All right, everybody, I'd like to introduce our next presentation here at Planet MicroCap Las Vegas, powered by MicroCapClub. It's one of the company that's presented our event for many years now. That We're always thankful that they take time out of their busy schedules to be here and engage with you all. It's going to be in a cool little fireside Q&A style with Ryan Meyers from Lake Street Capital. With that, Adam Michaels from Mama's Creations. Thank you, guys. Awesome. I will kick this off. Like Robert had said, Ryan Meyers, Lake Street Capital Markets. I have had the pleasure of covering Mama's for a little bit over three years now. I was the first covering analyst, it's been a cool story to see thus far. Adam, just to kick things off, for anybody that's new to the story, maybe just kind of walk us through really what Mama's Creations is and kind of where you guys are at today and sort of the history that you've been through. Absolutely. Thank you very much for making the time. I've been here for about four years. Mama's is a, think deli-prepared meals. Anywhere you shop, whether Costcos, your local grocery store, in the prepared food set, the grab-and-go set, the hot bar, the cold bar. Anywhere where they sell fresh prepared meals, that's us. MamaMancini's has been around about 15 years. It started as this northeast Italian meatball company, did well, grew to about $40 million or so. I came in about four years ago with a vision to be this one-stop shop in the deli. The deli traditionally is very siloed, right? There's chicken players and there's beef players, and there's salad players, and there are olive players, and there are sandwich players. We had a vision to say, or strategy to say, we could actually make things a lot easier for retailers and be this one-stop shop in the deli. Deli prepared is a $40 billion prepared food space. This is not some sort of Elon Musk TAM, but rather there's $40 billion going through the tills every year. There's no market leader today. Actually, you are meeting with 100% right now of the publicly traded deli companies in the U.S. Huge amounts of opportunity we've built over the past four years, and I'm sure we'll talk about just an amazing team. We built the foundation and now it's ready for liftoff. With that, maybe just talk about some of the hiring that you've done since you got here, and really now that you have the team in place, what that sort of sets you up to do and how that positions you guys going forward. It's wonderful. I am so lucky, and it's not being disrespectful, you are actually meeting the least impressive member of the leadership team right now. The real guys are out doing real stuff. Over the past few years, we brought in a completely new leadership team. There's no one left of the team that I started with. We brought in this guy, Chris Darling. Chris ran sales at Boar's Head, a $3 billion company. Why he wanted to come to us, I don't know. Just doing amazing things, building the team, just an incredible leader with just an amazing reputation in the industry. Both he started it on the retail side, and then on the manufacturing side. Skip Tappan, our first ever Chief Operating Officer, ran logistics at small companies you haven't heard of, like Walmart and Campbell's, was the Chief Supply Chain Officer at Gordon Foods. Again, why he'd want to come here, I'm not sure. Lauren Sella, I was about to say our first ever Chief Marketing Officer. She was our first ever marketing employee, ran Tate's Bake Shop. I don't know if anyone likes Tate's cookies. She was the CMO of Tate's. You see Anthony Gruber, a publicly traded CFO. Again, this is the most overqualified leadership team in the deli by far. Thinking about the category itself, deli prepared, why has that been such an on-trend space for you guys the past couple of years? Just from a macro perspective, why do you feel like that's a good place to be in? Yeah, you know what, a good part of me is actually not happy about this. It's been tough, right? The economy is tough, the macro trends, it's just hard. Eating out, restaurants, right? Not only are Restaurants have always been more expensive, but you see, CPI came out last Thursday. Away from home inflation is growing faster than at-home inflation. Not only is it more expensive, but it's spreading apart. That's one piece of it. The second piece is people do want to eat cleaner, right? You can take any product we have, our chicken parm or our teriyaki chicken over rice. I'm telling you, first of all, it's as good as any restaurant you'll go to. Sorry. There really is a Dan Mancini, right? I get to hang out with him all the time. Mama from MamaMancini has passed away, Dan would yell at me if I said it was restaurant quality. Our product is grandma quality, right? It's better than restaurant quality. Ours is $9.99. Actually, I want it to be $9.99. Chris usually sells it for $8.99, but that's a separate topic. You go out to a restaurant, how much is chicken parm at a restaurant? $15, $12. If you're in Las Vegas, what is it, $40? That doesn't include the side dishes and the drink. I'm happy to say that these are products that are clean. Again, our meatballs, ground beef, imported Pecorino Romano cheese, onions, parsley, whole egg, and a little bit of breadcrumbs. Six ingredients. Actually, I don't want to lie. Salt and pepper, I don't include those. That's literally our meatballs. You can't get any cleaner. It's great, and people continue to be time-constrained. The deli is recognizing this, so it's not just good for the end consumer, for the retailer, and we could go into more of it around it's one of the most profitable parts of the store for the retailer. It actually drives more trips. If you forgot to buy OREOs, you're probably not going back to pick up OREOs. You're going to the