We see considerable opportunity to continue to grow the channel in the medium- to long-term with our two-pronged sales approach to values-aligned foodservice operators and their distributors. We are working with Waypoint, a foodservice sales and marketing agency in the consumer-packaged goods industry, to increase our category share in broad-line distribution and to get on national and regional restaurant chain menus.

We believe that most U.S. consumers' food preferences are driven primarily by what they encounter on restaurant menus, so we are also leveraging foodservice as a critical consumer touchpoint to drive brand awareness and build trust. We are investing in co-marketing to reach new households. We believe co-branding is mutually beneficial to us and foodservice operators as we believe it helps to differentiate their brands, enhance their perceived customer value and drive repeat traffic.

A multi-unit example from our successful foodservice program is True Food Kitchen, an award-winning restaurant brand and a pioneer of wellness-driven dining with 43 locations across the United States, that shares our values for improving the lives of people, animals, and the planet through ethically produced food. We have launched similar relationships with national chains, including Hopdoddy Burger Bar and Original ChopShop. Additionally, we have regional chain collaborations in all four or our U.S. sales territories. Several examples include:

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Tacodeli, which sells breakfast tacos made exclusively with our shell eggs across restaurant locations and points of distribution, such as coffee shops and farmers' market stands, across Texas;

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Black Seed Bagels, a bagel brand with locations across the New York metropolitan area;

•
King David Tacos, which sells breakfast tacos made exclusively with our eggs at a brick-and-mortar location, multiple cart locations and over 70 retail partners in the New York City area;

•
Pura Vida, a fresh all-day concept in the South Florida area;

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Cafe Patachou, a breakfast and lunch restaurant chain based in the Indianapolis, Indiana area;

•
Blue Plate Restaurant Company, a casual dining group in the Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota area;

•
Moe's Broadway Bagel, an East Coast-style family-run bagel chain in the Denver and Boulder Colorado area

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Expand Our Product Offerings

We intend to continue to strengthen our product offerings by investing in innovation in new and existing categories. We have a history of product introductions and intend to continue to innovate by introducing new products from time to time. Eggs and egg-related products generated $339.2 million, or approximately 94%, of net revenue in fiscal 2022. We expect eggs and egg-related products will be our largest source of net revenue for the foreseeable future. We believe that investments in innovation will contribute to our long-term growth, including by reinforcing our efforts to increase household penetration. Our ability to successfully develop, market and sell new products will depend on a variety of factors, including the availability of capital to invest in innovation, as well as changing consumer preferences and demand for food products.

Key Components of Results of Operations

Net Revenue

We generate net revenue primarily from sales of our products, including eggs and butter, to our customers, which include natural retailers, mainstream retailers and foodservice customers. We sell our products to customers on a purchase-order basis. We serve the majority of our natural channel customers and certain independent grocers and other customers through food distributors, which purchase, store, sell and deliver our products to these customers.

We periodically offer sales incentives to our customers, including rebates, temporary price reductions, off-invoice discounts, retailer advertisements, product coupons and other trade activities. We record a provision for sales incentives at the later of the date at which the related revenue is recognized or when the sales incentive is offered. At the end of each accounting period, we recognize a liability for an estimated promotional allowance reserve. We periodically provide credits or discounts to our customers in the event that products do not conform to customer expectations upon delivery or expire at a customer’s site. We treat these credits and discounts as a reduction of the sales price of the related transaction at the time of sale. We anticipate that these promotional activities, credits and discounts could impact our net revenue and that changes in such activities could impact period-over-period results.

Our shell eggs are sold to consumers at a premium price point, and when prices for commodity shell eggs fall relative to the price of our shell eggs (including due to any price increases we may implement), price-sensitive consumers may choose to purchase commodity shell eggs offered by our competitors instead of our eggs. As a result, low commodity shell egg prices may adversely affect our net revenue. For example, we increased prices on certain of our products in January 2022, May 2022 and January 2023. While we have not seen significant decreases in sales volume due to previous price increases, if we further increase prices to offset higher commodity prices or other costs, we could experience lower demand for our products, decreased ability to attract new customers and lower sales volumes. Net revenue may also vary from period to period depending on the purchase orders we receive, the volume and mix of our products sold, and the channels through which our products are sold.

Selling, General and Administrative

Selling, general and administrative expenses consist primarily of broker and contractor fees for sales and marketing, as well as personnel costs for sales and marketing, finance, human resources and other administrative functions, including salaries, benefits, bonuses, stock-based compensation expense and sales commissions. Selling, general and administrative expenses also include advertising and digital media costs, agency fees, travel and entertainment costs, and costs associated with consumer promotions, product samples, sales aids incurred to acquire new customers, retain existing customers and build our brand awareness, overhead costs for facilities, including associated depreciation and amortization expenses, and information technology-related expenses.

Shipping and Distribution

Shipping and distribution expenses consist primarily of costs related to third-party freight for our products. We expect shipping and distribution expenses to increase in absolute dollars in the medium-to-long term as we continue to scale our business.

