Earnings Call Transcript - ZVIA Q4 2021

Operator, Operator

Hello, and welcome to Zevia's Q4 2021 Earnings Call. My name is Elliot, and I will be coordinating the calls today. I would now like to hand over to our host, Reed Anderson. Please go ahead.

Reed Anderson, Host

Thank you. And welcome to Zevia's Fourth Quarter and Full-Year 2021 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. On today's call are Paddy Spence, Chair and Chief Executive Officer, Amy Taylor, President, and Bill Beech, Chief Financial Officer. By now, everyone should have access to the company's fourth-quarter and full-year earnings press release and investor presentation filed this morning. Information is available on the Investor Relations section of Zevia's website at investors.zevia.com. Before we begin, please note that all the financial information presented on today's call is unaudited. Certain comments made on this call include forward-looking statements which are subject to the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and beliefs concerning future events and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in these forward-looking statements. Please refer to today's press release and other filings with the SEC for a detailed discussion of the risks that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements made today. During the call, we will use some non-GAAP financial measures as we describe business performance. The SEC filings, as well as the earnings press release presentation slides that accompany today's comments and reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are all available on our website at investors.zevia.com. And now I'd like to turn the call over to Padraic Spence, Chair and Chief Executive Officer.

Padraic Spence, CEO

Thanks, Reed. Good morning. And welcome to the fourth quarter and full-year FY2021 earnings call for Zevia PBC. I'd like to begin by discussing our performance in the fourth quarter of 2021, as well as full-year 2021, in light of the extraordinary year we had completing our IPO and operating amidst the ongoing challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Zevia markets great tasting, zero sugar, zero calorie beverages with simple, plant-based ingredients. We are focused on reducing global sugar consumption by offering our products in sustainable packaging at an affordable price. In the fourth quarter of 2021, we continued to transform our organization, adding key executives, expanding our distribution into new channels, introducing value-added new additions to the Zevia line, and removing costs from our supply chain as we scale. Management's priority is executing our long-term strategic plan, and later on today's call, our President, Amy Taylor, will provide additional detail on our long-term initiatives. The Zevia brand continues to grow rapidly, and in 2021 we added 1 million new households to our consumer base, according to consumer panel data for Numerator. Our consumer metrics show continued progress in attracting new consumers, retaining existing Zevia consumers, and increasing per household spending—all key indicators of our brand's health. At the same time, the Zevia management team is focused on enhancing unit economics. As we are experiencing inflationary pressures on input costs, like many consumer packaged goods companies, through a combination of pricing actions, mix shifts, scale benefits, and cost optimization programs, we're confident in our ability to mitigate the impact of these cost headwinds. In the fourth quarter of 2021, Zevia continued to achieve double-digit net sales growth we've accomplished for the past decade. We delivered net sales of $34.2 million, representing 23% growth versus the fourth quarter of 2020. This was a combination of 22% volume growth and 1% growth in price mix. The pricing actions we announced to the trade in the fourth-quarter of 2021, which were 6% for soda and 6% to 8% for our innovation product lines were not reflected in these figures. We anticipate