Turning Point Brands, Inc. (TPB) Q1 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Good morning, and welcome to the Turning Point Brands First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Andrew Flynn, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead, sir.

Good morning, everyone. Earlier today, we issued a press release covering our first quarter results available in the Investor Relations section of our website at www.turningpointbrands.com. During this call, we'll discuss consolidated and segment operating results, the operating environment and our progress against our strategic plan. Before we begin, please refer to forward-looking statements and risk factors in our press release and SEC filings. We'll also reference certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations and explanations are included in today's earnings release. With that, I'll turn the call over to our CEO, Graham Purdy.

Thanks, Andrew. Good morning, everybody, and thank you for joining our call. We started the year with strong momentum, led by accelerating growth in Modern Oral with gross and net sales up 167% and 133% year-over-year and 30% and 26% sequentially. These results are driven by ongoing growth in both brands' D2C platforms, FRE early expansion into larger, higher-volume chain accounts and [indiscernible] very early move into bricks and mortar. In the quarter, Modern Oral accounted for 42% of our total revenue, up from 21% in Q1 2025. Before we dive into details of the quarter, I want to step back and frame the opportunity in front of Turning point brands. We believe we are in the midst of a greater than $50 billion generational shift in nicotine consumption, and we are positioning the business to capture meaningful share of nicotine users in this evolving high-barrier category. We are strengthening that position through foundational investments in our sales force, marketing and commercial capabilities. These investments are critical to building a durable growth platform that can scale into a leading player in the post-cigarette nicotine market over time. While this infrastructure will ultimately allow us to compete across the modern nicotine ecosystem, our priority today is clear: winning in nicotine pouches. We believe the nicotine pouch category is still in its nascent stages of development and can become the dominant revenue and profit driver of the company over time. As we've said before, we expect the market to consolidate around a limited number of scaled brands, and we are increasingly confident that FRE and ALP will be among them. Our confidence is grounded in execution. We continue to see encouraging consumer response across both FRE and ALP, supported by product quality, brand positioning and repeat purchasing behavior. Our outsized share of direct-to-consumer sales, coupled with our continued market share gains in bricks and mortar are evidence that our plan is working in the early innings. Based on our Q1 performance, we believe our results captured mid-single-digit category share of both gross and net sales, giving confidence that we are on track to achieve our long-term goal of double-digit market share by the end of the decade. We are using that momentum to build scale across channels. FRE Continues to expand in the larger regional and national convenience chains. while ALP has moved from a strong direct-to-consumer base into retail faster than we originally expected. We've had several notable chain wins, driving confidence in our growth. We expect our chain store count to increase 70% by the end of 2026 versus the prior year. As you know, we are building an operational foundation to further support scale in Modern Oral. Commissioning our Louisville manufacturing facility is an important step in localizing production, improving supply control and reducing freight and tariff exposure over time. As we build production, we expect that work to strengthen unit economics and support margin improvement as domestic inventory moves through the P&L. At scale, we believe our margins should approach 70% in this category by the end of the decade. We also continue to invest in the commercial infrastructure needed to support growth, including sales force expansion, chain account support, enhanced consumer visibility and manufacturing capabilities. In 2026, we plan to continue investing in our sales force and marketing to secure chain placement, build brand awareness and support our growing distribution footprint. Based on achieving our sales and financial objectives, we expect total sales and marketing investment for the year to range from $80 million to $105 million. Given the strong gross sales growth we have experienced, we are confident that these investments will provide attractive returns for investors over the long term. In short, we are making front-loaded investments in a category where acquiring brand-oriented adult consumers can drive repeat purchasing and strong margins over extended periods. Over time, we believe our investments in physical execution, particularly sales force expansion, distribution support and retail presence will become a more important source of competitive advantage. Overall, we are encouraged by the momentum we are seeing, the progress we are making and the platform we are building to scale profitably. With that, I'll hand the call over to Summer to walk through the progress of our key go-to-market initiatives.

