Item 1. Business
Item 1. Business.
Overview
The Simply Good Foods Company is a consumer packaged food and beverage company that aims to lead the nutritious snacking movement with trusted brands that offer a variety of convenient, innovative, great-tasting, better-for-you snacks and meal replacements, and other product offerings. The product portfolio we develop, market and sell consists primarily of protein bars, ready-to-drink (“RTD”) shakes, sweet and salty snacks and confectionery products marketed under the Atkins®, Atkins Endulge®, Quest® and Quest Hero TM brand names. Simply Good Foods is poised to expand its wellness platform through innovation and organic growth along with acquisition opportunities in the nutritional snacking space.
The Company’s nutritious snacking platform consists of brands that specialize in providing products for consumers that follow certain nutritional philosophies and health-and-wellness trends: Atkins for those following a low-carb lifestyle or seeking to lose weight and Quest for consumers seeking a variety of protein-rich foods and beverages that also limit sugars and simple carbs. We distribute our products in major retail channels, primarily in North America, including grocery, club, and mass merchandise, as well as through e-commerce, convenience, specialty, and other channels. Our portfolio of nutritious snacking brands gives us a strong platform with which to introduce new products, expand distribution, and attract new consumers to our products.
We believe snacking occasions have been on the rise in recent years as consumers continue to desire more convenient, healthy and delicious foods, snacks, and meal replacements. We believe our emphasis on product formats such as our protein bars, cookies, chips and salty snacks, and RTD shakes positions us to fill important needs for consumers. We believe a number of existing and emerging consumer trends within the U.S. food and beverage industry will continue to both drive the growth of the nutritional snacking category and increase the demand for our product offerings. Some of these trends include increased consumption of smaller, more frequent meals throughout the day, consumers’ strong preference for convenient, “better-for-you” snacks, consumers’ greater focus on health and wellness, consumers’ movement toward limiting carbohydrate and sugar consumption, and the trend of consumers seeking to add convenient sources of protein and fiber to their diets.
With our Atkins brand, we strive to offer a compelling line of protein bars, RTD shakes, cookies, protein chips and salty snacks, and confections, and with our Quest brand, we strive to offer an attractive line up of protein bars, cookies, protein chips and salty snacks, RTD shakes, and confections, which target these existing and emerging consumer trends. Our sales, marketing, and research and development capabilities enable us to distribute products to a national customer base across a spectrum of retail channels, including the mass merchandise, grocery, drug, club stores, e-commerce, and small format retail such as convenience stores and gas stations.
Simply Good Foods was formed in Delaware on March 30, 2017, to consummate the Business Combination, which occurred on July 7, 2017. As part of our strategy to become an industry leading snacking platform, in November 2019, we acquired Quest Nutrition, LLC.
In addition to pursuing attractive run-rate cost synergies over time by leveraging efficiencies of scale with our legacy Atkins business, we completed the Quest Acquisition with the goal of realizing several other potential benefits. Quest’s products compete in many attractive, fast growing sub-segments within the nutritional snacking category. In addition, Quest’s research and development insights and capabilities have benefited our broader business. Quest has an extremely loyal following and strong appeal among consumers ages 18-35, which complements Atkins’ strength among consumers ages 35+. The Quest Acquisition also allowed us to benefit from Quest’s existing relationships and effectiveness within certain channels of trade, such as e-commerce and the small format channel, and leverage Quest’s social media-based marketing capabilities. Since completion of the Quest Acquisition, we have benefited from utilizing certain of Quest’s systems, such as its enterprise resource planning platform, and associated reporting tools.
Our principal executive offices are located at 1225 17 th Street, Suite 1000, Denver, Colorado, 80202. Our telephone number is (303) 633-2840. We maintain a web site at www.thesimplygoodfoodscompany.com .
Business Trends in Fiscal Year 2022
Throughout fiscal year 2022, our business continued to improve from the end of fiscal year 2021, driven in part by the increasing normalization of consumer mobility and shopper traffic patterns in brick-and-mortar retailers versus prior periods that were more severely pressured by COVID-19 mitigation strategies, including movement restrictions and closures of or reduced access to customer establishments. We expect our business performance during fiscal year 2023 will continue to be affected by the dynamic macroeconomic inflationary environment in the United States and elsewhere, elevated levels of supply chain cost inflation, and the level of consumer mobility, which includes the rate at which consumers return to working outside the home.
6
Overall consumer spending, particularly in the United States, continued to recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in well documented industry-wide supply chain disruptions across the United States and globally during fiscal year 2022. As a result, we experienced corresponding unfavorable effects of higher raw material costs, higher freight and logistics costs, and supply chain challenges, including supply chain disruptions resulting from labor shortages and disruptions in ingredients. We expect to continue to see these cost pressures and supply chain challenges persist into fiscal year 2023. We have also continued to see contract manufacturer and logistics challenges, largely related to availability of labor, which we believe along with the ingredient shortages discussed above have contributed to lower retail and e-commerce sales of our products due to periodic out-of-stock situations, delayed recognition of sales and higher than historical inventory levels at times.
The improvement in consumer mobility and shopper traffic patterns experienced during fiscal year 2022 has been variable, and there continues to be uncertainty related to the sustainability and longevity of these trends. The ultimate effect COVID-19, supply chain challenges, cost pressures discussed above, and the overall effects of the current high inflation environment on consumer purchasing patterns could have on our business continues to be not fully known. Additionally, management is continuing to monitor the conflict in Ukraine, especially regarding the availability and cost of raw materials that are produced in this region and Europe in general. Management is also monitoring for signs of any expansion of economic or supply chain disruptions or broader supply chain inflationary costs resulting either directly or indirectly from the crisis in Eastern Europe.
