Good afternoon, and welcome to the Beyond Meat 2023 Fourth Quarter Conference Call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Paul Shepherd, Vice President, FP&A, and Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good afternoon, and welcome. Joining me on today's call are Ethan Brown, Founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer, and Lubi Kutua, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. By now, everyone should have access to the company's fourth quarter and full year 2023 earnings press release filed today after market close. This document is available in the Investor Relations section of Beyond Meat's website at www.beyondmeat.com. Before we begin, please note that all the information presented on today's call is unaudited, and that during the course of this call, management may make forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These statements are based on management's current expectations and beliefs and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in today's earnings release, along with the comments on this call, are made only as of today and will not be updated as actual events unfold. We refer you to today's press release, company's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2023, and to the company's annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023, to be filed with the SEC, along with other filings with the SEC, for a detailed discussion of the risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements made today. Please also note that on today's call, management may reference adjusted EBITDA, which is a non-GAAP financial measure. While we believe this non-GAAP financial measure provides useful information for investors, any reference to this information is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the financial information presented in accordance with GAAP. Please refer to today's press release for a reconciliation of adjusted EBITDA to its most comparable GAAP measure. And with that, I would now like to turn the call over to Ethan Brown.

Thank you, Paul, and good afternoon, everyone. I will begin my comments by briefly reviewing the five priorities we anchored our activities around in Q4 2023, and then turn to our five forward priorities for 2024. In both instances, these steps are intended to serve and accelerate our progress towards sustainable operations and return to growth. In Q4 2023, we executed across the following actions: One, we sought to accelerate our transition to a leaner operating structure. As part of these efforts, we established a minimum of $70 million in cuts from our operating budget for 2024. We recorded approximately $95.6 million in non-cash charges, primarily relating to inventory and assets now deemed to be in excess are no longer consistent with our path to profitability and continue to consolidate our production footprint. Two, in U.S. retail, we put the finishing touches on a multi-year renovation of certain core platforms, including Beyond Burger and Beyond Beef. We believe this renovation further positions the brand to overcome misinformation regarding the nutritional and health profile of our products while providing strong support for certain pricing actions. Three, we conducted extensive pricing analysis and, as discussed momentarily, are now preparing to implement pricing changes to support gross margin expansion. Four, throughout the quarter, we continued to use inventory management to free up working capital. Five, we maintained our investment focus in Europe and served our strategic customers in this important market for plant-based meats, including continued traction at McDonald's across countries such as Austria, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, UK, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia, and Switzerland. Turning to 2024, a pivotal year for Beyond Meat, we are pursuing the following five priorities, several of which simply represent a transition from 2023 planning to 2024 implementation. One, we are beginning 2024 by executing within a leaner…

Thank you, Ethan, and good afternoon, everyone. Before diving into the components of our fourth quarter P&L, let me provide some color more broadly on the significant non-cash charges you will have seen in our press release today. You'll recall we announced in November 2023 that we were initiating a review of our global operations spanning five areas: first, the potential exit of select product lines; second, changes to our pricing architecture within certain channels; third, accelerated cash accretive inventory reduction initiatives; fourth, further optimization of our manufacturing capacity and real estate footprint; and lastly, fifth, a review and potential restructuring of our operations in China. We recorded $67.5 million in non-cash charges in cost of goods sold this quarter in connection with our global operations review. These charges consisted of a few different items, including the provision for certain inventory now deemed to be excess or obsolete, given changes to our strategic priorities as well as more limited internal resources following our November 2023 reduction in force. We also recorded a significant charge representing accelerated depreciation expense on certain fixed assets determined to be non-core to our strategic priorities within the foreseeable horizon, but for which no recovery or sale value could be reasonably expected. Also, in connection with the global operations review, we recorded a non-cash write-off to cost of goods sold associated with a prepaid option to purchase certain raw material ingredients which we no longer expect to exercise. Within operating expenses, we recorded a non-cash charge of $17.6 million, reflecting the write-down to estimated fair value of certain production and R&D fixed assets, which we now intend to sell. Of note, $16.3 million of the non-cash items recorded in cost of goods sold and $3.6 million of the non-cash items recorded in operating expenses related to…

We will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Andrew Strelzik with BMO. Please go ahead.

