Mama's Creations (MAMA) Earnings Transcript

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DATE

Tuesday, April 14, 2026 at 4:30 p.m. ET

CALL PARTICIPANTS

• Chief Executive Officer — Adam L. Michaels
• Chief Financial Officer — Anthony Gruber

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TAKEAWAYS

• Revenue -- $54 million for the quarter, up 60.7% year over year, and $171.7 million for the fiscal year, a 39.2% increase.
• Gross Profit -- $14 million for the quarter (25.9% margin) versus $9.1 million (27%) prior-year; $43 million for the year (25.1% margin) versus $30.5 million (24.8%).
• Adjusted EBITDA -- $5.5 million for the quarter, up 77.4% year over year; $15.4 million for the year, a 52.5% rise, both non-GAAP metrics.
• Net Income -- $2.2 million for the quarter ($0.05 per diluted share), a 37.5% increase; $5.3 million for the year ($0.13 per diluted share), a 43.2% increase.
• Operating Expenses -- $10.9 million for the quarter, representing 20.2% of revenue versus 21.4% prior-year; $35.9 million for the year, or 20.9% of revenue versus 20.8% prior.
• Cash Position -- $20 million in cash and equivalents as of January 31, 2026, up from $7.2 million at the previous year-end, reflecting improved operating cash flow and working capital optimization.
• Total Debt -- $5.4 million outstanding as of January 31, 2026.
• Acquisition Integration -- The Crown 1 Bay Shore facility is a well-integrated third pillar, driving "meaningful" margin improvement and positioned to meet a mid- to high-20s percentage corporate gross margin target.
• Distribution Expansion -- New branded product launches at Walmart (7 SKUs in up to 2,000 stores), Target (2 SKUs approved, 1 already launched), and Food Lion (5 SKUs, ~1,200 stores); Costco secured first everyday item status in Northeast, active in 3-4 regions and expects increased national rotations.
• Marketing & Brand Penetration -- Instacart programming during Costco MVM yielded 65% new-to-brand customers; Mama's became the "#1 meatball on Instacart" in the fourth quarter; double-digit return on ad spend reported with Walmart campaigns.
• Product Mix Shift -- Branded products represent all recent major wins, and requests are increasing to convert private-label placements (e.g. BJ's, Publix) to branded, reflecting higher velocities and retailer demand.
• NAE Chicken Initiative -- Transition to 100% NAE (No Antibiotics Ever) chicken sourcing is complete on all current purchases, positioned as a key differentiator in customer acquisition and retail negotiations.
• CapEx Guidance -- Targeting mid- to high single-digit millions of dollars annually for capital expenditures, strictly limited to operating cash flow availability, with investments focused on efficiency-driven automation and shelf-life extension technologies.
• Gross Margin Guidance -- Management expects gross margin improvements over the next year but warns of potential quarterly fluctuations due to seasonality, input cost pressures, and timing of promotional activity.
• Category Growth -- Management asserts company is "growing at 5x the category growth rate," with the deli prepared foods segment posting recent unit growth ahead of dollars, described as "rare in food."
• Retailer Positioning -- Company is increasingly called upon as a category advisor by major grocers, signaling recognition of its product innovation and execution capabilities.
• Fiscal 2027 Outlook -- Michaels stated, "we feel comfortable that double-digit growth will continue to gain meaningful share for the year ahead, absolutely," while noting some quarterly variability due to prior-year promotional comparisons.

SUMMARY

Mama's Creations (NASDAQ:MAMA) delivered record fourth-quarter and fiscal-year financials, attributed to organic revenue expansion, acquisition integration, and broadening national retail relationships. Management confirmed all chicken inputs are now NAE-certified, and the company's branded portfolio is accelerating placement across top U.S. supermarkets. CFO Gruber highlighted a strengthened balance sheet with rising cash reserves and materially increased adjusted EBITDA, supporting continued capital and M&A deployment. Marketing effectiveness and deepening retailer partnerships, including expanded Costco rotations and everyday item status, provide strategic tailwinds for continued growth and market share gains in the coming year.

• Crown 1's Bay Shore integration is delivering both gross margin improvements and expanded premium SKU opportunities.
• Management is prioritizing disciplined CapEx spend—tied directly to operating cash generation—and expects annual investments in the mid- to high single-digit millions of dollars range.
• Company will maintain trade and marketing spend as long as gross margins remain in the mid- to high-20s% range, with real-time adjustments based on weekly business conditions.
• Pricing adjustments are in place to address persistent input cost pressures on chicken and beef, with a reported 70% of chicken needs contracted and price adjustments passed to retailers within a 30–60-day lag.
• Near-term growth strategy emphasizes both new branded SKU introductions and converting legacy private-label placements to branded, leveraging recent wins at Walmart, Food Lion, and Target.
• Leadership underscored its readiness for accretive acquisitions, focusing only on those that will contribute to EPS and scale platform capabilities.
• The company's rising profile as a category advisor among national retailers is contributing to the flywheel effect in sales expansion.

