Northern Technologies International Q3 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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Provided by Quartr
July 11, 2024

There are 7 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good day, and welcome to the 3rd Quarter 20 24 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. After the speakers' presentation, there will be a question and answer session. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. As part of the discussion today, the representatives from NCIC will be making certain forward looking statements regarding NCIC's future financial and operating results as well as their business plans, objectives and expectations.

Operator

Please be advised that these forward looking statements are covered under the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and that NTIC desires to avail itself of the protections of the Safe Harbor for these statements. Please also be advised that actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied by the forward looking statements due to certain risks and uncertainties, including those described in NTIC's most recent annual report on Form 10 ks, subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10 Q and recent press releases. Please read these reports and other future filings that NTIC will make with the SEC. NTIC disclaims any duty to update or revise its forward looking statements. I would now like to turn the call over to Patrick Lynch.

Operator

Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Good morning. I'm Patrick Lynch, NTIC's CEO and I'm here with Matt Welsfeld, NTIC's CFO. A press release regarding our fiscal 2024 Q3 financial results was issued earlier this morning and is available at ntic.com. During today's call, we will review various key aspects of our fiscal 2024 Q3 financial results, provide a brief business update and then conclude with a question and answer session. Please note that when we discuss year over year performance, we are referring to the Q3 from our current fiscal year in comparison to the Q3 from our previous fiscal year.

Speaker 1

Our Q3 results reflect the progress we're making navigating a fluid macro environment, while capitalizing on growing demand within our Natur Tec and ZERUST Oil and Gas markets. We achieved record quarterly Natur Tec sales driven by continued growth in North America and India for our compostable plastic products and specialty resins. While shipping delays caused the timing of approximately $600, 000 in orders to be moved from the Q3 to the 4th quarter, negatively impacting our Q3 results, demand for our oil and gas solutions is expanding. As a result, we expect a significant rebound in oil and gas sales in the Q4. Furthermore, I'm particularly encouraged by the continued year over year improvement in our gross margin demonstrating that our initiatives aimed at offsetting supply chain and raw material challenges are working as intended.

Speaker 1

We anticipate that profitability will continue to improve and that we will continue to generate positive operating cash flow throughout the remainder of fiscal 2024. Year over year cash from operating activities improved by 116% to $7, 600, 000 primarily due to higher net income for the 9 months ended May 31, 2024 and positive changes in working capital. We intend to continue allocating capital to support our growth initiatives and quarterly dividend payments while using excess cash flow to pay down the balance on our existing line of credit. As we look to the remainder of fiscal 2024, we believe we are well positioned for top line growth driven by our Xerus Oil and Gas and Natur Tec product categories. We also remain focused on enhancing the performance and profitability of our international joint ventures.

Speaker 1

In addition, we continue to make strategic investments in our operations aimed at supporting additional growth opportunities across our markets, most notably in North America, Brazil and India. I am pleased with NTIC's performance and believe fiscal 2024 will be another good year of growth and profitability. So with this overview, let's examine the drivers for the Q3 ended May 31, 2024 in more detail. For the quarter, our total consolidated net sales decreased 1.4 percent to $20, 700, 000 as compared to the Q3 ended May 31, 2023. Total net sales for the Q3 by our joint ventures, which we do not consolidate in our financial statements, decreased year over year by 2.7 percent to $25, 600, 000 Excor Germany, our largest joint venture, experienced a 7.1% decrease in net sales compared to the prior fiscal year period, due primarily to a previously disclosed loss of a customer and softer demand within the region related to higher energy prices and other externalities linked to the war between Ukraine and Russia.

Speaker 1

Fiscal 2024 Q3 net sales by our wholly owned Hentesi China subsidiary increased on a year over year basis by 6.7 percent to $3, 500, 000 Sales trends in this geography have stabilized and NTIC China has experienced 2 consecutive quarters of year over year sales growth. We remain cautiously optimistic that demand in China will improve throughout the remainder of fiscal 2024 and into fiscal 2025, helping to support higher incremental sales and profitability in this market. We are committed to the long term opportunities the Chinese market provides our industrial and bioplastics segments and we continue to take steps to enhance our operations in this geography. As a result, we continue to believe China will likely become a significant geographic market for us in the future. Now moving on to ZERUST Oil and Gas.