Thank you, Graham, and good morning, everyone. I'll focus my comments on our go-to-market execution in the nicotine pouch segment. This remains our top commercial priority. And as we scale the business, we continue to benefit from the strength of our legacy distribution relationships and broader commercial capabilities. Our strategy is to build demand across both online and retail channels with retail expansion as the key lever to scale the business. To support that effort, we are investing in sales coverage, merchandising support and brand-building programs to help us win distribution and improve in-store execution. That includes securing the right assortment, shelf placement and visibility to support trial, repeat purchase and long-term performance. These investments support both near-term execution and the broader foundation we need to scale the business. In the first quarter, we made progress against that plan. We secured new wins across critical top chain convenience stores that will expand distribution across our portfolio. Our brands are designed to resonate with distinct consumers, and we will continue to promote the expansion of both FRE and ALP into retail stores. We believe our brand credibility, market performance and ongoing marketing support were important drivers of those wins. While nicotine pouch gross sales grew nearly 500% in 2025, we still have meaningful room to build brand awareness relative to category leaders. Our early strategy was to establish distribution first using our existing retailer relationships to build a strong retail foundation. With the progress we made in 2025 and the additional distribution we have secured, we believe we are now at a point where increased brand investment can drive stronger returns. Over time, that should improve consumer awareness, support retail productivity and increase the value of the nicotine pouch opportunity. Accordingly, we are investing aggressively in brand building to support future scale. Last month, we announced a partnership between 3 and 6 TKO properties, including UFC, Zuffa Boxing and PBR. This expansion is a result of the demand and brand alignment success we validated through our initial partnership with PBR, which started in May of last year. We believe this broader platform will help accelerate brand awareness and consumer engagement with adult consumers. We are off to a solid start, already having executed a few events since the announcement, and we'll share more as the partnership unfolds. Building on ALP's success in direct-to-consumer, this was the first quarter that TPB sales organization started to sell ALP on retail shelf. We began with a manageable launch and expect to incrementally add stores this year through our new chain account wins. While it's early innings, we are encouraged by the initial results. With regards to Zig-Zag, we continued executing against our core brand pillars, strengthening the core business while scaling new product innovation and expanding brand presence in target markets. We accelerated growth in new products, including Natural Leaf Flat Wraps by expanding retail distribution through targeted merchandising programs. At the same time, we are growing brand awareness with a focus on under-indexed markets through integrated marketing campaigns and in-store activations that embodies Zig-Zag's new Life's Fast, Burn Slow tagline. Overall, we are seeing encouraging early proof points across both brand building and retail expansion, and we believe that progress positions the nicotine pouch segment to become a major contributor to growth over time. Let me now turn the call over to Andrew to go through our financial results.