INDUSTRY GLOSSARY

• Adjusted EBITDA: Non-GAAP earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, adjusted to exclude certain non-recurring or non-cash items; used to measure core profitability.
• SKU: Stock Keeping Unit; a unique item or product identifier used for tracking inventory and sales by retailers and manufacturers.
• NAE: No Antibiotics Ever; poultry sourcing standard indicating the animal was never given antibiotics at any point in its life, commonly cited in premium food marketing.
• MVM: Multi-Vendor Mailer; a promotional circular or campaign used by retailers like Costco to boost item velocities and awareness via coordinated digital or print offers.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Adam Michaels: Thank you, Luke, and thank you to everyone for joining us today. I'd like to welcome you to our fourth quarter and fiscal year '26 financial results conference call. Fiscal '26 was, without question, the most transformational year in the history of Mama's Creations. We grew revenue 39% to $171.7 million, expanded adjusted EBITDA over 50% to $15.4 million, completed a transformative acquisition that nearly doubled our manufacturing footprint and capped the year with a record fourth quarter that saw revenue grow 61% to $54 million. But what excites me most is not the numbers. It is the foundation we have built, the team we've assembled and the strategic position we now hold.

This organization entered fiscal '26 as a high-growth deli prepared foods company with ambition. We exit fiscal '26 as a scaled platform with the capabilities, capital and conviction to become the leading one-stop shop deli solution in the country. As always, let us start with the macro trends. I learned early in my career that it is much easier and cheaper to ride a wave versus creating your own and the deli prepared space is a tsunami. On the consumer front, the generational shift towards deli prepared foods continues to accelerate. Fresh format grocers saw the largest bump in food traffic in 2025 with double-digit year-over-year increases.

Grocery stores are also capturing a growing share of short mid-day visits from quick service restaurants as consumers replace restaurant meals with more cost-conscious and healthier options. For the Supermarket News retailer expectations survey, 55% of retail respondents said deli and food service is the category they expect to have the most success with in 2026 and 2/3 of retailers plan to introduce more grab-and-go or prepackaged prepared foods this year. Meanwhile, meat sales hit a record high of $112 billion in 2025, with 77% of shoppers agreeing that meat and poultry are part of a healthy diet, up more than 20% since 2020.

We continue to be in the right place at the right time with the right product portfolio. Now we have the platform to capture far more than our fair share. While we have made substantial progress over the past 3.5 years and built a rock-solid foundation from which to build a market-leading platform in the deli category, our fundamental 4C strategy has not changed. Cost remains our first C, and the Bay Shore integration personifies the work Skip and his team are doing to deliver quarterly improvements in our gross margins. The integration of Crown 1's Bay Shore facility has exceeded our expectations.

What started as a 42,000-square-foot acquisition with room for improvement last summer has become a well-integrated third pillar of our manufacturing network. Procurement and logistics are 100% centralized. Production has been rebalanced across all 3 facilities to optimize capacity, reduce overtime and improve absorption. The team at Bay Shore has embraced the Mama's culture. Mama has learned from the Bay Shore team and their premium product capabilities are opening doors to customers we could not previously access. And the results speak for themselves. Bay Shore's gross margin has improved meaningfully since the acquisition, and we remain on track to bring that facility in line with our mid- to high 20s gross margin corporate target.

The cross-selling opportunity between our legacy customer base and Crown 1's premium accounts is just beginning to materialize, and we expect this to be a meaningful growth driver in the coming fiscal year. But Bay Shore is not our only location that is shedding costs and strengthening capabilities. As you see in our Q4 numbers, our favorable chicken costing in Farmingdale, coupled with fixed asset absorption in our Costco rotation in East Rutherford improved our gross margins and delivered superior bottom line results. Controls is our second C. And while my wife taught me that I should not have favorites, this C is a little dear to my heart because without controls, we can't have the other Cs.

And I could tell you that Q4 did not disappoint. With food safety top of mind in our industry, I am proud to report that not 1, not 2, but all 3 of our facilities achieved a third-party SQF score of 98 recently or excellent, the highest results category. What makes this even more impressive is that 2 of the 3 audits this year were unannounced, meaning while you might wake up on a particular day to a fresh cup of coffee, Mario, Julia and Eric woke up to a third-party inspector for a 2-day inquisition. And all 3 blew it out of the water. Congratulations to the entire team who show us every day what Mama's quality really means.

I'm also excited to share that we continue to add more analytical capabilities for our teams because what gets measured gets improved. Q4 saw the introduction of our Power BI platform as well as further expansion of our planning and procurement capabilities. Thank you, John, for leading our technology infrastructure and Alberto for guiding our forecasting capabilities. Controls is not a tagline or a word on a page at Mama's. It's how we run our business every day to ensure we execute with excellence. If Cost and Controls get us to the party, it is our third C, culture that keeps us there.

The Bay Shore acquisition brought tremendous management talent to our Mama's family and allowed us to build our first-ever enterprise-wide shared services model. In January, Abby led the design, communication and rollout of a new model for Mama's, increasing responsibilities for leaders, recognizing standouts with new promotions across all 3 sites and driving an overall empowerment culture, solidifying our 1 plant 3 locations mantra. To improve communications and culture, we implemented a new employee one-stop shop portal to share messages across the organization and build community for our nearly 600 associates. Last month, Mama's Pantry, our first intranet site open for business, reinforcing our physical community with a digital extension available 24/7 365.

