Good afternoon, and welcome to Arcadia Biosciences Investor Update. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to T.J. Schaefer, Chief Financial Officer at Arcadia. Please go ahead.
Thank you, and good afternoon. Joining me on the call today is Stan Jacot, Arcadia's President and Chief Executive Officer. This call is being webcast, and you can refer to the company's press releases at arcadiabio.com, as well as our recent 8-K filings. Before we start, we would like to remind you that Arcadia Biosciences will be making forward-looking statements on this call based on current expectations and currently available information. However, since these statements are based on factors that involve risks and uncertainties, the company's actual performance and results may differ materially from those described or implied today. You can review the company's safe harbor language in our most recently filed 10-Q. With that, I will now turn the call over to Stan.
Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us on the call today. We scheduled this call to provide more perspective on two recent transactions and their significant positive impact to Arcadia and the company's future. But before we dive in, I want to step back and reflect on the progress Arcadia has made in executing Project Greenfield, our three-year strategic plan to unlock the company's potential and provide a path to profitability, which was initiated less than two years ago. Project Greenfield included four key objectives, and it's worth taking a moment to review how this focus has reshaped Arcadia and strengthened the position of the company going forward. The first objective was to establish GoodWheat footholds in retail categories, representing over $10 billion in annual revenue.
In less than 18 months, we launched the GoodWheat brand into three distinct categories: pasta, pancakes, and mac and cheese, securing over 3,500 points of distribution, a truly ambitious achievement for a company our size. The products received accolades from many trusted sources, including the American Heart Association, Amazon, and Better Homes and Gardens. The brand is now in the hands of a larger company that can scale faster and more efficiently, which I will talk more about later. The second objective for Project Greenfield was to drive shared growth in our core brands. I have mentioned in past calls our relentless focus on generating gross profit, which has meant growing top line on our higher-margin businesses while simultaneously reducing the gross profit drains. One of our higher-margin businesses is Zola Coconut Water, which has also been the largest consumer brand in our portfolio.
Zola is back to growing share after a tough 2023, and we are optimistic that this double-digit growth will continue in 2024. Our new lime and pineapple flavors will begin shipping in Q2, adding more variety to Zola's naturally hydrating lineup. We have added new distribution as we expect to ship to nearly 1,300 new stores in the second quarter of 2024, bringing our total store count for Zola to over 3,300 by the end of June. At the same time, we have sold, divested, or exited several businesses that were a drain on our gross profit, including body care and hemp. The results from this objective have been significant, with 2 straight years of gross profit dollar growth and 5 straight quarters of gross profit margins above 30%.
The third objective in Project Greenfield was to leverage partnerships to build future licensing revenue. We have successfully monetized our IP and resistant starch durum wheat, bringing forward future royalties in the deal with our longtime partner, Corteva Agriscience, which I will discuss in more detail later. We are continuing to pursue two key steps to monetize our remaining IP. One, partner with a wheat supply chain in order to produce a scalable, cost-effective, identity-preserved wheat supply. And two, work with large food manufacturers to build demand for our wheat to create a long-term pull-through partnership. The final Project Greenfield objective was to build an agile organization and winning culture. This has been accomplished by right-sizing the organization as business needs have changed, all while ensuring flawless execution of our key initiatives. We have also tightly managed operating expenses, finding efficiencies, and making tough spending choices.
The result has been a decline in operating expenses of more than 20%, while gross profit dollars have continued to grow, which shows the amazing team and culture that we have at Arcadia. So now let's turn our attention to the first transaction we announced, which was the sale of Arcadia's non-GMO, resistant starch durum wheat technology to a wholly-owned subsidiary of our longtime partner, Corteva Agriscience. This collaboration started in 2017, when our two companies signed an agreement for Corteva to have exclusive North American rights to Arcadia's resistant starch durum wheat trait. Corteva has been steadily advancing this trait towards commercialization, introgressing it into elite germplasm lines in their pipeline, and this transaction opens up access to markets beyond North America for them. For Arcadia, this means earlier monetization of our resistant starch durum technology, accelerating royalties with a one-time payment of $4 million.
Importantly, we have retained our remaining non-GMO wheat IP, including RG bread, RG durum, and oxidative stability. And we believe this transaction sets a value standard for the rest of this portfolio. Now, let's move to the second transaction, the sale of GoodWheat to Above Food. Above Food has a large consumer products and specialty ingredient business, which will allow the GoodWheat products to scale more quickly, and Above Food's vertically integrated farm-to-fork supply chain can improve efficiency and margins. GoodWheat fits perfectly into Above Food's nutrient-dense, plant-based portfolios, and we are excited for the future of the GoodWheat brand and products. Arcadia is receiving a net $4 million over time, which will help extend our cash runway while reducing marketing, promotion, and SG&A expenses. This is a win-win for both companies, and we believe there are further commercial opportunities with Above Food.