continued price realization through 2022 and believe that we have the ability to implement further pricing actions should conditions warrant. Regarding the components of our 30% long-term growth algorithm, I'll break out Zevia's performance in the fourth quarter of 2021. Of our 23% net sales growth, velocity drove 6%, a shortfall of 4 percentage points versus our 10% goal. Incremental distribution in core food drug mass and natural channels accounted for 4% growth versus our target of 5%. And regarding distribution in new channels, we grew approximately 13% versus our 15% target. In terms of gross profit, we achieved $13.8 million for the fourth-quarter, representing a 40.3% gross margin. The reduction from last year's 42.1% margin can be mainly explained by a cost of goods per equivalized case increase of 3.5%. We believe we have effectively managed the cost headwinds that many of our beverage peers are facing. The adjusted EBITDA loss for the fourth quarter of 2021 was $5.3 million. For full-year 2021, Zevia achieved net sales of $138.2 million, an increase of 26% versus 2020. Gross margin was 44.3% versus 45.0% in 2020 and adjusted EBITDA loss was $8.7 million. Zevia's net sales momentum is continuing as we begin fiscal 2022 and we anticipate that the combination of velocity initiatives, new retail distribution, and price realization will accelerate our growth through the course of 2022. As such, we expect net sales of $36 million to $38 million in the first quarter of 2022, which would reflect growth of 17% to 24% versus the first quarter of 2021. On a full-year basis, we anticipate net sales of $177 million to $182 million or 28% to 32% growth versus 2021. Our growth in the fourth-quarter of 2021 was fueled by continued expansion in consumer purchasing metrics. Numerator consumer panel data for the 52 weeks ending December 31, 2021 indicates that Zevia grew our household penetration from 4.7% in the year-ago period to 5.4%, a 15% increase. This was driven by a combination of strong retention of existing Zevia brand purchasers, as well as growth in new households purchasing the brand. During this period, the buying rate for households purchasing Zevia also grew from $30.35 to $32.44, a 7% increase. The buying rate among Zevia's retained brand buyers in 2021 was even stronger at $63.67, highlighting how we are intensifying purchasing with buyers who remain with the brand year-over-year. Zevia's strong focus on execution gives us conviction regarding the brand's ongoing runway for growth. We believe that channel expansion and innovation, which expand accessibility and consumption of the brands, are two key levers for continued growth and our progress in the fourth quarter on these metrics was significant. In the fourth-quarter, we also made gains across a number of key environmental, social, and governance (ESG) or social impact metrics. Zevia's primary mission is to reduce global sugar consumption; in the fourth quarter of 2021, we estimate that we eliminated nearly 3,000 metric tonnes of sugar from our consumers’ diets by replacing legacy sugary sodas. In our history, we estimate that we have eliminated over 74,000 metric tonnes of sugar. Replacing single-use plastic beverage packaging is another key area of focus. And in the fourth-quarter of 2021, we estimate that we eliminated over 40 million plastic bottles from littering our roadways or waterways in our communities by selling beverages exclusively in aluminum cans. Lastly, affordability is a key priority for the Zevia brand. In the fourth quarter of 2021, Zevia's products were priced at an average retail cost per ounce of $0.07, representing the 36th percentile within all non-alcoholic ready-to-drink beverages, excluding dairy and non-dairy protein. Zevia is less expensive than 64% of non-alcoholic beverage options and is affordable for a broad range of income levels. Now, I’d like to turn the call over to Amy Taylor, our President, to share Zevia's continued progress on key strategic initiatives.