Speaker 1

For the fiscal 2024 Q3, ZERUST Oil and Gas sales were $1, 400, 000 compared to $2, 000, 000 for the same period last fiscal year. The 31.9% year over year decrease in Zerus Oil and Gas sales was primarily associated with approximately $600, 000 in sales that were expected to ship before the end of Q3 of fiscal 2024, but got delayed until the beginning of Q4. So now these $600, 000 in sales coupled with orders booked for delivery before August 31st are anticipated to make sales in the Q4 of fiscal 2024 exceptionally strong for our ZERUST Oil and Gas Solutions. Overall, demand continues to grow among both new and existing customers of our ZERUST Oil and Gas Solutions, which today still focus primarily on protecting above ground oil storage tanks and pipeline casings from corrosion. As a result, we believe that fiscal 2024 will be another good year of growth for Xeris Oil and Gas as this business further scales and continues to contribute to our overall profitability.

Speaker 1

We are optimistic these trends will continue into fiscal 2025. Turning to our Natur Tec Bioplastic business. Natur Tec sales were strong during the Q3 and increased 20.1% year over year to a quarterly record of $5, 800, 000 NHTEC's growth during the Q3 was a result of new customer wins in North America and India, as well as expanding relationships with existing customers. We expect Natur Tec sales growth to continue throughout fiscal 2024 and into fiscal 2025. Globally, we continue to see robust market demand for new applications of certified compostable plastic products and resin compounds as well as increased interest in commercial and municipal programs that use certified compostable plastics as alternatives to conventional plastics.

Speaker 1

As a result, we believe we are well positioned for long term sustainable growth within our Natur Tec Bioplastics business. We also continue to make strategic investments across several parts of our business in order to capitalize on current and expected future growth opportunities. In India, we are consolidating 3 separate Natur Tec warehouses into a single larger facility and also are adding manufacturing capacity to support Natur Tech sales growth in the region. Sales in Brazil have doubled since fiscal 2019, so we are in the process of adding a facility to support growth opportunities in both that country as well as the broader region. We also continue to invest in our domestic operations as demonstrated by the new Circle Pines, Minnesota facility that came online earlier this year.

Speaker 1

At this location, we've been able to in source certain manufacturing processes that were previously outsourced as part of our efforts to improve gross margin. As you can see, fiscal 2024 is shaping up to be a strong year of growth, profitability and strategic investments for NTIC. We are excited by the positive momentum underway and the direction NTIC is headed. Before I turn the call over to Matt, I want to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of our global team of both employees and joint venture partners. Our recent success and the opportunities we are pursuing to drive value for our shareholders in the future are a direct result of their efforts.

Speaker 1

With this overview, let me now turn the call over to Matt Muhlseld to summarize our financial results for the fiscal 2024 Q3.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Patrick. Compared to the prior fiscal year period, NTIC's consolidated net sales decreased 1.4% for the fiscal 2024 Q3 because of the trends that Patrick reviewed in his prepared remarks. Sales across our global joint ventures declined 2.7% in the fiscal 2024 Q3. Joint venture operating income was down 3.6% compared to the prior fiscal year period. The year over year reduction in joint venture operating income was primarily due to lower sales and the resulting lower net income of our German joint venture, partially offset by improved profitability across many of our other joint ventures.

Speaker 2

Total operating expenses for fiscal 2024 Q3 increased 7.1% to $9, 000, 000 compared to $8, 400, 000 for the same period last fiscal year. Higher operating expenses were primarily due to increased personnel costs. As a percentage of net sales, operating expenses were 43.4 percent for the fiscal 2024 Q3 compared to 40% for the prior fiscal year period. Gross profit as a percentage of net sales was 38.2% during the 3 months ended May 31, 2024, compared to 36.1% during the prior fiscal year period. The 210 basis point improvement was primarily a result of successful actions taken by the company to offset supply chain disruptions and raw material challenges, including in sourcing of various production.

