Morning. It is now 8:00 A.M. Pacific 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 2025 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. Thank you for joining us. We believe that holding the annual meeting virtually helps expand access, facilitates stockholder attendance, and reduces 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 this meeting. This meeting is held pursuant to the company's amended and restated bylaws and the written notice sent to all stockholders of record as of March 24th, 2025.
Joining us virtually today are members of the Board of Directors, our Founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer, Ethan Brown, our Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, Lubi Kutua, our Vice President, FP&A and Investor Relations, Paul Sheppard, and several members of our senior management team. Representatives of Deloitte & 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. Teri Witteman, our Chief Legal Officer and secretary, will serve as secretary for this meeting. As stated on the proxy card, Ethan Brown and Teri Witteman will act as proxies. If you have returned your proxy card, they will vote your shares as you indicated on the proxy card. Crystal Polley from American Election Services LLC will serve as the inspector of election.
Ms. Polley has previously taken her 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 conduct for 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. 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 Teri Witteman, our Chief Legal Officer and Secretary, to review the legal documentation and presence of a quorum.
Thank you, Seth. I have the proof required by Delaware law and our amended and restated bylaws that the notice of annual meeting, the proxy statement, the proxy card, and the annual report for the fiscal year 2024, together with the letter from our Founder, President, and CEO, were mailed to stockholders commencing on April 8, 2025. The board established March 24, 2025, as the record date for entitlement to receive notice of and to vote at this meeting. As of the record date, there were 76,381,620 shares of common stock issued and outstanding. In accordance with Delaware law, the list of registered holders of our common stock was available for inspection for the requisite time period at the company's principal place of business.
Under the company's amended and restated bylaws, a quorum is present when at least one-third of the voting power of the issued and outstanding shares of capital stock of the company entitled to vote at the meeting is present in person or represented by proxies at the meeting. The inspector of election has been sworn in, and I have her 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 of business.
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 stockholders for a vote at this meeting. As described in the proxy materials, there are three proposals to be considered, and the Board of Directors has recommended that stockholders vote in favor of proposals one, two, and three. No other matters will be considered. Following the vote, we will report the preliminary voting results from the inspector of election, and then the meeting will adjourn. The polls open today, May 20th, 2025, at 8:00 A.M. Pacific time for voting on all matters before the meeting. Many of you have already mailed or otherwise delivered your proxy card 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 stockholder who has not yet voted or wishes 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 amended and restated bylaws, the company's board of directors is divided into three classes, with each class of directors being elected every three years.
At this meeting, Ethan Brown, Colleen Jay, and Raymond J. Lane have been nominated as Class III directors of the company to serve until the 2028 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 Ethan Brown, Colleen Jay, and Raymond J. Lane as directors of the company to serve and hold office until the 2028 annual meeting of stockholders and until their respective successors have been duly elected and qualified. The second matter presented for a vote is the proposal to ratify the appointment of Deloitte & Touche LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the 2025 fiscal year.
The board of directors has unanimously recommended that the stockholders vote for the ratification of the appointment of Deloitte & Touche LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the 2025 fiscal year. The third and final matter presented for a vote is the proposal to approve on an advisory basis the compensation of the company's named executive officers. The board of directors has unanimously recommended that the stockholders vote to approve the compensation of the company's named executive officers by adopting the following resolution: Resolved that the compensation paid to the company's named executive officers, as disclosed pursuant to Item 402 of Regulation S-K under the Exchange Act, including the compensation discussion and analysis, compensation tables, and narrative discussion, is hereby approved. We will pause for another moment to allow for any votes to be completed online.
Again, if you have provided your proxy cards, your shares will be voted in accordance with your instructions. Any stockholder who has not yet voted or wishes to change their vote may do so by clicking on the Vote Here button on the web portal. The polls are now closed at 8:08 A.M. Pacific Time, May 20th, 2025, and the inspector of election will tabulate the votes. The next item on the agenda is the preliminary report of the inspector of election. Any votes cast before the polls closed but not reflected in the preliminary report will be reflected in the final report of the inspector of election, which will be affixed to the minutes of the meeting.
The inspector of election will prepare the final report and certification of the inspector of election once all votes are tallied, and the results will be detailed in a current report on Form 8-K, which we will file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Based on the preliminary report of the inspector of election, each of Ethan Brown, Colleen Jay, and Raymond J. Lane have been duly elected as directors of the company to serve and hold office until the 2028 annual meeting of stockholders and until their respective successors have been duly elected and qualified. The appointment of Deloitte & Touche LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the 2025 fiscal year has been approved and ratified, and the compensation of the company's named executive officers has been approved, and the proposed resolution has been adopted.
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, and Paul Sheppard, our vice resident, FP&A and Investor Relations, to conduct a brief question-and-answer session.
Thank you, Seth. Our first question is on the subject of compensation. When the company is not doing well and the stock price is so low, why are the company's executives asking for compensation? Investors lost so much money.
Thank you, Paul, and thank you for the question. I think it's very important to look at the competitive environment in which we operate. This is an effort that we will be pursuing over many, many years, and we need to make sure we have the very best talent in place to move the industry forward. We are seen as the industry leader. We are doing something that's very disruptive in the protein space, and it's not always a clean, linear line. We're going to have peaks and valleys, and we obviously have been in a valley, but we expect to be pulling out of that. The team that is here and assembled here is working as hard as they possibly can to do that on behalf of the shareholders.
Thank you, Ethan. Our next question is also on the subject of compensation. Why do we give shares to executives and directors, pay them, and allow them to purchase shares at a reduced rate and require them to hold the shares for a specified period of time depending on the discount? Giving away shares that are created for such use diminishes the equity and voting power of each shareholder.
