What changed in this filing

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Item 1. Business

2025-02-27 compared with 2024-03-07 · 142 added, 139 removed, 246 unchanged (53% of the section changed)

Bringing Ethical Food to the Table

Vital Farms is an ethically minded food company that is disrupting the U.S.

We have developed a framework that challenges the norms of the factory food model and allows us to bring high-quality products from our network of family farms to a national audience.

This framework has enabled us to become the leading U.S.

brand of pasture-raised eggs and the second-largest U.S.

egg brand by retail dollar sales.

Our ethics are exemplified by our focus on animal welfare and sustainable farming practices, including regenerative agricultural practices.

We believe our standards produce happy hens with varied diets, which produce better eggs.

As an ethical food company, we're helping meet consumer demand for natural, traceable, great-tasting and nutritious food.

Our purpose is rooted in a commitment to Conscious Capitalism, and our belief in co-creating positive, long-term outcomes with all of our stakeholders – farmers and suppliers, customers and consumers, communities and the environment, employees, who we refer to as crew members, and stockholders.

Improving the Lives of People, Animals and the Planet Through Food

Vital Farms’ aspiration is to become America’s most trusted food company.

Every day, we aim to raise the standards in the food industry and disrupt industrial, factory food norms.

Our eggs and butter are sourced through a distributed supply chain of small farms that uphold our high animal welfare standards and produce an exceptional product.

We believe this approach creates a more resilient business that has enabled us to continue growing through a dynamic chapter in our industry.

Our Purpose Guides Our Business

Our purpose is to improve the lives of people, animals and the planet through food.

We are committed to Conscious Capitalism, which prioritizes positive, long-term outcomes for all of our stakeholders – farmers and suppliers, customers and consumers, communities and the environment, employees, who we refer to as crew members, and stockholders.

Our approach has been validated by our financial performance and our impact on the food industry.

We are also a Certified B Corporation, a designation reserved for businesses that balance profit and purpose to meet the highest verified standards of social and environmental performance, public transparency and legal accountability.

We are also a Delaware public benefit corporation and a Certified B Corporation, a designation reserved for businesses that balance profit and purpose to meet the highest verified standards of social and environmental performance, public transparency and legal accountability.

Our Ethical Decision-Making Model

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Empowering our crew members by investing in their financial security, development and overall well-being

Community and Environment

Communities and Environment

Investing in the communities where we operate and being conscious stewards of the environment

Building a sustainable company for the long term by delivering stockholder value

We have scaled our brand through our strong relationships with family farms and deliberate efforts to design and build the infrastructure to bring our products to a national audience.

Driving sustainable growth and long-term stockholder value

We have built our business through our strong relationships with family farms and deliberate efforts to design and build the infrastructure to bring our products to a national audience.

Today, with a network of more than 425 family farms, we believe we have set the national standard for pasture-raised eggs.

We believe our relationships with family farms and the efficiency of our supply chain provide us with a competitive advantage in the consumer packaged goods industry, in which achieving reliable supply at a national scale can be challenging.

In 2017, we opened Egg Central Station, a shell egg processing facility in Springfield, Missouri, which is centrally located within our network of family farms.

In April 2022, we completed an expansion of Egg Central Station that nearly doubled its square footage and capacity.

Egg Central Station is capable of packing six million eggs per day and has achieved Safe Quality Food, or SQF, Excellent rating, the highest level of such certification recognized by the Global Food Safety Initiative, or GFSI.

In addition, Egg Central Station has received the Safe Quality Food Institute, or SQFI, Select Site certification, indicating that the site has voluntarily elected to undergo annual unannounced recertification audits by SQFI, the organization responsible for administering a global food safety and quality program known as the SQF Program.

The design of Egg Central Station includes investments that support each of our stakeholders, from our crew members (daylighting, climate control and slip resistant floors in the egg grading room), to the community and environment (consulting with the community before we built the facility, restoring native vegetation on the property, water retention and stormwater management measures and the use of solar panels), to our customers and consumers (food safety and maintenance investments far beyond regulatory requirements).

Our efforts to build a sustainable, stakeholder-focused facility were recognized by the industry publication Food Processing , which named Egg Central Station as its 2022 “Green Plant of the Year.” We believe owning and operating this important element of our supply chain is a key differentiator and provides us with a competitive advantage, which we intend to continue to leverage to grow both our net revenue and gross margin.

We are currently in the process of exploring potential sites for an additional egg packing facility.

Our loyal and growing consumer base has fueled the expansion of our brand from the natural channel to the mainstream channel and has facilitated our growth within the foodservice channel.

We continue to innovate to support these family farms – our “accelerator farms” project, launched in 2024, envisions a small number of farms that we own, where we can implement innovative farming practices that we can scale to the family farms in our network.

We believe our relationships with family farms, the benefits presented by our planned accelerator farms and the efficiency of our supply chain provide us with a competitive advantage in the consumer packaged goods industry, in which achieving reliable supply at a national scale can be challenging.

In 2017, we opened Egg Central Station, a shell egg processing facility in Springfield, Missouri, which is conveniently located within the PASTURE BELT, the U.S.

region where weather is conducive to hens being outside as much as possible.

In April 2022, we completed an expansion of this facility that nearly doubled its square footage and capacity.

Egg Central Station in Missouri is capable of packing six million eggs per day and has achieved Safe Quality Food, or SQF, Excellent rating, the highest level of such certification recognized by the Global Food Safety Initiative, or GFSI.

In addition, the facility has received the Safe Quality Food Institute, or SQFI, Select Site certification, indicating that the facility has voluntarily elected to undergo annual unannounced recertification audits by SQFI, the organization responsible for administering a global food safety and quality program known as the SQF Program.