Our Strengths
Powerful brands with strong consumer awareness and loyalty . We are a leader in the fast growing nutritional snacking category, and both the Atkins and Quest brands are leading brands with combined scale in protein bars, protein chips, confections, cookies, and RTD shakes. Our highly focused snacking portfolio provides us with a leading position within retailers’ nutrition and wellness aisles, resulting in meaningful shelf space. Our brands are able to appeal to both consumers interested in an active lifestyle who are seeking protein-rich, low-carb snacking options as well as weight management program consumers, which makes our brands highly attractive and strategic for a diverse set of retailers across various distribution channels.
Aligned with consumer mega trends. Increasing global concern about growing rates of obesity and weight-related diseases and other health issues has resulted in increased scientific, media and consumer focus on nutrition. Over 100 independent, peer reviewed, clinical studies show the benefits of controlling carbohydrates. Management believes this focus is prompting consumers to rebalance their nutritional breakdown away from carbohydrates. Our brand attributes, “low-carb,” “low-sugar” and “protein-rich” nutrition, are well aligned with consumer mega trends. In addition, we believe consumers’ eating habits are gradually shifting towards increased convenience, snacking and meal replacement. We also believe our portfolio of convenient and nutritious products and our ongoing effort to meet consumer demands for convenient options to support their individual health, nutrition and lifestyle goals.
Scalable snacking and food platform. We have been able to grow our product offerings for both of our nutritious snacking brands through our line extensions and through acquisitions. Our in-house product development experience, combined with our outsourced manufacturing model, allow us to bring new products to market quickly. We pride ourselves on knowing our consumers and gleaning insights that lead to new products and ideas. We believe we can leverage our strong relationships with our retail customers and distributors, a strong brand building track record, and category management expertise to help new products, brands and brand extensions gain distribution and consumer recognition, allowing us to continue to successfully expand our snacking platform.
Asset-light business with strong cash generation . We retain core in-house capabilities including sales, marketing, brand management, customer relationships, product development, and supply-chain expertise, while collaborating with a diversified pool of contract manufacturers and distributors to execute manufacturing and distribution. Outsourcing these competencies allows us to focus our efforts on innovation, marketing, and sales to meet consumer demands. Our lean infrastructure allows for significant flexibility, speed-to-market, and minimal capital investment, which translates into relatively consistent and robust free cash flow generation over time, driven by strong gross margins.
Experienced leadership team . Simply Good Foods has an experienced team of industry veterans with extensive experience across multiple branded consumer products, food and nutrition categories. Our management team’s extensive experience is complemented by the significant industry expertise of our directors, including James Kilts, the former Chief Executive Officer of The Gillette Company and Nabisco, and former President of Kraft USA and Oscar Mayer, and David West, the former Chief Executive Officer of Big Heart Pet Brands and The Hershey Company. Our management team’s deep expertise and proven record of accomplishment in managing brands and operating packaged food businesses is a key driver of our success and positions Simply Good Foods as an attractive vehicle for future long-term growth within the nutritional snacking space.
7
Our Strategies
Leverage platform to expand in attractive food and snacking categories . Management believes the fragmented snacking category presents an opportunity for consolidation and the opportunity to build, through disciplined acquisitions, a leading platform in the nutritional snacking space. As a leader in nutritious snacking, we believe we have the unique capability to leverage our operating platform, product innovation expertise and customer relationships to expand beyond the Atkins and Quest brands. In addition, we believe the nutritious snacking category will continue to grow given its relatively low household penetration and favorable consumer trends of snacking, health and wellness, convenience, and on-the-go consumption. Our experienced management team has deep expertise in brand building that we believe will help us to expand the business into additional brands and products in the snacking segment. Over time, we expect to continue seeking to identify and evaluate acquisition opportunities to complement our platform, and we see significant opportunity for growth and synergies in complementary adjacent snacking categories such as the “better-for-you” eating space.
Innovate and expand the portfolio of product offerings to meet consumer demand for higher protein products and new product forms. We intend to continue to enhance, strengthen and expand our product offerings with new and innovative flavors and forms and packaging alternatives, all while maintaining a commitment to delivering products that meet our nutritional profile and provide the convenience that consumers crave. Our in-house research and development laboratories allow us to develop new products internally and bring them to market quickly through our contract manufacturing network without diverging from high standards of taste, nutritional content, quality, and safety. Additionally, we intend to satisfy developing and changing consumer preferences through the pursuit of merger and acquisition transactions.
Expand distribution in white space opportunities. In the fifty-two weeks ended August 27, 2022, approximately 88% of Atkins’ gross sales in the U.S. and approximately 75% of Quest’s gross sales in the U.S. were through the mass retailer, grocery and convenience store distribution channels. Our management believes there is opportunity for the brands to further penetrate those channels as well as other distribution channels such as convenience and club stores. In addition, while shoppers have increased e-commerce purchases generally, approximately 12% of Atkins’ gross sales for the fifty-two weeks ended August 27, 2022, were through its e-commerce channel and approximately 21% of Quest’s gross sales for the same period were through its e-commerce channel. We intend to leverage our brand recognition to develop further the distribution channels through which we reach consumers, including through the continued expansion of the e-commerce channel.
