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Nature's Sunshine Products, Inc. (NATR)

Q2 2025 Earnings Call· Fri, Aug 1, 2025

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for participating in today's conference call to discuss Nature's Sunshine's financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2025. Joining us today are Nature's Sunshine's CEO, Terrence Moorehead; CFO, Shane Jones; and General Counsel, Nate Brower. Following their remarks, we'll open the call for analyst 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. Nate, please go ahead.

Nathan G. Brower

Management

Thank you, and good afternoon. I'd like to remind everyone that this call is available for replay by telephonic dial-in through August 14 and via a live webcast that will be posted on the Investor Relations portion of our website at ir.naturessunshine.com. The information on this call contains 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 therein 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?

Terrence O. Moorehead

Management

Thank you, Nate, and good afternoon, everyone. I want to thank you for joining today's call to discuss our second quarter results. Today, I'll provide some context for our second quarter performance and offer some insights into how the business is building momentum. From there, Shane will take you through our financials in more detail. In the second quarter, Nature's Sunshine continued to build on the momentum we saw in Q1 with another quarter of strong performance. Our team is focused. The strategies are holding steady, and we continue to position the company for long-term sustainable growth. For the quarter, revenue came in at $115 million, up 4% versus the prior year or 2% in constant currency. Q2 adjusted EBITDA was also strong, coming in at $11 million, an 8% increase versus the prior year's adjusted EBITDA of $10 million. These results reflect strong execution across the business with standout performance in Japan, continued strength in Central Europe and improved traction in North America, where we saw a notable acceleration in our digital business. As we move into the back half of the year, we remain focused on unlocking long-term value through strong consumer engagement and continued execution of our sales and marketing strategies. We delivered these results despite ongoing uncertainty from the current macroeconomic environment and the evolving trade and tariff situation. Fortunately, we've taken strong proactive measures to minimize our exposure and safeguard our business. We're also closely monitoring consumer spending patterns and whether household budgets come under increased pressure. Having said that, our focus remains unchanged as we continue to implement strategies to drive customer growth and strengthen our value proposition with targeted investment, new innovation and more reliable service. As a result, we believe our growth strategy continues to demonstrate significant long-term potential. Looking at our…

L. Shane Jones

Management

Thank you, Terrence. Let's dive into our results. Net sales in the second quarter were $114.8 million, compared to $110.6 million in the year ago quarter, a 4% increase versus the prior year or a 2% increase excluding the impact of foreign exchange rates. As Terrence discussed, this was driven by a resurgence of growth in North America as we saw acceleration in both digital and the core. Looking at sales by market in Q2, I'll start with North America. North America sales grew 4% on both a reported and local currency basis. This represents the best quarter for North America in over a year and reflects an acceleration in both the digital and the core businesses. Digital grew 34% in the quarter, driven by increases in the number of ordering accounts, a 180 basis point improvement in retention and a step-up in conversion. We also saw a meaningful increase in our Subscribe & Thrive Autoship program that now constitutes 53% of DTC revenue. Likewise, the core business continues to show steady sequential improvement driven by strong distributor engagement and better field activation. We're excited about the momentum that we see in both parts of the North America business and expect continued growth in the quarters ahead. In Asia Pacific, we reported growth of 5% to $52.7 million or up 2% when excluding the impact of foreign exchange. This was driven by very strong growth in Japan where sales on a local currency basis grew 27%, fueled by continued growth in customers and orders as well as strong participation in our Autoship program that makes up nearly 50% of sales in Japan. Japan has now seen 20% plus growth for 4 consecutive quarters, validating the strategic adjustments made last year. In addition, we have seen some sequential improvement in China…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Brian Holland of D.A. Davidson.

Brian Patrick Holland

Analyst

Congratulations on the strong results this quarter. Just picking up where Shane left off on the guidance. Plus 1% to plus 11% on year-over-year EBITDA still seems to imply like a pretty wide range. So just curious what you're thinking about on both ends of that range? What's being contemplated that you would end up at plus 1%? And what would have to happen for you to get to plus 11%?

Terrence O. Moorehead

Management

Shane, do you want to grab that?

L. Shane Jones

Management

Sure. Happy to do that. So we're seeing good momentum in the business, as we've talked about, especially in North America and have a lot of confidence in that. We've got several initiatives that we're beginning or continue to accelerate into the latter half of this year and expecting very good results from that. I think the big thing that will be -- the difference there will be really on our digital business. We've seen an acceleration. If that acceleration continues, we'll be near the top end of that. If we don't, that's where we'll likely be a little bit lower, not lower than the guidance range, but lower in the range.

Brian Patrick Holland

Analyst

Understood.

Terrence O. Moorehead

Management

We're running on the top end of that range.

L. Shane Jones

Management

The other thing is Asia -- sorry, the other one would be Asia. Just Taiwan, we've seen a little bit of a deceleration in the growth rate there. We expect that to be very strong in Q3 and in Q4, but we are having very tough comps, and so depending on how that ends out, that could be slightly different as well.