The design of our Egg Central Station facility in Missouri includes investments that support our stakeholders, from our crew members (daylighting, climate control and slip resistant floors in the egg grading room), to the community and environment (consulting with the community before we built the facility, restoring native vegetation on the property, water retention and stormwater management measures and the use of solar panels), to our customers and consumers (food safety and maintenance investments far beyond regulatory requirements).

Our efforts to build a sustainable, stakeholder-focused facility are evidenced by the facility’s 2022 “Green Plant of the Year” award from the industry publication Food Processing , along with LEED Gold certification in 2024.

We believe owning and operating this important element of our supply chain is a key differentiator and provides us with a competitive advantage, which we intend to continue to leverage to grow both our net revenue and gross margin.

To help support continued supply and further growth, we announced in 2024 that we plan to build a second egg washing and packing facility in Seymour, Indiana, which we anticipate will be fully operational in 2027.

We intend to build upon the foundational key learnings and successes from our Egg Central Station facility in Missouri with this second facility and further expand our already resilient supply chain.

To help meet the continued demand for our shell eggs, we announced that we plan to install an additional Moba egg grading system, the primary automation technology used in washing, sorting, and packing shell eggs, at Egg Central Station.

Installation of this new system is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2025 and to be fully operational by the end of fiscal 2025.

Our loyal and growing consumer base has fueled the continued growth of our brand in the natural and mainstream retail channels and has facilitated our growth within the foodservice channel.

As of December 2024, we offered 23 retail stock keeping units, or SKUs, through a multi-channel retail distribution network across approximately 24,000 stores.

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We also believe there are incremental growth opportunities in additional distribution channels, including the convenience, drugstore, club, military and international markets, which we may access along with retail and foodservice growth opportunities to enable us to continue our net revenue growth.

We have built a sustainable company founded on products that resonate with consumers.

Our products resonate with our consumers, who are incredibly loyal to Vital Farms.

We are now in nearly 14 million households across the United States and continue to build our brand through transparent communication and direct engagement with consumers who want to know more about where their food comes from.

In addition to our award-winning ad campaigns, we have unique touchpoints like our Vital Times® newsletter in each carton of eggs, and a team dedicated to answering consumers’ questions across multiple channels, including social media, text, email and phone.

We also enable consumers to see the farms where their eggs were laid through our Traceability initiative.

Our trusted brand and Conscious Capitalism-focused business model have resulted in significant growth.

We have increased net revenue from $214.3 million in fiscal 2020 to $606.3 million in fiscal 2024, which represents a 29.7% compounded annual growth rate, or CAGR.

Going forward, we believe that consumer movement away from factory farming practices will continue to fuel demand for our products, and in September 2023, we announced updated long-term financial targets reflecting our continued confidence in the potential of our business.

Our management team is committed to ensuring our values remain aligned with those of our consumers while delivering stockholder value.

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Vital Farms was founded in 2007 on a 27-acre plot of land in Austin, Texas.

Armed with a small flock of hens, the company maintained a strong belief that a varied diet and better animal welfare practices would lead to superior eggs.

Starting with a small flock of hens, the company maintained a strong belief that a varied diet and better animal welfare practices would lead to superior eggs.

Our first sales came from farmers markets and restaurants around Austin and, less than a year later, our eggs were discovered by Whole Foods Market, Inc., or Whole Foods.

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In 2014, our current President and Chief Executive Officer Russell Diez-Canseco joined Vital Farms and led the development of our large and scalable network of family farms.

In 2015, recognizing the opportunity to elevate our production process and bolster long-term growth and profitability, we began the design process for Egg Central Station, which opened in 2017 in Springfield, Missouri.

Today, Egg Central Station is capable of packing six million eggs per day and has achieved an SQF Excellent rating, the highest level of such certification from the GFSI.

In 2015, recognizing the opportunity to elevate our production process and bolster long-term growth and profitability, we began the design process for our Egg Central Station facility in Springfield, Missouri, which opened in 2017.

Today, this facility is capable of packing six million eggs per day and has achieved an SQF Excellent rating, the highest level of such certification from the GFSI.

In 2024, we announced plans for a second world-class egg washing and packing facility in Seymour, Indiana, which we anticipate will be fully operational in 2027.

Demand for our high-quality products has enabled us to expand our brand beyond the natural channel and into the mainstream channel through relationships with Albertsons Companies, Inc., or Albertsons, The Kroger Co., or Kroger, Publix Super Markets, Inc., or Publix, Target Corporation, or Target, Walmart Inc., or Walmart, and numerous other national and regional food retailers.

As of December 2024, our products were sold in approximately 24,000 stores nationwide.

Over the course of our journey, our founder, Matthew O’Hayer, has continued to inform our strategic vision and remains intimately involved with our business as the Executive Chairperson of our Board of Directors.

Our purpose is to improve the lives of people, animals and the planet through food.

Our mission is to bring ethical food to the table.

We carry out our purpose and mission by partnering with family farms that operate within our strictly defined set of ethical farming practices.

We are motivated by the influence we have on rural communities through creating impactful, long-term business opportunities for family farmers.

Moreover, we are driven to stand up for sustainable production practices that have been largely cast aside under the factory farming system.

In our view, the factory farming system has been consistently misguided, focused on producing products at lowest cost rather than driving long-term and sustainable benefits for all stakeholders.

Since inception, our values have been rooted in the principles of Conscious Capitalism.

We believe managing our business in the best interest of all our stakeholders will result in a more successful and sustainable enterprise.

A key premise of our business model is our consumer-centric approach, which focuses on identifying consumer needs and developing products that address these needs.

