NASDAQ:AENT Alliance Entertainment Q4 2024 Earnings Report $2.24 -0.15 (-6.28%) Closing price 04:00 PM EasternExtended Trading$2.35 +0.11 (+4.91%) As of 04:26 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. Earnings History Alliance Entertainment EPS ResultsActual EPS$0.05Consensus EPS N/ABeat/MissN/AOne Year Ago EPSN/AAlliance Entertainment Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$236.93 millionExpected RevenueN/ABeat/MissN/AYoY Revenue GrowthN/AAlliance Entertainment Announcement DetailsQuarterQ4 2024Date9/19/2024TimeN/AConference Call DateThursday, September 19, 2024Conference Call Time4:30PM ETUpcoming EarningsAlliance Entertainment's Q3 2025 earnings is scheduled for Thursday, May 8, 2025Conference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptSlide DeckPress Release (8-K)Annual Report (10-K)Earnings HistoryCompany ProfileSlide DeckFull Screen Slide DeckPowered by Alliance Entertainment Q4 2024 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrSeptember 19, 2024 ShareLink copied to clipboard.There are 5 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Greetings, and welcome to the Alliance Entertainment 4th Quarter and Fiscal Year 20 24 Financial Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. Before we begin the formal presentation, I would like to remind everyone that statements made on the call and webcast may include predictions, estimates or other information that might be considered forward looking. Operator00:00:27While these forward looking statements represent the company's current judgment on what the future holds, they are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward looking statements, which reflect the company's opinions only as of the date of this presentation. Please keep in mind that the company is not obligating itself to revise or publicly release the results of any revision to these forward looking statements in light of new information or future events. Throughout today's discussion, management will attempt to present some important factors relating to the business that may affect predictions. You should also review the company's Form 10 ks for a more complete discussion of these factors and other risks, particularly under the heading Risk Factors. Operator00:01:10During this conference call, management will discuss non GAAP financial measures, including a discussion of adjusted EBITDA. Management believes non GAAP disclosures enable investors to better understand Alliance Entertainment's core operating performance. Please refer to the investor presentation for reconciliation of each non GAAP measure to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure. A press release detailing these results crossed the wire this afternoon at 4:0:1 p. M. Operator00:01:37Eastern Time and is available in the Investor Relations section of Alliance Entertainment's website at aent.com. Your host today, Bruce Ogilvie, Executive Chairman and Jeff Walker, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, will present the results of operations for the Q4 fiscal year ended June 30, 2024. At this time, I will turn the call over to Alliance Entertainment Executive Chairman, Bruce Ogilvie. Speaker 100:02:10Thank you, operator, and good afternoon, everyone. I'm pleased to welcome you to today's 4th quarter fiscal year 2024 financial results conference call. For those of you that are new to our story, we bring entertainment to you. We are a category leading direct to consumer and e commerce provider for the entertainment industry, serving as the gateway between brands and retailers. With over 325,000 SKUs in stock, we provide the world's largest selection of music, home video movies, video games, gaming hardware, arcades, collectibles, toys and consumer electronics. Speaker 100:02:49We are a needed supplier for omni retailers in helping them expand their long tail entertainment selection online and putting them on a level playing field with Amazon. We white label all their direct to consumer shipments to look like it was shipped by the omni retailer, but it was really shipped by Alliance. We are a trusted omni channel supplier to retailers and wholesalers worldwide, including Walmart, Amazon, Best Buy, Costco, Target, Kohl's, BJ's, Meijer, plus 2,500 independent music stores and many other retailers. We are a trusted distributor of home entertainment movies for Walt Disney, Paramount, Sony Pictures, Warner Brothers, Universal Pictures and others. For video games, video game consoles, retro arcades, controllers and physical software games, we distribute products from Microsoft, Nintendo, Arcade 1 Up, Activision, Electronic Arts, Sega, Ubisoft, Square Enix and Take 2. Speaker 100:03:51In music for LPs, CDs and yes, cassettes, we are a trusted distributor for Universal Music, Sony Music, Warner Music Group and every independent music label. For the toys category or collectibles, we distribute for Funko, Mattel, Lego, Hasbro and over 600 other suppliers. Alliance Entertainment is a global leader in the 10,000,000,000 physical media industry and we generate over 1,100,000,000 revenue in fiscal 2024 with our team of 654 dedicated employee owners. Our leading position in the industry provides us with unparalleled scale and leverage and has created significant structural and economic barriers of entry that we believe safeguards our market leadership position. We are a value added retail distributor with exclusive distribution rights for approximately 150 movie studios and music labels in the film and music industry. Speaker 100:04:49Our exclusive distribution licensing deals accounted for over $250,000,000 of our revenue in fiscal 2024. Our extensive portfolio of unique content combined with our deep inventory of long tail selections of the more than 325,000 in stock SKUs enables us to cater to bulk shipments for B2B and direct to consumer retailers with a vast selection of products, including a growing number of products unavailable through other distributor competitors. This helps us create sticky relationships with our retailers and growing these exclusive relationships is a key for us moving forward. We have over 200 online retailers that rely on us to stock the world's largest selection of entertainment products for them and we ship to more than 35,000 storefronts reaching 72 countries globally. Importantly, we have a long and proven track record of growth through strategic acquisitions. Speaker 100:05:47Over the past 20 years, we successfully acquired and integrated a dozen companies allowing us to rapidly enter new markets, expand our product selection and further diversify our revenue streams. Building Alliance from the ground up into the market leader has provided our team with a deep bench and unrivaled experience with further strengthens our position as we remain very much aligned with our shareholders, with insiders and employees holding approximately 94% of the outstanding shares of the company. After experiencing a surge in demand during the pandemic, many areas within the physical media market have been normalizing back to the historical growth levels in the high single digits. Even the CD market has joined the revival with CDs outselling digital albums at a rate of 3 to 1 margin in the 1st 6 months of the year, according to a mid year report from the Recording Industry Association of America. As part of our $1,100,000,000 annual revenue, over $250,000,000 was generated from products for which we are the exclusive distributor. Speaker 100:06:56These exclusive deals are managed through our Distribution Solutions, Amped, Mill Creek and RK 1UP division and they have significantly enhanced our market position by providing unique content that deepens relationship with both suppliers and retailers. Distribution Solutions was responsible for $134,000,000 of this revenue in the 1st fiscal 2024. Distribution Solutions partners with over 60 home video movie studios to manufacture, supply and market their content. We distribute this exclusive content to major retailers such as Amazon, Walmart and Target, as well as thousands of other smaller retailers. By leveraging Alliance Entertainment's vast distribution network, this exclusive content creates a strong, sticky relationship with retailers, strengthening ongoing demand. Speaker 100:07:46In addition, distribution solutions