HF Foods Group Inc.
For the period ended Dec 31, 2024. Filed Mar 17, 2025.
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FY2024 · Filed Mar 17, 2025
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Item 9A. Controls and Procedures
Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures
Our management, including our principal executive officer and principal financial and accounting officer, conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting, and disclosure controls and procedures, as such term is defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Exchange Act, as of the end of the period covered by this report. Based on that evaluation, our principal executive officer and principal financial and accounting officer concluded that, due to the material weaknesses described below, our disclosure controls and procedures were not effective at the reasonable assurance level as of December 31, 2024.
Management’s Annual Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
Management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting, as defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) of the Exchange Act. Our internal controls over financial reporting is a process designed under the supervision of our principal executive officer and principal financial and accounting officer to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.
Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not detect or prevent misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of the effectiveness to future periods are subject to risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.
As of December 31, 2024, management assessed the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting based on the criteria for effective internal control over financial reporting established in “Internal Control - Integrated Framework”, issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations (“COSO”) of the Treadway Commission in 2013.
A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.
Based on this assessment, our management concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was not effective as of December 31, 2024, due to the material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting described below.
As previously reported, we identified the following material weaknesses, which continue to exist as of December 31, 2024.
We did not maintain appropriately designed entity-level controls impacting the (1) control environment, (2) risk assessment procedures, (3) control activities, (4) information and communication, and (5) monitoring activities to prevent or detect material misstatements to the financial statements and assess whether the components of internal control were present and functioning properly. These deficiencies were primarily attributed to an insufficient number of qualified resources to support and provide proper oversight and accountability over the performance of controls.
These entity-level material weaknesses resulted in the following specific material weaknesses:
Information Technology (IT) General Controls - We did not design and maintain effective information technology general controls over logical access, program change management, and segregation of duties for key IT systems. As a result, certain business process controls that are dependent upon information from these systems were also not effective. Additionally, we did not design and maintain effective controls over the implementation of new IT systems.
Financial Reporting - We did not properly design or maintain effective controls over the financial reporting process to enable timely reporting of complete and accurate financial information. We did not design and implement certain review controls with a sufficient precision to prevent or detect a material misstatement, did not consistently perform sufficient review of journal entries, or consistently retain adequate supporting documentation for financial statement balances and the related footnote disclosures. Additionally, we did not design and maintain effective controls over certain non-routine transactions or significant management estimates, including the review of underlying data and assumptions for completeness and accuracy.
Remediation Activities
In response to these material weaknesses, with oversight from the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors, we have continued to implement measures to improve our internal control structure. Specifically, we have:
Internal Controls and Leadership
Accounting, Internal Audit & IT teams
Hired a new CFO in May 2024 with public company experience to execute the finance and accounting transformation planned approach.
Hired new Head of Internal Audit in September 2024 and engaged ITGC and business process control experts to assist the company in remediation efforts.
Hired a new VP, Corporate Controller in February 2025 with extensive experience in internal controls over financial reporting at publicly traded companies and material weakness remediation efforts.
Promoted a VP, Operations who brings 20+ years of industry and operational control standardization experience to lead transformation initiatives.
Oversight & Governance
Established a cross functional Remediation Steering Committee, chaired by the new CFO, to set strategic direction.
Developed a detailed, integrated remediation approach, ensuring senior leadership across all functions (i.e. Accounting, IT, Finance, Operations, HR and Internal Audit) is actively involved.
Technology and Data
System Implementation & Automation
Implemented a new inventory and distribution system in several of our distribution centers to improve operational and financial processes, working towards greater accuracy and completeness of financial data. The remaining distribution centers will implement the new system in FY25.
Legacy applications are set to be retired across all distribution centers in FY25, marking another milestone in our multi-year technology upgrade program.
Standardizing Processes & Compliance Programs
Continued progress on designing and implementing uniform processes across all distribution centers.
Implemented new training programs related to safety, security and compliance through Learning Management System (LMS) application that provides greater visibility into tracking compliance.
