NASDAQ:POWW AMMO Q4 2023 Earnings Report $1.47 -0.06 (-3.92%) Closing price 04:00 PM EasternExtended Trading$1.49 +0.02 (+1.63%) As of 04:19 PM Eastern Extended trading is trading that happens on electronic markets outside of regular trading hours. This is a fair market value extended hours price provided by Polygon.io. Learn more. ProfileEarnings HistoryForecast AMMO EPS ResultsActual EPS$0.02Consensus EPS $0.03Beat/MissMissed by -$0.01One Year Ago EPSN/AAMMO Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$43.68 millionExpected Revenue$37.20 millionBeat/MissBeat by +$6.48 millionYoY Revenue GrowthN/AAMMO Announcement DetailsQuarterQ4 2023Date6/14/2023TimeN/AConference Call DateWednesday, June 14, 2023Conference Call Time5:00PM ETUpcoming EarningsAMMO's Q2 2025 earnings is scheduled for Thursday, June 12, 2025Conference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptPress Release (8-K)Annual Report (10-K)Earnings HistoryCompany ProfilePowered by AMMO Q4 2023 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrJune 14, 2023 ShareLink copied to clipboard.There are 9 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Good afternoon, and welcome to the AMMO, Inc. Full Fiscal Year 2023 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Operator00:00:31Participants of this call are advised that the audio of this conference call is being broadcast live over the Internet and is also being recorded for playback purposes. I would now like to turn the call over to Matt Blasey of CORE IR, the company's Investor Relations firm. Please go ahead, sir. Speaker 100:00:52Good Good afternoon, and thank you for participating in today's conference call. Joining me from AMMO's leadership team are Fred Wagenhals, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jared Smith, President and Chief Operating Officer and Rob Wylie, Chief Financial Officer. During this call, management will be making forward looking statements, including statements that address Amo's expectations for future performance or operational results. Forward looking statements involve risks and other factors Factors described in AMLO's most recently filed periodic reports on Form 10 ks and Form 10 Q, the Form 8 ks filed with the SEC today and the company's press release that accompanies this call, particularly the cautionary statements in it. Today's conference call includes non GAAP financial measures For a reconciliation of this non GAAP financial measure to net loss to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure, please see the reconciliation table located in the company's earnings press release. Speaker 100:02:02The content of this call contains time sensitive information that is accurate only as of today, June 14, 2023. Except as required by law, AmOne disclaims any obligation to publicly update or revise any information to reflect events or circumstances that occur after this call. It It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Fred Wagenhals, Chairman and CEO of AML Inc. Speaker 200:02:24Thank you, and good afternoon. I appreciate everyone joining for our Q4 fiscal 2023 earnings call. I would like to start this call by acknowledging all the hard work of our employees and the patience of our investors as we continue to navigate through a very challenging environment over the past year. While it's been challenging period for all of us and the market in general, I firmly believe we have laid is the foundation for the next great growth cycle for our company. I'm going to take a few minutes to highlight a few of these initiatives and then hand the call over to Jared to discuss these in more detail. Speaker 200:03:12During the past Few quarters of global and U. S. Economy downturn, which has impacted our market as well, We have been hard at work transitioning our customer base toward longer term strategic clients, while also positioning the company as long term supplier of pistol and brass casings to OEM in international markets. As the ammunition market normalizes, we will also continue our Penetration into higher margin niche markets with our proprietary technology. See expansion of our international market and continue to press forward on our exciting government work. Speaker 200:04:07This pivot in strategic was designed to substantially improve the profitability of our pistol, rifle and brass sales, while also reducing our working capital needed and improving the balance sheet. We are confident With these changes along with the significantly greater capacity at our state of the art manufacturing Wisconsin facility, We will put us in an excellent position to rapidly improve profitability as we execute in the coming quarters. Moving now to gunbroker.com. While brick and mortar retailers have suffered from the significantly decrease in revenue and foot traffic, ourgunbroker.comrevenueandprofitabilityhasremainedsteady throughout the past fiscal year. We believe this has been a function of improving customer acquisition tools significantly upgrading our targeting, marketing and better overall customer experience, which the team has spent a lot of time and effort in enhancing in every material way. Speaker 200:05:29As I have discussed on previous calls, we have undertaken a number of initiatives over past year to enhance the gunbroker.com platform, including carding and credit cards, Processing capability, which are preparing to roll out as we continue the necessary and critical beta testing. Meanwhile, the massive layoffs seen in the technology industry has allowed us to expand our development capabilities as we have leveraged the increased availability of skilled workers to add We started the company in 2016 with a vision and mission to innovate and capture a meaningful share of the ammunition market, picking our spots for acquisitions, staying focused on always improving manufacturing operations, all while working to bring our customers the product they desire. We have grown by leaps and bounds in these short 7 plus years and I am proud of the future going forward, but there is much work left to be done and we now have the team assembled to meet these challenges. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Jarrett Smith, AMMO's President and COO. He will discuss these initiatives in more detail, review the current state of operations and what we believe the future has in store for AMMO, its team and our shareholders. Speaker 300:07:34Thank you, Fred. Good afternoon, everyone. This is my second time addressing you on an earnings call as President and COO. And in these last 5 months, I have seen transformative change here at ammo. I join Fred in thanking our employees for making these changes possible. Speaker 300:07:48Their dedication and wealth of Before I dig into the business, our team and shareholders must take a look at our balance sheet. We ended our fiscal year with $39,100,000 in cash, have limited debt and generated $35,500,000 in cash from operations over the past 12 months. We are well prepared for this With the company repositioning its operations, we are ready to meet this new market head on. Our sales and margins are down from 2022. We have retooled our factory and changed our go to market approach for both the ammunition and gunbroker.com divisions. Speaker 300:08:282023 and the first half of twenty twenty four will be a challenging year for this industry. Markets normalized, shelves are restocked and our customers are once again looking for value as they tighten their belts. To thrive in this environment, we must create opportunities in the marketplace to build long term relationships and communicate the value and strength of our platform and products. I first want to focus on execution concerning the major process changes we have implemented, which may seem simple in nature, but provide a major lift for a young and emerging company. These process improvements are essential in a tightening market and are a requirement for repeatable margin growth during the continuing headwinds this sector faces. Speaker 300:09:10We've spent late nights and countless weekends developing these processes, programs and new products to take this market head on. Operationally, we have developed ourselves and operating model, enhanced ourselves and market forecast, tightened our purchasing plans, shortened feedback loops and continue with cost out initiatives that will keep us lean and competitive in the quarters ahead. We have also aligned the execution of those plans to project management principles that will allow us to continue to monitor our execution and delivery on these key principles. Finally, we continue to add talent to our team and grow our people and in turn our performance. Let me talk a minute about gunbroker.com. Speaker 300:09:51Goodbroker.com is about managing and establishing trust. The buyer trusting the experience of buying a new or used firearm online