Earnings Labs

Green Plains Inc. (GPRE)

Q3 2020 Earnings Call· Sun, Nov 8, 2020

$16.65

+1.15%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning and welcome to the Green Plains Incorporated and Green Plains Partners Third Quarter Earnings Conference Call. Following the company's prepared remarks, instructions will be provided for Q&A. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. I will now turn the conference call over to your host Phil Boggs Senior Vice President Investor Relations and Treasurer. Mr. Boggs please go ahead.

Phil Boggs

Management

Thanks Carmen. Welcome to Green Plains Inc. and Green Plains Partners third quarter 2020 earnings call. Participants on today's call are Todd Becker, President and Chief Executive Officer; Patrich Simpkins, Chief Financial Officer; and Walter Cronin, Chief Commercial Officer. There is a slide presentation available and you can find the presentation on the Investor page under the Events and Presentations link on both corporate websites. During this call we will be making forward-looking statements which are predictions, projections, or other statements about future events. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could materially differ because of factors discussed in yesterday's press releases and the comments made during this conference call and in the Risk Factors section of our Form 10-K, Form 10-Q, and other reports and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We do not undertake any duty to update any forward-looking statement. Now, I'd like to turn the call over to Todd Becker.

Todd Becker

Management

Thanks Phil and thanks everybody for joining the call this morning. For the quarter, we reported a net loss of $34.5 million or $1 per diluted share. This loss included a $13.8 million non-cash tax adjustment related to charges in our deferred tax assets. Without that non-cash adjustments the net loss would have been much narrower or closer to $0.60 a share. More importantly, we are free cash flow positive for the quarter including another strong quarter of cash distributions from Green Plains Cattle Company. We reported $8.8 million in adjusted EBITDA for the quarter and our consolidated crush margin was $0.08 a gallon which included almost $0.06 a gallon of negative absorption from plants that were shut down due to regional market conditions, Project 24 upgrades, and normal scheduled plant turnarounds. Our plants that were operating earned almost $0.14 a gallon consolidated crush margin as the completed Project 24 upgrades helped improve the whole portfolio. We look forward to the completion of all of our upgrades which should reduce plant downtime that affected this quarter. Another impact to Q3 was the movement of sales from this quarter to Q4 and Q1 of industrial alcohol from York Nebraska as customers elected to wait to receive USP grade alcohol as our upgrade is almost fully completed. This not only solidified our sales book, but expanded it as well. I'm happy to report that we have begun to make USP grade but not just at the maximum rate yet. We expect to achieve full rate by late December. When we take all of this into consideration Q4 is looking to be better than previous quarters based on current market conditions higher operating rates less negative absorption and the completion of York's upgrade. We are trying to do what we can to lock…

Patrich Simpkins

Management

Thank you, Todd and good morning everyone. Green Plains consolidated revenues were $424.1 million in the third quarter down $208.3 million or 33% from the third quarter a year ago, driven primarily by lower ethanol production run rates as compared to the third quarter of 2019. For the quarter, our run rates were 66.8% of capacity compared to an 84.2% run rate for the prior year third quarter. The difference in run rates between years was primarily due to a combination of Project 24 upgrades and production adjustments for regional market conditions. Our consolidated net loss for the quarter was $34.5 million slightly favorable to a net loss of $39 million in the third quarter last year. As Todd stated at the top of the call, this loss does include a non-cash tax charge of $13.8 million related to a valuation adjustment to our deferred tax asset. Adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter was a positive $8.8 million up from an adjusted EBITDA loss of $13.4 million for the same period a year ago. For the quarter our SG&A costs for all segments of $19.9 million was $1.4 million higher than the $18.5 million reported in Q3 of 2019. Adjusting for a onetime benefit of $1.2 million in SG&A in Q3 of 2019 related to the reversal of property tax accruals, SG&A for Q3 2020 is generally in line with Q3 2019. Consolidated interest expense for the company was $10.2 million, which was lower by $0.3 million than the $10.5 million in Q3 of 2019 due primarily to a decrease in overall interest rates and slightly lower balances on our working capital lines. On Slide 9 of our investment deck. we present a summary of our balance sheet highlights. We had $226 million of cash and working capital, net of…