Amy Taylor, President

Thanks, Paddy. We focused on implementing our long-term strategic plan crafted at the end of last year as a newly public company. The plan was framed and continues to be built by a combination of veterans and new key talent in senior roles and critical functions who have been and will be key to our expansion, continued growth, and margin realization. One fundamental focus area is unit economics. We've implemented a price increase across packages, categories, and channels, averaging 6% across our soda lines in retail and e-commerce in the U.S. and Canada, and an 8% increase in energy drinks and tea, again, across channels. Price realization will begin at the end of Q1. We believe we have additional pricing headroom based on our relative affordability versus peers, retailer acceptance of recent pricing actions, upcoming product and package launches, and the strength of consumer loyalty to the Zevia brand. I'll revisit price again when we speak about innovation in a moment. Unit economics going forward will be further supported by comps and supply chain savings realized through collaboration with co-pack partners, freight efficiencies, and continued improvement in efficiency with a variety of repacking. New initiatives include number one: increasing the number of locations where we produce ten-pack soda lines, our key lines, and our kid’s lines as we grow distribution of those items, optimizing freight routes; two: additional repacking and distribution centers to reduce freight for the fast-growing e-commerce and club business. There are a number of other scale benefits we will continue to realize as we grow, including Canadian freight efficiencies, increased full truck utilization, and reduced inventory levels. The second area of focus in strategic planning is product innovation and marketing with a focus on expanding the Zevia consumer base. In late December through February, we launched the total brand Zevia, Live Your Best campaign, which supported new distribution and increased in-store presence without increasing promotional spend. In addition, we improved overall campaign efficiency, achieving greater reach with fewer dollars spent compared to the prior year. A good indicator for future marketing investments. We launched two new energy drink flavors in the market: Strawberry Kiwi and Pineapple Paradise, with distribution in approximately 3,000 outlets. Rolling into the market now are three new and improved flavor profiles in our Citrus flavor, orange, lemon-lime twist, and Mountain Zevia, being introduced across existing and new customers in the natural food and mass channels, and this summer in club. In the second quarter, we will begin selling Zevia soda in single cans for the first time in a 12-ounce sleek format available cold at several grocery retailers in the deli grab-and-go and open-air perimeter coolers to reach new shoppers. Launches are supported by efficient, low-spend trial-driving initiatives in the form of retail marketing, in-store activations, digital sampling, selective local grassroots marketing, and invested in social media activations. As two of many tactical examples, we will execute broad sampling initiatives in the Warehouse Club channel in February and we will place approximately 1,000 new pieces of equipment, such as racks and coolers, in stores starting in March and April. Finally, the last focus in the strategic plan with immediate impact that I can highlight is our channel strategy. We are focusing on top accounts and expanding our presence with national retailers, leading with top soda flavors, and then bringing in adjacent categories that drive interest in the brand and bring new shoppers to the franchise—Kids, mixers, tea, and energy. Our channel strategy outlook is as follows. Soon we are expanding presence and leveraging new items and new pack formats to reach new core shoppers. We will take our core soda line into the perimeter of the store as our new 12-ounce sleek can sellers will be available cold, in a scaled pallet display program featuring a variety of six-pack flavors, which will increase our presence off-shelf at a number of regional, natural, and conventional grocery chains. Over 2,000 retailers will also feature Zevia's kids’ line as shelf resets occur in March and April. Finally, we are introducing 12-packs into the market, with already one major regional grocer adding two more in Q2 for further scaling nationally. All of these developments drive presence and velocity in food to support our growth algorithms. In mass, we are focused on driving distribution, developing the right pack mix, and expanding beyond soda. We will gain 13,000 new points of distribution in April, driven largely by moving from five flavors to a brand block, and moving from six packs to a cardboard-wrapped eight-pack in the CSD aisle in one of the two major players nationwide. With this, we increased space with that customer by 50%. We've also achieved significant distribution gains with our kids’ line, which is now nationally distributed in both major mass chains. In the Warehouse Club, we're focused on building out distribution and driving trial for the new items. Our kids’ line has gained national distribution at major clubs, activated selected rotations in Costco, U.S., and now in Q1, a nationwide placement at Costco Canada. The incrementality we discussed during our third quarter conference call has increased, with 65% of our purchases in the Warehouse Club channel now being from new Zevia brand purchasers. The club story is quite compelling for the retailer as well. Media is bringing new consumers to the CSD category, as more than 75% of Zevia buyers in the Warehouse Club channel are making their first soft drink purchase at the store. These figures demonstrate the role Zevia can play in continuing to add incremental dollars as well as value-added shoppers to CSD category sales. In addition to introducing new households to a broad range of Zevia flavors, we believe our variety pack purchases will result in increased sell-through of individual flavored multi-packs in other channels. In drugs, we've added a new customer in Rite Aid with 500 stores selling Zevia in Q4, broadening our presence in that channel. Our 2022 outlook reinforces our confidence in our 30% net sales growth algorithm. New items and an increase in in-store presence will drive velocity as seen in food and mass, new package formats, and expansion beyond soda will win new stores, as demonstrated in the mass channel, and new channel distribution guards volume and incrementality, as with warehouse clubs. We are introducing high-margin, premium-priced, zero-sugar, naturally sweetened soda singles as a trial package, offering consumers a chance to try Zevia soda flavors for less than $2. We're simultaneously expanding our multi-pack offerings, creating a price load with packaging formats for every level of Zevia consumption. We have clear plans to further improve unit economics, take pricing actions as conditions merit, and strengthen our price loads to trade more consumers up to larger pack sizes. And with that, I'd like to turn the call over to Bill Beech, our CFO, for a review of our financial results.