Continue our marketing efforts to increase household penetration. We intend to expand our marketing efforts to bring first-time buyers into the Atkins and Quest brand franchises. Consumers who have tried our Atkins and Quest products have a relatively high repeat buying rate and long-term buying behavior, as evidenced by servings per buyer, per year. For our Atkins brand, our historic consumer base has been people interested in weight loss, and for the Quest brand it has been individuals pursuing a performance-based active and athletic lifestyle.
For both the Atkins and the Quest brands, we have an active and growing digital and social presence, using a comprehensive approach of search, banner, and search engine optimization efforts. We are a leader in social media, with a top-tier presence on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and YouTube. We also have a growing network of social influencers and content creators, who promote our products in their targeted social media posts. We believe that social media is a cost-effective way of continuing to attract and retain our consumers. We believe that our ongoing efforts to educate consumers about the benefits of a lower carbohydrate lifestyle will further reinforce our brands. For our Atkins brand, we use targeted broadcast and streaming television and print ads with a celebrity-based campaign that attempts to motivate potential programmatic weight loss consumers to try the Atkins approach to healthier eating and weight loss as these Atkins consumers are our most loyal, profitable and frequent purchasers. For our Quest brand, we launched a national, targeted broadcast ad campaign, and continue to leverage targeted streaming television ads and an extensive network of social media influencers and content creators who prompt our Quest brand products through their online posts to motivate new buyers and new product introductions.
Further develop our brand marketing strategies to reach consumers beyond our core historic buyers. We intend to continue to make focused changes to our approach to consumer outreach to attract consumers beyond our historic core buyers. For the Atkins brand, we intend to continue our marketing efforts to attract self-directed low-carbohydrate and health motivated eaters (those individuals not on a program diet) who buy and consume our Atkins products. For our Quest brand, we intend to continue our marketing efforts to reach consumers who are seeking products that are aligned with their choice to pursue a healthy and active lifestyle. We also note the Atkins brand has approximately 91% aided brand awareness with U.S. consumers and the Quest brand has approximately 68% aided brand awareness with U.S. consumers.
Our Vision and Mission
Our vision is to lead the nutritional snacking movement with trusted brands that offer a variety of convenient, innovative, great-tasting, better-for-you snacks and meal replacements and other product offerings. Our mission is to empower healthy lives through smart and satisfying nutrition.
8
Our Products
Core Atkins Products
Our core Atkins brand products consist of protein bars, RTD shakes, confections, cookies, and chips.
Protein Bars. To keep on-the-go consumers energized and fueled, our Atkins bars offer a convenient and effective solution, providing consumers with protein, fiber and a delicious taste. Atkins offers two main types of bars: Atkins Meal Bars and Atkins Snack Bars. Atkins Meal Bars contain 13 to 17 grams of protein and are available in more than 10 different flavors. Atkins Snack Bars contain 7 to 13 grams of protein, with 2 to 4 grams of net carbs, and are available in 15 different varieties.
RTD Shakes. Our rich and creamy Atkins RTD shakes contain 10 to 15 grams of protein, as well as other important vitamins and minerals. Available in a variety of flavors, including cookies and crème, café caramel and creamy chocolate, Atkins’ RTD shakes are made with high quality ingredients and are designed to provide energy balance through the day. Our Atkins’ Plus RTD shakes contain 30 grams of protein, for our consumers seeking higher protein content.
Confections. Our Atkins Endulge ® line, which is designed to satisfy consumers’ sweet cravings, and which we call Treats, consists of delicious desserts without all of the added sugar. Atkins offers a variety of different Treats, such as peanut butter cups and pecan caramel clusters, each with only 1 gram of sugar or less and low net carbs, providing consumers with the option to indulge.
Cookies. First launched in fiscal year 2021, Atkins’ soft and chewy cookie products are a convenient source of high-protein combined with low net carbs and low-sugar. These sweet tasting cookies are available in double chocolate chip, peanut butter and chocolate chip. Atkins’ cookies contain approximately 10 grams of protein, 3 grams of net carbs and approximately 1 gram of sugar or less depending on the flavor.
Chips. First launched during fiscal year 2022, Atkins’s protein chips offer an attractive nutrition profile when compared to conventional chip products. Offered in nacho cheese, ranch, and chipotle BBQ flavors, Atkins’s chips typically contain about 13 grams of protein, about 4 grams of net carbs, and around 7 grams of fat compared to 2 grams of protein, 15 grams of net carbs and 8 grams of fat for a well-known leading conventional brand.
Recipes. While provided free of charge, we also offer over 1,600 protein-rich, low-carbohydrate and low-sugar recipes designed to help consumers achieve and maintain a healthy lifestyle, while still enjoying delicious food.
Core Quest Products
Our core Quest brand products consist of protein bars, cookies, chips and confections.
Protein Bars. To keep on-the-go consumers energized and fueled, our Quest bars offer a convenient and effective solution, providing consumers with protein, fiber and a delicious taste. The typical Quest bar profile contains about 20 grams of protein, 5 grams or less of net carbs and about 1 gram of sugar. Quest offers more than 25 different flavors of protein bars.
Cookies . First launched in 2018, Quest’s cookie products are a convenient source of high-protein combined with low net carbs and low-sugar. Available in a variety of flavors including Chocolate Chip, Peanut Butter, Oatmeal Raisin and Snickerdoodle, Quest’s cookies typically contain about 15 grams of protein, 4 grams or less of net carbs and less than 1 gram of sugar.
