NYSE:UVV Universal Q3 2026 Earnings Report $53.88 -0.03 (-0.05%) Closing price 05/7/2026 03:59 PM EasternExtended Trading$53.80 -0.07 (-0.14%) As of 05/7/2026 05:57 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 Massive. Learn more. ProfileEarnings HistoryForecast Universal EPS ResultsActual EPS$1.35Consensus EPS $1.92Beat/MissMissed by -$0.57One Year Ago EPSN/AUniversal Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$861.29 millionExpected Revenue$927.20 millionBeat/MissMissed by -$65.91 millionYoY Revenue GrowthN/AUniversal Announcement DetailsQuarterQ3 2026Date2/9/2026TimeBefore Market OpensConference Call DateMonday, February 9, 2026Conference Call Time5:00PM ETUpcoming EarningsUniversal's Q4 2026 earnings is estimated for Wednesday, May 27, 2026, based on past reporting schedules, with a conference call scheduled on Wednesday, May 20, 2026 at 4:00 PM ET. Check back for transcripts, audio, and key financial metrics as they become available.Conference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptPress Release (8-K)Quarterly Report (10-Q)Earnings HistoryCompany ProfilePowered by Universal Q3 2026 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrFebruary 9, 2026 ShareLink copied to clipboard.Key Takeaways Negative Sentiment: Company said Universal Ingredients' value‑added sales are growing but margins were squeezed by higher fixed costs from recent investments, tariff impacts and CPG weakness, with ingredients operating income down to $1.4M YTD and a Q3 operating loss of $0.1M. Neutral Sentiment: The tobacco segment remained resilient with solid sales and near‑historic results despite declines versus an “extraordinary” FY25, and management warned the market is shifting from undersupply to oversupply (unsold flue‑cured and Burley stock ~102 million kilos). Positive Sentiment: Universal refinanced and upsized its senior unsecured credit facility by $250M, boosting liquidity availability to about $917M and improving financial flexibility while net debt was $995M at Dec 31, 2025. Positive Sentiment: The company announced the appointment of Steven S. Diel as CFO effective April 1, citing his financial and strategic experience to support execution of growth plans. Neutral Sentiment: Management highlighted sustainability progress — renewable electricity use rose nearly six‑fold to ~17.7% of global electricity and the company reaffirmed science‑based targets and a net‑zero by 2050 commitment. AI Generated. May Contain Errors.Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallUniversal Q3 202600:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2xTranscript SectionsPresentationParticipantsPresentationSkip to Participants Operator00:00:00Standing by. My name is Jordan, and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I'd like to welcome everyone to the Universal Corporation Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2026 Earnings Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. If you'd like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad, and if you'd like to withdraw your question, press star one again. Thank you. I'd now like to turn the call over to Wushuang Ma, Vice President and Treasurer. You may begin. Wushuang MaVP and Treasurer at Universal Corporation00:00:36Good evening, and thank you for joining us. With me today are Preston Wigner, our Chairman, President, and CEO, and Johan Kroner, our Chief Financial Officer. During the course of this call, we will be making forward-looking statements that are based on our current knowledge and some assumptions about the future. These are representative as of today only. Actual results, performance, or achievements could differ materially from anticipated results, prospects, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. And we assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required by law. For information on some of the risks and uncertainties related to these forward-looking statements, please refer to the reports we filed with the SEC and other cautionary statements regarding forward-looking statements in our current earnings press release. Wushuang MaVP and Treasurer at Universal Corporation00:01:34Finally, some of the information we have for you today may be based on unaudited allocations and may be subject to reclassification. Our comments today may also include certain non-GAAP financial measures. For details regarding those measures, including reconciliation of those non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measures, please refer to our current earnings press release and other public materials. This call is being webcast live and will be available for replay on our website through 9 May 2026 and via telephone through February 23rd, 2026. This call is copyrighted and may not be used without our permission. Other than the reference to replay, we have not authorized and disclaimed responsibility for any recording, replay, or distribution of any transcription of this call. I would like to now turn the call over to Preston. Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:02:32Good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. Fiscal year 2025 was an extraordinary year for Universal. We're following that year with solid performance to the end of our third quarter of fiscal year 2026. I'm proud of our company's dedication and commitment to delivering results for all our stakeholders. During the third quarter of our fiscal year, our team executed well and advanced the strategic priorities that support long-term value creation. I'll start with our tobacco operations segment, which generated solid quarterly results in comparison to a robust third quarter last fiscal year. Customer demand remained firm for most tobacco styles following several years of undersupply. We continue to leverage our diverse global footprint, long-standing customer relationships, and deep local expertise to optimize results as the market transitions into an oversupply environment. Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:03:33Turning to the ingredients operations segment, we continue to advance our strategy in order to build durable commercial and operational fundamentals that support sustained growth. Sales revenue for our value-added products has started to make up a significant portion of our overall ingredients revenue. However, our segment results reflect higher fixed costs from the significant investments we made, which have compressed margins. Additionally, market headwinds such as the broader softness in the consumer packaged goods sector weighed on our business directly and indirectly, and tariff impacts were more pronounced during this quarter. These headwinds reinforce the importance of our disciplined and deliberate approach to investing in the resources and capabilities needed to provide resiliency and grow our ingredients business for the long term. Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:04:29While our global commercial and operational teams focused on delivering strong results, we also took several meaningful steps to strengthen our company and position ourselves for the future. We refinanced, upsized, and improved our corporate credit facility, which significantly expanded our liquidity and improved financial flexibility. Earlier today, we were excited to announce the appointment of our new CFO, Steven S. Diel, effective April 1st. Steve brings strong financial, business, and strategic expertise to his new role, and I look forward to working closely with him to advance our company's strategies and deliver value to our stakeholders. I will now turn the call over to Johan to review our financial and operational performance in more detail, after which I'll share a few additional thoughts. Johan KronerCFO at Universal Corporation00:05:22Thank you, Preston. Good evening, everyone. For the nine months ended 31 December 2025, consolidated revenue was $2.21 billion compared to $2.25 billion in the prior year period. Operating income was $183.4 million versus $190 million for the same period last year. Net income was $75.9 million versus $85.7 million for the same period last year. In our tobacco operations segment, revenue was $1.94 billion compared to $2 billion in the prior year period. Segment operating income was $185 million versus $194.4 million for the same period last year. In our ingredients operations segment, revenue was $265.2 million compared to $249 million in the prior year period. Segment operating income was $1.4 million compared to $7.9 million for the same period last year. For the third quarter of fiscal year 2026, consolidated revenue was $861.3 million compared to $937.2 million in the same quarter of last year. Johan KronerCFO at Universal Corporation00:06:36Operating income was $82 million versus $104.1 million for the third quarter of the last fiscal year. Net income was $33.2 million versus $59.6 million for the third quarter of last fiscal year. In our tobacco operations segment, revenue was $779.9 million compared to $853.9 million in the same quarter of last year. Segment operating income was $84 million versus $102.6 million for the third quarter of last fiscal year. In our ingredients operations segment, revenue was $81.3 million compared to $83.3 million in the third quarter last year. Segment operating loss was $0.1 million compared to segment operating income of $3.7 million in the third quarter of last fiscal year. Turning to liquidity and capital structure, during a quarter with strong support from our existing and new banking partners, we refinanced our senior unsecured credit facility and upsized the facility by $250 million. Johan KronerCFO at Universal Corporation00:07:41The new facility significantly expands our available liquidity, lowers our borrowing cost, enhances our financial flexibility, and positions us well to advance our long-term strategic priorities. As of December 31, 2025, our net debt was $995 million compared to $945 million at the same point last year. Our liquidity availability, which includes cash and availability under our committed and uncommitted credit lines, totaled $917 million. I will now turn the conversation back to Preston. Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:08:19Thank you, Johan. We are pleased with our solid results through the first three quarters of the fiscal year. As anticipated, the leaf tobacco market is moving into an oversupply environment. Managing evolving market dynamics is an area where Universal has demonstrated consistent strength for more than 100 years. We're proud of our resilience and our ability to deliver strong performance under all market conditions. Our long history of tobacco leadership motivates us to build and grow Universal Ingredients to support our long-term success. Back in 2018, we made the decision and developed a strategy to diversify into food and beverage ingredients. As part of that strategy, we made three acquisitions in 2020 and 2021 to gain a broad product portfolio, established customer relationships, and experienced management teams. Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:09:16These moves created Universal Ingredients and established the foundation for a scalable, differentiated platform capable of delivering and offering new, innovative solutions-based products to our customers. To support that strategy, we invested in building commercial sales, R&D, and product development capabilities, and in adding industry-leading production capabilities. These investments culminated in the completion of our Lancaster, Pennsylvania facility expansion just over a year ago. Since completing the expansion, our focus has been on leveraging these new resources and capabilities to grow Universal Ingredients and convert customer interest into sales. We're excited about the progress we've made since those early days in 2018. While we continue to navigate inflationary pressures and the impact of tariff headwinds, we're focused on increasing sales to absorb fixed costs from our growth investments in Universal Ingredients. Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:10:20We're encouraged by the continued steady interest in our enhanced capabilities and the growing breadth of our solutions-based product portfolio. We are committed to continuing the progress we've made to date and scaling the platform to support stronger earnings, improved resilience, and enhanced margins. Before we conclude today's discussion, I want to highlight our continued progress in advancing our sustainability priorities. We recently released our annual sustainability report, which highlights significant progress across our environmental and social commitments. Notably, we increased renewable electricity consumption nearly six-fold year-over-year, with approximately 17.7% of our global electricity sourced from renewable energy. These actions support our approved science-based emissions targets and our commitment to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across the value chain by 2050. Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:11:22We also further demonstrated our support for farming communities globally, advancing our Good Agricultural Practices and Agricultural Labor Practices programs to maintain momentum across our social responsibility and farmer sustainability initiatives. Our disciplined execution and clear strategic focus provide a strong foundation as we move into the final quarter of the fiscal year. We are confident in our ability to execute on our strategy and continue creating long-term value for our stakeholders. Thank you again for joining us today. We will now open the call for questions. Operator00:12:05As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, press star one on your telephone keypad. We'll take a brief moment to compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Daniel Harriman from Sidoti. Your line is live. Daniel HarrimanEquity Research Analyst at Sidoti00:12:23Thank you. Good afternoon, guys. Thank you so much for taking my questions. I'll start this afternoon with ingredients and with the mention of the tariffs and, obviously, the overall market weakness within consumer packaged goods. I was hoping you could help us understand how those issues are affecting both the traditional business within ingredients and then also the newer solutions-based offerings. And then in tobacco, you called out fiscal 2025. And while sales were down in the quarter, that's not necessarily a fair comparison considering the supply backdrop last year, and margins have been holding up pretty well. So given that last year was a high watermark for the segment, how do you view the underlying performance of the tobacco segment this quarter considering solid sales and, like I said, the maintained margins? Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:13:19Yeah, Daniel. I'll start with ingredients. So last year, third quarter was a good quarter for ingredients. We had revenues and volume both up over the prior year's quarter. And this year, we've been impacted by market headwinds, product mix, and the higher fixed costs. And I'll talk about all three. So on those market headwinds, which are affecting the industry and not the sectors where our customers are, there's weakness in that consumer packaged goods sector and other food and beverage sectors. And those inflationary pressures are putting pressures on the consumer goods prices and, therefore, from those customers, pressures on us, on our pricing and compressing our margins as well as tightening demand. As their sales might decrease, then their orders from us will decrease. If it impacts them, it'll impact us. Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:14:25We've seen that maybe in particular with sales this quarter of our sort of traditional core products. On the tariff side, and we've talked about this a little bit in the past, we've had direct tariff impacts. We've had indirect tariff impacts. Those impacts were just a little more pronounced this quarter than in the first half. On the direct tariff impacts, we've got tariff costs. They're impacting the cost of the products that we import into the U.S. and incorporate into the products that we sell. And so we've got tariff costs in those raw materials that we're having difficulty this past quarter capturing all of that in our sales to our customers. Then on the indirect impact, our customers have tariff impacts, which are impacting the sale of their products. Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:15:25Those tariffs might be impacting components of their products or packaging of their products, which has decreased their sales. And again, if their sales are decreasing, then potentially their orders to us are decreasing. On the product mix side, we had just a different mix of products with a little higher margins in the third quarter last year than we did this year. Some of those could be attributed, for example, to customer ordering based on forecasts of how they think their products were going to perform last year. So they might have ordered higher-margin products from us last year, ramping up for their sales into the market. And if those sales didn't turn out the way they had forecasted, then potentially this quarter, they would have had fewer of those sales or different products that they'd be ordering from us with slightly different margins. Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:16:28So it's a little bit of a margin mix. And then lastly, on the higher fixed costs, we've been talking about that for a while. We're still focused on scaling the business to absorb the costs and the investments we made to grow the ingredients business, including the expansion of our capabilities at the Lancaster Extracts facility. We continue to try to absorb those costs, which are impacting our margins and impacting our earnings. So we're positioned to offer innovative solutions-based products to our customers. And our sales are up 7% year to date versus last year, despite this challenging market. And our goal is to maintain that momentum. So sales of our new products have contributed to our increased sales, and we're focused on continuing to increase those sales and increase new and existing customer interest in Universal Ingredients. Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:17:29We continue to add to our active product development pipeline that leverages our broad product portfolio across the full Universal Ingredients foundation. We think those capabilities and the products that we offer can help our customers deliver new or improved or unique products to navigate the existing headwinds that are impacting them. Our focus on the ingredients side every single day is to convert that customer interest and the product portfolio into increased sales and volume across the factory floor. I'm really encouraged by the dedication of the team that's putting in the hard work on a daily basis. I'm really pleased with the progress that we've made and how far we've come since our early days of 2018. On the tobacco side, as you mentioned, this has been a solid quarter and year to date for our tobacco business. Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:18:36Last year was an extraordinary year for us. Last year's third quarter was really robust. We had very strong demand in the undersupply market last year. We moved a lot of tobacco in the third quarter, including accelerated shipments in the third quarter. Pricing, both for our farmer pricing, green pricing, as well as our sales prices, were high, resulting in high dollar margins. We also shipped more of certain kind of higher-margin dark tobacco last third quarter, which supported the high operating margin last third quarter. This year, year to date, our tobacco segment revenues and operating income are only down slightly from last year's extraordinary results. Quarter to quarter, tobacco segment revenues and operating income are good, except in comparison to such a big third quarter last year. Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:19:38Last year's year-to-date third quarter numbers were the highest that we'd seen in a number of years. Just looking at the last four years for us, which were all solid years, our current year-to-date tobacco numbers are the second highest during that period. Our third quarter tobacco segment revenues are second highest. Our tobacco segment operating income is within $4 million of being second highest for that period. Last year cast a big shadow, but we're still performing well this year and this quarter. This year's large crops, especially in Brazil and Africa, and still firm customer demand have given us opportunities to keep up with last year's sales. We've also increased our third-party processing based on the size of those crops. Pricing is down slightly from last year. Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:20:39We've had additional write-downs in certain dark air-cured tobacco that have impacted results. The comparative mix of products, which I just mentioned a second ago, that we sold this quarter, third quarter versus last year's third quarter, also had an impact with some higher margin styles shipped at higher volumes last third quarter versus this third quarter. Then there's also some shipment timing impacts to the quarter-to-quarter comparison. We've leveraged our tobacco expertise, our diversified footprint, and our strong customer relationships to navigate what's been a really complex year. We're moving into undersupply, from undersupply to oversupply. With all of that, I'm really proud of the job we've done around the world to deliver the results we've delivered and to support all of our stakeholders. Daniel HarrimanEquity Research Analyst at Sidoti00:21:36That's really helpful, Preston. Thanks so much. Best of luck the rest of the year. Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:21:41Thank you, Daniel. Operator00:21:45Your next question comes from the line of Ann Gurkin from Davenport. Your line is live. Ann GurkinSVP and Equity Research Analyst at Davenport00:21:51Good evening, everybody. Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:21:54Hi, Ann. Ann GurkinSVP and Equity Research Analyst at Davenport00:21:55I'd love to pick up with the conversation around the tobacco segment. Do you think you'd be able to exit fiscal 2026 with margins relatively in line with what you delivered in fiscal 2025? I thought Q3 was better than I would have expected, and it's very impressive. So I was just curious if you can give me any kind of direction as to the full-year tobacco segment margin. Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:22:16Yeah, I'd say we're still working hard on the quarter. We've got some tobacco to ship. Some of that tobacco is higher-margin tobacco that may have otherwise shipped in the third quarter. It's really going to come down to mix and to timing of shipments. Can we get all that tobacco out in the fourth quarter? Ann GurkinSVP and Equity Research Analyst at Davenport00:22:46Okay. And any comments on the, sorry, customers' inventory level or duration positions with your key customers? Any comments, any insight you can share there? Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:22:58Yeah, we're in near-constant communication with the customers. I think with customers, it's a little bit of a mix. Some of those customers last year and into this year, they've been buying what they need and maybe restoring some of their durations and looking at their duration policies. Some still have lower durations, and they'll decide in the upcoming years whether they'll return to those historically high duration levels or try to maintain a tighter duration and assume some of that risk as we go into oversupply. Ann GurkinSVP and Equity Research Analyst at Davenport00:23:40Okay. And then do you have a worldwide uncommitted leaf inventory number? Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:23:45Yep. So estimated unsold flue-cured and Burley stock was about 102 million kilos at December 31st, 2025, which is about the same as it was on 30 September 2025. Ann GurkinSVP and Equity Research Analyst at Davenport00:24:03Great. And then switching over to the ingredient segment, I'd be curious what your biggest surprise was from the Q3 results versus Q2 on a sequential basis? Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:24:17I think the market headwinds and the impacts and the length of those impacts we've seen in the third quarter on our customers, I think that's had a bigger impact than maybe I would have thought a year ago. We're hearing and we're seeing lots of customers trying to keep up sales, trying to keep up volumes and their own margins and results through the third quarter. But that will be cyclical, and we're going to continue to perform, continue to get in front of our customers and get our products sold. But I'd say, to me, that's probably the biggest surprise. Ann GurkinSVP and Equity Research Analyst at Davenport00:25:09Okay. And if you break out the revenue component, can you break it out in volume, price, and new customer wins? Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:25:19Now, we don't have that breakdown for public disclosure. It's also a little bit of mix, the mix this quarter versus same quarter last year. Ann GurkinSVP and Equity Research Analyst at Davenport00:25:33Do you anticipate in the next several quarters pricing catching up with the higher tariff costs or input cost? Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:25:43I think we're optimistic with continuing sales, that maybe the higher-cost inventory we have that's carrying those additional tariffs, that we can get that through the system in the coming quarters and then get that behind us. That will certainly help. Ann GurkinSVP and Equity Research Analyst at Davenport00:26:08Okay. And then can you quantify the amount of inventory write-down in the Ingredients segment? Johan KronerCFO at Universal Corporation00:26:19We had some, Anne, but that's standard. The methodology that we used, we just looked at some of the inventory at the end of the quarter and determined whether or not it was the realizable value was below the cost. So we took a little bit, but it was primarily in the dark air-cured space where we had to take some write-downs. Ann GurkinSVP and Equity Research Analyst at Davenport00:26:39There was more write-down in the tobacco space than it was in the ingredient space? Johan KronerCFO at Universal Corporation00:26:43Oh, yes. Yes. Ann GurkinSVP and Equity Research Analyst at Davenport00:26:44Okay. Okay. And then I'm just curious, with the CFO announcement, congratulations, but I think you put out a press release in January of a CFO, and then now you have another announcement today. I'm just kind of curious if you can walk me through what's going on. Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:26:59Yeah. We filed an 8-K announcing that we withdrew our offer from Mr. Mittal to become our CFO. And our 8-K really speaks for itself. Instead, we were thrilled to have our press release this morning. And Steve cannot wait to join these calls and talk to you. Ann GurkinSVP and Equity Research Analyst at Davenport00:27:28That he can't. That's great. Preston, I also want to tell you how much I enjoyed your presentation at ICR. I'm so glad y'all participated in that conference. Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:27:36Oh, good. Thank you. Ann GurkinSVP and Equity Research Analyst at Davenport00:27:37I thought you had a terrific presentation. I have a couple of questions if I can still ask questions in relation to that presentation. In the presentation, you talked about participating in the next-generation supply chain for tobacco companies. Can you just flesh that statement out a little bit for me? Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:27:56Yeah. As part of our strategy, we want to make sure that we have opportunities to participate in some way in that supply chain. Some of that we do today. So if they've got tobacco-based products like heat-not-burn, for those customers, we want to make sure that that tobacco is coming from us. And then as they develop and expand other products, we want to have opportunities to be part of that supply chain for that as well, whether it's liquid nicotine or going forward with our Universal Ingredients abilities with flavors. So all of that, we'd like to have that as part of our strategy, part of our growth going forward. Ann GurkinSVP and Equity Research Analyst at Davenport00:28:44Okay. Great. And then you talked about investing in commercial sales in the platform and opportunities to cross-sell across the two segments. I was wondering if I could get an update on your ability to leverage that investment. And are you recognizing, realizing wins or cross-selling successes, any kind of update there? Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:29:10I think that cross-selling referred to products within the Universal Ingredients platform, I think. And that's a big part of what we're doing in terms of building that active pipeline, getting those commercial sales teams in front of existing customers, selling new products in front of new customers, selling new products, getting those in the pipeline and back through. And we don't have them broken out separately, but that's a big part of the increased sales and also on the flavor side as well. Ann GurkinSVP and Equity Research Analyst at Davenport00:29:56Okay. Great. And then just one more question. What tax rate should I use for the year? Johan KronerCFO at Universal Corporation00:30:02It's a good question, Anne. As you could see in the filings, it ticked up a little bit. We had a hard look at our taxes. There were some taxes implemented in certain countries by law, so that had an impact on this. So like I said before, it's normally between 28% and 32%. We have been below that in the last couple of years, but we're ticking up slightly because of some of these changes. And of course, it depends on the mix. Where do we make it and the currency it's earned in? So all those things come into play in the next quarter. Ann GurkinSVP and Equity Research Analyst at Davenport00:30:38Okay. That's great. Thank you all very much for your time. I appreciate it. Johan KronerCFO at Universal Corporation00:30:41Thank you. Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:30:42Thanks, Ann. Operator00:30:49There are no further questions for the question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the call over to Preston Wigner for closing remarks. Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:30:57Thanks, Jordan. Thank you for taking the time to join us today. We look forward to connecting again on our next earnings call. Operator00:31:07That concludes today's meeting. You may now disconnect. Have a great day.Read moreParticipantsExecutivesJohan KronerCFOPreston WignerChairman, President, and CEOWushuang MaVP and TreasurerAnalystsAnn GurkinSVP and Equity Research Analyst at DavenportDaniel HarrimanEquity Research Analyst at SidotiPowered by Earnings DocumentsPress Release(8-K)Quarterly report(10-Q) Universal Earnings HeadlinesSam Altman Put $14M Into Studying Universal Basic Income. 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Email Address About UniversalUniversal (NYSE:UVV) (NYSE: UVV) is a global agribusiness company primarily engaged in the procurement, processing and sale of leaf tobacco. Headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, the company sources cured leaf tobacco from key growing regions in North and South America, Africa and Asia. Universal serves major multinational tobacco manufacturers by providing a full range of services including inventory management, quality control and logistics support to ensure a consistent and reliable supply of tobacco leaf. In addition to its core leaf tobacco operations, Universal offers integrated supply-chain services that encompass warehousing, distribution and ingredient sourcing for smokeless and novel tobacco products. The company’s processing facilities employ proprietary grading and flavor-profiling techniques to meet the stringent specifications of its customers. Through regional offices and processing centers in Brazil, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Indonesia and Europe, Universal maintains close relationships with local growers and invests in agricultural extension programs aimed at improving crop yields and sustainable farming practices. Founded in the early 20th century, Universal has grown through the development of global trading networks and long-term partnerships with tobacco growers and manufacturers. The company is led by a seasoned management team headquartered in Richmond, with a board of directors that brings deep experience in agribusiness, finance and international trade. Universal continues to expand its value-added services while maintaining a focus on quality assurance, operational efficiency and environmental stewardship across its worldwide operations. 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PresentationSkip to Participants Operator00:00:00Standing by. My name is Jordan, and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I'd like to welcome everyone to the Universal Corporation Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2026 Earnings Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. If you'd like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad, and if you'd like to withdraw your question, press star one again. Thank you. I'd now like to turn the call over to Wushuang Ma, Vice President and Treasurer. You may begin. Wushuang MaVP and Treasurer at Universal Corporation00:00:36Good evening, and thank you for joining us. With me today are Preston Wigner, our Chairman, President, and CEO, and Johan Kroner, our Chief Financial Officer. During the course of this call, we will be making forward-looking statements that are based on our current knowledge and some assumptions about the future. These are representative as of today only. Actual results, performance, or achievements could differ materially from anticipated