Turning Point Brands Q3 2024 Earnings Report

Turning Point Brands EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $0.68
• Consensus EPS: $0.67
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.01
• One Year Ago EPS: $0.69

Turning Point Brands Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $105.62 million
• Expected Revenue: $100.71 million
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$4.91 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: +3.80%

Turning Point Brands Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q3 2024
• Date: 11/7/2024
• Time: Before Market Opens
• Conference Call Date: Thursday, November 7, 2024
• Conference Call Time: 10:00AM ET

Turning Point Brands (NYSE:TPB) is a consumer-products company focused on branded products for the tobacco, smoking-accessory and modern oral categories. Its portfolio includes rolling papers, wraps, smokeless tobacco, nicotine pouches and related products marketed under established brands.

The company’s principal brands include Zig-Zag, which offers rolling papers, cones, wraps and smoking accessories; Stoker’s, known for smokeless tobacco products; and FRE, a brand of nicotine pouches. Turning Point Brands also develops and distributes other alternative and specialty products through its brand portfolio.

Turning Point Brands sells its products primarily through convenience stores, tobacco and vape retailers, specialty retailers, distributors, e-commerce channels and other consumer outlets in the United States, with some products available internationally. The company is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, and is led by President and Chief Executive Officer Graham Purdy.

Turning Point Brands Q3 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Turning Point Brands reported a 11% increase in adjusted EBITDA to $27.2 million in Q3 and raised full‐year guidance to $101–$103 million.
• Zig Zag segment revenue rose 6% to $49.3 million driven by growth across most subsegments and low‐double‐digit gains in alternative channels amid a secular cannabis legalization tailwind.
• Stoker’s revenue increased 12% to $41.4 million, with free sales more than quadrupling year‐over‐year and plans to expand nicotine strengths and chain convenience distribution after strong consumer feedback.
• The lighter category under Zig Zag underperformed during the quarter, prompting a review of the go-forward strategy for this product line.
• The company ended Q3 with $33 million in cash, generated $12.6 million of free cash flow, retired its $118.5 million convertible note, and authorized a $100 million share repurchase program.

Presentation

[Operator]

Good day and welcome to the Turning Point Brands third quarter 2024 conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. To join the queue and ask a question, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, press the star one again. For operator assistance throughout the call, please press star zero. And finally, I would like to advise all participants that this call is being recorded. Thank you. I'd now like to welcome Andrew Flynn, CFO, to begin the conference. Andrew, over to you.

[Andrew Flynn, CFO at Turning Point Brands]

Good morning, everyone. A short while ago, we issued a press release covering our Q3 results. This release is located in the IR section of our website at www.turningpointbrands.com. During this call, we will discuss our consolidated and segment operating results and provide perspective on the operating environment and progress against our strategic plan. As is customary, I direct your attention to the discussion of forward-looking and cautionary statements in today's press release and the risk factors in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. On the call today, we will reference certain non-GAAP financial measures. These measures and reconciliations to GAAP are in today's earnings release, along with reasons why management believes they provide useful information. I will now turn the call over to our CEO, Graham Purdy.

[Graham Purdy, President and CEO at Turning Point Brands]

Thanks, Andrew. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our call. Our consolidated third quarter results were better than expected and demonstrated continued progress against our plan. Adjusted EBITDA increased 11% to $27.2 million for the quarter. At CDS, EBITDA increased 12% to $26.9 million. Given strong performance across our business lines, we are increasing our guidance for full year 2024 adjusted EBITDA to $101-$103 million versus our prior guidance of $98-$102 million. Neither of these ranges include contributions from CDS. During the September quarter, Zig-Zag performed well with revenue up 6% to $49.3 million, driven by growth in all our subsegments except for one. And we experienced another strong showing from our cigar business, which we've leaned into more heavily in 2024. We continue to be excited about this business going forward. The one segment that declined was the lighter category.

[Graham Purdy, President and CEO at Turning Point Brands]

Due to weaker than expected performance, we are assessing the go-forward strategy for this product line. We saw growth in Zig-Zag across our distribution channels, including a solid quarter within alternative channel, which experienced low double-digit growth both sequentially and year-to-date versus year ago. We remain bullish on the continued emergence of this channel, which provides us an opportunity for us to leverage our diverse SKU portfolio to offer these customers a one-stop shop for all their accessory needs. As the category continues to grow and gain mainstream acceptance, we expect to see continued convergence of distribution channels as traditional C-store distributors that we've done business with for decades increasingly target the alt market. At the same time, we've successfully onboarded new distributors and manufacturers who have emerged to specifically serve this market.

