Ascent Industries Q2 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

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Provided by Quartr
August 6, 2025

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: Completed divestiture of all Tubular segment assets to become a pure-play specialty chemical company focused on scalable, durable margin growth.
  • Negative Sentiment: Idle Munhall facility continues to impose a $2.1 million annualized drag on adjusted EBITDA until disposition or restart.
  • Positive Sentiment: Repurchased and retired nearly 6% of outstanding shares, underscoring management’s conviction in the company’s long-term value.
  • Positive Sentiment: Sequential Q2 improvements: revenue rose $0.8 million, gross margin expanded to 26.1% (+888 bps), and adjusted EBITDA loss narrowed despite Munhall costs.
  • Positive Sentiment: Secured $3.1 million of annualized new revenue at a 29% gross margin with 88% from existing customers and increased the sales pipeline by $25 million.
AI Generated. May Contain Errors.
Earnings Conference Call
Ascent Industries Q2 2025
00:00 / 00:00

There are 5 speakers on the call.

Speaker 2

Good afternoon and welcome to Ascent Industries Co.'s second quarter 2025 earnings call. Today's speakers are CEO J. Bryan Kitchen, CFO Ryan Kavalauskas, and the company's outside investor relations advisor, Ralf Esper. We'll begin with prepared remarks followed by Q&A. Before we go further, I would like to turn the call over to Ralf Esper as he reads the company's safe harbor statement within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that provides important cautions regarding forward-looking statements. Ralf?

Speaker 4

Thanks, Liz. Before we continue, I would like to remind all participants that the discussion today may contain certain forward-looking statements pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the federal security laws. These statements are based on information currently available to us and are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Ascent advises all of those listening to this call to review the latest 10-Q and 10-K posted on its website for a summary of these risks and uncertainties. Ascent does not undertake the responsibility to update any forward-looking statements. Further, the discussion today may include non-GAAP measures. In accordance with Regulation G, the company has reconciled these amounts back to the closest GAAP-based measurement. The reconciliations can be found in the earnings press release issued earlier today and posted on the investors section of the company's website at www.ascentco.com.

Speaker 4

Please note that this call is available for replay via a webcast link that is also posted on the investors section of the company's website. Now, I would like to turn it over to our CEO, J. Bryan Kitchen, to walk you through the results and what's driving continued momentum. Bryan?

Speaker 3

Thanks, Ralf. Q2 marked a defining milestone in Ascent's transformation. With successful divestitures of both Bristol Metals and American Stainless Tubing, we've now fully exited all operating assets within the tubular segment. The only remaining drag is our idle tubular facility in Munn Hall, Pennsylvania, a $2.1 million annualized headwind to adjusted EBITDA. We're actively pursuing parallel paths to unlock that trapped cash and close this final chapter. Our portfolio is clean. Our focus is singular. Ascent is officially a pure-play specialty chemical company, purpose-built to scale, generate durable margin, and deliver exceptional customer outcomes. We didn't just restructure the portfolio. We put it to work. This quarter, we repurchased and retired nearly 6% of our outstanding shares. That's not symbolic. It's a statement of conviction. We believe in the long-term value of the platform we've built, and we're backing it with decisive capital allocation.

Speaker 3

More importantly, we've delivered sequential improvements in revenue, gross profit, gross margin, and adjusted EBITDA. A few highlights. Revenue increased $817,000 sequentially to $18.7 million, though fell short of the $21.4 million prior year comp, largely due to broader market softness. Gross profit rose $1.8 million from Q1 and $2.1 million versus the same quarter last year. Gross margin expanded to 26.1%, up 888 basis points sequentially, and 1,298 basis points year over year. Adjusted EBITDA increased $131,000 sequentially to a loss of $335,000 in the quarter, but fell short of prior year by $53,000. We achieved all of this despite absorbing $475,000 of Munn Hall-related cost in the quarter, excluding the asset impairment on the right-of-use asset on the facility. These gains are not episodic. They reflect disciplined execution, strategic focus, and a business model that's working.

Speaker 3

We're shifting mix to higher margin opportunities, managing costs with purpose, and turning commercial wins into real operating leverage. Our operations team continues to drive momentum. Labor overhead and production variances improved by more than $1.2 million year over year, while service levels hit all-time highs despite a more complex and more dynamic product mix. In Q2, our team developed process modifications that drove a 5% yield improvement across a targeted product basket, unlocking $250,000 in annualized gross profit and a meaningful reduction in cycle times. That's continuous improvement in action. Strategic sourcing remains a standout strength, consolidating vendors, qualifying new sources, and continuing to lower raw material costs without sacrificing reliability. As reported last quarter, roughly 95% of our revenue is supported by domestically produced raw materials, dramatically reducing our exposure to tariff volatility. On the commercial side, momentum continues to build.