Speaker 2

Net income attributable to NTIC was $977, 000 or $0.10 per diluted share for the fiscal 2024 Q3 compared to $1, 100, 000 or $0.11 per diluted share for the fiscal 2023 Q3. As of May 31, 2024, working capital was $23, 200, 000 including $5, 800, 000 in cash and cash equivalents compared to $23, 000, 000 including $5, 400, 000 in cash and cash equivalents as of August 31, 2023. As of May 31, 2024, we had outstanding debt of $4, 800, 000 This included $2, 000, 000 in borrowings under our existing revolving line of credit compared to $3, 600, 000 as of August 31, 2023. We generated $7, 600, 000 in operating cash flows for the 9 months ended May 31, 2024 compared to $3, 500, 000 for the 9 months ended May 31, 2023. The 116% year over year improvement in operating cash flow was driven primarily by stronger core profitability and positive changes in current assets and liabilities.

Speaker 2

Throughout fiscal 2024, we expect to generate continued operating cash flow, which we plan to invest in the growth of our business, support our quarterly cash dividend and pay down the remaining balance on our existing revolving line of credit. On May 31, 2024, the company had $24, 200, 000 of investments in joint ventures, of which 55.4 percent or $13, 400, 000 was in cash, with the remaining balance primarily invested in other working capital. During fiscal 2024 Q3, NTIC's Board of Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.07 per common share that was payable on May 15, 2024 to stockholders of record on May 1, 2024. To conclude our prepared remarks, our Q3 financial results reflect the progress we're making navigating a fluid business environment, while successfully pursuing our product and market and geographical diversification strategies. We're seeing stable North American demand trends and robust growth across our global oil and gas and bioplastics market, and we expect these trends to continue throughout the remainder of our fiscal year.

Speaker 2

As a result, we believe fiscal 2024 will be another good year of sales and higher profitability for NTIC, And we're excited by our long term prospects. With this overview, Patrick and I are happy to take your questions.

Operator

Thank

Speaker 1

you.

Operator

And our first question comes from Timothy Clarkson with vanclements.com. Your line is open.

Speaker 3

Hey, guys. Decent quarter. Just wondering about I saw that obviously your fixed expenses were up a little bit. I mean, what was the typical increase in salaries at Northern Tech for this year?

Speaker 4

We changed salaries on September 1 each year with the fiscal year. Last year, I want to say the average increase was probably 3% to 4%. Okay.

Speaker 3

Okay. And in terms of looking at the 2 big growth areas, the compostable and oil and gas, any significant changes in the players who are buying, say, compostables? Is that still about the same people or are there any new positives that you're seeing out there?

Speaker 4

There's certainly the similar people. It's really a matter of expanding the distributors that we have across North America and then getting into new markets, whether they're in Europe or other opportunities that we're seeing throughout Southeast Asia. So they're the same types of players, but we're just seeing that the market is continuing to increase due to various municipal legislation, state legislation or even national legislations that we're seeing around the world related to the use of conventional plastics and the ability to use compostable plastics instead. So it's just a lot more people getting into the industry and getting into the space from a consumption standpoint.

Speaker 3

Right. Now typically on the compostables, are you selling a finished product or are you selling the goop that makes the finished product?

Speaker 4

We're selling both. We certainly started out selling the finished products to various customers where we're selling bin liners or trash bags, cutlery and now we're working towards a lot of the newer opportunities and sales that we've had are with the selling of specialty blended resins, so the companies can make their own products out of the proprietary resins that we have. So we're taking the base resins and modifying them to make a specialty resin so that companies have the ability to essentially make anything that they're currently making out of conventional plastics a compostable plastic.

