Thank you. Thanks so much for having me today. I'd really like to hopefully leave you—I don't know, some folks might know a little bit about the company, other folks not as much. I'd really love to leave you with three things today. The first one is we're in a pretty amazing industry. The deli, I call it about $40 billion. It's actually $60 billion, but that includes the sort of sliced meats and delis, you know, deli sliced cheeses. It's a $40 billion category, growing 5% in units over the past 52 weeks. Number one, amazing category. Two, we have a pretty differentiated story. I'm going to talk to you a little bit about Dan Mancini, how we started with Mama Mancini's, a couple acquisitions that we've done. Now we have an amazing—and we just finished it up at the end of last year—an amazing team now.
That's number two, a differentiated story. Then third and most important is we have a different strategy. We are trying to become, or we are already becoming, a first of its kind one-stop shop in the deli. We will speak about that. Three things: amazing category, differentiated proposition, and a differentiated strategy. Obviously, the most creative slide in the deck today is our forward-looking statements. You guys could read more about that on our website. Mama's overall, just on a page first, I just want to make sure the deli. Anywhere you shop: Costco, BJ's, Sam's, Stop & Shop, Publix, anywhere you shop convenience stores, anything behind the glass, anything in the hot bar, the cold bar, grab-and-go set, prepared food set, that's what we're talking about as a deli business. We're about $120 million, $125 million of revenue, profitable business.
The entire leadership team is all incented on growing our business. All of my compensation is stock price appreciation. We're all in it together. More than 10% of the business is held by insiders. We're all running the business together. Let's go through each of these three things. First, again, the deli. I really believe it is your decision to say, "Is this Adam guy okay?" It is absolutely. What's important is your assessment of, "This Adam guy might be okay, but is his strategy right?" What is an absolute undeniable fact is that the deli is where the growth is. The other thing, to my understanding, I've been asking now for two and a half years, we are the only publicly traded deli company in America. 100% of every other player in the country is private. Massive growth, it's exactly where consumers are going.
Back 100 years ago, I've been in the food space for a little bit. I used to run our M&A in North America at Mondelez at Nabisco. The job I had before that was actually possibly my favorite job of all time is I used to run all of our consumer intelligence, right? My only job every day was to go to the CEO and told him what our 330 million friends in America were saying and feeling and looking for. Fresh, clean, easy to prepare. That's what consumers wanted. When I was doing that, it's more what they even more what they want today. I don't know if you guys heard there's some market instability going on in the world these days, right? Inflation, I've heard there's a little bit of inflation here and there.
What's happening is away from home is actually inflation is much higher, almost 2x of what in-home inflation is. That doesn't help. Recessionary challenges, the first thing people do is they pull back from eating out, right? That's a luxury. Things are getting too expensive. The idea of the deli is where the growth is, right? That's where we've been focused on. Two, I told you this is a differentiated story. There really is a Dan Mancini. I get to hang out with him all the time. I actually have breakfast with him next Friday. Dan started this business, right? We started as Mama Mancini's. It's been around 10, 15 years now. We started with meatballs. Actually, when I first got here, we were a Northeast meatball company. Today, actually, meatballs aren't even our biggest item.
Today, I think it's up to 47% now of our sales are west of the Ohio River. It all started here. The ability, if you look at the back of any of our Mama Mancini's products, there's pictures of Dan behind each one of them. It really resonates with buyers. It really resonates, right? The retailers really resonate with the consumer. It's a real product. There really is Dan. 100%, it's like a high number. 100% of all you send in an email to our, actually, the number one complaint we get in the company is actually, "I can't find your products." Swear to god, that's our number one complaint. If we have to have complaints, that's a pretty good one. Anytime you test me, send in a note, you're not happy with something, Dan responds to every single consumer comment.
It really resonates with the consumer. I told you the deli is where you want to be. I'm talking to you about where this all started, how it resonates, right? You can't fake that. I don't care how good of a businessman I am, I can't make up this story, right? He did this with his grandmother. What's new, and for some of you guys that have been following the story for some time, some of these slides you're going to hear were when I first said them two and a half years ago. What's new that happened at the end of last year, finally? It took me two and a half years to do it, but I built a best-in-class leadership team. Actually, I will go in so far to say this is the most overqualified deli perimeter management team there is in the marketplace, right?