[Graham Purdy, President and CEO at Turning Point Brands]

They want to work with us because our deep, diversified portfolio, strong brands, and reputation as a reliable partner. Nearly 75% of all Americans now live in a legal medical or adult use state. This secular tailwind should continue to benefit picks and shovels businesses like TPB with must-carry brands like Zig-Zag. Moving to Stoker's. During the quarter, Stoker's revenue increased 12% to $41.4 million, reflecting a 3% decline in loose leaf, a 3% increase in MST, and a 342% increase in FRE sales off a low base to approximately $5 million for the quarter. FRE sales increased 26% sequentially, which is more than double the industry's 11% growth per MSAI and even greater growth in sell-through to our end consumers. Through our disciplined test-and-learn approach, we believe that we have a strong product-market fit.

[Graham Purdy, President and CEO at Turning Point Brands]

Positive consumer feedback has consistently reinforced features in the brand's positioning: pouch size, flavor, mouthfeel, and range of nicotine strengths. This consumer feedback and growth in purchases, along with initial retail acceptance and reorders, have convinced us to invest in expanding our chain footprint, which requires investment to secure competitive placement, execute our desired in-store look and feel, and participate in loyalty and promotional programs. We are particularly pleased with FRE's performance given many distributors and retailers allocated capital to restocking the market leader, which experienced widespread out-of-stocks in the second quarter. It is also worth noting that we initially launched FRE at nine milligrams, 12 milligram, and 15 milligram strengths in order to offer a unique selling proposition.

[Graham Purdy, President and CEO at Turning Point Brands]

Due to overwhelmingly positive consumer feedback about the mouthfeel and flavor profile, we are expanding into 3 milligram and 6 milligram as well, which currently represents over 70% of the category volumes. We started with 6 milligram online in two of our four flavor styles and have just recently started selling limited quantities in select retailers. We will be accelerating distribution of 6 milligram during Q4 and expect to launch 3 milligram in Q1 2025. As we've noted in previous quarters, this continues to be a large and rapidly growing category with a long runway for growth. Looking forward to 2025 planning, we are also working to enhance our commercial system and go-to-market strategy to maximize our success in this category. With that, let me hand the call over to Summer to walk through some progress and results of some of our specific go-to-market initiatives.

[Summer Frein, CRO, Chief and Public Board Member at Turning Point Brands]

Thank you, Graham. Throughout Q3, we continued to build upon Zig-Zag's iconic history while continuing our push toward ubiquity across all sales channels. As Graham noted, we are not only having success winning new untapped alternative customers, but also increasing share with existing alt customers who are buying more of the Zig-Zag portfolio. We've seen healthy increases in average order sizes while expanding valuable shelf space and merchandising within these stores. In the quarter, we expanded our successful hemp wrap portfolio across all sales channels with four new offerings, which have been well received in the market. We also are in process of rolling out a new vibrant look of the Zig-Zag Papers cartons. These vibrant orange cartons will create a consistent high-impact look that will increase visibility, thus making it easier to identify Zig-Zag rolling paper cartons on store shelves.

[Summer Frein, CRO, Chief and Public Board Member at Turning Point Brands]

For Q4 and beyond, we expect to continue introducing new products that build on this legacy while tapping into new innovation for today's evolving consumer. We continue to have a long runway in this channel as cannabis and related products become more mainstream, and we continue to solidify our position as a trusted high-value partner. For example, in legal dispensaries, now over 10,000 stores in 38 states, cannabis accessories currently represent a tiny fraction of sales, yet offer meaningful opportunities for both retailers and Zig-Zag. For Stoker's, we continue to be pleased with the brand's performance, which again posted over $40 million in revenue like we saw last quarter. We are focused on expanding distribution, especially with our Tubbs product, and continue to see the brand's great dip at a fair price messaging resonate with today's consumer.