Bill Beech, CFO

Thanks, Amy. We continued our strong top-line growth in the fourth quarter of 2021, with net sales of $34.2 million, an increase of 23% over the fourth quarter of 2020. Our two-year growth rate from Q4 2019 to Q4 2021 was 52%. And on a full-year 2021 basis, net sales were up 26% over the prior year. Our net sales growth was primarily driven by unit volume, which increased 22% in Q4 and 25% on a full-year basis. We announced pricing actions in the fourth quarter, and we'll begin achieving price realization from these actions at the end of the first quarter of 2022. The cost of goods sold per equivalent case in the fourth quarter of 2021 increased by 3.5% versus the same period last year, and increased 2% on a full-year basis versus 2021. We believe this reflects a lower exposure to inflationary headwinds on commodity ingredients. Zevia, as a brand that uses simple plant-based ingredients, contracts for most of our inputs, and as such, is less subject to price swings for commodity costs. One area of our cost of goods sold that has been impacted by a combination of inflationary headwinds and supply tightness is aluminum cans, and we remain confident in our opportunity to continue to mitigate these headwinds. Fourth quarter gross margin was 40.3%, compared with 42.1% in the fourth quarter of 2020, reflecting mixed spend inflation factors. On a full-year basis, gross margin was 44.3% in 2021 compared with 45.0% in 2020. Turning to operating costs, selling and marketing expenses in the quarter were $3.2 million higher than in the prior year. Zevia experienced $1.4 million of increased transportation costs due to overall net sales growth and higher freight rates, driven by the challenging transportation market in the U.S. and Canada. Marketing expenses increased by $1.1 million, reflecting our increased investment in growing the Zevia brand. General and administrative expenses in the quarter were $3.2 million higher than the prior year, primarily from costs associated with being a public company and to support our growth. These costs include increases in D&O insurance premiums, annual audit and tax expenses, staffing, and support services. On a GAAP basis, consolidated net loss was $37.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2021, and $87.7 million for the full-year 2021. The losses in the fourth quarter and the full-year were primarily driven by non-cash equity-based compensation. We recognized non-cash equity-based compensation of $31.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2021, and $77.7 million for the full-year 2021, largely related to Restricted Stock Unit awards and Phantom Stock awards that generally vest as a result of the expiration of the initial public offering lock-up period in January 2022. The adjusted EBITDA loss in the fourth quarter 2021 was $5.3 million compared with an adjusted EBITDA loss of $1 million in Q4 of 2020. On a full-year basis, adjusted EBITDA loss was $8.7 million compared to adjusted EBITDA income of $3.3 million in the prior year. Turning to the balance sheet, Zevia had $73.1 million of cash in short-term investments at the end of the fourth quarter. Inventory at $31.5 million represents a DIO of 140 days higher than historical levels as we continue to hold elevated levels of inventory to ensure high service levels amidst the North American aluminum can shortage. On the liability side, we had no debt. Zevia recently closed on a $20 million asset-based line of credit with Bank of America, expandable to $30 million to enhance our available liquidity. Looking to the future, we are reaffirming our long-term guidance of 30% net sales growth. For 2022, we anticipate net sales of $177 million to $182 million, representing 28% to 32% growth over 2021. For the first-quarter of 2022, net sales are expected to be in a range of $36 million to $38 million, an increase of 17% to 24% compared to the first quarter of 2021. With that, we will conclude our prepared remarks and open the line for questions.

