David Robson
Analyst · ROTH Capital. Your line is now open
Thanks Mike. I'll now go into further detail regarding our results for the first quarter, beginning with coffee volumes, green coffee processed and sold in the quarter increased by 2.2 million pounds or 9.6% compared to the first quarter of fiscal 2018. Volumes from our base business we're down 6.3% from the prior year first quarter driven largely by lower volume on a few large direct ship customers. The mix of coffee volumes processed and sold across our distribution network during the quarter was approximately 8.7 million pounds or 34.8% of the total volume through our DSD network. While direct ship customers represented approximately 16.3 million pounds of green coffee processed and sold or 64.2% of the total volume. While 1% of the total volume was through distributors. Turning to the income statement, net sales for the quarter were $147.4 million, an increase of $15.7 million or 11.9% compared to the same period of the prior year. The increase was driven primarily by a $20.5 million increase in net sales from the acquisition of Boyd. Excluding Boyd’s net sales declined $4.8 million primarily due to the impact of lower coffee pricing from our cost plus customers and the lower volume in the direct ship business I mentioned a moment ago. We continue to expect to realize volume and top line benefits from our DSD, sales channel model and realignment of our street account teams in future quarters and remain confident that the SQF certification achieved at our North Lake facility will help us to increase business with new large national customers over time. Gross profit in the first quarter of fiscal 2018, increased $2.2 million or 4.7% to $48.2 million from $46.1 million and gross margin decreased 230 basis points to 32.7% from 35% in the prior year period. The increase in gross profit dollars was primarily due to the addition of the Boyd’s business, while the decrease in gross margin rate was primarily due to a lower gross margin rate on the Boyd’s business. Higher commercial beverage equipment expenses associated with the increased install activity during the quarter and higher freight costs. The negative impact to gross margin rate, we realized in the first quarter was in line with our expectations. Given that the transition service agreement arrangements with Boyd’s temporarily drives a higher production cost than our own production facilities. And the significant increase in the activity of new coffee brewing equipment installs placed during the quarter was a result of the successes of our channel sales team business wins we have discussed on prior calls. Now with the completion of the Boyd's transition service arrangements as of October, in future quarters, we expect to realize better cost absorption through our production facilities associated with the incremental Boyd's volume being produced. We also expect the higher level of beverage equipment installs we performed during the quarter to bring additional revenue in future periods. Turning to operating expenses. Operating expenses for the quarter were $50.3 million or 34.1% of net sales as compared to $44.2 million or 33.6% of net sales recorded in the first quarter of the prior year. The increase of $6.1 million in operating expenses was primarily due to a $4.5 million increase in selling expenses, and a $4.3 million increase in restructuring and other transition expenses, partially offset by a $2.7 million decrease in general and administrative expenses, $1.4 million of which represents the decline in acquisition and integration expenses compared to the prior-year period. Of the total $6.1 million increase in operating expenses, $5.5 million is derived from additional operating expenses associated with the Boyd's business. G&A expenses of our base business declined by $2.5 million compared to the prior year. We recognize $4.5 million in restructuring and other transition expenses during the quarter, largely due to a $3.4 million onetime charge associated with the partial withdrawal liability with respect to the Western Conference of Teamsters Pension Trust in connection with our relocation from California to Texas. As a percentage of net sales, operating expenses increased by 50 basis points. Most of this increase is attributed to the higher year-over-year restructuring cost of 290 basis points. Boyd's related integration expenses declined year-over-year by 110 basis points as we near the end of the Boyd's integration activity. Finally, we saw good leverage on recurring operating expenses. With such expenses declining by 130 basis points, which is a byproduct for our continued efforts to drive more cost efficiencies through our operations. Looking forward to the remainder of fiscal 2019, Boyd's coffee production is now fully integrated into our production facilities, and we expect our operating expense leverage will further improve as we sell-through inventory that had been produced at Boyd's at a higher cost during the transition service period and we more fully realized synergies related to the integration. We also expect to realize additional cost savings resulting from a route and branch optimization efforts that we began during the first quarter. Now turning to interest expense. Net interest expense increased $700,000 to $2.9 million in the quarter compared to $2.2 million for the first quarter of last year, principally due to higher borrowings related to the Boyd's acquisition. In the current quarter, we also adopted new accounting standards associated with the accounting for pension expenses resulting in a reclassification of defined benefit pension and other post-retirement plan related interest expenses from cost of goods sold and selling and general and administrative expenses, two, interest expense of $1.6 million for both the current quarter and the prior year. Net losses on coffee-related derivatives instruments in the quarter were $1.1 million compared to net gains of $100,000 in the comparable period of the prior fiscal year due to mark-to-market net losses on coffee-related derivative instruments not designated as accounting hedges which resulted from the drop in coffee prices during the quarter. Resulting other income declined by $1.1 million to $700,000 from $1.8 million, primarily due to the $1.1 million in derivative losses resulting from the drop in coffee prices