Thank you, Summer. Starting with consolidated results. Sales were up 17% year-over-year to $124.3 million for the quarter. Growth was driven primarily by Modern Oral. Gross profit of $68.3 million increased 14.6%, driven by Modern Oral. Gross margin was 55%, which was down 100 basis points versus last year. Reported SG&A was $55.8 million for the quarter, which was up $8 million sequentially. The increase was driven primarily by our nicotine white pouch investments, including approximately $1 million of incremental spend tied to expansion of our sales force. We also spent approximately $7 million on increased marketing investment and broader brand-building initiatives. Adjusted EBITDA was $25.9 million for the quarter at a 20.8% margin, which exceeded the midpoint of the guidance. This was primarily attributed to accelerated growth in Modern Oral, offset by our strategy to increase sales and marketing investment and softness in Zig-Zag. Stoker's segment net sales increased 48% year-over-year to $88 million for the quarter. The Stoker's segment now accounts for 70% of consolidated net sales. Regarding Modern Oral, I want to briefly address our disclosure of gross sales. Because most contra revenue investments relate to slotting-related distribution fees, we believe both gross and net sales provide the clearest view of underlying business performance. Support of our growth investments, Modern Oral nicotine pouch net sales [ free and out ] were up 133% year-over-year, achieving net revenue of $52 million. Gross revenue was $69 million, up 167% year-over-year. For the quarter, Modern Oral accounted for 42% of consolidated net sales, up from 21% a year ago. Legacy Stoker's brands net revenue decreased 3.5% year-over-year to $36 million for the quarter, driven by continued share growth in MST that was partially offset by anticipated declines in loose leaf. Stoker's gross profit increased 39% to $47 million. Gross margin decreased 350 basis points to 54% due largely to the impact of tariffs. Zig-Zag segment net sales were down 22% year-over-year to $36.7 million for the quarter. For the quarter, Zig-Zag gross profit decreased 18% to $20.9 million and gross margin was 57.1%, which was up 300 basis points versus last year. First quarter free cash flow was negative $27.4 million, reflective of our investments in trade and brand marketing programs as well as working capital and U.S. manufacturing CapEx. We ended the quarter with $192.4 million of cash. Our expectation is to be approximately cash flow breakeven for the remainder of the year. Our capital allocation approach remains disciplined and aligned with the opportunity we see in nicotine pouch. As we invest behind growth initiatives, the timing of those investments and the timing of their benefits may not always align evenly within a given quarter. That reflects our effort to position the business to capture incremental share in a category with substantial long-term annuity value. Today, we are increasing full year 2026 Modern Oral guidance. We now expect gross sales of $280 million to $300 million, up from a previous range of $220 million to $240 million and net sales of $210 million to $225 million, up from our previous range of $180 million to $190 million. Implied gross revenue growth at the midpoint is 83.7%. We are also introducing full year EBITDA guidance of $70 million to $90 million, inclusive of increased nicotine pouch investments in sales force expansion, merchandising support and consumer marketing. For modeling purposes, we expect the effective income tax rate to be 23% to 26% on a go-forward basis. Budgeted 2026 CapEx is $4 million to $5 million, excluding projects related to Modern Oral, and we expect to spend an additional $3 million to $5 million this year to support our PMTAs. Additionally, as we focus on strengthening our market presence, we expect to spend between $80 million to $105 million to expand our sales force and bolster our marketing strategy in 2026. As we continue to scale, we expect the overall cost structure of the business to become more efficient. Many investments we are making today, [ slotting ] related, brand building and go-to-market spend are tied to building distribution and driving initial trial and growth of our products. As our consumer base grows, these costs should become a smaller percentage of sales. Now let me turn it to Graham.

Thanks, Andrew. We are encouraged by the momentum we see in the business and by the progress we are making against our strategy. As I said at the outset, we believe we are in the midst of a generational shift in nicotine consumption, and we believe Turning point is uniquely positioned to capture meaningful share in that transition. Our focus remains on winning in Modern Oral by investing in the brands, commercial capabilities and infrastructure needed to scale. We are seeing continued proof points in both consumer traction and distribution growth, and we believe that positions us well to build a meaningful and profitable business over time. And with that, I'll turn it over to questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question today will come from Eric Des Lauriers from Craig-Hallum Capital Group.

Congrats on the strong results. Very encouraging to see nicotine pouch sales reaccelerating into Q1 here. So you raised guidance for Modern Oral net sales by about $30 million and then gross sales by about $60 million. So suggesting a big increase in contra revenues with these national chain wins. How did these wins announced today compared to your expectations coming into the year? Have you won more chains than initially expected? And any national chains that we should expect both FRE and ALP? Or is it mostly FRE right now?

Great question. Thanks, Eric. We were really, really excited about the springtime negotiations that we worked through over the past few months. As Graham noted in his comments, we expect our store count to increase by nearly 70% by the end of the year. I think as you know, every chain account is different. So we're currently in the process of determining the rollout schedule and the doors will come online over the balance of the year. Where we have opportunities to bring both brands in, we will. So you'll hear more about that as the year rolls out, and we're encouraged and excited about the success that we had over the past few months.