For example, we are exploring the best ways to integrate our remaining wheat IP into Above Food's identity preservation system. We'll keep you updated if any material events occur. As we look forward, Arcadia continues to operate two divisions. Arcadia Wellness is the consumer goods division and is led by Zola Coconut Water. The patent and licensing division is run by the parent company, Arcadia Biosciences, and includes the wheat IP that I mentioned earlier. We expect both divisions to generate gross profit in the future, with the majority of gross profit coming from the consumer goods division in the near term. Finally, while we are pleased with the outcome of these two transactions, our work is not complete.
The strategic review announced last year is still continuing, which stated that Arcadia would explore a range of strategic options, which would include or could include an asset sale, acquisition, merger, sale, or other strategic transactions. We continue to explore all options, but we must point out that there can be no assurance that this exploration of strategic alternatives will result in the company entering or completing any transaction, and no timetable has been set for the conclusion of the strategic review. With that, I'll turn the call over to T.J. to discuss the financial implications of these transactions. T.J.?
Thank you, Stan, and thanks to everyone on the call for joining us today to discuss two transactions related to our wheat IP that we announced over the last 10 days. If you haven't reviewed our 8-K filings related to these transactions, I would encourage you to do so, as they contain details outside of what we plan to discuss today. With that, let's review the financial impact of these transactions, as well as our outlook going forward, starting with the Corteva agreement. On May 13, 2024, Arcadia entered into an asset purchase agreement to sell certain patent and related rights associated with our resistant starch durum wheat to a wholly owned subsidiary of Corteva, in exchange for $4 million cash.
As stated in our Form 8-K, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, May 17, the purchased assets have never been recorded on the balance sheet included in Arcadia's periodic filings. As a result, the impact of this transaction from a financial perspective will be a $4 million gain on sale on our P&L and an increase to cash and equity of $4 million on our balance sheet. Moving now to the second transaction with Above Food. On May 14, 2024, Arcadia and its wholly owned subsidiary, Arcadia Wellness, entered into an asset purchase agreement to sell certain assets relating to our GoodWheat business to Above Food.
As part of the agreement, Arcadia agreed to transfer GoodWheat grain and finished goods inventory, trademarks, and $2 million cash in exchange for a $6 million promissory note with a 3-year term and annual interest that accrues at the prime rate. In addition, as noted in the promissory note that was included as Exhibit 10.2 in our Form 8-K, filed on Monday, May 20. At any time between July 1, 2024, and the second anniversary date, Arcadia has the option to receive $2 million in stock if Above Food common stock is publicly traded when we elect this option. For this purpose, Above Food common stock will be valued at 90% of its volume-weighted average price for the preceding 20 trading days. If Arcadia were to elect to be paid with stock, the prepayment would be applied to the last installment.
This transaction impacts our financial statements in numerous ways, so I would refer you to our unaudited pro forma financial information, which can be found in Exhibit 99.1 of our Form 8-K for further details. Let me now shift gears and talk about the outlook for 2024. But before we jump in, let me remind everyone that the results of our GoodWheat business will be reported as discontinued operations and will not be included in the full year outlook that I will discuss now. Our product portfolio for the remainder of 2024 will consist of Zola Coconut Water as well as our GLA oil. But as Stan mentioned earlier in the call, we expect our Zola brand to be the driver of growth this year.
with GLA accounting for less than 15% of our total pro forma revenues as we run out the remaining inventory in 2024. From a top-line perspective, we expect the new distribution gains at Zola to offset the lost sales from GoodWheat. So on a full year basis, we believe our 2024 revenues will essentially be in line with the $5.3 million of revenue we reported for 2023 in our 10-K filed in March. We expect our gross profit dollars to be above the $2 million we reported in 2023, as both Zola and GLA deliver higher margins than GoodWheat. We expect combined gross margins for Zola and GLA to be in the low 40s% in 2024, with some variability from quarter to quarter, driven by product mix.
Longer term, we expect gross margins to be in the low-to-mid 30s%, as we do not expect to sell GLA oil beyond 2024. While we are likely to incur some costs related to this transition in the short term, we currently expect our quarterly run rate for R&D and SG&A expenses to be around $2 billion per quarter, beginning in the second half of the year. These changes are expected to reduce our operating loss and use of cash by approximately 50% compared to what was reported for 2023 in our 10-K. We believe these reductions, along with the proceeds from the promissory note from Above Food, will extend our runway beyond 2025.