We are even more excited to share next quarter the work we've been doing around learning and development at Mama's University. As my mother, who was a teacher for over 25 years in the public school system taught me, you are truly never too old to go back to school. Our Catapult strategy, our fourth and final C, delivered extraordinarily strong results this quarter and throughout fiscal '26. Let me speak to the Costco journey, which exemplifies our progress. Just 3 years ago, we had approximately $0.5 million in Costco sales, limited to one product in one region.

By fiscal '25, thanks to Scott and the team, we have grown that to $10 million in annualized sales with active promotions across multiple regions of the country. In Q1 of fiscal '26, we launched our first digital MVM, which essentially matched all of the fiscal '25's full year Costco business in a single quarter. We continued ramping throughout the year with strong rotations across multiple items, culminating in Q4 with our first-ever national print MVM, a true milestone that set the tone for the types of volumes we can achieve. This was the trophy achievement for volume movement at Costco.

Based on this success, capturing new customers and accelerating item velocities, earlier this year, we were informed that we achieved everyday item status in the Northeast, the very region where our Costco journey began. This is a landmark milestone that positions us for a steady-state, repeatable and plannable business, and we expect our everyday success in the Northeast will lead to even more rotations and new item introductions across all 8 of Costco's regions. Our operations team executed flawlessly throughout this growth, delivering on meaningful quarterly builds without a hitch, which solidifies tremendous trust with our retail partners. Beyond Costco, Chris and his team are ensuring our Catapult strategy is delivering across the entire retail landscape.

At Walmart, we added another item in Q4 following the breakout success of our 4-count chicken item and are launching 7 new SKUs in up to 2,000 stores, all branded, which represents exceptional penetration. At Target, we're approved for 2 branded SKUs, one already on shelf, launching in 750 stores with plans to ramp up to approximately 2,000 stores. And at Food Lion, we've already expanded to roughly 1,200 stores across the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic with 5 branded SKUs. These placements represent a significant validation of our product innovation, quality and operational excellence.

We are growing at 5x the category growth rate, a category that has recently been growing units ahead of dollars, which is rare in food and reflects strong consumer demand and trials. A key driver of our Catapult success is our commitment to quality. Our NAE, No Antibiotics Ever chicken initiative is a significant quality differentiator that resonates with today's consumers. We're also leveraging our Bay Shore acquisition to cross-sell capabilities and new products into both our legacy accounts and our Crown 1 customer base. Another Catapult strength in Q4 was the work Lauren and her team are doing on the marketing front, which accelerated velocities and introduced new customers to Mama's.

Our Instacart programming made Costco's MVM the most successful campaign in Mama's history. An unheard of 65% of consumers were new to brand, which creates a flywheel effect that turns trial into repeat. December, the peak of our Costco MVM saw our best month ever on Instacart and the partnership Lauren and Chris built made Mama's the #1 meatball on Instacart for all of Q4. The team's work delivered continued double-digit ROAS with Walmart, and Q4 saw new effective brand partnerships and collaborations with Brooklyn Bread and Mike's Hot Honey, all with the intention of driving trial, awareness and deepening relationships with our consumers.

This commitment to quality and visibility is being recognized, most recently in Progressive Grocers 2026 Editors' Picks list for the best new products, where our cheese-stuffed chicken meatballs received worthy recognition. Looking to fiscal '27, we're planning to meaningfully increase our branded sales across our retail footprint through new introductions like at Walmart and Target and by transitioning legacy private label items to branded like at BJ's and Publix. And we have set a strategic goal of adding net plus 2 SKUs or items in each of our top 10 accounts. Our trade and marketing investments are delivering strong returns with digital and in-store programming generating measurable lifts in consumer awareness and retail velocities.

As I look to fiscal '27, I see a business that is fundamentally different from where we were even 12 months ago. We have a scaled manufacturing network, a diversified and growing customer base, a strengthened balance sheet with significant M&A capacity and a team that has proven it can integrate with excellence. Our path towards $1 billion in revenue is clearer than ever, and I am confident in our ability to deliver sustained profitable growth for years to come. I'd now like to turn the call over to Anthony Gruber, our Chief Financial Officer, to walk through some key financial details for the fourth quarter and fiscal '26. Anthony?

Anthony Gruber: Thank you, Adam. Moving to the financial results. Revenue for the fourth quarter of fiscal '26 increased 60.7% to $54 million as compared to $33.6 million in the same year ago quarter. Revenue for fiscal year '26 increased 39.2% to $171.7 million as compared to $123.3 million in the prior year. The increase was primarily due to item expansion at existing customers, successful high ROI promotional activities that accelerated velocities, initial placements at new customers and the acquisition of Crown 1. Gross profit increased 53.8% to $14 million or 25.9% of total revenues in the fourth quarter of fiscal '26 as compared to $9.1 million or 27% of total revenues in the same year ago quarter.