Hi, thanks for taking my question. This is Daniel Gold on for Andrew.

Hi.

When will the Beyond IV be rolled out? And will that be a phased rollout? And is pricing going to be rolled out alongside it? And what's the magnitude of pricing you plan on taking? And kind of what channels and geographies does that plan for?

Thank you for the question. So, we're very excited to have the Beyond IV come out. It will be shipping next month and probably start to gain broader distribution April timeframe and into May, and that'll be in U.S. retail. On pricing, there are two kind of separate issues. The Beyond IV, as I mentioned in my remarks, was many years in the making, and we were able to get it out as we roll into the summer season this year. But it does coincide well with some pricing changes that we have to take. And so, they will be largely coincident, and certainly it helps that there's some premium ingredients in Beyond IV, and I think an enhanced value proposition in Beyond IV to help support that pricing. In terms of the magnitude, we should probably talk with retailers first before getting into the specific details on that. But the entire effort is really around making sure that we get back to very healthy margins. And we did a tremendous amount of work on this question around elasticity, worked with an external firm and looked across our portfolio at where we thought pricing had some headroom, or room, rather, for growth. And so, I think we've made the right decisions here and just look forward to rolling it out. But it is really part -- if I could just reiterate some of the things that I was saying on our introductory remarks. It's part of an entire effort to really reset the business after about 12 to 18 months of effort to reorient what we're doing from a much more growth at all costs focused operating model to one now that is highly focused on sustainability and profitability. And so, the pricing increase is just one of those things.…

That's very helpful. Thank you. Just one more for me. Can you speak to your confidence in the gross margin guide?

I'll give that to Lubi, but I think the two main features that I just referenced, one is the pricing change as well as this consolidation of our production network and the increased -- or continuing rather, COGS reductions that you see throughout the last 12 months. Those will, I think, help significantly and then also clearing out of some of the higher reserve levels we had. Lubi?

Yeah. Not a whole lot to add to that, but I think just generally in speaking to sort of our confidence level, we feel pretty good about it, right? So, we did say in the guidance that we provided that we expect gross margins to be higher in the back half relative to the first half, and that's related to some of the timing around some of these actions. Ethan already discussed the pricing. One thing that we have communicated on prior calls as well as that we are rolling back to some degree, right, the level of promotions that we've done. We really did some aggressive promotions in 2023 as a means of trying to draw more consumers into the category. We're taking a little bit of a different approach this year. The in-sourcing of finished goods production is something that I think should not be underestimated. As Ethan said, it really gives us an opportunity to sweat our assets more and benefit from the fixed cost absorption. As well as the fact that it helps us from a logistics cost perspective as well, right? You can imagine if you have eight or 10 different co-manufacturers in your network, you're transporting ingredients and work in process items to multiple locations, that starts to have a detrimental effect on your logistics costs. So, all of these things combined, I think, give us pretty good confidence that we should be able to achieve the margin targets that we're seeking.

The next question is from Adam Samuelson with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Yes, thank you. Good afternoon, everyone.

Good afternoon.

Hey, there.

Hi. So, I just want to, Lubi, Ethan, I want to just make sure I'm thinking about 2024 outlook pieces correctly. Given the revenue outlook you've given, given the gross margin outlook for mid- to high-teens, the operating expenses, and there's some D&A and stock comps, so it's not all cash, but there's also the CapEx. It would still look like the cash burn based on the gross margin less the OpEx, less the CapEx, add back some D&A and stock comp, you would still have a cash burn from operations in 2024 of $100 million-plus. And am I missing something in terms of the non-cash expenses in there? Because I'm just trying to think about that level of cash burn in 2024 relative to an ending cash balance in '23 of, I think, $205 million, arguably kind of expecting to burn half or more of your cash balance in '24 before further liquidity actions.