Chips . Quest’s protein chips, including the tortilla-style chips launched in spring 2018, quickly became a high-selling product offering an attractive nutrition profile when compared to conventional chip products. Offered in flavors including nacho cheese, ranch, chili lime, BBQ, loaded taco and spicy sweet chili, Quest’s chips typically contain about 18 grams of protein, about 4 grams of net carbs, and around 6 grams of fat compared to 2 grams of protein, 15 grams of net carbs and 8 grams of fat for a well-known leading conventional brand.
Confections. Recently launched confections include full-size and mini peanut butter cups and “fudgey” brownie and “gooey” caramel candy bites sold in a variety of packaging. The full-size peanut butter cups feature a nutrition profile for two cups of 11 grams of protein, 1 gram of net carbs, less than 1 gram of sugar and 4 grams of fiber. The mini peanut butter cups feature a nutrition profile per serving of 8 grams of protein, 1 gram of net carbs, less than 1 gram of sugar and 3 grams of fiber. The candy bites feature a nutrition profile of 5 grams of protein, 1 gram of net carbs, less than 1 gram of sugar, and candy bars feature 4 grams of fiber to 12 grams of protein, 3 grams of net carbs, 1 gram of sugar and 9 grams of fiber.
9
Marketing, Advertising and Consumer Outreach
Our marketing efforts are designed to increase consumer awareness of and demand for our products. We employ a broad mix of marketing, including coupons, product sampling, consumer and trade events, advertising (television, online and print) and recipe and food plans, to target our consumers. We also use online resources, including social media sites, to communicate with consumers and build interest in our brands. Our advertising and use of online resources are aimed at increasing consumer preference and usage of our brands. Our trade promotions focus on obtaining retail feature and display support, achieving optimum retail product prices and securing retail shelf space. We use coupons (freestanding insert newspaper, store register, on-pack and online coupons) to help stimulate product trial and repeat purchases by providing consumers with economic incentives. The mix of these marketing activities varies between the Atkins and Quest brands.
As part of our advocacy on the advantages of a protein-rich, low-carbohydrate, and low-sugar dietary approach, we have devoted portions of our respective brand websites and social media to promote consumer education, engagement, and dialogue about the benefits of our nutritional approaches and how our products can fit within those approaches. Our sales and marketing team gathers information and feedback from consumers and retailers to enable us to better meet changing consumer needs. We also believe that an effective marketing tool is to share educational information through our brand websites to explain each brand’s approach to nutrition, teaching consumers how to make smarter food choices and the nutritional qualities of our products. We also provide access to consumer service representatives to answer questions and educate consumers on nutrition, new products and developments.
For both brands, in order to facilitate awareness and knowledge of the health benefits of a low-carbohydrate, low-sugar and protein-rich eating approach, we have established a variety of marketing and advertising strategies to connect with consumers, including digital marketing and social media platforms, television broadcast and streaming advertising as well as celebrity and social media influencer endorsements.
For both brands, we have built large consumer followings. Beyond the core historic consumers for each of our brands, we believe there is significant opportunity to increase household penetration for our products by expanding our marketing, product offerings and educational efforts to consumers who are focused more generally on long-term healthy living.
In the fifty-two weeks ended August 27, 2022, approximately 69% of Selling and marketing expenses were spent on advertising costs.
Product Innovation
A portion of our sales is driven by new products, and as a result, we believe innovation is, and will continue to be, an important component of our business. We take a deliberate approach to new product development, focusing on enhancing existing products, innovating flavor and form varieties, and expanding into adjacent snacking products. Our innovation model is designed to respond to competitive demands, with a primary focus on enhancing the quality and flavor of our products while simplifying composition and ingredients to meet consumer demands for unique nutrition options.
Our innovation strategy is based on ongoing research into consumers’ healthy lifestyle and nutritional needs. We pride ourselves on knowing our consumers and developing products that meet their needs. Providing variety in snacking options to our consumers is an important strategy in our product innovation. New flavors, textures and snacking formats are important to meeting consumer needs.
Management believes that an important component of meeting consumers’ nutritional needs is a focus on evolving current products and creating new products with cleaner and fewer ingredients. Accordingly, we are committed to continually finding new and innovative formulations to reduce the number of ingredients in our products, as well as using “better-for-you” ingredients like nuts, fiber and whey protein, while continually improving taste and quality.
We maintain an in-house research and development team as well as market research and consumer insight capabilities. Through our research and development labs in El Segundo, California and Broomfield, Colorado, we control our brands’ innovations and product formulations from the ground up. By developing new products, prototypes and adjacencies in-house, we facilitate our core competencies in product innovation, and enhance our speed to market.
In addition, as part of our innovation process, we collaborate with nationally recognized third-party flavor providers and product development firms for new product development and then conduct our own proprietary consumer research to identify and improve upon new product concepts. We plan to continue conducting extensive consumer research to develop successful new products including product flavor and concept testing, marketing and trend analysis, and consumer prototype testing.
Management also believes the fragmented snacking category presents an opportunity for consolidation and the opportunity to build, through disciplined acquisitions, a leading platform in the nutritional snacking space. As a leader in nutritious snacking,
10
management believes we have the unique capability to leverage our operating platform and customer relationships to expand beyond our current brands. Our experienced management team has deep expertise in brand building to expand the business into additional brands and products in the nutritional snacking segment. Simply Good Foods is actively seeking to identify and evaluate new acquisition opportunities to complement our existing portfolio, and sees significant opportunity for growth and synergies in complementary adjacent snacking categories such as sports/active and adult nutritional snacks, salty snacks and protein snacks, as well as in the “better-for-you” eating space.
