Operator: Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for participating in today's conference call to discuss Burcon NutraScience Corporation's fiscal 26 results year ended March 31, 2026. Joining us today are Kip Underwood, Burcon's chief executive officer, and Alex Varty, the company's interim chief financial officer. Following their presentation, we will open up the call for your questions. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To join the question queue, you may press *1 on your telephone keypad. Should you need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing *0. Then before we conclude today's call, I will provide the company a safe harbor statement with the important cautions regarding the forward looking statements made during this call. Now I would like to turn the call over to the CEO of Burcon, mister Kip Underwood. Sir, please go ahead.
Kip Underwood: Thank you, operator, and good morning, good afternoon, and good evening to those attending the call today. We very much appreciate you taking time out of your day to spend time with us. We want you all to have 3 takeaways from today's presentation. The first is that we are targeting a large growing market. The second, that our--our technology platform delivers highly differentiated products. And I think 3, maybe most importantly, is throughout fiscal 26, we are delivering on commercial success. Our standard safe harbor statement Before we get into fiscal 26, I want to take a step back. Kind of go through a couple of key points as to why we are so excited about the opportunity in front of us. The first is I think many of you can probably see protein is everywhere. If you have been in a grocery store, you have read a newspaper, you have seen a commercial on television or streaming, Protein is hot. Any consumer brand product that has a positioning on the front panel 20 grams of protein, 30 grams of protein, 10 grams of protein per serving, Those types of consumer products are bull's eyes. For Burcon's technology. That is where we are, in fact, the most relevant. So tremendous exciting market. Protein is everywhere. And it is not just a fad. Right? So there is some fundamental drivers at the consumer level that are driving protein demand in the opportunity for us. The first and foremost is people seeking better nutrition. What is accelerating the protein growth beyond better nutrition is GLP-1 or weight loss medication. When people are on this medication, which is growing rapidly, they need more protein on less calories. That drives up protein demand. it is great for us. What is also great for us in this market now is as demand drives up, we are seeing constraints for other protein sources. Again, driving up opportunity for plant based proteins like ours. And again, long term, we see 8% to 10% CAGRs for this great opportunity for protein in the marketplace today. And specifically for Burcon. Right? We have a technology platform that is now proven at commercial scale and fundamentally, what this does is, it delivers unmatched purity in the marketplace. And that unmatched purity helps brand owners solve problems, deliver great tasting products, that end consumers want to buy and enjoy and meet their needs. We have applied the proven technology platform across our sunflower, our pea protein, our flower profile protein, and our protein canola protein. So we have a technology platform that is proven across multiple products, delivering the unmatched purity and unmatched purity in the marketplace which delivers great tasting, solutions to our customers. Those brand owners that you saw on the previous slide delivering high protein products. To consumers. Throughout the fiscal year, we have taken specific actions to capture this opportunity, and that now is the focus of the balance of our discussion today. So if we have a great market, and protein is in demand and we have a technology platform that is now proven at commercial scale, what are the steps we have taken as Burcon to turn that opportunity into financial performance and eventually a profitable company. So we will go through it. We will have a sales update, production update. We will talk about why we believe this is a great investment opportunity. We will close with the path to profitability, reviewing what we have done in the year that then leads to trajectory into fiscal 2027. We start with some FY 2026 annual highlights. A little over a year ago, we had with our partner, ProMan, we had a manufacturing facility a technology platform, and a plan. Little more than 12 months later, we have made significant progress. We have integrated the technology in the commercial scale facility. We have commissioned this technology improving it at commercial scale. We have not just commercially produced our pea protein, canola protein, our FiberPro protein, have garnered repeat customer sales. Of all 3 of those. All along, continually fueling our customer pipeline. Our customer projects. In this business, customers changing products that we all buy at the grocery store or online, that is a 9 to 18 month process. So we always must have a robust pipeline to feed future growth. With that, I will turn over to Alex for a few financial highlights.