Gross profit increased 41% to $43 million or 25.1% of total revenues in fiscal '26 as compared to $30.5 million or 24.8% of total revenues in the prior year. The fourth quarter gross margin was impacted by the continued ramp of the Crown 1 facility, while the improvement in full year gross margin reflects the operational efficiencies, procurement optimization and stabilized commodity costs across the platform. Operating expenses totaled $10.9 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal '26 as compared to $7.2 million in the same year ago quarter. As a percentage of revenue, operating expenses declined to 20.2% from 21.4% in the prior year quarter.

For the full year, operating expenses totaled $35.9 million as compared to $25.7 million in the prior year. As a percentage of revenue, operating expenses were 20.9% in fiscal '26 as compared to 20.8% in the prior year. The change was partially due to the Bay Shore acquisition, new digital strategies and enhanced product marketing, new management hires and further technology upgrades to drive actionable insights faster and deeper into the organization. Net income for the fourth quarter of fiscal '26 increased 37.5% to $2.2 million or $0.05 per diluted share as compared to net income of $1.6 million or $0.04 per diluted share in the same year ago quarter.

Net income for fiscal '26 increased 43.2% to $5.3 million or $0.13 per diluted share as compared to net income of $3.7 million or $0.09 per diluted share in the prior year. Fourth quarter net income totaled 4.1% of revenue as compared to 4.8% in the same year ago quarter. Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP measure, increased 77.4% to $5.5 million for the fourth quarter of fiscal '26 as compared to $3.1 million in the same year ago quarter. Adjusted EBITDA increased 52.5% to $15.4 million in fiscal '26 as compared to $10.1 million in the prior year. Cash and cash equivalents as of January 31, '26, totaled $20 million as compared to $7.2 million as of January 31, '25.

The significant increase was primarily driven by improved profitability, strong operating cash flow generation and ongoing working capital optimization. As of January 31, '26, total debt stood at $5.4 million. The robust balance sheet, combined with our credit facilities and strong cash flow generation positions us extremely well to pursue the organic and inorganic growth opportunities that Adam described. This completes my prepared comments. Now before we begin our question-and-answer session, I'd like to turn the call back to Adam for some closing remarks. Adam?

Adam Michaels: Thank you, Anthony. As I reflect on fiscal '26, I'm incredibly proud of what our team of nearly 600 associates across all 3 facilities has accomplished. We have taken every step deliberately and strategically guided by our 4 Cs framework: cost, controls, culture and catapult. From strengthening our cost structures and controls in the early days to building a world-class culture founded on operational excellence and continuous improvements to now catapulting this company towards its next phase of growth through our disciplined financial management and strengthened balance sheet, we have built a platform for sustained success. Looking ahead to fiscal '27, our strategic priorities are clear and focused.

First, we'll continue to optimize our integrated 3-facility network, maximizing efficiency, driving margin expansion and increasing capacity utilization. Our operations team have shown they can scale flawlessly, and this is our core competitive advantage we will continue to leverage. Second, we will deepen and expand our retail distribution through the aggressive ramp of our major new wins at Target, Food Lion and Walmart, while simultaneously expanding our club channel partnerships with Costco, Sam's Club and BJ's. Third, we will deploy our strong financial position and balance sheet to pursue accretive acquisitions that add capacity, capabilities, categories and customer access to our platform. The $40 billion deli prepared foods market is large, growing and fragmented.

Consumer preferences are moving decisively in our direction. Retailers need partners who could simplify their deli operations and deliver quality, variety and reliability at a national scale. That is exactly what Mama's Creations does. And our vision is to become the leading national one-stop shop deli solutions provider. With our strengthened platform, balance sheet and track record of execution, we are better positioned than ever to capture this generational opportunity and deliver sustained value for our shareholders. I want to thank our team for their extraordinary dedication and execution. And to our shareholders, thank you for your continued support and confidence. The best is truly yet to come. With that, operator, let's open the line for questions.

Operator: [Operator Instructions]. And our first question comes from the line of Brian Holland with D.A. Davidson.

Brian Holland: Boring stuff first. Looking ahead to fiscal '27, can I assume that the double-digit growth outlook holds...

Adam Michaels: Yes. Thanks, Brian. Yes. Look, I'm proud of the team. The team is just getting started. Hopefully, you're seeing like I am opening new doors. You're seeing getting more average items carried into each of those doors. And the work that Lauren and team are doing on the marketing continues to accelerate the velocities. So yes, I feel -- we feel comfortable that double-digit growth will continue to gain meaningful share for the year ahead, absolutely.

Brian Holland: Looking on that, obviously, as you get bigger and you amass these bigger wins, you create tough compares for yourself, obviously, with Costco. So just as we think about modeling sensitivities here, would any of these quarters in 2027 potentially be less than double digits just because of what you have to lap? Obviously, I'm thinking specifically about Q1 or Q4.