Operator, Operator

Thank you. When preparing to ask your question, please ensure your mic is unmuted locally.

Ben Bienvenu, Analyst

Hey, thanks. Good morning, everyone.

Padraic Spence, CEO

Good morning, Ben. Thanks for joining.

Ben Bienvenu, Analyst

I want to ask about the rollout of your products at the club channel. And you talked about the introduction of picking up a lot of new households. Can you talk a little about the behaviors you're seeing with respect to repurchase rates, overall spending levels, and the buy rate? And what you think that pertains for continued expansion in that channel and then the read-through kind of halo effect to other channels.

Padraic Spence, CEO

Absolutely. And I think it's a great question. When we think about the club channel, it's channel expansion that is fueling not only profitable transactions but actually trial activity in new shoppers for the Zevia brand. In the club channel, over 65% of our purchasers are new to the Zevia brand, so it's highly incremental for us. As you know, we're selling variety packs in that channel, and as we've seen in e-commerce, variety pack purchases then generate single flavor purchases in multi-packs, both in brick-and-mortar and in e-commerce. In the e-commerce channel, literally 50% of our purchasers online also purchase our brand in brick-and-mortar. They spend an average of three times what the brick-and-mortar buyers spend. So it's still early days in the club channel, having just entered there, but we are seeing, as I mentioned, very strong incrementality in terms of the Zevia brand, where 65% of those consumers are new to the brand. And then on the flip side, what's really fascinating about this merchandising is that we're actually bringing new shoppers to soft drinks in Warehouse Club. So literally greater than 75% of the purchasers in the club channel are making their first soft drink purchase in that club outlet. It's fantastic for our brand in terms of incrementality. Again, early days, but we think that it's going to lead to single-flavor purchases across other brick-and-mortar channels. And then, it's also highly incremental for those club retailers as we're bringing new shoppers with a value-added brand and simple, plant-based ingredients. So hope that's helpful.

Ben Bienvenu, Analyst

Yes, it is. Thank you. And then, Amy, I was intrigued by your commentary about the placement of the product in the single-serve immediate purchase, grab-and-go format. As you implement and monitor the progress of that occasion, how leverageable is that as an insight as you look to apply that both to other channels, thinking specifically like convenience stores as you try to market that product to perhaps distributors to immediate consumption channels, and can you talk a little bit about the rationale and thought process behind making that move?

Amy Taylor, President

Thanks for the question. I think the answer in short, is quite leverageable and you're reading the tea leaves in terms of our rationale. So previously, a shopper had to pay, let's call it $5 to enter the Zevia world for a soda, right? And now, a shopper can try a flavor for $2 and therefore part with $6 or less to try three flavors. And so we have the opportunity not only to get in the perimeter of the store to show up cold with single-serve, plant-based, zero-sugar soda for the first time in an attractive package, but also to do so with multiple flavors in an easy trial package. And so in doing that, we can test out merchandising, pricing and availability in the natural channel and in food, cold, and take those learnings both in terms of pricing, merchandising, marketing, and get some shopper data. That's all leverageable to go into immediate consumption more traditional media consumption channels, including convenience—that’s exactly the idea. So we see this as a win for us with immediacy in terms of velocity, shopper insight, and volume with our heaviest shopper in natural and where we have proof points in food, and that’s very leverageable for our expansion plans into convenience and beyond. Does that answer your question?

Ben Bienvenu, Analyst

It does. Thanks. And just one quick one for me on the aluminum costs. How impactful do you expect that to be? Obviously, if we look at the commodity markets, they're exceptionally inflationary even more so today with energy and political conflict escalating. So to the extent you could talk about the sensitivity to that dynamic, would be helpful. Thank you.