Yes. No, it certainly sounds very exciting. And I guess, Summer, you touched on this in your answer there. And maybe it's just sort of, we'll see over the next couple of quarters. But how should we think about the timing from these wins? When should we expect to see them on shelves? And then how should we think about the sort of impact on gross versus net sales? Should we look for net sales to sort of pick up from these in the back half? Or is that more of a 2027 thing?

Yes. I'll answer the first part, and then I'll turn it to Andrew to answer the second part. But you'll start seeing some of these chain wins roll out over the next few weeks. But as the progress of rolling out these chains requires resets of fixtures and different dynamics that they're sorting out with getting everything situated in store, it just takes time. So you'll see those stores sort of fill out across the balance of the year, but I'll turn it to Andrew to explain how we thought about the dollar impact.

Yes. As we think about the net sales trajectory over the course of the year, we would expect to see some pickup in the back half as it relates to the modern oral category.

All very encouraging. Congrats again on the strong results.

Thanks, Eric.

Your next question comes from Ian Zaffino from Oppenheimer.

Great guidance on that [ DMO ] side. So question would be on the PMTA process. How is that going? I know there's articles about that. And any kind of change in discussions there or thoughts about getting kind of final approval? And then how are you thinking about the Louisville plant, which I guess they're kind of [indiscernible].

Yes. Great question, Ian. Look, the PMTA process is -- it's a rigorous scientific process. We're not surprised by the timing, to be frank. And our approach is, we respect the process and any additional commentary around sort of where we're at on that [indiscernible] probably wouldn't be appropriate at this time. In terms of Louisville manufacturing, we're threading a bit of a needle here with respect to the PMTA process, and scaling our infrastructure here in Louisville. We've made really great progress relative to laying down the infrastructure to support manufacturing here in Louisville. We've certainly got equipment in Louisville, and we feel really good about where we're at from a throughput on those machines in the early innings.

Okay. And then I guess maybe a question for Summer is when you're going to market portfolio, I guess you now have a newly expanded portfolio. And so how are you going to market? Are you going to market as far as 3 being your higher nicotine pouches and ALP being your lower nicotine pouches? Is that the strategy? And also, can you maybe talk about this portfolio -- expanded portfolio, which has significantly more SKUs, how that's resonating with retailers bringing them incremental SKUs? And any other kind of color you could give us maybe about the maybe synergistic effects of having those 2 brands together?

Yes, sure. So I would say the retailers, our consumers and our sales organization are all very excited about us having both brands in the portfolio and in the sales bag to bring to market. And what's been great about both of these brands is that they've built a strong base with consumers, especially ALP, they've created a really strong D2C presence, and there was some pent-up demand at retail that we were really able to start leveraging. And as these brands are being put into market, we're really thinking about the end consumer. So while the product itself is important and they certainly have their differences, what's resonating with retail, what's resonating with consumers is that these brands are really focused on 2 very distinct consumer bases. There is room in this category for both brands to win, and we've seen some really encouraging early results as we've been bringing them to market.

Next up is Nick Anderson from ROTH Capital Partners.

Congrats on the quarter. First for me, just on the rising fuel price environment, have you seen any impact on [ C-store ] visits or consumer behavior? Tobacco is typically more resilient when it comes to higher fuel prices. Are you seeing the same trend emerge within nicotine pouches? Just any discernible changes [indiscernible] would be helpful.

I think given the backdrop of our results, we feel really good about sort of where we're at today with the consumer. As Summer had mentioned in the last question with Ian, we're really focused in on building brand equities, building brand identity and really winning on the premium front over the long haul. We view the fuel prices as transient. We think where we generally see that more so is in the heritage businesses. And I think what's an interesting aspect of that, historically, consumers tend to not move out of the categories. They tend to look for more value. And I think we feel very well positioned with our Stoker's heritage products with respect to spiking gas prices.

Great. That's helpful. Second for me, just on the retail landscape. With the momentum from TKO and brand awareness obviously ticking higher here, have you seen a different appetite for [indiscernible] to change the carry FRE and ALP? As brand recognition grows, I would assume your negotiations should become smoother, but any color there would be helpful.