Speaker 3

In Q2, we secured over $3.1 million of annualized new revenue at a 29% gross margin, well above historical averages. These wins spanned oil and gas, HI&I, pulp and paper, and CASE, all markets where our value proposition continues to resonate. Roughly one-third of that growth came from product sales, and two-thirds came from high-quality custom manufacturing engagements. Notably, 88% of those wins were expansion with existing accounts, further proof that our model is earning trust and expanding share of wallet. This is where chemicals as a service comes to life. We're not just selling products. We're solving problems. We're creating formulations, offering blending and packaging, managing logistics, ensuring regulatory compliance, and delivering it all with speed and precision. We do this across small and large volume requirements in ways that traditional manufacturers won't and distributors simply can't.

Speaker 3

It's a hybrid model that fuses custom manufacturing, high service execution, and it's working. Underpinned by a $25 million increase in our selling project pipeline, the $3.1 million of new business won in Q2 is expected to grow significantly into 2026. With no significant new fixed cost burden, each incremental win translates directly to meaningful profit. That's what makes this model powerful, is that it's scalable. Every customer engagement, every sourcing win, yield improvement, and process improvement builds muscle. The platform that we're building compounds in strength, and the value that we create for our customers multiplies as we grow. Across the moments that matter, we win because we respond faster than traditional manufacturers, especially in the early stages like discovery and development, where our technical bench and speed help customers move from problem to solution.

Speaker 3

We offer services far beyond what distributors can, spanning the full range of the value chain, from reaction-based product development to logistics to regulatory compliance and reformulation. We lead with service and agility, not line cards. We solve problems most platforms aren't built to see because we design our model around every stage of customer loyalty: discovery, contracting, fulfillment, and lifecycle support. We do it all while expanding margin and strengthening reliability for our customers, not by chance, but by design, with process automation, dual source qualification, and operational excellence built into everything we do. These moments that matter are where loyalty is earned and retained. Ascent is winning because we've made them our blueprint for scalable, profitable growth. Without question, the strategic recapitalization of SG&A and the operational horsepower behind it has been central to our transformation.

Speaker 3

Over the past year, we've redirected investment into roles that enable and unlock growth: technical sales, business development, engineering, strategic sourcing, marketing, business operations, and customer care. While the total SG&A has remained effectively flat, the return on that spend has fundamentally changed. These teams are now delivering measurable results: new commercial wins, stronger margins, deeper customer penetration, and all-time service levels. We're just getting started. We're not building a traditional chemicals company. We're building a performance platform engineered to solve the hardest problems across reaction chemistry, formulation, supply chain, compliance, and fulfillment. From development to delivery, we own the outcome. That's why we're gaining share. That's why margins are expanding. That's why the best chapters of our story are still ahead.

Speaker 3

Before I pass it over to Ryan, I want to thank our incredible team at Ascent, our superpower, who has continued to demonstrate remarkable grit, hustle, and the drive to win. I also want to thank our investors for the trust and confidence that you placed in both Ryan and I and the team that we've assembled. With that, I'll turn it over to Ryan to provide you a bit more context behind our financial performance. Ryan, over to you.

Speaker 4

Thanks, Bryan, and good afternoon, everyone. As Bryan laid out, Q2 was a milestone in Ascent's transformation, and the financials are beginning to reflect the benefits of our disciplined repositioning. Today, I'll walk through our second quarter results and highlight where structural improvements are driving sustainable margin and operating leverage, even in the face of persistent macro headwinds. Revenue from continuing operations was $18.7 million, down 13% versus Q2 of last year, but up nearly 5% sequentially from Q1 of 2025. The year-over-year decline was primarily volume-driven, reflecting softer demand across key end markets, though pricing actions taken over the past several quarters helped partially offset the impact.

Speaker 4

This top-line momentum, quarter over quarter, albeit measured, is especially notable given the broader macrochemical environment where manufacturing activity has largely languished below expansion territory over the past two years, with only a brief respite in early 2025 when PMI readings edged above 50 in January and February. The sector has since reverted to contraction, with July 2025 registering 48. Within that context, our sequential growth signals early traction from our focus on higher-value commercial engagements and more resilient end market exposure. Gross profit increased to $4.9 million, with gross margin expanding to 26.1%, up from 17% in Q1 and 13.1% in the prior year period. However, it's important to note that in June, we reclassified approximately $1.2 million of cost from cost of goods sold to SG&A to more accurately reflect the administrative nature of certain Munn Hall, Palmer, and SBT support resources.

