Flexible Solutions International Inc

AMEX:FSI

Earnings Call Transcript 2024-Q1

[Operator]

Good day, everyone, and welcome to today's Flexible Solutions International First Quarter 2024 financials. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this call is being recorded.

It is now my pleasure to turn the conference over to Mr. Dan O'Brien. Please go ahead.

[Daniel O’Brien, executive]

Thanks, Natalie. Good morning, everyone. This is Dan O'Brien, CEO of Flexible Solutions.

Safe harbor provision. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a safe harbor for forward-looking statements. Certain of the statements contained herein, which are not historical facts, are forward-looking statements with respect to events, the occurrence of which involve risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements may be impacted, either positively or negatively by various factors. Information concerning potential factors that could affect the company is detailed from time to time in the company's reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Welcome to the FSI conference call for Q1 2024. To start, I'd like to discuss our company condition and our product lines, along with what we might -- we think might occur in the remainder of 2024. I will comment on our financials afterwards.

NanoChem division. NCS represents approximately 70% of FSI's revenue. This division makes thermal polyaspartic acid, called TPA for short, a biodegradable polymer with many valuable uses. NCS also manufactures SUN 27 and N Savr 30, which are used to reduce nitrogen fertilizer loss from soil.

In 2022, NCS started food-grade toll operations using the spray dryer we installed over the last several years. TPA is used in agriculture to significantly increase crop yield. It acts by slowing crystal growth between fertilizer ions and other ions in the soil, resulting in the fertilizer remaining available longer for the plant to use.

TPA is a biodegradable way of treating oilfield water to prevent pipes from clogging with mineral scale. Preventing scale keeps the oil recovery pipes from clogging. And TPA is also sold as a biodegradable ingredient in cleaning products, and there's a water treatment chemical.

In our food division, our special version of TPA is sold as a liquid stability aid. SUN 27 and N Savr 30 are nitrogen conservation products. Nitrogen is a critical fertilizer that can be lost through bacterial breakdown, evaporation and soil runoff. SUN 27 is used to conserve nitrogen from attack by soil bacterial enzymes that cause evaporation, while N Savr 30 is effective at reducing nitrogen loss from leaching.

Food products. Our Illinois plant is food-grade qualified, and we've received our FDA certification. We've commercialized one food product based on polyaspartates that we developed fully in-house. This product had weak sales in Q1, which contributed to the underwhelming results for the quarter. However, the customer has indicated their orders for the full year will substantially exceed full year 2023. So the weakness is probably only in a single quarter.

We have a pipeline of additional products in development that has increased during the quarter. NCS now has 5 products. Each were 7-figure revenue potential at the final stages of purchase orders. We believe that purchase orders will be received for at least 2 of these products in 2024.

ENP division. ENP represents most of our other revenue. ENP is focused on sales into the greenhouse, turf and golf markets, while NCS sells into row crop agriculture. We expect some ENP revenue growth in 2024 with the growth concentrated in Q3 and Q4.

Our Florida LLC investment. The LLC was profitable in the first quarter. We were pleased to see much better margins for this investment in Q1, and hope this will continue for the remainder of 2024. The LLC is focused on international sales into multiple countries, all of which face different issues and respond in varied ways. We expect the sales of the LLC to grow again in 2024, leading to a larger profit on our investment.

Agricultural products in the United States are facing resistance from growers to spending on inputs when crop prices are not increasing at the rate of inflation. I think the growth in 2024 is probable, but most of it will be international and recognized through sales to the Florida LLC.

Oil, gas and industrial sales of TPA was stable in Q1, and this is likely to continue throughout 2024.

Food division sales are sure to grow based on our customers' order schedule. They may grow even further if [indiscernible] are received for any of the products in development.

Tariffs. Since 2019, several of our raw materials imported from China have included a 25% tariff. International customers are not charged with tariffs because we've applied for the export rebates available to recover the tariffs. The tariffs are affecting our cost of goods, our cash flow and our profits negatively. Rebates are extremely difficult to obtain even though we are entitled to them. We submitted our initial applications more than 5 years ago. The total dollar amount due back to us is well in excess of $1 million and grows each quarter. We will persevere until we succeed in recovering our funds.

Shipping and inventory. Shipping prices are stable but higher than prior to COVID. Shipping times are reasonable on the routes we use. None of our products or raw materials ship through the Red Sea area. Raw material prices do not appear to be reverting to historic levels. Instead, they are stable and increasing with inflation.

Passing price increases, even small inflation-related ones along the customers, always takes several months and is not always possible. We've raised prices to all customers over the last 6 months, and we're planning to continue this program if we can.

We believe that the sum of the issues we faced last year, which resulted in lower revenue, lower cash flow and lower profits for the full year, have partly resolved. Progress is being made. We've streamlined operations by closing our Naperville R&D facility and moving all the work to our Peru, Illinois building. The exit costs from this action were nearly all taken in Q1, so the benefits will become evident in Q2 and Q3.