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Results of Operations

The following table sets forth our results of operations for the periods presented (in thousands):

(1)
Includes stock-based compensation expense of $5,852 and $4,307 in selling, general and administrative for the fiscal years ended 2022 and 2021, respectively, and $188 and $133 in cost of goods sold for the fiscal years then ended, respectively.

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The following table sets forth our consolidated statements of operations data expressed as a percentage of net revenue for the periods presented:

Fiscal Year Ended December 25, 2022 Compared to Fiscal Year Ended December 26, 2021

Net Revenue

The increase in net revenue of $101.1 million, or 39%, was primarily driven by volume-related increases of $74.4 million and price increases of $26.8 million. Additionally, there was an increase in egg-related product sales of $99.2 million and an increase in butter-related product sales of $1.9 million. The increases in egg and butter-related sales were primarily due to volume increases to our distributors as well as new distributions to new and existing customers. Net revenue from sales through our retail channel was $348.9 million and $256.5 million for fiscal 2022 and 2021, respectively.

Gross Profit and Gross Margin

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The increase in gross profit of $26.5 million, or 32%, was driven by higher net revenue generated during the fiscal year ended December 25, 2022. The decrease in gross margin during the fiscal year ended December 25, 2022 as compared to the fiscal year ended December 26, 2021 was primarily driven by an increase in input costs (including costs of organic feed and increased farmer pay) across our shell egg and butter businesses, increases in packaging costs and increases in transportation costs. Increased pricing on our organic shell egg and butter businesses at the end of January 2022, along with additional pricing increases across the entire portfolio in May 2022, partially offset the input cost headwinds.

Operating Expenses

Selling, General and Administrative

Selling, general, and administrative expenses increased by $19.4 million in fiscal 2022, with such expenses accounting for 21% of net revenue. The dollar growth in selling, general and administrative expenses was primarily driven by:

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an increase of $13.0 million in employee-related costs, including stock-based compensation, driven by an overall increase in employee headcount to support our operations and public company status;

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an increase of $3.5 million in brokerage-related and selling-related expenses due to expansion of the business;

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an increase of $1.8 million in marketing-related expenses related to continued investment in brand and product marketing; and

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an increase of $1.0 million in technology and software related expenses to support increased operations and employee headcount.

Shipping and Distribution

The increase in shipping and distribution expenses of $5.1 million, or 21%, was driven by higher sales volumes and freight rates. We are beginning to see freight rates stabilize due to a combination of steadying line haul rates and internal operational efficiency.

Interest Income

The increase of $611,000 in interest income, or 160%, was primarily driven by higher interest income in the fiscal year ended December 25, 2022 on our available-for-sale securities portfolio.

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Provision (Benefit) for Income Taxes

The change in income tax provision (benefit) of $3.6 million, or 179%, was primarily driven by higher pre-tax income in 2022 and favorable tax benefits from stock option exercises in the prior year which have not recurred at the same levels during the fiscal year ended December 25, 2022.

Fiscal Year Ended December 26, 2021 Compared to Fiscal Year Ended December 27, 2020

For the discussion of the financial condition and results of operations for the fiscal year ended December 26, 2021 compared to the fiscal year ended December 27, 2020, refer to “Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Components of Results of Operations” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 26, 2021, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 10, 2022.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

Adjusted EBITDA

We report our financial results in accordance with GAAP. However, management believes that Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP financial measure, provides investors with additional useful information in evaluating our performance.

We calculate Adjusted EBITDA as net income (loss), adjusted to exclude:

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Depreciation and amortization;

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Stock-based compensation expense;

•
Costs related to the discontinuation of our convenient breakfast product line;

•
Costs related to the dissolution of the Ovabrite, Inc. variable interest entity;

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Benefit or provision for income taxes, as applicable;

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Interest expense;

•
Change in fair value of contingent consideration; and

•
Interest income.

Adjusted EBITDA is a financial measure that is not required by, or presented in accordance with, GAAP. We believe that Adjusted EBITDA, when taken together with our financial results presented in accordance with GAAP, provides meaningful supplemental information regarding our operating performance and facilitates internal comparisons of our historical operating performance on a more consistent basis by excluding certain items that may not be indicative of our business, results of operations or outlook. In particular, we believe that the use of Adjusted EBITDA is helpful to our investors as it is a measure used by management in assessing the health of our business, determining incentive compensation and evaluating our operating performance, as well as for internal planning and forecasting purposes.

Adjusted EBITDA is presented for supplemental informational purposes only, has limitations as an analytical tool and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for financial information presented in accordance with GAAP. Some of the limitations of Adjusted EBITDA include the following:

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It does not properly reflect capital commitments to be paid in the future;

•
Although depreciation and amortization are non-cash charges, the underlying assets may need to be replaced, and Adjusted EBITDA does not reflect these capital expenditures;

•
It does not consider the impact of stock-based compensation expense, as such expenses in any specific period may not directly correlate to the underlying performance of our business operations and can vary significantly between periods as a result of the timing of grants of new stock-based awards;

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•
It does not include the costs related to the discontinuation of our convenient breakfast product line as these costs are infrequent, unusual and we do not anticipate that we will incur similar significant costs for product exits in the foreseeable future;

•
It does not reflect the dissolution of the Ovabrite, Inc. variable interest entity due to the infrequent nature of this transaction and we do not expect to experience similar dissolutions in the foreseeable future;

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It does not reflect other non-operating expenses, including interest expense;

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It does not consider the impact of any contingent consideration liability valuation adjustments; and

•
It does not reflect tax payments that may represent a reduction in cash available to us.

