Beyond Meat, Inc. (NASDAQ:BYND) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Lubi Kutua : Yeah, Adam. I would just add that, I think just given the some of the pressures that we’ve seen in the broader environment, we are, I think, navigating some challenges that are reducing the overall effectiveness of promotional spending. And it’s an impact that transcends the plant-based meat category. I think others more broadly, in the industry have reported sort of similar phenomenons going on in the areas that they play in. And so in relation to your question and sort of how we’re thinking about this, is we’re definitely taking learnings from. We have some targeted promotional programs earlier this year, which were really intended to bring more consumers into the category. But I think what we’re seeing is, for various reasons, some of which Ethan mentioned in his prepared remarks, there are things that are putting a lot of pressure on our category in particular, some of which is related to messaging, which we’re starting to I think, be a little bit more vocal about.

If you look at our recent campaign that just came out, but certainly, we our goal is to be sharper in terms of how we deploy our promotional spending. And so, we expect to see some benefits from that in the latter part of this year and as we move forward.

Ethan Brown : May just to add a little bit to that. I mean, I think that one of the key issues is if the category itself is facing some headwinds. And so if we look at, if I kind of start on more broadly, and you look at the overall consumer, and some of the diminished outlook the consumer has around their own financial situation and then you look at what consumers are doing in the protein space, including animal protein, where they’re trading down among proteins, and also buying less protein. But then you get to our category where we are high priced, and so not going to do particularly well in that environment. But also, they’ll have this kind of ambiguity around health. You can see how potentially pricing is going to be less impactful, given you’re not bringing new people into the category, because of those macro conditions, and then some of the category headwinds.

So for us, it’s really around restoring the category message and making sure the consumer understands that. And has a reason to come into the category. At that point, we think some of the promotional activities will probably be more effective.

Adam Samuelson : There was a lot there, a lot of color. I appreciate it. I’ll pass it on.

Ethan Brown : Sure.

Operator: And our next question will come from Peter Galbo with Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Peter Galbo : Hey, guys, good afternoon. Just maybe a 1A and 1B on super quick modeling questions. Just moving — is there any differential we should think about in terms of the revenues between 3Q and 4Q cadence would be helpful. And then secondly, on the cash burn, it seems like you’re saying it should improve in the third and fourth quarters has been running about $50 million a quarter over the past 12 months. Just anything, you can help us dimension about how much improvement you’d expect there. Thanks very much, guys.

Lubi Kutua : Yeah, just quickly on the cash flow, it’s not that we’re walking away from that in any way, shape or form. It’s just with the top-line coming down somewhat, we wanted to caution that it was going to be unlikely within the timeframe we’ve specified. That said, you should see a sharp reduction in consumption across the balance of the year. And certainly internally, it’s easy to drive the business toward achieving that goal. But would rather keep that as an internal goal and give a little more room externally on when we cross over to cash flow positive moving, yeah.