TOFB Tofutti Brands Inc (QB)

Investing in our common stock involves a high degree of risk and uncertainty. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below before investing in our common stock. If any of the following risks actually occur, our business prospects, financial condition and results of operations could be harmed. In that case, the value of our common stock could decline, and you could lose all or part of your investment.

Risks Related to Our Business

David Mintz, our founder, Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer and the developer of all of our products died in February 2021 and we may be unable to adequately replace him.

On February 24, 2021, David Mintz, our founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors, passed away. Steven Kass, Chief Financial Officer, was appointed CEO by our Board of Directors and was confirmed as permanent CEO by the Board on April 27, 2021. We may be unable to find someone who will be able to succeed Mr. Mintz in his role as our head of research and development. The loss of his services could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

We depend on a limited number of suppliers for ingredients, packaging materials and the production of our products.

We depend on a limited number of suppliers for ingredients, packaging materials and the production of our products. We do not produce any of our own products. For the fiscal years ended January 1, 2022 and January 2, 2021, we purchased approximately 50% and 40%, respectively, of our finished goods from Franklin Foods, including our BETTER THAN CREAM CHEESE, WHIPPED BETTER THAN CREAM CHEESE, BETTER THAN SOUR CREAM, and BETTER THAN RICOTTA products, and purchased approximately 11% and 16%, respectively, of our finished goods from Luke’s Ice Cream, our frozen dessert novelty co-packer. Any disruption in supply could have a material adverse effect on our company.

We have little control over the suppliers of ingredients to our co-packers. Disruptions in these relationships may reduce our sales and revenues. Overall difficulty of suppliers meeting product demand, interruptions in the supply chain, obstacles or delays in the process of renegotiating or renewing agreements with preferred suppliers, financial difficulties experienced by suppliers, or the deficiency, lack, or poor quality of alternative suppliers could adversely impact our sales which, in turn, would adversely affect our business and operating results. We believe that, if necessary, we could obtain available alternative sources of supply for each of our products. Depending on the product, that might entail using more than one source of supply.

Our operations may be adversely affected by failure to maintain or renegotiate distribution, supply or manufacturing agreements on favorable terms.

We have a number of distribution, supply and co-packing agreements for our suppliers and products. These agreements vary depending on the particular supplier and/or product. There can be no assurance that we will be able to renew these agreements on favorable terms or that these agreements will not be terminated. Termination of these agreements or failure to renew these agreements on favorable terms could have a negative effect on our results of operations and financial condition.

We may not be able to maintain profitable operations in the future. We may not have sufficient working capital to fund our operations in the future.

The lack of sufficient working capital in the past has negatively impacted our ability to introduce and adequately promote new products. As of January 1, 2022, we had $1,698,000 in cash and our working capital was $4,326,000. To the extent that we incur operating losses in the future or are unable to generate free cash flows from our business, we may not have sufficient working capital to fund our operations and will be required to obtain additional financing. Such financing may not be available, or, if available, may not be on terms satisfactory to us. If adequate funds are not available to us, our business, and results of operations and financial condition will be adversely affected.

Our operating costs are subject to fluctuations which could affect our business 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, and more recently by potential COVID-19 supply chain disruption. 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.

Our business and results of operations may be negatively impacted by the spread of COVID-19.

An outbreak of infectious respiratory illness caused by a novel coronavirus known as COVID-19 was first detected in China in December 2019 and has now spread globally. This outbreak has resulted in travel restrictions, closed international borders, enhanced health screenings at ports of entry and elsewhere, prolonged quarantines, order cancellations, supply chain disruptions, increased costs for raw materials, and lower consumer demand, and other significant economic impacts, as well as general concern and uncertainty.