However, we must point out that our outlook is based on current expectations that could change depending on the outcome of the strategic review, which is still ongoing, as Stan previously mentioned. In summary, we expect our full year 2024 revenues to be in line with the prior year, despite the loss of GoodWheat sales. At the same time, our gross margins will be higher and our operating expenses will be lower, resulting in a reduction in the use of cash of approximately 50% compared to what was reported for 2023. That concludes my prepared remarks. I will now turn the call over to the operator for questions.
Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. One moment for our first question. One moment for our first question. And our first question comes from Ben Klieve, from Lake Street Capital Markets. Your line is now open.
All right, thanks for taking my questions. And congratulations on all the positive activity here. My first question is with regards to how these transactions will impact the trajectory of Zola going forward. You know, T.J., you laid out kind of your near term cash, excuse me, expense expectations. But do you guys anticipate, you know, investing more into Zola than you had previous to these transactions? Or is the outlook for Zola really unchanged after recent events?
Yeah. Hi, Ben, this is Stan. Thanks for calling in. And, yeah, we do expect the trajectory of Zola to change. You know, our expectation is that the double-digit growth we're experiencing in 2024 will continue in 2025. Again, we've just launched the innovation, which will start hitting the markets here in Q2. And, there's also more innovation in the pipeline that we're exploring, as well as new distribution that we're exploring. So yes, we do expect Zola growth to continue.
Okay. And with regards to wheat, I'm curious, you know, Stan, you talked about, you know, working with the supply chain CPGs still on wheat initiatives, and noted that you retained your reduced gluten and shelf life IP. You know, with the GoodWheat brand now elsewhere, you know, how are these conversations with the supply chain changing? Since you don't have a brand, you know, probably leading those conversations. What's. It strikes me that there's probably been a lot of. It's been a very dynamic, you know, conversation over the last few months. I'm wondering how that's changed now with GoodWheat gone.
Well, the intent was always to have the GoodWheat brand signal that this wheat IP that we owned was commercially accepted. And we feel like that we've done that job. But it was also the intent to expand beyond GoodWheat and to use that as a platform to launch into other categories where GoodWheat wasn't going to launch products. So that still will continue and those conversations are still ongoing.
Okay, very good. Another question, you know, historically, you've talked about, you know, the potential to integrate acquisitions. And I'm wondering how, you know, how your thought process around future acquisitions has now changed. I mean, there's so many different... The company is fundamentally different today in a lot of good ways than it was a week ago. You know, does this... you know, accelerate your expectations or on the expectations? Does it change the categories that you're looking at? You know, what, if any, anything can you give us regarding your thought process there?
Yeah, again, in the strategic review, there's lots of different possibilities that still exist, and at this point, we're exploring all of them.
Okay, fair enough. A couple more from me, and then I'll get back in queue. One, on the structure of this note, T.J., you said the interest was at prime. I didn't see in the disclosure, is this strictly gonna be a cash interest payment, or is there any kind of in-kind interest payments that may be made?
Yeah, it'll be cash interest on an annual basis.
Okay, great. And then the last one for me is the reduced gluten wheat IP. I'm wondering if you can talk about, you know, kind of the value proposition that you see here versus the value of the higher fiber content. Is, is-- you know, do you think these are similar? You know, how do you think these could be, you know, or what differences do you see, you know, out of these two kind of IP categories?
Yeah. So, you know, what we see is actually a very similar benefit stream than RS Durum. And again, that's exponential fiber, it's higher in protein, and it has a lower glycemic load. You know, all three of those things are true for RS Durum, and it's the same for RG bread. So that's how we're thinking about it, is that we can bring those same benefits to a much wider portion of the, you know, wheat food chain than what we can with just Durum, which is used in primarily pasta.
Very good. All right, well, that's all helpful updates. Again, congratulations to you both and the whole team on all the positive developments. I'll leave it there and get back in queue.
Thank you. I'm showing no further questions. I would now like to turn the call back over to Stan Jacot for closing remarks.
Thank you. So in summary, Arcadia has made tremendous progress over the past two years with our Project Greenfield strategy, and these recent transactions with Corteva and Above Food will have a significant positive impact on Arcadia and its future. These efforts will continue as we explore additional opportunities to monetize our IP and create value for our shareholders. We look forward to updating you in the future. Thanks again for joining us, and have a great rest of your day.
This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.