[Summer Frein, CRO, Chief and Public Board Member at Turning Point Brands]

Turning to FRE, after successfully expanding into the six milligram nicotine strength last quarter across D2C and select retail channels, we are encouraged by the initial incremental results. As these initiatives took place during the quarter, we didn't enjoy a full quarter's benefit. That being said, our D2C site continues to show consistent revenue increases, strong engagement, and solid repeat customer orders. We launched both rewards and subscription programs on our D2C site in the quarter. Since these introductions, while early, growth, engagement, and number of repeat customers have increased further. We look forward to sharing additional progress as we accelerate go-to-market strategies in 2025. In summary, we continue building our brand for the long term, executing against the plan we've established, growing our omnichannel business, and winning new consumers to add to our growing customer base.

[Summer Frein, CRO, Chief and Public Board Member at Turning Point Brands]

We will continue to maximize the value of our world-class brands and strengthen our extensive distribution capabilities. Let me now turn the call back over to Andrew to go through our financial results.

[Andrew Flynn, CFO at Turning Point Brands]

Thank you, Summer. Starting with our consolidated quarterly results, Q3 sales were up 3.8% to $105.6 million. Excluding CDS, overall revenue was up 8.4% year-over-year. Gross margin was up 10 basis points year-over-year to 50.8%. As reported, SG&A for the quarter was $33.2 million, which includes non-recurring items. PMTA expense was up $900,000 year-over-year, and transaction-related costs were up $800,000 year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA was up 11.3% year-over-year to $27.2 million. Going into segment performance, Zig-Zag sales increased 5.5% year-over-year to $49.3 million due to the strength in all of our categories, with the exception of the lighter category, as mentioned. Gross margins decreased 180 basis points year-over-year to 55.4% during the quarter. This was driven primarily by product mix. Stoker's net sales increased 12.1% year-over-year to $41.4 million in the quarter, with a 2.9% volume increase and a 9.2% price mix increase.

[Andrew Flynn, CFO at Turning Point Brands]

Net sales for the MST portfolio grew 3% year-over-year. Stoker's MST volume was down 3% despite category volume down 8%, with share growing 40 basis points year-over-year to 7.3% during the quarter, according to MSAI. Share of in-store selling was up 90 basis points year-over-year to 11.3%, with Stoker's now in stores representing approximately two-thirds of industry volumes, which still provides a long runway for growth. Chewing tobacco sales were down approximately 40 basis points from the previous year. Stoker's chewing tobacco was the number one chewing brand in the quarter, gaining 230 basis points of share to 32.9%, according to MSAI. Overall, TPB loose leaf volume was down 0.4%, beating category volume declines of 7.1%. Category performance was driven by a larger decline in premium loose leaf, with TPB's volumes benefiting from consumer trade down as Stoker's volumes grew from the previous year.

[Andrew Flynn, CFO at Turning Point Brands]

Our FRE sales more than quadrupled year-over-year as we continue our national rollout. Gross margin was flat versus year ago at 55.8%. Moving to CDS, sales were $15 million. Gross margin was 22.1%. Adjusted EBITDA was approximately $270,000. Moving on to the balance sheet, we ended the quarter with just over $33 million of cash. FRE cash flow for the quarter was $12.6 million. Year-to-date FRE cash flow is $45.8 million. On July 15th, we retired our $118.5 million convertible note with cash on hand. With our projected FRE cash flow generation this year, we are well within our previously disclosed leverage range of two to three times and are comfortable with our liquidity position. In the quarter, we repurchased $1.1 million worth of shares. In addition, the board has authorized a share repurchase program that has a capacity of $100 million. On to guidance and other line items.

[Andrew Flynn, CFO at Turning Point Brands]

As previously noted, we are increasing our guidance for full year 2024 Adjusted EBITDA to $101-$103 million versus our prior guidance of $98-$102 million. Neither of these ranges include contributions from CDS. For modeling purposes, the effective income tax range is 23%-26%. We revised our CapEx expectation from $11 million to under $10 million for the year. Our investment plans have not changed, and reductions are timing-driven. We expect to spend approximately $4 million for the full year to supplement our PMTAs that are related to our Modern Oral products, which remain under review by the FDA. Now, let me turn it back over to Graham. To conclude, we're pleased with our progress nine months into 2024. Now, I'll turn it over to questions.

