UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 8-K

CURRENT REPORT

PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d)
OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

Date of Report (Date of earliest event reported): February 6, 2018

THE SIMPLY GOOD FOODS COMPANY

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

 

 

Delaware	001-38115	82-1038121
(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation)	(Commission File Number)	(IRS Employer Identification No.)

 

1050 17th Street, Suite 1500 Denver, CO 80265

(Address of principal executive offices and zip code)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (303) 633-2840

 

Check the appropriate box below if the Form 8-K is intended to simultaneously satisfy the filing obligation of the registrant under any of the following provisions:

 

☐	Written communication pursuant to Rule 425 under the Securities Act (17 CFR 230.425)
☐	Soliciting material pursuant to Rule 14a-12 under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14a-12)
☐	Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 14d-2(b) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14d-2(b))
☐	Pre-commencements communications pursuant to Rule 13e-4(c) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.13e-4(c))

 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an emerging growth company as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act of 1933 (§230.405 of this chapter) or Rule 12b-2 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (§240.12b-2 of this chapter).

 

☒	Emerging Growth Company

 

☒	If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act.

 

 

Item 7.01

Regulation FD Disclosure.

On February 6, 2018, The Simply Good Foods Company (the “Company”) filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission a preliminary prospectus supplement (the “prospectus supplement”) related to the sale of the Company’s common stock, par value $0.01 per share, by Atkins Holdings LLC, a stockholder of the Company and an affiliate of Roark Capital Group, in an underwritten public offering (the “Offering”). The prospectus supplement contains certain disclosure under the section “Summary” which is set forth below:

Our Strengths

Powerful brand with strong consumer awareness and loyalty. We are a leading player in the fast growing nutritional snacking category, and Atkins is one of the only brands with scale in both nutrition bars and RTD shakes. The Atkins iconic brand has 85% aided brand awareness with U.S. consumers today, based on a study conducted by Atkins in January 2016. Atkins continues to add new consumers, as demonstrated by a 6% compound annual increase in its consumer base over the past five fiscal years. Its highly-focused snacking portfolio provides us with a unique position within retailers’ nutrition and wellness aisles, resulting in meaningful shelf space. Atkins’ ability to appeal to both weight management program consumers and consumers focused on everyday nutritious eating makes it a highly attractive and strategic brand for a diverse set of retailers across various distribution channels.

Aligned with consumer mega trends. Increasing global concern about growing rates of obesity and weight-related diseases and other health issues has resulted in increased scientific, media and consumer focus on nutrition. Over 100 independent, peer reviewed, clinical studies show the benefits of controlling carbohydrates. Management believes that this focus is prompting consumers to rebalance their nutritional breakdown away from carbohydrates. In fact, 73% of consumers are seeking to lower their carbohydrate intake according to Health Focus International. Atkins brand attributes, “low carb,” “low sugar” and “protein rich” nutrition, are well aligned with consumer mega trends. In addition, consumers’ eating habits are gradually shifting towards increased convenience, snacking and meal replacement. Our portfolio of convenient and nutritious products as well as our ongoing eff ort to meet consumer demands for “cleaner labels,” which we define as products made with fewer, simpler and more recognizable ingredients, are strategically aligned with these trends.

Scalable snacking and food platform. With the highly-recognized Atkins brand as an anchor, we have been able to grow our product offerings through our brand extensions such as Atkins Harvest Trail and via acquisitions such as the December 2016 acquisition of Wellness Foods. Our in-house product development experience, combined with our outsourced manufacturing model, allow us to bring new products to market quickly. We pride ourselves on knowing our consumers and mining insights that lead to new products and ideas. We believe that we have the ability to leverage our strong relationships with our retail customers and distributors, brand building record, and category management expertise to help new products, brands and brand extensions gain distribution and consumer recognition, allowing us to continue to successfully expand our snacking platform.

Asset-light business with strong cash generation. We retain core in-house capabilities including sales and marketing, brand management, customer relationships, product development, and supply-chain know-how, while partnering with a diversified pool of contract manufacturers and distributors to execute manufacturing and distribution. Outsourcing these competencies allows us to focus our eff orts on innovation, marketing and sales to strive to meet consumer demands. Our lean infrastructure allows for significant flexibility and speed-to-market and minimal capital investment, which translates into consistent and robust free cash flow generation over time, driven by strong gross margins.

Experienced leadership team. Simply Good Foods has an experienced team of industry veterans with extensive experience across multiple branded consumer products, food and nutrition categories. For example, our Chief Executive Officer Joseph Scalzo has significant experience operating packaged foods businesses, having served in various leadership roles at Dean Foods, WhiteWave Foods, The Gillette Company, The Coca-Cola Company, and The Procter & Gamble Company. Simply Good Foods’ extensive experience is complemented by the significant industry expertise of James Kilts, the former Chief Executive Officer of The Gillette Company and Nabisco, and former President of Kraft USA and Oscar Mayer, and David West, the former Chief Executive Officer of Big Heart Pet Brands and The Hershey Company. Our management team’s deep expertise and proven track record in managing brands and operating packaged food businesses is a key driver of our success and positions Simply Good Foods as an attractive vehicle for future long-term growth within the snacking space and broader food category.

