Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Beyond Meat, Inc. Annual Meeting of Stockholders. It is my pleasure to turn the call over to Seth Goldman.
Good morning, everyone. It is now 8:0:3 am Pacific Standard Time, and I would like to call the meeting to order. I'm Seth Goldman, Chair of the Board of Directors of Beyond Meat, Inc. And it is my privilege to welcome you to our 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. Thank you for joining us.
In addition to supporting the health and well-being of our stockholders and other meeting participants during the COVID-nineteen pandemic, We believe that holding the Annual Meeting virtually helps to expand access, facilitate stockholder attendance and reduce costs and the environmental impact of our Annual Meeting. In accordance with Beyond Meat's amended and restated bylaws, I will be acting as Chair of the meeting. This meeting is held pursuant to the company's by And the written notice sent to all stockholders of record as of March 23, 2021. Joining us virtually today are members of the Board of Directors Our Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer, Ethan Brown our Vice President, FP and A and Investor Relations, Luby Katuwa and several members of our senior management team. Representatives of Deloitte and Touche LLP, our independent registered public accounting firm, Have also joined us and are prepared to respond to any questions.
Let me also name our officials for today's meeting, Each of whom is in attendance virtually today. Terry Witteeman, our Chief Legal Officer and Secretary, will serve as secretary for this meeting. As stated on the proxy card, Ethan Brown and Terry Witteeman will act as proxies. If you have returned your proxy card, they will vote your shares as you indicated on James Alden from American Election Services LLC will serve as the Inspector of Election. Mr.
Alden has previously taken his oath as the Inspector of Election. Upon joining the meeting, you will see that we have provided a copy of the rules and procedures of to the meeting on the web portal. To conduct an orderly meeting, we ask that participants abide by these rules. As stated in the rules, there is an opportunity to submit a question online. We will conduct the business of the meeting first.
Next, our Founder, President and CEO, Ethan Brown, will share some remarks regarding the business and then we will turn to your questions for the remaining time we have. Only validated stockholders may ask questions in the designated field on the web portal. Out of consideration for others, Please limit yourself to one question. Please note that no one attending via the webcast is permitted to use any audio recording device. Thank you for your cooperation.
We will now proceed with the formal business of the meeting as described in the notice of annual meeting and the proxy statement. I'll hand it over to Terri Wittemann, our Chief Legal Officer and Secretary to review the legal documentation and presence of a forum.
Thank you, Seth. I have the proof required by Delaware law and our bylaws that the notice of annual meeting, The proxy statement, the proxy card and the annual report for the fiscal year 2020, together with the letter from our Founder, President and CEO, Were mailed to stockholders commencing on April 9, 2021. The Board established March 23, 2021 is the record date for entitlement to receive notice of and to vote at this meeting. As of the record date, there were 63,000,000 7,488 shares of common stock issued and outstanding. The list of registered holders of our common stock is available for inspection on the web portal.
Under the company's bylaws, a Quorum is present when at least the majority of the voting power of the issued and outstanding shares of capital stock of the company entitled to vote at the meeting is present The Inspector of Election has been sworn in, and I have his oath of office. The inspector has informed me that a quorum is present. I will now turn it back over to Seth for the items.
Thank you, Teri. With the confirmation that a quorum is present, we will proceed with the business of the meeting. First, we will address the items being presented to the stockholders for a vote at this meeting. As described in the proxy materials, There are 3 proposals to be considered, and the Board of Directors has recommended that stockholders vote in favor of Proposals 12 And for a frequency of 1 year for proposal 3. No other matters will be considered.
Following the voting, I will report the preliminary voting results from the Inspector of Elections and then the meeting will adjourn. The polls open today, May 19, 2021, at 8 am Pacific Time for voting on all matters before the meeting. Many of you have already mailed or otherwise delivered your proxy And therefore intend to have your shares voted by the proxies. If you have not already voted and wish to vote, the polls will remain open until we announce closing of the polls. If you have provided your proxy card, your shares will be voted in accordance with your instructions.
Any stockholders who have not yet voted or wish to change their vote may do so by clicking on the Vote Here button on the web portal and following the instructions there. Stockholders who have sent in proxies or voted via telephone, Internet or mobile device and do not want to change their vote do not need to take any further action. The first matter is the nomination of candidates for election as directors. Pursuant to the company's certificate of incorporation and bylaws, The company's Board of Directors is divided into 3 classes, with each class of directors being elected every 3 years. At this meeting, Sally Grimes, Muktesh Mickie Pants and Ned Siegel have been nominated as Class II Directors of the company To serve until the 2024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders and until their respective successors have been duly elected and qualified.