While remaining committed to ethical decision-making, we have achieved strong financial performance and earned the Certified B Corporation designation, reflecting our role as a contributor to the global cultural shift toward redefining success in business in order to build a more inclusive and sustainable economy.

We believe our consumers connect with Vital Farms because they love our products, relate to our values and trust our practices.

Over the course of our journey, our founder Matthew O’Hayer has continued to inform our strategic vision and remains closely involved with our business as the Executive Chairperson of our Board of Directors.

Industry Overview

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We believe increased demand for natural food and a willingness to pay a premium for brands focused on transparency, sustainability and ethical values will continue to be a catalyst for our growth.

According to SPINS, LLC, or SPINS, data, the U.S.

According to Circana, Inc., or Circana, data, the U.S.

shell egg market accounted for approximately $12.5 billion in retail sales in 2024 and grew at a CAGR of 14.2% between December 2020 and December 2024.

Our relatively low household penetration of 9.2%, compared to the shell egg category penetration of approximately 97%, provides a significant long-term growth opportunity for our business.

According to SPINS data, the U.S.

pasture-raised retail egg market accounted for approximately $531.0 million in retail sales in 2023 and grew at a CAGR of 26.6% between December 2020 and December 2023, while the specialty egg (including pasture-raised, free-range and cage-free) market accounted for approximately $1.8 billion in retail sales in 2023 and grew at a CAGR of 11.2% between December 2020 and December 2023.

According to SPINS data, the U.S.

According to Circana data, the U.S.

pasture-raised retail egg market accounted for approximately $994.4 million in retail sales in 2024 and grew at a CAGR of 34.5% between December 2020 and December 2024, while the specialty egg (including pasture-raised and free-range) market accounted for approximately $8.3 billion in retail sales in 2024 and grew at a CAGR of 21.4% between December 2020 and December 2024.

According to Circana data, the U.S.

butter market accounted for approximately $5.8 billion in retail sales in 2024 and grew at a CAGR of 6.6% between December 2020 and December 2024.

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As a company focused on driving the success of our stakeholders, our brand resonates with consumers who seek to align themselves with companies that share their values.

Through our Vital Times newsletter, utilization of social media outlets and our high-touch consumer engagement marketing campaigns, we cultivate and support our relationship with consumers by communicating our values, building trust and promoting brand loyalty.

Through our Vital Times newsletter, social media outlets and our high-touch consumer engagement marketing campaigns, we cultivate and support our relationship with consumers by communicating our values, building trust and promoting brand loyalty.

Strategic and Valuable Brand for Retailers

Our historical performance has demonstrated that we are a strategic and valuable partner to retailers.

We have reached a broad set of consumers through a variety of retail partners, including Albertsons, Kroger, Publix, Target and Walmart.

As of December 2023, we were the number one or two egg brand by retail dollar sales for branded eggs with key customers such as Albertsons, Kroger, Sprouts Farmers Market, or Sprouts, Target and Whole Foods.

We believe the success of our brand demonstrates that consumers are demanding premium products that meet a higher ethical standard.

We have expanded into the mainstream channel while continuing to command premium prices for our products.

We have reached a broad set of consumers through a variety of retail partners, including Albertsons, Kroger, Publix, Whole Foods, Sprouts Farmers Market, or Sprouts, Target and Walmart.

As of December 2024, we were either the number one or two egg brand by retail dollar sales for branded eggs with key customers such as Albertsons, Kroger, Sprouts, Target and Whole Foods.

We believe the success of our brand in both the natural and mainstream retail channels demonstrates that consumers are demanding premium products that meet a higher ethical standard.

We believe that our products are more attractive to retail customers because they help generate growth, deliver strong gross profits and drive strong velocities.

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Our ongoing commitment to the social and economic interests of our stakeholders guides our supply chain decisions.

We carefully select and collaborate with family farms in the Pasture Belt, the U.S.

region where the weather is conducive to hens being outside as much as possible.

We establish supply contracts that we believe are attractive for all parties, demonstrate our commitment to our network of family farms through educational programs that transfer critical best practice knowledge and pay farmers competitive prices for high-quality eggs.

We carefully select and collaborate with family farms in the Pasture Belt.

We establish supply contracts that we believe are attractive for all parties and demonstrate our commitment to our network of family farms through educational programs that transfer critical best practice knowledge.

We also pay farmers competitive prices for high-quality eggs.

We believe our commitment to farmers facilitates more sustainable farm operations and significantly reduces turnover.

Our network of family farms gives us a strategic advantage through a scaled and sustainable supply chain and allows us to go to market with the highest quality premium products.

Our network of family farms gives us a strategic advantage through a scaled, distributed and sustainable supply chain and allows us to go to market with the highest quality premium products.

Map of the Pasture Belt

Experienced and Passionate Team

We have an experienced and passionate executive management team that has over 100 years of combined industry experience and includes our President and Chief Executive Officer Russell Diez-Canseco, a seasoned food industry expert with over 19 years of relevant experience, including at H-E-B, a privately held supermarket chain.

We have an experienced and passionate senior leadership team that has over 120 years of combined industry experience and includes our President and Chief Executive Officer Russell Diez-Canseco, a seasoned food industry expert with over 20 years of relevant experience, including at H-E-B, a privately held supermarket chain.

Our leadership team works in partnership with Matthew O’Hayer, our founder and the Executive Chairperson of our Board of Directors, who continues to inform our strategic vision with the entrepreneurial perspective gained through over 40 years of building businesses.

We also have a deep bench of talent with strong business and operational experience, and crew members at all levels of our organization who are passionate about addressing the needs of our stakeholders.

We have leveraged the experience and passion of our leadership team, our founder and Executive Chairperson, and our other crew members to grow net revenue at a CAGR of 35.3% since 2019, enter our second major food category, butter, and build and expand our first shell egg processing facility, Egg Central Station.