Some price increases have been positive, but not enough to recover margins yet. Several new opportunities have been found in the food and nutraceutical market and are proceeding toward revenue in the 2024 year. Therefore, we expect the growth will resume in sales, cash flow and profit for the rest of 2024.

Highlights of the financial results. FSI and its subsidiaries will continue to examine all of our costs and economize where possible. Even more critical is increasing sales in our existing businesses and obtaining sales in the food industry to ensure our wage and other base costs are spread over more revenue dollars. We set the stage for this in Q1 and expect to show incremental success in all of these areas during the course of the 2024 year.

Sales for the quarter. They decreased 6% to $9.2 million compared to $9.8 million in Q1 '23. Profits. Q1 2024 shows a profit of $457,000 or $0.04 a share compared to a profit of $884,000 or $0.07 a share in Q1 2023.

Operating cash flow. This non-GAAP number is useful to show our progress with noncash items removed for clarity. For Q1 2024, it was $1.34 million or $0.11 a share, down from $1.73 million or $0.14 per share in Q1 2023. Long-term debt. We continue to pay down our long-term debt according to the terms of the loans.

Additional factory space in Illinois. In the second quarter 2023, we invested to acquire 80% of an LLC called 317 Mendota, that in turn, purchased a large building on 37 acres of land in Mendota, Illinois. We've determined that 240,000 square feet is available for our use or for rental. The ENP division has moved all operations to 60,000 square feet of this building, and the remaining 180,000 square feet will be rented when suitable tenants are found.

Working capital. It's adequate for all our purposes. We've got lines of credit with Stock Yards Bank for the ENP and NCS subsidiaries. We're confident that we can execute our plans with our existing capital.

The text of this speech will be available as an 8-K filing on www.sec.gov by Friday, May 17. Email or fax copies can be requested from Jason Bloom, [e-mail].

Thank you. The floor is open for questions. Natalie, will you take care of the details of how to do that? Thank you.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions]

Our first question comes from Tim Clarkson with Van Clemens.

[Timothy Clarkson, analyst]

Dan, it looks like things are turning around. In terms of if you're going to rate the products in terms of potential, in terms of improving profitability and you're going to rate them 1, 2, 3, what would be the 3 products that you're most excited about right now?

[Daniel O’Brien, executive]

All 3 of them would be in the food division. Let me see what I can disclose. First is the one that we're guaranteed, the liquid stability agent made from polyaspartates. It's first because we know we've got that additional revenue coming this year. Second would be a product in the field of personal nutritional health for a fairly large company. And third would be a second product for the same company, also in the field of personal nutritional health. And I guess by personal nutritional health, what I'm talking about is vitamins and...

[Timothy Clarkson, analyst]

Sure. Would you say these products have reasonably good margins?

[Daniel O’Brien, executive]

The margins are in the 35% to 45% range. So those are, what I would call, excellent for our industries.

[Operator]

Our next question comes from William Gregozeski with Greenridge Global.

[William Gregozeski, analyst]

On the accounts receivable, those were up around $13 million in the Florida LLC, making up a good chunk of that. Is there any reason for that number rising? And any concern about collectability?

[Daniel O’Brien, executive]

Collectability, no. We're very comfortable. We've also seen that the LLC is recovering the margins to the best of their ability. I haven't got a specific answer for you for the increase, but I suspect that there was a bolus of sales in the last month, and that LLC has a 60-day terms. So it wouldn't take very much to cross a quarter to distort it or not. Well, I don't know if you'd even call it distorted, but to change it upwards, which would then result in the next quarter it changing downwards. So I don't see a reason for concern. I would call it just cutoff point noise.

[William Gregozeski, analyst]

Okay. On the tariff, I know we've been talking about that for a long time. Is there any sense of you guys, when you might start getting something back or if you'll get something back?

[Daniel O’Brien, executive]

Well, the if answer is we intend even if we have to use legal, even if we have to sue the federal government, we're going to get that money back because it's just simply criminally unfair to offer a rebate program and then don't let people access it.

In terms of when, as you know, it's been 5 years. We don't carry it on our books as anything. So it's not distorting our financials, but it sure is irritating to people who come to work every day and do our job, kind of expect the federal government to do the same.

[William Gregozeski, analyst]

Okay. You mentioned the first food product that you have sales for now should be up substantially this year compared to last year. Can you give a sense for what those sales were last year or what you're looking for this year?

[Daniel O’Brien, executive]

It's probably going to be an increase between $1 million and $2 million in gross bonds.

[William Gregozeski, analyst]

Okay. Great. And then with the other products, you talked about the 5 other...

[Technical Difficulty]

[Operator]

Mr. Gregozeski, did we lose you?

[Daniel O’Brien, executive]

Yes, it's not me. It's definitely Mr. Gregozeski.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions]

It appears that we have no further questions at this time, Mr. O'Brien.

[Daniel O’Brien, executive]

Thank you, Natalie. Please close the meeting, and I will contact Mr. Gregozeski because I know him personally. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you. This does conclude today's conference. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect at any time.