The Board of Directors has unanimously recommended that the stockholders vote for each of Sally Grimes, Mukesh Zhenikki Pants and Ned Siegel As directors of the company, to serve and hold office until the 2024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders and until their respective successors have been duly elected and qualified. The second matter presented for a vote is a proposal to ratify the appointment of Deloitte and Touche LLP As the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the 2021 fiscal year, The Board of Directors has unanimously recommended that the stockholders vote for the ratification of the appointment of Deloitte and Touche LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the 2021 fiscal year. The 3rd and final matter presented for a vote is the proposal to approve on an advisory basis the frequency of future stockholder advisory votes to approve the compensation paid to the company's named executive officers. The Board of Directors has unanimously recommended that the stockholders vote to approve We will pause for another moment to allow for any votes to be completed online. Again, If you have provided your proxy card, your shares will be voted in accordance with your instructions.
Any stockholders who have not yet voted or wish to change their vote The polls are now closed at 8 11 am Pacific Standard Time, May 19, 2021, and the Inspector of Elections will tabulate the votes. The next item on the agenda is the preliminary report of the Inspector of Elections. Any votes cast before the polls close, but not reflected in the preliminary report, will be reflected in the final report of the Inspector of Election, Which will be a fix to the minutes of this meeting. The Inspector of Election will prepare the final report and certification of the Inspector of Election Once all notes are tallied and the results will be detailed in our current report on Form 8 ks, which we will file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Based on the preliminary report of the Inspector of Election, each of Sally Grimes, Tess Mickey Pant and Ned Siegel are duly elected directors of the company to serve and hold office until the 2024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders And until their respective successors have been duly elected and qualified.
The appointment of Deloitte and Touche LLP The company's independent registered public accounting firm for the 2021 fiscal year has been approved and ratified. A frequency of 1 year for future stockholder advisory votes on the compensation page of the company's named executive officers has been approved. That concludes the formal business to be brought before this meeting and the stockholders meeting is now adjourned. At this time, I would like to invite Ethan Brown, our Founder, President, CEO and member of the Board of Directors to make a few remarks regarding the company and our business.
Thank you, Seth. Thank you, and welcome to Beyond Meat's Annual Shareholder Meeting. We recently completed our 2nd year as a public company and despite significant volatility brought on by the global COVID-nineteen pandemic, we successfully navigated the challenging environment and our company is emerging in the strongest position yet. In fact, as I'll expand on momentarily, I have never been more optimistic about Beyond Meat's future than I am today. I'm pleased to share with you the progress we've made since we met a year ago as well as provide some perspective on the exciting path ahead.
Before I dive in, however, I want to remind everyone that during my remarks, I may make forward looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These statements are based on management's current expectations and beliefs and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from those described in these forward looking statements. Please refer to the company's annual report on Form 10 ks for the year ended December 31, 2020, filed with the SEC on March 1, 2021, The company's quarterly report on Form 10 Q for the quarter ended April 3, 2021, filed with the SEC on May 13, 2021, And other filings with the SEC for a detailed discussion of the risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward looking statements made today. I may also refer to certain non GAAP financial measures. Please refer to our recent SEC filings for a reconciliation of such non GAAP metrics to their most directly comparable GAAP measures.
As a quick refresher and for the benefit of those who may be newer to our story, let me briefly explain who we are as a company, What our long term mission and objectives are and what sets us apart from our industry peers. At its core, Beyond Meat is an innovation engine. We use proprietary science to redefine meat, not in terms of its animal origin, but rather in terms of its composition. We believe that by focusing on the latter, the composition of meat versus insisting that meat must come from an animal, wide swaths of innovation become possible, Through which we can summon the future of protein. The reason is simple.
It turns out that meat at a very high level It's simply an assembly of amino acids, lipids, trace minerals, vitamins and water, none of which are exclusive to the animal kingdom. We therefore see our role as one in which we continue to develop the scientific and technological understanding of plant based proteins, where we established the infrastructure necessary to assemble these core components into the architecture of meat and ultimately bring these products to market faster At a more cost competitive price than our peers. We do this in an iterative continuous improvement process with strict guardrails Around our taste and sensory nutrition and cost objectives. Additionally, we are committed to furthering our product innovation without the use of genetically modified organisms And although we are extremely proud of our products, we recognize with humility We still have miles left to travel before perfectly building meat directly from plants to the point where our products are completely indistinguishable We also recognize how important our mission is. We remain Motivated by what we consider to be a unique 1:four ratio.