Padraic Spence, CEO

Yes, absolutely. I can speak to that, Ben. I think clearly we're seeing continued turbulence in the can market. I would say we are seeing a loosening in terms of availability. And so if you think back over the last 18 months, availability was a real challenge and so Zevia as well as many of our peers were sourcing cans from around the world and with significant freight costs associated with bringing those cans to the U.S. market. So we are seeing a loosening there. We're able to source U.S. manufactured cans without freight. So notwithstanding the elevated aluminum market, we're seeing some tailwinds from a cost perspective. We do continue to hold empty can inventory because availability and safety stock is really key. As we start to burn down that inventory through the course of this year, we will see some tailwinds from reduced inventory levels. So we're continuing to monitor inflation and commodity costs relative to aluminum. As noted, we did announce pricing actions in Q4, and we're going to see that realization, and we're confident that we have the ability to continue to take price as conditions warrant. So we'll continue to monitor aluminum, but I think we're feeling good, certainly from an availability standpoint, and we're seeing some future tailwinds in terms of costs.

Ben Bienvenu, Analyst

Okay, thanks so much. Best of luck.

Padraic Spence, CEO

Absolutely. Thank you.

Operator, Operator

Our next question comes from Alton Stump from Loop Capital. Your line is open.

Alton Stump, Analyst

Good morning. Congrats on the results. So I just wanted to ask you about, and I apologize. I had to hop on maybe late here. But as mentioned, pricing action in the fourth quarter, any kind of indication through yet, and if you're seeing any push back or if your point is there just a lot more customer's willingness to pay higher prices given that costs are absolutely going up for pretty much everybody right now.

Amy Taylor, President

Yeah, Alton. So we have communicated—so the only pricing action that is in the market in the fourth quarter was around our 10-pack and we did not have any push back on that, neither from retailer nor from consumer. And so that supported our price slope as we continue to trade consumers up with advantageous pricing with larger packages. In the fourth quarter, we communicated pricing action that's forthcoming and going into the market really now at the end of this first quarter. Again, great receptivity from the retailer as, of course, the competition continues to margin up and take price all around this. So we're able to maintain our affordability, which we mentioned earlier is in the 36th percentile among all non-alcoholic beverages, and then continue to improve profitability as the market moves. You'll see pricing on a consumer level, and we'll gain insights on the results of those actions in the second quarter and beyond, and we do believe there's headroom for further pricing action throughout the year. So we have received great receptivity from a retailer standpoint, and not surprisingly there because the pricing action we are taking is consistent with the market and consistent with I think consumer expectations from a premium brand as well.

Alton Stump, Analyst

Good. Makes sense. And then just one follow-up and then I'll hop back in the queue here. But just update on your online platform, which you guys talked in the past about Amazon, you being the best-selling drink in that market. Any update there on growth potential moving over the rest of 2022 and beyond?

Amy Taylor, President

Sure. Yeah, we remain the number one carbonated soft drink on Amazon, not just in the zero-calorie space, but across the board. We continue to grow there and introduce new packs. Amazon was the first to take our two new energy drink flavors, and we continue to experiment with different combinations on variety packs. Paddy mentioned earlier the performance that Amazon offers as a trial driver for us as we see the trial on Amazon translate into increased purchases not only on that platform but across brick-and-mortar as well. Another big opportunity for us in growth is through the second biggest.com player, which is Walmart.com, and then brick-and-mortar.com as well, so the brick and click pickup business for us with our traditional retailers. As we grow more sophisticated as selling organizations, we can unlock a lot of growth by taking our Amazon and Walmart.com learnings and applying those across other traditional retailers in their .com businesses. So fast growth still in e-commerce, we anticipate it continues to hold its portion of our mix, if not greater. There's a lot of organic growth to be had there as we learn about the right pack mix and pricing in those spaces.

Alton Stump, Analyst

Great. Thanks so much.