has developed a growing digital distribution business. In fiscal year 2023, we generated $8,400,000 in digital revenue, and we have more than doubled that in fiscal 2024 reaching $20,000,000 On the music side, our Amp division is a leader in physical distribution of exclusive music content. Amp works more than 90 exclusive music labels distributing music across major retailers like Amazon, Walmart, Target, as well as over 2,500 independent music stores throughout the U. S. Labels and artists such as Shaboozy, Usher, K Pop sensation, ATEEZ can bypass major music suppliers, thus lowering their costs and self distribute themselves using AMP for their physical distribution needs because they control their own digital streaming and social media marketing, while maximizing profitability through our extensive brick and mortar and omni retail relationship. Speaker 100:08:44K Pop in particular has become a rapidly growing segment for Amp contributing significantly to our sales growth. Our Mill Creek division specializes in exclusive video content licensing from major studios, including Disney, Sony Pictures, Universal, Lions Gate, CBS and others. Mill Creek licenses, manufacturers and distributes DVDs for these leading studios, enhancing our ability to offer exclusive unique and in demand video content that is sought out by consumers and retailers alike. We are also exclusive North American distributor for Arcade 1 UP, which licenses and manufactures home arcade consoles with significant market share in the retro gaming space. These include some of the most well recognized arcade games like Pac Man, Ms. Speaker 100:09:31Pac Man, MBN Jam, Mortal Kombat, Golden Tee and more. The Infinity game table even includes a digital version of classic board games including Hasbro's Monopoly, Scrabble, Trivial Pursuit, Chutes, Ladders, Candy Land, Nazi and many other iconic games. We've had a long history of disciplined accretive acquisitions and I want to take a moment to highlight the strategic acquisitions that have been critical to our gaming leadership position in the entertainment space and our growth overall. By 2013, Jeff and I had built up Super D from $18,000,000 in sales starting in 2,001 to $194,000,000 dollars Then we made the pivotal move of acquiring Alliance Entertainment, our largest competitor, which was doing $725,000,000 revenue at the time and significantly expanded our footprint transforming us overnight into the largest distributor of music and video in the world. This acquisition marked our 1st major step in consolidating the packaged media categories of music and video. Speaker 100:10:34We continue to build on this strategy in 2016 with the acquisition of AM Connect, which gave us exclusive access to sell CDs to Walmart and Best Buy and expanded our important vendor managing inventory capabilities for our portfolio. Our entry into the gaming space came in in 2018 through the acquisition of Meka, enabling us to distribute products from major suppliers like Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo. That same year, we also acquired distribution solutions from Sony Pictures, which got us into exclusive home video distribution relationships with 20 movie studios, further strengthening our position in the industry and giving us another vendor number of Walmart and Best Buy and enabled us to become the exclusive seller for these movie studios to Walmart, Amazon, Best Buy, Target, Barnes and Noble and other retailers in the U. S. And Canada. Speaker 100:11:23In 2020, we expanded our video gaming presence with the acquisition of Mecca's competitor Kokam, thus expanding our relationship with Best Buy, Target, Kohl's, Dell and Verizon. With the acquisition of Kokam, we also started distributing retro arcades from our K1UP and most recently in 2022, we added collectibles to our portfolio with the acquisition of Think 3 Fold, a move that further diversified our product offering and gave us another supplier number with Walmart. As you can see, we have a proven track record of completing acquisitions and we will continue with that same strategy to further growth and diversify our company moving forward. While we did put ourselves on hold for acquisitions in 20222023 for our SAC merger and gaining our new 3 year line of credit in place, we are currently working on 4 possible future transactions, all in time for our deal pipeline. To better understand what that could mean for Alliance and moving forward, I want to briefly share a case study from our acquisition of Distribution Solutions in 2018. Speaker 100:12:28At the time, they were doing around $80,000,000 in revenue working with 18 studios. Fast forward to today in fiscal 2024, Distribution Solutions accounted for $134,000,000 in revenue and we're now working with nearly 3 times the number of studios. As we look at new deals, we continue to apply the same criteria that's worked for us in the past and we're confident this strategy will continue to yield great results. Technology is the backbone of our operations and critical drivers of efficiency, cost savings and growth. In 2023, we began making strategic investments in automation and technical innovation to enhance our ability to serve our customers more effectively. Speaker 100:13:11In January 2023, we went live with AutoStore automated storage and retrieval system at our Shepherdsville, Kentucky warehouse. I call AutoStore the Rubik's cube of auto storage retrieval systems. This state of the art system has greatly improved our Kentucky warehouse operations, allowing us to achieve increased levels of speed, reliability, capability and precision that resulted in significant cost savings. With Autostore, we now process over 2,000 lines per hour with a fraction of the staff. We went from 41 pickers down to 7 and receiving went from 14 associates down to 8. Speaker 100:13:47Year over year, our fulfillment costs are running 1% lower. Because of Avastore, we eliminate aisles. It created more storage location capacity, enabling us to consolidate operations and close the larger of 2 buildings in Shakopee, Minnesota, thus removing 162,000 square feet and 192,000 square feet we had leased there. This closure process, which began in January, was completed on May 31. The savings from this consolidation will positively and permanently impact and reduce our cost structure in fiscal year 2025, further strengthening our ability to operate efficiently and deliver value to our shareholders. Speaker 100:14:26In addition, in the Q3 of fiscal 2024, we announced the installation of SureSort X system from OpEx, a cutting edge sortation technology to deliver nearly $500,000 in immediate savings by eliminating need to retrofit older technology and is expected to deliver another nearly $400,000 in annual labor cost savings in our Kentucky facility. In additional cost savings, the Surex technology has allowed us to handle larger products such as toys and electronics, removing the need for manual sorting and driving new levels of efficiency and precision. In the investor presentations, there are hyperlinks to C Auto Store and OpEx and other processes we do in Kentucky. I will now hand the call over to Alliance's Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, Jeff Walker, my partner. Speaker 200:15:19Thank you, Bruce, and thank you all for joining us today. We will now turn to an overview of our financial results for the Q4 fiscal year ended June 30, 2024. We generated $236,900,000 in net revenue for the 4th quarter compared to $247,100,000 in the same period last year. While this represents a modest decline, we saw positive shifts in several key areas that position us well for the future. Our gross profit for the Q4 was $26,900,000 down from $30,200,000 in the same quarter last year. Speaker 200:16:03This resulted in a gross margin of 11.4%, slightly below the 12.2% achieved in Q4 2023. Although margins tighten, we've taken steps to streamline costs and improve efficiencies, which will be reflected in future quarters. We are pleased to report we delivered net income of $2,500,000 for the quarter, a major turnaround from the 4 point $6,000,000 net loss in the same period last year, an impressive $7,100,000 improvement and a clear signal that our focus on operational efficiency is paying off. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter came in at $2,100,000 our 5th consecutive quarter of positive adjusted EBITDA. Moving on to our full year highlights. Speaker 200:16:57Net revenues for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024 were $1,100,000,000 compared to $1,160,000,000 for fiscal year 2023. Our shift towards higher margin business, including growth in consumer direct shipments is one factor helping to drive improved margins and profitability. Consumer direct shipments increased to 36% of our gross revenue, up from 31% in fiscal 2023. Gross profit for the fiscal year was $128,900,000 compared to $103,900,000 in the prior year, an impressive 24% increase. This improvement was driven by the combination of shifting product mix and new operational efficiencies. Speaker 200:17:53Gross profit margin also saw a substantial boost rising to 11.7%, up from 9% in fiscal 2023, representing a 2 70 basis point improvement. In addition to the year over year growth in our quarterly gross profit, we achieved a significant $21,900,000 reduction in operating expenses, a 16% decrease, bringing expenses down from $136,700,000 to $114,700,000 This reduction was largely driven by the warehouse efficiencies and new technologies we implemented throughout the year. These improvements are not just one time gains, they will continue to positively impact our cost structure and overall profitability moving forward. Net income for fiscal 2024 was $4,600,000 a $40,000,000 improvement over the $35,400,000 net loss in fiscal 2023, underscoring the effectiveness of our ongoing initiatives to improve margins and manage costs. Our adjusted EBITDA tells a similar story, improving by 41,900,000 to $24,300,000 up from an adjusted EBITDA loss of $17,600,000 in fiscal 2023. Speaker 200:19:28Net cash provided by operating activities surged to $55,800,000 in fiscal 2024, up from $3,400,000 in the prior year, a remarkable increase of 15 47%. This cash generation strengthens our ability to reinvest in the business and drive future growth. And just to reiterate something Bruce mentioned earlier, we expect significant cost savings in fiscal 2025 from the closing of our Minnesota facility, which was completed in late May. Over the past year, we've also made significant efforts to strengthen our balance sheet and those efforts are continuing to bear fruit with both inventory and debt continuing to decline year over year. Inventory dropped from $147,000,000 to $97,000,000 as of June 30, 2024 and debt was reduced from $133,000,000 to $73,000,000 In conjunction with these initiatives, we secured a new 3 year $120,000,000 senior secured asset based credit facility with White Oak Commercial Finance earlier this year, the proceeds of which was used to refinance the existing credit facility, fund working capital needs and provide for general corporate purposes. Speaker 200:20:59These steps have also positioned us to focus and execute on implementing our acquisition strategy going forward. Taking a broader view of our financial performance over the last 5 fiscal years, this slide showcases how we've navigated a dynamic environment. In fiscal 2020, we generated $776,000,000 in revenue. Over the next 2 years, a combination of growth initiatives, strategic acquisitions and an unprecedented surge in demand during COVID-nineteen pandemic drove our top line to a peak of $1,400,000,000 in fiscal 2022. As expected, this demand is normalized with revenues adjusting to around $1,100,000,000 for fiscal 2023 2024. Speaker 200:21:54While adjusted EBITDA in fiscal 2023 was impacted by one time supply chain issues, the significant rebound in fiscal 2024 also reflects the strategic steps we've taken to enhance profitability, including reducing costs and optimizing operations. Our adjusted EBITDA margin was 2.2 percent for fiscal 2024. Turning to our balance sheet, as mentioned a moment ago, our focus on reducing inventory and debt has paid off, with inventory levels dropping to $97,000,000 and debt reduced to $73,000,000 as of June 30, 2024. These reductions have streamlined our operations and improved our financial flexibility. As already mentioned, we also expect further cost savings for fiscal 2025, particularly from the closure of our Minnesota facility in May. Speaker 200:22:56Additionally, our $120,000,000 asset based credit facility with White Oak, which was secured to support working capital and refinance existing debt has positioned us well for continued growth and execution of our acquisition strategy going forward. I will now turn the call back over to Bruce. Speaker 100:23:17Thank you, Jeff. As we look to the future, Alliance Entertainment is poised for continued growth by leveraging our strength as a capital light low cost provider with unmatched reach in the industry. Our strategy is clear, expand our market share, improve margins and drive EBITDA growth. 1st, we see tremendous opportunities to expand into underpenetrated channels, particularly in areas like digital video streaming, where direct vendor selling remains low and cost and effective. This is where Alliance can truly shine by offering efficient scalable solution. Speaker 100:23:53In fiscal 2024 alone, our exclusive distribution agreement generated over $250,000,000 in sales and we expect to build on this momentum moving forward. 2nd, we are investing in automation and restructuring to enhance our operational efficiency. Technologies like AutoStore are already driving significant cost savings and these improvements will continue to bolster our margins while providing the scalability we need to capture more market share. 3rd, mergers and acquisitions remain central to our growth strategy. Through strategic M and A, we plan to rapidly expand our product categories in verticals across music, home video movies, video gaming, toys and collectibles. Speaker 100:24:34By doing so, we will not only diversify our offerings, but also strengthen relationships with our major retail partners, positioning Alliance for long term success. The opportunities ahead are significant. Family owned competitors are aging out and large movie studios and companies are looking to sell or license physical media rights. Our capital light model combined with our proven ability to integrate acquisition sets us apart from the competition. These major movie studios and we lean on our lines to allow opportunities to license their home video content and allow these major movie studios to focus on their core competency of making movies, exhibiting in theaters, doing premium downloads and focusing their streaming services. Speaker 100:25:20Alliance's core competency is distributing packaged physical media. We are excited about the road ahead and we're confident that our strategic initiatives will drive future growth and profitability for years to come. With that, I'd like to hand the call back to the operator and begin our question and answer session. Operator? Operator00:25:41Thank you. We'll now be conducting a question and answer Thank you. Our first question is from David Levine with Critical Research. Please proceed with your question. Speaker 300:26:26Hi, guys. Great results, really impressive, great turnaround, all that stuff. I'm wondering if you would be willing to comment a little bit on given all the changes that have been made and some of the positive developments that you're seeing in the business, if it's reasonable to expect, say, adjusted EBITDA in the future quarters and coming years to trend something closer to where they were previously, say, in the 4% 5% range? Speaker 200:27:01Hello, David. This is Jeff Walker. I'll answer that there for you. We definitely see our EBITDA trending upwards and we do believe that we can get back into that 4% to 5% EBITDA goal or target that we've been focused on. So that 2024 was still a year of some cleanup as well as consolidation. Speaker 200:27:29So we should definitely see that improving as we're moving into fiscal 2025 and 2026. Speaker 300:27:37Great. Thanks. Speaker 200:27:40Thank you, David. Operator00:27:47Thank you. There are no further questions in the queue at this time. I would like to pass it back to Paul Koonce for any questions from the webcast. Speaker 400:27:56Thank you, Paul. And now we are going to turn to the questions coming in from the webcast participants. Our first question was how interest rate