Specifically, by applying a singular focus on changing the source of the meat at the center of our plates From animals to plants, we can be of service to 4 important areas of increasing concern: human health, Climate change mitigation, natural resource conservation and animal welfare. We believe that a growing number of consumers are making distinctions across protein To touch on one, some or all of these considerations. In this context, we see our work as enabling consumers to eat what you love, That is to continue to enjoy the experience of delicious and satiating center of the plate protein, but doing so with plant versus animal based meats. We believe our breadth and pace of innovation is what sets Beyond Meat apart from its industry peers. Our work in this regard At our highly sophisticated innovation center, the Manhattan Beach Project, whose name was chosen to evoke the spirit of the Manhattan Project during the Second World War.
This effort brought together the best and brightest scientists, engineers and managers, aligned them around a clear and compelling goal And appropriately resource them to deliver significant innovation under tight deadlines. At Beyond Meat, we view our objectives through a similar lens. Our internal Beyond Meat Rapid and Relentless Innovation Program or BM2RI is intended to intensely drive innovation with a sense of urgency and investment Commensurate with the global economic opportunity and societal changes we are chasing. And more generally, we expect to continue to invest disproportionately More than our foodservice peers and innovation as a percentage of revenues, so as to continue to stretch our lead within the global movement toward plant based foods. At a high level, we focus our efforts on advancing 3 key pillars of long term strategic growth: closing the taste other sensory gaps of our products relative to the animal protein equivalents, continuously improving the nutritional profile of our products a point where there's little room for ambiguity surrounding their health attributes.
Finally, reducing the cost of our products to the end consumer to achieve price parity with And even underpriced animal protein. The first two pillars depend on continued investment toward innovation capabilities, but the third relates to our Striving for operational excellence. We believe that if we can successfully advance our objectives against all three of these pillars, We have an opportunity to unlock significantly broader demand for our products and finally cross the bridge from new status to mainstream consumer adoption. As I will outline in the next section, we've made progress against each of these pillars in 2020 and are well positioned to build even further on these efforts in 2021 And beyond. In 2020, we achieved solid net revenue growth of 37% Year over year, despite significant challenges primarily in our foodservice channel as a result of COVID-nineteen, Weakness in foodservice channels was more than offset by strong growth in our sales to retail customers, which more than doubled versus the prior year.
Importantly, we are carrying our solid momentum in retail into 2021, with sales to foodservice customers continues to see a steady, Albeit moderate sequential improvement. With the anticipation of some exciting new products introductions this year, we are optimistic About building further on our recent top line growth momentum. In order to continue to drive our top line growth And in keeping with the goal of expanding accessibility to our products, we will relentlessly pursue further distribution gains across all of our geographic regions. We have already made tremendous strides in this regard with our total worldwide outlets up nearly fourfold just in the past 2 years since our IPO. In addition, you will also see us invest more heavily behind our marketing efforts in order to drive further gains in our brand awareness and to clearly highlight what differentiates our brand.
Here too, we have made meaningful progress since our IPO, but we realize we are just scratching the surface, especially in the International regions. Consider that in the U. S, our most advanced geographic region to date, our household penetration stood at only 5.4%. So we know we have miles ahead of us to travel in introducing our brand and value proposition to consumers here in the U. S.
And around the world. Of course, we will continue to expand our product portfolio with exciting new innovations that delight our existing consumers and draw new consumers in the category. Recognizing that we have an opportunity to significantly increase the depth of our distribution, we are quickening the pace of our innovation by bringing new products to market faster than ever before. Just since we hosted this meeting a year ago, for example, we have commercialized 6 new products, namely the Cookout Classic, Beyond Meatballs, Beyond Breakfast Sausage Links, Beyond Mince and Beyond Pork, which is our first product designed specifically for the Chinese market. And most recently, we released the latest iteration of our iconic Beyond Burger here in the U.
S, what we refer to as the Beyond Burger 3.0. This broadening of our product portfolio is critically important to positioning our brand for long term success and driving greater scale of our business. Early consumer insights indicate that the plant based meat category continues to attract new customers at a very healthy rate and that consumers are willing to try new products. And once they do, they are generally quite loyal to the brands that initially resonate with them. Therefore, it's central to our objectives to offer greater consumer choice early order to maximize our touch points with both new and existing users and to drive long term stickiness.