Speaker 3

Which is more profitable?

Speaker 4

They're pretty close from a gross margin standpoint. We just feel like the specialty resin market being able to sell container load quantities of resin appears to be long term, probably the bigger market, as far as kind of how things are transitioning. So it's not as much a matter of which gross margin is better. It's just a matter of being able to kind of value the size of the opportunities. So in some of the opportunities where we're selling resins, you're talking about selling containers of resin compared to when you're selling the finished products, you're ultimately selling case loads or pallet loads of product.

Speaker 4

So it's just a matter of the opportunity, but we're certainly going after both areas.

Speaker 3

How about on the oil and gas? Any changes in the kinds of people buying the product? Or is it pretty much the same guys you've been seeing?

Speaker 4

It's a certainly it's a similar customer base. What we're seeing is we're seeing more adoption of the technology of using the VCI solution compared to the alternative solutions. And so when we're going to trade shows, when we are presenting to customers, when we are kind of moving forward and looking at the opportunities, more people understand the solution and what the value added proposition that it brings. So it's more a matter of seeing this get pushed out to companies after they've been able to try it and kind of review the results. This is why we're starting to see kind of the expansion of the oil and gas group now.

Speaker 4

And I know that Q3 was a little disappointing from an oil and gas standpoint, but we've always kind of highlighted the volatility of the numbers. And I can say that the actual POs that we have in hand right now, not just opportunities or things in the pipeline, but actual POs that we have, are really significant that they're going to it'll make our 4th quarter from an oil and gas standpoint, a pretty strong 4th quarter. That'll I know that last in the last earnings call we had, we talked about the second half of the year being stronger than the first half of the year from an oil and gas standpoint. Obviously, with the Q3 results, it doesn't look like that's the case. But I can tell you that based on actual POs and expected delivery dates at this point in time, it was still will be a significantly stronger second half to the year from an oil and gas standpoint.

Speaker 3

Great, great. Okay, I'm done. Thanks guys.

Speaker 4

Yes, thanks Tim.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Gus Richard with Northland. Your line is open.

Speaker 5

Yes. Thanks for taking the questions. Just on ZERUST industrial, that was down year over year. Is that a function of the weakness in Germany or is there an end market exposure that's causing that to be down year over year?

Speaker 6

As we mentioned, we were down in Germany because we had lost a significant customer, but also our European joint ventures overall are feeling a bit of economic pressure based on the ongoing war with the Ukraine and the externality that's causing, for example, higher energy prices in Europe.

Speaker 5

Okay, got it. And then just looking at ZERUST Oil and Gas, in the first half you did 3, 700, 000 round numbers. You had a soft Q2. Is it sort of reasonable to assume that you're on roughly $2, 000, 000 a quarter run rate. I know it's volatile.

Speaker 5

Going into Q3, if I just take the $600, 000 that got delayed in Q3 and added to that run rate. Am I coming up with a roughly the right number for Q4?

Speaker 4

It could be even stronger than that. But I mean as far as the $2, 000, 000 run rate for oil and gas, if I look at that, I think that's a pretty fair baseline to look at. But as I said, it is volatile. I mean, that's just 1 of the things that we run into with oil and gas with some of the size of the opportunity.

Speaker 5

Right. And then thinking about 2025 in oil and gas, is it reasonable to assume that the base run rate is going to increment up a little bit, maybe $2, 500, 000 $3, 000, 000 a quarter plus volatility? Or do you think you'd remain at that $2, 000, 000 a quarter run rate?

Speaker 4

I think that as we exit the fiscal 2025 in 3rd Q4, you're going to continue to see the increase. I mean, I think it's just a matter of looking at kind of looking at the moving average rather than kind of the quarter by quarter. But I think if you that's certainly what we're targeting is that kind of growth or more.

Speaker 5

Got it. That's very helpful. And then just going back to industrial, and thinking about that business, Europe has been a big portion of your revenue. Do you is that business going to stabilize? What do you think the growth rate is over the next couple of years for ZERUST industrial?