Adam Michaels: Where is the love, Brian? Come on. Where is that positive mental attitude that I'm looking for? Look, Chris is doing a job. The entire sales team is doing a job. And like I've shared with many of you, we have these lapping charts. Chris absolutely understands that there are some -- there was programming last year that we have to replicate and accelerate. So I will continue to tell you that, first of all, we will continue to gain meaningful share, right? The category is growing in the mid-single digits right now. I think that we can continue to grow that.

And yes, it's on Chris and team and it's on Skip and operations to keep up with Chris to ensure that when we see programming ahead from last year, we have to, again, meet that and accelerate it. So I'm going to keep to our double-digit growth aspiration.

Brian Holland: On M&A, I believe Skip has final say on when you could pull the trigger on the next acquisition. I think that's tied to Crown 1. What's the latest there as far as M&A readiness?

Adam Michaels: Yes. No, I am super proud of the Bay Shore team, Andy and Roger, Tony, everybody, Mario. We're ahead of the plan. Obviously, there's still more to do. We're not fully integrated, right? We have to get the technology in. But I feel like we're in good shape. You know me if I'm not on the road with you guys, I am on the road visiting other facilities, which I've been doing in the past month. I think we're in good shape. Look, let me repeat, this is really important. We want to do acquisitions. We don't need to do acquisitions. The internal team is doing an awesome job. There is so much to invest in to accelerate growth.

But with the team doing such a good job here means I got -- I don't got much to do and allows me to go out and look at other opportunities. And if we could find something that is accretive to our business, both in the sense of getting new customers, getting new capacity, accretive in the sense that while it might be dilutive in the gross margin space because we're good at improving things, we're not looking for a turnaround. So they have -- it has to be accretive to our EPS. And if we find something great at the right price and Skip tells me he's ready, then we're ready to go.

Brian Holland: Last one for me. It strikes me more than I studied this category, you referenced a $40 billion category. I'm sort of surprised by how immature it is, right? And it kind of interesting, I think your success sort of proves that out the merits of having a branded presence in this category, which historically it didn't have. So as we think about all these wins that you're -- it's great to tack on the wins and more stores and more items per store. But sort of like the next wave after that is kind of category advisory to some of these retailers.

And it seems crazy for me to think that a company with less than $200 million could take on a role such as that. But I'm just wondering how your success is manifesting as far as relationship building with these types of large retailers who might be looking at your success and asking you to help them think about because that's really kind of the last action, I think, to retail customer connectivity and relationship solidification, I'll stop there.

Adam Michaels: Yes. No, I think I agree with what you're saying. Obviously, the deli category is not as mature as center aisle. The category captain C is not as clear. But look, I will tell you the amount of time that our sales team is on the road not selling per se, but a major customer, the biggest grocers and retailers in the country are calling us to say, "Hey, I'd love for you guys just to come and speak to my leadership team and tell them what you're seeing in the category," I think that's pretty amazing. And what happens is great quality, great service.

And when a customer wants a new item, the first call is they're giving us a call. And that's what I think -- I talk about this flywheel effect. That's what continues to accelerate our growth more and more. So I love what the Chris and the sales team are doing to be that category adviser. And that doesn't mean we're going to have $1 billion of sales tomorrow. However, it makes it much more likely that we're going to have that $1 billion of sales a couple of years from now, and that's what we're building towards. We are in this for the long game without a doubt.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Eric Des Lauriers with Craig-Hallum.

Eric Des Lauriers: Congrats on another strong quarter and a really exceptional year here. My first question, I noticed a big step-up in trade promotion spend in Q4. It's great to see. I know it's been sort of an area of focus. You commented on the -- all the success you had on Instacart, around the Costco, MVM. And I'm just wondering how much we should sort of attribute that nice step-up in Q4 kind of specifically to that Instacart, Costco commentary? And how much of it was kind of more broad-based, a result of your improved profitability and cash flow. I guess, ultimately wondering, is this sort of a seasonal kind of onetime Costco MVM thing?

Or does this represent a bit of a step-up or a new normal going forward?

Adam Michaels: Yes. Thanks, Eric. And again, the credit goes to the team. Everyone is doing an incredible job. Actually, I love, I'm glad you called that out. It's pretty amazing. So if we're at -- what do we had a 26% gross margin with nearly 10 points of trade. I'll let you guys do the math yourself, you know how that works with gross to net. That puts into perspective what the true gross margin could have been if we're not investing in the future. One thing that I've been looking at is overall just the amount of investments that we've been making between more marketing, right?

I think we're up like 70% on marketing for the year, literally a crazy amount of what are we like 4x trade. This is huge -- even stuff like I know you can't add the 2 numbers together, but depreciation, right, because we're investing in equipment and everything. It is amazing what we've accomplished from a profitability standpoint while making these massive investments. I'm super proud of the team. Directly to your point, you've heard me say it before, we will continue to invest the trade as long as our gross margins are in the mid- to high 20s. And you saw us being in the mid- to high 20s this time around.

We're able to substantially invest in our trade. What do we get for that trade? Crazy success at Costco, already got an everyday item in the Northeast. So clearly, the ROI is there. Also to your point, we look at it every quarter, right? Peter, Chris, myself, Anthony, we look at trade every single day. And if we have the gross margin, we'll lean into the trade. And equally, the good news is trade isn't set quarters ahead, even months ahead necessarily. If things are getting softer, meaning we know chicken is accelerating now. Obviously, freight is a bit more of a challenge now. That means that we have to pull it back.