Speaker 4

Adjusting for this reclassification, normalized gross margins for Q1 and Q2 in 2025 would have been approximately 21% and 22.4% respectively, still representing strong year-to-date expansion. This improvement in margin quality is being driven by favorable pricing, continued reductions in raw material input costs through strategic sourcing, and operational efficiencies across our sites. Despite a 29.6% year-over-year decline in volume, driven by both market conditions and our deliberate exit from lower value streams, our pricing actions and cost management efforts are creating real operating leverage. Turning to SG&A, expenses totaled $6.4 million in Q2, up from $4.6 million in the prior year period. This year-over-year comparison is skewed by two factors. First, the $1.2 million reclassification of support-related COGs into SG&A. Second, the reinclusion of remaining ongoing Munn Hall expenses in continuing operation this year, whereas it was previously captured in discontinued operations.

Speaker 4

When you remove these combined effects and isolate core SG&A, excluding Munn Hall, Palmer, and SBT-related overhead, underlying expenses were actually down approximately $400,000 year-over-year. That's despite continued investments in commercial, technical, and operational talent, as well as system and process improvements designed to scale the platform. These margin gains, paired with disciplined cost management, are beginning to show up in our bottom line. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was a loss of $300,000, flat to prior year, but again, this includes roughly $475,000 of Munn Hall-related costs now embedded in continuing operations. Adjusting for these legacy site impacts, Q2 adjusted EBITDA would have been approximately positive $181,000. We believe this is a more accurate reflection of the earnings power of our core business and underscores the progress we've made in repositioning the cost structure.

Speaker 4

All of this progress is underpinned by a balance sheet that remains exceptionally well-positioned to support our strategy. We ended Q2 with $60.5 million in cash, no debt, and $13.4 million of availability under our revolver. We remain disciplined in our capital deployment, having repurchased over 644,000 shares in the quarter, nearly 6% of the company, at an average price of $12.15 per share, while preserving flexibility for future growth investments or opportunistic M&A. To wrap up, revenue improved sequentially despite muted macro conditions and lower volume. Gross margins expanded significantly year to date, even after adjusting for accounting reclassifications. Core SG&A is down year over year, reflecting disciplined execution and early operating leverage. Adjusted EBITDA would have been positive, excluding legacy site drag, and we expect continued improvement going forward.

Speaker 4

We're confident in the underlying trajectory of the business, and we're committed to sustaining this momentum through thoughtful execution and disciplined capital stewardship. With that, I'll turn it back over to the operator for questions. Thanks.

Speaker 2

Thank you, sir. At this time, we will conduct our question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. We'll pause for just a moment to compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Adam Waldo from Lismore Partners. Please proceed.

Speaker 1

A good day, Bryan and Ryan. I hope you're well. Thank you for taking my questions.

Speaker 4

Hey, Adam.

Speaker 1

Bryan, we had a chance to meet at an investor conference in Chicago in early June, and I appreciated your thoughtful answers to my questions, and I wanted to follow up on a couple of things in light of this quarter's results release. First, as you think about the 2030 adjusted EBITDA margin target that you've laid out in your Planet Micro Cap showcase presentation of 15% net of public company overhead, what sort of revenue number are you contemplating there, and can that revenue number be achieved through the excess capacity you have within the existing footprint, or would some of that revenue need to be acquired?

Speaker 3

Yeah, no, good question. Appreciate that, Adam. Outside of our, within our existing asset base, we're confident that we can get to, let's say, $120 million to $130 million of top line. If you recall from the micro cap deck, taking that down to gross margins of roughly 30% to 35% with SG&A at that level of nominal of 15%, taking it down to adjusted EBITDA targets of about 15%. We're confident that within the existing asset base, we can get to, we can grow into about $120 million to $130 million, depending on the mix.

Speaker 1

How do you all sort of quantify and think about your near to intermediate term new business pipeline over the next 12 to, you know, call it 18 months?

Speaker 3

Yeah, I guess, could you be more specific?