Yeah, I can -- I'll answer that at a high level, then hand it over to Lubi. I do think we should probably after the call work through this with you on some of the puts and takes. We're pretty comfortable that it's going to come in at a reasonable number and lower than $100 million, certainly at the midpoint, but Lubi can give guidance on that.

Yeah. So, Adam, I'm not sure what assumptions you're baking in there in terms of some of the non-cash add-backs. But I think the number that you sort of referenced there, roughly $100 million, I think if you just looked at some of the big non-cash items, the depreciation and stock comp from last year and factor that in and then just take our guidance, that would put us sort of right at the range that you're talking about. Obviously, we expect to do better in certain areas. The other thing that's not baked into those numbers, right, we did -- part of the reason why we have these significant non-cash charges is we're writing down certain fixed assets, right, to estimated fair value so that we can sell them and start to monetize some of those assets, doing the same thing on the inventory side. And so that should provide some benefit to cash as well. We did talk about that we're looking to bolster our liquidity. So, look, we're doing everything that we need to do to fix sort of the fundamentals of the business so that we are fundamentally a lower cash consumption business, right, with a longer term goal, obviously, of getting to sustained free cash flow positive, but we're being responsible as well. And this is why one of our objectives for 2024 is to bolster the balance sheet. But like I said, there's other puts and takes that just our guidance alone on its face would not necessarily consider, but we think we'll provide a little bit of upside relative to the number that you are estimating.

Okay. All right. That's helpful. Let me take that offline. If I could ask a follow-up just on the outlook for revenues, which you have down 8% to roughly flat year-over-year for 2024. What are volumes assumed in that at this juncture? I'm just trying to get a sense of how much price elasticity you really think would come from the higher price increases -- the higher prices particularly in U.S. retail?

Yeah. So, we don't necessarily guide to volume, right? So, we gave you the revenue dollar projection. But what I can say is we looked at price elasticities very deeply as part of this exercise and we're looking at our pricing and it is going to vary by channel and region, et cetera. But we believe and we feel pretty confident, right, that in some of the areas where we are looking to take pricing, that the elasticity -- the changes in price will offset or more than offset the anticipated loss of volume as a result of the price increase. And so, I don't want to get too specific on volume numbers, but generally speaking, right, we would expect the elasticity to be less than 1.

Okay. So, just to be clear there, if you're still having revenue dollars down but the price increases offsetting the volume declines, is the revenue declines -- the dollar declines a function of exiting product lines or regions or what then would be driving -- what would be underpinning the revenue dollar decline expectation?

Yeah. So, some of it like -- so there is some exit of product lines. We talked about jerky as an example. The other thing is the reality is our U.S. retail business, right, continues to be challenged. And so, there is some assumption in there, which we hope will turn out to be conservative, but nonetheless, we've seen baseline velocity erosion in U.S. retail channel, and so we're trying to factor that in, particularly on the downside. So, those are sort of the key drivers, I guess, when you look at the lower end of the range.

I think that's right. The continued kind of vulnerability in U.S. retail is something that just as you do your models, as we do our models, right, we didn't want too rosy a picture around. I think the general notion here is that we're doing a massive product launch that's a, I think, transformative in terms of what we've done over the last eight years is probably the most important renovation we've done since the Beyond Burger. And then, we're also taking price. So, the two of those make it very hard to predict with a ton of certainty any type of growth. We just don't know. So, we wanted to come in with something that was reflected, kind of current information, and hope to change it and have a better outcome.

Okay. I appreciate all that color. I'll pass it on. Thank you.

The next question is from John Baumgartner with Mizuho. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon. Thanks for the question.

Sure. Hi, John.

Why don't we stick with the guidance for next year and specifically the OpEx. I mean the midpoint you're guiding to, it's about like a 25% drop from your recent sort of run rates. The global force reduction announced last quarter, I guess, explains a small part of it. But I'm trying to understand the rest of that decline, especially in the context of what, I guess, seems to be more reinvestment in marketing and brand building at this point.