So again, we look at it week-to-week, month-to-month to decide what the right trade rate is for the quarter.

Eric Des Lauriers: Very helpful. I appreciate that color. And then just a follow-up for me. You mentioned some new technologies that you're bringing into Bay Shore. Could you just kind of remind us overall how to think about CapEx for 2027? What kind of equipment technologies are you guys looking at? And how to think about dollar amounts and timing here as we update our models?

Adam Michaels: Yes. I mean this is where Anthony is so helpful to us, right? So you know our rule, right? You don't get to spend CapEx if you're not making it from cash flow from operations. We spend -- the plan is to spend mid- to high single-digit millions of dollars a year. Again, only if we have the cash flow from operations, we are very structured in that manner. But yes, there's always more equipment. We're doing exceptionally well now with these -- remember, I spoke to you guys about this map technology that extends shelf life naturally. We just bought 2 more of those.

But again, we're talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars, a couple of hundred thousand dollar pieces of machinery, this is not like the grills, if you remember a year or 2 back, where the grills are $1.5 million each. So these are still -- these are smaller things. Again, we want to keep investing. Eric, you've toured our plants before. You know that I love buying more stuff that reduces complexity, that accelerates things, that reduces the need for the manual labor that I can now put the people in other places. So the more I can do that, obviously, the happier I am, happier Anthony is. And obviously, that's going to improve our gross margins.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of George Kelly with ROTH Capital Partners.

George Kelly: First from me is on input pricing just around chicken and beef. Wondering if you can update us just on what you've seen recently. And I think especially beef continues to be pressured. Adam, I think you just mentioned that chicken has been a little pressured here recently, too. Wondering how you're planning to kind of adjust pricing or what you're planning to do to respond to what you're seeing?

Adam Michaels: Yes. Thanks, George. You guys definitely get your money is worth out of us in the sense that there is no dull day. As you mentioned, beef, it's funny, beef, I'm a little happier about because beef has gone up, as you guys have all seen and it's in the paper. But it's been relatively stable. Now relatively stable high, but still, I'm all about stability. Chris and team have done a great job. Again, we're very transparent with our partners, our retail partners. The goal is not for us to get more margin, but we can't lose money because then we can't help you if we're out of business.

So we have been successful in getting the price increases in to maintain our margins. There is some delay a little bit. It could be anywhere from 30 days to 60 days. But beef, I do like the stability, but I'm telling you, I don't think it's going to go down and Alberto is the boss here. I don't think it's going to go down anytime soon, certainly not before the end of summer. But again, we have the pricing. We're still working on more pricing, and I think we're in good shape there. Chicken, again, I'll always find the positive. Chicken is just a bell curve, right? Chicken always goes up around this time of year.

It has gone up. We were very lucky that Q4 tended to be a little bit lower. The great news about this is we're contracted, right, for close to 70% of our chicken sales. Now that doesn't mean we're immune to it, right? There's also the 30%. There's also some things we have that are -- have a floor and ceiling, so it moves up. But again, the sales team has done a great job at looking -- we're so much more proactive now. We actually show -- I told you guys about Expana, that's money we spent. It's a forecasting system that's all over the -- it's a global forecasting system on commodities.

You could see what's going to happen. They're pretty accurate, and we share that with retailers in advance. And the answer is, hey, guys, we think it's going to go up. I'm putting my price increase in now. And if it doesn't go up, I'm happy to pull it back. I'd be remiss, though, pricing is just one piece of it, right? Skip and his team are doing an incredible job. Again, trimming is a big lever. We have to do more of that. We have to sell more of the bottoms. But there's work that Alberto and procurement are doing to and I look at this positively, there's still so much more for us to do, right?

We've been in Bay Shore 7 months. So there continues to be efficiencies from a procurement perspective. From a process perspective, I mentioned earlier that 1 plant, 3 locations, you've heard me say that before, we're moving stuff around all the time. And we had excess capacity in Bay Shore. So that's great. That means we got to do the Walmart, the new Walmart stuff there, the new food Lion stuff there. So with Skip helping us by lowering our costs, with Chris helping us by raising our prices, again, I certainly can't sit back with my hands up, but we are very intentional and very proactive in everything that's happening with beef, with chicken.

Obviously, you guys know about what's going on in freight, a little pressure on freight. So we're way ahead of it. Freight is another good example where we're increasing our MOQs, minimum order quantities, right? So maybe we don't get all of the pricing we need passed on freight. But if I could make the process more efficient, if I get more in the truck, guess what happens, my costs go down, and then I could offset that increase. So all these things we're thinking of well ahead of them actually happening.

George Kelly: Okay. Okay. That's helpful. And then second question for me is on Crown. So I believe you were -- with respect to the legacy product portfolio there and some of the legacy customer base, you were managing that, potentially taking pricing, potentially sort of exiting some of the less productive SKUs. And that was a process that was maybe starting a few months ago, early this calendar year, I think. Just curious how that's gone. And when we think about the sequential growth at Crown, should we anticipate that sequential revenue number to perhaps dip a little bit before stabilizing and growing?