We have leveraged the experience and passion of our leadership team, our founder and Executive Chairperson, and our other crew members to grow net revenue at a CAGR of 29.7% since 2020, and we continue to grow our butter business and build out our shell egg processing capacity through our Egg Central Station facility in Missouri and our planned facility in Indiana.

Our Growth Strategies

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We plan to continue seeking out opportunities to expand our product offerings.

We believe making strategic bets on larger-scale opportunities will help reinforce our position as an ethical food company.

We believe making strategic bets on larger-scale opportunities will help advance our vision of becoming America’s most trusted food company.

The successes of our core products have confirmed our belief that there is significant demand for ethically produced food products, and our proprietary consumer surveys confirm our belief that there is significant demand for our brand across a wide spectrum of food categories.

We are committed to continuing to introduce consumers to our expanding range of product offerings.

We are committed to continuing to introduce consumers to an expanding range of product offerings.

Strengthen the Brand

We will compete in the marketplace by continuing to build long-term trusted relationships with our target consumer.

Critical to the success of this mission is our ability to share our story with a broader audience.

Critical to the success of this mission is our ability to share our story with a broader audience while maintaining the trust and loyalty of our current consumers.

We intend to increase our household penetration by educating consumers about our brand, our values and the premium quality of our products.

Our relatively low household penetration of 7.5% for our shell eggs, compared to the shell egg category penetration of approximately 96.5%, demonstrates that expanding the national presence of our brand offers a significant runway for future growth.

Our relatively low household penetration of approximately 9.2% for our shell eggs, compared to the shell egg category penetration of approximately 97%, demonstrates that expanding the national presence of our brand offers a significant runway for future growth.

We believe we are well positioned to further increase household penetration of our products given their alignment with consumer trends and approachability with consumers.

We intend to increase the number of consumers who buy our products by using digitally integrated media campaigns, social media tools, earned awareness drivers like press outreach and other owned media channels.

We believe these efforts will educate consumers on our values and the attractive attributes of our products, generate further demand for our products and ultimately expand our consumer base.

We intend to increase the number of consumers who buy our products and retain existing consumers by using digitally integrated media campaigns, social media tools, earned awareness drivers like press outreach and other owned media channels.

We believe these efforts will educate consumers about our values and the attractive attributes of our products, generate further demand for our products and ultimately expand our consumer base.

Scale a World-Class Organization

We have always believed that our most important competitive advantage is great people, operating as one high-performing team in a strong culture, with the right tools to help us reach our potential, both individually and collectively.

Our strategic and people functions are led by a single leader in order to unify our organization in attracting talent that supports our growth initiatives and our culture.

Our people function prioritizes attracting and developing talent that supports our strategic plan, our growth initiatives and our culture.

This effort is critical not only to our current success but the direction of our company in the future.

As we continue our focus on scaling a world-class organization, we believe this tighter link between where we are going, the processes we will put in place to get there and, most importantly, how we engage, inspire, and develop our crew members will fuel our continued growth.

Product Overview

Products and Innovation

We produce products sourced from animals raised on family farms, including shell eggs, butter, hard-boiled eggs and liquid whole eggs.

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That launch was followed by the introduction of our liquid whole eggs in August 2019.

We currently provide one of the only pasture-raised liquid whole egg offerings in the U.S.

processed egg market, which has seen little innovation in decades and has traditionally been dominated by egg whites.

Motivated by our mission, our success and our customers’ feedback, we continue to innovate and expand our product offerings to address growing consumer demand.

The successes of our core products have confirmed our belief that there is significant demand for ethically produced food products.

We expect to continue to expand our product offerings through innovation in both existing and new categories.

We will continue to leverage comprehensive consumer insights and trend data to provide innovative solutions and ideas that meet new consumer needs and usage occasions.

We also have a proven innovation model that utilizes a trusted network of partners to bring products to market without requiring significant upfront investment.

We are committed to continuing to introduce consumers to our expanding range of product offerings.

Our multifaceted, consumer-centric marketing strategy has been instrumental in building our brand and driving net revenue.

We currently provide one of the only pasture-raised liquid whole egg offerings in the United States processed egg market, which has seen little innovation in decades and has traditionally been dominated by egg whites.

Motivated by the successes of our core products, our mission and our customers’ and consumers’ feedback, we seek to continue to innovate and expand our product offerings to address growing consumer demand.

We expect to continue to expand our product offerings through innovation in both existing and new categories, leveraging comprehensive consumer insights and trend data to provide innovative solutions and ideas that meet new consumer needs and usage occasions.

We help build our trusted brand by telling authentic stories from our stakeholder community.

Our multifaceted, consumer-centric marketing strategy has been instrumental in increasing awareness, deepening consumer loyalty and driving net revenue.

Our marketing strategy is aimed at solidifying our brand’s position as a leading provider of ethically produced food.

We execute this strategy by advertising through digitally integrated media campaigns, social media tools.

earned awareness drivers like press outreach and other owned media channels.

We execute this strategy by advertising through digitally integrated media campaigns, social media tools, earned awareness drivers like press outreach and other owned media channels.

Our standout packaging has been a signature communication vehicle since our inception.

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pasture-raised retail egg segment for the 52-week period ended December 29, 2024.

Our brand awareness is represented by a strong social media following, with approximately 140,000 Instagram followers.

Building on prior success, we will continue to invest in the brand through digitally integrated national media campaigns and build customer loyalty through other media formats, including our quirky Vital Times newsletter, now in its twelfth year of print, which is placed in each egg carton.