Speaker 1

I know your business is one in which you sort of combine more of what I'll call spot market opportunities, but also some longer-term contracted business, right, with larger industrial clients and the like. How should we think about the amount of organic revenue growth that to which you feel you have line of sight through your new business pipeline as we look out over the next 12 to 18 months, or is that pretty hard to quantify at this point?

Speaker 3

Yeah, I mean, look, this is something that we work on every day. One of the data points that I referenced earlier was an increase in our selling project pipeline by about $25 million over the last quarter. Of that $25 million, it's spread out across four to five different market segments. It's a mix of both product sales as well as high-value custom manufacturing.

Speaker 1

Okay, that's tremendously helpful. Last question, if you'll permit me, Bryan. In that investor conference in early June, you, in response to my question, you talked about an executive management equity compensation plan that was being finalized and was going to be presented to the board. Has that been presented to the board at this point for its review and consideration? Should we view the share repurchases of about 600,000 shares during the second quarter as having been done, A, because of the undervaluation of the stock, but B, to support that management equity incentive plan for sort of the next levels of management below the CEO and the CFO?

Speaker 3

I'll answer those questions in reverse. The share buyback of about 6% of our outstanding shares is not related to any type of equity program for senior leaders within the company. That's just purely based on the fact that we believe that this company is undervalued today, and it will only increase in value in the near term. That's part A. Part B, getting back to the question at hand. We have an existing equity program in place for Ryan and I. We're at the final stages of advancing a broader equity program, and with the compensation committee's help, that will be updated and refreshed each year.

Speaker 1

Okay. In terms of this year's tranche of that, would you expect that to be finalized with the Board Compensation Committee?

Speaker 3

That's already, yeah, that's already been settled.

Speaker 1

It's already been set. Okay, this is really for 2026. All right, thank you very much.

Speaker 3

You bet.

Speaker 2

Again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star, the number one on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from the line of David Siegfried. Please go ahead.

Operator

Hey, thanks for taking my call. Congratulations on the progress made this past quarter.

Speaker 3

Thank you.

Operator

Yeah. I know generally the earnings for a chemical manufacturer are more stable than a tubular and would demand a higher multiple. I don't know if really the rerating has happened yet. What do you see as a catalyst to get this higher?

Speaker 3

Yeah, I think it's three things. I think it's growth, growth, and growth, right? Outside of addressing the lingering Munn Hall issue, which we are, our primary focus after stabilizing and fixing the foundation last year is all about driving both organic and inorganic growth. It's been really encouraging to see just the enormous progress that our team has made over the past, well, several quarters. What I would say is the momentum that we have seen over the past quarter has just been incredible. We're very excited about the future, very excited about the work that the team is doing, and we're very excited about the value proposition that we have that's resonating with our customers.

Operator

Good to hear. Do you think a return to profitability is in the cards for, like, we'll say, third or fourth quarter? I know earlier in the year, we were talking about that second quarter, or, I'm sorry, third or fourth quarter 2025.

Speaker 3

Yeah, I mean, that's certainly what we're running and going towards. As Ryan indicated earlier, if you exclude the Munn Hall aspect, we're effectively there. What I would say is the levels of profitability are cute, if we're not satisfied with that. You know, we've got much larger aspirations that we're working towards.

Operator

Got it. Congratulations on making the Russell index this year. The previous two times that Ascent Industries Co. made the Russell, the previous year was kicked out because of not having market cap, meeting market cap requirements. Do you think this year will be different? 2026, do you think that will be different?

Speaker 3

I hope with improved stability that will not be the case, but I can't guarantee that.

Operator

Right. No, I understand. You know, we're talking a little bit, the previous caller talking a little bit about the board. Do you think there would be some advantages to having a board of directors that consists of a chemical guy or a few chemical guys? Because after all, it's a chemical company now.

Speaker 3

Yeah, I mean, like we've said, over the course of the past year, our Board of Directors has been incredibly supportive of Ryan and I and the team that we've put in place over the past year and rolling into this year. Certainly, there's a recognition that we do not have chemical industry representation on our current Board, and that's being addressed.

Operator

Good. I think I've been following this story for six, seven years, probably more, and been an investor for that time. ASTI, the asset was essentially sold for less than what it was paid for years ago. I would have to say the Dankem purchase was probably an overpay considering it was bought at peak market. Do you think more discipline, or do you think it appears that you have more discipline now this time around when it comes to a potential purchase or acquisition?