Intellectual Property
We own numerous domestic and international trademarks and other proprietary rights that are important to our business. Depending upon the jurisdiction, trademarks are valid if they are used in the regular course of trade and/or their registrations are properly maintained. We believe the protection of our trademarks, copyrights, patents, domain names, trade dress and trade secrets are important to our success. We aggressively protect our intellectual property rights by relying on a combination of watch services and trademark, copyright, patent, trade dress and trade secret laws, and through the domain name dispute resolution system. We also own virtually all of the recipes and specifications for our products.
Competition
We compete primarily with nutritional snacking brands in large retail and e-commerce environments. The nutritional snacking industry is fragmented and highly competitive and includes a number of diverse competitors. Our identified branded competitors include, but are not limited to, CLIF Bar, KIND bars, Special K, Boost, Slimfast, Muscle Milk, ONE bar, Pure Protein, Premier Nutrition and think!. We believe that the principal competitive factors in the nutritional snacking and weight management industries are:
• brand awareness and loyalty among consumers;
• product ingredients;
• macronutrient profile of products;
• product claims;
• product taste;
• convenience of products;
• media spending;
• product variety, packaging and labeling; and
• access to retailer shelf space.
We believe that we currently compete effectively with respect to each of these factors. However, a number of companies in the nutritional snacking and weight management industry have greater financial resources, more comprehensive product lines, broader market presence, longer standing relationships with distributors and suppliers, longer operating histories, greater distribution capabilities, stronger brand recognition, and greater marketing resources than we have.
Supply Chain
We operate an asset-light business model. For the manufacture of our products, we subcontract with contract manufacturers, and as a result, our operations are highly flexible and require minimal capital expenditure. The supply chain for our international business also uses exclusively contract manufacturers.
U.S. Supply Chain . The majority of our products are shipped directly to one central warehouse, which is a leased warehouse managed by a third-party logistics provider. We also have a separate warehouse for a portion of our distribution needs. A substantial portion of our inventory is shipped directly to our retailers from this warehouse by the same third-party logistics provider. Most of our remaining customers pick-up their orders at our distribution centers and make their own arrangements for delivery to their fulfillment network. For certain customers, RTD shakes are shipped directly from the contract manufacturer to the customers’ locations. We believe our use of demand forecasting and vendor-managed inventory systems enables us to meet shipping demands, ensure timely delivery of orders and offer service levels to our customers.
Sourcing. The principal ingredients to manufacture our products include chocolate and other coatings, dairy, proteins, soy, and nuts. Our packaging consists of flexible film, cartons, tetra paper, and corrugate. All of our core ingredients are purchased according to rigorous standards to assure food quality and safety. These core ingredients are generally available in adequate quantities from several suppliers, and to date, most core ingredient supplies have largely not been affected by the supply chain challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic or recent geopolitical events. We competitively bid with major suppliers to source competitively priced, quality ingredients and packaging that meet our standards. For certain ingredients we establish direct purchasing agreements with suppliers, under which our contract manufacturers source ingredients to produce finished products. We also actively manage the cost of most of our packaging supplies, such as corrugate, film, and tetra caps and cartons. The cost of sourcing our ingredients and packaging has been affected by the
11
current elevated levels of supply chain cost inflation in the United States and elsewhere. For more information, see “ – Business Trends in Fiscal Year 2022 ,” above.
Manufacturing. We rely on contract manufacturers to manufacture our products. The contract manufacturers schedule and receive ingredient and packaging inventory according to parameters set in their contracts and forecasts we provide. As noted above, some ingredients and packaging are purchased by our contract manufacturers pursuant to framework contracts we have with the applicable suppliers. Our contract manufacturers are regularly audited by third parties and are required to follow rigorous food safety guidelines. We believe our contract manufacturers have capacity to meet our anticipated supply needs, although short-term high demand can cause disruptions. We monitor both near-term and long-term capacity as well as fulfillment rates and overall performance of our manufacturing partners and qualify alternate suppliers as needed. In general, we purchase finished products from our contract manufacturers, which includes all packaging and ingredients used, as well as an agreed-upon tolling charge for each item produced. These finished products are then shipped directly to our distribution centers, or shipped directly from the contract manufacturer to the customer.
U.S. Storage. We lease two distribution centers, both in Greenfield, Indiana, referred to collectively as the Distribution Centers, where we store finished goods. We utilize over 1.29 million square feet of floor space among our Distribution Centers.
Distribution. For the majority of our customers, our logistics provider distributes the finished goods via truckloads from our Distribution Centers, which first flow through regional terminals. At the terminals, our orders are consolidated with other companies’ products being shipped to the customer. The finished goods are then distributed to retailer distribution centers. The regular weekly shipments and consolidation have reduced our costs. For some products, we ship directly to customers from our contract manufacturer through a third-party logistics provider. In some instances, the customer will arrange to pick-up directly finished products from our Distribution Centers.
Retailers. We have a wide variety of customers across the mass, food, club, drug, and e-commerce channels. A substantial majority of our sales are generated from a limited number of retailers. Sales to our largest retailer, Walmart, represented approximately 31% of consolidated sales in fiscal year 2022, of which approximately 23% is through their mass retail channel and approximately 8% is through their Sam’s club and e-commerce channels. Sales to our next two largest retailers, Amazon and Target, represented approximately 13% and 10% of consolidated sales in fiscal year 2022, respectively. No other customer represents more than 10% of sales. For additional information, please see the risk factor “ We rely on sales to a limited number of retailers for a substantial majority of our net sales, and losing one or more such retailers may materially harm our business. In addition, we maintain “at will” contracts with these retailers, which do not require recurring or minimum purchase amounts of our products.”