Todd Becker

Management

Thanks Patrich. So our total transformation plan is executing on all cylinders right now and has a multi-pronged approach. Our goal to achieve $0.24 or below of operating cost per gallon at expected utilization rates is within reach and we anticipate hitting that mark during the first quarter even before all the projects are done. Second, we have been focused on the high-grade alcohol market. We have been able to quickly adapt our York production facility to service high-quality customers such as Lysol and have continued to ship product during the year with strong contributions to our results. While there has been some shipping delays, once our USP upgrade is complete, we expect customers to quickly execute on existing open contracts. Additionally, our Wood River USP upgrade is now anticipated to be finished during the first half of 2021. Even more important is an upgrade to GNS at York. Because of the design and quality already in place with the existing plant USP upgrades are using some of the equipment from Hopewell as well. We believe we can quickly get all the way to GNS opening the door to additional markets. We believe this will be an important step as it is clear to us that higher quality alcohols produce longer-term offtakes and better customers. Third and most importantly is our strategy to upgrade our biorefineries to produce sustainable ultra high-protein at each of our locations. In a year where soybean carry outs are shrinking and protein prices are screaming, we cannot move fast enough as this has been a 20-year trend of protein demand growth that is beginning to accelerate. In fact, this may be a record year-over-year growth in demand and the risk is truly there won't be enough. Even with our Obion announcement as the third location…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our first question is from Adam Samuelson with Goldman Sachs.

Adam Samuelson

Analyst

Yes. Thank you. Good morning everyone.

Todd Becker

Management

Hi. Hi, Adam. How are you?

Adam Samuelson

Analyst

I'm good, Todd. So a lot of ground that was covered in those prepared remarks. And maybe, I'm just trying to think through the EBITDA layout that you provided here. And so I want to make sure that, I heard those numbers right. So $400 million total capital investment, to reach that kind of 2024 run rate earnings. As you think about kind of the value uplift on the high-protein side, what do you think the upper limit here – can you be clear where you are today in terms of both technology in terms of production in terms of sales and where you have very clear line of sight between – on the technology and customer formulation in terms of value realization?

Todd Becker

Management

So, where we're at today as obviously Shenandoah's now producing at full rate, we it started service about four month start-up. We think Wood River will take us about a month. So it takes a little bit longer as we are just learning, how to use the system. Where we're at today is mechanically, before we even kick in other relationships, we're producing an average of 52% to 53% protein, as high as 54% protein. What's really important is what I said in the call, was the fact that we are almost sold out for 2021 out of Shenandoah. Our pet food relationships are beginning to reformulate around these products and are starting to accelerate the demand, and we've seen that already. So while we're very excited about that, that's only one of our addressable markets. But actually, I think we're seeing more and more companies potentially start to reformulate around our products. Our product is different than products that others are producing as well because of our protein purity, but also because some of the other characteristics. So we focus on quality, quality, quality, but we are also innovating with these customers using our relationships with Hayashikane and Novozymes as well. So we see the path, which is when you think about how the value chain works, it's obviously human nutrition first, which we don't think will hit right now. There is an opportunity for that at some point in the future. But then it goes to pet food aqua and then everything below that. So we're not even exhausting the aqua space and already being sold out in one plant. And we think when we bring out the second plant, we'll probably hit the – continue to sell out to the pet market and maybe a little bit…

Adam Samuelson

Analyst

Okay. And then, if I could squeeze just one near-term ethanol market question in.

Todd Becker

Management

Sure.

Adam Samuelson

Analyst

Just as we get into the winter and the slow driving season, how do you kind of how do you see the supply demand relationship in ethanol inventories have ticked up a little bit, off the lows, but aren't that bad yet but how are we – how do we create the supply-demand balance and capacity utilization over the next three to six months?