The current severity of the pandemic and the uncertainty regarding the length of its effects could have negative consequences for our company. To date, the effects of the pandemic have affected certain aspects of our operations. All of our co-packing facilities are currently operating normally, and the pandemic has not constrained any of our production requirements. The cost of certain key ingredients and packaging has increased substantially due to short-term supply issues related to COVID-19. We continue to be able to schedule trucks for delivery and a large majority of our customers are still operating and ordering our products as before. Additionally, our freight costs have increased due to a driver shortage caused by COVID-19. In response to these cost increases and the potential for additional cost increases affecting various aspects of our operations, we have initiated a series of sales price increases commencing in the fourth quarter of 2021 and continuing into the first quarter of 2022 to help offset these cost increases.

The pandemic has had a negative impact on our sales, specifically with respect to our food service sales to retail outlets, such as restaurants and small food shops, which account for a small part of our total business and with respect to our inability to regain our level of export sales to certain foreign jurisdictions. Our marketing efforts have also been constrained due to social distancing restrictions and other current government rules and regulations that preclude face to face sales meeting, attendance at trade shows and the initiation of new promotions.

Our ability to handle customer and consumer communications, schedule production, and order ingredients necessary for our production has not been materially impacted. Nor have we experienced a significant change in the timeliness of payments of our invoices and our cash position of approximately $1,796,426 as of March 25, 2022 has improved since our fiscal year end.

Successful customer relationships are vital to our business and continued growth.

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.

We rely on Steven Kass, our Chief Executive and Financial Officer to manage our business.

Our future success is significantly dependent on the services of Steven Kass (age 70), our Chief Executive and Financial Officer. The loss of his services would have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

As a branded goods business, our success depends on the value and relevance of our brand and products to consumers and on our ability to innovate and remain competitive.

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.

Our suppliers are subject to federal, state and local government regulations that could adversely affect our business and financial position.

Virtually all food manufacturing operations are subject to regulation by various federal, state and local government entities and agencies. As producers of food products for human consumption, our suppliers are subject to stringent production, packaging, quality, labeling and distribution standards, including regulations mandated by the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, the Food Safety Modernization Act, the FDA, OSHA, the EPA and the USDA. Future regulation by various federal, state or local governmental entities or agencies could, among other things, increase our suppliers’ cost of production, cause them to incur unexpected expenditures or encumber productivity, any of which may adversely affect our business and financial results.

We may not be able to compete effectively in the highly competitive frozen dessert, dairy free cheese food and health food markets.

The vegan and 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.

A material change in consumer demand for our products could have a significant impact on our business.

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.

Breaches of network or information technology security could have an adverse effect on our business.

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.

Economic conditions adversely affecting consumer discretionary spending may negatively impact our business and operating results.

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 or in the event of the continued spread of COVID-19, our business and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.

Our operating results vary quarterly.

Sales to our major customers fluctuate widely from period to period and there is no way to accurately predict that their sales pattern from one year will be repeated in the corresponding period of the next fiscal year. Due to the foregoing factors, in some future quarter our operating results may be below the expectations of investors. In such event, it is likely that the price of our common stock would be materially adversely affected.

Increasing scrutiny and changing expectations from investors, lenders, customers and other market participants with respect to our Environmental, Social and Governance, or ESG, policies may impose additional costs on us or expose us to additional risks.

Companies across all industries are facing increasing scrutiny relating to their ESG policies. Investors, lenders and other market participants are increasingly focused on ESG practices and in recent years have placed increasing importance on the implications and social cost of their investments. The increased focus and activism related to ESG may hinder our access to capital, as investors and lenders may reconsider their capital investment allocation as a result of their assessment of our ESG practices. If we do not adapt to or comply with investor, lender or other industry shareholder expectations and standards, which are evolving, or which are perceived to have not responded appropriately to the growing concern for ESG issues, regardless of whether there is a legal requirement to do so, may suffer from reputational damage and the business, financial condition and price our company’s shares could be materially and adversely affected.

We have no registered patents. The absence of patent protection could adversely affect our results of operations.

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.

Unanticipated business disruptions could adversely affect our ability to provide our products to our customers.