These are all CPG guys, right? Center aisle, right? Again, Chris used to run, Chris Darling, we brought him in at the end of last year. He ran sales at Boar's Head. Skip started his career at P&G for 20 years, ran logistics at Walmart, Campbell's. This is a massively overqualified team because we really do believe in what we can achieve with Mama's. Lauren Sella, who runs our marketing, was at Tate's Bake Shop beforehand. You guys like cookies? No one likes cookies? Man, you guys are quiet today. Gosh. Deli is where you want to be. We got a pretty differentiated proposition. The real unlock is we have a differentiated strategy. I told you before the deli is all private, right? There is a guy that makes the best potato salad in Kentucky.
He's raised his family, had enough money to put his kids through college, grandkids taken care of to go away on vacation. That is what he does. When Walmart comes to him and says, "Hey, I will buy all the coleslaw you can make," what do you think he says?
I don't know.
No, I make potato salad. That's what I do. I don't need to do any more. Everything's taken care of. We do everything. All the difficulties, all the challenges that the buyer had when I first got here, the first thing I had my sales team do is listen. Where are the challenges? I got to deal with a dozen different trucks coming in every day to fill the deli counter. I have to deal with a dozen different EDI systems, trade plans. I got to worry about deductions on 12 different companies. I could solve that for you. I could do everything. I could make all the meatballs, all the sausage and peppers, all the chicken, all the salads, all the paninis, all the wraps, all the olives. The idea is to be that one-stop shop so we make the job easier for the retailer.
In turn, they're going to want us over others. Now it makes it easier for the end consumer. That's it. Amazing category, all the data to prove it. A differentiated approach with Dan and our leadership team. A clearly first-of-its-kind differentiated strategy to upend the idea of the deli, of regional, of singular products to be that one-stop shop to meet the needs of the retailer. Let's go into a little bit of the detail about the business. We do everything ourselves. We'll talk about that in a little bit. We have two facilities. We make everything ourselves. End to end, we have amazing chefs, Chef Chris, amazing. We develop the items ourselves. We produce the items ourselves, get them shipped out. We market the items ourselves. End to end.
If I want to impress you, I could tell you we have, I don't know, 100, 200 items across the spectrum. If I really wanted to impress you, I'd tell you we had over 500 items when I started. I am net negative since I've been here. You will find out I am incredibly—I used to say I'm frugal. No, I'm just cheap. I am all about efficiencies. If you have one raw material to deal with one product, and now I have to keep that from an inventory perspective, that is just inefficient. We have concentrated. We make—it's actually my kids' favorite products. The number one product, we make all these products. My boys like chocolate chip cream cheese we make. That's their best product. We make 10 types of cream cheeses, and we sell them throughout New York City, other places.
Do we really need boysenberry when we have blueberry and raspberry? Because now I have to keep that in inventory. I have to throw that out because it goes bad. We have actually cut our SKUs. We innovate. Lauren leads our efforts on our new product development stuff. Our Super Bowl is actually called IDDBA. You guys want to have a fun time. I mean, not as good as Planet MicroCap, but the second coolest place you guys could be, you come down this year, I think it is in Nashville in June, and you will see it is called the International Dairy, Deli, and Bakery Association. Again, you guys are not impressed? I was able to do that on a first try. God, darn. Okay. That is where we come out with all of our items. That is any major retailer. That is where we showcase our new items.
I'm going to make you guys come down or at least wait a month before we announce our new items that we'll be sharing at the event. The whole idea of our new items, I just told you I cut half of our items, is about incrementality. Can I get us into a new cohort of people that we don't have today? A new occasion that I can't get in today? A new channel. I will speak to you in a little bit about we're in the convenience channel now. We were never in there before because we never had items, right? You can't sell three pounds of meatballs to Sheetz, right? That is why we came up with the paninis. That is why we came up with the meatballs in a cup because we have an item that now sells in the convenience channel. It's pretty cool demographics-wise.