In addition, our use of Adjusted EBITDA may not be comparable to similarly titled measures of other companies because they may not calculate Adjusted EBITDA in the same manner, limiting its usefulness as a comparative measure. Because of these limitations, when evaluating our performance, you should consider Adjusted EBITDA alongside other financial measures, including our net income and other results stated in accordance with GAAP.

The following table presents a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to net income, the most directly comparable financial measure stated in accordance with GAAP, for the periods presented:

(1)
Amount also includes finance lease amortization.

(2)
Amount reflects the change in fair value of a contingent consideration liability in connection with our 2014 acquisition of certain assets of Heartland Eggs.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

Since inception, we have funded our operations with proceeds from sales of our capital stock, proceeds from borrowings and cash flows from the sale of our products. We had net income of $1.2 million for the fiscal year ended December 25, 2022 and retained earnings of $4.2 million as of December 25, 2022. We completed our IPO on August 4, 2020, resulting in net proceeds to us of approximately $99.7 million, after deducting underwriting discounts, commissions and offering costs associated with the offering.

Funding Requirements

We expect that our cash and cash equivalents, together with cash provided by our operating activities and available borrowings under our existing Credit Facility, will be sufficient to fund our operating expenses for at least the next 12 months. We further believe that we will be able to fund potential operating expenses and cash obligations beyond the next 12 months, through a combination of existing cash and cash equivalents, cash provided by our operating activities and access to additional funds held as investment securities as well as available borrowing under our Credit Facility.

Our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including our pace of new and existing customer growth, our investments in innovation, our investments in acquisitions, partnerships and unexplored channels and the potential costs associated with further expansion of our processing capacity. As of December 25, 2022, future minimum lease payments under non-cancelable operating leases totaled $2.2 million and future minimum lease payments under non-cancelable finance leases totaled $9.9 million.

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Credit Facility

We originally entered into our Credit Facility with PNC Bank, National Association, or PNC Bank, in October 2017. The Credit Facility initially included a $4.7 million term loan, a $10.0 million revolving line of credit and an equipment loan with a maximum borrowing capacity of $1.5 million.

Subsequently, terms of the Credit Facility were modified at various times between fiscal 2018 and fiscal 2022. Such amendments (i) amended various definitions, (ii) waived a technical default in May 2020 which was triggered by exceeding the capital expenditure limit, (iii) increased borrowing capacity and (iv) extended the maturity date. The Ninth Amendment to the Credit Facility in April 2021 eliminated the term loan and equipment loan. The Tenth Amendment to the Credit Agreement in December 2022 modified certain covenants related to commodity hedging, consented to the dissolution of immaterial subsidiaries and implemented changes related to the discontinuation of LIBOR. The revolving line of credit matures in April 2024.

The maximum borrowing capacity under the revolving line of credit is $20.0 million. Interest on borrowings under the revolving line of credit, as well as loan advances thereunder, accrues at a rate, at our election at the time of borrowing, equal to (i) the secured overnight financing rate as administered by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York plus 2.00% or (ii) 1.00% plus the alternate base rate, as defined in the Credit Facility. In April 2020, all then-outstanding amounts under the revolving line of credit were repaid and the interest rate applicable to borrowings under the revolving line of credit was 4.5%.

The Credit Facility is secured by all of our assets (other than real property and certain other property excluded pursuant to the terms of the Credit Facility) and requires us to maintain three financial covenants: a fixed charge coverage ratio, a leverage ratio and a minimum tangible net worth requirement. The Credit Facility also contains various covenants relating to limitations on indebtedness, acquisitions, mergers, consolidations, the sale of properties and liens. As a result of the limitations contained in the Credit Facility, certain of the net assets on our consolidated balance sheet as of December 25, 2022 are restricted in use. The Credit Facility contains other customary covenants, representations and events of default.

As of December 25, 2022, there was no outstanding balance under the Credit Facility. As of December 25, 2022, we were in compliance with all covenants under the Credit Facility. See “Long-Term Debt” in Note 11 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report for additional details related to our Credit Facility.

Cash Flows

The following table summarizes our cash flows for the periods indicated:

Operating Activities

Cash flows related to operating activities are dependent on net income, non-cash adjustments to net income, and changes in working capital. Net cash used in operating activities during the fiscal year ended December 25, 2022 is primarily due to an increase in cash used for working capital. The increase in cash used for working capital was primarily due to (i) an increase in accounts receivable as a result of significantly higher sales in the current fiscal year, (ii) a significant increase in inventory to support the ongoing growth of our business and improve our ability to meet increasing demand, and (iii) an increase in accrued liabilities for promotional spending to drive continued sales growth, employee related accruals, and marketing and broker commission accruals.