without first handling it, trusting the experience that a firearm will be shipped to the FFO undamaged and in a timely manner and following all the necessary state and federal regulations. The seller must trust that the funds settle accurately and in a timely manner and they must trust that the transferring FSL will handle the firearm transfer experience professionally for their customer. For non firearm purchases, Trust must exist that the product being delivered is in the same condition as noted in the listing by the seller and that the quick payment upon bidding or buying the selected item. It is that trust that we are building upon today, a trust that our community does not give or take lightly and our developers and managers recognize that we must get it right. Speaker 300:10:43As we've discussed in the past with the onboarding of credit card processing and Cardi, This platform will change, streamline and expedite processes within the systems and we must do everything in our power to ensure that we keep the trust of this community. To ensure that we continue to bring value, we must provide new tools and advancements that empower buyers and sellers with a deeper level of engagement within the community. The first major advancement was from a universal to a unique approach in our marketing campaigns. We shifted to an in house team that in metrics as buyers discover new sellers on the platform around these personalized and self selected genres. We are aware of no other competitor in our space that possesses and deploys this data in this method. Speaker 300:11:39This has resulted in 126 targeted unique customer personas that are curated and used in banner and email campaigns that direct traffic back to those curated items by our sellers. This campaign also generates 1,500,000 emails daily to an active and engaged audience segmented from an overall list of 3,500,000 opt in subscribers. The second major advancement was from a reactive to a proactive approach and customer service, seller engagement and industry relationships. By restructuring customer service and adding product specialist, we have unified our outreach to both the seller and buyer community, leading to better navigation within the platform. We have accelerated customer response time and significantly increased our satisfaction ratings. Speaker 300:12:30The 3rd major advancement of our marketplace was enabling buy now links for manufacturer sites and manufacturer stores within gunbroker.com, which are fulfilled by our sellers' inventories. We've also recognized and helped draw out one of the core strengths of the marketplace, which as sellers can exceed normal industry margins on rare, highly sought after and collectible goods through the auction process. This book has become clear to our seller community and has become a source of much talk and something we will continue to educate our user base on through a new podcast launching in July. This podcast will be filled with conversations around fun facts, demystifying consumer selling and buying and historical relevance of the products that can be found on gunboker.com. We're also very excited to announce the newest member of our management team, industry veteran Alan Faulkner, Vice President of Public Relations and Brand Management. Speaker 300:13:24In this role, Alan will help bring awareness and attention to gunboker.com and the ever growing number of programs and services it with the past 2 years focused on the strategic planning and development of what is now being deployed, bringing a whole new breadth of services and opportunities to the platform and its users. I'd now like to transition to Ammo Inc. In the ammunition division. Despite the current recessionary and inflationary macroeconomic effect, the ammunition division still benefits from geopolitical events and conflicts that you read in the news today. Demand for our brass lines is growing and the word is getting out there that ammo, Inc. Speaker 300:14:10Is open for business and has significant capacity for its growing customer base. We are securing new foreign and domestic contracts for rifle and pistol breast just as we anticipated and our international clientele will contractual supplies that will carry them through the next election cycle versus being cut off when the domestic market rebounds here in the U. S. To make these opportunities a reality, we had to go back to the drawing board and clear out our cabinets, purge our old inventories and lean out our profit fees. We've reduced our working capital requirements and continue to work through slow moving inventory that clutters the mine and the factory floor. Speaker 300:14:49Our continuous improvement projects will create an even leaner operating model in the months ahead as we process through the material after the consolidation of our 2 facilities last fall. Our sales teams are also busy implementing strategic account management, which focuses our energy and resources on the highest performing dealer, Retail and distributor customers in this space. We must continue to tune ourselves and marketing organizations to listen and understand the requirement of our dealers and retailers and effectively communicate our core strengths and strategic offerings. At the same time, we must create the conversation with our consumers who are getting lost in the aisles and options to choose from in the ammunition category. We will do this by rebranding and repackaging the ammo ink signature lines to stand out on the shelf. Speaker 300:15:38This will communicate the strength of our best in class brass we manufacture and the highest quality of components we source from other premium U. S. Manufacturers. We are superior and take great pride in being a U. S. Speaker 300:15:51Manufacturer based in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. As we transition our future product offering, we will continue to move our products into stable niche markets with loyal customers. Over the last 6 months, our ammo division has transitioned away from top line revenue and focused on margin creation in conjunction with contractual growth with with our premium OEM partners. Sales margins improved, volumes stabilized and strict inventory reduction plans have been put into place. We are filling in the factory that came on last fall and continue to see machine efficiencies increase while we find new demand for this capacity. Speaker 300:16:30We will continue to build out our sales and marketing teams to move the needle in a profitable and sustainable manner. Domestic markets will not keep our factories full. Military needs are sporadic and timing is unpredictable. International business will not save us, even with the current conflicts raising beyond our borders, we must take a balanced and multidisciplinary approach and strategically place our business with clients that are monitoring and measuring their business with the same care and diligence with which we measure ours. Strategic account management is based on the principle that we will find sales with credible clients with a similar focus on their bottom line and ability to market their brands with the same effectiveness that we will market ours. Speaker 300:17:17Sales have come rather easily in the past 3 years with COVID, the U. S. Ammunition and industrial base has grown. We will now have to prepare our sales strategies to compete with this excess capacity and lean our operations, creating efficiencies to compete with manufacturers that have been in this business for over 100 years. We will automate what we can, but automation takes time. Speaker 300:17:40Our strategy is differentiation and caliber selection, grow our people, cut costs and manage our relationships both domestically, internationally, militarily, all while hoping for a little luck along the way. We abide by the wise words of Thomas Jefferson. I'm a great believer in luck. And I find the harder I work, the more I have, Ovid. The entire AMLO team feels the exact same way. Speaker 300:18:06Our industry has grown its inherent capacity beyond pure consumption. Bigger factors like political cycles, regulation, international and domestic turbulence drive this market to unprecedented levels. These factors must be managed and weighed. As the Shell management team leans into the market, we will take all these factors into consideration as we build shareholder value through steady and predictable growth. I'd now like to turn the call over to Rob Wiley to discuss the quarter. Speaker 400:18:34Thank you, Jared. Welcome, everyone. Let me now review our Q4 fiscal year 2023 financials in more detail. We are pleased with the progress we have made to date as we continue with the transition period, but headwinds are still active in the market today along with the rest of the industry. We remain excited about the new direction of our 2 segments as we are nearing the end of our Q1 of our 2024 fiscal year. Speaker 400:19:02As is observed by the peers within our space, we continue to see margin compression on our ammunition segment. The U. S. Commercial ammunition market continues to slow from the inflationary impact and global recessionary drivers being felt across most industries. However, our plans to recoup cash tied up in our inventory and accounts receivable have gone according to plan as we ended the year with cash generated from operations of approximately $35,500,000 We were able to reduce our total inventories by $12,800,000 in our 4th fiscal quarter as we shifted our direction to a leaner operating model focusing on increased brass sales, which afford us higher margins. Speaker 400:19:44Additionally, we continue to push forward with improvements to gunbroker.com and expect the payment suite and card platform to launch in our 2024 fiscal year, which should drive growth and profitability to the site. We ended our 4th quarter with total revenues of approximately 43,700,000 in comparison to approximately $70,100,000 in the prior year quarter. This was a decrease of 37.7% from the prior year quarter. For the fiscal year, total revenues were $191,400,000 decreasing 20.3% from the prior year. The decrease in revenue was mainly attributable to our ammunition segment and the inflationary impacts that are currently affecting the market. Speaker 400:20:27These market conditions also impacted the revenue of our marketplace segment affecting a 7% decrease from the prior year quarter and a 2% decrease from the prior year in total. However, operating performance of our marketplace gunbroker.com still remains strong. And although that our top line revenues wavered, our margins are still comparable to historical performance. Our cost of revenues is approximately $31,800,000 for the quarter compared to $49,000,000 in the comparable prior year quarter. For the full fiscal year was $136,000,000 compared to $151,500,000 in the prior year. Speaker 400:21:10This decrease was related to reduced sales volumes and increased commodity and overhead costs. Accordingly, This resulted in a gross margin of $11,900,000 compared to $21,100,000 in the prior year quarter, dollars 55,400,000 for the year compared to $88,800,000 in the prior fiscal year. As our sales volume fell in the reported period, We are navigating a difficult climate as macro trends appear to be impacting our performance. But our transition to more profitable sales activity is currently in effect for our 1st fiscal quarter of our 2024 fiscal year by shifting our focus to more sales of our premium brass and large caliber ammunition rounds. Our balance sheet remains strong with our total current liabilities decreasing by 29% since our prior year end and our total current assets virtually unchanged, but our cash position increased $15,800,000 since the prior fiscal year, 68%. Speaker 400:22:09For the quarter, we recorded adjusted EBITDA of approximately $3,800,000 compared to prior year quarter adjusted EBITDA of 10,700,000 For our fiscal year, our adjusted EBITDA was $26,400,000 compared to $60,800,000 in the prior fiscal year. This resulted in a loss per share of $0.03 for the quarter or adjusted net income per share of 0 point in the prior year quarter or adjusted net income per share of $0.07 And for our fiscal year, a loss per share of 0 point of $0.16 in comparison to net income per share of $0.27 or adjusted net income per share of $0.46 in the prior year. Looking forward to our next fiscal year, we expect a new direction of our company to increase profitability through increased sales of our brass casings and our Performance Rifle Ammunitions that will increase the gross margins of our ammunition segment. Additionally, the launch of our The payment processing suite, carding ability and analytic offerings are anticipated to position our gunbroker.com marketplace will allow for increases in gross merchandise volume and as a result, increasing revenue and profitability. Our common stock repurchase plan is underway with approximately 1,000,000 shares repurchased in total under the plan thus far. Speaker 400:23:36Current plan is in effect until February 2024 with approximately $28,000,000 in funds remaining under the plan. That concludes our opening remarks. I will now turn the call over to the operator for questions. Operator00:23:51Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Today's first question comes from Matt Koranda with ROTH MKM. Please go ahead. Speaker 500:24:24Hey, guys. It's Mike Zaborn on for Matt. I guess just starting with the annual manufacturing side. The Press release says the transition to more profitable sales activity is currently in effect. Just want to clarify here, does this mean we're fully switched over to the target production mix or if not how far are we in that process? Speaker 500:24:45What does the rest of the transition entail and when can we expect that Production transition to be completed. Speaker 600:24:53Yes. This is Jared Smith. I'll take that question. In terms of the product mix, we fully transitioned. We still have capacity to bring on and we will be bringing on more and more capacity as we find additional sales. Speaker 600:25:06But in terms of product mix sales Today, we're confident in the directions that we stated. I couldn't be happier with the team and the progress that we're seeing. Long term contractual volumes that secure factories like ours. Hope that answers your question. Speaker 500:25:27Great. Yes, that's helpful. I guess switching over to Gunbroker, maybe just Start by speaking to some of the customer purchasing behavior, any observations and listing trends on GunBroker and Kind of how we expect those trends to pan out for the rest of the year? Speaker 600:25:46One of the interesting things that Increased profitability and that's because during COVID there's this new base of sellers and buyers on the community that it's recognized and we're seeing Higher ticket items for sale on the platform. We're seeing better use of the listing options And the overall percentage of sales has actually increased since the start of the year. Speaker 500:26:23Got it. That's helpful. Last one for me. So the recent take rate Are they in preparation for the expected improvements? Or can we expect the take rate to climb further alongside those improvements when they're actually enacted? Speaker 400:26:45Hey, this is Rob Wiley. So The recent increase in our take rate is actually related to the increase in our average ticket size, which also relates to the ancillary Listing options that come from those higher ticket items for sale, we have not increased our take rate related to any of the upcoming And that would just be upside and that takes place. Speaker 600:27:13Yes, I don't think we'll see a multi tiered take rate until End of this calendar year, but really into 2024. Right now, the goal is to continue to communicate, bring buyers and sellers on the platform, show and demonstrate the The strength of the platform for getting higher value for your firearms and increase the user community and awareness within these specific genres that drives the overall community and benefits to the user base. Speaker 200:27:44Credit card. Speaker 600:27:46Yes. And With credit card and carding coming on in 'twenty three, 'twenty four, we've got nowhere to go but up. Speaker 500:27:58That makes sense. Is there a target take rate that we plan To end the year with and given the higher take rate, but considering sort of the ammo down cycle that we're in, what type of growth are we expecting for GMV? Speaker 700:28:19So we do have a Speaker 400:28:20high target take rate in mind. I We envision ourselves eventually being at towards the higher single digit end of the spectrum, But we wouldn't want to increase our take rate without providing value to our users. So as we continue to add services to the site, That would be when it would be appropriate for us to increase our take rate. And then obviously, the GMV from there is Kind of dependent on market activity, so it's really hard for us to come out with a number on that one. Speaker 600:28:53And our increases in take rate are really related to The carding capabilities and bringing in a larger assortment of items that have higher margins. Right now, our goal is to keep the volume on the platform, keep the sellers happy. I don't see us adjusting our take rate To the on firearms in the 'twenty three calendar year. But what's happening, and Rob alluded to it earlier, is that through listing fees, Inventory is sitting a little bit longer. Things are cycling over. Speaker 600:29:28People are seeing that the value of The listing options and different abilities to kind of enhance your product on the website, Those are really what's driving our increased take rate over the last 3 to 6 months. Operator00:29:53The