Good morning. I am Billy Cyr, Chief Executive Officer of Freshpet. On behalf of our company and our board of directors, I would like to welcome you to Freshpet's 2026 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. Our meeting is being held via webcast, which allows our meeting to be more accessible to more of our shareholders. Please take a moment to review the agenda and rules of conduct for this meeting, as posted on the portal. I would like to specifically point out that we will be strictly following the agenda, and that all questions must come from the properly logged-in stockholders, submitting them in writing through the portal. Please be sure to include your email address if you didn't do that as part of your registration. Questions will be addressed at the end. I will now turn the meeting over to Walt George III, the Chair of Freshpet's Board of Directors.
Thanks, Billy. Ladies and gentlemen, the annual meeting of stockholders of Freshpet Incorporated will come to order. In addition to Billy, I'm joined today by Freshpet's other current directors, Olu Beck, David Biegger , Daryl Brewster, Jacki Kelley, Lauri Kien Kotcher , Timothy McLevish, Leta D. Priest , Joseph Scalzo, Craig Steeneck, and David West. At this year's annual meeting, all 12 of our current directors are up for re-election today. In addition, representatives of KPMG LLP, the company's independent registered public accounting firm, are on this call, and they are available to receive and answer questions that stockholders may have. Also joining us today are Mr. Justin, Chairman of the law firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, and Jan Costello of Janice W. Costello LLC, a representative of Broadridge Financial Services. Ms. Costello has been appointed to act as Inspector of Elections for this meeting.
All stockholders of record as of the close of business on April 15th, 2026, are entitled to notice of and to vote at this meeting. Just a reminder that if you are a stockholder of record and wish to vote your shares directly as opposed to by proxy, you must do so on the portal after using your 16-digit control number that you receive with your proxy card on your ballot to register. During the meeting, stockholders are welcome to submit questions. Stockholders participating online through the virtual meeting platform may submit a question by typing it into the Ask a Question field and clicking Submit. Questions pertinent to meeting matters will be answered following the formal portion of this meeting, subject to time constraints.
A copy of the notice of the annual meeting of stockholders dated April 27th, 2026, concerning the matters to be considered and acted upon at the meeting, and a copy of the proxy statement, proxy card, and annual report to stockholders for the fiscal year ended December 31st, 2025, were made available electronically or by mail to each stockholder of record at the close of business on April 15th, 2026, the date fixed by the board of directors as the record date for this meeting, on or about April 27th, 2026. An affidavit of distribution to that effect, executed by an officer of Broadridge Corporate Issuer Solutions Incorporated, will be filed with minutes of this meeting. These proxy materials, as well as a certified list of stockholders entitled to vote at the meeting, have been made available to our offices for inspection by any stockholder.
I have been informed by the Inspector of Elections that at this meeting we have represented, in-person or by proxy, shares of Freshpet common stock representing over a majority of the 49,142,509 shares entitled to vote on the record date. Therefore, I declare that a quorum is present and that this meeting may proceed to transact the business set forth in the notice of annual meeting of stockholders. We will now proceed to the transaction of business. The polls are now open for voting and will close following the reading of the proposals. Each stockholder may vote the number of shares that they held of record on April 15, 2026. If you have already voted by proxy and do not wish to change your vote, you need not take any further action at this time.
The first item of business is to elect 12 directors to the company's board of directors to each serve a one-year term ending at the 2026 annual meeting of stockholders, and until such directors' successors have been duly elected and qualified, or until such directors' earlier death, resignation, or removal. The board of directors has nominated the following 12 persons for election to the company's board of directors: Olu Beck, David Biegger, Daryl Brewster, William B. Cyr, myself, Walt George, Jacki Kelley, Lauri Kien Kotcher, Timothy McLevish, Leta Priest, Joseph Scalzo, Craig Steeneck, and David West. As no other persons were nominated in accordance with the company's governing documents, we will not be considering any other nominations at this time. The second item of business is the ratification of the appointment of KPMG LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the year ending December 31, 2026.
The third item of business is to approve by a non-binding advisory vote the compensation of the company's named executive officers as disclosed in the company's proxy. As no other business was properly brought before the annual meeting, no other business will be voted on at today's meeting. We will now close the polls for voting. The voting will be tabulated by the Inspector of Elections based on preliminary results. I can report that stockholders have voted for the election of each of the 12 director nominees listed in the company's proxy statement for the ratification of the appointment of KPMG LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2026, and for the approval on an advisory basis of the compensation of the company's named executive officers. Therefore, each of the proposals one, two, and three set forth in the company's proxy statement have been approved.
These results are preliminary only. A full tally of the final voting results will be reported on a Form 8-K to be filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission within four business days. Thank you for attending. The formal portion of the meeting is now adjourned.
The meeting is now concluded. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect.