Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for participating in today's conference call to discuss Nature's Sunshine's Financial Results for the Fourth Quarter and Full-Year ended December 31, 2021. Today's call is being recorded. Joining us today are Nature's Sunshine's CEO, Terrence Moorehead; CFO, Joseph Baty; and Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Nathan Brower. Following their remarks, we will open the call for your questions. Before we go further, I would like to turn the call over to Mr. Brower as he reads the Company's safe harbor statement within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that provides important cautions regarding forward-looking statements. Nathan, please go ahead.

Yes. Thank you. Good afternoon, and thanks for joining our conference call to discuss fourth quarter and full-year 2021 financial results. I'd like to remind everyone that this call is available for replay via telephonic dial-in through March 22 and a live webcast will be posted in our Investor Relations portion of our website at naturessunshine.com. The information on this call may contain certain forward-looking statements. These statements are often characterized by terminologies such as believe, hope, may, anticipate, expect, will, and other similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, and the actual results may be materially different from the results implied by forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause results to differ materially from those implied herein include, but are not limited to, those factors disclosed in the Company's annual report on Form 10-K under the caption Risk Factors and other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The information on this call speaks only as of today's date, and the Company disclaims any duty to update the information provided herein. Now I would like to turn the call over to the CEO of Nature's Sunshine, Terrence Moorehead. Terrence?

Thank you, Nate, and good afternoon, everyone. Appreciate you joining us today. And I am pleased to share our fourth quarter and full-year 2021 results with you. Before I get into the results, I just want to take a moment to share a few thoughts on the situation in Ukraine. As the past two weeks have been a harrowing experience for our friends, partners and colleagues in the region, we unequivocally support the Ukrainians people's effort to live, grow and work in a free and peaceful society, and our hearts go out to our distributors, the people of Ukraine and peace loving people everywhere as we watch the situation unfold in front of us. This is a very personal issue for us at Nature's Sunshine because we have longstanding personal relationships with people whose lives are directly impacted by what's happening on the ground there. Our Ukrainian distributors and customers have been dedicated to Nature's Sunshine for over 20 years. There are friends and they are an important part of Nature's Sunshine's family, and we care for them deeply. As such, it's our time to step up, give back and care for them in their time of need. Through our Impact Foundation, Nature's Sunshine will be making charitable contributions to ensure that our distributions and the Ukrainian people have the critical lifesaving assistance they need during these challenging times. We are working with our management team on the ground and several global partners to do whatever we can to keep our people safe and support the Ukrainian people. Through our resources on the ground, we continue to monitor the situation closely, but the situation is fluid and evolving day-to-day. Obviously our first priority is to make sure that our people are safe and healthy and we will continue to do…

Thank you, Terrence, and good afternoon, everyone. Net sales in the fourth quarter increased 16% to a company record of $117.9 million compared to $101.7 million in the year-ago quarter. This marks the sixth consecutive quarter of record net sales. As Terrence mentioned, this increase was primarily driven by growth across our Asia, Europe and North America operating business units due to the continued execution of our business transformation initiatives, new product launches, and the increase in demand for nutritional supplements. Excluding foreign exchange rates, net sales increased 17% in the fourth quarter of 2021. On an absolute basis, net sales in Asia increased 33% to $49.2 million compared to $36.9 million in the prior year quarter. This represented a 36% increase on a local currency basis. The increase is primarily attributable to strong customer growth in Japan, China, and Taiwan supported by our digital toolset. Net sales in Europe increased 11% on an absolute basis to $26.1 million compared to $23.6 million in the year-ago quarter. This represented a 12% increase on a local currency basis. During the quarter and full-year, Poland was our fastest growing European market as our team focused on strong field fundamentals and customer growth throughout Central and Eastern Europe. As Terrence mentioned, we are watching the Russia, Ukraine situation closely. As discussed in our Form 10-K, we have significant operations in our Russia and other market, which includes Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and other common independent states in the region. Net sales in the region were $61.4 million and $51.2 million respectively for 2021 and 2020. Related operating income was $5.8 million and $5 million respectively for 2021 and 2020. At least for 2022, the current situation poses significant risk to our business and we continue to evaluate the impact. North America net sales increased…

Thanks, sir. And we will go to our first question from Linda Bolton-Weiser of D.A. Davidson.

Hello. How are you?

Hey, Linda.

Hello, Linda.

Hi. Yes. Congratulations, great quarter and year.

Thank you.