Investing Activities

Net cash used in investing activities during the fiscal year ended December 25, 2022 is primarily due to a reduction in capital spending related to our expansion of Egg Central Station that was completed in fiscal 2022. The net cash used in investing activities for purchases, sales and maturities of our available-for-sale debt securities during the fiscal year ended December 25, 2022 compared to the prior fiscal year is immaterial.

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Financing Activities

Net cash provided by financing activities during the fiscal year ended December 25, 2022 is primarily comprised of proceeds from the exercise of stock options in the current fiscal year, partially offset by principal payments on finance lease obligations.

Seasonality

Demand for our products fluctuates in response to seasonal factors. Demand tends to increase with the start of the school year and is highest prior to holiday periods, particularly Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter and the lowest during the summer months. As a result of these seasonal and quarterly fluctuations, comparisons of our sales and results of operations between different quarters within a single fiscal year are not necessarily meaningful comparisons.

Critical Accounting Estimates

The preparation of our consolidated financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires us to make estimates and judgments that affect the amounts reported in the financial statements and related notes thereto. Critical accounting estimates are those estimates that, in accordance with GAAP, involve a significant level of estimation uncertainty and have had or are reasonably likely to have a material impact on our consolidated financial statements. Management has determined that our most critical accounting estimates are those relating to revenue recognition and trade promotions, income taxes, and contingencies. Although we believe that the estimates we use are reasonable, due to the inherent uncertainty involved in making these estimates, actual results reported in future periods could differ materially from those estimates. The following is a summary of certain accounting estimates we consider critical. For further discussion about our accounting policies, see Note 2 to our consolidated financial statements appearing elsewhere in this Annual Report.

Revenue Recognition and Trade Promotions

We recognize revenue for the sale of our product at the point in time when our performance obligation has been satisfied and control of the product has transferred to our customer, which generally occurs upon delivery to the customer based on terms of the sale. Revenue is measured by the transaction price, which is defined as the amount of consideration we expect to receive in exchange for providing goods to customers. The transaction price is adjusted for estimates of known or expected variable consideration, which include trade promotions as well as chargebacks such as coupons, discounts, rebates, spoils, and other programs. Variable consideration related to these programs is recorded as a reduction to revenue, at the time of sale, based on the amount we expect to incur.

The transaction price contains estimates of known or expected variable consideration. We base these estimates on current performance and historical utilization or experience. We review and update these estimates regularly until the incentives or product returns are realized and the impact of any adjustments are recognized in the period the adjustments are identified.

We do not believe it is reasonably likely that there will be a material change in the estimates or assumptions used to recognize revenue. As noted above, estimates are made based on historical experience and other factors. Typically, programs that are offered have a short duration and historical differences between actual experience compared to estimated volumes, performance and redemptions have not been significant to the quarterly or annual financial statements. However, if the level of redemption rates, volumes or performance were to vary significantly from our estimates, we may be exposed to gains or losses that could be material. We have not made any material changes in the accounting methodology used to recognize revenue during the past three fiscal years.

Income Taxes

We determine our effective tax rate by estimating our permanent differences resulting from differing treatment of items for financial and income tax purposes. We are periodically audited by taxing authorities and consider any adjustments made as a result of the audits in computing our income tax expense. Any audit adjustments affecting permanent differences could have an impact on our effective tax rate.

Deferred income taxes relate primarily to depreciation expense and share-based compensation programs accounted for differently for financial and income tax purposes. Changes in tax laws and rates could materially affect recorded deferred tax assets and liabilities in the future. Valuation allowances are recorded when it is more likely than not that a tax benefit will not be realized for a deferred tax asset. Changes in projected future earnings could affect our recorded valuation allowances, if any, in the future.

We record unrecognized tax benefit liabilities for known or anticipated tax issues based on our analysis of whether, and the extent to which, additional taxes will be due. However, due to the complexity of some of these uncertainties, the ultimate resolution may result in a payment that is materially different from the current estimate of the tax liabilities. To the extent we prevail in matters for which unrecognized tax benefit liabilities have been established or are required to pay amounts in excess of our recorded liability, our effective tax rate in a given financial statement period could be materially affected.

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Contingencies

We recognize the costs of legal defense for the legal proceedings to which we are a party during the periods in which the costs are incurred. After considerable analysis of the facts and circumstances of each case, we determine the amount of reserves required, if any. We evaluate whether a loss contingency exists, and if the assessment of a contingency indicates it is probable that a material loss has been incurred and the amount of the loss can be reasonably estimated, the estimated loss would be accrued.

There were no loss contingency reserves for the past three fiscal years. Future reserves may be required if losses are deemed reasonably estimable and probable due to changes in our assumptions, the effectiveness of legal strategies, or other factors beyond our control. Future results of operations may be materially affected by the creation of reserves or by accruals of losses to reflect any adverse determinations in these legal proceedings.