Our brand awareness is represented by a strong social media following, with approximately 154,000 Instagram followers and 129,000 TikTok followers.

Building on prior success, we will continue to invest in the brand through digitally integrated national media campaigns and build customer loyalty through other media formats, including our quirky Vital Times newsletter, now in its thirteenth year of print, which is placed in each egg carton.

We have circulated more than 240 million copies of our Vital Times newsletter since 2021.

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Our Customers

We market our products throughout the United States, with the majority of our net revenue coming from our shell egg products.

We market our products throughout the United States, with the majority of our net revenue coming from sales of our shell egg products.

As of December 2024, we distribute through third parties and direct to retailers to reach approximately 24,000 stores.

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We expect our foodservice business to continue to grow in the medium- to long-term through our two-pronged sales approach.

We anticipate growing our foodservice distribution penetration through our relationships, for example, with Dot Foods, the largest redistribution company in the country, and broad-line distributors, including Sysco, US Foods, Performance Food Group, Gordon Food Service and Ben E.

We anticipate growing our foodservice distribution penetration through our relationships, for example, with Dot Foods, the largest redistribution company in the country, group purchasing organizations, including Foodbuy and Buyer’s Edge, and broad-line distributors, including Sysco, US Foods, Performance Food Group, Gordon Food Service, Shamrock Foods and Ben E.

By deepening our distribution penetration, we are becoming more accessible to foodservice operators across the country.

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We will continue to capitalize on these co-marketing tactics as we work to bring new foodservice operators into our customer base.

A multi-unit example from our successful foodservice program is True Food Kitchen, an award-winning restaurant brand and a pioneer of wellness-driven dining with over 40 locations across the country that shares our values for improving the lives of people, animals and the planet.

Our collaboration is a recipe for success to serve nourishing food that people know they can trust.

At the start of 2023, True Food Kitchen committed to exclusively using our pasture-raised eggs for its menu and calling out our brand in its marketing channels.

We have launched similar relationships with national foodservice operators, including Hopdoddy Burger Bar and Chicken N Pickles.

Additionally, we have regional chain collaborations across the country.

Several examples include:

• HomeState, a growing brand in Southern California focused on Texas food and genuine hospitality;

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

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

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

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

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

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

Paul, Minnesota area;

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

We have launched relationships with national foodservice operators, including Hopdoddy Burger Bar and Chicken N Pickle, as well as regional chain collaborations across the country.

We have strategically designed our supply chain to ensure high production standards and optimal year-round operation.

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The design of our facility includes investments in support of each of our stakeholders, from our crew members, to the community and the environment, to our customers and consumers.

To help support continued supply and further growth, we announced in 2024 that we plan to locate a second world-class egg washing and packing facility in Seymour, Indiana, which we anticipate will be fully operational in 2027.

In addition, we announced in January 2025 that we plan to install an additional Moba egg grading system, the primary automation technology used in washing, sorting, and packing shell eggs, in Egg Central Station.

Installation of this new system is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2025 and to be fully operational by the end of fiscal 2025.

Our eggs are kept in on-farm coolers using equipment that meets our precise standards.

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In our market, competition is based on, among other things, product quality and taste, brand recognition and loyalty, product variety, product packaging and package design, shelf space, reputation, price, advertising, promotion and nutritional claims.

We engage in customary promotional activities in accordance with acceptable industry practices that are primarily intended to reach new consumers and drive further household penetration.

Across the industry, eggs may be sourced from hens that are caged, cage-free, free-range or pasture-raised.

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By focusing on the interests of each of our stakeholders, we believe we have created a model that attracts the best family farm partners, produces the highest quality products and creates benefits for all parties.

We believe our experience in building this network will provide significant scale and execution advantages as we continue to expand.

We believe our experience in building this network has provided, and will continue to provide significant scale and execution advantages as we continue to expand.

Government Regulation

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the Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA;

and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA.

These laws and regulations apply to the processing, packaging, distribution, sale, marketing, labeling, quality, safety, importation and transportation of our products, as well as our occupational safety and health practices.

and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or

These laws and regulations apply to the grading, processing, packaging, distribution, sale, marketing, labeling, quality, sanitary control, safety, importation and transportation of our products, as well as our occupational safety and health practices.

Under various federal statutes and implementing regulations, these agencies, among other things, prescribe the requirements and establish the standards for quality and safety and regulate our products and the manufacturing, labeling, marketing, promotion and advertising thereof.

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While the FDA has primary responsibility for the regulation of shell eggs, the USDA has primary responsibility for the regulation of dried, frozen or liquid eggs and other “egg products,” subject to certain exceptions.

Among other things, the facilities in which our products are manufactured or processed must register with the FDA and/or the USDA, comply with current good manufacturing practices, or cGMPs, and comply with a range of food safety and labeling requirements established by the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, as amended by the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2011, or FSMA, the Egg Products Inspection Act, the Federal Meat Inspection Act, the Organic Foods Production Act and the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946, among other laws implemented by the FDA, the USDA and other regulators.

Among other things, the facilities in which our products are manufactured or processed must register with the FDA and/or the USDA, comply with current good manufacturing practices, or cGMPs, and comply with a range of food safety and labeling requirements established by the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, as amended by the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2011, or FSMA, the Egg Products Inspection Act, the Organic Foods Production Act and the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946, among other laws implemented by the FDA, the USDA and other regulators.

The FDA and the USDA have the authority to inspect these facilities depending on the type of product involved.

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For example, the farmers who produce our shell eggs may be subject to requirements implemented by the FDA pertaining to pest control, salmonella enteritidis prevention and other requirements.

There are also a number of U.S.

states that have passed legislation or regulations mandating minimum space or cage-free requirements for egg production or have mandated the sale of only cage-free eggs and egg products in their states.