This long term mindset I alluded to is Evident throughout our decision making, it underpins virtually all of our recent successes. Caliber of foodservice customers we are partnering with, for example, It's a testament to these organizations' belief in Beyond Meat's long term vision and our commitment to leading and growing the global plant based meat movement that is occurring today. We're able to join forces with the very best retail and food service organizations throughout the globe precisely because of our unwavering focus on our brand's commitments of quality, Simple non artificial ingredients, continuous improvement, the breadth and speed of our innovation and the authenticity and aspirational nature of our message. We will continue to invest in and nurture these relationships, demonstrating our commitment to the long term success of our partners, Which in turn supports the long term success of Beyond Meat as we strive toward our goal of becoming a truly global plant based meat company, rivaling in scale the largest animal protein Let me now briefly walk through some of our recent financial highlights. While we're beginning to see nice sequential improvement in our top line growth trends as our foodservice business gradually recovers from COVID-nineteen induced downturn, We've experienced a meaningful compression of our gross margins primarily due to reduced volume levels even as we've continued to invest in forward capacity to support our future growth.
In addition, changes in our business mix relative to pre pandemic levels have resulted in further logistics inefficiencies. Important to note, however, that we consider both of these factors to be transitory as we continue to navigate through the lingering effects of COVID-nineteen. With regard to our operating income and adjusted EBITDA, in addition to the transitory pressures on our gross profit I just described, We have continued to invest in human capital to support our long term growth, particularly in R and D and our international expansion initiatives. Increased production trial activities have also contributed to a meaningful increase in our operating expenses on a year over year basis as we seek to ready several new products For commercial launches in both of our retail and foodservice outlets. To summarize, with respect to our near term profitability, Making the sizable investments I've just described during a period of serious disruption to important segments of our business undoubtedly impacts our operating margin and gross margin through higher fixed Overhead, these outcomes are not unexpected and are a direct result of our belief that it makes little sense to limit our ability to capture future growth Due to transient pandemic conditions, we will continue to make such investments and I'm confident that as a result of them, we will emerge in a much stronger position To seize on the global opportunities ahead of us once COVID-nineteen is firmly in our rearview mirror.
This slide simply provides a little more detail on the breakout of our revenue growth across our domestic, international retail and foodservice channels. What is clear is that we continue to see robust levels of growth in our retail channels, while foodservice remains challenged as a result of COVID-nineteen. Regarding the latter, we view this as temporary and the good news is that we are already seeing encouraging signs of a pickup in interest and activity among foodservice operators as it relates Before wrapping up, let me share some high level thoughts on some of our key areas of strategic focus this year. We have spent the last several months investing heavily in our business, Establishing infrastructure, personnel, innovation capabilities, partnerships and product pipeline Against our long term growth and market share objectives. We will continue these efforts in 2021, and we intend to make a series of investments here in the U.
S. And in the EU and in China, to be in a position to serve customers and consumers alike and to apply increasing pressure on the 3 key levers of taste, Health and cost that we believe are critical for mass adoption. We are undertaking these investments with a clear eye toward our long term ambition, Recognizing that in many cases, there's a trade off in terms of near term profitability associated with these activities. Nevertheless, We are proceeding with this approach without hesitation. We believe this long term mindset is required to capitalize on the significant growth potential of the Global plant based meat industry and will ultimately drive the greatest long term value for our shareholders.
This slide summarizes some of the key initiatives Achievements we have secured just recently, each of which have a critically important role to play in enabling the next phase of Beyond These Growth, 1 in which we will finally cross that bridge from niche marketing to mainstream consumption niche market to mainstream consumption. Such distinguished milestones, among others, are signing global strategic agreements with both McDonald's and Yum! 2 of the world's largest and most iconic QSR brands, Forming a joint venture with PepsiCo, one of the largest snacking and beverage companies in the world, signing a 12 year lease agreement on what will become our significantly expanded State of the art Innovation Center and Global Headquarters here in LA. We're opening our first end to end production facility in China with another plant scheduled to open soon in the EU. We're completing our largest capitalization transaction ever with our $1,000,000,000 senior convertible notes offering.
I have never been more optimistic about the trajectory that lies ahead for the company. At this time, we will now answer questions from our stockholders. We can begin with those questions received in advance of today's meeting. We'll then take stockholders' questions that are being entered today on the web portal as time permits. Please note that we will attempt to answer as many questions as time allows, but only questions that remain to the meeting and submitted in accordance with the rules and procedures of conduct The meeting will be addressed.