store because you need dinner tonight. The baskets are bigger. It really is this true trifecta of the retailers love it. Retailers are adding space in the deli, find another part of the store that they're adding space to. It's great for the end consumers. Yeah, it's good for us, the manufacturer. It's a triple win. With that, just kind of as a follow-up, you guys obviously kind of brand yourselves as the one-stop shop for these retailers, being that solution. Just kind of walk us through what that means and really what that provides the retailers with. Like I said earlier, when we started, we were this Northeast Italian meatball company. Actually, we didn't even have a sales team, we had a sales guy. He's really good. He's still with us. He's our top salesman. However, he sold meatballs, and if the buyer's brother-in-law made meatballs or the girl just broke up with her Italian boyfriend, he had nothing to share, right? Because they didn't want to buy meatballs. Now, you don't want meatballs? I got chicken. You don't want chicken? I got salads. You don't want salads? Actually, my go-to is the Nashville Hot paninis that we make now. You don't want that? We have olives. There's literally something for everyone. There is no reason why the buyer is not going to buy something from our portfolio, and there's no reason that any end consumer can't find something in our portfolio that they love. That's the idea of the one-stop shop. We started in meatballs, we acquired a chicken company, we acquired a salad company, we acquired an olive company, sandwiches. We just keep knocking out those subcategories until we truly are that one-stop shop. Got it. Over the last year, you guys have obviously seen a lot of momentum, and this strategy has kind of come into play with some of the retail launches. Maybe just highlight over the last 12 months some of the new customers you've brought on board, some of the expansion that you've had within some of your larger customers, just as this kind of dynamic is starting to take shape. Yeah. Again, it's good. Roughly, you guys have the IRI and Nielsen data better than I do, but I think you'd probably stretch the truth if you said last year food and beverage grew 1%. Oh, by the way, it was probably 1.1% pricing and - 0.1% volume. The deli, I think, grew about 4% last year. Last year we grew 20%. Not only is the deli orders of magnitude bigger than food and beverage, we're 5x the category. Customer-wise, to your point, it's really broad, right? I don't know where we're not growing, right? We just had earnings on Monday, last Monday. We just got seven new items into Walmart. We just got five items into Food Lion. We just got two items into Target, two new paninis at Weis. I could go on and on. It's really good. Again, I think the real secret is the fact that I mentioned earlier, the retailers want this to work. This is not us convincing the retailers of anything. I get a common question all the time is, "Who are you replacing?" Right? "Adam, you got all these new items in. There must be some customer that's losing ground." There's a little bit of that, but I'd say that's the third thing, right? The first thing is they're adding a new-- Each store is adding a new 6-ft set, right? That has four shelves on them. They need to fill that. We are becoming that go-to manufacturer because we have all the items. They don't have to call 10 different people, right? They could get it all from us. That's probably the first one. The second one is, it's getting harder and harder for labor for them. In the past, they used to make items themselves in the back or in the commissary. They just can't get the labor anymore to do that. They're saying, "Hey, do you mind making the product that we used to make?" The third is, yeah, I am proud of our products, and we might be beating the guy to the right and left of us, but for me, our true competition is Chipotle and Sweetgreen and Cava. I think actually Chipotle, in their last earnings call, literally called out, they're not losing to McDonald's, they're losing to the folks buying stuff for home. Thinking about Costco, because I do think that's an important relationship, just how you guys started there and where you're at right now. Just kind of walk us through that customer journey, starting with them however many years ago to now having everyday item status in a couple of regions. Just how should we think about how you were able to grow with Costco and really what that means for some of the other retailers out there? I mean, we're just getting started at Costco. I think my first year that I started, I think we did about $570,000 of sales, one region, one rotation for our meatballs. Two years ago, I think we did roughly $10 million of sales. Last year, we did about $10 million just in Q1 last year. We've evolved from single rotations to national buys, to the digital MVM last year in Q1, to the print multi-vendor mailer, the MVM. That's their most productive promotion in Q4, to we announced in the Northeast, we're now everyday status in the Northeast. We just announced that we just became everyday status in San Diego. Two out of eight so far. We just keep knocking them down, baby. Right. Walmart, Costco, Target, traditionally challenging retailers to work with, but it seems like you guys have been able to work with them relatively well. Your margins, you have obviously been able to maintain those. Walk us through the other side of the equation. The demand is obviously there. You've been able to fill the demand, but producing those products and getting there at scale, maintaining margins. I mean, how have you guys been able to do that? Yeah, actually, they're some of our favorite customers. Look, it starts with the fact that I think we truly have differentiated products. We're not looking to just