Tofutti Brands (TOFB) Risk Factors

Selling food for human consumption involves inherent legal and other risks, and there is increasing governmental scrutiny of and public awareness regarding food safety. Unexpected side effects, illness, injury or death related to allergens, food-borne illnesses or other food safety incidents caused by products we sell, or involving our suppliers or co-manufacturers, could result in the discontinuance of sales of these products or our relationships with such suppliers or co-manufacturers, or otherwise result in increased operating costs, regulatory enforcement actions or harm to our reputation. Shipment of adulterated or misbranded products, even if inadvertent, can result in criminal or civil liability. Such incidents could also expose us to product liability, negligence or other lawsuits, including consumer class action lawsuits. Any claims brought against us may exceed or be outside the scope of our existing or future insurance policy coverage or limits. Any judgment against us that is more than our policy limits or not covered by our policies or not subject to insurance would have to be paid from our cash reserves, which would reduce our capital resources. The occurrence of food-borne illnesses or other food safety incidents could also adversely affect the price and availability of affected ingredients, resulting in higher costs, disruptions in supply and a reduction in our sales. Furthermore, any instances of food contamination or regulatory noncompliance, whether or not caused by our actions, could compel us, our suppliers, our distributors or our customers, depending on the circumstances, to conduct a recall in accordance with FDA regulations, comparable state laws or foreign laws. Food recalls could result in significant losses due to their costs, the destruction of product inventory, lost sales due to the unavailability of the product for a period of time and potential loss of existing distributors or customers and a potential negative impact on our ability to attract new customers due to negative consumer experiences or because of an adverse impact on our brand and reputation. The costs of a recall could exceed or be outside the scope of our existing or future insurance policy coverage or limits. In addition, food companies have been subject to targeted, large-scale tampering as well as to opportunistic, individual product tampering, and we, like any food company, could be a target for product tampering. Forms of tampering could include the introduction of foreign material, chemical contaminants and pathological organisms into consumer products as well as product substitution. FDA regulations require companies like us to analyze, prepare and implement mitigation strategies specifically to address tampering (i.e., intentional adulteration) designed to inflict widespread public health harm. If we do not adequately address the possibility, or any actual instance, of intentional adulteration, we could face possible seizure or recall of our products and the imposition of civil or criminal sanctions, which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.

The principal raw materials that we use are commodities that experience price volatility caused by external conditions such as weather, product scarcity, limited sources of supply, commodity market fluctuations, currency fluctuations, changes in governmental agricultural and energy policies and regulations. Commodity price changes may result in unexpected increases in raw material, packaging, and energy costs. Therefore, our success is dependent, in part, on our continued ability to manage these fluctuations through pricing actions, cost savings projects and sourcing decisions. In the manufacturing and general overhead areas, we need to maintain key manufacturing and supply arrangements, including any key sole supplier and manufacturing plant arrangements.

We believe that our revenues and profitability are strongly correlated to consumer discretionary spending, which is influenced by general economic conditions, unemployment levels, and the availability of discretionary income. In an economic downturn our business and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.

In fiscal 2023, approximately 12% of our revenues were from international sales. Although we intend to expand our international operations, we cannot be certain that we will be able to maintain or increase international market demand for our products. To the extent that we cannot do so in a timely manner, our business, operating results and financial condition will be adversely affected. International operations are subject to inherent risks, including the following: - different and changing regulatory requirements in the jurisdictions in which we currently operate or may operate in the future;     - the impact of possible recessionary environments in multiple foreign markets;     - export restrictions, tariffs and other trade barriers;     - difficulties in managing and supporting foreign operations;     - longer payment cycles;     - difficulties in collecting accounts receivable;     - political and economic changes, hostilities and other disruptions in regions where we currently sell our products or may sell our products in the future;     - seasonal reductions in business activities. Negative developments in any of these areas in one or more countries could result in a reduction in demand for our products, the cancellation or delay of orders already placed, difficulty in collecting receivables, and a higher cost of doing business, any of which could adversely affect our business, results of operations or financial condition.