We have a complex network of suppliers, co-manufacturing locations, distribution networks, and information systems that support our ability to consistently provide our products to our customers. Factors that are hard to predict or beyond our control, such as weather, raw material shortages, natural disasters, fires or explosions, terrorism, or health pandemics, such as the coronavirus, COVID-19, could damage or disrupt our operations or our suppliers’, co-manufacturers’ or distributors’ operations. These disruptions may require additional resources to restore our supply chain or distribution network. If we cannot respond to disruptions in our operations, whether by finding alternative suppliers or replacing capacity at key manufacturing or distribution locations, or if we are unable to quickly repair damage to our information, production, or supply systems, we may be late in delivering, or be unable to deliver, products to our customers and may also be unable to track orders, inventory, receivables, and payables. If that occurs, our customers’ confidence in us and long-term demand for our products could decline. Any of these events could materially and adversely affect our product sales, financial condition, and operating results.

We are subject to risks associated with international operations.

In fiscal 2021, approximately 13% 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:

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.

We may be adversely affected by fluctuations in currency exchange rates.

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.

Incidents involving food-borne illnesses, food tampering, or food contamination involving our products or our supply chain could create negative publicity and significantly harm our operating results.

While we, our ingredient suppliers and our co-packers dedicate substantial resources to food safety matters to enable customers to enjoy safe, quality food products, food safety events, including instances of food-borne illness (such as salmonella or E. Coli), have occurred in the food industry in the past, and could occur in the future. Instances or reports, whether true or not, of food-safety issues, such as food-borne illnesses, food tampering, food contamination or mislabeling, either during the growing, manufacturing, packaging, storing, or preparation of products, have in the past severely injured the reputations of companies in the frozen desert and dairy sectors and could affect us as well. Any report linking us, our suppliers or co-packers to food-borne illnesses or food tampering, contamination, mislabeling, or other food-safety issues could damage the value of our brands immediately and severely hurt sales of our products and possibly lead to product liability claims, litigation (including class actions), or other damages. In addition, food safety incidents, whether or not involving our brands, could result in negative publicity for the industry or market segments in which we operate. Increased use of social media could create and/or amplify the effects of negative publicity. This negative publicity may reduce demand for our products.

Product liability suits, if brought, could have a material adverse effect on our business.

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.

Our failure to maintain effective internal controls in accordance with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 could have an adverse effect on our financial results and the market price of our common stock.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 imposes certain duties on us and our executives and directors. Our efforts to comply with the requirements of Section 404 have resulted in increased general and administrative expense and a diversion of management time and attention, and we expect these efforts to require the continued commitment of resources. Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires us to provide management’s annual review and evaluation of our internal control over financial reporting in connection with the filing of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for each fiscal year. Based on our evaluation under the frameworks described above, our chief executive and financial officer concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was ineffective as of January 2, 2021 because of the following material weaknesses in internal controls over financial reporting:

Our failure to maintain effective internal controls over financial reporting could result in investigation or sanctions by regulatory authorities and could have a material adverse effect on our operating results, investor confidence in our reported financial information, and the market price of our common stock.

Risks Relating to Our Common Stock

Our principal shareholder has the ability to control the policies and management of our company.

The estate of our founder, former Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, David Mintz, holds 2,630,440 shares of common stock representing approximately 51.0% of the outstanding shares. Until such time as the estate is settled and as long as the estate maintains a controlling interest in our company, it will have the ability to exercise a controlling influence over our business and affairs, including any determinations with respect to potential mergers or other business combinations involving us, our acquisition or disposition of assets, our incurrence of indebtedness, our issuance of any additional common shares or other equity securities, our repurchase or redemption of common shares and our payment of dividends. Similarly, as long as the estate of Mr. Mintz has a controlling interest in our company, it will have the power to determine the outcome of matters submitted to a vote of our shareholders, including the power to elect all of the members of our board of directors and prevent an acquisition or any other change in control of us.

Trading on the OTCQX tier of the OTC Markets may be volatile and sporadic, which could depress the market price of our common stock and make it difficult for our stockholders to resell their shares.

