Letter to Mr. William Choi
May 10, 2007
Mr. William Choi
Branch Chief
United States Securities and Exchange Commission
Station Place, 100 F Street NE
Washington, DC 20002
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RE: |
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National Beverage Corp.
Form 10-K for the Fiscal Year Ended April 29, 2006
Filed July 28, 2006
File No. 1-14170 |
Dear Mr. Choi:
Thank you for your April 17, 2007 comment letter and for allowing us additional time to respond.
Set forth below are the responses of National Beverage Corp. (the Company) to the Staffs
comments with respect to the Companys Form 10-K for the year ended April 29, 2006. In responding
to the Staffs comments, we have, for convenience, set forth your inquiries in full, followed by
our responses:
Form 10-K for the Year Ended April 29, 2006
Managements Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of
Operations, Page 10
Results of Operations, Page 11
Net Sales, page 11
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Please define allied case volume and branded case volume. |
Response:
The term allied case volume refers to the number of cases of allied brands sold during
the year, and the term branded case volume refers to the number of cases of Company owned
brands sold during the year. We respectively refer the staff to the second paragraph of the
Overview section of MD&A (page 10) which discusses Company owned brands utilizing the term
our brands and to the last sentence of that paragraph for the definition of allied
brands, which reads:
To a lesser extent, we develop and produce soft drinks for retail grocery chains, warehouse
clubs, mass-merchandisers and wholesalers (allied brands) as well as soft drinks for other
beverage companies.
Consolidated Financial Statements, page 17
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements, page 21
1. Significant Accounting Policies, page 21
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Please disclose the types of expenses that you include in the cost of sales line item and the
types of expenses that you include in the selling, general and administrative expenses line
item. In doing so, please disclose specifically whether you include inbound freight charges,
receiving costs, inspection costs, warehousing costs, internal transfer costs and the other
costs of your distribution network in costs of sales. If you currently exclude a significant
portion of these costs from cost of sales, please provide cautionary disclosure in MD&A that
your gross margins may not be comparable to others, since some entities include the costs related
to their distribution network in costs of sales and others like you exclude all or a portion
of them from gross margin, including them instead in a line item such as selling, general and
administrative expenses. To the extent the excluded costs are material to your operating
results, quantify these amounts in MD&A. |
Response:
Inbound freight charges, receiving costs, inspection costs, internal transfer costs and
warehouse costs related to the storage of raw materials are included in cost of sales.
Shipping and handling costs incurred to store and move finished goods from our plants to
customer locations are included in selling, general and administrative costs. With respect
to cautionary disclosure, we respectfully refer the staff to the third paragraph of the
Gross Profit section of MD&A (page 11) which reads:
Shipping and handling costs are included in selling, general and administrative expenses,
the classification of which is consistent with many beverage companies. However, our gross
margin may not be comparable to companies that include shipping and handling costs in cost
of sales. See Note 1 of Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements.
Reference is also made to the Shipping and Handling Costs paragraph of Note 1 (Page 23)
which reads:
Shipping and handling costs are reported in selling, general and administrative expenses in
the accompanying statements of income. Such costs aggregated $44.1 million in fiscal 2006,
$41.4 million in fiscal 2005, and $41.4 million in fiscal 2004.
Revenue Recognition, page 22
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It is our understanding that your sales policy does not permit the return of products once it
has been accepted by the customer; and therefore, you do not have a valuation account for
sales returns and allowances. If our understanding is correct, please disclose this in future
filings. |
Page 2 of 4
Response:
It is Company policy to not allow the return of products once they have been accepted by
customers. On occasion, the Company has accepted returns or issued credit to customers,
primarily for damaged goods. The amounts have been immaterial, and accordingly, the Company
does not provide a specific valuation account for sales returns and allowances. The
Revenue Recognition paragraph of Note 1 (Page 22) will be expanded in future filings to
disclose this.
Segment Reporting, page 23
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Please tell us how you determined that you have only one operating segment under the guidance
in SFAS 131. Tell us whether you have concluded you have one operating segment under
paragraph 10 of SFAS 131 or whether you have aggregated multiple operating segments based on
criteria in paragraph 17 of SFAS 131. In doing so, specifically address why you do not
believe each of your four distribution channels, take-home, convenience, food service and
vending, are separate reportable segments. If you conclude that you have multiple reporting
segments, please also revise your results of operations in MD&A. Notwithstanding the
preceding, please provide the disclosures required by paragraph 26 of SFAS 131 in future
filings. |
Response:
We have concluded that we have one operating segment pursuant to paragraph 10 of SFAS 131
because the chief operating decision makers regularly review and evaluate performance based
on the aggregated financial information of the enterprise as a whole. This is also the
information that is presented to, and regularly reviewed by, the Board of Directors. While
the Companys products are sold in different distribution channels, the nature of the
products, the production process, type of customer and regulatory environment is similar for
each channel. In some cases, it is impractical to determine the ultimate distribution
channel as some customers may resell our products to smaller convenience stores, retailers,
or vending machine operators. Also, the Company does not prepare discrete financial
information by distribution channel.
With respect to the disclosures required by paragraph 26 of SFAS 131, we respectively refer
the staff to the Segment Reporting paragraph of Note 1 (page 23) which reads as follows:
We operate as a single operating segment for purposes of presenting financial information
and evaluating performance. As such, the accompanying consolidated financial statements
present financial information in a format that is consistent with the internal financial
information used by management.
We believe that that our current disclosure satisfies the requirements of SFAS 131 paragraph
26.
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We note in your business section that you sell several types of products. Please revise your
filing to provide the revenue disclosures by product group discussed in paragraph 37
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of SFAS 131. In particular, it appears that revenue disclosures for the following product
groups may be applicable:
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Flagship brands, including Shasta and Faygo |
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Premium beverages, including Everfresh, Home Juice, Mr. Pure, La Croix, Mt.
Shasta, Crystal Bay and ClearFruit |
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Energy drinks and powdered beverage products including Rip It and PowerBlast
Energy Fuel |
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Other, including Ohana and St. Nicks |
If you believe that other product categories are more appropriate, please advise.
Response:
Paragraph 37 of SFAS 131 provides that...An enterprise shall report the revenues from
external customers for each product and service or each group of similar products and
services unless it is impractical to do so. As we do not accumulate net revenue by brands
or groups of brands, it would be impractical for us to provide this information without
making costly and burdensome changes to the ways we process and accumulate information.
Additionally, substantially all of our products sold are non-alcoholic
beverages, packaged in cans or bottles in our manufacturing facilities, utilizing similar
ingredients. Accordingly, we believe that the beverages we produce and sell are similar
products and therefore should be aggregated for purposes of paragraph 37 disclosure.
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As requested, this letter will confirm that:
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the Company is responsible for the adequacy and accuracy of the disclosure in the
filing; |
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staff comments or changes to disclosure in response to staff comments do not
foreclose the Commission from taking any action with respect to the filing; and |
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the Company may not assert staff comments as a defense in any proceeding initiated
by the Commission or any person under the federal securities laws of the United States. |
If you have any questions with respect to the foregoing responses, please feel free to call me at
(954) 581-0922.
Sincerely,
/s/ George R. Bracken
George R. Bracken
Senior Vice President Finance
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