Operator, Operator

Our next question comes from Chris Carey from Wells Fargo. Please go ahead. Chris, your line is now open.

Chris Carey, Analyst

Hi. Good morning and apologies about the technical issues.

Padraic Spence, CEO

No problem. Good morning, Chris.

Chris Carey, Analyst

I just wanted to follow-up on that line around margin progression. So a couple of questions around that. First, how is the pricing being received? You talked about potential incremental pricing, which gives you confidence in the ability for the portfolio to do that. The second thing is just this dynamic between pricing and scale benefits into the back half of the year. How do you see the relative contribution, and how important are scale benefits to your budget into the back half of the year on margin? And then just connected to all that. Why not provide a profit outlook and only focus on revenue? Is that because of the volatility in the environment, or is this more standard practice? Thanks so much.

Padraic Spence, CEO

Absolutely. So why don't I start with the second part of your question first, which is around profitability and guidance or the lack thereof there. I think Chris, we're focused on growth—and having said that, we're starting with a very strong gross margin profile. The combination of pricing actions and cost optimization will continue to enhance unit economics. We believe that sets the stage for strong profitability in the future, but in 2022, we think we are going to really drive value by continuing to scale this brand and drive growth. That's kind of answering your question hopefully around profitability and how we think about that. In terms of the price increases and pricing action, we've received, as Amy noted, strong receptivity. We're not seeing pushback and I think in part, it starts with our affordability profile. We are at the 36th percentile of all non-alcoholic liquid refreshment beverages, with 64% of products, including bulk still water, being more expensive than Zevia. Additionally, what we found is that the category leaders have continued to take price over a multi-year period. We've narrowed that price gap materially. What we're finding today in the consumer environment is consumers are looking for value-added products at a reasonable price. Simple, plant-based ingredients with zero sugar and zero calories are really compelling—consumers are willing to pay a slight premium for that. As category leaders have taken price, that premium for Zevia has reduced to what I would call slight today. We believe in an inflationary environment, you know, we're focused on cost optimization, absent inflation. The inflationary environment is what's causing us to monitor future pricing actions. We believe we can stay ahead of inflation with additional pricing actions should conditions merit through the course of 2022. Hope that answers your question. Happy to take any follow-ups.

Chris Carey, Analyst

No. That's helpful. I'll jump back in the queue. Thanks, Paddy.

Padraic Spence, CEO

Excellent. Thanks, Chris.

Operator, Operator

Our next question comes from Andrew Strelzik from BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

Daniel Belton, Analyst

Hi, thanks for taking the question. This is Daniel Belton for Andrew. Zevia IRI data has been somewhat weaker in the energy drink category. Can you discuss how you see your positioning there? And if you have new strategies to improve performance?

Amy Taylor, President

We're relatively new in the energy sector and see a significant opportunity for growth. Our energy business is still small in comparison. Our goal is to clarify our market position. Consumers familiar with Zevia enjoy our energy drink, so we need to create a compelling marketing narrative and increase awareness through trial. We excel in the natural market, and we plan to expand into conventional channels through marketing and sampling initiatives. Our strategy for 2022 and beyond involves harnessing our excellent flavor profile and making it accessible to consumers through retail programs and in environments where they spend their time. Additionally, we have discussed the potential for a comprehensive rebranding of the entire Zevia portfolio, which we believe will enhance our energy offerings and leverage the strength of our main brand to attract shoppers to the energy category, even if the products are located in different areas of the store. There are numerous tactical and strategic opportunities to enhance our energy business and establish a stronger market presence, encouraging trial and ensuring our products are available in the right settings. This segment is significantly underutilized in our portfolio, and I am very enthusiastic about it. It's a substantial opportunity and a competitive edge against many rivals since we offer a fantastic taste profile in this category. I urge everyone to give our product a try. Thank you for the question.

Operator, Operator

There are no additional questions. So this concludes today's call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect.