David Johnson
Analyst · Feltl & Company. Please go ahead with your question
Thank you, Eric. From my perspective the financial issues of paramount importance to investors remain consistent with the last several quarter and are first factory utilization, second, operating expenses, third, inventory levels, fourth, margin performance and profitability, fifth, liquidity and finally, interest and tax. On the first subject of the factory performance, we had a much improved quarter this year in comparison to 2014. Overall, the combination of lower factory costs and improved efficiency despite restrained manufacturing output generated a 43% improvement in fixed cost under recovery. By this I mean that we reduced the negative impact of underutilization of our factories by approximately $3 million in comparison to last year and more than offset the slightly reduced sales Eric just discussed. The first half of the year has also gone well and year-to-date we have reduced the cost of underutilization by $5.4 million. Looking forward we have a plan to hit around $18 million of underutilization this year as compared to $24 million in 2014. However, making that number depends on how sales roll out as we start up the 2016 growing season this fall. This is a constant balancing act between inventory levels, material availability to meet customer needs and income statement cost recovery. Second with respect to operating expenses, in Q2 of 2015 we ended at $23.9 million as compared to $25.3 million for the same period of the prior year. Our sales and marketing spending dropped about $1.9 million as we sharpened the focus of our media campaigns. Our administrative and technical cost categories were up about $1.2 million as a result of increased amortization expenses following the completion of two acquisitions, increased expense related to long-term incentive stock-based compensation and cost associated with key business development projects. Our freight costs have decreased by about $5.8 million as a result of lower volume and increased sales of impact which has low freight cost. On a year-to-date basis, we have achieved the goal which we set ourselves that is to keep our operating spending at or below the 2014 level. So far we are $2.3 million below last year or 5%. Looking forward, we do usually have heavier spending in the second half as compared to the first half of the year. However at this point halfway through the year; we’re on track to hit our goal. We plan to maintain tight controls on operating expenses as we work through the balance of this year. Third, with respect to inventory, as I've discussed in previous conference calls, we have been working diligently to manage inventory levels in the face of soft conditions in the Midwest corn market. When we compare to June of 2014, we ended $10 million lower which is encouraging but nothing up to start to relax our efforts. It is particularly encouraging to be able to report that the closing inventory continues to be closely aligned with our forecast position, which gives us confidence that we understand the drivers. As we look forward towards the end of the year, we are still focused on the level of about $140 million including the newly acquired product lines, but that is very dependent on how the third and fourth quarters play out. I think it is also good to look at the cash flow statement and understand that whereas during the first half of 2014, inventory increased by $35 million. During the same period in 2015, we have remained flat, during what is usually the inventory building phase of our annual cycle. Fourth, with respect to margin performance and profitability during the second quarter, we have reported overall gross margin performance including the impact of factory under recovery fixed cost of 38%, which is in line with last year. Before the loss on the factories we earned 33% on international sales, which accounted for 34% of our sales this quarter and 50% on our domestic sales. Together these generated at an average of 45% gross margin before the impact of factory under recovery. In the second quarter of 2014, we earned the same 33% on international sales, which last year accounted for 27% of our business. Domestic margins last year were 52%. That generated an average margin of 47%. The change in year-on-year domestic gross margins came as a result of a change in mix of products. I told a moment ago about the improvement in $3 million in recovery of fixed factory cost that does have the effect of reducing the impact on gross margins from a 9% reduction in 2014 to a 7% reduction this year. Looking at the first six months of 2015, we've reported 37% both this year and last. The year-to-date performance is quite comparable to the fact that drove the quarter’s performance. Together with the performance on factory utilization and control of operating expenses, we earned $781,000 or $0.03 per share as compared to a $145,000 or $0.01 per share last year. The year-to-date net income performance is down at $832,000 this year as compared to $2.3 million last year. That variance was driven by comparatively strong first quarter sales in 2014. Fifth, with respect to liquidity, we're continuing to maintain a close watch on our cash and is pleasing to be able to report that we were able to acquire product lines, continue with key capital expenditures and at the same time keep debt flat with the position at the start of 2015. When looking at our cash flow statements you will see that in the first half of 2015, we generated $44 million from our operating activities as compared to using up approximately $29 million in the first half of 2014. Comparatively speaking that is a $74 million improvement. In fact this year’s first half performance on cash generation is the best performance in company history. As a result of carefully managing our balance sheet, we were able to improve our debt position to $62 million, which was a reduction of $23 million during the quarter and $38 million year-to-date. We then paid $27 million in cash on the acquisitions during the second quarter, in addition to taking on the seller note to $10 million. This left debt lower than at the start of 2015. When thinking about liquidity, we look at the availability to increase borrowings under our credit facility. At the end of the first quarter of 2015; we reported capacity to increase borrowings by $23 million. At the end of the second quarter, this improved to $27 million and as we look forward over the next four quarters, we believe that we have the liquidity necessary to support our business. Finally a few words first on interest and then tax, you will see in our 10-Q that our average borrowings were marginally higher than the first half of 2014. This is due to the acquisition of two product lines. However interest expense was lower than last year despite this higher average borrowings level. 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're likely to have a relatively higher debt balances for the rest of the year. We do not have a requirement to put in place an interest rate swap contract on the loan, but we will be giving thoughts about over the next quarter or two. On tax, you will see that we have continued to report an unusually -- an unusual effective tax rate of 73%, in this case a benefit for the quarter ended June 30, 2015. This arises from the fact that the tax benefit on domestic losses exceeds the tax liability on international profits. Our mix of international profits and domestic losses is different for the six months and as a result, we have a different benefit rate of 339%. These rates move around quite a lot as a result of small changes in profitability when you are operating close to breakeven. In summary, we're seeing the positive effect of tight control over working capital, factory utilization and operating expenses as we record improved profit despite lower sales for the quarter. With that I will hand back to Eric.