reductions impact the earnings? Speaker 200:28:10Thank you, Paul. I'll take this one as well here. We expect to see a very big decline in our interest expense for fiscal 'twenty six with our continued debt reduction that we're in the process of today and continuing through fiscal 'twenty five and combining that with potential Fed interest rate reductions. And that should have a pretty significant impact on our interest cost in fiscal 2025, but a real significant impact for fiscal '26 as well. Speaker 400:28:55Thank you. And our next question, what growth initiatives are Alliances focused on in fiscal 2025? Speaker 200:29:06Thank you, Paul. We're really focused intently right now on increasing our exclusive distribution opportunities in video, music and collectibles. We definitely mentioned that quite a bit in the statement in our press release here. It's a very important aspect of our business to have the exclusive distribution of products. It really helps us with sales to our retailers and it really drives our business there. Speaker 200:29:40We are looking at including significant video licensing opportunities with our Mill Creek division. And we currently have a significant conversation happening here because of Alliance's extensive distribution capabilities and being great solutions for our partners. So really our solution has been very successful for the labels and studios that have come to us for exclusive distribution. And part of that is that we have all their inventory in stock and our sales opportunities and sales channels, not only to the brick and mortar, but across all e commerce selling media products is really our bread and butter there for our exclusive vendors and it's really driving incremental sales for them. Speaker 400:30:39Thank you. And our next question, collectible sales were down in fiscal 2024. What is the future in them? Speaker 200:30:50Some of you probably know that are on this call, COVID was fantastic for all consumer products and collectibles were definitely super hot during COVID with for retailers, wholesalers, manufacturers. We as it was humming along so well, we all really got severely overstocked and lots of products had to be marked down and sold through with all the major retailers and wholesalers and manufacturers. I think today, the collectible market is in a much better position today. There's just a small amount of excess products still in the pipeline, but nothing like it was a couple of years ago. And when there's a lot of excess product in the pipeline, it really slows down sales for everybody in the category. Speaker 200:31:52So Alliance was not immune to it. We took hits on this. It affected our sales and margins and we've come through this as well. And if you follow Funko, who is definitely a leader in collectibles, they definitely describe the challenges. And going into 2025, the collectible business is definitely normalizing for them and other manufacturers. Speaker 200:32:22I will say that the overall collectible industry is very, very robust. Consumers are still loving to collect their favorite products. And so we see we also see more exclusive distribution opportunities for Alliance in collectibles as well as a lot of great acquisition opportunities in the collectibles space that we're in discussions and we'll be in our acquisition strategy for years to Speaker 400:32:53come. Thanks, Jeff. And we had another question. I know you do not provide guidance, but it sounds as if we should be looking for going forward as perhaps limited revenue growth with better gross margins and net margins. Is that a fair assessment? Speaker 200:33:09Yes. I would say that's a pretty fair assessment. Our overall core business is stable and we might have a small uptick in sales, but really our growth from overall net revenue is definitely going to come from our acquisition strategy and adding acquisitions to the business. That is how we've grown the company over the last 20 years. And so there's definitely from the acquisition side. Speaker 200:33:40We are definitely in some other organic conversations to bring on some more exclusive distribution that could drive some growth in our top line revenue. And then as we mentioned on the call, really continuing to focus on our operational efficiencies will also help to reduce our costs and improve our overall net margins. Speaker 400:34:15Thank you, Jeff. And we have 2 related questions to what you're just talking about there. The next one is, can you give any clarity on the offering filing and your intent to raise cash for future acquisitions? Speaker 200:34:27Could you repeat that one for me? Speaker 400:34:29Absolutely. Can you give any clarity on the offering filing and your intent to raise cash for future acquisitions? Speaker 200:34:39Yes. We did put an S-one filing out earlier this year and with the intent to raise capital for acquisitions. I think it's dependent on having a significant acquisition queued up and ready to go. But we're trying to prepare ourselves for all the different options and things that might come our way. On last part on that, from an acquisition standpoint, we're a very diverse business as we just described. Speaker 200:35:20And from that diversity that gives us a lot of different acquisition opportunities in all the different categories and divisions and sales channels that we mentioned earlier today. Speaker 400:35:36Thank you, Jeff. And looks like we have one more question. What is the expected expense reduction in fiscal 2025 from the closing of the Minnesota warehouse? And is there additional reductions planned? Speaker 200:35:51Yes. That we acquired Kokam in September of 2020 and we continue to operate their facilities and so forth through there. The lease was coming due in the main warehouse there at the end of May of 'twenty four this year. So about a year ago, we started our plan to do that consolidation. And so in fiscal 'twenty four, we still ran that warehouse and that operation. Speaker 200:36:22So we did not have much savings in fiscal 'twenty four. The savings is really coming here as we move into fiscal 'twenty five. And we're forecasting right about $5,000,000 of operational savings for fiscal 2025 and obviously going forward from that completed consolidation. And a key aspect on it is not just the rent and the payroll, but one of the key aspects is that we were running on Kokam's legacy IT system as well. So the company had Alliance's system and Kokam system and being able to retire that legacy system at Kokam does save a huge amount of money, not only maintaining systems and as well as IT team and so forth and compliance issues and all those different things as a public company. Speaker 200:37:21So that's where the significant part of that savings is coming from. We do also have a second smaller facility in Minnesota that was across the street from the big one. It's about 30,000 square feet. The lease is up in September of 2025, so a year from now, And we will be exiting that one as our lease comes up. So we'll be working on that next summer. Speaker 200:37:46It's not as significant of a savings as the big warehouse that we just completed, but it will be some additional savings there. Speaker 400:37:58Thank you, Jeff. And that was the last question that we've had come in. Speaker 200:38:05Okay. Thank you, everybody. We're very excited. We had a fantastic fiscal year and we're pretty excited here going into Q4 and the holiday season.Read morePowered by Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallAlliance Entertainment Q4 202400:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2x Earnings DocumentsSlide DeckPress Release(8-K)Annual report(10-K) Alliance Entertainment Earnings HeadlinesAlliance Entertainment Holding Co. (NASDAQ:AENT) Sees Significant Decline in Short InterestApril 29, 2025 | americanbankingnews.comThe Rosen Law Firm, P.A. Announces Proposed Settlement on Behalf of Record and Beneficial Owners of Alliance Entertainment Holding Corp. f/k/a Adara Acquisition Corp. Class A Common StockApril 28, 2025 | globenewswire.comURGENT: Someone's Moving Gold Out of London...People who don’t understand the gold market are about to lose a lot of money. Unfortunately, most so-called “gold analysts” have it all wrong… They tell you to invest in gold ETFs - because the popular mining ETFs will someday catch fire and close the price gap with spot gold. May 7, 2025 | Golden Portfolio (Ad)Alliance Entertainment Powers Record Store Day 2025 as Premier Distributor of Exclusive Vinyl ReleasesApril 1, 2025 | globenewswire.comWith 77% ownership, insiders at Alliance Entertainment Holding Corporation (NASDAQ:AENT) are pretty optimistic and have been buying recentlyMarch 28, 2025 | finance.yahoo.comAlliance Entertainment to acquire assets of Diamond Comics in bankruptcy auctionMarch 26, 2025 | sports.yahoo.comSee More Alliance Entertainment Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like Alliance Entertainment? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on Alliance Entertainment and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About Alliance EntertainmentAlliance Entertainment (NASDAQ:AENT) operates as a wholesaler, distributor, and e-commerce provider for the entertainment industry worldwide. It offers vinyl records, video games, digital video discs, blu-rays, toys, compact discs, collectibles, and other entertainment and consumer products. The company also provides third party logistics products and services. It distributes its physical media, entertainment products, hardware, and accessories through multi-channel strategy. The company was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in Plantation, Florida.View Alliance Entertainment 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 Disney Stock Jumps on Earnings—Is the Magic Sustainable?Archer Stock Eyes Q1 Earnings After UAE UpdatesFord Motor Stock Rises After Earnings, But Momentum May Not Last Broadcom Stock Gets a Lift on Hyperscaler Earnings & CapEx BoostPalantir Stock Drops Despite Stellar Earnings: What's Next?Is Eli Lilly a Buy After Weak Earnings and CVS-Novo Partnership?Is Reddit Stock a Buy, Sell, or Hold After Earnings Release? 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There are 5 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:00Greetings, and welcome to the Alliance Entertainment 4th Quarter and Fiscal Year 20 24 Financial Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. Before we begin the formal presentation, I would like to remind everyone that statements made on the call and webcast may include predictions, estimates or other information that might be considered forward looking. Operator00:00:27While these forward looking statements represent the company's current judgment on what the future holds, they are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward looking statements, which reflect the company's opinions only as of the date of this presentation. Please keep in mind that the company is not obligating itself to revise or publicly release the results of any revision to these forward looking statements in light of new information or future events. Throughout today's discussion, management will attempt to present some important factors relating to the business that may affect predictions. You should also review the company's Form 10 ks for a more complete discussion of these factors and other risks, particularly under the heading Risk Factors. Operator00:01:10During this conference call, management will discuss non GAAP financial measures, including a discussion of adjusted EBITDA. Management believes non GAAP disclosures enable investors to better understand Alliance Entertainment's core operating performance. Please refer to the investor presentation for reconciliation of each non GAAP measure to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure. A press release detailing these results crossed the wire this afternoon at 4:0:1 p. M. Operator00:01:37Eastern Time and is available in the Investor Relations section of Alliance Entertainment's website at aent.com. Your host today, Bruce Ogilvie, Executive Chairman and Jeff Walker, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, will present the results of operations for the Q4 fiscal year ended June 30, 2024. At this time, I will turn the call over to Alliance Entertainment Executive Chairman, Bruce Ogilvie. Speaker 100:02:10Thank you, operator, and good afternoon, everyone. I'm pleased to welcome you to today's 4th quarter fiscal year 2024 financial results conference call. For those of you that are new to our story, we bring entertainment to you. We are a category leading direct to consumer and e commerce provider for the entertainment industry, serving as the gateway between brands and retailers. With over 325,000 SKUs in stock, we provide the world's largest selection of music, home video movies, video games, gaming hardware, arcades, collectibles, toys and consumer electronics. Speaker 100:02:49We are a needed supplier for omni retailers in helping them expand their long tail entertainment selection online and putting them on a level playing field with Amazon. We white label all their direct to consumer shipments to look like it was shipped by the omni retailer, but it was really shipped by Alliance. We are a trusted omni channel supplier to retailers and wholesalers worldwide, including Walmart, Amazon, Best Buy, Costco, Target, Kohl's, BJ's, Meijer, plus 2,500 independent music stores and many other retailers. We are a trusted distributor of home entertainment movies for Walt Disney, Paramount, Sony Pictures, Warner Brothers, Universal Pictures and others. For video games, video game consoles, retro arcades, controllers and physical software games, we distribute products from Microsoft, Nintendo, Arcade 1 Up, Activision, Electronic Arts, Sega, Ubisoft, Square Enix and Take 2. Speaker 100:03:51In music for LPs, CDs and yes, cassettes, we are a trusted distributor for Universal Music, Sony Music, Warner Music Group and every independent music label. For the toys category or collectibles, we distribute for Funko, Mattel, Lego, Hasbro and over 600 other suppliers. Alliance Entertainment is a global leader in the 10,000,000,000 physical media industry and we generate over 1,100,000,000 revenue in fiscal 2024 with our team of 654 dedicated employee owners. Our leading position in the industry provides us with unparalleled scale and leverage and has created significant structural and economic barriers of entry that we believe safeguards our market leadership position. We are a value added retail distributor with exclusive distribution rights for approximately 150 movie studios and music labels in the film and music industry. Speaker 100:04:49Our exclusive distribution licensing deals accounted for over $250,000,000 of our revenue in fiscal 2024. Our extensive portfolio of unique content combined with our deep inventory of long tail selections of the more than 325,000 in stock SKUs enables us to cater to bulk shipments for B2B and direct to consumer retailers with a vast selection of products, including a growing number of products unavailable through other distributor competitors. This helps us create sticky relationships with our retailers and growing these exclusive relationships is a key for us moving forward. We have over 200 online retailers that rely on us to stock the world's largest selection of entertainment products for them and we ship to more than 35,000 storefronts reaching 72 countries globally. Importantly, we have a long and proven track record of growth through strategic acquisitions. Speaker 100:05:47Over the past 20 years, we successfully acquired and integrated a dozen companies allowing us to rapidly enter new markets, expand our product selection and further diversify our revenue streams. Building Alliance from the ground up into the market leader has provided our team with a deep bench and unrivaled experience with further strengthens our position as we remain very much aligned with our shareholders, with insiders and employees holding approximately 94% of the outstanding shares of the company. After experiencing a surge in demand during the pandemic, many areas within the physical media market have been normalizing back to the historical growth levels in the high single digits. Even the CD market has joined the revival with CDs outselling digital albums at a rate of 3 to 1 margin in the 1st 6 months of the year, according to a mid year report from the Recording Industry Association of America. As part of our $1,100,000,000 annual revenue, over $250,000,000 was generated from products for which we are the