during the quarter. Given this derivative loss relates to coffee hedges we entered into for the benefit of our customer base. The markdown in inventory values which is driving the $1.1 million in higher expense will result in future lower cost of sales and associated higher gross margin rates once we sell-through the associated inventory, which is carrying a discounted inventory value from our hedge cost. Additionally, with the new accounting standards for pension expenses, we reclassify pension income which was previously recorded in cost of goods sold and selling and general and administrative expenses, which increased other income by $1.8 million in the current quarter and $1.7 million in the prior year period. Turning to income taxes, we recorded a $1.3 million income tax benefit this quarter compared to a $600,000 income tax expense in the first quarter of last year. The decrease in income tax expense was primarily result from the change in net income. Net loss available to common stockholders for the quarter was $3.1 million, or a loss of $0.18 per diluted share compared to net income available to common stockholders of $800,000 or $0.05 per diluted share in the prior-year period. Adjusted EBITDA was $11 million for the quarter compared to $12.5 million in the prior year, while adjusted EBITDA margin was 7.5% for the quarter compared to 9.5% for the same period last year. While down from the prior year period, our first quarter adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin were better than we had anticipated, driven by among other things, lower general and administrative expenses which includes the successful execution of cost savings initiatives above what we anticipated across our DSD network. Now, let's turn to the balance sheet. At the end of the quarter, we had $5.5 million in cash, $2.6 million in restricted cash and we had a $101.8 million borrowed on our revolving credit facility. Our debt net of cash at the fiscal year-end was $96.3 million compared to $87.3 million as of June 30, 2018. Our debt net of cash increased primarily due to higher inventory levels as well as $2.6 million in restricted cash deposits at our coffee brokerage trading accounts set aside to cover losses on coffee hedges associated with the drop in coffee prices during the quarter. The higher inventory levels we were carrying at the end of the quarter were planned in anticipation of the ending of the Boyd's transition service arrangements as of October, and the shutdown of the Boyd's production. These higher inventory levels were important to ensure we continued to meet customer demand, while we transitioned production from the Boyd's facilities into our facilities. Over the course of the year, these higher inventory levels we expect to fall which should deliver improved working capital as we run down the excess inventory build. Our bank availability under our credit facility at the end of the quarter was $21.2 million compared to $25.3 million as of June 30, 2018. Subsequent to the end of the quarter, on November 5, we've replaced our existing asset based credit facility with a new cash flow based senior secured revolving credit facility with the borrowing limit of up to $150 million. This new credit facility increases our credit line by $15 million compared to our prior agreement. And our total availability will not fluctuate with changes in the value of our asset base as was the case under our previous ABL credit facility. This new credit facility includes an accordion feature allowing us to increase the commitment by up to an additional $75 million, subject to certain conditions. Borrowing under the new facility bears an interest based on a leverage grid with the range of prime plus 25 basis points to prime plus 875 basis points, or adjusted LIBOR rate plus 1.25%, two, adjusted LIBOR rate plus 1.875%. The new facility matures on November 5, 2023. We believe this new credit facility is an important improvement over our credit facility, providing us more flexibility and liquidity to support our go-forward objectives. Now turning to capital expenditures. For the first quarter, our capital expenditures in cash were $7.8 million, with $5.5 million related to maintenance and $2.3 million to add further capabilities to our Northlake, Texas facility. Depreciation and amortization expense was $7.7 million in the first quarter versus $7.3 million in the same period in the prior year. The increase in this expense primarily related to assets acquired as part of the Boyd's acquisition, offset by some assets that became fully depreciated. The Boyd's acquisition added $700,000 in depreciation and amortization expense in the quarter. Based on our existing fixed asset commitments and useful lives of our intangible assets, including the addition of the assets from the Boyd's acquisition, we continue to expect depreciation and amortization expense to run at approximately $7.5 million to $8 million per quarter for the next several quarters. We continue to estimate that the Boyd's business will contribute approximately $30 million to $60 million in incremental adjusted EBITDA on an annual basis once fully integrated and all synergies are flowing through. Now, turning to our outlook for 2019. For the fiscal year, we continued to expect green coffee pound volume to be softer in the first half of the year compared to the prior year, and improved in the back half as we realize the benefits of new customer wins. As we communicated on last quarter's call, this outlook assumes that we continued to ramp-up production for the very significant customer Mike mentioned earlier, and that we will continue to convert new direct ship and DSD customers in our pipeline. But this will be partially offset by production of two of the brands we have historically serviced, being brought in-house by the owner of those brands. We continue to anticipate that Boyd's will add an incremental 14 million pounds to 15 million pounds of volume on an annual run-rate basis this fiscal year as we complete the integration of the business. As Mike noted, we are maintaining our adjusted EBITDA guidance of $49 million to $52 million, despite our better-than-expected results in the first quarter. We are still early in the fiscal year, but looking forward, we are optimistic about the remainder of fiscal 2019. Now, I'll turn the call back to Mike for closing remarks.