next question comes from Mark Smith with Lake Street Capital Markets. Please go ahead. Speaker 800:30:01Hi, guys. First question, just kind of big picture and it's a little bit of follow-up, but just as you guys Get pretty good insight into the consumer and consumer trends and you spoke to some of that here that you saw in the quarter. Any Update as we look at Q1, any updates in consumer behavior that you can speak to whether it's broadly from your gun broker data or Speaker 600:30:28So, Mark, Jared Smith here. Within the ammunition sector, we're certainly seeing a decrease in demand. We're seeing price erosion on commodity products as we're seeing more imports into the U. S. Market. Speaker 600:30:44I will tell you from ammo side is because we've moved away from those sectors and we're not trying to compete on 9 and 223, Our strategy is really about product differentiation, increased caliber growth and servicing the OEM market. We think we're well positioned to go into the remainder of the year. And from a gun broker side, The overall mix volume is pretty stable from what we've seen, but Our consumers are looking for better value and they're shopping harder and we think gun brokers one of the places that they're coming to shop and do comparison pricing. So While we may see a lower value or gross monetary value than 2022, We're seeing strong activity in the sectors that we want, which is higher gun value sales. There's still a very, very loyal base out there that goes to Gunbroker to find a unique firearm that they're looking for. Speaker 600:31:45And as we add Cardium and credit card processing and increase our search capabilities, enhance our community engagement with podcast and better tools and kind of dissecting the genres of firearms and services and products that we have on our site. We really think that's where the consumer is going. Speaker 300:32:07I hope that answers your question, sir. Speaker 800:32:10Yes. No, that's helpful. As we think about you've answered this question just a minute ago, but I want to just dig deeper on it, kind of a shift In manufacturing, can you just update us on the two sides because it seems like you're pretty far into it. First, a shift to Manufacturing more profitable calibers and rounds, a shift away from 2.3 and 9 mill. Kind of where that's at? Speaker 800:32:35And then also, Jared, I think you've talked previously about kind of a shift back to supplying more of kind of your OEM peers with brass casings. Can you give an update on kind of where that is as well? Speaker 600:32:50Absolutely. I'm going to take the second part of that question first. We are and have shifted and I'd like to take credit for it, but we have a phenomenal team in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. They produce and really the core talent there is around brass rifle manufacturing. I I think they do it as well, if not better than anybody else. Speaker 600:33:13And our mix of products is where we want it today And it's really just growing the capacities in that medium and large rifle caliber base. Our 50 cal line is coming on and there Still more and more demand than I ever would have guessed for things like 12.7x108, 50 cal and these kind of larger premium Rifle Calibers. And I know I was taking the second question first and I forgot the first question. So can you repeat the question? Speaker 800:33:46Yes, just the shift in manufacturing kind of away from 9 mill and 2/23 and into more kind of specialty background. Speaker 600:33:53Yes, it really comes it was really just that simply. You walk over to the machine and you turn it off and you divert your purchasing plans and your sales and operating models to where we're seeing and continue to see margin at 38%, 3.57%, 44%, 45% Long Colt straight wall calibers And these the mix of products that The larger manufacturers have fully dedicated lines, dedicated to 9, Dedicated to the loading, dedicated to the bullet production, dedicated to the assembly, dedicated to the drawing. We just don't have that in our factory and allows us to shift and pivot quickly. Speaker 800:34:39One last question for me. Just can you just talk about commodities, labor, Your other inflationary pressures, maybe even an update since the quarter ended as we will in Q1 now, On what you're seeing on the inflationary pressure side? Speaker 300:34:57Yes, absolutely. What we saw at the end Speaker 600:35:05Of 2022 end of 2022 really was a continued and steadied increase in raw materials, copper And zinc were going up, our labor inputs were going up. I think as the recession has set in, those are actually turning around and we've seen copper prices Back off. So we actually have a good guy there in terms of our inputs. Primers are still in high demand, but there is additional primer capacity coming on both internationally and domestically, and just the lack of demand has created a little bit of slack in the Primer Supply. From a commodity standpoint, you're always going to have your imports flooding in because they've got to sell through those factories from the state of military readiness. Speaker 600:35:49But fortunately, we don't have to play there and we don't have to compete there. Operator00:36:00Today's last question comes from Edward Riley with E. F. Huttner. Please go ahead. Speaker 700:36:07Hey, guys. Just wondering if you could maybe give us some color on the cadence of gross margins in the ammunition segment throughout the next fiscal year, just given the strategy to maybe continue selling slower moving inventory in the near term. When do you anticipate getting through that inventory and what might gross margins look like within that segment when it's finally moved? Speaker 600:36:37We're working through that inventory now, Ed. What we're seeing is that we've improved margins by 10% to 15% in Pistol. Going into the end of calendar year 2022 into 2023, we were damn near at breaking even on most of our rifle ammunition. Lot of that was imported and resold, but it was still heavily commodity mixed. So we turned those machines off and we've seen a 10% to 15 In some months, 17% increase in margins based upon the mix that we're putting out that month. Speaker 600:37:10And We have grown our margin business by 6 fold. I mean, our brass business by 6 fold since January, where we're seeing 30% margins. Speaker 700:37:23Okay, great. Thank you for that. Speaker 600:37:25Yes, absolutely. We're excited where we're going and I got to tell you what, looking back at where the company has come from in its quick, Short 7 years and 22 with a proxy contest and legal fees, we are off to the races in This is a 'twenty four fiscal year. So appreciate it. Operator00:37:51This concludes our question and answer session. I would now like to turn the call back to Fred Wagenhals for any closing remarks. Speaker 200:38:00Thank you, shareholders and supporters of the company. I appreciate your support. I've watched Jared put together a phenomenal team over the past 5 months and I Have the privilege of setting into meetings and seeing where we are going in the next year. And I said, you are going to see some very Operator00:38:33Conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.Read morePowered by Key Takeaways Strategic pivot in ammunition segment: AMMO has refocused from commodity 9 mm and .223 production toward premium brass casings and large-caliber rounds for domestic and international OEM clients, improving gross margins by up to 17% and readying its Wisconsin facility for higher capacity. GunBroker.com resilience and upgrades: Despite retail headwinds, the marketplace maintained steady revenue and profitability by enhancing targeted marketing (126 unique customer personas), overhauling customer service, and preparing to launch integrated carding and credit card processing. Strong liquidity and balance sheet: For fiscal 2023, the company generated $35.5 million in cash from operations, ended with $39.1 million in cash, reduced inventories by $12.8 million, and maintains limited debt, supporting a $28 million share repurchase plan. Operational improvements and cost controls: AMMO has implemented leaner manufacturing processes, tightened purchasing and forecasting plans, consolidated facilities, and strengthened project management to enhance repeatable margin growth amid market normalization. Financial results overview: FY 2023 revenue fell 20% to $191.4 million and Q4 revenue dropped 37.7% to $43.7 million, with adjusted EBITDA of $26.4 million (versus $60.8 million prior), reflecting the strategic transition toward higher-margin products. AI Generated. May Contain Errors.Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallAMMO Q4 202300:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2x Earnings DocumentsPress Release(8-K)Annual report(10-K) AMMO Earnings HeadlinesOutdoor Holding Company Announces Settlement and Leadership TransitionMay 28, 2025 | globenewswire.comOutdoor Holding Company Announces Preferred Stock DividendMay 9, 2025 | globenewswire.comAI Meltdown Imminent: Dump These Stocks Now!If you have any money in the markets, especially in AI stocks… Please click here to see Elon Musk’s new invention… This could send many popular AI stocks crashing, including Nvidia. And it could happen starting as soon as June 1st.June 11, 2025 | Paradigm Press (Ad)AMMO, Inc. Completes Sale of Ammunition Manufacturing Assets to Olin WinchesterApril 18, 2025 | globenewswire.comAustin "Ammo" Williams vs Patrice Volny Preview: Start Time, Fight Card, How To Watch & Live StreamMarch 15, 2025 | msn.comAMMO, Inc. Received Notification of Deficiency from Nasdaq Related to Delayed Filing of Quarterly Report on Form 10-QFebruary 25, 2025 | globenewswire.comSee More AMMO Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like AMMO? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on AMMO and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About AMMOAMMO (NASDAQ:POWW) designs, produces, and markets ammunition and ammunition component products for sport and recreational shooters, hunters, individuals seeking home or personal protection, manufacturers, and law enforcement and military agencies. The company's products include STREAK Visual Ammunition that enables shooters to see the path of the bullets fired by them; and Stelth Subsonic ammunition primarily for suppressed firearms. It also owns and operates GunBroker.com, an auction site that supports the lawful sale of firearms, ammunition, and hunting/shooting accessories. In addition, the company's products comprises of armor piercing and hard armor piercing incendiary precision ammunition; and ammunition casings for pistol ammunition through large rifle ammunition. The company has a license agreement with Jeff Rann's ammunition for game hunting. AMMO, Inc. was founded in 2016 and is based in Scottsdale, Arizona.View AMMO ProfileRead more More Earnings Resources from MarketBeat Earnings Tools Today's Earnings Tomorrow's Earnings Next Week's Earnings Upcoming Earnings Calls Earnings Newsletter Earnings Call Transcripts Earnings Beats & Misses Corporate Guidance Earnings Screener Earnings By Country U.S. Earnings Reports Canadian Earnings Reports U.K. Earnings Reports Latest Articles Broadcom Slides on Solid Earnings, AI Outlook Still StrongFive Below Pops on Strong Earnings, But Rally May StallRed Robin's Comeback: Q1 Earnings Spark Investor HopesOllie’s Q1 Earnings: The Good, the Bad, and What’s NextBroadcom Earnings Preview: AVGO Stock Near Record HighsUlta’s Beautiful Q1 Earnings Report Points to More Gains Aheade.l.f. 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There are 9 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Good afternoon, and welcome to the AMMO, Inc. Full Fiscal Year 2023 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Operator00:00:31Participants of this call are advised that the audio of this conference call is being broadcast live over the Internet and is also being recorded for playback purposes. I would now like to turn the call over to Matt Blasey of CORE IR, the company's Investor Relations firm. Please go ahead, sir. Speaker 100:00:52Good Good afternoon, and thank you for participating in today's conference call. Joining me from AMMO's leadership team are Fred Wagenhals, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jared Smith, President and Chief Operating Officer and Rob Wylie, Chief Financial Officer. During this call, management will be making forward looking statements, including statements that address Amo's expectations for future performance or operational results. Forward looking statements involve risks and other factors Factors described in AMLO's most recently filed periodic reports on Form 10 ks and Form 10 Q, the Form 8 ks filed with the SEC today and the company's press release that accompanies this call, particularly the cautionary statements in it. Today's conference call includes non GAAP financial measures For a reconciliation of this non GAAP financial measure to net loss to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure, please see the reconciliation table located in the company's earnings press release. Speaker 100:02:02The content of this call contains time sensitive information that is accurate only as of today, June 14, 2023. Except as required by law, AmOne disclaims any obligation to publicly update or revise any information to reflect events or circumstances that occur after this call. It It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Fred Wagenhals, Chairman and CEO of AML Inc. Speaker 200:02:24Thank you, and good afternoon. I appreciate everyone joining for our Q4 fiscal 2023 earnings call. I would like to start this call by acknowledging all the hard work of our employees and the patience of our investors as we continue to navigate through a very challenging environment over the past year. While it's been challenging period for all of us and the market in general, I firmly believe we have laid is the foundation for the next great growth cycle for our company. I'm going to take a few minutes to highlight a few of these initiatives and then hand the call over to Jared to discuss these in more detail. Speaker 200:03:12During the past Few quarters of global and U. S. Economy downturn, which has impacted our market as well, We have been hard at work transitioning our customer base toward longer term strategic clients, while also positioning the company as long term supplier of pistol and brass casings to OEM in international markets. As the ammunition market normalizes, we will also continue our Penetration into higher margin niche markets with our proprietary technology. See expansion of our international market and continue to press forward on our exciting government work. Speaker 200:04:07This pivot in strategic was designed to substantially improve the profitability of our pistol, rifle and brass sales, while also reducing our working capital needed and improving the balance sheet. We are confident With these changes along with the significantly greater capacity at our state of the art manufacturing Wisconsin facility, We will put us in an excellent position to rapidly improve profitability as we execute in the coming quarters. Moving now to gunbroker.com. While brick and mortar retailers have suffered from the significantly decrease in revenue and foot traffic, ourgunbroker.comrevenueandprofitabilityhasremainedsteady throughout the past fiscal year. We believe this has been a function of improving customer acquisition tools significantly upgrading our targeting, marketing and better overall customer experience, which the team has spent a lot of time and effort in enhancing in every material way. Speaker 200:05:29As I have discussed on previous calls, we have undertaken a number of initiatives over past year to enhance the gunbroker.com platform, including carding and credit cards, Processing capability, which are preparing to roll out as we continue the necessary and critical beta testing. Meanwhile, the massive layoffs seen in the technology industry has allowed us to expand our development capabilities as we have leveraged the increased availability of skilled workers to add We started the company in 2016 with a vision and mission to innovate and capture a meaningful share of the ammunition market, picking our spots for acquisitions, staying focused on always improving manufacturing operations, all while working to bring our customers the product they desire. We have grown by leaps and bounds in these short 7 plus years and I am proud of the future going forward, but there is much work left to be done and we now have the team assembled to meet these challenges. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Jarrett Smith, AMMO's President and COO. He will discuss these initiatives in more detail, review the current state of operations and what we believe the future has in store for AMMO, its team and our shareholders. Speaker 300:07:34Thank you, Fred. Good afternoon, everyone. This is my second time addressing you on an earnings call as President and COO. And in these last 5 months, I have seen transformative change here at ammo. I join Fred in thanking our employees for making these changes possible. Speaker 300:07:48Their dedication and wealth of Before I dig into the business, our team and shareholders must take a look at our balance sheet. We ended our fiscal year with $39,100,000 in cash, have limited debt and generated $35,500,000 in cash from operations over the past 12 months. We are well prepared for this With the company repositioning its operations, we are ready to meet this new market head on. Our sales and margins are down from 2022. We have retooled our factory and changed our go to market approach for both the ammunition and gunbroker.com divisions. Speaker 300:08:282023 and the first half of twenty twenty four will be a challenging year for this industry. Markets normalized, shelves are restocked and our customers are once again looking for value as they tighten their belts. To thrive in this environment, we must create opportunities in the marketplace to build long term relationships and communicate the value and strength of our platform and products. I first want to focus on execution concerning the major process changes we have implemented, which may seem simple in nature, but provide a major lift for a young and emerging company. These process improvements are essential in a tightening market and are a requirement for repeatable margin growth during the continuing headwinds this sector faces. Speaker 300:09:10We've spent late nights and countless weekends developing these processes, programs and new products to take this market head on. Operationally, we have developed ourselves and operating model, enhanced ourselves and market forecast, tightened our purchasing plans, shortened feedback loops and continue with cost out initiatives that will keep us lean and competitive in the quarters ahead. We have also aligned the execution of those plans to project management principles that will allow us to continue to monitor our execution and delivery on these key principles. Finally, we continue to add talent to our team and grow our people and in turn our performance. Let me talk a minute about gunbroker.com. Speaker 300:09:51Goodbroker.com is about managing and establishing trust. The buyer trusting the experience of buying a new or used firearm online without first handling it, trusting the experience that a firearm will be shipped to the FFO undamaged and in a timely manner and following all the necessary state and federal regulations. The seller must trust that the funds settle accurately and in a timely manner and they must trust that the transferring FSL will handle the firearm transfer experience professionally for their customer. For non firearm purchases, Trust must exist that the product being delivered is in the same condition as noted in the listing by the seller and that the quick payment upon bidding or buying the selected item. It is that trust that we are building upon today, a trust that our community does not give or take lightly and our developers and managers recognize that we must get it right. Speaker 300:10:43As we've discussed in the past with the onboarding of credit card processing and Cardi, This platform will change, streamline and expedite processes within the systems and we must do everything in our power to ensure that we keep the trust of this community. To ensure that we continue to bring value, we must provide new tools and advancements that empower buyers and sellers with a deeper level of engagement within the community. The first major advancement was from a universal to a unique approach in our marketing campaigns. We shifted to an in house team that in metrics as buyers discover new sellers on the platform around these personalized and self selected genres. We are aware of no other competitor in our space that possesses and deploys this data in this method. Speaker 300:11:39This has resulted in 126 targeted unique customer personas that are curated and used in banner and email campaigns that direct traffic back to those curated items by our sellers. This campaign also generates 1,500,000 emails daily to an active and engaged audience segmented from an overall list of 3,500,000 opt in subscribers. The second major advancement was from a reactive to a proactive approach and customer service, seller engagement and industry relationships. By restructuring customer service and adding product specialist, we have unified our outreach to both the seller and buyer community, leading to better navigation within the platform. We have accelerated customer response time and significantly increased our satisfaction ratings. Speaker 300:12:30The 3rd major advancement of our marketplace was enabling buy now links for manufacturer sites and manufacturer stores within gunbroker.com, which are fulfilled by our sellers' inventories. We've also recognized and helped draw out one of the core strengths of the marketplace, which as sellers can exceed normal industry margins on rare, highly sought after and collectible goods through the auction process. This book has become clear to our seller community and has become a source of much talk and something we will continue to educate our user base on through a new podcast launching in July. This podcast will be filled with conversations around fun facts, demystifying consumer selling and buying and historical relevance of the products that can be found on gunboker.com. We're also very excited to announce the newest member of our management team, industry veteran Alan Faulkner, Vice President of Public Relations and Brand Management. Speaker 300:13:24In this role, Alan will help bring awareness and attention to gunboker.com and the ever growing number of programs and services it with the past 2 years focused on the strategic planning and development of what is now being deployed, bringing a whole new breadth of services and opportunities to the platform and its users. I'd now like to transition to Ammo Inc. In the ammunition division. Despite the current recessionary and inflationary macroeconomic effect, the ammunition division still benefits from geopolitical events and conflicts that you read in the news today. Demand for our brass lines is growing and the word is getting out there that ammo, Inc. Speaker 300:14:10Is open for business and has significant capacity for its growing customer base. We are securing new foreign and domestic contracts for rifle and pistol breast just as we anticipated and our international clientele will contractual supplies that will carry them through the next election cycle versus being cut off when the domestic market rebounds here in the U. S. To make these opportunities a reality, we had to go back to the drawing board and clear out our cabinets, purge our old inventories and lean out our profit fees. We've reduced our working capital requirements and continue to work through slow moving inventory that clutters the mine and the factory floor. Speaker 300:14:49Our continuous improvement projects will create an even leaner operating model in the months ahead as we process through the material after the consolidation of our 2 facilities last fall. Our sales teams are also busy implementing strategic account management, which focuses our energy and resources on the highest performing dealer, Retail and distributor customers in this space. We must continue to tune ourselves and marketing organizations to listen and understand the requirement of our dealers and retailers and effectively communicate our core strengths and strategic offerings. At the same time, we must create the conversation with our consumers who are getting lost in the aisles and options to choose from in the ammunition category. We will do this by rebranding and repackaging the ammo ink signature lines to stand out on the shelf. Speaker 300:15:38This will communicate the strength of our best in class brass we manufacture and the highest quality of components we source from other premium U. S. Manufacturers. We are superior and take great pride in being a U. S. Speaker 300:15:51Manufacturer based in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. As we transition our future product offering, we will continue to move our products into stable niche markets with loyal customers. Over the last 6 months, our ammo division has transitioned away from top line revenue and focused on margin creation in conjunction with contractual growth with with our premium OEM partners. Sales margins improved, volumes stabilized and strict inventory reduction plans have been put into place. We are filling in the factory that came on last fall and continue to see machine efficiencies increase while we find new demand for this capacity. Speaker 300:16:30We will continue to build out our sales and marketing teams to move the needle in a profitable and sustainable manner. Domestic markets will not keep our factories full. Military needs are sporadic and timing is unpredictable. International business will not save us, even with the current conflicts raising beyond our borders, we must take a balanced and multidisciplinary approach and strategically place our business with clients that are monitoring and measuring their business with the same care and diligence with which we measure ours. Strategic account management is based on the principle that we will find sales with credible clients with a similar focus on their bottom line and ability to market their brands with the same effectiveness that we will market ours. Speaker 300:17:17Sales