Corresp
April 27, 2009
Mr. John Reynolds
Assistant Director
Division of Corporate Finance
United States Securities and Exchange Commission
Washington, DC 20549-7010
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RE: |
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National Beverage Corp.
Form 10-K
Filed July 17, 2008
File No. 001-14170
Schedule 14A
Supplementary Comment Letter Dated March 27, 2009 |
Dear Mr. Reynolds:
Thank you for your February 9, 2009 comment letter and March 27, 2009 supplementary comment letter.
Set forth below are the responses of National Beverage Corp. (the Company) to the Staffs
supplementary comment letter with respect to Schedule 14A filed with the SEC on August 29, 2008.
In responding to the Staffs comments, we have, for convenience, set forth your inquiries in full,
followed by our responses.
Executive Compensation and Other Information, page 6
1. |
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We note your response to prior comment one from our letter dated February 9, 2009 and reissue
that comment. We note the disclosure on page 6 that Messrs. Nick Caporella and Bracken do not
receive compensation directly from the company, but instead they receive compensation through
a management company owned by Mr. Nick Caporella. Please amend the Form 10-K to present any
compensation awarded to, earned by, or paid to, your named executive officers including any
compensation that is paid to them indirectly through third parties, in the Executive
Compensation section, including but not limited to the Summary Compensation table. See Item
402(a)(2) of Regulation S-K. |
Response:
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The Company respectfully advises the Staff that, in its next Summary Compensation Table, the
Company intends to include a presentation for Mr. Nick Caporella and Mr. Bracken in
substantially the following format: |
SUMMARY COMPENSATION TABLE
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Option |
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All Other |
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Name and Principal Position |
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Year |
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Salary ($) |
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Bonus ($) |
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Awards ($) |
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Compensation ($) |
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Total ($) |
Nick A. Caporella (1) |
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2009 |
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(1) |
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(1) |
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(1) |
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(1) |
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Chairman of the Board and |
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2008 |
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(1) |
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(1) |
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(1) |
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(1) |
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Chief Executive Officer |
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2007 |
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(1) |
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(1) |
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(1) |
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(1) |
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George R. Bracken (2) |
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2009 |
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xxx,xxx |
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xx,xxx |
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x,xxx |
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x,xxx |
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xxx,xxx |
Senior Vice President |
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2008 |
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xxx,xxx |
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xx,xxx |
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7,281 |
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x,xxx |
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xxx,xxx |
Finance |
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2007 |
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xxx,xxx |
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xx,xxx |
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8,530 |
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x,xxx |
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xxx,xxx |
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(1) |
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Mr. Nick A. Caporella, our Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, does not
receive compensation directly from us. Mr. Nick Caporellas services are provided to the
Company through Corporate Management Advisors Inc. (the Management Company), an entity
owned by Mr. Nick Caporella. As described above in Compensation Discussion and Analysis and
below in Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions, we paid the Management
Company an annual management fee equal to one percent of our consolidated net sales for the
services that the Management Company provided to us, which included the services of Mr. Nick
Caporella as our Chief Executive Officer, and Mr. Bracken as our SVP-Finance. We paid the
Management Company fees of $x,xxx,xxx, $5,660,063 and $5,391,257 for fiscal years 2009,
2008 and 2007, respectively. See Compensation Discussion and Analysis and Certain
Relationships and Related Party Transactions for a more detailed description of our
management agreement with the Management Company. |
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(2) |
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As discussed in footnote 1 above, Mr. Bracken does not receive compensation directly from us.
The salary and bonus amounts set forth represent the estimated portion of the compensation
paid by the Management Company to Mr. Bracken attributable to his services to us. See
Compensation Discussion and Analysis and Certain Relationships and Related Party
Transactions for a more detailed description of our management agreement with the Management
Company. |
In addition to the Summary Compensation Table presentation above, the Company advises the
Staff that it intends to supplement the first paragraph in its Compensation Discussion and
Analysis with the following in future disclosures:
Compensation Discussion and Analysis
The following discussion and analysis is intended to provide an understanding of the actual
compensation earned by each of our named executive officers (Executive Officers) from the
Company. In 1992, the Company entered into a management agreement (Management Agreement)
with Corporate Management Advisors, Inc. (the Management Company), a company owned
by Mr. Nick Caporella, our Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer and the
beneficial owner of approximately 74% of our Common Stock. Under the Management Agreement,
the Management Company provides the Company (i) senior corporate functions (including
supervision of the Companys financial, legal, executive recruitment, internal audit and
management information systems departments) as well as the services of Mr. Caporella and Mr.