We are also subject to state and local food safety regulation, including registration and licensing requirements for our facilities, enforcement of standards for our products and facilities by state and local health agencies, and regulation of our trade practices in connection with selling our products.

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While the assessment varies depending on a company’s size (number of employees), sector and location, representative indicators in the assessment include payment above a living wage, employee benefits, stakeholder engagement, supporting underserved suppliers and environmental benefits from a company’s products or services.

After completing the assessment, B Lab will verify the company’s score to determine if it meets the 80-point minimum bar for certification.

After completing the assessment, B Lab will verify a company’s score to determine if it meets the 80-point minimum bar for certification.

The review process includes a phone review, a random selection of indicators for verifying documentation and a random selection of company locations for onsite reviews, including employee interviews and facility tours.

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To maintain our certification, we are required to update our assessment and verify our updated score with B Lab every three years.

We were most recently recertified in January 2022.

Our Certified B Corporation designation remains in good standing.

We were most recently recertified in January 2022, and we are in the process of seeking recertification as a Certified B Corporation.

During the recertification and review process, our Certified B Corporation designation remains in good standing.

Public Benefit Corporation Status

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Our Commitment to Impact

At Vital Farms, we are dedicated to creating long-term benefits through sustainable practices for our stockholders, crew members, farmers and suppliers, customers and consumers, communities and the environment.

We promote sustainable practices and place an emphasis on being conscious environmental stewards.

At Vital Farms, we are dedicated to creating long-term benefits for all our stakeholders – our stockholders, crew members, farmers and suppliers, customers and consumers, communities and the environment.

We promote sustainable practices, maintain clear and transparent communication with all stakeholders, and place an emphasis on being conscious environmental stewards.

Our commitment to bringing ethical food to the table has helped us to integrate sustainable practices throughout our business.

Our dedication to our stakeholders inspires us to continuously raise our standards and practices.

In 2023, we continued to make progress toward the short- and medium-term sustainability goals we first identified in December 2022.

Such goals include reducing the ecological impact of our business, driving inclusion within our crew, fostering governance accountability and mitigating climate-related risks.

The three pillars of our approach to impact are to build a resilient food system, to foster a people first culture and to drive engaged and accountable oversight.

In 2024, we continued to make progress toward our short- and medium-term impact goals.

Our Impact Goals include reducing the ecological impact of our business, driving inclusion within our crew, fostering an ethical culture and mitigating climate-related risks.

The Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee of our Board of Directors has been tasked with oversight of our strategy, initiatives, policies, practices and reporting relating to environmental sustainability, climate-related risks and opportunities, human capital management, social and ethical issues and our obligations as a Delaware public benefit corporation.

This committee receives quarterly updates from our Head of Impact and reports out to the Board of Directors regarding its oversight responsibilities.

The Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee receives quarterly updates from our Head of Impact and reports out to the Board of Directors regarding its oversight responsibilities.

We are committed to building a people-first culture that embodies our values and understands the unique needs of our crew members.

We will continue to hold ourselves accountable to the important role we play in helping transition the world around us to a more diverse, equitable and inclusive place through initiatives to foster crew learning, inclusion, and belonging that are grounded in our purposes to improve the lives of people, animals, and the planet through food.

See the section titled “—Culture and Human Capital” below for further information about our commitment to a diverse crew and an inclusive work environment.

We acknowledge the potential threat that climate change may have on our business and are committed to taking action to mitigate our emissions and overall environmental risk.

We are focused on bringing about inclusion and belonging throughout our company through initiatives to foster crew learning and development that are grounded in our purpose of improving the lives of people, animals, and the planet through food.

See the section titled “— Culture and Human Capital” below for further information about our commitment to inclusion and belonging.

We acknowledge the impact that climate change may have on our business and are committed to taking action to mitigate our emissions and overall environmental risk.

In 2021, we began to track and analyze our greenhouse gas emissions to understand and mitigate our carbon footprint, as well as water risks relative to our business and operations.

We conduct an annual inventory of our greenhouse gas emissions and assessment of our climate-related risks, publishing disclosures under the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosure framework.

Our commitment to sustainability is borne out by our operations.

For example, in 2024, we received LEED Gold Certification for our Egg Central Station facility in Missouri, and as we look toward our planned second facility in Indiana, we plan to build on our successes.

We believe in providing transparent disclosure regarding our commitment to impact and communicating our progress with stakeholders.

We released our most recent Impact Report in March 2023 and plan to continue to provide regular updates as to our progress toward our sustainability goals.

To learn more about these efforts and our relevant policies, please visit our investor relations website:

investors.vitalfarms.com.

Information contained on, or that can be accessed through, our website (including information in our Impact Report) is not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report or any of our other filings with the SEC.

We released our most recent full Impact Report in March 2023 and released an Impact Update in March 2024.

We plan to continue to provide regular updates as to our progress toward our Impact Goals and anticipate releasing a new Impact Report in the first half of 2025.

To learn more about these efforts and our relevant policies, please visit our investor relations website, investors.vitalfarms.com, and our impact website, vitalfarms.com/impact.

Information contained on, or that can be accessed through, our website (including information in our Impact Report and Impact Update) is not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report or any of our other filings with the SEC.

We welcome our stakeholders’ feedback and can be contacted at investors@vitalfarms.com.

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Our Conscious Commitment

We are committed to prioritizing long-term benefits to each of our stakeholders, including our talented and passionate crew members, our employees, who are invaluable to our business.

We are committed to the long-term interests of each of our stakeholders, including our talented and passionate crew members who are invaluable to our business.

Prioritizing Conscious Capitalism, our business decisions consider the impact on all our stakeholders, including our crew members, and we believe this helps us to create a more sustainable and successful business.