have come rather easily in the past 3 years with COVID, the U. S. Ammunition and industrial base has grown. We will now have to prepare our sales strategies to compete with this excess capacity and lean our operations, creating efficiencies to compete with manufacturers that have been in this business for over 100 years. We will automate what we can, but automation takes time. Speaker 300:17:40Our strategy is differentiation and caliber selection, grow our people, cut costs and manage our relationships both domestically, internationally, militarily, all while hoping for a little luck along the way. We abide by the wise words of Thomas Jefferson. I'm a great believer in luck. And I find the harder I work, the more I have, Ovid. The entire AMLO team feels the exact same way. Speaker 300:18:06Our industry has grown its inherent capacity beyond pure consumption. Bigger factors like political cycles, regulation, international and domestic turbulence drive this market to unprecedented levels. These factors must be managed and weighed. As the Shell management team leans into the market, we will take all these factors into consideration as we build shareholder value through steady and predictable growth. I'd now like to turn the call over to Rob Wiley to discuss the quarter. Speaker 400:18:34Thank you, Jared. Welcome, everyone. Let me now review our Q4 fiscal year 2023 financials in more detail. We are pleased with the progress we have made to date as we continue with the transition period, but headwinds are still active in the market today along with the rest of the industry. We remain excited about the new direction of our 2 segments as we are nearing the end of our Q1 of our 2024 fiscal year. Speaker 400:19:02As is observed by the peers within our space, we continue to see margin compression on our ammunition segment. The U. S. Commercial ammunition market continues to slow from the inflationary impact and global recessionary drivers being felt across most industries. However, our plans to recoup cash tied up in our inventory and accounts receivable have gone according to plan as we ended the year with cash generated from operations of approximately $35,500,000 We were able to reduce our total inventories by $12,800,000 in our 4th fiscal quarter as we shifted our direction to a leaner operating model focusing on increased brass sales, which afford us higher margins. Speaker 400:19:44Additionally, we continue to push forward with improvements to gunbroker.com and expect the payment suite and card platform to launch in our 2024 fiscal year, which should drive growth and profitability to the site. We ended our 4th quarter with total revenues of approximately 43,700,000 in comparison to approximately $70,100,000 in the prior year quarter. This was a decrease of 37.7% from the prior year quarter. For the fiscal year, total revenues were $191,400,000 decreasing 20.3% from the prior year. The decrease in revenue was mainly attributable to our ammunition segment and the inflationary impacts that are currently affecting the market. Speaker 400:20:27These market conditions also impacted the revenue of our marketplace segment affecting a 7% decrease from the prior year quarter and a 2% decrease from the prior year in total. However, operating performance of our marketplace gunbroker.com still remains strong. And although that our top line revenues wavered, our margins are still comparable to historical performance. Our cost of revenues is approximately $31,800,000 for the quarter compared to $49,000,000 in the comparable prior year quarter. For the full fiscal year was $136,000,000 compared to $151,500,000 in the prior year. Speaker 400:21:10This decrease was related to reduced sales volumes and increased commodity and overhead costs. Accordingly, This resulted in a gross margin of $11,900,000 compared to $21,100,000 in the prior year quarter, dollars 55,400,000 for the year compared to $88,800,000 in the prior fiscal year. As our sales volume fell in the reported period, We are navigating a difficult climate as macro trends appear to be impacting our performance. But our transition to more profitable sales activity is currently in effect for our 1st fiscal quarter of our 2024 fiscal year by shifting our focus to more sales of our premium brass and large caliber ammunition rounds. Our balance sheet remains strong with our total current liabilities decreasing by 29% since our prior year end and our total current assets virtually unchanged, but our cash position increased $15,800,000 since the prior fiscal year, 68%. Speaker 400:22:09For the quarter, we recorded adjusted EBITDA of approximately $3,800,000 compared to prior year quarter adjusted EBITDA of 10,700,000 For our fiscal year, our adjusted EBITDA was $26,400,000 compared to $60,800,000 in the prior fiscal year. This resulted in a loss per share of $0.03 for the quarter or adjusted net income per share of 0 point in the prior year quarter or adjusted net income per share of $0.07 And for our fiscal year, a loss per share of 0 point of $0.16 in comparison to net income per share of $0.27 or adjusted net income per share of $0.46 in the prior year. Looking forward to our next fiscal year, we expect a new direction of our company to increase profitability through increased sales of our brass casings and our Performance Rifle Ammunitions that will increase the gross margins of our ammunition segment. Additionally, the launch of our The payment processing suite, carding ability and analytic offerings are anticipated to position our gunbroker.com marketplace will allow for increases in gross merchandise volume and as a result, increasing revenue and profitability. Our common stock repurchase plan is underway with approximately 1,000,000 shares repurchased in total under the plan thus far. Speaker 400:23:36Current plan is in effect until February 2024 with approximately $28,000,000 in funds remaining under the plan. That concludes our opening remarks. I will now turn the call over to the operator for questions. Operator00:23:51Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Today's first question comes from Matt Koranda with ROTH MKM. Please go ahead. Speaker 500:24:24Hey, guys. It's Mike Zaborn on for Matt. I guess just starting with the annual manufacturing side. The Press release says the transition to more profitable sales activity is currently in effect. Just want to clarify here, does this mean we're fully switched over to the target production mix or if not how far are we in that process? Speaker 500:24:45What does the rest of the transition entail and when can we expect that Production transition to be completed. Speaker 600:24:53Yes. This is Jared Smith. I'll take that question. In terms of the product mix, we fully transitioned. We still have capacity to bring on and we will be bringing on more and more capacity as we find additional sales. Speaker 600:25:06But in terms of product mix sales Today, we're confident in the directions that we stated. I couldn't be happier with the team and the progress that we're seeing. Long term contractual volumes that secure factories like ours. Hope that answers your question. Speaker 500:25:27Great. Yes, that's helpful. I guess switching over to Gunbroker, maybe just Start by speaking to some of the customer purchasing behavior, any observations and listing trends on GunBroker and Kind of how we expect those trends to pan out for the rest of the year? Speaker 600:25:46One of the interesting things that Increased profitability and that's because during COVID there's this new base of sellers and buyers on the community that it's recognized and we're seeing Higher ticket items for sale on the platform. We're seeing better use of the listing options And the overall percentage of sales has actually increased since the start of the year. Speaker 500:26:23Got it. That's helpful. Last one for me. So the recent take rate Are they in preparation for the expected improvements? Or can we expect the take rate to climb further alongside those improvements when they're actually enacted? Speaker 400:26:45Hey, this is Rob Wiley. So The recent increase in our take rate is actually related to the increase in our average ticket size, which also relates to the ancillary Listing options that come from those higher ticket items for sale, we have not increased our take rate related to any of the upcoming And that would just be upside and that takes place. Speaker 600:27:13Yes, I don't think we'll see a multi tiered take rate until End of this calendar year, but really into 2024. Right now, the goal is to continue to communicate, bring buyers and sellers on the platform, show and demonstrate the The strength of the platform for getting higher value for your firearms and increase the user community and awareness within these specific genres that drives the overall community and benefits to the user