Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc. Annual Meeting of Stockholders. I would now like to hand the conference over to your host today, Mr. Robert L. Scott, Chairman of the Board. Please go ahead, sir.
The annual meeting of stockholders of Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc. will please come to order. I'm Bob Scott, chairman of the Board of Directors of Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc., and as such, I will act as chairman of this meeting. Kevin Maxwell, our Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer and Secretary, will act as secretary of this meeting. Also with us here today are Mark Smith, our President and CEO, Deana McPherson, our Executive Vice President, CFO, Treasurer, and Assistant Secretary. An agenda that outlines the order of business for this meeting and the rules of conduct for this meeting have been made available. Please note that the use of any recording device or similar equipment by anyone attending this meeting is strictly prohibited.
We will now proceed with the formal business matters properly before this meeting, as set forth in the proxy materials previously furnished to stockholders. After the formal meeting is adjourned, Mark Smith will make a few remarks, after which we will address stockholder questions, if any. Though we may not be able to answer every question, we'll do our best to provide a response to as many as possible that are germane to this meeting. I will now call on Deana McPherson to report as to the mailing of proxy materials and a notice of this meeting.
Mr. Chairman, an affidavit of distribution, a written notice of this annual meeting, has been prepared by Broadridge Financial Solutions, the company's mailing agent. The affidavit states that the notice of meeting and accompanying proxy statement were duly mailed and deposited with the US Post Office, commencing on August sixth, 2024, to all stockholders of record at the close of business on July twenty-sixth, 2024, the date fixed by the board as the record date for stockholders entitled to vote at this meeting. The affidavit will be filed as part of the record of this meeting.
As established by the board and stated in the notice of this meeting, only stockholders of record of the company's common stock on July twenty-sixth, twenty twenty-four, may vote at this meeting. At this time, I appoint Crystal Pauli of American Election Services as the inspector and teller of elections. I now request she canvass the number of shares of common stock of the company represented at this meeting, present either virtually or by proxy, to determine the presence of a quorum. After we vote on all matters to come before the stockholders, the inspector and teller of elections will report on the preliminary results of each vote.
Mr. Chairman, I have so far counted a majority of the outstanding shares of common stock of the company present at the meeting, either virtually or by proxy, and eligible to vote at this meeting. I will continue to be available during the meeting to count additional shares of common stock if more stockholders or proxies join the meeting.
Based on the report of the inspector and teller of election, I declare that a quorum is present at this meeting, and as such, the annual meeting of stockholders may proceed. This time, we will proceed to vote on the matters properly before the stockholders of the company, as described in more detail in the proxy statement. The first order of business is the election of seven directors to serve until the company's next annual meeting of stockholders and until their successors are elected and qualified. The nominees for election are Anita D. Britt, Fred M. Diaz, Michell J. Lohmeyer, Barry M. Monaitis, Mark P. Smith, Denis G. Suggs, and Robert L. Scott. Second order of business is a proposal for a non-binding advisory vote on the compensation of the company's named executive officers for fiscal twenty twenty-four.
Third order of business is to vote on stockholder proposals submitted by Mercy Investment Services. For reasons outlined in the proxy statement, the board opposes this proposal. I now recognize Lydia Kuykendall, an authorized representative of Mercy Investment Services, for a period of no more than three minutes for the purpose of formally presenting the stockholder proposal for consideration by the stockholders of the company. Mrs. Kuykendall, you may proceed.
Hi, good morning. I am here to represent Mercy Investment Services and co-filers to move Proposal Three, calling for the board to conduct and publish a third-party human rights impact assessment. The third-party HRIA is used by companies to assess existing and potential adverse human rights impacts, which can pose significant reputational, financial, and legal risks. This type of assessment, particularly when conducted by a third-party auditor, can often identify issues that a company may be unaware of in its day-to-day operations, issues that a company can remediate, address, or prevent once the risks are identified. While the HRIA is a non-binding document, it should be noted that most companies that undergo these third-party audits find them a valuable tool in a company's risk management structure. We believe that recent events highlight the need for this kind of assessment.
In December of twenty twenty-two, the City of Buffalo announced it had filed the first of its kind lawsuit against the gun industry, including Smith & Wesson. In the complaint, the plaintiffs sought compensatory and punitive damages, as well as an abatement fund with, quote, "sufficient capital to eliminate the public nuisance gun manufacturers are responsible for creating, exacerbating, and/or perpetuating." End quote. Additionally, just this summer, the family of one of the seven victims killed in the Highland Park July Fourth parade shooting in twenty twenty-two, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the company. This trend is not going away. Smith & Wesson would do well to take steps now to examine how and if its policies are opening it and its investors to increased risk of litigation.