Great question. We are really excited about the TKO deal. As you know, we invested in PBR last year. We learned a lot, and that gave us some momentum to build upon because I think having this TKO deal really has us show up as a credible partner that's investing for the long term to win with our brands. And so certainly, while it's early, it has been part of the conversation with retail. We've seen some early consumer excitement. We have some events under our belts and more to come as that partnership unfolds, but encouraged about the credibility it brings to us and sort of the proof point that comes to the table of us being a brand and a company that's investing in the long term here.

The next question is from Gerald Pascarelli, Needham & Company.

This is Jack on for Gerald. You've [indiscernible] EBITDA guidance obviously implies a decline relative to last year, which at this point, I think is well understood, but the range is pretty wide. So could you just kind of go through some assumptions that get you to the high end versus the low end?

Sure thing. So look, what's driving the EBITDA guide is, as we discussed, we've got big investments in terms of sales force, retail distribution as well as marketing spend. And so those are the big drivers of the year-over-year change. Also, as you know, our freight -- our outbound freight costs are captured in SG&A. That's also up on a year-over-year basis. And so what's kind of driving the range here is, one, the biggest driver is our ability to get that spending and what we will spend on in the future. And so that spending is dependent on what we see in terms of sales because we'll be able to pivot if needed. And we're being judicious about that investment. And so as we monitor it, we may make some changes. So that's really the reason for the guide. And also, there could be a real upside opportunity in terms of the TKO agreement that we just launched, this is very new. And also some of these chain wins are also very new, and that can provide a very large upside for us as well.

Okay. That's helpful. And then for the UFC sponsorship, it looks like it can be pretty transformative. It's incremental to your OpEx outlook relative to last time you presented. So as we kind of look forward, is there the potential for Turning Point to enter into some more of these sponsorships? And then if so, can that imply another leg down on EBITDA? Or do you think the low end is the floor at this point?

I'll take the first part of that question, and Andrew may want to chime in on the dollar aspect. But as you know, investing in TKO is a bet for us, we're really excited about. We are also doing other marketing activities, other consumer engagement building activities like with [ motor sports ] and other avenues. And so I think to Andrew's point, we will invest prudently as we go and make changes as we may need to, but excited about the awareness opportunity this gives for the brands, and I'll turn it to Andrew on the dollar aspect.

Yes. In terms of what that may mean for the low end of guidance, as I said before, we're going to be judicious about our spending. And so if something makes sense for us to gain incremental market share, we will do that. And so that's really how we think about these opportunities.

And everyone, at this time, there are no further questions. I'd like to hand the conference back to Mr. Graham Purdy for any additional or closing remarks.

Thanks, operator. I really want to thank everybody for joining the call today. Look, in closing, I think, ultimately, I want to emphasize a couple of points to our investors. For one, I've been in this industry for -- I'm closing in on my 30th year, and I can't tell you how excited I am about the opportunity in front of us with the generational transformation that we spoke of earlier in the script. And what -- how TPB fits into that long term, I think, is incredibly exciting. The Modern Oral opportunity, it's real. It's gaining momentum. I think you're seeing early progress from our company that across our D2C platforms and progress we're making in bricks and mortar gives us a lot of enthusiasm around where we're at in terms of harvesting that long-term opportunity. As Andrew mentioned, our investments in this category are going to be incredibly disciplined and ultimately tied to our sales objectives in this category. And I think lastly, the heritage business for us is still very important. It provides strong cash flows for the company, and it gives us cash flow to invest in the future and ultimately harvest the opportunity that we see in front of us. So it's really exciting times at Turning Point Brands. And with that, I'll sort of close by saying, I look forward to talking to you all in a few months here and updating against our progress against the plan. So thank you so much for joining.

Once again, everyone, that does conclude today's conference. We would like to thank you all for your participation. You may now disconnect.