Todd Becker

Management

Yeah. I mean, I think right now, we've probably seen the lows in the numbers on the EIA data for stocks and probably production for a little, while as we get into winter driving. The interesting thing though is we're coming into the fourth quarter really still at a pretty narrow level of stocks below 20 million barrels. And while we expect probably over the next three to four months, as driving may slow – has historically slowed down, we would expect to see those stocks build. The only difference this year is that, obviously with COVID, we continue to see draws almost on – we continue to see draws almost on a weekly basis as driving demand continues to pick up in terms of just week-over-week year-over-year even in terms of people flying less. But I think what's also important is, what we're not seeing in the numbers, which we believe is the expanded blend rates that are taking place with E15 being rolled out in several states and even some of the demand that we're seeing increase from blends as well, and that's not inclusive of a little bit of a continued export program pace, overall, and potentially that could pick up over the winter, if China decides to engage once and for all on ethanol, of which we've only seen a little bit of inkling of that, but nothing I would make a bet on at this point. So I think overall, we'll probably go into winter like every winter expecting to see growth in stocks. And probably, an uptick in supply as well, in terms of production as you run – as plants that we're running are probably running more efficient and better with the cooler temperatures. So overall, – but if you look at the data and you plugged it into the models this data still supports a positive spot margin, but that's all we're really getting as an industry maybe spot to 20 to 30 days. And after that, you just have to wait and see what happens.

Adam Samuelson

Analyst

All right. I appreciate all the color. I’ll pass it on. Thank you.

Todd Becker

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Craig Irwin with ROTH Capital.

Craig Irwin

Analyst · ROTH Capital.

Good morning. And thank you very much for taking my questions. So Todd, I love the slide, slide number 10 from your presentation. It really lays out for us the progress over the next few years that we can expect. The difficult thing from our side is, you didn't give us 2020. Can you maybe help us sort of sketch out, what the 2021 increase is over 2020 on an operating basis? Where are we at with achieved savings on 24, the base USP and then different protein, and USP upside potential? Can you just share the numbers with us now, so we see sort of the step-up sequentially moving into 2021?

Todd Becker

Management

I mean, I think we're going to have a stronger finish to the year based on at least the spot ethanol margin running at a higher rates, moving some of our alcohol sales – high-quality alcohol sales from Q3 to Q4 and Q1. That market has certainly changed over the last six months, from really aggressively taking the low B grades, and a lot of those products that we saw probably didn't make it to market, all the way through us increasing our quality of alcohol. So I think we're still going to have a stronger finish. On paper today, it would definitely be our best quarter and could be a very good quarter for us. Again, we don't want to give very specific guidance except to say that, it's definitely trending higher and it comes through the final execution of our high-quality alcohol. Our protein, we still continue to have a good protein margin as well. So I mean, I think we'll finish the year strong. I think when we look at the baseline -- going into baseline 2021, you can see that we're predicting some of the Project 24 upgrades that come through and that's a zero equivalent margin and we'll just take the upgrades as the baseline margin. We've got on top of that just the baseline USP at $1 premium, but the market is higher than that. We know that and USP upside beyond that, the market is even on the higher side of that today, but there's a lot of USP coming on. So we're going to be conservative in our estimates going forward on predicting what high-quality alcohols will be until we fully go to GNS, which we believe at that point we can get longer term even longer-term contracts on, but there's too…

Craig Irwin

Analyst · ROTH Capital.

Great. Great. So then high protein, can you maybe describe for us the breadth of feed trials that you're doing right now? I know you have your own sophisticated aquaculture lab at Shenandoah and that they're doing great work to help educate your customers and show quantitatively what High-Pro can do. But where do we stand right now as far as active trials and potential trials for products you're developing with Novozymes and other partners? And what's the body of work we need to see before some of these large potential customers start beating much higher prices than what we've seen? I mean, is there -- are there specific milestones you can share with us that we should look for?