Recent Accounting Pronouncements

See the sections titled “Summary of Significant Accounting Policies—Recently Adopted Accounting Pronouncements” and “—Recently Issued Accounting Pronouncements Not Yet Adopted” in Note 2 to our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report for a discussion of recent accounting pronouncements.

Emerging Growth Company Status

In April 2012, the JOBS Act was enacted. Section 107 of the JOBS Act provides that an “emerging growth company” may take advantage of the extended transition period provided in Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act for complying with new or revised accounting standards. Therefore, an emerging growth company can delay the adoption of certain accounting standards until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies. We have elected to use the extended transition period under the JOBS Act. Accordingly, our financial statements may not be comparable to the financial statements of public companies that comply with such new or revised accounting standards.

Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.

The following discussion contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results may differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including those set forth in Part I, Item 1A, “Risk Factors,” and “Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” included elsewhere in this Annual Report. The following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations should be read in conjunction with our audited financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this Annual Report.

Overview

Our mission is to bring ethical food to the table, and we are disrupting the U.S. food system by developing a framework that challenges the norms of the incumbent food model, allowing us to bring high-quality products from our network of family farms to a national audience. This framework has enabled us to become the leading U.S. brand of pasture-raised eggs and butter and the second largest U.S. egg brand by retail dollar sales. Our ethics are exemplified by our focus on animal welfare and sustainable farming practices. We believe our standards produce happy hens with varied diets, which produce better eggs. There is a seismic shift in consumer demand for natural, traceable, clean-label, great-tasting and nutritious foods. Supported by a steadfast adherence to the values on which we were founded, we have designed our brand and products to appeal to this consumer movement.

Our purpose is rooted in a commitment to Conscious Capitalism, which prioritizes the long-term benefits of each of our stakeholders (farmers and suppliers, customers and consumers, communities and the environment, crew members and stockholders). We make decisions based on what’s sustainable for all our stakeholders. Simply put, we will not be a sustainable business if our stakeholders are not sustainable as well. Our collective sustainable business practices will enable us to fulfill our purpose of improving the lives of people, animals, and the planet through food, now and long into the future. For us, it is not about short-term outcomes or a trade-off between purpose and profit. We are fierce business competitors who believe that prioritizing the long-term viability of all stakeholders will produce stronger outcomes, for everyone, over time. These principles guide our day-to-day operations and, we believe, help us deliver a more sustainable and successful business. Our approach has been validated by our financial performance and our designation and January 2022 recertification as a Certified B Corporation, a certification reserved for businesses that balance profit and purpose to meet the highest verified standards of social and environmental performance, public transparency and legal accountability.

We source our products from a network of more than 275 family farms. We have strategically designed our supply chain to ensure high production standards and optimal year-round operation. We are motivated by the positive impact we have on rural communities and enjoy a strong relationship and reputation with our network of farmers.

We primarily work with our farms pursuant to buy-sell contracts. Under these arrangements, the farmer is responsible for all of the working capital and investments required to produce the eggs and manage the farm, including purchasing the birds and feed supply. We are contractually obligated to purchase all of the eggs produced by the farmer during the term of the contract at an agreed-upon price that depends upon pallet weight and is indexed quarterly in arrears for changes in feed cost.

We believe we are a strategic and valuable partner to retailers. We have continued to command premium prices for our products, including our shell eggs, which sell for as much as three times the price of commodity eggs. Our loyal and growing consumer base has fueled the expansion of our brand from the natural channel to the mainstream channel. We believe the success of our brand demonstrates that consumers are demanding premium products that meet a higher ethical standard of food production. We have a strong presence at Kroger, Sprouts Farmers Market, or Sprouts, Target and Whole Foods, and we also sell our products at Albertsons, Publix and Walmart. We offer 32 retail stock keeping units, or SKUs through a multi-channel retail distribution network. We believe we have significant room for growth within the retail and, in the medium- to long-term, foodservice channels through growing brand awareness, gaining additional points of distribution and new product innovation.

Our shell eggs are collected from farmers by a third-party freight carrier and placed in cold storage until we pack them for shipping to our customers at our state-of-the-art shell egg processing facility, Egg Central Station. Egg Central Station is approximately 82,000 square feet and utilizes highly automated equipment to grade and package our shell egg products. Egg Central Station is capable of packing three million eggs per day and has achieved Safe Quality Food, or SQF Good rating, the highest level of such certification from the Global Food Safety Initiative. In addition, as of January 2020, Egg Central Station is the only egg facility to receive, and we are one of only six companies globally to have received, the SQFI Select Site certification.

Our products are distributed through a broker-distributor-retailer network whereby brokers represent our products to distributors and retailers who will in turn sell our products to consumers. We serve the majority of natural channel customers through food distributors, such as UNFI and US Foods and KeHE, which purchase, store, sell and deliver our products to Whole Foods (UNFI and US Foods) and Sprouts (KeHE).  In the fiscal years ended December 26, 2021, December 27, 2020, and December 29, 2019, UNFI accounted for approximately 18%, 15%, and 35% of our net revenue, respectively, US Foods accounted for approximately 14%, 18%, and less than 10% of our net revenue, respectively, and KeHE accounted for approximately 10%, 12%, and 11% of our net revenue,

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respectively. We serve mainstream retailers by arranging for delivery of our products directly through their distribution centers. We also leverage distributor relationships to fulfill orders for certain independent grocers and other customers.

