Eddie Ingle
Analyst · Sidoti & Company
Thanks, Al, and good morning, everyone. As Al mentioned, our third quarter fiscal 2021 results surpassed our initial expectations and are a testament to our strong global presence and the resilience of both our employees and our business model. This quarter would not have been possible without the many contributions from our employees, and I want to once again thank all of our team members for their dedication to the business and especially to our customers. Their compliance to the safety measures we put in place over a year ago has allowed us to maintain low COVID case numbers, while continuing to operate our business effectively and navigate a recovery. On slide three, we have provided an overview of the quarter. The business demonstrated another quarter of significant strength, and I'm very happy to report we exceeded pre-pandemic revenue levels. Q3 revenues were up 10% sequentially and 5% on a year-over-year basis, with solid performance across all segments and geographies. We generated a 530 basis point improvement in gross margin year-over-year due to the strong results we saw in our Brazil and Asia segments. Brazil had the strongest segment performance during the third quarter, and momentum in that region continued well past Q2 as improved selling prices and product availability during Brazil's economic recovery led to strong margin performance. Our Asia segment's also demonstrated strength during Q3 as volumes continued to trend up year-over-year, experiencing a meaningful return to growth. Our team in Asia has continued to successfully manage cost and improve product mix, allowing for gross margin expansion. In regards to the U.S. raw material costs and supply chain, the March 2021 quarter was the most volatile period we've seen in quite a few years. Many people and businesses in Texas experienced harsh weather conditions in February, but we were fortunate that our supply chain remained operational, albeit with surcharges on selected input materials and freight. Combination with rising petrochemical prices, our raw material costs exhibited a meaningful step-up during the March 2021 quarter. With those higher costs now in our business, we have been working closely with our customers to ensure that the appropriate selling price adjustments are implemented. We do expect some margin pressure to occur into Q4 from the inherent lag that occurs during such a process. However, we do remain confident in our underlying business momentum and our responsiveness in addressing these cost headwinds. Stepping back to the consolidated business, again, our financial position remains strong and easily supported the two bolt-on acquisitions we completed in the fiscal 2021. In addition, I am proud of the progress we've made with improving our balance sheet across the globe. Switching to REPREVE-branded Fiber. I am pleased to report that momentum remains, comprising 33% of net sales in this Q3 -- in Q3 versus 29% for the year ago quarter. And as you can see on slide four, the trend remains strong. Sequentially, REPREVE Fiber was lower than our record Q2 performance, and this is not a concern due to the typical seasonality of the Chinese New Year and the outperformance by Brazil's predominantly virgin platform. We have several exciting brand highlights to touch on today, starting with our traditional co-branding partnerships which have continued to accelerate. Realtree launched their new fishing shirts at Walmart, which contained REPREVE and carry the iconic REPREVE green bottle hang tag. In addition, EleVen, a brand by Venus Williams, launched a women's tennis coat collection that co-brands with REPREVE. These launches represent an extension of REPREVE into broader sporting goods categories. In the home goods category, we continue to win new business and launched several programs this quarter. Our customer, Marina's carpets, a Turkish producer and retailer of carpeting, launched a line of carpeting made from REPREVE. And additionally in the U.S., Rollease Acmeda launched Ambient Renew, a new line of eco-friendly window coverings using REPREVE in the place of PVC. From a marketing and media perspective, we had a remarkable few months working with various partners to promote REPREVE's sustainability benefits for them and, of course, for society. For example, you may have caught the television ads that feature REPREVE during the Phoenix Open Golf tournament, created by the newly rebranded WM, formerly known as Waste Management. WM is a major supplier of bailed recycled plastic bottles used in our U.S. bottle washing facility and announced in February that they will be outfitting their staff with uniforms made from REPREVE via our customers, Aramark and Cintas. In addition to being our customer, WM is working on additional rebounding campaigns, which will continue to feature REPREVE and Unifi as a strategic sustainable partner who enables recycling. WM will continue to air 30-second commercials on national television that feature how Unifi's U.S.-based manufacturing transforms recycled plastics. It also mentioned that through our partnership with L2 Brands and Pepsi's sponsorship of the Super Bowl halftime show, t-shirts made with REPREVE were provided a surprise for Pepsi's social media followers. In March, our sponsorship of the Pac-12 Team Green resulted in additional television advertising on the Pac-12 network and ESPN, with circular economy stories that explain how we take bottles from many university campuses and transform them into well-known branded apparel that can be purchased from their university bookstores. We believe that telling these stories will enhance REPREVE equity and brand awareness in the broader consumer market. Our momentum continues to build and partnerships such as these have propelled REPREVE's growth. This quarter, we hit a milestone of 25 billion bottles recycled into REPREVE. This growth led us to congratulate our valued customers who drove us to this point, with the announcement of our fourth annual Champions of Sustainability Awards in March. These awards celebrate bottle cap milestones achieved by our customers as well as newcomers and partners and innovation. Now, turning to our operating segment performance during the third quarter. I will provide some high-level commentary on each segment before Craig takes you through more specific details. Polyester came a little lower on a year-over-year basis, and the shortfall can be attributed to last year's ramp-up in demand as antidumping volumes drove strong utilization and sales trends just prior to the impact of COVID-19. That said, over the last nine months, the Polyester segment has shown strength, achieving a gross margin of 10% during the pandemic versus 8.2% in the prior pre-pandemic comparable period. The Asia segment delivered another strong quarter as business conditions continued to improve and net sales surpassed pre-pandemic levels. Volumes in Asia were up significantly and benefited from pull-through on new and existing customer programs. With Brazil, as Al noted, had another record-setting quarter and beat our own internal forecast. Similar to the outperformance we experienced in the region during the first and second quarter, our unique market position has continued to allow us to take market share that was previously held by competitive importers. Our team in Brazil continues to do great work and has been able to capture even more unfulfilled demand. We will work to hold on to our market share gains within the region, but note that the COVID-19 knockdowns that lasted from late March into April are expected to impact volumes in the June 2021 quarter. With that said, as Brazil worked its way out of the recent spike in COVID-19 cases and the country's retail environment opens back up in the coming months, we anticipate that volumes will ramp back up to normal levels during the first quarter of our new fiscal year. Lastly, the Nylon segment performance met our expectations for the quarter, reflecting a balanced sales level. Now before I pass the call over to Craig, I will simply remind everyone that our ongoing trade petitions, involving textured polyester yarn imported from four countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam continue as expected. We anticipate further determinations will be published in the next two months. With that, I will turn the call over to Craig. Craig?