Todd Becker

Management

Yes, I think we're going to do a lot more of that in the next several conference calls, as we continue to get the results. We have ongoing aqua trials today. Thus far, all the trials both commercially at customer sites as well as in our lab have proven successful in terms of grade of gain, taste, texture and things like that using High-Pro alone or as well as High-Pro combined with our partner's technology. We've seen better flay colors already in terms of what we're getting out of a traditional aqua diet by using high protein, ultra high-protein that we produce in Shenandoah. We already are seeing that. Customers are seeing that. They're already seeing better taste profiles. We'll get much more deep into the technology side of the business in the next several quarters. In Q1, we are starting palatability trials continued, our increases in palatability trials for pets, because I think this product will get fully -- the first several of our plants could fully stay into the pet food market. And they're really trying to innovate and reformulate around this product, especially as we move into higher protein. Remember, this is a yeast product. While we talk about protein, this is 25% yeast. So we're really feeding it for yeast, a dried distillers yeast inclusive of ultra high-protein beyond that. We're going to have our first yeast for aqua in the second quarter that's going on. We continue to work with every single one of our partners, whether it's dairy, whether it's aqua, whether it's pet on innovating around these products. And what that really means is that it's not just going to be around levels of protein. We can sit there with a customer today with our partners from Novozymes, especially in Hayashikane and go…

Craig Irwin

Analyst · ROTH Capital.

That's a good place to be. Well, congratulations on the execution in the difficult environment and we’ll look forward to the high-pro progress and all the other initiatives. Thanks.

Todd Becker

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Ben Bienvenu with Stephens. Please, go ahead.

Ben Bienvenu

Analyst · Stephens. Please, go ahead.

Hi. Good morning, everybody.

Todd Becker

Management

Good morning.

Ben Bienvenu

Analyst · Stephens. Please, go ahead.

I've got one short-term question and one long-term question. On the short-term question, the $0.06 of negative absorption you called out three buckets: the scheduled maintenance, the Project 24 upgrades and the regional market conditions. Any way that you can size those within the $0.06? And then, Todd, you kind of teased this in the last answer, but how much of that $0.06 should we expect to linger into fourth quarter, or is it all going away?

Todd Becker

Management

Yes. I'll just comment on and Patrich will comment on more of that. But one thing I think we also missed is, some of our quarter was impacted by the role of our high-quality alcohol from quarter-to-quarter. I think that was part of it. But I'll let Patrich talk about the other three buckets. Go ahead, Patrich.

Patrich Simpkins

Management

Yes. I think, look, generally as you break down the absorption, two-thirds of it is plants purposely offline relative to market conditions, a-third of it relative to Project 24. However, when you think of that other two-thirds, remember those plants will actually get Project 24. So if you're thinking about it in terms of future, those are plants that actually would have been on, that negative absorption would not have been there, had they had Project 24, which in fact they will. So it's a little bit of chicken and egg. I mean, if you just look at the strict numbers with respect to Q3, that's the breakup. But when you think about actually layering on Project 24, that negative absorption effectively goes away in 2021.

Ben Bienvenu

Analyst · Stephens. Please, go ahead.

Got it. Okay. My long-term or intermediate-term question is, as it relates to high-pro and the financing of these projects. Just based on the current pace, which has been a solid pace of getting these projects up and going, it seems like you could kind of get to self-funding by mid or late 2022. Is that too early? Is that a realistic time line? How are you thinking about the threshold at which you start to be able to self-fund these projects?