We have experienced consistent sales growth. We had net revenue of $260.9 million and $214.3 million, net income of $2.4 million and $8.8 million, and Adjusted EBITDA of $8.0 million and $16.8 million in the fiscal years ended December 26, 2021 and December 27, 2020, respectively. See the section titled “—Non-GAAP Financial Measure—Adjusted EBITDA” below for the definition of Adjusted EBITDA, as well as a reconciliation of Adjusted EBITDA to net income, the most directly comparable financial measure stated in accordance with GAAP.

On August 4, 2020, we completed our initial public offering, or IPO, of 10,699,573 shares of common stock at an offering price of $22.00 per share.  We issued and sold 5,040,323 shares of common stock and the selling stockholders sold 5,659,250 shares of common stock, including 1,395,596 shares of common stock sold by the selling stockholders pursuant to the underwriters’ exercise in full of their option to purchase additional shares. We received gross proceeds of approximately $110.9 million before deducting underwriting discounts, commissions and offering related transaction costs; we did not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares by the selling stockholders. Upon the closing of the IPO in August 2020, all of our then-outstanding shares of redeemable convertible preferred stock automatically converted into 8,192,876 shares of common stock on a one-for-one basis. Following the closing of the IPO, there were no shares of redeemable convertible preferred stock outstanding.

In November 2020, we completed a secondary public offering of 5,000,000 shares of common stock sold by selling stockholders, from which no proceeds were received and expenses incurred totaled $0.5 million.

COVID-19 Business Update

As the COVID-19 pandemic continued in the fiscal year ended December 26, 2021, we continued to maintain a cross-functional task force and execute on business continuity plans designed to address and mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business and our stakeholders, comprised of farmers and suppliers, customers and consumers, communities and the environment, crew members and stockholders. While we are not experiencing material adverse impacts at this time, given the overall disruption of global supply chains and distribution systems and the other risks and uncertainties associated with the pandemic, our business, financial condition, results of operations and growth prospects could be materially and adversely affected. We continue to closely monitor the COVID-19 situation as we evolve our business continuity plans and response strategy. In March 2020, the majority of our crew members at our headquarters transitioned to working remotely, and we have subsequently decided to permit such crew members to work remotely on a permanent basis. The efficacy of vaccinations, the timing of the development of herd immunity, the potential emergence of new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 variant and the prospect of additional shelter in place and similar movement restrictions are unknown, and further virus mutations and variants may have an adverse impact on our business.

Egg Central Station continues to be operational and we have implemented a number of measures to prevent and mitigate any outbreak of COVID-19 at that facility; however, we may need to modify or reduce operations due to the evolving effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. We continue to follow the COVID-19 protocol and preventative measures we have implemented at Egg Central Station to protect the health and safety of our crew members, customers and community.

Supply Chain

We are working closely with our farmers, suppliers and third-party manufacturers to manage our supply chain activities and mitigate potential disruptions to our product supplies as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. We currently expect to have an adequate supply of eggs to meet anticipated demand in fiscal 2022, as well as adequate capacity for packing and processing our eggs.

Additionally, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been recent disruptions in the U.S. cream supply, including significant volatility of prices and demand, hauling challenges due to labor shortages and ongoing financial pressures in milk cooperatives. We have worked with our co-manufacturers to mitigate these supply disruptions, and as a result there has been no impact on our ability to fill customer orders for butter or ghee products, although we expect that these supply disruptions will continue for the foreseeable future and that they may be further exacerbated by the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. If the COVID-19 pandemic continues to persist for an extended period of time and further impacts egg or cream supply, or disrupts our essential distribution systems, we could experience disruptions to our supply chain and operations, and associated delays in the manufacturing and supply of our products, which would adversely impact our ability to generate sales of and revenues from our products.

Corporate Development

With cash and cash equivalents of $31.0 million as of December 26, 2021 and access to additional funds as a result of our IPO and under our credit facility agreement with PNC Bank, National Association, or the Credit Facility, we anticipate having sufficient liquidity to make investments in our business this fiscal year in support of our long-term growth strategy. Our IPO, which was completed on August 4, 2020, resulted in net proceeds to us of approximately $99.7 million, after deducting underwriting discounts,

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commissions and offering costs associated with the offering. We expect that our cash and cash equivalents as of December 26, 2021, together with cash provided by our operating activities and availability of borrowings under our existing Credit Facility, will be sufficient to fund our operating expenses for at least the next 12 months and to make investments in our business in support of our long-term growth strategy.