So, I think I've said this before, but one of the things I like to say about marketing is that marketing is a lot easier when it's true. And what it really gets to is you've got to have a great product. And I think Edwin Land said it in an even more pointed way, which was "Marketing is what you do when your product is no good." And what we have to do, right, is reengage the consumer into this entire category with products that are really delivering value to them in a way that they understand. And so, for us, that's really about continuing to improve the taste, which I think we've done with Beyond IV, but also addressing this fundamental issue around health. As I said in my prepared remarks, we really do have a set of products that today can deliver fantastic health outcomes. I've seen it in my own life, in my family's, I've seen it in studies we've done with Stanford, which I won't belabor today, and others. But what we wanted to do was take it another level, and we wanted to continue this march toward that perfect build. And I think we've taken a really big step here. It is not just an iteration, it's something that's more transformative than that. And so, to be able to have these products where you're enjoying the satiating experience of having a burger or having a bolognese or whatever you decide to do with it, and yet having an oil that, for example, many in the nutrition community and medical community would characterize as "heart healthy" is something that is new and it's something that changes the dynamic of the decision. This went from 5 grams to 2 grams of saturated fat. And it's not…

Okay. And then...

No, I think you covered it.

Okay. Then, as a follow-up on the gross margin guidance for 2024, the improvement there, how much does that rest on the price increases? I mean, I guess it sounds as though you're not building in much operating leverage from new volume growth. The Coleman consolidation, I think, has been accruing sort of quietly all along. And then, with the China anti-dumping duties in the pea protein, I imagine input costs can't be all that beneficial this year. So, it feels like the gross margin expansion in the guide, a fair amount of it just boils down to the price increases. Is that right? I guess, can you walk through the relative contribution and magnitude there for the drivers?

So, I think you hear me talk a lot about how proud I am of the research development team here. And I often spend more time on it than I do on the operations team. And one of the things that I have felt hasn't been fair -- not fair, but just has been unfortunate is that they're doing a really good job driving our fundamental cost structure down, right? Whether it's our facilities in Pennsylvania or Missouri, I mean, these are great operators that are really driving efficiency. And every quarter we have something that comes up, whether it's we're dislocating from one co-packer and there's some fees or some high reserves coming in from legacy products or partnerships that have kind of disrupted that, right, and have not allowed them to shine publicly, although I see what they're doing. And so, as we steady and kind of bring in the production network, I think some of those savings that we're achieving in our facilities will start to come through a little bit better. And an example of that is just the as we're taking production out of external networks and into internal, the utilization rates in our facilities are significantly improving over absorption, significantly improving. So, these are things that I think even though we're going to be using, for example, in Beyond IV some more premium ingredients, they kind of are offset and then even driven down somewhat over time by the internalization of the production and the continued production and overall cost. So, for the guys who are listening, the gals who are listening, appreciate it. And if you guys get to keep it up, we're finally going to be able to show it.

Yeah. I would just add, I think it's fair to say that the price increases are a significant factor that play into the gross margin expansion that we're targeting for next year. But it's not just that. As Ethan mentioned, right, there's a lot of stuff that's been going on just across the production, our operations, organization, et cetera. The other thing in addition to just price increases, we talked about pulling back on trade. So, the combined impact of those two things, right, actually has a pretty potentially meaningful impact on overall net revenue per pound. And then, you mentioned the internalization, right, the increased insourcing of our finished good production, and you mentioned that some of that has pretty much been accruing already. I think that's true, but there still was a lot of noise in our cost of goods in 2023. Even as we were internalizing, we're still dealing with things like underutilization fees and things like that. And I think that type of stuff should be significantly reduced in 2024. And so, now I think we are in a position where we start to benefit in a much more meaningful way from bringing a lot of those production volumes in-house. And then, I mentioned a little bit earlier that there should be benefits as well from just a more streamlined network overall from in terms of logistics costs. When you look at some of these initiatives that we're targeting now to reduce overall inventory balances, that benefits warehousing costs and things like that. Even the reclassification of some of these fixed assets to held for sale, right, will have a beneficial impact from a depreciation perspective, right? And so, you combine all of these things together and that makes us feel pretty optimistic about where gross margins can go this year.

Okay. Thanks, Lubi. Thank you, Ethan.

Sure.