Or like now that you've had it longer, how should we think about the sequential build on Crown's revenue?

Adam Michaels: Yes. Look, we're right on track. I think I told everybody that just like we did in Creative Salads and like we did with Olive Branch, the first year of Bay Shore is about getting the economics right, and that means getting price increases, changing up the products to improve the margins. There might -- we might have to exit some items, and we're doing just that. The expectation, again, that I believe I've shared pretty consistently is my hope is that Crown is actually flat for the year, right? We're going to lose some stuff, but then add some stuff.

And if we can be flat for the year on Crown, that would be a great success because our gross margin is going to be significantly higher on that flat growth. I think it's amazing, again, what Chris is doing, right? We have one sales team. It doesn't matter what facility it's being produced out of. Chris and his team have had great partnerships with our new customers that we're really excited about. Actually, I haven't even shared yet, but I guess I could share now like we're -- we actually have gotten wins already using our Bay Shore facilities and equipment. We have the shredded chicken, which is awesome, which is a big Bay Shore item.

We actually sold that into one of our legacy Mama's Albertsons accounts and Shaw's. We're able to -- I mean, the team is amazing. The team has already sold some of our cheese-stuffed chicken meatballs, legacy Mama's products into a Bay Shore customer with Wakefern. So no, I love what the team is doing. And I'm as bullish, if not more bullish, than I was, oh my goodness, I don't know, when I started this process last February, I think it's been like 1.5 years, it's been crazy. But no, the team is doing a great job, really great job.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Ryan Meyers with Lake Street Capital Markets.

Ryan Meyers: Congrats on another quarter of great progress. And just kind of following up on the last question, thinking about gross margins for Q4 actually came in ahead of what I was looking for and expecting. But should we be using what you guys reported here in the fourth quarter in gross margin as a new baseline? And as we progress through 2027, you guys will continue to trend towards the target you gave in the Analyst Day of the mid- to high 20s? Or is there anything gross margin-wise that we should be aware of in 2027?

Adam Michaels: Look, overall, I try as hard as I can not to run the business quarter-to-quarter. Brian asked the question earlier around gross margin. And no, I certainly don't think we're going to -- God forbid, we're negative or even below double-digit growth. But there might be some quarters that were much higher, some quarters that were closer to that because just timing of promotions. Gross margin is similar, right? So we know, hopefully, I've been clear with everybody since I think -- I don't know, I think this is my 14th conference call, if you could believe that. We're in the commodity business. So that means that there's ups and downs throughout the year, right?

It's always harder in the summer. I think we were -- we had some tailwinds in Q4 with the lower chicken prices, and we had really good absorption with the Costco rotation. We will continue. Again, I -- we're planning for and I feel confident that we will be higher 4 quarters from now than we were this quarter. I feel really good with that. But from quarter-to-quarter, depending on what season we're in, we might have a point or 2 dip up or down. So I wouldn't expect it just to keep going up because, again, we have to take into account the seasonality of chicken and beef prices, depending on particular promotions and rotations. So hopefully, that's helpful.

But I will tell you, and I feel confident that we will have -- our gross margins will be higher a year from now than they are today.

Ryan Meyers: Okay. Fair enough. No, that makes sense. And then thinking back to some of your prepared remarks that we had talked about on the call, the emphasis on the branded side of the business and the branded products. Can you remind us what the mix between branded and private label is right now? And then maybe are you seeing more demand for your guys' private label products or more demand right now for the branded side of the business?

Adam Michaels: Actually, I don't know if it's just the magic of Chris and his team, but I'm seeing a lot more branded. I mean, so think about it, the last 3 wins, first with Food Lion, 5 out of 5 were branded. Walmart, 7 out of 7 were branded. Target, the 2 items that they pulled -- that they're pulling are both branded. So it seems that it's accelerating. I think I've given you guys examples of stuff that was historically private label like Publix or BJ's, they're now asking it to be branded. So I think that there's more momentum. Look, we've -- remember, I spoke to you guys about this flywheel effect.

I think what I say, 65% of people that were on the Instacart that bought in Q4 were new to brand. That means that they had never heard of MamaMancini before, Mama's Creations and they bought. Now they're a loyal customer, and now they're going to look out for more MamaMancini products or Mama's Creations products. So I would expect that we're going to accelerate the percentage of branded because just quite honestly, it sells better. We've shown, we've proven. The velocities are higher when you call it MamaMancini's. Why wouldn't the retailer want that?

But that said, if a retailer is absolutely adamant that I am only a private label customer, why would I not sell them a private label item. But you don't get a penny discount, right? Same. That's why Anthony allows me to stay here. Margins -- the price is the same price. It doesn't matter whether it's branded or private label.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Anthony Vendetti with Maxim Group.

Anthony Vendetti: Okay. Just a couple of quick questions. I was just wondering the -- if you can give us an update on the progress of transitioning all your chicken products to antibiotic-free. And what's the expectation for that being completed?