So can I just start with, I guess Russia and your exposure there and in Ukraine. So you quantified it, which is good. Can you just tell us what is going on right now? In other words, do you ship the products there from the U.S. or from where? And are you currently shipping? And yes, I mean, just kind of talk about exactly like what's going on right now?

Yes. So products leave from the U.S. basically go over there. They're manufactured in our Spanish Fork facility. Many of them actually have, I believe the same labeling as some of our U.S. products. But we are not shipping products right now, the shipments are on hold. As I had mentioned, they do have depending on kind of what the consumption rate is, if you just look at historical consumption rates, they have about three to five months worth of inventory on hand or in transit to them. So that's the status right now. People are still doing business over there where they can, but obviously Ukraine is a different situation. Joe, do you have some additional commentary? I don't know if there's anything else.

No, I think Terrence touched on it Linda. But obviously, as I pointed out in my comments that our business are – we have some risks there, right? I mean the business is clearly being impacted by the overall situation. It's good that we have some inventory on the ground there, but there's still challenges and trying to get the inventory into the right hands and so forth. So as we sit here today, we are not shipping any further product and we'll just have to continue to evaluate and see how the situation plays forward. But as I noted in my comments, I mean, it's a significant business for us in 2021, $61 million plus in revenues and almost $6 million in operating income.

Yes. Of those figures, you mentioned the $61 million is the vast majority of that Russia or like what percentage is Ukraine of that amount?

It's all the above. As we look at it, we call it Russia and other, but it includes Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, and one or two other of the markets there in that area. But the primary ones are Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus.

And Ukraine is about a third, roughly a little bit more than a third.

Ukraine is a third?

It's a little bit more than a third of the sales.

Yes. It's to 40% of the total. So somewhere in there, just there's a little bit of flexibility there, yes.

And in Russia, I'm just curious, is it mostly like distributors or little stores or direct selling reps type of distribution?

I'm sorry, could you repeat that, Linda? I couldn't hear you.

Like in Russia is your – is it mostly little stores or distributors or direct selling reps that are doing the selling to consumers?

So they actually have quite a network of retail type distribution centers that are all around, they've got several hundred of them around the country. And then from there, they would also have kind of representatives who would kind of go in and get their products and sell to their customers as well. But the bulk of it is, is these retail centers. And then they do have a fair amount of digital business as well that they have historically driven.

Okay. And then – so you've done a really great job with your gross margin and great challenges, it was flat in the quarter, so that's really impressive. Can you remind us, have you taken pricing and then if you had to – I know you don't want to give guidance, but are you hopeful, you can maintain that gross margin in 2022?

We have not taken any meaningful pricing yet. There is a pricing initiative in the U.S., I think that's coming in April, right beginning of April. And so that'll provide some uplift in the cushion to fight off inflationary pressures. Joe, additional?

No. Did we answer your question there Linda, or…

No, there's a second part I missed.

Yes. I think there was a second part that…

Well, I know you don't want to give guidance. You're not doing that yet. But I mean, in the sense that you've had initiatives and you've had things that have offset, can that continue so you can maintain gross margin or do you think you will save more pressure in 2022?

Well, we believe that, again, there is a pending price increase for North America. We believe that will help offset certain inflationary pressures. Obviously, as we've discussed in our comments, we believe that our proactive approach to bringing in more raw materials, clearly our inventories are up. You can see that on a year-over-year basis, so forth, that is primarily raw materials. We believe that will help hedge against inflationary pressures as well. So you're right. We're not necessarily giving guidance, but I would say, as we sit here today, subject to other things that may happen over in Eastern Europe and so forth, we feel pretty good about our ability to maintain a relatively consistent gross profit margin in 2022.

Okay. Thank you. And then your performance in Asia is really impressive because some other companies did face widespread impacts from lockdowns, and maybe you just mentioned that more in South Korea. Is there something different about South Korea or like when do you think that the growth there will kind of start going again in terms of positive growth in South Korea?