base. Speaker 200:27:44Credit card. Speaker 600:27:46Yes. And With credit card and carding coming on in 'twenty three, 'twenty four, we've got nowhere to go but up. Speaker 500:27:58That makes sense. Is there a target take rate that we plan To end the year with and given the higher take rate, but considering sort of the ammo down cycle that we're in, what type of growth are we expecting for GMV? Speaker 700:28:19So we do have a Speaker 400:28:20high target take rate in mind. I We envision ourselves eventually being at towards the higher single digit end of the spectrum, But we wouldn't want to increase our take rate without providing value to our users. So as we continue to add services to the site, That would be when it would be appropriate for us to increase our take rate. And then obviously, the GMV from there is Kind of dependent on market activity, so it's really hard for us to come out with a number on that one. Speaker 600:28:53And our increases in take rate are really related to The carding capabilities and bringing in a larger assortment of items that have higher margins. Right now, our goal is to keep the volume on the platform, keep the sellers happy. I don't see us adjusting our take rate To the on firearms in the 'twenty three calendar year. But what's happening, and Rob alluded to it earlier, is that through listing fees, Inventory is sitting a little bit longer. Things are cycling over. Speaker 600:29:28People are seeing that the value of The listing options and different abilities to kind of enhance your product on the website, Those are really what's driving our increased take rate over the last 3 to 6 months. Operator00:29:53The next question comes from Mark Smith with Lake Street Capital Markets. Please go ahead. Speaker 800:30:01Hi, guys. First question, just kind of big picture and it's a little bit of follow-up, but just as you guys Get pretty good insight into the consumer and consumer trends and you spoke to some of that here that you saw in the quarter. Any Update as we look at Q1, any updates in consumer behavior that you can speak to whether it's broadly from your gun broker data or Speaker 600:30:28So, Mark, Jared Smith here. Within the ammunition sector, we're certainly seeing a decrease in demand. We're seeing price erosion on commodity products as we're seeing more imports into the U. S. Market. Speaker 600:30:44I will tell you from ammo side is because we've moved away from those sectors and we're not trying to compete on 9 and 223, Our strategy is really about product differentiation, increased caliber growth and servicing the OEM market. We think we're well positioned to go into the remainder of the year. And from a gun broker side, The overall mix volume is pretty stable from what we've seen, but Our consumers are looking for better value and they're shopping harder and we think gun brokers one of the places that they're coming to shop and do comparison pricing. So While we may see a lower value or gross monetary value than 2022, We're seeing strong activity in the sectors that we want, which is higher gun value sales. There's still a very, very loyal base out there that goes to Gunbroker to find a unique firearm that they're looking for. Speaker 600:31:45And as we add Cardium and credit card processing and increase our search capabilities, enhance our community engagement with podcast and better tools and kind of dissecting the genres of firearms and services and products that we have on our site. We really think that's where the consumer is going. Speaker 300:32:07I hope that answers your question, sir. Speaker 800:32:10Yes. No, that's helpful. As we think about you've answered this question just a minute ago, but I want to just dig deeper on it, kind of a shift In manufacturing, can you just update us on the two sides because it seems like you're pretty far into it. First, a shift to Manufacturing more profitable calibers and rounds, a shift away from 2.3 and 9 mill. Kind of where that's at? Speaker 800:32:35And then also, Jared, I think you've talked previously about kind of a shift back to supplying more of kind of your OEM peers with brass casings. Can you give an update on kind of where that is as well? Speaker 600:32:50Absolutely. I'm going to take the second part of that question first. We are and have shifted and I'd like to take credit for it, but we have a phenomenal team in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. They produce and really the core talent there is around brass rifle manufacturing. I I think they do it as well, if not better than anybody else. Speaker 600:33:13And our mix of products is where we want it today And it's really just growing the capacities in that medium and large rifle caliber base. Our 50 cal line is coming on and there Still more and more demand than I ever would have guessed for things like 12.7x108, 50 cal and these kind of larger premium Rifle Calibers. And I know I was taking the second question first and I forgot the first question. So can you repeat the question? Speaker 800:33:46Yes, just the shift in manufacturing kind of away from 9 mill and 2/23 and into more kind of specialty background. Speaker 600:33:53Yes, it really comes it was really just that simply. You walk over to the machine and you turn it off and you divert your purchasing plans and your sales and operating models to where we're seeing and continue to see margin at 38%, 3.57%, 44%, 45% Long Colt straight wall calibers And these the mix of products that The larger manufacturers have fully dedicated lines, dedicated to 9, Dedicated to the loading, dedicated to the bullet production, dedicated to the assembly, dedicated to the drawing. We just don't have that in our factory and allows us to shift and pivot quickly. Speaker 800:34:39One last question for me. Just can you just talk about commodities, labor, Your other inflationary pressures, maybe even an update since the quarter ended as we will in Q1 now, On what you're seeing on the inflationary pressure side? Speaker 300:34:57Yes, absolutely. What we saw at the end Speaker 600:35:05Of 2022 end of 2022 really was a continued and steadied increase in raw materials, copper And zinc were going up, our labor inputs were going up. I think as the recession has set in, those are actually turning around and we've seen copper prices Back off. So we actually have a good guy there in terms of our inputs. Primers are still in high demand, but there is additional primer capacity coming on both internationally and domestically, and just the lack of demand has created a little bit of slack in the Primer Supply. From a commodity standpoint, you're always going to have your imports flooding in because they've got to sell through those factories from the state of military readiness. Speaker 600:35:49But fortunately, we don't have to play there and we don't have to compete there. Operator00:36:00Today's last question comes from Edward Riley with E. F. Huttner. Please go ahead. Speaker 700:36:07Hey, guys. Just wondering if you could maybe give us some color on the cadence of gross margins in the ammunition segment throughout the next fiscal year, just given the strategy to maybe continue selling slower moving inventory in the near term. When do you anticipate getting through that inventory and what might gross margins look like within that segment when it's finally moved? Speaker 600:36:37We're working through that inventory now, Ed. What we're seeing is that we've improved margins by 10% to 15% in Pistol. Going into the end of calendar year 2022 into 2023, we were damn near at breaking even on most of our rifle ammunition. Lot of that was imported and resold, but it was still heavily commodity mixed. So we turned those machines off and we've seen a 10% to 15 In some months, 17% increase in margins based upon the mix that we're putting out that month. Speaker 600:37:10And We have grown our margin business by 6 fold. I mean, our brass business by 6 fold since January, where we're seeing 30% margins. Speaker 700:37:23Okay, great. Thank you for that. Speaker 600:37:25Yes, absolutely. We're excited where we're going and I got to tell you what, looking back at where the company has come from in its quick, Short 7 years and 22 with a proxy contest and legal fees, we are off to the races in This is a 'twenty four fiscal year. So appreciate it. Operator00:37:51This concludes our question and answer session. I would now like to turn the call back to Fred Wagenhals for any closing remarks. Speaker 200:38:00Thank you, shareholders and supporters of the company. I appreciate your support. I've watched Jared put together a phenomenal team over the past 5 months and I Have the privilege of setting into meetings and seeing where we are going in the next year. And I said, you are going to see some very Operator00:38:33Conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.Read morePowered by