Alex Varty: Thank you, Kip. In respect of financial highlights, the big takeaway here is the translation of these operational achievements to Burcon's financial performance. In fiscal 26, Burcon generated revenues of 2.3 million, a nearly sixfold increase over the prior year. In both Q3 and in Q4, we further posted double digit quarter over quarter growth in revenues. Furthermore, in sales, we are seeing increases in repeat orders across our portfolio of plant proteins, demonstrating progress in customer adoption. Putting the sales to date in context, we have come a long way in 1 year from commissioning a production facility, integrating the technology, scaling production, attaining new customers, and getting customers through their ingredient adoption process to come to this repeat order stage. Looking forward into fiscal 27, expect to continue this momentum and growth and see significant quarter over quarter revenue growth. In respect of expenditures, our priority in fiscal 26 was on commercial operations. As a result, we concentrated our resources on commissioning and scaling our production, which includes the reallocation of labor. This led to a year on year decrease of 23% in general and administrative expenditures and a 65% decrease in research and development. Lastly, in fiscal 26, we announced a $6.9 million private placement of convertible notes and we closed $4 million of the offering in fiscal 26 with the balance closed subsequent to year end. The private placement was further significantly supported through participation by insiders and from the owners of the facility, underscoring their belief in Burcon's momentum and its future. I will turn it back to Kip now to provide more color on our sales growth and production.
Kip Underwood: Thanks, Alex. So sales growth is the lifeblood of a company. Right? So if we look across our sales growth, there is a real--a couple of key points. So first is we mentioned a robust pipeline, more than 200 active projects. And that always growing. That is an evergreen thing. Second, maybe more importantly, we have expanded our customer base. We now have 30-plus active buyers across our portfolio. Beyond those 2 bullet points, the other key takeaway is diversity. If we look at both the customer projects and the sales, we have good diversity across 3 dimensions. First is across food type. Different food applications. So we have sales into beverages. Into nutrition bars, into plant based foods. All of these different food types that are really around positioning protein to the end consumer. We have good diversity across company or brand. We have some well known national brands that people would know, and we have a list of cutting edge entrepreneurial brands that have the potential to deliver explosive growth into the future. And lastly, we have diversity across the portfolio. So we have sales of canola, and pea protein. And FiberPro protein across the portfolio. So diversity of food type or application, diversity of customer brand, and diversity of product. All of this, both on 1 hand, derisk the growth in the future, and on the other hand, gives us the opportunity to grow again faster. As evidenced, we are delivering. Right? So the last 2 quarters, we have delivered double digit quarter on quarter growth. And we recently communicated subsequent to quarter, looks like our fiscal Q1 will deliver 50% quarter-on-quarter growth compared to last quarter. So stacking on customers, stacking on growth, stacking on growth in a very diverse way bodes well for our future. Those who have heard me in the past you know, have used the phrase, you cannot sell it until you can make it. Lots of work with our alliance partner, ProMan, on scaling our manufacturing the manufacturing facility. Deriving both hourly, daily, weekly, monthly improvement. As evidenced, we recently announced achieving another production performance record 60% higher daily production than previous quarter. So we are ramping up production to meet those sales. And it is high quality product. That is validated really 2 ways. First is third party. We are audited by BRC or certified. We are allergen free. We are the facilities are certified. Second, and possibly the most important validation we can receive is in the repeat purchase from our customers. They have gone through their validation process. They have made a formulation choice. They have bought once. They have brought that product in the facility. They have made the products that we all go to the store, buy and enjoy. And they have came back and they have done it again. And that really is the single biggest validation that we can produce that our technology platform produces high quality products at scale and consistently to meet, if not exceed, our customers' expectations. If we put the market the technology platform, and our track record of, you know, saying what we do and doing what we say. Delivering on commercial status over the past year. This is fundamentally what we believe is a tremendous opportunity for Burcon in the future. And an opportunity for our investors to come along this journey with us. We are in phase 1 right now, leaning towards the towards the more the end of that phase as we establish product. In the coming year, we will move into Phase 2, which is more scaling. And then Phase 3 in the future, is really around advancing the technology further beyond our current footprint. Exciting times ahead for Burcon. We hope and want and wish our investors to come along this ride with us. I started with saying a little over a year ago, we were a manufacturing facility a technology platform, and a plan. And over the past 12 plus months, we have laid down consistent markers that demonstrate our ability to turn innovation into commercial reality into financial performance, going way back with our partner ProMan with the facility, facility commissioning, launching 3 brand new products to the market based on our technology platform, achieving our initial revenue guidance for the calendar 2025 back in December. robust pipeline, record production performance, and as we have mentioned, greater than 30 buying customers. In less than 12 months. This track record, we believe, is a harbinger of things to come. With the market, our technology platform, and our team Our job now is to actually accelerate the trajectory of the business on to deliver against our commitment to the market of $10 million in sales in calendar 26 and a position of having positive operating cash flow. Thank you for your time today. With that, operator, I will turn it back to you for questions.