Vital Farms is committed to fostering an environment that values collaboration, trust, and respect.

We are committed to fostering an environment that values collaboration, trust, and respect.

Furthermore, we endeavor to provide our crew members with the resources they need to be successful through culture-enhancing programs and professional development opportunities.

We believe in cultivating meaningful opportunities, from supporting the economic well-being of the family farmers in our network to fostering a collaborative and inspiring environment for our crew members across the country.

Human capital management is overseen by the Compensation Committee of our Board of Directors, which is charged under its committee charter to review and discuss with management our policies and practices on the development, retention, wellness, and engagement of our crew.

Our Compensation Committee receives quarterly updates from our Chief People Officer on human capital matters and reports out to the Board of Directors regarding its oversight responsibilities.

Crew Recruitment, Development and Retention

Through a thoughtful and thorough selection process, we bring crew members into the business who we believe are aligned with our values and culture.

We have structured our crew member orientation and onboarding processes to help foster continued alignment, including through in-person visits to our Austin headquarters and Egg Central Station processing facility, as well as fireside chats with functional leadership and substantive introductions to each business unit.

We have structured our crew member orientation and onboarding processes to help foster continued alignment, including through in-person visits to our Austin headquarters, which we call the Roost, as well as fireside chats with functional leadership and substantive introductions to each business unit.

We also maintain direct connection to our crew members throughout the onboarding process and conduct in-person onboarding for our crew members at our Egg Central Station processing facility in Missouri.

The Vital Farms crew member journey, including recruiting, onboarding and each step of the career experience, is guided by the philosophy of supporting a people-first culture.

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We cultivate leaders across every level of the business and are committed to building a culture that embodies our values and understands the unique needs of our crew members.

This commitment is evidenced by our investment in two new programs in 2023.

The first is our new learning management system, which houses custom internal material, hands-on learning and world-class content from top universities and companies focusing on both functional and interpersonal skills, which all crew members can access.

The second is a six-month blended learning program we designed and launched for all people managers across the company.

Incorporating in-person, virtual and individual learning activities, this training program focuses on building strong leadership foundations and fostered strong cross-functional connection and development across our Egg Central Station and remote people leadership teams.

We conduct an annual crew survey and subsequent listening sessions to identify key areas of opportunity and have developed both organization-wide focus areas and functional-level action plans.

Through this process we believe that we have created opportunities for our crew to feel heard, valued and connected while laying a strong foundation for sustained engagement.

In our 2024 survey conducted through the Great Places to Work platform, we saw marked improvement in several areas, including an increase in positive perceptions of work-life balance and other positive increases in metrics reflecting inclusion, fairness and crew development.

Based upon the results of the survey, Vital Farms was certified in 2024 as a Great Place to Work.

We believe in a culture of transparency and ownership.

We communicate regularly with our crew members across departments and position levels, including through monthly all-company meetings (which are in-person for our Egg Central Station crew members) with updates and messaging from our senior leadership team, and virtual sessions for our remote teams that include executive question-and-answer sessions.

In addition, we have enhanced our internal communications programs to drive engagement by adding two inclusive platforms:

an expanded company intranet and crew member newsletter.

We communicate regularly with our crew members across departments and position levels, including through monthly all-company meetings that we call “Raise the Barn” (which are in-person for our Egg Central Station crew members in Missouri and for crew members who work at the Roost in Austin) with updates and messaging from our senior leadership team, and virtual sessions for our remote teams that include executive question-and-answer sessions.

These frequent touchpoints are focused on helping crew members feel connected to our mission and empowered to make informed decisions that drive our business forward.

In 2021, we transitioned to a remote workforce for our crew members outside Egg Central Station to provide our crew members greater flexibility.

We continue to believe this transition has enabled us to attract top talent across the country and has had a positive impact on crew member retention and engagement.

We plan to continue to add programs and thoughtful engagement opportunities for all crew members in service of fostering an environment where crew members can do their best work and help achieve our collective goals.

We are doing this by creating a performance and development ecosystem that inspires a growth mindset and unlocks crew member potential.

Through creating clarity on how to be successful at Vital Farms and providing opportunities to build relevant job skills, we believe we are empowering our crew members to own their respective career journeys.

We maintain a remote workforce for our crew members, other than those located at Egg Central Station in Missouri.

We continue to believe this commitment to and cultivation of a remote workforce has enabled us to attract top talent across the country and has had a positive impact on crew member retention and engagement.

We have continued to add programs and thoughtful engagement opportunities for all crew members in service of fostering an environment where crew members can do their best work and help achieve our collective goals.

In 2024, we enhanced our internal professional development program by launching “Core Competencies,” which support a common language and allow us to build development programs designed to upskill our crew in areas critical to their personal growth and our success.

We consider each of our Core Competencies to be a combination of skills, knowledge and behaviors that contribute to effective performance at Vital Farms.

The Core Competency program includes the following subject areas:

structure and planning, problem solving, communication and collaboration, building and inspiring crew, acting with agility, and executing with excellence.

These development opportunities are cohort-based bringing together crew from different business areas to enhance collaboration.

Managers are encouraged to check in with crew members quarterly on progress on developing Core Competencies.

By creating clarity on how to be successful at Vital Farms and providing opportunities to build relevant job skills, we believe we are empowering our crew members to take ownership and work collaboratively with their leader to co-create their respective career journeys.

Inclusion and Belonging

We aim to push ourselves to take meaningful, positive actions that have a direct impact on our stakeholders, including our family farmers, suppliers, customers, crew members, consumers, stockholders, communities and the planet.

In service of this goal, we are committed to building a workplace where every crew member feels valued and that they belong.