Speaker 4

Well, there's 2 different ways that we kind of look at it. 1 is if you look at obviously the largest individual player is the German joint venture that we have. From a positive standpoint, we have seen increases the German joint venture kind of bottomed out from a revenue standpoint in our Q1 at about €7, 800, 000 And we've seen increases in each of the last 2 quarters to kind of get back out to revenue of about €9, 200, 000 with the expectation that we're going to kind of continue to see growth coming out of that tenant. And if we're able to put 3 or 4 quarters in a row together from a German standpoint, that will help. Similarly, if I look at it's a similar trend, if I look at kind of all the joint ventures, that they're kind of seeing a little bit of a, call it, a bottoming out or a trough, kind of around Q4 to Q1 of this year with kind of growth coming from beyond that.

Speaker 4

So we are starting to see a little bit of a rebound coming out of Europe, which is helping from a joint venture operating income contribution standpoint. The other thing that I'll point out when you talk about the industrial sales is that our Q3 of fiscal 2023, so the last I know that when we were comparing numbers earlier on in the call, we talked about the industrial business being down compared to Q3, Q3 of last year. Q3 of last year was probably the strongest industrial quarter that we've had. Specifically in North America, it was well above average in a very strong 3rd quarter. So the comparative from a comparative quarter standpoint, that's 1 of the reasons why industrial is down.

Speaker 4

When I look at it just on a kind of a trailing 3 or 4 quarter standpoint, it's kind of an average quarter. From Q4 of last year until Q2 of this year, we've averaged about $4, 400, 000 $4, 500, 000 In Q3 of this year, we're at $4, 600, 000 I'm sorry, we've averaged $5, 400, 000 in North America and we're at about $5, 600, 000 in Q3. And that's kind of why we're looking at this and still feel like that's kind of down compared to where we expect revenues in North America industrial to be. So certainly, the hope is that we're going to see kind of a rebound in the industrial sales in North America. But I think part of the reason why it looks so poor in Q3 is just because Q3 of last year was so high.

Speaker 4

Does that make sense?

Speaker 5

Okay. And then just your thoughts on growth rates for that business going forward is and seasonality for the Q4?

Speaker 4

Well, typically 3rd and 4th quarter are stronger quarters for us just because of the we do have some seasonality given the kind of the rough season that happens during the summer. But typically, the industrial the ZERUST industrial sales will outpace GDP by 3% or 4%. So we typically target 10% to 11% of growth across the industrial market, whether it's in North America or Brazil or other areas. There's some subsidiaries that we have like India and China that historically have shown a higher growth rate than what we see in the more, call it, mature markets like North America and Germany. But typically from an industrial standpoint, we kind of target that 10%, 11%, 12% number.

Speaker 5

Got it. Thanks. Very helpful.

Speaker 4

Yes. Thanks, Scott.

Operator

Thank you. I'm showing no further questions. Thank you for your participation. This does conclude the program and you may now disconnect. Everyone have a great day.

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Key Takeaways

  • Record quarterly Natur Tec sales rose 20.1% year over year to $5.8 M, fueled by growth in North America and India, with expectations for continued momentum into fiscal 2025.
  • ZERUST Oil & Gas sales declined 31.9% in Q3 to $1.4 M due to $600K in shipping delays, but the company forecasts an exceptionally strong Q4 as delayed orders ship and demand expands.
  • Gross profit margin improved by 210 basis points to 38.2% in Q3, demonstrating the success of initiatives to offset supply chain disruptions and raw material challenges.
  • Operating cash flow for the nine months increased 116% to $7.6 M, enabling continued capital allocation to growth initiatives, quarterly dividends, and repayment of revolving credit.
  • Strategic investments are underway in India, Brazil, and North America—including new facilities and capacity expansions—to support sustainable long-term growth across key markets.
A.I. generated. May contain errors.
Earnings Conference Call
Northern Technologies International Q3 2024
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