[Operator]

Thank you. We are now open for questions. And if you have dialed in and would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad to raise your hand and join the queue. If you would like to withdraw your question, simply press star one again. If you are called upon to ask your question and are listening via loudspeaker on your device, please pick up your handset and ensure that your phone is not on mute when asking your question. And today, we ask you to limit your questions to one and one follow-up. And your first question comes from the line of Eric Des Lauriers from Craig-Hallum Capital Group. Please go ahead.

[Eric Des Lauriers, Senior Research Analyst at Craig-Hallum Capital Group]

Great. Thank you for taking my questions and congrats on a very nice quarter here.

[Graham Purdy, President and CEO at Turning Point Brands]

Thanks, Eric.

[Eric Des Lauriers, Senior Research Analyst at Craig-Hallum Capital Group]

First question for me just on the growth outlook for FRE. It sounds like you have some increased marketing initiatives underway. I'm wondering if you could just kind of help us understand the growth outlook for sort of expanded velocity or perhaps SKU counts in existing doors versus kind of the growth coming from new door penetration, and if you can sort of help us break that out between kind of near-term and longer-term opportunity, that'd be helpful.

[Summer Frein, CRO, Chief and Public Board Member at Turning Point Brands]

Hey, Eric. This is Summer. Thanks for the question. So, as you know, we launched with a focus on national distribution this year and continue to scale and add new independent retailers. As you also know, getting into chains is a little bit more of a longer runway, and chains are the predominant place where OST is sold. About 67%-70% of the category is sold through chain convenience stores, and larger chain stores take a little bit more time to get into, but as you know, we have relationships, long-standing relationships where our products are currently sold with those chain stores, and so our active conversations and expanding distribution, and with the expansion of our 6 milligram product and 3 milligram to come in Q1, we're really excited about continuing to expand the portfolio across that chain universe.

[Eric Des Lauriers, Senior Research Analyst at Craig-Hallum Capital Group]

All right. That's helpful. And then just for my follow-up, so this kind of new ALP brand, the Tucker Carlson-affiliated brand, has been reported by Wall Street Journal. Patents have been filed. Obviously, we haven't seen an official announcement from Turning Point Brands just yet. But just wondering if you can kind of comment high level on your thoughts for the ALP brand for this partnership. Just kind of any color you may be able to provide would certainly be very helpful for us. Thank you.

[Graham Purdy, President and CEO at Turning Point Brands]

Hey, Eric. It's Graham. I hope you're doing well. Look, at this point in time, we're not going to talk about ALP today, but we will have some updates in the near future.

[Eric Des Lauriers, Senior Research Analyst at Craig-Hallum Capital Group]

Fair enough. Thanks, Graham.

[Graham Purdy, President and CEO at Turning Point Brands]

Thanks, Eric.

[Operator]

Your next question comes from the line of Michael Legg of Benchmark. Please go ahead.

[Michael Legg, Equity Research Analyst at Benchmark Company]

Thanks. Good morning. When you look at the FRE sales going forward with the introduction of the 3and 6 milligram, what % of your sales do you think will come from the new 3 and 6 milligram versus the larger milligram down the road?

[Summer Frein, CRO, Chief and Public Board Member at Turning Point Brands]

Hey, Michael. So, as you know, the majority of the volume in the category is taken up by 3 and 6 milligram products, nearly 70% of the category. And so the fact that we've been as successful as we have been with 9, 12, and 15 has been very encouraging for us. We continue to hear consumers talk about our product differentiation, including mouthfeel and flavor. And so, as we get into where the majority of the category is, we're quite encouraged about the early comments that we've heard from consumers and getting into that 6 and 3 milligram category. And the early sales that we have for 6 milligram have also been very encouraging, incremental to our business. And we're continuing to get that really great consumer feedback. Reorders on our D2C site, for example, have been quite encouraging.

[Michael Legg, Equity Research Analyst at Benchmark Company]

Okay. And then just to follow up on that, when you look at your supply chain for FRE, and then obviously growing demand within the retail space, can you talk about what may be the limiting factor? Is it getting new accounts to take the product, or is it having enough product to get into the doors?

[Graham Purdy, President and CEO at Turning Point Brands]

Hi, Michael. Look, I think we've talked about this in the past. Getting into chains is somewhat of a transactional event because of the process, and no two chains are alike in terms of their planograms and the cycle of times that it takes to get in there. We feel great about our manufacturing capacity at this point in time, and I think one of the other areas that we're looking at right now is, given the results of the past election, exploring U.S. manufacturing options may be of interest, depending on what the potential tariff environment looks like.