Adam Michaels: Yes, it's pretty cool. So many people want us to do the NAE chicken, particularly Chris' wife Rachel. She's all into fitness. So she likes the NAE. We're all there. So 100% of what we're purchasing now is NAE chicken. It's going really well. Anthony Morello, remember the guy that started Creative Salads. He's been doing a great job helping us. He's our chickens art. He got amazing pricing for us. I think I told you another reason why Crown was such a great acquisition is it more than doubled our chicken needs and made us a legitimate player in the marketplace that allowed us to have some pricing power. So we got great pricing.

And again, when you're up, right, from a sales perspective, when you're head-to-head with somebody and one is conventional and the other one is NAE, and I'll make it even harder for us or harder for Chris. If we're penny more, would you pay a penny more to be able to have an NAE product to be able to claim NAE, that's a pretty good selling point. So I love what we're doing. It's just one more piece that differentiates us in the marketplace and holds us in place. Again, I gave you the example of 2 head-to-head. We're in there with NAE chicken and someone else comes in with conventional chicken.

Wow, yes, they're going to try to save a penny, but it's way worth keeping the NAE chicken. So it's another moat that we've created for ourselves, which is great.

Anthony Vendetti: No, that's excellent. And in terms of average, Adam, you mentioned average items carried has gone up. Do you have specific or I'm sure you do, but any specific metrics you can share with us, whether it's across the entire portfolio or in particular stores, let's say, Costco, where the number of items carried in those stores have gone up either on a numbers basis or percentage basis over the last 12 months?

Adam Michaels: Yes. I think it's -- like I've shared with you, it's harder because we've been concentrating a lot of our sales, which in the club channel, which is where I think consumers are going, and they tend to have fewer items. I'll tell you that in Q4, for last year, I did look -- so 9 of our top 10 customers were either the same, if not more items than they were a year ago. And the other one that wasn't at the time, all I just got another item back in. So it's just bad timing.

But I know that every customer, and you heard Chris say at the Investor Day that his goal and actually his bonus, he has to get 2 new items into each customer. Just the Walmart, the 7 items at Walmart has gotten him on a good start, right, and the 5 items at Food Lion. So I feel great. Everything that we said we wanted to do, we are getting more items in on every major customer. So yes, hopefully, that's helpful.

Anthony Vendetti: Okay. That's helpful. And then lastly on Costco. So there's 8 regions. How many regions are you currently in? Are you in all 8 regions? And if you're not, what is it going to take to get into the rest? Or can you talk about just the opportunity to expand the Costco relationship in fiscal '27?

Adam Michaels: Yes. So remember, so with Costco, we're always in somewhere we're doing lots of different things. I think if you put a gun to my head right now, I think we're in 3 or 4 regions right this minute. But literally, every month, every quarter, it changes. I honestly don't even share with you guys just because I'd bore you to death on every time we get another meatball rotation, right, just because it's happening all the time. Scott and team are talking to Costco. Actually, they had a meeting today. Actually, I couldn't even fake that. Scott and Chris had a meeting with Costco today on another opportunity. So we're constantly speaking to them.

We are top of mind to them, all 8 regions. And again, I think what I'm looking for from Chris and Scott and where the 3 of us are aligned is we're looking for some set of -- it's a combination of a couple of things, permanency. I don't know if that's a real word. And an example of that, like we're an everyday item in the Northeast. There are more opportunities to get that, rotations of our existing products. And I very much hope and expect to be able to share with you guys new items that we're getting in.

The only thing that I can't tell you guys is we're going to get into a new region because I apologize, we're in all 8 regions. But I definitely want to be telling you guys we're getting new items in that we haven't done in the past. Just as a reminder, last year or the year before, I don't know, 5 or 6 items, we had a meatloaf, [indiscernible] green peppers, 3 different types of sauces, beef meatballs, chickens -- cheese-stuffed chicken meat balls. Those are just items we've had in Costco recently. So I love Costco as a partner. Yes.

I just -- and I expect we're always going to be somewhere, and I'd love it at some point this year, just like we did last year, I would hope to share with you guys that for some point in time, we're in all 8 regions at once.

Operator: And we have reached the end of the question-and-answer session. And therefore, I would like to turn the call back over to CEO, Adam Michaels, for closing remarks.

Adam Michaels: Thank you, operator, and thank you again to each of you for joining us today. Fiscal '26 showed what this organization is capable of when every element of the strategy is aligned and executing. Our revenue growth, margin expansion, successful integration and strengthened financial position have prepared us for what I believe will be an even more exciting fiscal '27. We have the platform, the people and the products to execute on our vision of becoming the leading national one-stop shop deli solution provider. We are riding a wave that is only getting stronger with a shift that has been reinforced with capital and capacity and an embolden crew who are harnessing these new capabilities.

Our strategy has charted a course for deli leadership, and we are unwavering in our commitment. As always, we appreciate our shareholders' continued support and look forward to updating you on our progress in the quarters ahead. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. This concludes today's conference, and you may disconnect your lines at this time. We thank you for your participation.

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