David Johnson
Analyst · SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. Please go ahead
Thank you, Eric. Good afternoon, everybody. As Bill mentioned, we will be filing our Form 10-Q for the 3 months and 6 months ended June 30, 2019 tomorrow. Everything I’m covering here is included in more detail in that document.With regard to the financial results, as Eric just detailed, the company’s sales for the second quarter of 2019 increased by 6% to $113 million, as compared to sales of $107 million this time last year. Within that overall improvement, our U.S. sales were flat, while our international sales grew by 14%. International sales also continued to grow in importance and represented 43% of net sales in the second quarter, as compared to 40% this time last year. As Eric has mentioned, notwithstanding the strong growth in the international portfolio just discussed, the primary reason for falling short of the net sales consensus was the persistent wet weather across our major U.S. markets.In the face of a soft market, rather than dropping prices, which can be difficult to reinstate at a future time, we elected to take short-term lower sales volumes, thereby preserving longer-term brand value. As Eric has also mentioned, during the quarter, we adjusted our manufacturing plan to start to address inventory levels which have been impacted by soft sales in the first half of 2019. As a result of the change in manufacturing activity and the associated under-recovery of overhead costs, gross margins declined quarter-over-quarter and ended at 37% in 2019, as compared to 40% last year.Also during the quarter, our operating expenses ended at 31% of net sales compared to 32% this time last year. This improvement was achieved notwithstanding a 2% increase in operating costs and demonstrates improved operating leverage from our expanded business. The increased operating costs compared to last year are mainly driven by the expenses necessary to manage the several products and businesses we have acquired in the intervening 12 months.As expected, our interest expense increased, driven by our acquisition activity over the last 12 months, our higher working capital levels and increased LIBOR-based interest rates. These various dynamics generated net income in line with the level we announced to the market on July 23 in our earnings preannouncement. Overall net income for the quarter ended at $0.11 per share, as compared to $0.19 per share this time last year. For the 6-month period ended June 30, 2019, net sales were approximately flat at $213 million, as compared to $211 million for the same period last year. Further, gross margin ended down slightly at 39%, as compared to 40% last year. The manufacturing plan change I already outlined was mainly a Q2 factor, and therefore the effect was diluted when considering the half year results. This relatively consistent gross margin performance across the first half of 2019 as compared to last year reflects the balanced nature of the company’s portfolio.Our operating expenses when expressed as a percentage of sales were basically flat year-over-year, with a rounding change of about 0.5% when compared to sales revenue. The reported operating expenses include lower legal costs, adjustments to deferred consideration and a breakup fee on a potential acquisition. Offsetting these beneficial changes, we have picked up additional expenses necessary to manage the products and businesses acquired since this time last year. Our net income for the first 6 months of 2019 amounts to $7 million or $0.24, as compared to $10.3 million or $0.34 in the same period of 2018.From my perspective, the financial focus for the company remains consistent. First, we continue to follow a disciplined approach to planning our factory activity, balancing overhead recovery with demand forecasts and inventory levels. At the end of June 2019, we had higher inventory levels, to a degree caused by the soft sales performance of the U.S. crop business but also impacted by the expanded global spread of our business. For example, our Brazilian and Central American distribution businesses build inventory towards the end of the second quarter in order to address customer requirements during the second half of the year, which is the strongest part of their annual business cycles. Our integrated manufacturing and inventory plan remains on track to meet our year-end target of approximately $145 million, excluding the impact of any future acquisitions. Reductions in inventory from current levels will come in relatively equal parts from inventory that we manufacture and from inventory that we purchase. Our reduction in Q2 factory output reflects decisions made to start to hold back factory output a little earlier than we usually do; and does not indicate a material change in our plan for the second half of the year, which is normally characterized by lower output than the first half.Second, our effective tax rate ended at 26.8% year-to-date, as compared to 24.4% for the same period of the prior year. The current year-to-date rate reflects a slightly different mix including recently acquired products and businesses, and that mix change is causing us to slightly adjust our tax rate expectations for the full year. We are working to modify our international tax structure to improve the tax rate related to recently acquired assets. We presently expect that our full year rate will be in the range of 26% to 27%.Third, with regard to liquidity, at the end of the second quarter, availability under our credit line stood at $31 million, as compared to $137 million this time last year. This decrease is due to increased borrowings in the second half of 2018 and the first half of 2019 to buy a number of products and businesses. Further, because of challenging weather conditions in the U.S. this year and the different business dynamics of managing the needs of our expanded international business, we have seen an increase in working capital, which we are working to address. Indebtedness as of June 30, 2019, was $165 million, as compared to $97 million at December 31, 2018. Looking forward to the balance of 2019, we are expecting a reduction in inventory by September 30, 2019, but that reduction will take some time to work through the full cash cycle. And consequently, we are forecasting debt to be relatively flat at the end of Q3. In the fourth quarter, we are expecting to see debt decline and to generate cash as indicated in our earnings release.In summary, when looking at our year-to-date financial results, we can say that we recorded flat sales during difficult weather conditions in our U.S. crop market, while our international business has continued to grow. Furthermore, despite taking the decision to dial down some of our manufacturing activities earlier in the year than usual and accepting reduced short-term profitability as a consequence, our margins have been broadly maintained in line with our projections. Our operating expenses have increased primarily because of the acquisitions completed in the last 12 months and have remained approximately flat when expressed as a percentage of sales. As expected, we have higher interest expenses driven first, by acquisition activity; and second, by the working capital dynamics I have outlined.With that, I will hand back to Eric.