Our Strategies

Continue our advocacy, education and activation for core program consumers. Consumers who purchase Atkins’ products have shown a strong affinity for the brand as evidenced by a relatively high level of servings per buyer, per year. Historically, our core target consumer base has consisted of individuals participating in branded weight management programs. These consumers are our most loyal, profitable and frequent purchasers. We believe that social media is a cost-effective way of continuing to attract and retain these core consumers. We expect that the recently improved website and mobile application will continue to attract core consumers, including millennials, to our products. Our marketing strategy also uses television and print behind our new celebrity spokeswoman Lauren Alaina and the “Today’s Atkins” campaign. We believe that our ongoing eff orts to educate consumers about the benefits of a lower carbohydrate lifestyle will further reinforce the brand to core consumers who are focused on a programmatic approach to weight management.

Further develop marketing strategy to reach self-directed low carbohydrate consumers. We intend to continue to make focused changes to our approach to consumer outreach. According to the Information Resources, Inc. (“IRI”) Study, over 50% of current consumers are self-directed eaters (not on a program diet) who buy and consume our products, despite the fact that historically, Atkins’ marketing and advertising have not been targeted towards them. Based on a study we conducted in January 2016, we believe that the addressable market for our products is expandable from approximately 8 million low carbohydrate, program weight management consumers to approximately 46 million consumers, including individuals focused on self-directed weight management and those who have adopted a low carbohydrate approach to eating unrelated to weight management. This approach is reflected in our new campaign, “Today’s Atkins,” launched this past fall and continues to show that Atkins extends beyond a diet, focusing on lowering intake of carbohydrates and reducing sugars. This campaign is represented by our new celebrity spokesperson, actor Rob Lowe, who has followed a low-carb approach for years. Management expects that the brand’s redesigned marketing and advertising, such as our new spokesperson and our food-focused television advertising, will be effective at reaching the large addressable market of self-directed low carbohydrate consumers. Additionally, social media continues to be an important component of our marketing tools and we have an active and growing presence on key social channels such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. During the 52-week period ended August 26, 2017, Atkins had approximately 10 million new visitors to its website, www.atkins.com.

Innovate and expand the portfolio of product offerings to meet consumer demands for “cleaner labels,” higher protein products and new product forms. Management expects that our ongoing eff orts to meet consumer demands for “cleaner labels,” which we define as products made with fewer, simpler and more recognizable ingredients, will be effective at reaching self-directed low carbohydrate consumers, who are focused on weight management as part of overall health, wellness and “clean eating.” Management is committed to continually finding new and innovative formulations to reduce the number of product ingredients, as well as using “better for you” ingredients like nuts, fiber and whey protein in its existing products, while maintaining and improving taste and quality. In addition, we intend to continue to enhance, strengthen and expand our product offerings with new and innovative flavors and forms, simple ingredients and packaging alternatives, all while maintaining a commitment to delivering products that meet our nutritional profile and provide the convenience that consumers crave. Our in-house research and development laboratory allows us to develop new products internally and bring them to market quickly through our contract manufacturing network without diverging from high standards of taste, quality, safety and nutritional content. Additionally, we believe we will be able to meet consumer demands through merger and acquisition transactions, such as the December 2016 acquisition of Wellness Foods, a Canada-based developer, marketer and seller of the SimplyProtein® brand that is focused on “cleaner label,” protein-rich, and low-sugar products, which our management believes has significant opportunity for expansion in the U.S.

Expand distribution in white space opportunities. In the 52-week period ended August 26, 2017, over 80% of Atkins’ gross sales were through the mass retailer and grocery distribution channels. Management team believes there is opportunity for the brand to further penetrate other distribution channels such as convenience and club stores. Management also believes that the development of the SimplyProtein® brand will allow us to expand distribution into the natural and specialty channel. In addition, while shoppers have become heavy consumers of e-commerce purchases generally, only approximately 3% of Atkins’ gross sales for the pro forma combined 52-week period ended August 26, 2017 were through its e-commerce channel. We intend to leverage our brand recognition to further develop the distribution channels through which it reaches consumers, including through the expansion of the e-commerce channel.

Leverage platform to expand in attractive food and snacking categories. Management believes the fragmented snacking category presents a substantial opportunity for consolidation and the opportunity to build, through disciplined acquisitions, a leading platform in the snacking space and broader food category. As a leader in nutritious snacking, we believe we have the unique capability to leverage our operating platform and customer relationships to expand beyond the Atkins brand. Our experienced management team has deep expertise in brand building to expand the business into additional brands and products in the snacking segment. Simply Good Foods is actively seeking to identify and evaluate new acquisition opportunities to complement the Atkins platform, and sees significant opportunity for growth and synergies in complementary adjacent snacking categories such as the “better-for-you” eating space. As part of our previously announced acquisition strategy we continuously look for acquisitions. In our current acquisition pipeline we are in negotiations to purchase assets complimentary to our existing business that have $150 million to $200 million in annual revenues. We expect the purchase price to be less than one times the annual revenues. There is no assurance that this transaction or any transactions will be consummated.

 

This Current Report on Form 8-K shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy the shares of common stock in the Offering, nor shall there be any sale of these shares of common stock in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

 

SIGNATURE

 

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned hereunto duly authorized.

	The Simply Good Foods Company
Date: February 6, 2018	By:	/s/ Joseph E. Scalzo
		Joseph E. Scalzo
		Chief Executive Officer