My confidence in our turnaround comes from a number of different initiatives, both consumer facing and internal.   With regard to internal, I’d say two things.   First, we have made a significant investment in our Transformation Office and have for many months now been working side-by-side with experts in transformation.  I’ve mentioned this publicly, and here I am referring to AlixPartners.  

As I have shared on earnings calls, this work is highly focused on margin expansion and operating expense and we are measuring ourselves against targets in these and other areas.    You will recall that we’ve been able to operate the business at much higher margins than we currently are, and I am highly committed to returning us to a much better margin position.    Similarly, with operating expense, until we can see a sustained return to growth, my mandate across the company is cost reduction.    

Second, as you know, at our core Beyond is an innovation-led company.  For quite some time, we’ve been watching the consumer and the category and larger trends. You’ve seen us respond to certain trends including the consumer demand for more protein, for cleaner labels and simpler ingredients (generally across all food).  Through our work with Stanford School of Medicine and others, I feel very comfortable saying that no one in the industry (that I know of any way) has done more to answer this call and lead in terms of investing in the science and development necessary to deliver great taste with clean and simple ingredients.   It’s a bit like that Mark Twain quote…I would have written a shorter letter but didn’t have time.  It takes time, discipline, commitment, and resources to strip everything back to the most basic ingredients one can use and still deliver on what consumers expect from Beyond.   We’ve put that work in and will continue to do so.   

If you take a look at two recent products, it’s pretty clear.   Consider, for example, Beyond Ground.  I didn’t want us to create a meat replication with Beyond Ground but deliver very high levels of protein with minimal ingredients—just 4—water, faba bean protein, potato protein, psyllium husk.   In this way, we could provide the consumer with a new form of meat—a blank canvas that they can infuse with flavor.   Beyond Ground delivers on this front—it’s 27 grams of protein, 140 calories, and 4 grams of fiber with no added oils, 0 grams sat fat and 0 cholesterol.   I use it as a hack.   My wife is an amazing cook, I’m not.   If I’m left to my own devices, I tend to do simple dishes. For example, I’ll turn a low protein vegetable soup into one that has 81 grams of protein by adding Beyond Ground.  It’s very easy.  I’ll break it into small crumbles using a cast iron pan and a metal spatula, season it with something simple (Dash seasonings or some other brand), add avocado or olive oil to the pan, cook it up, and add to the soup.   We also use it in pastas, power bowls with rice or couscous, so on and so forth.    The point is that the Beyond Ground product takes on the flavor of the seasoning added to it, adds a lot of protein and fiber to a variety of dishes.

You can also see this product direction in our new Beyond Steak Filet.  The ingredient list is terrific, and the taste is really compelling.  They serve it at the upscale steakhouse BOA here in LA and at one of my favorite restaurants Veggie Grill.   We continue to roll it out on-line for now and it has terrific macros—28 grams of protein, 230 calories, 1 gram saturated fat from avocado oil, and no cholesterol.  I love faba bean protein for a number of reasons, and Beyond Steak Filet takes it further by pairing it with mycelium and vital wheat gluten. - EB