be at Sam's Club. We have, I think, the number one item in the entire country in the deli set at Sam's Club with our Italian Herb Chicken, right? We don't just have an item at Publix, right? Anyone from Florida here? Anyone go to Publix? Seriously? Okay, there you go. You guys get the Pub Subs, right? You, like the smart people, you don't go at noontime. You'll get run over by wheelchairs and stuff. We do the Meatball Pub Sub. I don't know if you guys have had the Meatball Pub Sub. We're not just there. We have one of the top items in almost every account. Most of you guys don't remember, but you remember the Jack Welch thing of, "If I'm not number one or number two in the industry, let me get out of the industry." That's the way I look at our customers. I have no interest in being in a retailer. I literally want to be the number one or number two item in the entire set, else I will bring you guys a better item. We have great relationships at BJ's. I would probably tell you, I have disco'd myself more items at BJ's than most retailers, manufacturers will ever get into BJ's. Because we have such great relationships that we're always looking at our items, and every six months, we'll take the bottom two items, get rid of them, and we'll bring them new items. That's the goal. For us, it's all about velocity. Got it. You guys recently just reported earnings last week. Maybe kind of walk us through the theme of the quarter, maybe touch on gross margins. They were down relative to what the street was looking for, but I think albeit a good reason. Walk us through kind of the learnings there and what you guys saw and just how that's a sort of temporary thing for you guys. Wow, thanks for rubbing it in. Well, I told you. Actually, I thought it was a great quarter. Again, top line, continuing to over-deliver top line. I think we're 15 for 15 on underpromising and over-delivering on the top line, which is a relatively high percentage. Yeah. I'm not that good at the math. I know we achieved bottom-line targets as well. Look, I appreciate and I will continue to make sure that we hit our quarterly numbers, that's not what our team looks at. We're building this billion-dollar business, and we have to build that way. Yes, there have been occasions, whenever we need to make the decisions to invest. If that means that it's going to temporarily hurt a number, obviously, I'm not going to let us miss any real numbers. We have to invest, and that is what's really important. We just did this acquisition of the Sysco division, this Crown I. We announced that we did an ERP transition flawlessly. That's probably the last big step in the integration, which we did, I don't know, maybe nine months ago now, a little less. That was wonderful. All the new items, we definitely invested. Sorry. We launched more than a dozen new items. Yes, if all we did all day was sell 2.4-oz meatballs and a four-ounce breast of grilled chicken, yeah, our margins would be like 99%. That's not what the customer needs. That's not what's going to make us what our aspiration is to be this true category captain in this space. That means delivering and investing in customers. The seven items at Walmart, we absolutely invested. We got them the product they wanted before, right? In advance of what they needed. It's already crushing it. The velocities, I'm watching it every week just go up and up. Yeah, if that meant that it cost me 100 basis points for the quarter, that's the easiest decision I'll ever make. Right. Yes, a lot of it had to do with the investment in these new products and new technology. We, again, very intentionally decided to take some marketing dollars that we originally forecasted to have, which obviously you guys know is below the line, to invest it in trade, which is above the line, about 100 basis points. Because I don't hope a launch does well, I chum the waters. I'm making sure that we're doing whatever we need to get it into people's mouths. I promise you, if they buy it once, we're set. I'm not worried about I know the repeat will be there. Thinking about last September, you guys made the acquisition of Crown, which seems to have been a really great asset for you guys. What kind of capabilities did that bring you, not only from the product side, but just from the capacity side, manufacturing side? Just kind of walk us through that and what that brought to the business. Yeah. As you know, look, we've made a number of acquisitions since I've been here. I'm not acquiring revenue. I'm not acquiring profitable revenue. That's just the accident that comes with it. I am acquiring capabilities. Those capabilities can be capacity. We've literally doubled our manufacturing footprint with the Crown acquisition. It could be customers. Two of the top three Crown customers are super exclusive customers that we've been trying for years, they wouldn't even return our phone call. Magically, we did the Crown acquisition, they called us, and actually came to our facilities. We got customers. Capabilities, I just mentioned we got new technology around MAP technology, modified atmosphere packaging, which naturally increases shelf life, shredding capabilities, new techniques. That's all the coolness that the Crown acquisition gave us. It just so happens to accidentally come with $56 million of profitable revenue that I accidentally paid 0.3x revenue for. Oops, sorry. That sort of leads me to the next question, and I feel like you probably get this question every time you're doing these events, but your next sort of acquisition. I'm really six one. Yeah. I look like six, but six one, yeah. Okay. No, it makes sense. The next acquisition target, right? What is it that you're looking for? What sort of capabilities, geographical expansion? What can investors expect from that? You know, it's