Brian Patrick Holland

Analyst

Okay. And then I appreciate the color on the SG&A line for the second half of the year. But if I just kind of wind this back, again, this is just my number, so it may be apples and oranges to some extent. But I think you beat EBITDA in my model in the first half by about $3.5 million. You took the guide up $2 million. I'm just curious if there's anything changing in the second half versus original expectations? And maybe the thing that I wanted to double-click on was, obviously, the SG&A number in Q2 included some digital investment. I'm just wondering if that's something that you're doubling down on given the momentum that you talked about specifically in this quarter and the inflection in the North America business in particular.

Terrence O. Moorehead

Management

Good insight, Shane?

L. Shane Jones

Management

Yes, that's a good catch there. We did have -- we saw some great results in our digital, and we did apply some additional funding there to our digital media about $1 million extra, which paid out in additional sales as well. As we go through the rest of the year, we'll be very thoughtful about how we do that. And if we continue to see the strong returns that we're seeing, we'll spend a little bit more, but that will be -- have a very strong return on that investment.

Terrence O. Moorehead

Management

But we do want to keep that digital growth moving going forward. So we like to see it in that plus or minus 30% range, and we're investing to make that happen.

Brian Patrick Holland

Analyst

And Terrence, I think you mentioned in your prepared remarks you talked about innovation. I'm just curious, certainly, in my sort of core consumer packaged goods space, we're really seeing the impact of kind of this Make America Healthy Again movement. And we see it in a number of forms. Just curious to what extent you're seeing that focus hit your business and the extent to which you are or can be nimble from an innovation standpoint to sort of meet the moment.

Terrence O. Moorehead

Management

Yes, I definitely think there's momentum behind that, especially with the consumers that we would want to talk to. They're already in that space. They're very motivated by that. The innovation that we're putting out in the market is -- it's new, it's fresh. We've got some first-mover opportunities for us that are doing quite well. New products like our Marine Glo, marine-based collagen is kind of very exciting. So again, there's freshness there that comes from new products, but also having that first-mover position in the right areas is critical for us, and we're going to keep pushing that lever.

Brian Patrick Holland

Analyst

And last one for me, and I'll get out of the way. You've talked previously about the CapEx investments and the cost savings coming from increased automation, et cetera. Obviously, this opens up a fair amount of incremental capacity within your manufacturing network, your advantage within the industry, to the extent that you do self-manufacture. Just curious if you could kind of talk about the pipeline, either from an M&A or co-manufacturing standpoint, whereby you would be able to leverage that capacity with either another brand or brands or some other partnerships. It seems to me to be a huge leverage opportunity, but just kind of curious if that pipeline exists as we look out over the next 6 to 18 months through the end of '26?

Terrence O. Moorehead

Management

Yes. Brian, you're exactly right. We have done a lot of work to improve our throughput and efficiency in the plant, which has freed up capacity, and we're actively looking at ways to fill that capacity, both by driving growth of -- organic growth within the business, but also through kind of possible third-party opportunities. Shane, I don't know if you want to add any color to that or not.

L. Shane Jones

Management

Yes. We have a couple of opportunities that we're working through right now. We are in very early stages though, probably not a lot that we can talk publicly about this.

Terrence O. Moorehead

Management

Yes. But the opportunity is there, and we're actively pursuing kind of those opportunities, which, as you mentioned, that just helps the economics of our business and the efficiency of our operations.

Brian Patrick Holland

Analyst

Fair enough. Appreciate all the color. Keep up the great work.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from Susan Anderson of Canaccord Genuity.

Susan Kay Anderson

Analyst

Nice job on the quarter, you guys. I guess maybe just going back to North America, obviously, great result in the digital business. It sounded like the core business with the practitioners and the retail partners also improved. I guess I'm curious, did you see a return to growth there? And then I think you mind just kind of some better engagement, better field activation. Maybe if you could expand a little bit on kind of what's driving that improvement and then your expectation there for the rest of the year?

Terrence O. Moorehead

Management

Yes. On the core, we didn't quite see kind of growth across all those segments combined, but we did see a vast improvement in activation and sales overall. So I think we're really pleased with what's going on there. In terms of kind of the things that we're doing to drive that activation, I spoke a little bit about just improved touch management in the field. Making sure that we're spending time with those folks providing appropriate -- just putting discipline, it's basic field fundamentals, blocking and tackling. I can't tell you how, and I think you and I have spoken about the importance of this in the past of just getting that blocking and tackling kind of right which is important in any sales organization, no matter where you are, making sure that we're giving people the right sales tools. We've changed some staffing so -- in the field organization. So we've got some new people out there, some new talent that is really driving change, driving results, built out our sales support team as well just to make sure that we're giving people the right level of support across the business. So those are just a series of things that we're doing, and I think we're seeing some momentum as a result of that.

Susan Kay Anderson

Analyst

Okay. Great. That sounds good. And then I guess, just looking out to the back half by region, you mentioned some tough compares in Asia coming. I guess how should we think about the puts and takes in terms of growth and the drivers there as we look out in the back half? Should we expect maybe North America to kind of start to be more of the driver of growth there versus the international markets we've seen over the last few quarters?