Yeah, so we are very cognizant of making sure that our program in getting shares to not only the leaders of the company but to staff is done in the most efficient way possible so that we're not diluting excessively. The reason that we are so focused on getting equity into the hands not only of the executive team but also into other employees is that this most closely aligns our behaviors and our outcomes with shareholders. I can tell you that on the executive team, as an example, the majority of our compensation is in equity. When the stock is not doing well, that does negatively impact our executive team in a significant way. It is the best way to align interests and make sure that everyone is highly focused on creating value through our share price.
Thank you, Ethan. We'll now have a couple of questions on the subject of business performance. Why are you not advertising in Europe? For example, France, only a small chain store called Monoprix is offering Beyond Meat products. I've tested all competitors' products and can tell they are way behind.
Great. First of all, I appreciate very much the compliment on the quality of our products. We have such pride in the work we do year in and year out to continue to improve the products, continue to lead the category. I think that if you look at France, one of our really great customers in McDonald's is there, and we are now selling nuggets throughout 1,500 stores in McDonald's in France. It is doing, from what I can see and the data that I am seeing, it seems to be doing quite well. We are very pleased with that performance. We have an active marketing campaign going on elsewhere in the EU. It is called All Taste, No Worries. We are very active over there and have a great partner there as well. We believe in that market over the long run.
Thank you, Ethan. Our next question is also on the subject of business performance. I'm a big fan of Beyond Meat products, but often when I tell others to try them, they say, "Oh, no, that is ultra-processed food, which is bad." How can I counter this argument?
Yeah, that is a, and I think you've heard me speak on this potentially. There's a short film we put about it. It's about nine minutes long called Planting Change. It really gets into this issue about why people think that about Beyond Meat and where it came from. It also very clearly outlines how we make our products, and it's a step-by-step description. I think what's important to consider is the products start at the farm, and I'll use this example of steak as a way to explain it. The farmer's growing a fava bean. That fava bean is milled like anything else. That flour is placed in an air chamber, and because the density and the size of protein and starch are different, they separate. We take that protein and run it through heating, cooling, and pressure. That's what creates our products.
It's a very simple process of separating the protein from the plant, then running it through heating, cooling, and pressure on the same machine that's often used for pasta. That is our process, and it's actually a simple and very clean process. You need to juxtapose that with the process through which 99% of the meat sold in the United States goes through, which is one of antibiotics, hormones, special lighting, special feed, all of these manipulations to be able to get that animal meat to the center of the plate. We have a much cleaner, more efficient process, and that's really the way to think about it. Getting your protein directly from plants is a clearer path to the plate and a cleaner path to the plate than it is to run that plant material through an animal.
I think the clear answer on this is it's a direct line from the field to the plate, whereas if you're using plants, you have to run those plants through an animal. You have to give the animal antibiotics and hormones. Our process is a cleaner and better process, something that should be celebrated, not dodged.
Thank you, Ethan. Our next question is also on the subject of business performance. How is the company demonstrating its commitment to sustainability? Last year, there were plans mentioned to report on the company's sustainability metrics and update the LCA. What is the status of those endeavors?
Yeah, so we continue to work very hard on our LCA work, and we just did a recent update on some of our products. If you look at things like our steak tips, 84% less greenhouse gas emissions, 93% less water, and 88% less land use than the animal protein equivalent. In each case, we want to not only create the advantage relative to animal protein from an environmental perspective, but also do a really good job recording and documenting that for people. What's really interesting to me is when I go out and meet with farmers, they're actually making more money now by growing our crops than they would growing some other crops. One of the reasons that's happening is, for example, with fava beans, the crop I mentioned earlier, they're using less synthetic fertilizer.
They are able to do that because the fava bean crop is taking nitrogen out of the atmosphere and putting it into the soil. It is a natural and regenerative process that is occurring. In each case, our products advance sustainability, not just in terms of displacing the animal that is emitting methane and using a lot of land, energy, and water, but also helping the soil to become more productive. Just to harken back to the earlier question about process, one of the key features of our products are the outcomes. If you think about what people are concerned about with processed food, they are generally concerned about high levels of saturated fat, high levels of sodium, additives, and things of that nature. If you look at our products, the outcomes are very clean. There are high levels of protein, very low levels of saturated fat.
For example, 2 g of saturated fat in our burger from avocado oil, that's compared to 75% less than an animal burger. Whether it's the sustainability of our products that we capture in our ESG work and LCA work or the health benefits of our products, the more people learn about our company, the more they realize how strong the value proposition is in each case.
Thank you, Ethan. We will now take our last question, which is in the form of a shareholder proposal. Would you please consider creating a vegan holiday roast for the holidays? I'm disappointed in every vegan holiday roast which currently exists.
I will tell you what, we absolutely love that proposal. We will take it into deep consideration, and it is something that I, of course, would like to see myself. Thank you for that.
That will conclude our question and answer session. Thank you for your participation. Ethan Brown will provide some closing remarks.
Thank you, Paul. At Beyond Meat, we continue to remain very committed to our mission of meaningfully impacting as a global community how we deliver protein to the center of the plate. Our products are made with simple and clean ingredients like avocado oil and proteins from yellow peas, brown rice, red lentils, and fava beans. Each of these ingredients comes together to create something that is truly nutritious and delicious for special people in our lives and you, the consumer. The positive choices we each make, no matter how small, together can have a great impact on our personal health and the health of the planet. By shifting from animal protein to plant protein, we can positively impact four critically important areas of global concern: human health, climate change, constraints on natural resources such as land, energy, and water, and animal welfare.
At Beyond Meat, we thank you for your continued belief in our vision and your continued interest and commitment to our brand. Thank you all for attending our 2025 annual meeting of Beyond Meat. Thank you.
That concludes our meeting today. Thank you for joining, and have a pleasant day.
The host has ended this call. Good.