Yes. I think the real difference with South Korea is, are the government restrictions that they have there versus what they have elsewhere. And again, one of the restrictions is on group size and meeting size. You can only get five people together in a room and the underlying kind of processes of that business and the kind of the fundamentals, the field fundamentals driving that business are driven by a lot of kind of face-to-face contact and training historically driven by kind of incentive events where you might get the field people to chase after an incentive trip of some type. So in the absence of those types of incentives, promotions and business building activities, it's been somewhat of a challenge for the team in South Korea. We haven't seen those type of restrictions in places like Taiwan and Japan where they do use similar – some similar tactics. But they're probably also using a little bit of digital, maybe a little bit more effectively, and they've got to deal kind of a somewhat of a younger demographic that are again, just using some other tools in a different manner. So you also have, as I had mentioned, a really robust subscription auto-ship program in a place like Japan, where 50% of the revenues are locked in. And so every new person they're bringing into the business is largely incremental, which is fantastic. And so that's just really hard work by the team in Japan on the ground there versus say at Taiwan where they're just so competitive right now, nobody wants to be outdone, and so they're building their customer bases like wildfire there. And then you have China, that's really leveraging omnichannel capabilities and things like TikTok in order to get out there and get into the market. So there are just some different practices and different behaviors and opportunities in some of these different markets in Asia. But I think the good news is, again, all things being equal, those fundamentals and that momentum should carry-forward in 2022, again, all things being equal. And as soon as you start seeing some of those restrictions ease in South Korea, I mean our expectation is just like we've seen in other markets is that, we start to see some positive movement.

Okay. And then…

Yes. So we feel really good about Asia. Feel good about – obviously feeling good about North America as well, and the momentum we're seeing with our DTC opportunity, I mean, it's just doing a great job. I think the team is doing a phenomenal job building out those digital capabilities and our kind of retail business and practitioner business have – we're seeing some kind of, I'd say more stability there as well are certainly expected going forward. Again, all things being equal.

Right. Great. And then well just let me just ask about your share repurchase, that's a big amount and quite frankly, I didn't have as much in free cash flow projection for the next year, but maybe I need to raise it. But is that going to be just paying for it out of your internally generated cash flow? Or do you think you could put some debt on a balance sheet to kind of fund that share repurchases?

Do you want to tackle that one, Joe?

No. I mean, I guess to spend some degree on the buying opportunity, Linda. But as we sit here today, I wouldn't anticipate that we would borrow much for that. So yes, the expectation that we would be funding those repurchases from a combination of existing cash coupled with ongoing free cash flows.

And is it over a year or is –

Is that helps?

Yes, sure. Is the timeframe specified on that $30 million repurchase?

No, it's not specified. Yes, I would just update you the – as you know, we implemented the initial share repurchase about one year ago, the tune of about $15 million and of that $15 million, as we sit here today, we have less than $1 million available to us, so we're going to reload with the $30 million and we'll see whether that's all utilized in one year or not. So good to see. And obviously, we have met certain metrics that we consider in that – in the buying opportunity. But we appreciate the Board and their support and obviously, we feel very good about our financial health and our ability to continue to generate cash going forward.

Okay. Well, sounds good. I'll leave it there and good luck in the next year.

Thank you. Thanks, Linda.

Thank you, Linda.

And we'll go next to Steven Martin of Slater.

Hi, there guys.

Hey, Steve. Hey, how's it going?

Pretty good, and congratulations once again on a great quarter.

Thank you.

And I do appreciate the aggressiveness on the buyback and the aggressiveness on the new buyback. So you've lived up all the expectations and all your commitments. The fourth quarter EBITDA margin – the full-year EBITDA margin got into double digits. The fourth quarter always seems to be light. Is there something about the fourth quarter that causes that?

Yes. We will frequently have expenses whether those before events or accruals that will come up, as the performance ramps up and you're overperforming, there maybe some accruals that will be added in. But yes, in fourth quarter, there maybe some and usually are at least some types of either events or conferences, conventions that may happen, that don't happen in the previous quarters. Joe, do you have some additional commentary around that?

No, it's well said. I mean, there's a little bit of a timing, Steve, it's a fair question. The other thing that'll come into play is the final accrual and true-up of certain employee-related costs. Okay, depending on how the year played out. And if you understand the way the company's bonus plan works and so forth, it's disclosed in the property. I mean, it's based off lease in 2021, it's based off sales and EBITDA and so forth. So that'll come into play. That all trues up. And so there maybe little heavier accrual in the fourth quarter, say versus earlier quarters. And then there's just other employee-related costs that will true-up in the fourth quarter, whether that's health benefit costs and so forth and so on. So there's a little bit of a timing to it. But all things considered as we pointed out, fourth quarter over fourth quarter, we're obviously pretty pleased with the improvement in EBITDA.

Yes.