Our foreign transactions are always in U.S. dollars. Therefore, our future export sales could be adversely affected by an increase in the value of the U.S. dollar, which could increase the local currency price of our products. There can be no assurance such fluctuations in the future will not materially and adversely affect our revenues from international sales and, consequently, our business, operating results and financial condition.

From time to time in the normal course of our business, we become subject to product liability claims. If a product liability claim exceeding our insurance coverage were to be successfully asserted against us, it could harm our business. We cannot assure you that such coverage will be sufficient to insure against claims which may be brought against us, or that we will be able to maintain such insurance or obtain additional insurance covering existing or new products. As a marketer of food products, we are subject to the risk of claims for product liability. We maintain general product liability and umbrella insurance coverages and generally require that our co-packers maintain product liability insurance naming us as a co-insured. Similarly, most of our customers require us to name them as additional insureds as well, and in some cases we are required to sign hold harmless and indemnification agreements.

We are subject to risks associated with the long-term effects of climate change on the global economy and on our industry in particular. Extreme weather and natural disasters within or outside the United States, such as drought, wildfires, storms, changes in ocean currents and flooding, could make it more difficult and costly for us to manufacture and deliver our products to our customers, obtain raw materials from our suppliers, or perform other critical corporate functions. In particular, if such climate change impacts negatively affect agricultural productivity, we may be subject to decreased availability or less favorable pricing from certain commodities that are necessary for our products. Adverse weather conditions and natural disasters could reduce crop size and crop quality, which could reduce our supplies of raw materials, lower recoveries of usable raw materials, increase the prices of our raw materials, increase our costs of storing and transporting raw materials, or disrupt production schedules. There is a growing societal concern that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere may have an adverse effect on global temperatures, weather patterns and the frequency and severity of natural disasters. The increasing concern over climate change could result in new domestic or international legal requirements for us to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental impacts of our operations, improve our energy efficiency, or undertake sustainability measures that exceed those we currently pursue. Furthermore, such measures may result in the taxation of greenhouse gas emissions. Any such regulatory requirements could cause disruptions in the manufacture of our products and result in increased capital, procurement, manufacturing and distribution costs. Our reputation and brand could be harmed if we fail, or are seen as having failed, to respond responsibly and effectively to changes in legal and regulatory measures adopted to address climate change. In addition, changing customer preferences may result in increased demands regarding packaging materials and other components in our products and their environmental impact on sustainability. Further, customers may place increasing importance on purchasing products that are sustainably grown and made. These demands may cause us to incur additional costs or make other changes to other operations to respond to such demands, which could adversely affect our financial results.

The plant-based, dairy free frozen dessert, cheese and health food markets are highly competitive. In addition, many of our principal competitors are large, diversified companies with resources significantly greater than ours. We expect strong competition to continue, including competition for adequate distribution and competition for the limited shelf space for the dairy free frozen dessert and dairy free cheese food categories in supermarkets and other retail food outlets. Competition in our product categories is based on product innovation, product quality, price, brand recognition and loyalty, effectiveness of marketing, promotional activity, and the ability to identify and satisfy consumer preferences. Our market share and ability to grow our revenue could also be adversely impacted if we are not successful in introducing innovative products in response to changing consumer demands or by new product introductions of our competitors. If we are unable to build and sustain brand equity by offering recognizably superior product quality, we may be unable to maintain premium pricing over competitive products. From time to time, we and our customers experience price pressure in some of our markets as a result of competitors' promotional pricing practices as well as general market conditions. Our failure to match or exceed our competitors' cost reductions through innovative products and other improvements could weaken our competitive position. Competition is based on product quality, reliability, food safety, distribution effectiveness, brand loyalty, price, effective promotional activities, the ability to identify and satisfy emerging consumer preferences and the ability to provide ancillary support services. We may not be able to compete effectively with these larger, more diversified companies.