E-Commerce . We aim to ensure that our consumers may access our brand in the way that best suits their lifestyles by offering online ordering of our products. We sell our products on Atkins.com , questnutrition.com, Amazon.com and e-commerce platforms of our brick-and-mortar customers, which all deliver our products directly to the location designated by the consumer.
Food Safety and Quality. Food safety and quality is a top priority, and we dedicate substantial resources to ensure that consumers receive safe, high quality food products. Our products are manufactured in facilities that have programs and controls in place regarding consistent quality and food safety. Product attributes such as taste, aroma, texture, and appearance are regularly monitored. Good Manufacturing Practices and comprehensive food safety programs are designed to produce a safe, wholesome product. Our suppliers are required to have equally robust processes in place and confirm their compliance with product specifications with Letters of Guaranty and Certificates of Analysis for shipments of core ingredients to be used in our products. Finally, random samples of finished goods are regularly sent to a third-party laboratory for testing. In addition, during fiscal year 2022, we obtained ISO 22000 certification for our U.S. operations.
International . Our products are also sold outside North America. Our top international sales are in Australia and New Zealand. For the fifty-two weeks ended August 27, 2022, international net sales represented approximately 2.9% of total net sales. Our international supply chain is run by a lean team solely focused on international operations. Similar to U.S. operations, international operations utilize contract manufacturers for products, and distributors for distribution and sales.
Information Technology
We rely heavily on information systems for management of our supply chain, inventory, payment of obligations, collection of cash, human capital management, financial tools and other business processes and procedures. Our ability to manage our business functions efficiently and effectively depends significantly on the reliability and capacity of these systems. We have instituted controls, including information technology governance controls that are intended to protect our computer systems and our information technology systems and networks. We also have business continuity plans that attempt to anticipate and mitigate failures. However, we cannot control or prevent every potential technology failure, adverse environmental event, third-party service interruption or cybersecurity risk.
12
We increasingly rely on cloud computing and other technologies that result in third parties holding significant amounts of customer, consumer or employee information on our behalf.
Except for limited information voluntarily submitted by users of our website, we typically do not collect or store consumer data or personal information. However, third-party providers, including our licensees, contract manufacturers, e-commerce contractors and third-party sellers may do so. The website operations of such third parties may be affected by reliance on other third-party hardware and software providers, technology changes, risks related to the failure of computer systems through which these website operations are conducted, telecommunications failures, data security breaches and similar disruptions.
Segments
During the fifty-two weeks ended August 27, 2022, we substantially completed our efforts to fully integrate our operations and organization structure after the Quest Acquisition. We aligned the nature of our production processes and the methods used to distribute products to customers for the Atkins® and Quest® brands. We also designed our organizational structure to support entity-wide business functions across brands, products, customers, and geographic regions. Additionally, our chief operating decision maker reviews operating results and forecasts at the consolidated level. As a result, we determined our operations are organized into one, consolidated operating segment and reportable segment.
Regulation and Compliance
Along with contract manufacturers, brokers, distributors, ingredients and packaging suppliers, Simply Good Foods is primarily subject to laws and regulations in the United States promulgated by federal, state and local government authorities. In the United States, the federal agencies governing the manufacture, distribution and advertising of products include, among others, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, in addition to similar state and local agencies. Under various statutes, these agencies prescribe the requirements and establish the standards for quality and safety and regulate marketing and advertising to consumers. In certain circumstances, these agencies must not only approve products, but also review the manufacturing processes and facilities used to produce these products before they can be marketed in the United States.
Simply Good Foods is subject to labor and employment laws, laws governing advertising, privacy laws, safety regulations and other laws, including consumer protection regulations that regulate retailers or govern the promotion and sale of merchandise. Our operations, and those of our contract manufacturers, distributors, and suppliers, also are subject to various laws and regulations relating to environmental protection and worker health and safety matters. We continue to monitor their development and our compliance.
Food-Related Regulations
As a manufacturer and distributor of food products, we are subject to several food-related regulations, including the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act and regulations promulgated thereunder by the FDA. This comprehensive regulatory framework governs the manufacture (including composition and ingredients), labeling, packaging and safety of food in the United States. The FDA:
• regulates manufacturing practices for foods through its current good manufacturing practices regulations;
• specifies the standards of identity for certain foods, including many of the products we sell; and
• prescribes the format and content of certain information required to appear on food product labels.
We are subject to the Food Safety Modernization Act, which, among other things, mandates that the FDA adopt preventative controls to be implemented by food facilities in order to minimize or prevent hazards to food safety. We are subject to numerous other federal, state and local regulations involving such matters as the licensing and registration of manufacturing facilities, enforcement by government health agencies of standards for our products, inspection of our facilities and regulation of our trade practices in connection with the sale of food products.
Environmental Regulations
We are subject to various state and federal environmental laws, regulations and directives, including the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act and the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act of 1980, as amended. Governments may in the future implement new laws, regulations and directives aimed to meet certain climate change goals and objectives which could affect our business operations as they relate to ingredient and packaging procurement.
13
We believe that we are in material compliance with existing environmental regulations applicable to our business. We do not expect the cost of our continued compliance with existing environmental regulations to have a material effect on our capital expenditures, earnings, cash flows or competitive position in the foreseeable future. In addition, any asset retirement obligations are not material.