Absolutely. I know you don't want to give guidance, but I'm not going to let you off the hook quite as easy as Linda because I've been at it longer, recognizing what's going on in Ukraine and Russia and other factors in the supply chain. When you look out to 2022, you've had a great run of – in the last three or four years, good sales growth and good EBITDA growth. Can you give us some – can you frame 2022 in some way shape or form for us? Do you expect topline to be up? Do you expect EBITDA margin or dollars to be up despite all the headwinds?

Well, it's a fair question. And in an ideal world, Steve, I think, Terrence and I learned that we would've liked to have – would be close to providing formal guidance.

Yes, exactly.

Having said that, as you well know the situation over in Russia, Ukraine just came about literally in the last couple of weeks, and as we already pointed out, it does have a – it can have a pretty significant impact on overall business. I would say, overall, it's just way too early to assess what that impact could be for us in 2022. I would say, putting that aside, if the question was, would we have expected growth in 2022 versus 2021? The short answer is absolutely, but that's not an insignificant part of our business. It's clearly impacting us as we sit here today. We'll have to – we're continuing to evaluate that day-after-day, week-after-week. So that comes into play. It's just premature to say, overall 2022, what's the impact is going to be say versus 2021. But here in another six weeks or so, we'll be reporting on the first quarter of 2022. And I certainly hope that we have a much better feel for what the potential impact could be this year.

All right. Terrence, when we met with you a couple of months ago, you talked about all the initiatives for the last quarter 2021 and then into 2022. When you look out at 2022, could you rank the importance of the various initiatives, whether it's the product rollouts or the system rollouts, et cetera?

Sure. And it's not – they're not necessarily linear Steve because they – our strategies are designed to work together, right? So they are integrated strategies. But you've got to have things like digital up there at the top of your list. You've got to have certainly our Subscribe and Thrive initiatives at the top of the list. The rebranding and new product development is critical to us also, and we've seen that for the last couple of years now, and even where it was relatively unexciting products, like CoQ10 or a D3. In many of these markets, those are just very important products. And so where we've got those product gaps and we can get them into the market, it does make a difference and have a real impact. But again, those work most effectively when the rebranding has been launched effectively when our digital capabilities are in place, and when you've got a kind of a Subscribe and Thrive up and running and working. Where like in Japan, if you got somebody in, you're not just going to get one order out of them, you're getting five plus orders out of them. And every new consumer you add on top of that is incremental. So I think those are some of the key ones, I don't want the list to get too long.

What about on the new product side, if you had to rank the new products in terms of their importance to 2022. How would you do that?

Again, it depends by market because again, in some of these markets, I've got some markets in Asia where I could do a refresh on a chlorophyll type product and have tremendous – get a tremendous uplift from that. I could do and one of the things that we're going to be looking into and working on in 2022 and beyond is kind of building out some of our brands to just give them more stature. And I'll use it as an example, something like a Rejuvenaid that is an outstanding kind of revolutionary product that is still – it's in the top 10, but it should be a number one seller, it could be a kind of a mini business on to its own. So that's something that we're looking at, we're working on, we're working on our gut health products and our gut health portfolio. So really what you should be looking for Steve over the next 12 to 18 months is just a tighter focus on maybe some of the – I don't want to necessarily call them mega brands, but either let's use that term mega branding or mega categories around things like a Rejuvenaid, a ProArgi-9, could even be something like some of our proteins where we've got some really phenomenal protein technology that we're launching. But those are type of basics where we can really build some good solid sustainable business around. And so that's – those are a couple of things we're going to be working on over the next 12 to 18 months, if that's helpful.

Okay. And one last one for Joe. Inventory, you built up the inventory, you commented on that. Is inventory where you want it to be or are we going to see another jump up in 2022?

Good question, Steve. I think it's maybe still a little bit light of where our ideal position is, but especially, as we continue to try to assess ongoing supply chain challenges and so forth and so on, do I envision a dramatic increase now, but could you see some fluctuation that still climbs a bit in 2022? Yes. But I think we're getting pretty close to where we think we ought to be just from a safety stock standpoint and hedging inflation and so forth and so on. But you will see a little bit of volatility, but I don't think you'll see dramatic volatility over 2022.

All right. Thank you very much, and congratulations again.

Thanks, Steve.

Thanks, Steve.

And at this time, this concludes our question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the call back over to Mr. Moorehead for closing remarks.

Okay. Well, really, just like to say thank you everybody for listening to today's call. We look forward to speaking with you again when we report our first quarter 2022 results in May, but until then take care and look forward to talking to you again. Take care and thank you.

Thank you.

And ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's teleconference. You may now disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.