interesting. I was speaking to someone the other day. I was able to help lead our M&A in North America when I was at Mondelez. We bought about half a dozen companies. I seem to have bought the same company over and over again. You see different names, you think of Tate's Bake Shop, right, with Kathleen King, or Perfect Bar with Bill and Leigh Keith, or Jordan Brown and Jessica Karp with Hu. Every product was the same, right? You look in the back and they have their pictures and they're smiley. You see that with MamaMancini's and everything. For me, I'm looking at, again, any company that could bring us capabilities. Obviously, three things. Obviously, it has to be in the deli space. We're a deli company. Don't try to sell me an ambient company. Two, they have their own manufacturing and distribution. Then three, the third one is, I get a little wavy on, west of the Mississippi. We're in all 50 states today. We sell everywhere. We don't have a problem selling anywhere, well, I'm just cheap, we estimate I could save about a point of margin if we had a facility. I don't know. My boys like to ski, if you could find a deli company in Aspen or someplace like that would be great, too. Those three things, super simple. You guys have given your billion-dollar revenue target that you'd like to get to. No, we will get to. Will get to. At a high level, just walk us through kind of the key components of that and what investors largely should be kind of watching and paying attention to really just measure the progress on getting to that goal. Yeah. Actually, I shared this with the board. We're actually ahead of plan right now. It's going to be 50/50. We're going to buy $500 million of revenue, and we're going to grow organically $500 million. Got it. As I wrap up with my last question, we'll open it up to anybody in the audience here. What would be really just kind of the big thing that you want to leave investors with, and really just kind of a last finishing thought for you? Yeah, look, I think it really is straightforward. This is not complex. I apologize. There's no AI in our meatballs. It's super simple. This is exactly the category you want to be in, right? The category has proven that out. We now have, it took me a couple years, we now have just an amazing team. This idea, this strategy of being this one-stop shop, no one else is doing. We believe it's really resonating, and you see it's somehow worked. A little before I started, it was like $40 million of revenue, right? Now we're $200 million, we're just getting started. Awesome. Well, happy to take any questions from anybody in the audience. Yeah, go ahead. Thank you, guys. Do you mind taking this? Yeah, thanks. You mentioned you want to buy $500 million in revenue, you already bought $56 million from Crown I, or that doesn't count? That's okay. That counts. Okay. Chef Inspirational is kind of small, that counts, too. Perfect. Don't take it away from the team. Come on. How are you planning to fund the next $400 million- That's what you got in your pocket. $1. $2, actually. Look, the last acquisition we did, we have great investors, we have great partners. We found this great business. We have a great relationship with our commercial bank. They gave us $20 million. I went to our top investors and I said, "Hey, do you guys want to come in with?" I think we were 3X oversubscribed. We took that and paid back the bank. Look, we're a public company. I'd love to continue to use equity, we're like a money-making machine, right? We just keep growing. When I started, we had $840,000 of cash and $15 million of debt the first day. Now we have what? $25 million of cash and no debt. There was something called I don't even know what it was called. It was called accumulated deficit when I started. I had to look up what that word meant. Now we have retained earnings. I think we're in a good position from a balance sheet perspective. Actually, I like the balance sheet more than I like our income statement, though I do like our income statement. The equity. Thanks. I don't need that speaker. Okay. Yeah, I can project. Can you just talk a little bit about the culture within your organization? Oh, that's good. The $20 I gave you is totally worth it. It's my favorite question. One other just minor thing, and you rattled some things off, but I'm curious about if you could pinpoint one to three of your competitive advantages that you guys have that you'd like to? Culture is my favorite, right? I laid out a strategy when I first started. Costs, controls, and culture. Actually, it took me till a year or two later, after I stabilized the business, that there was a catapult element to it. Culture is everything. We have these LOVE awards, Living Our Values Everyd ay. Abbey helps lead the charge there. It is so important. That is everything for me. Super quickly, because I know I'm getting pulled off. Competitive advantage-wise, look, I think just the quality of our stuff. There are a lot of players that are bigger than us. They just don't have the quality we have. We stay true to that quality. I think the diversity of the items within the deli set, again, the ability to offer the chickens, the poultry, the proteins and the salads and the sandwiches, other people just don't have. The third is the way we've built out our facilities is the pack types. What's really important is some people want bulk, right? They just want bulk chicken because they're going to do their own thing. We can do that for them. All the way to, "Look, I have no labor whatsoever." We actually make the complete meal, and all they literally do is put it on the shelf, and there's a whole bunch of stuff in between. Having that trifecta really makes a difference. Yep. I guess one last question maybe, or no last questions. Man. Thank you, guys. Much appreciated.