[Michael Legg, Equity Research Analyst at Benchmark Company]

Okay. Thanks. And then just one last question. When you look at the Alt Channel versus your traditional distribution, does an Alt Channel unit offer larger revenue opportunity than a traditional convenience store, or are they similar? How do you view the opportunities for sell-through in the Alt Channel per unit?

[Summer Frein, CRO, Chief and Public Board Member at Turning Point Brands]

That's a great question. Categorically, we believe the TAM for the alt space is as large, if not larger in some cases, than the convenience store channel. And given the runway for growth, given that we're under-indexed in the alternative channel, the profit is quite significant for us as we think about that. That being said, the two channels are converging quite a bit. So we are definitely mindful of how those channels are playing together and making sure that we're tackling every opportunity that comes our way in a profitable manner.

[Michael Legg, Equity Research Analyst at Benchmark Company]

Great. Thanks. Congrats on the continued success. Look forward to more. Thanks.

[Summer Frein, CRO, Chief and Public Board Member at Turning Point Brands]

Thanks. Bye.

[Operator]

Your next question is from the line of Nick Anderson of Roth Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

[Nick Anderson, Director and Research Analyst at ROTH Capital Partners]

Yeah. Good morning. Thanks for taking our questions and congrats on the quarter here. The first question for me, just on the FRE and the pricing strategy side, you've taken share within Stoker's as you've kind of priced that product competitively. Are you following a similar blueprint for FRE? Just your sense of the pricing strategy and how you're looking to capture share as you enter new stores there. Thank you.

[Summer Frein, CRO, Chief and Public Board Member at Turning Point Brands]

Yeah. Sure. Thanks for the question, Nick. As we think about the FRE brand, it is a premium brand that we believe can compete at a premium pricing level with the other major competitors in the marketplace, and our pricing strategy will reflect that.

[Nick Anderson, Director and Research Analyst at ROTH Capital Partners]

Okay. I appreciate that, Clara. And then second one for me, just on Zig-Zag in the cigar opportunity. That's the second quarter in a row where you've seen kind of solid cigar growth. Curious how much additional white space you're seeing there and just kind of what the expectation is for that segment going forward. Thank you.

[Graham Purdy, President and CEO at Turning Point Brands]

Hey, Nick, Graham, welcome. The cigar category is a massive opportunity for this company. There's a lot of correlation with consumers in that channel with the rest of the Zig-Zag portfolio. We think about that opportunity. The runway there is $2 billion in manufacturer revenue. Obviously, we're in the extreme early innings of this process. But a couple of things that we think we really have going for us is we've got an incredible foundational brand in Zig-Zag to leverage against that space. And we've also got products that we purchased a number of years ago through one of our smaller acquisitions that give us runway vis-à-vis the regulatory environment. So it's a wonderful opportunity for us. Again, early innings, but we think that the size of that opportunity could be fairly substantial over the long run for the company.

[Nick Anderson, Director and Research Analyst at ROTH Capital Partners]

Great. That's good to hear. That's it for me. I appreciate it, Clara.

[Graham Purdy, President and CEO at Turning Point Brands]

Thanks, Nick.

[Summer Frein, CRO, Chief and Public Board Member at Turning Point Brands]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Due to the constraints of time, we do need to conclude our Q&A session there. I would like to hand back over to Graham Purdy for closing remarks.

[Graham Purdy, President and CEO at Turning Point Brands]

All right. Thanks, operator. Hey, appreciate everybody joining the call today. We're excited about the results coming out of Q3, and we look forward to talking to you in a few months.

[Operator]

This does conclude today's conference call. Enjoy the rest of your day. You may now disconnect.

Participants

Executives

• Summer Frein, CRO, Chief and Public Board Member
• Andrew Flynn, CFO

Analysts

• Eric Des Lauriers, Senior Research Analyst at Craig-Hallum Capital Group
• Michael Legg, Equity Research Analyst at Benchmark Company
• Nick Anderson, Director and Research Analyst at ROTH Capital Partners
• Graham Purdy, President and CEO at Turning Point Brands