Labeling Regulations
We are subject to various labeling requirements with respect to our products at the federal, state and local levels. At the federal level the FDA has authority to review product labeling, and the FTC may review labeling and advertising materials, including online and television advertisements, to determine if advertising materials are misleading. We are also subject to various state and local consumer protection laws. We believe we are in material compliance with all labeling laws and regulations applicable to our business.
Human Capital Resources
As of August 27, 2022, our workforce consisted of 260 employees globally who were largely based in an office or in research and development (“R&D”) lab locations. Of that total, approximately 95% of our employees were in the United States, and the rest were in Canada, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. 111 employees were engaged in marketing and sales, 81 were engaged in R&D, operations and quality, and 68 were engaged in administration. Of our United States employees, 20 employees were hourly and 227 were salaried. No employees were covered by a collective bargaining agreement.
Mission, Vision and Values. Our mission is to empower healthy lives through smart and satisfying nutrition. Our vision is to lead the nutritious snacking movement with trusted brands that offer a variety of convenient, innovative, great-tasting, better-for-you snacks and meal replacements. Our values, Act with Integrity, Lead with Innovation, Succeed through Interdependence, Be Empowered, and Bring Passion Every Day, are critical to our success in fulfilling our mission and vision.
Training & Development . Training and development is critical to our mission’s success, helps our employees grow their career, and is one way we attract, motivate and retain our employees. We regularly host “Be Empowered” sessions for employees, which are educational classes and networking opportunities that teach our nutrition philosophy and our different business functions. To develop effective and empowered leaders, we host regular trainings and informational sessions.
In our normal performance review cycle, which took place in early fiscal year 2022, 99% of our employees held career discussions with their managers to identify opportunities for development and career progression. Our accelerated mentorship program pairs junior talent with executive leadership, which is designed to broaden talent networks, increases exposure to cross-functional problem solving and builds leadership competencies and impact. Because of these career discussions, the accelerated mentorship program and the talent review process conducted by our senior leadership, during fiscal year 2022, we promoted 11% of our workforce and provided associated compensation increases.
Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (“DE&I”) . We recognize the importance of a diverse, equitable and inclusive culture for our employees and its effect on our ability to achieve our mission, so we have made commitments to track and improve our performance in each of these areas. Our Board of Directors created its Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability committee that has been tasked with, among other things, overseeing human capital resources and all our DE&I initiatives. These initiatives include the following, among others:
• We hired a third-party DE&I consultant to survey our employees and provide guidance and best practice inputs to our management and the Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability Committee, as we continue to make progress on our DE&I efforts.
• During fiscal year 2022, we established a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Council consisting of mid-level and senior leaders so our DE&I efforts are informed and led by a cross section of our leaders. Its mission is to foster a positive, open, and trusted culture of belonging where every person feels empowered to bring their unique selves to the workplace resulting in a competitive advantage through thought-leadership and talent growth that halos beyond our workforce to our partners and community, creating an inclusive ecosystem.
• We complete a pay equity audit every fiscal year to evaluate equity in our pay practices and work to address any issues that may arise.
• We post every open position or promotional opportunity in the United States that is not confidential, and we include the job’s pay range to provide transparency to candidates. This practice provides every qualified candidate an opportunity to apply with knowledge of the range of pay for the role.
• We are committed to interviewing diverse candidates for open corporate leadership positions.
• Environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) initiatives are included as part of the determination of the discretionary component of our annual short-term incentive program.
• All employees are required to attend preventing discrimination and harassment training.
• We observe Juneteenth as a company-paid holiday every year in the United States as a day of reflection, education, and celebration.
14
The table below provides information as of August 27, 2022, the end of our fiscal year, about the representation of women and minorities as a percentage of our employees at various levels of management categories used by our Executive Leadership Team to manage our workforce. This information is also reviewed by our Board of Directors about the representation of women and minorities as a percentage of our employees at various levels of management and our Board of Directors, as of August 27, 2022.
Female and Minority Representation
Female Minority 1
All Employees 55% 32%
All People-leaders 43% 19%
Director-level 49% 15%
VP-level 31% 13%
Executive Leadership Team 23% 8%
Board of Directors 18% 9%
1 Minority representation includes the percent of United States employees who identify as Black or African American, Asian, Hispanic, Native American, or two or more races.
The table below provides information for the period December 1, 2021 through December 15, 2021in our 2021 EEO-1 report. We have condensed the EEO-1 report to eliminate rows and columns that have no employees in this report or in the previous year’s report total. This table shows our gender, racial, and ethnic composition by EEO-1 job category as set forth in the Section D Employment Data section of the Consolidated EEO-1 Report that we filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in 2022. The information is provided for the time period that is consistent with the report’s filing instructions.
Not-Hispanic or Latino
Hispanic or Latino Male Female
Job Categories Male Female White Black or African American Asian American Indian or Alaskan Native Two or More Races White Black or African American Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander Asian Two or More Races Overall Totals
Executives/Senior Officials & Managers — — 10 — — — — 3 — — — — 13
First/Mid Officials & Managers 1 6 38 2 5 — 3 32 — — 8 — 95
Professionals 7 10 20 3 4 1 1 39 3 — 4 3 95
Technicians 1 1 2 — — — — 2 — — — — 6
Sales Workers 2 — 10 — — — — 5 — — — 1 18
Administrative Support — 8 2 — 1 — — 9 2 — 1 — 23
Total 11 25 82 5 10 1 4 90 5 — 13 4 250
Previous Report Total 14 27 74 4 9 — 7 82 5 1 18 4 245
Employee Culture . We regularly ask our employees to respond to pulse surveys to gather feedback on topics ranging from organization changes to overall engagement and inclusion. This encourages open communication with employees and management, and tracks employee engagement over time. We use the information we gain from the surveys to inform our strategy and actions as we continue to work towards improving our culture. We have also committed to summarizing results for each survey and providing responses quickly after the surveys close.