Operator: Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press *1 on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press *2. 1 moment, please, for your first question. And your first question comes from the line of David Storms with Stonegate. Please go ahead.
Dave Storms: Hey, Kip. Thanks for taking my questions, Kip. Just hi. Maybe just wanted to get started. With, you know, what you are seeing in terms of an adoption curve. You guys had, like, a really strong quarter, a transformative year. You brought a lot of proteins online. Are you kind of seeing the same adoption curve, regardless of the protein type, or do they each have their own nuance that makes 1 more or less challenging, quicker, faster, uptake, etc.
Kip Underwood: I think in thank you, David. I think in general, if you take your win percentage as an example, that is pretty consistent across product or food or food application type. Right? Now the time element does move a minute. And there is a couple there is a couple of reasons with that. So 1 is that you think about food. Part of a customer's decision process or different food type is they go through shelf life testing. Well, shelf life testing you do for a powder is less time than shelf life testing that is done on a liquid, as an example. So the food type impacts the length of time. And then I will take our FiberPro, which is a little more new to the world ingredient, Because it is new to the world, some of those projects will take a little bit longer, because it is even newer and more differentiated than maybe some of the products. So win percentage, pretty consistent. Length of time could be impacted by a variety of factors. 1 example, again, is length of time for shelf life was driven by food type by our customer or the newness of the technology, the newer it is, maybe the more time it might take for a customer to become familiar with it. And really take advantage of its strengths.
Dave Storms: Understood. that is very helpful. Thank you. As we are looking into the future, you know, you mentioned phase 2 is going to be more about scale. I guess, how should we be thinking about the drivers here? Is that going to be more use cases for current proteins? Is it gonna be increasing capacity at the ProMan? I know you mentioned repeat orders are important. Is that going to be expanding order size, Hopefully, all of the above. I guess, what do you see as some of the keys going into phase 2?
Kip Underwood: Well, the first and foremost is to be sure we take care of the existing customers. You know, as they grow, we grow with them. So we saw the protein market exploding. More and more consumers are seeking protein positioned products. So the consumer products are growing. They are we grow with our existing customer base. So first and foremost is take care of them. Second is driving new customer adoption, which in general new customer launches or change existing products. We gotta drive on those. And then third really is, I think you mentioned the capacity side, have to be sure that we can ramp with our partner production capability in line to stay ahead of the of the demand. We--there were certain capacity expansions that we had inside the footprint planned with our partner that we are continuing to execute against those. And we are always evaluating what other potential investments might we do to stay ahead of the customer demand growth that we are seeing now and expect in the future as well.
Dave Storms: that is fair. And maybe if I could hold on that production capacity for just a second. I know you mentioned, I believe, your prepared remarks and in the releases that as the quarter went on, capacity or excuse me, utilization continued to increase. I guess, what does it take to get to 100% utilization? Is that even possible? Is that a goal? You know, is it just a matter of increasing orders? Is it, financing constraint? I guess, how should we think about capacity and utilization there?