I will challenge you guys to find me one person that cannot eat one of our products. This is not, again, I've been in the space for a while, kombucha and refrigerated nutrition bars. Wait a minute, if you take it out of the refrigerator, will I die if I eat it? How many hours do I have? It's really hard on some of these new items to help people understand. Guys, we make meatballs. We make grilled chicken. We make Israeli couscous, Persian rice. We make paninis. My go-to lunch is a Nashville hot panini is my favorite. Everybody can eat these products. You don't eat beef. You don't eat proteins. We got salads. You don't want salads. We have sandwiches. You don't want sandwiches. We have olives. We can meet the needs of we have something for everyone. Every demographic, it's awesome. Every channel.
We're in all 50 states. Most importantly, for Luke over here, we're in Puerto Rico. That's most important. Every channel you see, every customer, we're in every Costco in America right now. We're in every BJ's in America. We're in every Sam's Club in America. We're in Albertsons on the West Coast, Ahold on the East Coast, Publix down south. You name it, we're there. Big folks I mentioned earlier getting into the convenience channel. Massively incremental, right? Selling into BJ's, with all due respect, and selling into Costco, it's probably the same occasion, right? You're making dinner that night, right? So selling to one or the other, I'm somewhat cannibalizing. This is an item that you're going to eat on the go, right?
You're going to have one of our meatballs in a cup, which is a bit of a misnomer because the best cup item we have is sausage and peppers in a cup. I got to come up with a better name for it. Right, on the go. It's in the car. It's an incremental occasion. It's a younger audience. C-Store is a younger audience. Now I'm getting into different demographics. The thing you should hear over and over again from me is incrementality. That's what I care about. Some of the great work that Chris Darling's doing, you see some of his big sales initiatives. I will not be able to articulate it as well as he does. All you have to remember is the big focus is on AIC, average items carried. Why? I just told you why because I'm cheap. The truck's already going there.
To put another pallet of product into the same store next to the same products we already have, it's more efficient. It creates a billboard effect. It's really easy to mistake or not see one item. But if you see six of our items, you can't miss it. Average items carried, driving velocity, right? Products already there. How does Chris do a better job with our trade? How does Lauren do a better job with our marketing to get people to buy it faster and faster and faster? Our reorders are happening faster and faster and faster, right? Ultimately get into new stores, right? I know that's what everyone loves talking about. We got into Walmart last year. We have some other big Luke had a good word for it. What is the other big wells we're going for?
We're in all 50 states. I said $120 million of sales. When I first got here, three biggest retailers in America, Walmart, Target, Kroger, we had a whopping total of zero sales in Walmart, Target, and Kroger. I told the team, "We're going to get into one a year. You're going to find I'm incredibly patient. No one could make me go fast. I am all about focus, executing with excellence." I said one a year. Last year, we got into Walmart. It's a new year. We'll see what Chris gets us. Big focus. Again, amazing work that Lauren's putting together. Three As, awareness, action, and advocacy. Before people get into the store, do they know about Mama's, Mama's Creations, Mama Mancini's, right? We do a lot of work online to get people on Facebook and doing partnerships. Action.
When you're in the stores, does it hit you in the face? I'm a big fan of shelf talkers or wobblers or stuff on the floor, big signs, big pictures. Dan, again, it's pretty cool. We get a lot of free publicity with Dan because he's sort of like a local legend. You go to Whole Foods and there's a picture of Dan because he's local of sorts. That's about the action. Then advocacy, talking about it. I hope everyone submitted for National Meatball Day last month. No, you guys are killing me. Luke, come on. How do we get people to really define that brand love? There's a lot of work that we're doing from the marketing perspective. Skip leads all of our operations. I mentioned to you, we have two of our we make everything ourselves.
We have two facilities, one in Farmingdale, Long Island, one in East Rutherford, New Jersey. If you guys have been hearing this story, we actually doubled the footprint of our Farmingdale facility last year, added $5 million of capital to our facility, 100% paid for from cash flow from operations. 100% paid for if we do not have it. Anthony Gruber is our CFO. If we do not have the money in our bank account, we do not spend the money. We doubled our footprint in Farmingdale, doubled our chicken capacity. We have two grills, actually added four grills. These are just like the grills you have at home in your backyard. Not that size matters, but mine is 25 to 30 feet long. East Rutherford, we actually just on February 1st, doubled our facility in East Rutherford. We had half the building. We just took over the full building.