Total Rewards. The health, satisfaction and security of our employees and their families are important to us and an important part of reaching our organization's goals. We offer total rewards packages that include valuable and competitive compensation and benefit plans. These programs reflect our commitment to attracting and retaining top talent and keeping our staff healthy and secure. Our compensation philosophy is to pay for performance, and we do so through a mix of base salary, annual short-term incentive and long-term incentive.
15
We understand that each employee's situation is unique, so we offer benefits that can be shaped and molded by each employee to fit their individual or family's needs. Our current benefits vary by region, but generally include medical, dental and vision insurance, 401(k) retirement plan, savings accounts, life and disability insurance coverage, free mental telehealth support, and other voluntary benefits. We also offer time-off benefits including vacation time, flexible vacation for exempt positions, sick leave, and paid parental leave.
Employee Safety and Wellbeing Measures. After over two years of working remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we returned to our offices in the United States on May 31, 2022. In continuing our focus on keeping our teams safe, we continue to follow local regulations for each of our offices.
We recognize the importance of balance in our employees’ lives to their overall wellbeing, so we offer our employees time off benefits described above to recharge, ten company-paid holidays per year, flexible remote workdays every Monday and Friday, and paid parental leave. We also had one company-wide mental health day in April 2022 and encouraged employees to take extra time away from work to recharge in late December 2021.
Advancing Health, Nutrition and Wellbeing. Our mission is to empower healthy lives through smart and satisfying nutrition. We believe we play an important role in helping to improve nutrition and overall wellness in the United States through scientific research, education, advocacy and community engagement.
Since 2016, we have advocated with various branches of the U.S. federal government to encourage more inclusive guidance in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Dietary Guidelines for Americans (the “Dietary Guidelines”), which is released every five years. Our goal is to expand the Dietary Guidelines to offer solutions for more Americans, including the more than half of the U.S. population suffering from negative metabolic-related conditions such as cardiovascular disease, prediabetes, diabetes and obesity. We also believe expanding the Dietary Guidelines would help to address health equity in many underserved populations in the United States who have higher rates of metabolic-related diseases. The advocacy work we have done is aligned with recent guidance issued by major health organizations such as the American Diabetes Association and the American Heart Association, both of which recommend a lower carbohydrate dietary approach as an option for those with diabetes.
Our public policy advocacy includes presenting significant scientific research comprised of several hundred, peer-reviewed clinical studies in numerous meetings with policymakers, congresspeople, and decision-makers in the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In addition, we have sponsored numerous continuing education courses for registered dieticians and other healthcare professionals, and we are a member of multiple collaborative groups focused on improving the nutritional quality of the U.S. food system.
As part of our advocacy on the advantages of a protein-rich, low-carbohydrate, and low-sugar dietary approach, we have devoted portions of our respective brand websites and social media to promote consumer education, engagement, and dialogue about the benefits of our nutritional approaches and how our products can fit within those approaches. Through our websites and social media, we also share educational information to explain each brand’s approach to nutrition, teaching consumers how to make smarter food choices and the nutritional qualities of our nutritional approach and our products. Our Atkins website also offers free of charge information regarding the Atkins protein-rich, low-carbohydrate and low-sugar approach to eating, several tools to assist consumers in pursuing the Atkins approach and over 1,600 recipes designed to help consumers achieve and maintain a healthy lifestyle, while still enjoying delicious food.
In late 2021, we launched The Quest Challenge, a grant program for individuals who are making a difference in their community in support of health and wellness. In our inaugural year, we provided four separate $20,000 grants. The Quest Challenge grant was awarded following a competitive process in which applicants expressed their current philanthropic work and what they aim to achieve if they received the grant. Recipients of this year’s grant have used this money to improve the health and wellbeing of underserved and at-risk children, create safe spaces for children to play or learn a new skill, and encourage physical and artistic activities to build confidence and self-esteem. We will continue to follow the progress of our past recipients and their effect on their communities.
For the second year, we participated in Walmart’s “Fight Hunger. Spark Change.” campaign. For each purchase of participating Simply Good Foods’ Atkins and Quest products at Walmart from April 18 – May 15, 2022, we donated the monetary equivalent of at least one meal to Feeding America. Through this program, Simply Good Foods secured at least 500,000 meals for Feeding America. Additionally, we encourage and support our employees to give back to charities they are passionate about, and we match up to $100 of each employee’s donations.
16
Available Information
We file annual, quarterly and current reports, proxy statements and other information with the SEC.
We file our reports with the SEC electronically through the SEC’s Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval (“EDGAR”) system. The SEC maintains an Internet site that contains reports, proxy and information statements and other information regarding companies that file electronically with the SEC through EDGAR, which are available free of charge. The address of this Internet site is www.sec.gov .
We also make available free of charge through our website at www.thesimplygoodfoodscompany.com our Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Exchange Act as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with, or furnish it to, the SEC. We are not, however, including the information contained on our website, or information that may be accessed through links on our website, as part of, or incorporating such information by reference into, this Report.
17
Text extracted from the filing as submitted to EDGAR. Formatting, tables and exhibits are simplified for reading; the original document is authoritative for anything you rely on.