Speaker 3

That's certainly the plan, David. We've looked at a number of properties. We've gotten into LOIs. We've walked away because we couldn't align on an appropriate value. We're not going to get into deal frenzy and just do a deal for the sake of doing a deal. We want to do the right deal. We want to do the right deal for our shareholders. We want to start off with something small, as we've talked about before. We want to demonstrate to ourselves and to our shareholders that we can extract the contemplated growth synergies, extract the contemplated cost synergies before we get too far out ahead of ourselves. I would look for smaller transactions before bigger transactions.

Operator

Got it. Makes sense. Regarding the buyback, you know, great amount of shares bought back last quarter. Do you see that happening in the future, you know, big tranches like that? Is this going to be a continuation of, you know, depending upon the order flow, you know, picking up 100,000 shares per quarter if you have that type of volume?

Speaker 3

Yeah, I mean, we're going to continue to operate within the existing buyback agreement, and we'll continue to evaluate opportunities with the board. As you know, we've got a fair amount of dry powder right now, and we'd like to unleash that with inorganic growth opportunities.

Operator

Got it.

Speaker 3

It's not an or.

Operator

All right.

Speaker 3

Just like we said before, it's not an or, it's an and.

Operator

Right. Sure. Very good. Thank you for the time. Appreciate it.

Speaker 3

You bet. Thank you.

Speaker 2

As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one. Your next question comes from the line of Adam Waldo with Lismore Partners. Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

A quick follow-up on the other gentleman's line of questioning around the trade-offs, implicit trade-offs between deploying capital for M&A versus share buybacks. As you all get toward, we'll get in the future towards the end of the time period of achieving, filling the existing capacity footprint and reaching, call it, $120 million of annualized run rate revenue. How do you think about the M&A multiples as multiple of revenue and pre-operating expense synergy EBITDA that you would need to, which you would need to acquire companies to compare favorably with the risk-free rate of return available on your stock repurchases?

Speaker 3

Sure. Ryan, you want to jump in?

Operator

Yeah, I mean, the way we're looking at M&A today from an inorganic perspective is we believe the assets that we'll be looking to acquire will be trading in that six to eight times EBITDA range. We would like to stay at the lower end of that range when you take into account synergies, just based on where we're trading today and based on the value we can extract organically. As Bryan said, this is an and discussion. We'll always look at opportunistically buying back our shares. We'll look at M&A and we'll like deals early that trend towards that lower end of that six to eight times range. I don't think we're in a position today to overpay or pay up for anything beyond that. Again, based on where we're at organically, we've got a lot of room to grow there.

Operator

We'd like to invest back in the business where we see opportunities to find assets that can be accretive to growth at the lower end of that multiple range where synergies make sense, and there's a lot of opportunities to either expand geographically, market share-wise, what have you. That's where we'll focus. They'll be small out of the gate. We want to make sure the team continues to focus on organic growth. We have a lot of capacity to fill. We're in no rush to go do a deal. We want to be very, very disciplined. Just like David said, there's been deals in the past that we look at and we just want to be very careful with how we look at deals going forward. Again, a lot of these deals early are going to be in that lower end of that six to eight times.

Operator

Again, closer to six, seven when you pull in synergies. That's really where we focus M&A in the near term.

Speaker 1

Okay, really helpful to hear the philosophy there. You made reference, Ryan, to six to eight times post-OpEx synergies. I just want to clarify that. If so, what multiples would that look like pre-synergies so that we sort of think about the risk profile of a pre-synergies multiple, right, versus just buying back your own stock and expanding internally at a lower risk profile than integrating an acquisition and financing it, right?

Operator

Sure. I would not expect and I would not anticipate us paying anything over eight or nine times earnings on a potential asset. I mean, that would be pre-synergy. Where we would like to be post-synergy is we'll be pulling that down closer to that six to seven times. That's where we'll focus in the early. Anything over that, we're just not in a position right now to overpay for an asset, pay up for an asset. We just have too much idle capacity where we need to go out and make a bet that large based on what we know we can do internally. I would say pre-synergies, eight to nine times, I would not expect us to do anything more than that. Then post-synergies, where we like to be is in that six to seven.

Speaker 1

Very good. Very, very helpful. Thank you so much, and best of luck.

Operator

Thank you.

Speaker 2

At this time, this concludes our question and answer session. I would now like to turn the call back over to Mr. Kitchen for closing remarks.

Speaker 3

Okay, great. Thank you, Liz. We'd like to thank everyone for listening to today's call, and we look forward to speaking with you again when we report out our second quarter, third quarter, and 2025 results. Thanks, and have a great afternoon.

Speaker 2

Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you all for your participation.

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