Todd Becker

Management

I think, we'll -- yes, if we go slower we could probably self-fund the projects by the middle of 2022. But it also depends on the protein price. If we move up the J-curve quicker, they sell fund quicker, but we want to build them quicker. I think, our goal would be to get, obviously, Wood River done, Obion done and we want to get a fourth or a fifth even done in 2021. So that would be five total done, try to do five the next year. And those probably kind of self-fund themselves, but they will probably need some excess funding as well. So we want to move as fast as we can, because the demand is so deep. Remember, the numerator for world protein demand is 325 million to 350 million tons by the time we get there. That's the denominator. That's what we believe the addressable market we will be able to go into. If Green Plains builds out their total platform, we're going to add 700,000 tons of supply, total, into a 12 million to 15 million ton growing market per year on a 325 million to 350 million ton total addressable market. And so, we can't build it fast enough. And our customers are telling us you can't build it fast enough. You need redundancy and you need volume. So to reformulate, you have to have volume and redundancies. And so, we're talking to major feeders, major industry participants, that they don't want 40,000 tons from Shenandoah. They want 250,000 tons a year and they won't reformulate until you get volume and you get redundancy. And that's why we can't move fast enough. So, while we could certainly start self-funding, sometime in 2022, obviously, we want to be well under construction on projects five through 10 by the time we get there.

Ben Bienvenu

Analyst · Stephens. Please, go ahead.

Yes. Okay, great. Makes sense. Thanks.

Todd Becker

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Ken Zaslow with Bank of Montreal.

Ken Zaslow

Analyst · Bank of Montreal.

Good morning, guys.

Todd Becker

Management

Hi, Ken.

Ken Zaslow

Analyst · Bank of Montreal.

So when you get through these projects in -- over the next three, four years, what's the endgame? Are you looking to just stay as is and just kind of run this or expand or be sold? Like what is the end goal here, as you develop? You have a very concrete plan that has an end to it. And then what happens after that?

Todd Becker

Management

Well, I think, that's just to get you to all of our plants built out, but that doesn't include additional value-added from Optimal Aqua as well. So I mean we want to be an end-to-end solution for customers that are growing -- the growing demand in diets and protein around the world. I mean, we don't want to make -- we don't want to grow the fish necessarily, but we want to -- as we see the increase in inland fish production, they're going to need unique products to continue to innovate and what they do as well. So I think what you're seeing, number one, the question is how far do we go up the J-curve on protein? And then number two, what products move on the next level of formulation? So I mean, Optimal Aqua, which we've talked about, is all about feed production, ingredient production and innovation, especially with the Hayashikane partnerships. I mean somebody needs to meet the challenges of RAS and there's not a lot of innovation that's taking place. In addition, somebody has to meet the challenges of the fact that, when you grow aquaculture systems inland, there's a taste challenge. And we believe, that's the importance of our partnership with our Hayashikane, as well as Novozymes is that, we already believe, we have products to address some of those today. So, while certainly, you have to have your baseload of products and your baseload of earnings, there's addressable businesses beyond that, which we're already starting to build with our partners. So, I think it's more of let's get this done first. And obviously, on parallel path, we're building an ingredient production business, as well and innovation business because, you have to do both at the same time. Where it leads, if we can get all the way up to the top of the J-curve, and that -- you know that that number obviously is very large. And on top of that, you can continue to innovate ingredients. I just think there's -- Ken, as you know and you've seen it in soy crushing, there's a big protein hole in the world today and there's not enough protein production in the next five years to meet it. And you're seeing it play out this year, as China steps up their purchases. You have a very good chance of having not very many soybeans left in the United States and maybe not a lot of meal left in the world to sell. And I think that's the -- if you think about it, there's not -- a soybean crushing plant isn't innovating to higher proteins, like we are today. So, we're not just filling the 48% protein gap that's existing and that's why, soy crush margins have enjoyed the last five years of demand pull from protein and will probably enjoy the next five years after that. We're innovating to higher proteins and you're not seeing that anywhere else in any other industry today.

Ken Zaslow

Analyst · Bank of Montreal.

Another question, just the short term. What percentage of the capacity do you think will not come back, after we get through all this? I've heard a variety of answers and curious to see what your answer would be.