Our future capital requirements will depend on many factors, including our pace of new and existing customer growth, our investments in innovation, our investments in partnerships and unexplored channels and the costs associated with our expansion of Egg Central Station. We may be required to seek additional equity or debt financing. However, a significant disruption of global financial markets (including a disruption due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic) may result in our inability to access additional capital, which could in the future negatively affect our operations. In the event that we require additional financing, we may not be able to raise such financing on terms acceptable to us or at all. If we are unable to raise additional capital or generate cash flows necessary to expand our operations and invest in continued innovation and product expansion, we may not be able to compete successfully, which would harm our business, operations and results of operations.

Our Fiscal Year

We report on a 52-53-week fiscal year, ending on the last Sunday in December, effective beginning with the first quarter of fiscal 2018. In a 52-53-week fiscal year, each fiscal quarter consists of 13 weeks. The additional week in a 53-week fiscal year is added to the fourth quarter, making such quarter consist of 14 weeks. Our first 53-week fiscal year will be fiscal 2023, which we expect to begin on December 26, 2022 and end on December 31, 2023. See “Nature of the Business and Basis of Presentation” in Note 1 to our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report for additional details related to our fiscal calendar.

Key Factors Affecting Our Business

We believe that the growth of our business and our future success are dependent upon many factors. While each of these factors presents significant opportunities for us, they also pose important challenges that we must successfully address to enable us to sustain the growth of our business and improve our results of operations.

Expand Household Penetration

We have positioned our brand to capitalize on growing consumer interest in natural, clean-label, traceable, ethical, great-tasting and nutritious foods. We believe there is substantial opportunity to grow our consumer base and increase the velocity at which households purchase our products. U.S. household penetration for the shell egg category is approximately 98%, while the household penetration for our shell eggs is approximately 5.0%. We intend to increase household penetration by continuing to invest significantly in sales and marketing to educate consumers about our brand, our values and the premium quality of our products. We believe these efforts will educate consumers on the attractive attributes of our products, generate further demand for our products and ultimately expand our consumer base. Our ability to attract new consumers will depend, among other things, on the perceived value and quality of our products, the offerings of our competitors and the effectiveness of our marketing efforts. Our performance depends significantly on factors that may affect the level and pattern of consumer spending in the U.S. natural food market in which we operate. Such factors include consumer preference, consumer confidence, consumer income, consumer perception of the safety and quality of our products and shifts in the perceived value for our products relative to alternatives.

Grow Within the Retail Channel

We believe that our ability to increase the number of customers that sell our products to consumers is an indicator of our market penetration and our future business opportunities. We define our customers as the entities that sell our products to consumers. With certain of our retail customers, like Whole Foods and Sprouts, we sell our products through distributors. We are not able to precisely attribute our net revenue to a specific retailer for products sold through such channels. We rely on third-party data to calculate the portion of retail sales attributable to such retailers, but this data is inherently imprecise because it is based on gross sales generated by our products sold at retailers, without accounting for price concessions, promotional activities or chargebacks, and because it measures retail sales for only the portion of our retailers serviced through distributors. Based on this third-party data and internal analysis, Whole Foods accounted for approximately 29% and 28% of our retail sales for the fiscal years ended December 26, 2021 and December 27, 2020, respectively, and Sprouts accounted for approximately 7% and 7% of our retail sales for the fiscal years ended December 26, 2021 and December 27, 2020, respectively.

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As of December 2021, there were more than 20,900 stores selling our products. We expect the retail channel to be our largest source of net revenue for the foreseeable future. By capturing greater shelf space, driving higher product velocities and increasing our SKU count, we believe there is meaningful runway for further growth with existing retail customers. Additionally, we believe there is significant opportunity to gain incremental stores from existing customers as well as by adding new retail customers. We also believe there is significant further long-term opportunity in additional distribution channels, including the convenience, drugstore, club, military and international markets. Our ability to execute on this strategy will increase our opportunities for incremental sales to consumers, and we also believe this growth will allow for margin expansion. To accomplish these objectives, we intend to continue leveraging consumer awareness of and demand for our brand, offering targeted sales incentives to our customers and utilizing customer-specific marketing tactics. Our ability to grow within the retail channel will depend on a number of factors, such as our customers’ satisfaction with the sales, product velocities and profitability of our products.

Expand Footprint Across Foodservice

We believe there is significant demand for our products in the foodservice channel since we offer versatile ingredients with high menu penetrations across all commercial and non-commercial operator segments. We see considerable opportunity for medium- to long-term growth in this channel by increasing our category market share through sales to values-aligned foodservice operators and their distributors. We are working with Waypoint, a foodservice sales and marketing agency in the consumer-packaged goods industry, to increase our broadline distribution and presence in national and regional restaurant chains. We believe that most U.S. consumers' food preferences are driven primarily by what they encounter on restaurant menus, so we are also leveraging foodservice as a critical consumer touchpoint to drive brand awareness and purchase rates of our products in the retail channel. We are investing in co-marketing to reach new households. We believe that joint marketing tactics are mutually beneficial for our operator partners and enhance their perceived customer value and that our products and on-menu branding can help operators differentiate themselves, increase check sizes and drive loyalty in an industry still recovering from the pandemic and its macro-economic impacts. An example of our recent foodservice growth initiative is our relationship with HomeState, a Texas kitchen in Southern California which sells breakfast tacos made exclusively with our liquid whole eggs across 4 restaurant locations. We have launched similar regional partnerships in all 4 of our U.S. sales regions, including Blue Plate Restaurant Company, a casual dining group comprised of 7 concepts in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area; Cafe Patachou, a breakfast and lunch restaurant based in the Indianapolis, Indiana area with 5 locations; King David Tacos, which sells breakfast tacos made exclusively with our medium shell eggs at their 3 locations and more than 20 retail outlets around New York City; Pura Vida, a fresh all-day concept in the Miami, Florida area with 9 locations; Hat Creek Burger Company, a fast-casual restaurant with over 26 locations across Texas; Tacodeli, which sells breakfast tacos made exclusively with our shell eggs across 11 restaurant locations and approximately 90 points of distribution, such as coffee shops and farmers' market stands, across Texas; and Moe's Broadway Bagel, an East Coast-style family-run bagel chain with 7 locations in the Denver/Boulder, Colorado area.

Expand Our Product Offerings

We intend to continue to strengthen our product offerings by investing in innovation in new and existing categories. We have a history of product introductions and intend to continue to innovate by introducing new products from time to time. Eggs generated $240.0 million, or approximately 92%, of net revenue in fiscal 2021. We expect eggs will be our largest source of net revenue for the foreseeable future. We believe that investments in innovation will contribute to our long-term growth, including by reinforcing our efforts to increase household penetration. Our ability to successfully develop, market and sell new products will depend on a variety of factors, including the availability of capital to invest in innovation, as well as changing consumer preferences and demand for food products.

Key Components of Results of Operations

Net Revenue

We generate net revenue primarily from sales of our products, including eggs and butter to our customers, which include natural retailers, mainstream retailers and foodservice partners. We sell our products to customers on a purchase-order basis. We serve the majority of our natural channel customers and certain independent grocers and other customers through food distributors, which purchase, store, sell and deliver our products to these customers.

We periodically offer sales incentives to our customers, including rebates, temporary price reductions, off-invoice discounts, retailer advertisements, product coupons and other trade activities. We record a provision for sales incentives at the later of the date at which the related revenue is recognized or when the sales incentive is offered. At the end of each accounting period, we recognize a liability for an estimated promotional allowance reserve. We periodically provide credits or discounts to our customers in the event that products do not conform to customer expectations upon delivery or expire at a customer’s site. We treat these credits and discounts as a reduction of the sales price of the related transaction at the time of sale. We anticipate that these promotional activities, credits and discounts could impact our net revenue and that changes in such activities could impact period-over-period results.

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Our shell eggs are sold to consumers at a premium price point, and when prices for commodity shell eggs fall relative to the price of our shell eggs, price-sensitive consumers may choose to purchase commodity shell eggs offered by our competitors instead of our eggs. As a result, low commodity shell egg prices may adversely affect our net revenue. Net revenue may also vary from period to period depending on the purchase orders we receive, the volume and mix of our products sold, and the channels through which our products are sold.

Selling, General and Administrative

Selling, general and administrative expenses consist primarily of broker and contractor fees for sales and marketing, and personnel costs for sales and marketing, finance, human resources and other administrative functions, consisting of salaries, benefits, bonuses, stock-based compensation expense and sales commissions. Selling, general and administrative expenses also include advertising and digital media costs, agency fees, travel and entertainment costs, and costs associated with consumer promotions, product samples, sales aids incurred to acquire new customers, retain existing customers and build our brand awareness, overhead costs for facilities, including associated depreciation and amortization expenses, and information technology-related expenses.

Shipping and Distribution

Shipping and distribution expenses consist primarily of costs related to third-party freight for our products. We expect shipping and distribution expenses to increase in absolute dollars in the medium-to-long term, as we continue to scale our business.

Results of Operations

The following table sets forth our results of operations for the periods presented (in thousands):

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The following table sets forth our consolidated statements of operations data expressed as a percentage of net revenue for the periods presented:

Fiscal Year Ended December 26, 2021 Compared to Fiscal Year Ended December 27, 2020

Net Revenue

The increase in net revenue of $46.6 million, or 22%, was primarily driven by an increase in egg-related product sales of $43.8 million and an increase in butter-related product sales of $3.4 million. The increases in egg and butter-related sales were primarily due to volume increases to our distributors as well as new distributions to new and existing customers. Net revenue from sales through our retail channel was $256.5 million and $208.5 million for fiscal 2021 and 2020, respectively.

Gross Profit and Gross Margin

The increase in gross profit of $8.4 million, or 11%, was driven by an increase in net revenue generated during the fiscal year ended December 26, 2021. The decrease in gross margin during the fiscal year ended December 26, 2021 as compared to the fiscal year ended December 27, 2020 was primarily driven by an increase in input costs across our shell business and higher cream prices impacting our butter business. Elevated transportation rates also increased our internal transfer expense. Promotional activity and slotting continued to normalize, further compressing margins.

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Operating Expenses

Selling, General and Administrative