David Johnson
Analyst · Piper Jaffray. Your line is now open, you may proceed with your question
Thank you Eric. From my perspective, the financial issues are paramount important and similar to those discussed last quarter and are first, understanding the drivers of our sales and margin performance; second, what we've done to manage the under recovery of our factory costs; third, what actions we have taken to curve operating expenses; fourth, what are we doing about the inventory levels; fifth, what impact does this on our liquidity and finally, what are the drivers for interests and tax. First, on sales performance. Overall, our sales were down 18%, with crop sales down 19% and non-crop sales down 11%. Within our crop sales, we continued to see our key corn market customers hold back on replenishment orders and as a consequence, our corn insecticides, corn herbicides and our associated equipment sales were down approximately $10 million in comparison to the same quarter of 2014. As we have mentioned on previous quarterly calls, the soft condition of the corn market arose in part from the buildup of in-channel inventory in 2012 and 2013. We monitor this inventory on a weekly basis, tracking our products as they move from the Company into distribution and using EDR reporting to track our products as they move from distribution to retail. Through these means we can follow product moving through the channel towards the farms. We will not have a definite picture of on the ground usage this season until close to the end of the third quarter of 2015 when growers and retailers will have finished returning unused products through the channel to distribution. However, at this point, end channel inventories are as about a third of the level they were at in September of 2013. We see this as an indication that our direct customers are carefully rightsizing their working capital in a challenging business environment. If we now take a different cut at the sales numbers, we see that our domestic sales were down 15% and our international sales were down 25%. The domestic sales reduction is predominantly about corn as I've just discussed. In addition, in the USA, we recorded reduced sales of our cotton products as a result of lower forecast cotton makers, offset by higher sales of products like our market leading fumigants, our specialty vegetable herbicides and our growth regulators. Internationally, we had a couple of factors that acted to reduce our 2015 Q1 sales as compared to the same period last year. First, there was an annual contract for one product into a plantation in Central America that did not materialize. Second, we have some euro denominated sales that were affected by the rapid drop in the euro dollar exchange rate. Fortunately, the Company's euro denominated sales do not represent the large percentage of annual global sales though they were significant for Q1. The balance of the reduction in international sales was timing related. We talked last quarter about the impact of international business on our overall margin performance. In the quarter, we generated 38% gross margin on our international sales, which was broadly in line with our overall business. This is a good performance for our international group, which in certain territories is subject to intense competition. Furthermore, our international effective tax rate is very attractive and there is a consequence this part of our business is making a strong contribution to our consolidated financial performance. Overall, when looking at profitability on sales, both our selling prices and cost of goods have remained stable and generated margins before factory costs under absorption that were in line with last year. On the second subject of factory performance, we had a better quarter this year in comparison to 2014. Overall, the combination of lower factory costs and improved efficiency despite restrained output generated a 29% improvement in overhead cost absorption. Putting this another way, under absorption improved by $2.5 million in comparison to last year and somewhat mitigated the reduced sales that Eric and I have both just discussed. Third, we continued to work hard to manage our operating expenses. In Q1 2015, we ended at $24.3 million, as compared to $24.9 million for the same period of the prior year. Our sales and marketing spending dropped about $800,000 as we employed more targeted media campaigns. Our admin and technical cost categories were essentially flat, our freight costs have actually increased despite a lower sales level. The main drivers for this adverse variance are higher warehousing costs as a result of inventories which were up 10% on average compared to the prior year and the mix of products, for example, in Q1 2015, our bulk fumigant product sales were about 16% higher than last year. Fourth, as I just mentioned, our average inventory levels for Q1 of 2015 were higher than during the same quarter of 2014. This first quarter has been challenging as we have worked to reconcile the competing pressures of insuring that we have positioned to supply our customers well, at the same time, holding down on manufacturing. While the absolute level of inventory increased, as you'll note from the cash flow statement attached to our earnings release, the increase of $1.4 million in Q1 of 2015 was much more restrained than the $18.6 million increase recorded during the same quarter of the prior year. Also, we continue to improve our inventory forecast ending at $167 million versus a forecast of $169 million. As I commented last quarter, prior to making these two new acquisitions, we anticipated holding inventory about at this current level through the next couple of quarters and then see a reduction in Q4 to the $130 million to $140 million level we are targeting for the end of the year. The fourth quarter reduction is as a result of the startup of the new 2016 season. With the addition of new product lines, we anticipate an additional amount of $4 million to $5 million in inventory at year end. Fifth, what does they say about our liquidity. We are maintaining a very close watch on our cash as we work our way through this period. If we look at our cash flow statements, you will see that in the first quarter of 2015, we generated $20 million from our operating activities as compared to using up approximately $42 million in the first quarter of 2014. Comparatively speaking, that is a $62 million improvement. Also, as I said before, we keep close contact with our bank group in order to make sure that they know exactly where the Company is heading. Leadership about senior lenders is with Bank of the West who has been our banker for more than 30 years. In addition, we have other great banks in the lender group. These relationships remain key as we work our way through business environment such as we are seeing currently, ensuring that we have the liquidity we need to operate both our daily business and also to implement our strategy of buying key bolt-on product line acquisitions. As a result of carefully managing our balance sheet, we were able to improve our debt position by $14 million during the quarter. At $85 million, this was our lowest debt balance for the last 12 months. As a result of this performance and as a result of our longstanding excellent relationship with our lenders, we have been able to make these two key acquisitions with a limited adjustments to covenants. The covenant changes were a movement up on our leverage ratio from 3.25 to 3.50 for the next three quarters and the reintroduction of a covenant called the modified current ratio, which sets the requirement that our current assets are at least 120% of our modified current liabilities, including long-term debt. Further details of the facility amendment will be published in an 8-K filing on the subject. As we look forward over the next four quarters, we believe that having made these acquisitions and secure the amendment, we have the liquidity necessary to support our business. Finally, a few words first on interest and then on tax. You will see in our 10-Q that our average borrowings were higher in the first quarter of 2015 than in the comparable quarter of 2014. However, our closing debt was lower than this time last year. That was due to the high level of receivables, which were due in the last half of March 2015. Interest expense was essentially flat year-on-year despite higher borrowings. This was due to the fact that we do not have an interest rate swap in place this quarter. Looking forward, having completed two key acquisitions, we are likely to have relatively higher debt balances for the rest of the year. We do not have a requirement of putting place a swap contract on the low, but we will be giving thought to that over the next quarter or two. On tax, you will see that we have reported an unusual effective tax rate of 87%. In this case, a benefit for the quarter ended March 31, 2015. This arises from the fact that the tax benefits on domestic losses exceeded the tax liability on international profit. In summary, we are managing our way through headwinds in the Midwest core market. Channel inventory levels of our corn products are moving in the right direction and should presage better sales as the 2016 season starts. In the short-term, we are taking appropriate actions to drive down our factory and operating costs in order to minimize the impact of a soft market on our net income performance. We are holding firm on in-house inventory levels and controlling cash very closely. In the midst of all this, we are keeping a close relationship with our lenders and successfully following through on our strategy for bolt-on acquisitions, which are a key Company longer term performance driver. With that I will hand back to Eric.