Silvi, can you please read the first question?
Sure. Thanks, Ethan. We did receive a handful of We submitted questions and a number of those questions address the same topic area. So in those instances, we have condensed the questions into 1 to avoid repetition. So we'll start with a question related to our product portfolio strategy since this was an area that received a few questions.
Ethan, maybe you can address how we think about product diversification across our business, why it's important to our long term strategy And also the interplay between foodservice and retail channels as
it relates to the rollout of new products. Great question. So I think about it in a few ways. Think first and foremost, I'll start with platforms and we have, as you know, 3 core platforms, beef, pork and poultry. And we've also, as we announced recently, have gotten into ag for particular customers.
And so that would be the 4th A platform that's near adjacency. And when you think about that platform approach, what we're trying to do is always improve The fundamental science in each of those areas. So we're constantly iterating products within all of those platforms and we're taking that base that we've developed And then iterating that into different products for the market. If you look at the market today, we have 5 retail SKUs. If If you look at one of the largest players in our space, they have 21.
So we have tremendous white space ahead of us to be able to Offer new products into the market. And as we work with these large QSRs, they're providing us with guidance on where they want us to go from a product development perspective. That also oftentimes will match where the retail markets are headed. So we have a significant opportunity ahead of us to go from this 5 SKU Portfolio largely in retail to many, many more SKUs, which we think is important. If you think about the depth and the length of The meat case itself, families come in and shop not just for a single type of protein, They're buying pork, they're buying salmon, they're buying beef, they're buying poultry.
We need to be able to offer consumers The same level of choice with plant based meat that they currently have with animal protein. So diversification of our product portfolio is a very, very big initiative here. You a lot of new products coming into the market over the next year that I'm personally very excited about.
Great. Thanks, Ethan. So we did receive a question related to our Strategy around academic institutions, including colleges, high schools and elementary schools. So specifically, the question is, Do we have a presence in these venues today and how important are they to the growth of our brand over the past term?
Yes. So we do have a presence and one of the reasons that the foodservice segment within our business has been challenged. As we've talked about before, About 80% of our exposure in the foodservice channel is around independent operators, but also Virus, so not the large QSR yet. And so when universities and colleges shut down as well as schools, that created an Additional challenge for us. So we do have exposure there.
We do like that segment quite a bit. A lot of it has to do as you get into the primary schools and secondary schools, A lot of that has to do with pricing. And so if you think about the 3 levers we have around driving taste, driving nutrition and then ultimately driving cost, Part of that focus is to be able to serve those markets. So it's an attractive market for us. It's a long term market for us.
We're in it today. We have a good presence and we anticipate growing it
Thanks, Ethan. So another area of interest pertains to our relationship with McDonald's. The specific question is what early learnings have we had from the test markets in Denmark and Sweden so far? How should we think about the rollout of further tests with McDonald's over time?
So I appreciate very much the question and the interest and I know it's top of mind Many investors and stockholders and I fully understand and appreciate why. I think the challenge is that we really can't comment on behalf of McDonald. We are a supplier and They're really leading the relationship. I can only give my personal perspective, which I'm very pleased with how things have gone so far. The relationship with them has remained really strong, as I've said, for years.
And we're looking forward to more.
Thanks. The next question relates to Beyond Meat merchandise or SWAG. So the question is whether there are items exclusively available to shareholders or if we intend to make such items available at some point.
Louis, I got to ask you, do you plant that as you know of my love of flag. All right. Yes, so one of the things that I just love about our brand and I hope you guys do too listening is the enthusiasm that people have for our logo and what we're putting together here and what we've put together here. It gives me really great joy to see people wearing hats and T shirts and so on and so forth. So we are going to be putting up a swag store on our website for folks to be able to buy it At a reasonable cost, we recognize that it's a reasonable price.
We recognize that it's free advertising for us in certain regard. But it's a movement that we're building here and so people wearing the logo and wearing our gear is really important to me personally. And it gets to that point that we've made where there's a wonderful thing happens when you see a morphing of a business and a movement. We've been in a very blessed position to be ahead of that movement. And so we want to make the symbol of what we're doing available to everybody to be able To buy and wear and be proud of it.
Thank you.
The next question relates to our ingredient choices. So Specifically, the question is GMO has a proven track record of making crops more resistant, increased yield and other nutritional benefits. Are you opposed to using GMOs or is it just a marketing tactic? What benefits are obtained by using non GMO?