Kip Underwood: The existing footprint, we have a few capital expenditures to go through funded by our partner ProMon that was part of our original agreement. So we are we are finishing those up here in the coming months. At that point in time, we have the facility capability to deliver against any financial commitment we have we have made to the marketplace. And then we are always evaluating how might we invest beyond that. How might we stay further ahead of that growth curve and we are evaluating those things. And as things come to fruition, we will bring those forward to market. that is all great. I really appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions. And good luck in fiscal 27. Thanks, David. Appreciate it.
Operator: And I am showing no further questions at this time. I would like to pass it over to Alex Varty in terms of questions from the webcast. Thank you.
Alex Varty: We have a question from a private investor. Given the current cash position and growth trajectory, can you scale to your target using existing capital, or will additional financing be required? Would be we be looking at a dilution or institutional investors?
Kip Underwood: So I think there is 2 answers to that So 1 is, when we complete the investment with our partner ProMan that we just mentioned, the facility has the capability to get where we need to get. The second piece of the puzzle then is, we see tremendous growth potential out there How do we lean in and stay ahead of that curve? And those are things we are evaluating right now. Anything in the near term, would most likely be debt in the near term. We will evaluate those. My our commitment is we are not going to seek additional investment unless we see growth potential in front of us, and it clearly makes sense. Okay. And we have 1 additional question also from a private investor, but given the company's low trading volume, how do we see that changing over time to increase share price and increase trading volume to get the market recognition for the company's achievements.
Alex Varty: Thank you for the question. Certainly something to is top of our mind as well. there is a couple phases to this. So 1, we made a conscious choice over the last 6 months to really take all of our efforts, our time, our money, our attention to driving on production sales. that is the lifeblood of the company. We have to get that right first. And we think we have--as we have seen tremendous progress in f 26. We are now at a place where we believe it does make sense to be more proactive with capital markets. We are working on plans to do so. You will see more from us in the coming months. Certainly, trading volume and liquidity is something that we know all investors desire. Something that we want to be more proactive in, frankly, to get more awareness in the credit for these achievements to the company has made over the past year. Great. Thank you, Kip. We have no more from the webcast.
Operator: Alright. Thank you, everyone. that is all the time we have for questions today. At this time, this concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the call back to mister Underwood for closing remarks. Sir, please go ahead.
Kip Underwood: Thanks, operator, and, really, thank you to all here on the phone with us today. Really appreciate your time, your interest, and most probably your investment in Burcon. We do not take that responsibility lightly. I would also like to take a moment to thank the team We have a team of individuals that wake up every day, put 2 feet on the ground, and are dedicated to building most innovative plant protein company in the world. And that is what we are here to do. that is what we are going to do. Thank you all. Have a great day.
Operator: Before we conclude today's call, I would like to take a moment to read the company's safe harbor statement. This call contains forward looking statements or forward looking information. Within the meaning of the US Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 2 thousand and applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward looking statements or forward looking information involve risks uncertainties, and other factors that could cause actual results, performance, prospects, and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward looking statements. Forward looking statements or forward looking information can be identified by words such as anticipate, intent, plan, goal, project, estimate, expect, believe, future, likely, can, may, should, could, will, potentially, and similar references to future periods. All statements other than statements of historical facts included during this call are forward looking statements. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements or information. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from plans and expectations include the actual results of business negotiations, marketing activities, adverse general economic, market or business conditions, regulatory changes, and other risks and factors detailed herein and from time to time in the filings made by Burcon with securities regulators and stocks exchanges. Including in the section entitled risk factors in Burcon's annual information form filed with the Canadian Securities Administrators on www.cedar+.ca. Any forward looking statements or information only speaks as of the date on which it was made and except as may be required by applicable securities laws, Burcon disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward looking statement whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Although Burcon believes that the assumptions inherent in the forward looking statements are reasonable, Forward looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, And, accordingly, investors should not rely on such statements. Finally, I would like to remind everyone that this call is being and the webcast will be available for replay on the company's website. Starting later this evening. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for joining us today for our presentation. You may now disconnect.