Todd Becker

Management

Well, there's a lot of capacity that can still probably come back, if the demand increases. And so, if we get into thinking about the politics of what we're seeing today, there's a president today that is in office that favors the internal combustion engine, which I think is good for Green Plains and good for the Iowa farmer. And there's a potential president, if the other guy wins, that favors obviously EV, but I think also favors the low carbon fuel standard, which potentially means, less gasoline, but more ethanol because what we're seeing today is, ethanol is reducing CIs all over the place, whether it's through carbon sequestration, whether it's through what we're doing on Project 24 which we already lowered our CI stores and less energy use, less water use, or even our ability to supply renewable diesel with a very low CI corn oil. I think, what we're seeing is that, as the economies recover around the world and people drive more, there's still 250 million internal combustion engines on the road or more in the U.S. and all over the world. And while EV is coming, I think depending who make -- who comes into office, it's all probably pretty good for ethanol demand longer at least for the next three to five years in either party. But more importantly, I think when ethanol will become part of is potentially, a California as low carbon fuel standard movement, but albeit that is an expensive thing to do and we'll see if that really happens. But I think overall, as the economy recovers out of COVID and we get back to more normal driving patterns and more normal demand and I think we'll get there obviously. I think, that's all probably pretty good for supply -- for demand growth for ethanol, especially with higher blends. But don't -- let's not kid ourselves. The ethanol industry has capacity and they can move very quickly with that capacity and hasn't shown a lot of discipline over the years, but maybe this time we will.

Ken Zaslow

Analyst · Bank of Montreal.

Great. Thank you, very much.

Todd Becker

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Jordan Levy with Truist Securities.

Jordan Levy

Analyst · Truist Securities.

Good morning, Todd. Good morning, team. Todd, to touch on something you just hit on as well. As kind of Project 24 gets wrapped up and what that does to the carbon intensity of the plant and the fuel coming out of it, is there a potential there to target specific markets on the fuel ethanol side, whether it's looking to get those to California and realizing the uplift pay or something along those lines, or do the economics just makes sense to just sell the way you guys normally do?

Todd Becker

Management

What we've seen is, the traditional ethanol industry made too much low CI for the California market and gave away a lot of that margin. I think that LCFS spreads, potential spreads then there probably won't -- there'll be an opportunity to earn more of that margin back on low CI scores. Today, we're focused more on protein and protein development and let ethanol be what ethanol is and it will be a contributor, but it won't be the story. And so, we're not going to spend a lot of money right upfront on deciding, we want to just be the lowest CI producer, because that really hasn't paid off yet. Although, there are several CO2 projects that are starting to take shape. We've seen them in Texas. We've seen some up north. And I think that will help lower the CI scores a lot. But again it's going to be about discipline and where does the margin go to. I think, what we've seen is obviously in bio and renewable diesel they keep a lot of that. In ethanol, we haven't been able to, but because we just make too much. So overall, we're not going to put our bet around low CI, as much as we are about putting all of our future into protein and innovation. We have a big -- ethanol is a very classic ESG industry that doesn't get any credit for it. We use less power. We use less gas. We use less water. And we do a horrible job of telling our ESG story to the world, as an industry. And we're trying to change that. And I think the industry needs to start to change that because, we are really the lowest-carbon fuel, one of the lowest-carbon fuels produced in the world…

Jordan Levy

Analyst · Truist Securities.

Certainly. Makes a lot of sense. And then just as my follow-up, on the Optimal and the recent agreement as well on the aquaculture market. In terms of the high protein, how the plants roll out, is there a time where you get to that point of redundancy in volumes where you're at the scale you need, or is that something that can be done as Wood River gets brought online and you don't need a ton of plants online to really target specific customers in that market?