exclusive distributor. Speaker 100:06:56These exclusive deals are managed through our Distribution Solutions, Amped, Mill Creek and RK 1UP division and they have significantly enhanced our market position by providing unique content that deepens relationship with both suppliers and retailers. Distribution Solutions was responsible for $134,000,000 of this revenue in the 1st fiscal 2024. Distribution Solutions partners with over 60 home video movie studios to manufacture, supply and market their content. We distribute this exclusive content to major retailers such as Amazon, Walmart and Target, as well as thousands of other smaller retailers. By leveraging Alliance Entertainment's vast distribution network, this exclusive content creates a strong, sticky relationship with retailers, strengthening ongoing demand. Speaker 100:07:46In addition, distribution solutions has developed a growing digital distribution business. In fiscal year 2023, we generated $8,400,000 in digital revenue, and we have more than doubled that in fiscal 2024 reaching $20,000,000 On the music side, our Amp division is a leader in physical distribution of exclusive music content. Amp works more than 90 exclusive music labels distributing music across major retailers like Amazon, Walmart, Target, as well as over 2,500 independent music stores throughout the U. S. Labels and artists such as Shaboozy, Usher, K Pop sensation, ATEEZ can bypass major music suppliers, thus lowering their costs and self distribute themselves using AMP for their physical distribution needs because they control their own digital streaming and social media marketing, while maximizing profitability through our extensive brick and mortar and omni retail relationship. Speaker 100:08:44K Pop in particular has become a rapidly growing segment for Amp contributing significantly to our sales growth. Our Mill Creek division specializes in exclusive video content licensing from major studios, including Disney, Sony Pictures, Universal, Lions Gate, CBS and others. Mill Creek licenses, manufacturers and distributes DVDs for these leading studios, enhancing our ability to offer exclusive unique and in demand video content that is sought out by consumers and retailers alike. We are also exclusive North American distributor for Arcade 1 UP, which licenses and manufactures home arcade consoles with significant market share in the retro gaming space. These include some of the most well recognized arcade games like Pac Man, Ms. Speaker 100:09:31Pac Man, MBN Jam, Mortal Kombat, Golden Tee and more. The Infinity game table even includes a digital version of classic board games including Hasbro's Monopoly, Scrabble, Trivial Pursuit, Chutes, Ladders, Candy Land, Nazi and many other iconic games. We've had a long history of disciplined accretive acquisitions and I want to take a moment to highlight the strategic acquisitions that have been critical to our gaming leadership position in the entertainment space and our growth overall. By 2013, Jeff and I had built up Super D from $18,000,000 in sales starting in 2,001 to $194,000,000 dollars Then we made the pivotal move of acquiring Alliance Entertainment, our largest competitor, which was doing $725,000,000 revenue at the time and significantly expanded our footprint transforming us overnight into the largest distributor of music and video in the world. This acquisition marked our 1st major step in consolidating the packaged media categories of music and video. Speaker 100:10:34We continue to build on this strategy in 2016 with the acquisition of AM Connect, which gave us exclusive access to sell CDs to Walmart and Best Buy and expanded our important vendor managing inventory capabilities for our portfolio. Our entry into the gaming space came in in 2018 through the acquisition of Meka, enabling us to distribute products from major suppliers like Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo. That same year, we also acquired distribution solutions from Sony Pictures, which got us into exclusive home video distribution relationships with 20 movie studios, further strengthening our position in the industry and giving us another vendor number of Walmart and Best Buy and enabled us to become the exclusive seller for these movie studios to Walmart, Amazon, Best Buy, Target, Barnes and Noble and other retailers in the U. S. And Canada. Speaker 100:11:23In 2020, we expanded our video gaming presence with the acquisition of Mecca's competitor Kokam, thus expanding our relationship with Best Buy, Target, Kohl's, Dell and Verizon. With the acquisition of Kokam, we also started distributing retro arcades from our K1UP and most recently in 2022, we added collectibles to our portfolio with the acquisition of Think 3 Fold, a move that further diversified our product offering and gave us another supplier number with Walmart. As you can see, we have a proven track record of completing acquisitions and we will continue with that same strategy to further growth and diversify our company moving forward. While we did put ourselves on hold for acquisitions in 20222023 for our SAC merger and gaining our new 3 year line of credit in place, we are currently working on 4 possible future transactions, all in time for our deal pipeline. To better understand what that could mean for Alliance and moving forward, I want to briefly share a case study from our acquisition of Distribution Solutions in 2018. Speaker 100:12:28At the time, they were doing around $80,000,000 in revenue working with 18 studios. Fast forward to today in fiscal 2024, Distribution Solutions accounted for $134,000,000 in revenue and we're now working with nearly 3 times the number of studios. As we look at new deals, we continue to apply the same criteria that's worked for us in the past and we're confident this strategy will continue to yield great results. Technology is the backbone of our operations and critical drivers of efficiency, cost savings and growth. In 2023, we began making strategic investments in automation and technical innovation to enhance our ability to serve our customers more effectively. Speaker 100:13:11In January 2023, we went live with AutoStore automated storage and retrieval system at our Shepherdsville, Kentucky warehouse. I call AutoStore the Rubik's cube of auto storage retrieval systems. This state of the art system has greatly improved our Kentucky warehouse operations, allowing us to achieve increased levels of speed, reliability, capability and precision that resulted in significant cost savings. With Autostore, we now process over 2,000 lines per hour with a fraction of the staff. We went from 41 pickers down to 7 and receiving went from 14 associates down to 8. Speaker 100:13:47Year over year, our fulfillment costs are running 1% lower. Because of Avastore, we eliminate aisles. It created more storage location capacity, enabling us to consolidate operations and close the larger of 2 buildings in Shakopee, Minnesota, thus removing 162,000 square feet and 192,000 square feet we had leased there. This closure process, which began in January, was completed on May 31. The savings from this consolidation will positively and permanently impact and reduce our cost structure in fiscal year 2025, further strengthening our ability to operate efficiently and deliver value to our shareholders. Speaker 100:14:26In addition, in the Q3 of fiscal 2024, we announced the installation of SureSort X system from OpEx, a cutting edge sortation technology to deliver nearly $500,000 in immediate savings by eliminating need to retrofit older technology and is expected to deliver another nearly $400,000 in annual labor cost savings in our Kentucky facility. In additional cost savings, the Surex technology has allowed us to handle larger products such as toys and electronics, removing the need for manual sorting and driving new levels of efficiency and precision. In the investor presentations, there are hyperlinks to C Auto Store and OpEx and other processes we do in Kentucky. I will now hand the call over to Alliance's Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, Jeff Walker, my partner. Speaker 200:15:19Thank you, Bruce, and thank you all for joining us today. We will now turn to an overview of our financial results for the Q4 fiscal year ended June 30, 2024. We generated $236,900,000 in net revenue for the 4th quarter compared to $247,100,000 in the same period last year. While this represents a modest decline, we saw positive shifts in several key areas that position us well for the future. Our gross profit for the Q4 was $26,900,000 down from $30,200,000 in the same quarter last year. Speaker 200:16:03This resulted in a gross margin of 11.4%, slightly below the 12.2% achieved in Q4 2023. Although margins tighten, we've taken steps to streamline costs and improve efficiencies, which will be reflected in future quarters. We are pleased to report we delivered net income of $2,500,000 for the quarter, a major turnaround from the 4 point $6,000,000 net loss in the same period last year, an impressive $7,100,000 improvement and a clear signal that our focus on operational efficiency is paying off. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter came in at $2,100,000 our 5th consecutive quarter of positive adjusted EBITDA. Moving on to our full year highlights. Speaker 200:16:57Net revenues for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024 were $1,100,000,000 compared to $1,160,000,000 for fiscal year 2023. Our shift towards higher margin business, including growth in consumer direct shipments is one factor helping to drive improved margins and profitability. Consumer direct shipments increased to 36% of our gross revenue, up from 31% in fiscal 2023. Gross profit for the fiscal year was $128,900,000 compared to $103,900,000 in the prior year, an impressive 24% increase. This improvement was driven by the combination of shifting product mix and new operational efficiencies. Speaker 200:17:53Gross profit margin also saw a substantial boost rising to 11.7%, up from 9% in fiscal 2023, representing a 2 70 basis point improvement. In addition to the year over year growth in our quarterly gross profit, we achieved a significant $21,900,000 reduction in operating expenses, a 16% decrease, bringing expenses down from $136,700,000 to $114,700,000 This reduction was largely driven by the warehouse efficiencies and new technologies we implemented throughout the year. These improvements are not just one time gains, they will continue to positively impact our cost structure and overall profitability moving forward. Net income for fiscal 2024 was $4,600,000 a $40,000,000 improvement over the $35,400,000 net loss in fiscal 2023, underscoring the effectiveness of our ongoing initiatives to improve margins and manage costs. Our adjusted EBITDA tells a similar story, improving by 41,900,000 to $24,300,000 up from an adjusted EBITDA loss of $17,600,000 in fiscal 2023. Speaker 200:19:28Net cash provided by operating activities surged to $55,800,000 in fiscal 2024, up from $3,400,000 in the prior year, a remarkable increase of 15 47%. This cash generation strengthens our ability to reinvest in the business and drive future growth. And just to reiterate something Bruce mentioned earlier, we expect significant cost savings in fiscal 2025 from the closing of our Minnesota facility, which was completed in late May. Over the past year, we've also made significant efforts to strengthen our balance sheet and those efforts are continuing to bear fruit with both inventory and debt continuing to decline year over year. Inventory dropped from $147,000,000 to $97,000,000 as of June 30, 2024 and debt was reduced from $133,000,000 to $73,000,000 In conjunction with these initiatives, we secured a new 3 year $120,000,000 senior secured asset based credit facility with White Oak Commercial Finance earlier this year, the proceeds of which was used to refinance the existing credit facility, fund working capital needs and provide for general corporate purposes. Speaker 200:20:59These steps have also positioned us to focus and execute on implementing our acquisition strategy going forward. Taking a broader view of our financial performance over the last 5 fiscal years, this slide showcases how we've navigated a dynamic environment. In fiscal 2020, we generated $776,000,000 in revenue. Over the next 2 years, a combination of growth initiatives, strategic acquisitions and an unprecedented surge in demand during COVID-nineteen pandemic drove our top line to a peak of $1,400,000,000 in fiscal 2022. As expected, this demand is normalized with revenues adjusting to around $1,100,000,000 for fiscal 2023 2024. Speaker 200:21:54While adjusted EBITDA in fiscal 2023 was impacted by one time supply chain issues, the significant rebound in fiscal 2024 also reflects the strategic steps we've taken to enhance profitability, including reducing costs and optimizing operations. Our adjusted EBITDA margin was 2.2 percent for fiscal 2024. Turning to our balance sheet, as mentioned a moment ago, our focus on reducing inventory and debt has paid off, with inventory levels dropping to $97,000,000 and debt reduced to $73,000,000 as of June 30, 2024. These reductions have streamlined our operations and improved our financial flexibility. As already mentioned, we also expect further cost savings for fiscal 2025, particularly from the closure of our Minnesota facility in May. Speaker 200:22:56Additionally, our $120,000,000 asset based credit facility with White Oak, which was secured to support working capital and refinance existing debt has positioned us well for continued growth and execution of our acquisition strategy going forward. I will now turn the call back over to Bruce. Speaker 100:23:17Thank you, Jeff. As we look to the future, Alliance Entertainment is poised for continued growth by leveraging our strength as a capital light low cost provider with unmatched reach in the industry. Our strategy is clear, expand our market share, improve margins and drive EBITDA growth. 1st, we see tremendous opportunities to expand into underpenetrated channels, particularly in areas like digital video streaming, where direct vendor selling remains low and cost and effective. This is where Alliance can truly shine by offering efficient scalable solution. Speaker 100:23:53In fiscal 2024 alone, our exclusive distribution agreement generated over $250,000,000 in sales and we expect to build on this momentum moving forward. 2nd, we are investing in automation and restructuring to enhance our operational efficiency. Technologies like AutoStore are already driving significant cost savings and these improvements will continue to bolster our margins while providing the scalability we need to capture more market share. 3rd, mergers and acquisitions remain central to our growth strategy. Through strategic M and A, we plan to rapidly expand our product categories in verticals across music, home video movies, video gaming, toys and collectibles. Speaker 100:24:34By doing so, we will not only diversify our offerings, but also strengthen relationships with our major retail partners, positioning Alliance for long term success. The opportunities ahead are significant. Family owned competitors are aging out and large movie studios and companies are looking to sell or license physical media rights. Our capital light model combined with our proven ability to integrate acquisition sets us apart from the competition. These major movie studios and we lean on our lines to allow opportunities to license their home video content and allow these major movie studios to focus on their core competency of making movies, exhibiting in theaters, doing premium downloads and focusing their streaming services. Speaker 100:25:20Alliance's core competency is distributing packaged physical media. We are excited about the road ahead and we're confident that our strategic initiatives will drive future growth and profitability for years to come. With that, I'd like to hand the call back to the operator and begin our question and answer session. Operator? Operator00:25:41Thank you. We'll now be conducting a question and answer Thank you. Our first question is from David Levine with Critical Research. Please proceed with your question. Speaker 300:26:26Hi, guys. Great results, really impressive, great turnaround, all that stuff. I'm wondering if you would be willing to comment a little bit on given all the changes that have been made and some of the positive developments that you're seeing in the business, if it's reasonable to expect, say, adjusted EBITDA in the future quarters and coming years to trend something