We are committed to ensuring that our internal controls over financial reporting are designed and operating effectively. We believe the efforts taken to date and certain measures that are in progress will improve the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting and mitigate risks of material misstatement. We are still in the process of implementing these steps and cannot assure investors that these measures will significantly improve or remediate the material weaknesses described above. Additionally, while we believe these efforts will improve our internal control environment, our remediation is still in progress and subject to ongoing testing of the design and operating effectiveness over a sufficient period of time in order to effectively remediate these material weaknesses.
The effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2024 has been audited by BDO USA, P.C., an independent registered public accounting firm, as stated in their attestation report, which is included in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Changes in Internal Controls Over Financial Reporting and Disclosure Controls
Management remains committed to ongoing efforts to address material weaknesses. Although we will continue to implement measures to remedy our internal control deficiencies, there can be no assurance that our efforts will be successful or avoid potential future material weaknesses. In addition, until remediation steps have been completed and operated for a sufficient period of time, and subsequent evaluation of their effectiveness is completed, the material weaknesses previously identified will continue to exist.
Other than the actions taken to continue our material weaknesses remediation efforts, described above, there were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) under the Exchange Act) during the quarter ended December 31, 2024 that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.
Shareholders and Board of Directors
Las Vegas, Nevada
Opinion on Internal Control over Financial Reporting
We have audited HF Foods Group Inc.’s (the “Company’s”) internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2024, based on criteria established in Internal Control – Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (the “COSO criteria”). In our opinion, the Company did not maintain, in all material respects, effective internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2024, based on the COSO criteria.
We do not express an opinion or any other form of assurance on management’s statements referring to any corrective actions taken by the Company after the date of management’s assessment.
We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB), the consolidated balance sheets of the Company as of December 31, 2024 and 2023, the related consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive income (loss), changes in shareholders’ equity, and cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2024, and the related notes (collectively referred to as the “consolidated financial statements”) and our report dated March 17, 2025 expressed an unqualified opinion thereon.
Basis for Opinion
The Company’s management is responsible for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, included in the accompanying “Item 9A, Management’s Annual Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting”. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s internal control over financial reporting based on our audit. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.
We conducted our audit of internal control over financial reporting in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects. Our audit included obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, and testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control based on the assessed risk. Our audit also included performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.
A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of the company’s annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. The following material weaknesses have been identified and included in the accompanying Management’s Report on Internal Control Over Financial Reporting:
The Company did not maintain appropriately designed entity-level controls impacting the (1) control environment, (2) risk assessment procedures, (3) control activities, (4) information and communication, and (5) monitoring activities to prevent or detect material misstatements to the financial statements and assess whether the components of internal control were present and functioning properly. These deficiencies were primarily attributed to an insufficient number of qualified resources to support and provide proper oversight and accountability over the performance of controls.
These entity-level material weaknesses resulted in the following specific material weaknesses:
Information Technology (IT) General Controls – The Company did not design and maintain effective information technology general controls over logical access, program change management and segregation of duties for key IT systems. As a result, certain business process controls that are dependent upon information from these systems were also not effective. Additionally, the Company did not design and maintain effective controls over the implementation of new IT systems.
Financial Reporting – The Company did not properly design or maintain effective controls over the financial reporting process to enable reporting of complete and accurate financial information. The Company did not design and implement certain review controls with a sufficient precision to prevent or detect a material misstatement, did not consistently perform sufficient review of journal entries, or consistently retain adequate supporting documentation for financial statement balances and the related footnote disclosure. Additionally, the Company did not design and maintain effective controls over certain non-routine transactions or significant management estimates, including the review of underlying data and assumption for completeness and accuracy.
These material weaknesses were considered in determining the nature, timing, and extent of audit tests applied in our audit of the 2024 consolidated financial statements, and this report does not affect our report dated March 17, 2025 on those consolidated financial statements.
Definition and Limitations of Internal Control over Financial Reporting
A company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A company’s internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.
Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.
/s/ BDO USA, P.C.
Troy, Michigan
March 17, 2025
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