Since October 24, 2016, our common stock has been quoted on the OTCQB tier of the electronic quotation system operated by OTC Markets. On January 10, 2022, our common stock was upgraded to the OTCQX tier. Trading in stock quoted on the OTC Markets is often thin and characterized by wide fluctuations in trading prices, due to many factors that may have little to do with our operations or business prospects. This volatility could depress the market price of our common stock for reasons unrelated to operating performance. Moreover, the OTC Markets is not a stock exchange, and trading of securities on the OTC Markets is often more sporadic than the trading of securities listed on a quotation system like NASDAQ or a stock exchange like the NYSE MKT. Accordingly, shareholders may have difficulty reselling any of their shares and the lack of liquidity may negatively impact our ability to pursue strategic alternatives.

Penny stock rules will limit the ability of our stockholders to sell their stock.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has adopted regulations which generally define “penny stock” to be any equity security that has a market price (as defined) less than $5.00 per share or an exercise price of less than $5.00 per share, subject to certain exceptions. Our securities are covered by the penny stock rules, which impose additional sales practice requirements on broker-dealers who sell to persons other than established customers and “accredited investors.” The term “accredited investor” refers generally to institutions with assets in excess of $5,000,000 or individuals with a net worth in excess of $1,000,000 or annual income exceeding $200,000 or $300,000 jointly with their spouse. The penny stock rules require a broker-dealer, prior to a transaction in a penny stock not otherwise exempt from the rules, to deliver a standardized risk disclosure document in a form prepared by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which provides information about penny stocks and the nature and level of risks in the penny stock market. The broker-dealer also must provide the customer with current bid and offer quotations for the penny stock, the compensation of the broker-dealer and its salesperson in the transaction and monthly account statements showing the market value of each penny stock held in the customer’s account. The bid and offer quotations, and the broker-dealer and salesperson compensation information, must be given to the customer orally or in writing prior to effecting the transaction and must be given to the customer in writing before or with the customer’s confirmation. In addition, the penny stock rules require that prior to a transaction in a penny stock not otherwise exempt from these rules, the broker-dealer must make a special written determination that the penny stock is a suitable investment for the purchaser and receive the purchaser’s written agreement to the transaction. These disclosure requirements may have the effect of reducing the level of trading activity in the secondary market for the stock that is subject to these penny stock rules. Consequently, these penny stock rules may affect the ability of broker-dealers to trade our securities. We believe that the penny stock rules discourage investor interest in and limit the marketability of our common stock.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA, has adopted sales practice requirements which may also limit a shareholder’s ability to buy and sell our stock.

In addition to the penny stock rules described above, FINRA has adopted rules that require that, in recommending an investment to a customer, a broker-dealer must have reasonable grounds for believing that the investment is suitable for that customer. Prior to recommending speculative, low-priced securities to their non-institutional customers, broker-dealers must make reasonable efforts to obtain information about the customer’s financial status, tax status, investment objectives and other information. Under interpretations of these rules, FINRA believes that there is a high probability that speculative, low-priced securities will not be suitable for at least some customers. FINRA requirements make it more difficult for broker-dealers to recommend that their customers buy our common stock, which may limit your ability to buy and sell our stock and have an adverse effect on the market for its shares.

Volatility of the market price of our common stock could adversely affect our shareholders and us.

The market price of our common stock has been subject to fluctuations in the past and may be subject to wide fluctuations in response to numerous factors, including the following:

In addition, in recent years the stock market has been highly volatile. Many of these factors are beyond our control and may materially adversely affect the market price of our ordinary shares, regardless of our performance. In the past, following periods of market volatility, shareholders have often instituted securities class action litigation relating to the stock trading and price volatility of the company in question. If we were involved in any securities litigation, it could result in substantial cost to us to defend and divert resources and the attention of management from our business.

We do not intend to pay cash dividends.

Our policy is to retain earnings, if any, for use in our business and, for this reason, we do not intend to pay cash dividends on our shares of common stock in the foreseeable future.