closer to where they were previously, say, in the 4% 5% range? Speaker 200:27:01Hello, David. This is Jeff Walker. I'll answer that there for you. We definitely see our EBITDA trending upwards and we do believe that we can get back into that 4% to 5% EBITDA goal or target that we've been focused on. So that 2024 was still a year of some cleanup as well as consolidation. Speaker 200:27:29So we should definitely see that improving as we're moving into fiscal 2025 and 2026. Speaker 300:27:37Great. Thanks. Speaker 200:27:40Thank you, David. Operator00:27:47Thank you. There are no further questions in the queue at this time. I would like to pass it back to Paul Koonce for any questions from the webcast. Speaker 400:27:56Thank you, Paul. And now we are going to turn to the questions coming in from the webcast participants. Our first question was how interest rate reductions impact the earnings? Speaker 200:28:10Thank you, Paul. I'll take this one as well here. We expect to see a very big decline in our interest expense for fiscal 'twenty six with our continued debt reduction that we're in the process of today and continuing through fiscal 'twenty five and combining that with potential Fed interest rate reductions. And that should have a pretty significant impact on our interest cost in fiscal 2025, but a real significant impact for fiscal '26 as well. Speaker 400:28:55Thank you. And our next question, what growth initiatives are Alliances focused on in fiscal 2025? Speaker 200:29:06Thank you, Paul. We're really focused intently right now on increasing our exclusive distribution opportunities in video, music and collectibles. We definitely mentioned that quite a bit in the statement in our press release here. It's a very important aspect of our business to have the exclusive distribution of products. It really helps us with sales to our retailers and it really drives our business there. Speaker 200:29:40We are looking at including significant video licensing opportunities with our Mill Creek division. And we currently have a significant conversation happening here because of Alliance's extensive distribution capabilities and being great solutions for our partners. So really our solution has been very successful for the labels and studios that have come to us for exclusive distribution. And part of that is that we have all their inventory in stock and our sales opportunities and sales channels, not only to the brick and mortar, but across all e commerce selling media products is really our bread and butter there for our exclusive vendors and it's really driving incremental sales for them. Speaker 400:30:39Thank you. And our next question, collectible sales were down in fiscal 2024. What is the future in them? Speaker 200:30:50Some of you probably know that are on this call, COVID was fantastic for all consumer products and collectibles were definitely super hot during COVID with for retailers, wholesalers, manufacturers. We as it was humming along so well, we all really got severely overstocked and lots of products had to be marked down and sold through with all the major retailers and wholesalers and manufacturers. I think today, the collectible market is in a much better position today. There's just a small amount of excess products still in the pipeline, but nothing like it was a couple of years ago. And when there's a lot of excess product in the pipeline, it really slows down sales for everybody in the category. Speaker 200:31:52So Alliance was not immune to it. We took hits on this. It affected our sales and margins and we've come through this as well. And if you follow Funko, who is definitely a leader in collectibles, they definitely describe the challenges. And going into 2025, the collectible business is definitely normalizing for them and other manufacturers. Speaker 200:32:22I will say that the overall collectible industry is very, very robust. Consumers are still loving to collect their favorite products. And so we see we also see more exclusive distribution opportunities for Alliance in collectibles as well as a lot of great acquisition opportunities in the collectibles space that we're in discussions and we'll be in our acquisition strategy for years to Speaker 400:32:53come. Thanks, Jeff. And we had another question. I know you do not provide guidance, but it sounds as if we should be looking for going forward as perhaps limited revenue growth with better gross margins and net margins. Is that a fair assessment? Speaker 200:33:09Yes. I would say that's a pretty fair assessment. Our overall core business is stable and we might have a small uptick in sales, but really our growth from overall net revenue is definitely going to come from our acquisition strategy and adding acquisitions to the business. That is how we've grown the company over the last 20 years. And so there's definitely from the acquisition side. Speaker 200:33:40We are definitely in some other organic conversations to bring on some more exclusive distribution that could drive some growth in our top line revenue. And then as we mentioned on the call, really continuing to focus on our operational efficiencies will also help to reduce our costs and improve our overall net margins. Speaker 400:34:15Thank you, Jeff. And we have 2 related questions to what you're just talking about there. The next one is, can you give any clarity on the offering filing and your intent to raise cash for future acquisitions? Speaker 200:34:27Could you repeat that one for me? Speaker 400:34:29Absolutely. Can you give any clarity on the offering filing and your intent to raise cash for future acquisitions? Speaker 200:34:39Yes. We did put an S-one filing out earlier this year and with the intent to raise capital for acquisitions. I think it's dependent on having a significant acquisition queued up and ready to go. But we're trying to prepare ourselves for all the different options and things that might come our way. On last part on that, from an acquisition standpoint, we're a very diverse business as we just described. Speaker 200:35:20And from that diversity that gives us a lot of different acquisition opportunities in all the different categories and divisions and sales channels that we mentioned earlier today. Speaker 400:35:36Thank you, Jeff. And looks like we have one more question. What is the expected expense reduction in fiscal 2025 from the closing of the Minnesota warehouse? And is there additional reductions planned? Speaker 200:35:51Yes. That we acquired Kokam in September of 2020 and we continue to operate their facilities and so forth through there. The lease was coming due in the main warehouse there at the end of May of 'twenty four this year. So about a year ago, we started our plan to do that consolidation. And so in fiscal 'twenty four, we still ran that warehouse and that operation. Speaker 200:36:22So we did not have much savings in fiscal 'twenty four. The savings is really coming here as we move into fiscal 'twenty five. And we're forecasting right about $5,000,000 of operational savings for fiscal 2025 and obviously going forward from that completed consolidation. And a key aspect on it is not just the rent and the payroll, but one of the key aspects is that we were running on Kokam's legacy IT system as well. So the company had Alliance's system and Kokam system and being able to retire that legacy system at Kokam does save a huge amount of money, not only maintaining systems and as well as IT team and so forth and compliance issues and all those different things as a public company. Speaker 200:37:21So that's where the significant part of that savings is coming from. We do also have a second smaller facility in Minnesota that was across the street from the big one. It's about 30,000 square feet. The lease is up in September of 2025, so a year from now, And we will be exiting that one as our lease comes up. So we'll be working on that next summer. Speaker 200:37:46It's not as significant of a savings as the big warehouse that we just completed, but it will be some additional savings there. Speaker 400:37:58Thank you, Jeff. And that was the last question that we've had come in. Speaker 200:38:05Okay. Thank you, everybody. We're very excited. We had a fantastic fiscal year and we're pretty excited here going into Q4 and the holiday season.Read morePowered by