Bracken, our Senior Vice President Finance, and (ii) services in connection with
acquisitions, dispositions and financings by the Company, including identifying and
profiling acquisition candidates, negotiating and structuring potential transactions and
structuring potential transactions and arranging financing for any such transaction. For
its services, the Company pays the Management Company an annual base fee equal to one
percent of the consolidated net sales of the Company, plus incentive compensation based upon
certain factors to be determined by the Compensation and Stock Option Committee of the Board
of Directors. No incentive compensation has been incurred or approved under the Management
Agreement since its inception. We do not separately provide any cash compensation to Messrs. Nick
Caporella or Bracken. See also Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions.
Page 2 of 4
The Company will continue to provide consistent disclosure relating to the Management
Agreement and the fees paid to the Management Company in its Certain Relationships and
Related Party Transaction disclosure so as to avoid any shareholder double counting of
(1) the fees paid to the Management Company and disclosed in the Certain Relationships and
Related Party Transaction section and (2) the amount of deemed compensation to Messrs.
Caporella and Bracken reflected in the Summary Compensation Table and notes thereto.
The Company believes that it should be permitted to incorporate the Staffs comments in future
filings, and that an amendment to its Form 10-K is not required or appropriate under these
circumstances. The Company has followed the practice of cross referencing the Summary
Compensation Table column for Mr. Caporella to the management fee disclosure in its
Certain Relationships and Related Party Transaction section since the inception of the
Management Agreement in January 1992. When he became an executive officer in 1997, the
Company included Mr. Brackens salary and bonus in its Summary Compensation Table until
November 2004 when the Company received a Staff comment letter that instructed the Company
to remove such compensation disclosure from the Summary Compensation Table because Mr.
Brackens compensation was paid by the Management Company and not the Company. 1
In addition, the Company is aware of a Staff interpretation, now codified in C&DI 217.08 and
updated as recently as July 3, 2008, that specifically provides that if payments are made as
part of a management contract, disclosure of the structure of the management agreement and
the fees would have to be reported under Item 404 (i.e. as related party transactions). We
are aware of several publicly traded companies2 with external management
structures that do not provide Item 402 executive compensation disclosure, but instead,
based on the Staffs
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1 |
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See Letter from Michael Moran, Branch Chief, dated
November 15, 2004 and the response letter of the Company dated December 1, 2004
the relevant portion of which reads: |
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SCHEDULE 14A DEFINITIVE PROXY STATEMENT |
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Executive Compensation and Other Information, page 11 |
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16.You disclose in footnote (1) that the services of your Chairman and CEO as
well as your SVP-Finance are provided to you through the Management Company.
According to your disclosure in Note 6 to your financial statements in Form
10-K, you pay the management company approximately $5 million annually for
various services. Supplementally, please explain to us why the summary
compensation table also includes compensation information for the SVP-Finance
if the management company pays these expenses. |
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Response: The SVP-Finance was added to the summary compensation table in fiscal
1997 when he was appointed Vice President and Treasurer. His compensation,
which is paid solely by the Management Company, has been mistakenly included
since that time. We shall delete compensation for the SVP-Finance from the
summary compensation table in future filings. |
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2 |
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See Compass Diversified Holdings, Hines Real Estate
Investment Trust and Alesco Financial. |
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guidance, provide disclosure under Item 404. Lastly, the amounts received by Mr. Caporella
and Mr. Bracken during the last fiscal year which the Staff has asked the Company to reflect
as compensation from the Company in the Summary Compensation Table were fully and accurately
disclosed in the Certain Relationships and Related Party Transactions disclosure section
of the Companys annual proxy statement as part of the disclosure relating to the Management
Agreement, which disclosure was incorporated into Part III of the Companys Form 10-K by
reference. In addition, similar disclosure was included as Footnote 5 to the Companys Form
10-K. As a result, we believe the Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended May 3, 2008 substantially
complied as to form and was not materially deficient and, as such, an amendment would not be
appropriate.
Again, we respectfully request that the Company be permitted to reflect the proposed
disclosure changes in future filings.
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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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