Apologies if these documents have already been shared, but I wanted to post the engagement letter with Alix Partners (August 2025) along with the two addendums (November 2025). It gives a window into the restructuring work and the push towards profitability, with a goal of EBITDA positive by end of year. That will be a big day for the company. I am glad we are out of 2025, and I think that so much of the restructuring work done last year will pay off this year. Given all of the trouble in the world right now, all the better that Beyond has been engaged in this.
For added context, here is a quote from Ethan from the Q2 2025 earnings call:
“The reason that I wanted him [John Boken] to come on as interim manager of the business is to really drive two major outcomes. One is to get the operational footprint into the current revenue environment… in a way that doesn’t break things. And then the second is around margin. I wanted someone like John to… make sure that we can become EBITDA positive within the second half of next year.”
Part of the work involves “exiting certain product lines and reconfiguring others,” he added: “We are super focused on slowing the rate of cash burn… Bringing in John, I think, is a symbol of the level of urgency and seriousness that we’re placing on ensuring that we are able to drive out cost from the business as quickly as we can.”
At the EOY call in March, Ethan spoke of progress made:
“Stripping out these non-routine items and the impact of the transaction-related change in non-cash stock compensation, one can see that the run rate operating expense of our business is down considerably year-over-year.“…“our fourth quarter 2025 results reflect both continuing challenges in the category as well as substantial noise in our reported numbers due to, among other factors, several of our transformation initiatives. I will now turn to this transformation activity where we are encouraged by the progress of our transformation office led by our Interim Chief Transformation Officer, John Boken.
As I noted, we’ve seen further reduction in underlying operating expenses, excluding the non-routine items and transaction-related stock compensation increase for both the fourth quarter and full year 2025 on a year-over-year basis, and we are pursuing other cost reduction measures going forward. Also setting aside certain non-routine charges, we believe we are making progress against our goal to sustainably return to healthy gross margins. As previously shared, we’ve largely completed the consolidation of our production network and continue to improve asset utilization at our manufacturing facilities. Further, we’re now in the process of optimizing our new continuous production line at our facility in Columbia, Missouri, and are investing in automation. These and other measures are already showing up in a year-over-year improvement in conversion costs across our network, a key component of our COGS reduction initiatives.
Further, through our Transformation Office, we are seeking to reduce material costs through RFP actions, the cultivation of secondary sources, and formulation improvements. We are further consolidating our warehouse network and reducing logistics expenses. We are exiting less profitable product lines, and we are making substantial progress on driving down inventory. Finally, we remain very focused on cash management and have significantly reduced our baseline cash use in the fourth quarter compared to prior periods, excluding extraordinary items.”
Engagement Letter:
“Assist the Company in a collaborative effort to reach the target of an annualized EBITDA positive run rate by the fourth quarter of 2026, including achieving reductions in operating expenses, as categorized in the Company's income statement, intended to result in an annualized operating expenses run rate of [***] or less in a comparable time frame”
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1655210/000165521025000149/ex101beyondmeatengagemen.htm
Addendum 1
• Quantify the sales contribution and ROI / ROAS of each current marketing channel
• Determine the diminishing returns of each channel with a particular focus on shopper marketing
• Determine the optimal amount of spend by channel to maximize profitable sales
• Design a match-market test to validate hypotheses
https://contracts.justia.com/companies/beyond-meat-inc-5366/contract/1347393/
Addendum 2
• Refresh the promotional spend baseline, including focus of recent increases in Trade Spend
• Perform a comprehensive review of key account Trade Spend and isolate, identify, and analyze tail account spend, potential non-working Trade Spend leakage, promotion structuring, and other key Trade Spend considerations
• Prepare analyses for review with Company management and account leadership for discussion and assessment in workshop meetings
• Facilitate account workshops with Company management and account leadership to review and assess results and develop strategies and action plans to more effectively manage Trade Spend, measure results on a timely basis, and optimize investments
• Assist in assessing optimal future-state Commercial Operating Model, including organizational structure, resources, and governance
https://contracts.justia.com/companies/beyond-meat-inc-5366/contract/1347394/
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