It is important to understand that a human rights policy consistent with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which are a set of principles for states and companies to prevent and remedy human rights abuses in business operations, would not, as the company claims, expose the company and its investors to human rights costs estimated at $557 billion per year. Conducting human rights due diligence, as contemplated by the UNGPs, does signal a willingness to remedy adverse human rights impacts. However, the human rights due diligence process is not legally binding in any way, nor does it lead to an adjudication of fault or damages and penalties the way litigation or a government enforcement action would. Remediation is scaled to reflect direct versus indirect harms and may take many different forms, including policies and procedures to prevent future harms.
This piece, an assessment to help the company mitigate potential risks, is at the heart of the proponent's request. In our view, taking a proactive approach to identifying, preventing, and remedying adverse human rights impacts can help a company avoid or mitigate negative consequences. Those consequences may include not only litigation, but also reputational damage stemming from association with human rights abuses and regulatory backlash. We urge you to vote for this proposal. Thank you.
Thank you, Mrs. Kuykendall. The polls with respect to these matters are now open. Any stockholder who has not yet voted or wishes to change their vote may do so by clicking on the voting button on the web portal and following the instructions there. Now that everyone has had the opportunity to vote, the polls with respect to these matters are closed. I will now ask for the report of the inspector and teller of election on the preliminary voting results.
Mr. Chairman, the preliminary vote report shows that each of the seven nominated directors received a majority of the votes cast. The preliminary vote report also shows that the non-binding advisory vote on the proposal to approve the compensation of the company's named executive officers for fiscal 2024 has been approved. The preliminary vote further shows that the stockholder proposal was not approved. The company will report the final vote results in a current report on Form 8-K, to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission within four business days.
Thank you, Ms. Pauli. As there is no further business to come before the meeting, I declare the annual meeting of stockholders adjourned. Now I'll turn the call over to Kevin Maxwell. Kevin?
Thank you, Bob. Our CEO, Mark Smith, will have brief remarks before we proceed with the question-and-answer session. Before Mark speaks, I'd like to remind you that what we say today may contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include statements regarding our expectations, intentions, beliefs, projections, and other similar words regarding the future. Such statements represent our current judgments about the future and are subject to various risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements and the various risks and uncertainties to which they are subject are detailed in our securities filings, including our most recent annual report on Form 10-K. Also, if you have questions for us on today's call, please remember to enter them now online. We will attempt to answer as many questions as time allows, but we'll only address questions related to the business of the meeting. Out of consideration for others, please limit yourself to one question. Mark?
Thank you, Kevin. In fiscal 2024, Smith & Wesson grew top-line revenue by nearly 12%, while delivering increased profits and generating over $100 million in cash from operations. This past year demonstrated the continuation of our long-term strategic priorities, including strong brand messaging and marketing, best-in-class innovation, operational excellence, and business process efficiency, which consistently reinforce our position as a market leader while delivering solid stockholder returns. During the past year, our engineers were hard at work, and our new product pipeline continues to be robust. In January, we entered a new market category with the highly successful launch of our 1854 lever-action rifle. This instant classic has firmly established our position in this popular category of rifle and opens significant white space opportunity for Smith & Wesson.
We are excited to put our award-winning new product development team to work in expanding this into this new area and have already launched additional calibers in fiscal 2025. During fiscal 2024, we successfully completed the relocation of our headquarters, distribution, and major portions of our operations into our new state-of-the-art facility in Maryville, Tennessee. We have been so grateful for the warm reception, strong support, and excitement demonstrated by the Tennessee community. Our grand opening celebration in October 2023 was a huge success, with over 5,000 attendees, strong media coverage, and over $170,000 raised for local charities.
The success of this major undertaking could not have happened without the hard work and dedication of our team, and I am proud of the commitment that our employees made to ensure that our operations didn't miss a beat, moving significant portions of our business while continuing to manufacture and ship our high-quality products that our loyal customers have come to expect. In closing, I just want to thank our employees, both past and present, our customers, and our investors who continue to support our company and the Second Amendment. Smith & Wesson remains a strong, vibrant company, and we look forward to continuing to support our stakeholders for another hundred and seventy years. Deana?
Thank you, Mark. We will now pause a moment for questions. It does not appear that we have any questions today. This concludes our question-and-answer period. If you have a question, please feel free to email investorrelations@smith-wesson.com, and a member of the investor relations team will respond. Mark, I'll now turn the call back over to you.
Thank you, Deana, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. We look forward to a prosperous fiscal twenty twenty-five.
This now concludes the meeting. Thank you for joining, and have a pleasant day.
The host has ended this call. Goodbye.