The next question is from Robert Moskow with TD Cowen. Please go ahead.

Hi. Thanks for the question. Ethan and Lubi, it looks like the center of gravity is going to continue to shift to international markets for your business. Can you speak to the profit margin profile of operating internationally? How is it different from domestic? Can you operate at a respectable margin overseas, or are there complicating factors that make it more difficult than here?

Thanks, Robert. It's good to hear from you. So, when we think international, obviously, I've said a lot about Europe in the past, and in some sense, that's becoming kind of its own operation over there. So, it's not necessarily like we're shipping things from here or anything of that nature. They're driving a lot of the same cost reduction. We have a terrific partner there who does some of our production, and is really a true partner to us, as well as a very good general manager there and team. So, I think I don't foresee that being particularly challenged from the cost perspective now. We're still pretty nascent there. And so, we do have to continue to adjust downward the cost structure but that's possible and it's something that we'll continue to focus on because some of our retail pricing, for example, is just too high for those markets, and so we need to continue to adjust it. But that comes with time and further localization of our network, which is doable. We just need to have time to do it. And then, on the kind of food service side, we're continuing to drive cost out of those products and improve margin. And I think you'll start to see that come through in '24. But, Lubi?

Yeah. Not a lot I would add to that, Rob. But I think fundamentally, if you look at our international business relative to U.S., it does skew more towards food service. And we've built a pretty meaningful business now with some of the large QSR customers in international. And so, as you can imagine, the margin profile for that business would look somewhat different from then on the retail side. But I guess the short answer to your question about, do we have respectable margins in an international, I would say yes, right? But as Ethan mentioned, there's still a number of things and initiatives that we're pursuing to bring about even further improvement in margins in international business.

And it is striking to see -- and it's not directly responsive, but just using this opportunity. It is striking to see the difference there in terms of uptake of the category of products. The thing I mentioned in my prepared remarks is significant. Within a several block radius in London, you're going to McDonald's, getting Beyond Burger, you're going to Starbucks, getting a Beyond Sausage, Pizza Hut, and getting Beyond Pepperoni. And it's -- these trends tend to be stronger in Europe and then come over here, and that's certainly our hope that we'll get through the politicalization of these protein choices here in the U.S. and just get back to, hey, let's do something that's good for our health, good for the environment.

Well, Ethan, I'm very impressed that you're going to McDonald's and Burger King in London when you visit there. So, keep up the good fight.

Thank you.

But you also mentioned that pricing is too high for some of your products in the market? I think you've said that before. Can you be more specific as to why that is? Is it more commoditized, the category in Europe? Or how do I think about that?

Yeah. No, I'll let Lubi give the details on it. But it's -- I was talking about retail, and it just -- we're still -- think about Beyond Meat's 2009 here in the United States, like we're still kind of getting going there in terms of the overall production process and things of that nature, but clearly further along than we were at that point. But Lubi can give some detail.

Yeah. Rob, I think one of the differences when you look at the retail landscape in the EU versus the U.S. is they have a much larger private label presence, right? And so, I think the penetration of private label in the EU is about double here in the U.S. And so, there is a much broader, I guess, portfolio of items that compete in our category at a much lower price. And the consumer in the EU does seem to be a little bit more predisposed towards private label than maybe the average U.S. consumer. We, two years ago, took some steps to close the price gap of our products relative to the broader competitive set in the EU, but certainly certain product categories where we still remain at a pretty healthy premium. And I think over time, the goal would still be to try to compress that gap somewhat, not necessarily -- I don't know that there's a need to come down to the level of private label in the region, for example, but there are areas where we think that the price gap is still wider than where it needs to be, but that's something that will occur over time. I don't think it's something that we're immediately looking to address. And so, that's just some general fundamental differences, I think, between the trade in the EU versus the U.S.

Okay. Thank you.

Thanks, Rob.

Sure, thanks, Rob.

The next question is from Alexia Howard with Bernstein. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good evening, everyone.

Hey, Alexia.