Terrence O. Moorehead

Management

Yes, I think we would expect to see continued acceleration in North America. That's going to -- again, with the momentum that we've got on the core side of the business is going to continue, but digital as well. So we've got a really solid, I think, proposition building in North America, and we'll get that to where we want to by the end of the year. As we mentioned, we've got some very tough comps in Asia Pacific, but it's a strong business. And Shane, do you want to provide some additional commentary on APAC?

L. Shane Jones

Management

Yes. So we're looking for the back half of the year to be low single digit to mid-single digit, low to mid-single digit for APAC. And if you look at what we'll likely see in there, we'll see some growth in Taiwan, but it will be more muted than what we've seen in the past. We're likely to see stabilization in China and some growth there. Korea continues to struggle. So it may be flattish there. But then Japan will continue to do very, very well, and that will be what really drives that region. So we do expect continued growth, it will just not be at the double-digit levels that we've seen over the last few quarters.

Terrence O. Moorehead

Management

And remember, Susan, last year, Q3 and Q4 were largest quarters in the history of the region. So to Shane's point, you're talking about huge numbers that they're going up against. So still very strong performance in Asia Pacific going forward, just kind of not at the growth multiple that we've seen in the past.

L. Shane Jones

Management

Right. And then as we move to Europe, we do expect growth in Europe as well. Most of that will be coming from Central Europe as we expect double-digit growth to continue in Central Europe and then likely low single-digit growth in Eastern Europe. So -- but good results in Europe as well. And then as Terrence talked about, North America, that's where we see the most acceleration, we're most excited about that largely because digital will continue to grow at that 25% plus level. And as that happens and then the base business also is close to flat. That's going to result in better numbers from North America, likely in the mid-single-digit range.

Susan Kay Anderson

Analyst

Okay. Great. That was really helpful. And then I guess maybe just touching on the gross margin really quick as well. I think you -- well, to get to your annual, I guess, the back half has to be a little bit higher. Maybe just talk about kind of the drivers there versus the first half?

L. Shane Jones

Management

It's really -- we've been working on our gross margin initiatives for some time, and those gross margin initiatives have been muted by headwinds from -- a, from FX and those FX headwinds are going to abate or at least they appear to be going to abate here as rates come down in those regions, especially in the APAC regions. And additional to that, we've had a headwind from mix. That headwind from mix, just because North America tends to have a little bit lower gross margin than APAC and as more -- as North America does better and APAC does not quite as well as it has in the past, there's a little bit of a headwind there. Some of that will continue. But really, as our gross margin initiatives take hold, we would expect, as we've said, modest improvement in the back half of the year.

Susan Kay Anderson

Analyst

Okay. Great. And then one last one, maybe just looking out at the new product pipeline for -- I guess, for the rest of the year, we've noticed some new stuff on the website like you mentioned, the Marine Glo collagen. I guess how should we think about these new products? Do they kind of make an immediate impact or does it take time to build them to really kind of help to drive that growth? I know the Power Line was obviously a really huge success. So I guess just in context, how should we think about these other new products? And then do you have anything else coming out the rest of the year?

Terrence O. Moorehead

Management

I think that -- obviously, it depends on the new product. But certainly, they do provide consumer energy. They provide consumer acquisition -- activation, excuse me, as well as new customer acquisition. So I think they're important. We have such a large portfolio and a large business. I don't know if a single product is necessarily going to move the year, but they certainly will build momentum over time. And our goal with products like -- with things like the Power Line is to move the business over time. The goal with something like Marine Glo and getting into collagen, which is such an important area, vibrant growing area. Collagen is growing 15% to 20%. It's going to continue to grow at that pace over the next several years. So kind of being in that space and having a relevant position in a high-intensity growth segment like that is very important. And so again, we're going to continue to make sure that we're placing products in the right areas to help us get momentum over time, to help us attract new customers, to help us reactivate consumers, and so I think that's kind of how we think about it, Susan. It really all is about customer acquisition and then getting repeat purchase. And these are the types of products that are very well suited to do that because people want to use them and they do use them every single day so -- on an ongoing basis. So I think we should expect to see the cumulative effect of our innovation and new product development to really make a difference to the business going forward.

L. Shane Jones

Management

And on that, Marine Glo, we actually launched just over a month ago. So it's a fairly new product, doing really well, beating our expectations at this point in time. So excited about the potential that it has. But as Terrence noted, it's not going to drive a huge increase in our numbers right off the bat.

Operator

Operator

There are no further questions at this time. I would hand over the call to Mr. Moorehead for closing remarks. Please go ahead.

Terrence O. Moorehead

Management

Okay. Thank you, Alan. I'd like to thank everybody for listening to today's call, and we look forward to speaking with you when we report our third quarter 2025 results in November. So thanks again for joining us, and have a great day. Take care, everybody.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's teleconference. You may now disconnect, and thank you for your participation.