Todd Becker

Management

I mean, I'll give you an example. It really just depends on how many products that we're going into. But, for example, one of the largest poultry companies really doesn't even notice you until you have 1,000 tons a day of something as an industry. And today the U.S. ethanol -- or we don't across all of our plants and others that are building we're getting closer to 1.000 tons a day. but that's just 800 to 1,000 tons a day that's just one customer. And so I don't know that we'll ever get to a point -- in order to even need to get to a point where all of our plants have to be running. But I would tell you, the more we produce, the more we see inclusion rates. And we can't really even get into big time animal production systems with our product because we don't have the redundancies. And at Green Plains, our first three or four or five plants could end up in pet and maybe into aqua before we even get into other markets. Although I will tell you we are developing the other markets and would sell those markets as well. And I think we will do some of that, especially dairy. There's really a big dairy impact in terms of milk yields from our methionine levels and our amino acid levels that we're already seeing milk yields go higher and we can already replace high value products like a blood meal or something like that in dairy. And so we've run -- we worked on the Cornell Studies. This is truly what we think is traditional dairy feeds has soy pass in it because of the way that it's structured this has actually performed better than soy pass and dairy trials as well. So we're very excited about it. I think that it's going to be -- even our 700,000 tons doesn't make a dent on the world protein demand or world protein supply, but it makes a dent on our company. And even if the whole industry rolled this out, which I don't think they will because I think it takes billions and billions of dollars to do that. So it'll take a long time. Even if the whole industry rolled this out, we probably produce somewhere between seven million and eight million tons total as an industry in a 15 million ton growing demand per year. So we can only produce as an industry, half the total demand growth in protein per year. And I think that's why we're so excited about this. And again it's just like if you think about a wet mill there's 100 and 200 products and we're going to have five and six now, and one of those products competes with some of the high protein that they do but the demand is so big.

Jordan Levy

Analyst · Truist Securities.

Great color. Thanks so much, Todd.

Todd Becker

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from Eric Stine with Craig-Hallum.

Eric Stine

Analyst · Craig-Hallum.

Hi, everyone. You've covered a lot side. So I'll just go with one. But you mentioned on USP and at Europe you'd be upgrading to GNS. Just curious on thoughts on doing that at Wood River and when you may -- if you do that when that may come online?

Todd Becker

Management

Yeah. I think from the industrial alcohol business, upgrading GNS is necessary especially at York, because the cost -- it just doesn't cost very much because it was already a beverage-grade facility. And our quality of our product is so good even before we do anything that we know we'll get there very quick with some of the highest quality. And hopefully at that point, we're going to protect the relationships for sure that we have, the customers that have really helped us along as we develop this, they're going to have long-term potential. And we're going to really try and make sure that we maintain those relationships first. But I think beyond that -- I don't see us hiring a bunch of GNS salespeople. I think we'll work with other companies that do this and we're talking to others about just basically using their distribution channels, because I don't see us again putting a bunch of GNS salespeople out there, but I do believe that we'll participate in some of those end-use markets that take the highest quality market – highest quality alcohol whether drinking or pharmaceutical or even beyond that. In terms of Wood River, we're going to go to USP first. We'll see how we do in the GNS markets. There's plenty of USP demand in consumer products today that we're seeing that -- I'm sorry USP demand that we're seeing in consumer products today. And we have a lot of these major CPG companies that have done business with us now that are waiting for the upgrade in Wood River as well. So I don't think we need to go all the way there because it's going to be costly to do that. If we see the value to do that, we will. Again the benefit for us was the fact that York was already a beverage grade facility at one point, they makes such a high-quality product already that our path to GNS is much faster and cheaper than it would be taking Wood River there.

Eric Stine

Analyst · Craig-Hallum.

Got it. Very helpful. Thanks.

Todd Becker

Management

All right. Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

Thank you, and sir I'm not showing any further questions in the queue.

Todd Becker

Management

All right everybody, thanks for coming on the call. I know we talked a lot, probably spend a little more on our future than we have in the past in terms of outlining the numbers. But I think it's important for everybody to see that. There's a lot of other information around page 10 that we'd love to share with you. We continue to make great progress on our sales programs and the interest and innovation, and again a lot of transitory stuff going on as well, but we're on a path and we believe in the path. And I think we're going to accelerate as quickly as we can to transform and hopefully can read back through what we presented today. And any questions please give us a call and we're very excited about the future. So, thanks a lot for coming on the call today, and we'll talk to you next quarter.

Operator

Operator

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen for participating in today's conference. You may now disconnect. Have a wonderful day.