So, can we just get back to the dynamic in the U.S. and how do you go about re-recruiting lapsed consumers? If people were somehow disappointed in previous products, what compels them back into this, especially if the price gaps to animal meat products are expanding because of the price increases you're planning to take? And then, specifically, I guess, linked to that, is marketing spend expected to be up or down in 2024?

I think on the question of bringing people back into the category, the biggest deterrent has been this health question, right? And you've heard me talk about it before, that there's a -- it's not without impetus and support from the incumbent industry. And that needs to really be looked at as well. I mean, it's not just the animal protein players and their lobbyists, but it's actually the pharmaceutical -- members of the pharmaceutical industry, which I find to be kind of disturbing actually. And so, we had to write the message, and we could do that by yelling from the rooftop about the benefits of our existing products, or we can just try to make them even more healthier and unassailable at some point. So that's what we've done, I think, with Beyond IV. We'll continue to do it. You can expect future iterations to continue to drive improvements. And then, it's just linking up with associations and national institutions that really can validate what we're talking about. And they help develop these products. That's the fascinating part about this work is that we didn't just do this in a conference room on our own. We were out in the community talking to doctors and nutritionists in each of these institutions. Our Head of Communications did an amazing job pulling together an ecosystem of doctors and nutritionists and different national health organizations, as well as universities, and we listened. And we worked very closely with them. And I can go back to individual conversations with individual doctors that relate to specific inputs that we used. And so, I do think that there's an opportunity here for a more organic style of marketing that relies on the power of social media, that relies on the fundamental truth of the…

And when will it be out on the shelf? Is it a national launch in the first half of the year?

Well, if that's a personal question I can send you some.

Okay, kind of. I don't know if it really is that big of a leap forward. And just coming back to the marketing spend, is that going to be up or down this year overall? Just -- and then, I'll pass it on.

Lubi?

Yeah. Alexia, we do expect, in aggregate, our marketing spend to be down. As you can imagine, if you look at our guidance, our OpEx guidance, and what that implies in terms of a year-over-year decline, we are taking pretty broad cuts across the organization. But I think when you start to dig down into specific areas of the business, specific departments, what really matters is how that spend is going to be directed. So, Ethan touched on this, but it's really the mix of the marketing spend and really taking a targeted approach, being very deliberate about where we want to spend those marketing dollars. And so, in aggregate, yes, it will be lower, but...

Just one comment on pricing. You're right that in certain areas, there will be more of a delta between animal protein and ourselves, but in others there will not be. And so, this is not a kind of crude application of a price increase. We have some very important partnerships and relationships where getting on the product line, there won't be much change. And so, including in retail, you'll see some products where there's really not that much change. But in the aggregate, based on the elasticity studies we did, we'll get a nice bump in terms of margin while still offering the consumer value for those that want it.

Great. Thank you very much. I'll pass it on.

Sure.

The next question is from Peter Saleh with BTIG. Please go ahead.

Great. Thanks for taking the question. It sounds like you guys have done a lot of work on pricing and the level of pricing. It sounds like it's a pretty meaningful change in your strategy. So, I'm just curious, is this -- are you thinking about this as a one-time price hike to kind of get you in order here? Or is this just a real meaningful change in strategy where you're thinking this will be a hike this year or maybe two hikes this year and more price hikes as we go forward? Just trying to understand how this strategy is really evolving on pricing. And then, can you just elaborate a little bit on your tiered pricing comments? Is this tiered by distribution channel, by product? Are some prices coming down, or are all prices going up? Just trying to understand those comments. Thanks.