Based on what Skip tells me, I'm married, so I'm a good learner. It's whatever they tell me to do, I do. We will see what we do with that facility. We're already using it, but we're thinking about, do we use that as a mixing center? Think of it as like a central hub for all of our production and ship everything out of that. Again, drives efficiency. Do we add more freezer space? Do we add more manufacturing? That's the work that we're doing there now. You see some of the pictures that we've developed there. I've overdid the punchline of sorts, margin, margin, and margin. I do a lot of work with nonprofits. Scott suckered into being a city councilman in my town. I am all for doing nonprofit work at night, not during the day. When I started, we had literally 11.9% gross margin.
Last year, before we had some hiccups, which I shared with you guys, we were at 30%. The goal is not, hey, there's this aspiration that I've never hit before, but we're really, I promise we'll get there. I've done it already. We've already been at 30%. It's all about that focus. Balancing organic and inorganic growth. We're going to be a billion-dollar business. Half of that is organic. Last year, we grew 20%. The other half is going to be inorganic. $500 million of organic. We're going to acquire $500 million of business. This is a massively fragmented industry. All of it, private businesses. All of it, mom and pops. Unfortunately, those mom and pops are getting older. My boys, maybe not as aggressive as I am, and I'm sure I was not as strong and lazier than my father.
I know my grandfather said my father wasn't as hard a worker as him. No one wants to run a plant. Now they just want to be a TikTok star. There are a lot of businesses that don't have a home. Billion-dollar business. Some of our financials. Again, big focus on profitability. When I started, we didn't have even a million dollars of cash. Now over $7 million. Felt like we had even more debt before, even less. We're actually under-levered right now. We now have built a strong foundation for our business, and that's why you're starting to see the growth accelerate. That's it. I told you three things. One, this is exactly the category you want to be in. I'm not going to tell you you want to be with me.
I'm not going to tell you you like my strategy. I am telling you you want to be in this category. Two, we have a differentiated proposition. Three, we have a differentiated strategy. With that, I'm happy to take questions. Yes, sir.
Thank you. I see that you're not afraid of competitors. What are you afraid of? What's the main thing?
The dark. I'm not afraid of anything. I mean, first of all, this is a huge category. A big question people ask me all the time is when you get in, when you get new products in, and you see we get tons of new products in, who are you displacing? 50% of the time, if not 75% of the time, we're not displacing anybody.
What's cool about this category, number one, is that unlike my entire career where no one grew shelf space, center aisle, cookies, crackers, salty snacks, carbonated beverages are only shrinking. This category is actually growing in shelf space. They need us to fill the space, let alone beat someone else. I mean, obviously, I know all my competitors. I sit on industry boards. They have no impact on my strategy. I know where we're going. Yes, sir.
What's your comfort level with leverage? Because it sounds like you can do a lot of M&A.
I don't know. I think, and there are people smarter than me that help guide me with two times be fine-ish. I feel like three sounds I just don't like odd numbers. So I'm pretty cheap.
Anthony Gruber, our CFO, is an incredibly good steward and will not let us get ahead of our skis. The key is I am extraordinarily patient. I do not need to be rushed on anything. I do not want to see too much leverage. It is not needed.
What percentage of your sales are frozen food versus fresh?
Ooh. First off, if I was over there, I would hit your hand a little bit. 100%. I cannot believe I did not say this before. 100%. Please write it down. I see every pen moving right this minute. 100% of our items are fresh. 100% of what our end consumers see is fresh. Will a customer maybe ask us to ship it frozen so it is easier for them? Possibly. We are okay with that. 100%. You guys are still not writing this down. 100% of our stuff is fresh. Yes, sir.
Products sourced from the U.S., the chicken and beef, etc.?
It would be really impressive if I could tell you that 100%—nothing's ever 100%. Everything we do is domestically sourced. All of our beef is U.S., all of our chicken's U.S., everything's U.S. And 100% of our sales are U.S. What was it called? Liberation Day did not have much of an impact on us. Yes, sir.
All the perks that consumers give your brands. Or sometimes it's just that they just put on a different packaging and take it away. What's the balance of that?
Our legacy Mama Mancini's business is about 50-50. 50% of it is branded and 50% of it's private label or like in the hot bar. Chris doesn't like that. He wants it to be about 75-25. 75% branded, 25% private label.
He has been here three months, and already I am seeing a dramatic shift towards branded. I think I am getting yelled at already, but I am happy to be outside and take some more questions. Thank you guys.