By embedding inclusion and belonging into our operations and culture, we aim to build an innovative, resilient and impactful organization that stays true to its purpose of improving the lives of people, animals and the planet through food.

In 2024, we hired a new Director of Inclusion and Belonging to continue to help foster our core values.

Our inclusion and belonging function is focused on attracting, developing, retaining and advancing a diverse and talented workforce, striving to be an employer of choice that reflects our stakeholders and the communities we serve.

We strive to cultivate through our work to be an inclusive and collaborative culture rooted in our purpose and mission, ensuring every crew member feels valued and truly belongs.

At Vital Farms, we have formed seven Crew Resource Groups, or CRGs, to promote inclusion and belonging through internal activities and learning opportunities.

These CRGs include both characteristic-based and regional-based groups.

Additionally, we are working to expand our impact by supporting access to ethical food and community resilience efforts in the areas where we operate.

Workplace Health and Safety

We continue to prioritize the safety and well-being of our crew and have a number of features to ensure our crew members feel safe, engaged and valued.

At Egg Central Station, these features include continued identification of opportunities to automate more physically challenging processes, offering subsidies to purchase slip-resistant and safety toe shoes and partnering with a local occupational health organization for regular assessment and training of Egg Central Station crew members on ergonomics.

Additionally, we continue to follow protocols and take preventative measures to protect the health and safety of our crew members, customers, and communities.

At Egg Central Station these features include continued identification of opportunities to automate more physically challenging processes and partnership with a local occupational health organization for regular assessment and training of Egg Central Station crew members on ergonomics and better techniques to use full range of motion.

We have enhanced both our in-person and virtual safety training programs.

Our crew members at Egg Central Station are required to wear safety equipment including bump caps, hearing protection, safety glasses, safety boots and hair/beard nets.

Additionally, we have developed specialized safety policies for different functions and action plans in case of emergency situations, and we continue to follow protocols and take preventative measures to protect the health and safety of our crew members, customers, and communities.

What We Value

We have defined our company values as (1) Be Humble, (2) Act Like an Owner, (3) Lead with a Growth Mindset, (4) Practice Empathy and (5) Compete to Win.

We start each of our monthly Raise the Barn all-company meetings by reiterating our values.

We strive to create a culture that reflects these important pillars of our business.

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We orient crew members towards common priorities by communicating these priorities throughout the organization.

Additionally, each quarter, crew members and their managers discuss professional development and set individual goals.

Each quarter, crew members and their managers discuss professional development priorities and set individual goals.

We hold ourselves accountable to business objectives and know that we can all improve through continuous feedback.

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We provide our crew members with competitive compensation.

At our Egg Central Station facility in Springfield, Missouri, our hourly crew members are paid wages that are in excess of the living wage for an individual without children in this market.

At our Egg Central Station facility in Missouri, our hourly crew members are paid wages that are in excess of the living wage for an individual without children in this market.

All full-time crew members are eligible for health insurance, paid parental leave, retirement contributions, employee stock purchase plan participation, equity grants and complimentary Vital Farms products.

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We offer a wealth of learning opportunities to support the development of our crew.

We set the foundation with our in-depth onboarding program and then keep the momentum through self-paced courses in our online learning platform, lunch & learns lead by subject matter experts, and live courses.

We set the foundation with our in-depth onboarding program and then keep the momentum through self-paced courses in our online learning platform, lunch & learn programs lead by subject matter experts and live courses.

We level up with professional coaching, programming from esteemed external collaborators on key skills such as problem solving and curated leadership development programs.

We’re focused on providing an ecosystem of developmental resources that ensure our team keeps building their skills to be successful at Vital Farms and beyond.

We are focused on providing an ecosystem of developmental resources that ensure our crew members develop their skills to be successful at Vital Farms and beyond.

• We Practice Empathy:

We know that we get to better answers when we incorporate different perspectives and experiences into our work.

We believe that we get to better answers when we incorporate different perspectives and experiences into our work.

We believe a diverse and inclusive crew is crucial to our long-term success as a business and a priority for us as our values remain rooted in Conscious Capitalism.

Under the leadership of our Head of Inclusion and Belonging and our Inclusion and Belonging Council, we have worked to increase diversity across our crew and supply chain (including our network of family farms).

Under the leadership of our new Director of Inclusion and Belonging and our Inclusion and Belonging Council, we have worked to drive inclusion and belonging across our crew and supply chain.

• We Compete to Win:

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As of December 29, 2024, we had approximately 598 full-time crew members, including 394 in operations, 62 in sales and marketing, 35 in finance and 107 in general and administrative functions, all of whom are located in the United States.

Of our full-time crew members, one is a contract worker.

As of December 29, 2024, approximately 41% of our full-time crew members were women and approximately 19% were members of underrepresented minority groups.

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Our Corporate Information

We were founded in 2007, originally incorporated in Texas in July 2009 and reincorporated in Delaware in June 2013, and we became a public benefit corporation in Delaware in October 2017.

We were founded in 2007, originally incorporated in Texas in July 2009 and reincorporated in Delaware in June 2013, and we converted into a public benefit corporation in Delaware in October 2017.

Our principal executive offices are located at 3601 South Congress Avenue, Suite C100, Austin, Texas 78704, and our telephone number is (877) 455-3063.

Our website address is www.vitalfarms.com .

Our website address is vitalfarms.com .

Information contained on, or that can be accessed through, our website is not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report or any of our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC.

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Compared sentence by sentence after normalising whitespace, quotation marks, case and digits, so re-formatting and restated figures do not read as changed language. Wording changes appear as one removal and one addition. The current filing and the prior one are authoritative.

What changed 10-K

Item 1. Business