We are a consumer food products company and rely on continued demand for our products. To achieve business goals, we must develop and sell products that appeal to consumers. If demand and growth rates fall substantially below expected levels or our market share declines significantly in these businesses, our results could be negatively impacted. This could occur due to unforeseen negative economic or political events or to changes in consumer trends and habits.

We must maintain strong relationships with our existing customers and build relationships with new customers in order to ensure our products are well presented to our consumers and available for purchase in major markets. The strength of our customer relationships also affects our ability to obtain pricing and competitive trade terms. Failure to maintain strong relationships with customers could negatively impact our terms of business with affected customers and reduce the availability of our products to consumers.

Consumer tastes, preferences and behaviors are constantly changing and our ability to anticipate and respond to these changes and to continue to maintain loyalty to our brand and products is vital to our business. If we are unable to innovate effectively, our sales or margins could be materially adversely affected. The successful introduction of innovative products and packaging on a periodic basis has become increasingly important to our ability to maintain and grow our sales. Accordingly, the continued acceptance of our current products and the future degree of market acceptance of any of products, which may be accompanied by significant promotional expenditures, is likely to have an important impact on our future financial results.

We rely upon the confidentiality of our formulas and our know-how rather than upon patent protection. There is no assurance that such confidentiality can or will be maintained or that our know-how cannot be obtained by others or that others do not now possess similar or even more effective capabilities. The failure to maintain the confidentiality of our know-how could adversely affect our operating results.

We rely heavily on IT systems to manage critical functions such as operations, data storage and retrieval, revenue recognition, budgeting, forecasting, financial reporting and other administrative functions. Cyber-attacks or other breaches of network or information technology, or IT, may cause equipment failures or disrupt our systems and operations. In particular, both unsuccessful and successful cyber-attacks on companies have increased in frequency, scope and potential harm in recent years. A party who is able to compromise the security measures on our networks or the security of our infrastructure could, among other things, misappropriate our proprietary information and the personal information of our customers and employees, cause interruptions or malfunctions in our or our customers' operations, cause delays or interruptions to our ability to meet customer needs, cause us to breach our legal, regulatory or contractual obligations, create an inability to access or rely upon critical business records or cause other disruptions in our operations. These breaches may result from human errors, equipment failure, or fraud or malice on the part of employees or third parties. Our exposure to cybersecurity threats and negative consequences of cybersecurity breaches will likely increase as we store increasing amounts of customer data. While no actual or attempted attacks have had a material impact on our operations or financial condition, we cannot provide any assurance that our business operations will not be negatively materially affected by such attacks in the future. We seek to protect against such threats and may be required to expend significant financial resources to alleviate problems caused by physical, electronic, and cyber security breaches. As techniques used to breach security are growing in frequency and sophistication and are generally not recognized until launched against a target, regardless of our protection efforts, we may not be able to implement security measures in a timely manner or, if and when implemented, these measures could be circumvented. Any breaches that may occur could expose us to increased risk of lawsuits, loss of existing or potential future customers, harm to our reputation and increases in our security costs, which could have a material adverse effect on our financial performance and operating results. In the event of a breach resulting in loss of data, such as personally identifiable information or other such data protected by data privacy or other laws, we may be liable for damages, fines and penalties for such losses under applicable regulatory frameworks despite not handling the data. Furthermore, if a high-profile security breach or cyber-attack occurs with respect to another provider of mission-critical data center facilities, our customers and potential customers may lose trust in the security of these business models generally, which could harm our reputation and brand image as well as our ability to retain existing customers or attract new ones. In addition, the regulatory framework around data custody, data privacy and breaches vary by jurisdiction and is an evolving area of law. We may not be able to limit our liability or damages in the event of such a loss. While we maintain insurance coverage for some of these events, the potential liabilities associated with these events could exceed the insurance coverage we maintain. A failure to protect the privacy of customer and employee confidential data against breaches of network or IT security could result in damage to our reputation. Any of these occurrences could result in a material adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.