Sure. I don't think it's a change in the long-term strategy. I mean, if you think about, and this is something that I find enormously fascinating, but won't dive into too much here, but just the incredible efficiency you have when you take a set of amino acids from plants versus waiting for the animal to process and develop them, bacteria and turn nitrogen into protein, all that stuff, it's just more efficient. And so, there will be a day when this dramatically underprices animal protein, but that's not today. We did achieve price parity with certain products in certain markets recently. But in my view, that was not certainly a global statement at all in terms of the products. We still have a big delta for most of our products. But I will say that the pricing measures we took, I don't know they made that much difference. I think there was so much noise in the category, so much noise about the category, so much agitation outside the category with people saying negative things about the category, scaring consumers away, that pricing just wasn't that as effective a tool. And my view is that we probably ended up selling a lot of our products to the same consumer at a reduced price. So, we learned that and moved away from it. But I do think there's a real opportunity to continue to offer outstanding innovation year after year that does have a more premium price on it while you continue to offer some of the rest of your portfolio at lower pricing. And so, I do think you'll see that from us. And so, when we talk about tiered, part of that is that type of dynamic. I think the other is with particular customers and channels. If you think about very large strategic customers that are selling, let's say, billions of burgers a day, that type of customer price sensitivity is so important. And so, we will continue to drive those type of products to parity as quickly as we can. I hope that helps.

Yeah, I know that's very helpful. And then just lastly on my end, given all the changes you guys are making, do you expect this to have a material impact on the number of doors that you're in in 2024?

Yeah, I think it's too early to tell. I meant to say it's billions served, not per day. I think it's just too early to tell.

Yeah. I mean, Peter, the one thing that I'd call out in terms of distribution outlets is we said we are discontinuing the jerky product. And as you know, there was a pretty significant distribution presence related to that product. It got us into certain channels like convenience, for example, where you look at the rest of our portfolio, doesn't really play there. And so, certainly on the U.S. retail side, if you include, right, the impact of jerky, those numbers should come down. But apart from that, I think we're pretty well distributed across U.S. retail, so I wouldn't expect too much movement in those numbers. I think we would expect over time to continue to grow our presence across U.S. food service. And then, it still feels like pretty early days for us in international quite honestly. And so, I think there's room for further distribution expansion in international markets, in the EU and other areas and even same on the international food service side.

Great. Thank you very much.

Sure.

The next question is from Ben Theurer with Barclays. Please go ahead.

Yeah, thank you very much. And I'll keep it short. So, thanks for squeezing me in. To follow up a little bit on some of the dynamics in food service, and kind of the success international versus the declining trends in the U.S., and also wanted to bring this back to some of the partnerships over the years you've flowed out with Yum! Brands, with McDonald's and so on. I know Ethan, you talk a lot about the McDonald's case over in the UK. But what are you seeing, particularly with those food service players in the U.S. as it relates to your products and the rollout of those? Any color you can share on that, that would be much appreciated.

Yeah. Thank you very much for the question. It's a fair one. As I've done in the past, I really need to let those partners comment on their view on the category versus we're just a supplier to them. So, I want to be careful on that front. I think that they look to the type of success we're having in Europe and then make decisions based on what they're going to bring here. But I will say the climate here has been so -- we're politicized earlier, and clouded with this misinformation and things of that nature that we really have to straighten that out first. Get the right information out there, make sure the consumer understands the value proposition, and I think the rest will follow from there. I mean, if I could, just on this before that we're rolling out, what we're trying to do here is create a question in the consumers' mind as to why wouldn't you do this, right? And of course, if it's too pricey, that's an answer, but we don't think it'll be prohibitive in its pricing. And health benefits are so clearly there, the support from the medical and nutrition community is there, and the taste is there. So -- and obviously environmental benefits. And I will answer your question, but the ability to solve the main issue that people are in their hands about with climate through a change in how we get protein to the center of the plate is absolutely phenomenal. And if you talk to people who study these issues, whether it's the gentleman at Yale that's in the video we did for Beyond IV, or folks at NYU, Matthew Hayek is one of them, who studied this. The use of land and biomass to bring carbon…

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

Great, thank you. I would encourage folks to visit and put it in the press release with the video that we put together around Beyond IV, again, to get a sense of the health benefits and to get a sense of the global environmental benefits. Both of them are very strong. I think both will bring the consumer back to this discussion. And tasting is believing, we're try-and-buy-type brand. And as folks taste this new iteration, I think they'll be quite pleased with it. So, we're cautious in our optimism. We've obviously had some tough years, but by making these changes and creating the sustainable baseline for which we can grow, we're going to create some room for ourselves to execute and get back on track for growth. Thanks, everybody.

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