Yes. So it's definitely not a marketing tactic. And I think one of the things I hope people understand now at Beyond Meat Is that what you see with us is kind of what you get. What we're doing, we believe in and Not just kind of whichever way the wind blows. And so I think I'm not firmly against GMOs in every application, but what I do think needs further thought is the downstream consequences of the application of GMOs to certain crops.
And it's not often the GMO crop itself that does the injury that has occurred, but it's the unintended consequence. If you think of what's happening with Roundup and the ability for particular strands of soy to be more resistant to that and then of course it shows up in food and hurts workers And wildlife, that's something that you just need to be cognizant of. So we have a long history of Introducing things into the natural world that we don't quite understand and then the long tail of damage that occurs. So we believe That nature has given us all we need to do this. We understand that the core parts of meat are available through The Plant Kingdom, and that we don't need to genetically modify or bioengineer those ingredients.
We just have to work harder to find the right ones. And so I don't think you'll see Beyond Meat genetically modifying or bioengineering Plant Kingdom anytime soon.
Thanks. The next question pertains to the makeup of our Board. The question is what can be done to increase the number of women on the Board and in the executive Sweet. Yes, it's
a big focus for us. We're very fortunate to have some very talented women on our Board and in our executive suite. But like every company, we should continue to increase the diversity of our leadership and our Board. And so it's a focus. But currently we have 3 women on the Board and we have women throughout our executive team.
So I think we're doing pretty well, But in all regards, we can do better. Thanks.
The next question relates to some of our Sustainability targets, so has the company considered calculating its corporate carbon footprint, setting targets for reductions such as science Space targets and or committing to race to 0 to demonstrate that Beyond Meat as a company has a commitment to corporate Carbon reductions? Yes, that's
a big focus. Thank you for the question. So we do have some ESG work going on that's really exciting and we can talk about that in a future date, But we have an external firm we're working with in that regard. It's obviously a motivating A factor for the company, it's part of why we were formed and what we do. And so we do believe, however, that the Single most important thing we can do for Climate is to increase consumption of our products.
That's the way to have the biggest impact us as a company to do that, I was asked if we would use some of our funds to buy offsets and things of that nature and just that we are an So I think we'll continue to make our company more efficient from a carbon perspective. We've work with the University of Michigan as many people know to understand the impact of our products On carbon reduction and greenhouse gas emissions more generally and we the results on the Beyond Burger were terrific. It was a 90% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions when you Compare the Beyond Burger to conventional eightytwenty beef. So we'll keep doing those things and we'll keep focusing on reducing, but that's in our DNA. So I think we're focused on that one.
Thanks. Here's an interesting one for you. Have we thought about a plant based Slim Jim at the checkout counter?
I can tell the question is going to be good because Louie is smiling a little bit as he reads it. We thought a lot about that. I'll just leave it at that.
Okay. We have another question that seems to be specific to our manufacturing facility in the EU, specifically where it will be We have said publicly that we're building a facility in Enschede, the Netherlands. So I don't know if there's anything you'd like to add? Nothing. Okay, sure.
The final question that we have submitted pertains to our business in China. It says, As U. S. And China relations are not good now, how do you see this impacting your future business in China?
I think we're going to be okay. I mean, We just had to work over the last year to set an entire facility up without being able to visit, That was very difficult, but how we did it was we had a great adviser in Mickey Pont, who's recently joining us and Terrific team on the ground there, Candy Canyon and John, and just a really strong Group of folks there that are part of that economy, part of that culture, part of that world. So we're building a Beyond Meat We're in China and we expect to be able to do very well there. So that's not something that's top of mind for me. We continue to have Good relationships with the Iosin government and others.
So I think we'll be good to go there.
Thanks, Ethan. So seeing no further questions, we'll conclude the question and answer session. Thank you all for your participation, and I'll now turn the meeting back over to Ethan for closing remarks.
Thanks, Luby. As noted in my remarks, our brand commitment, Eat what you love represents a strong belief that by eating our plant based meats, consumers can enjoy more, not less, of their favorite meals. And by doing so, help to address concerns related to human health, climate change, resource conservation and animal welfare. We believe this is an opportunity and time for us to be aggressive in offering the consumer expanded protein options, and we remain steadfastly committed constructing the building blocks today that are necessary to become the global plant based protein company we envision for tomorrow. Thank you all