results, prospects, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. And we assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required by law. For information on some of the risks and uncertainties related to these forward-looking statements, please refer to the reports we filed with the SEC and other cautionary statements regarding forward-looking statements in our current earnings press release. Wushuang MaVP and Treasurer at Universal Corporation00:01:34Finally, some of the information we have for you today may be based on unaudited allocations and may be subject to reclassification. Our comments today may also include certain non-GAAP financial measures. For details regarding those measures, including reconciliation of those non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measures, please refer to our current earnings press release and other public materials. This call is being webcast live and will be available for replay on our website through 9 May 2026 and via telephone through February 23rd, 2026. This call is copyrighted and may not be used without our permission. Other than the reference to replay, we have not authorized and disclaimed responsibility for any recording, replay, or distribution of any transcription of this call. I would like to now turn the call over to Preston. Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:02:32Good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us today. Fiscal year 2025 was an extraordinary year for Universal. We're following that year with solid performance to the end of our third quarter of fiscal year 2026. I'm proud of our company's dedication and commitment to delivering results for all our stakeholders. During the third quarter of our fiscal year, our team executed well and advanced the strategic priorities that support long-term value creation. I'll start with our tobacco operations segment, which generated solid quarterly results in comparison to a robust third quarter last fiscal year. Customer demand remained firm for most tobacco styles following several years of undersupply. We continue to leverage our diverse global footprint, long-standing customer relationships, and deep local expertise to optimize results as the market transitions into an oversupply environment. Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:03:33Turning to the ingredients operations segment, we continue to advance our strategy in order to build durable commercial and operational fundamentals that support sustained growth. Sales revenue for our value-added products has started to make up a significant portion of our overall ingredients revenue. However, our segment results reflect higher fixed costs from the significant investments we made, which have compressed margins. Additionally, market headwinds such as the broader softness in the consumer packaged goods sector weighed on our business directly and indirectly, and tariff impacts were more pronounced during this quarter. These headwinds reinforce the importance of our disciplined and deliberate approach to investing in the resources and capabilities needed to provide resiliency and grow our ingredients business for the long term. Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:04:29While our global commercial and operational teams focused on delivering strong results, we also took several meaningful steps to strengthen our company and position ourselves for the future. We refinanced, upsized, and improved our corporate credit facility, which significantly expanded our liquidity and improved financial flexibility. Earlier today, we were excited to announce the appointment of our new CFO, Steven S. Diel, effective April 1st. Steve brings strong financial, business, and strategic expertise to his new role, and I look forward to working closely with him to advance our company's strategies and deliver value to our stakeholders. I will now turn the call over to Johan to review our financial and operational performance in more detail, after which I'll share a few additional thoughts. Johan KronerCFO at Universal Corporation00:05:22Thank you, Preston. Good evening, everyone. For the nine months ended 31 December 2025, consolidated revenue was $2.21 billion compared to $2.25 billion in the prior year period. Operating income was $183.4 million versus $190 million for the same period last year. Net income was $75.9 million versus $85.7 million for the same period last year. In our tobacco operations segment, revenue was $1.94 billion compared to $2 billion in the prior year period. Segment operating income was $185 million versus $194.4 million for the same period last year. In our ingredients operations segment, revenue was $265.2 million compared to $249 million in the prior year period. Segment operating income was $1.4 million compared to $7.9 million for the same period last year. For the third quarter of fiscal year 2026, consolidated revenue was $861.3 million compared to $937.2 million in the same quarter of last year. Johan KronerCFO at Universal Corporation00:06:36Operating income was $82 million versus $104.1 million for the third quarter of the last fiscal year. Net income was $33.2 million versus $59.6 million for the third quarter of last fiscal year. In our tobacco operations segment, revenue was $779.9 million compared to $853.9 million in the same quarter of last year. Segment operating income was $84 million versus $102.6 million for the third quarter of last fiscal year. In our ingredients operations segment, revenue was $81.3 million compared to $83.3 million in the third quarter last year. Segment operating loss was $0.1 million compared to segment operating income of $3.7 million in the third quarter of last fiscal year. Turning to liquidity and capital structure, during a quarter with strong support from our existing and new banking partners, we refinanced our senior unsecured credit facility and upsized the facility by $250 million. Johan KronerCFO at Universal Corporation00:07:41The new facility significantly expands our available liquidity, lowers our borrowing cost, enhances our financial flexibility, and positions us well to advance our long-term strategic priorities. As of December 31, 2025, our net debt was $995 million compared to $945 million at the same point last year. Our liquidity availability, which includes cash and availability under our committed and uncommitted credit lines, totaled $917 million. I will now turn the conversation back to Preston. Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:08:19Thank you, Johan. We are pleased with our solid results through the first three quarters of the fiscal year. As anticipated, the leaf tobacco market is moving into an oversupply environment. Managing evolving market dynamics is an area where Universal has demonstrated consistent strength for more than 100 years. We're proud of our resilience and our ability to deliver strong performance under all market conditions. Our long history of tobacco leadership motivates us to build and grow Universal Ingredients to support our long-term success. Back in 2018, we made the decision and developed a strategy to diversify into food and beverage ingredients. As part of that strategy, we made three acquisitions in 2020 and 2021 to gain a broad product portfolio, established customer relationships, and experienced management teams. Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:09:16These moves created Universal Ingredients and established the foundation for a scalable, differentiated platform capable of delivering and offering new, innovative solutions-based products to our customers. To support that strategy, we invested in building commercial sales, R&D, and product development capabilities, and in adding industry-leading production capabilities. These investments culminated in the completion of our Lancaster, Pennsylvania facility expansion just over a year ago. Since completing the expansion, our focus has been on leveraging these new resources and capabilities to grow Universal Ingredients and convert customer interest into sales. We're excited about the progress we've made since those early days in 2018. While we continue to navigate inflationary pressures and the impact of tariff headwinds, we're focused on increasing sales to absorb fixed costs from our growth investments in Universal Ingredients. Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:10:20We're encouraged by the continued steady interest in our enhanced capabilities and the growing breadth of our solutions-based product portfolio. We are committed to continuing the progress we've made to date and scaling the platform to support stronger earnings, improved resilience, and enhanced margins. Before we conclude today's discussion, I want to highlight our continued progress in advancing our sustainability priorities. We recently released our annual sustainability report, which highlights significant progress across our environmental and social commitments. Notably, we increased renewable electricity consumption nearly six-fold year-over-year, with approximately 17.7% of our global electricity sourced from renewable energy. These actions support our approved science-based emissions targets and our commitment to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across the value chain by 2050. Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:11:22We also further demonstrated our support for farming communities globally, advancing our Good Agricultural Practices and Agricultural Labor Practices programs to maintain momentum across our social responsibility and farmer sustainability initiatives. Our disciplined execution and clear strategic focus provide a strong foundation as we move into the final quarter of the fiscal year. We are confident in our ability to execute on our strategy and continue creating long-term value for our stakeholders. Thank you again for joining us today. We will now open the call for questions. Operator00:12:05As a reminder, if you'd like to ask a question, press star one on your telephone keypad. We'll take a brief moment to compile the Q&A roster. Your first question comes from the line of Daniel Harriman from Sidoti. Your line is live. Daniel HarrimanEquity Research Analyst at Sidoti00:12:23Thank you. Good afternoon, guys. Thank you so much for taking my questions. I'll start this afternoon with ingredients and with the mention of the tariffs and, obviously, the overall market weakness within consumer packaged goods. I was hoping you could help us understand how those issues are affecting both the traditional business within ingredients and then also the newer solutions-based offerings. And then in tobacco, you called out fiscal 2025. And while sales were down in the quarter, that's not necessarily a fair comparison considering the supply backdrop last year, and margins have been holding up pretty well. So given that last year was a high watermark for the segment, how do you view the underlying performance of the tobacco segment this quarter considering solid sales and, like I said, the maintained margins? Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:13:19Yeah, Daniel. I'll start with ingredients. So last year, third quarter was a good quarter for ingredients. We had revenues and volume both up over the prior year's quarter. And this year, we've been impacted by market headwinds, product mix, and the higher fixed costs. And I'll talk about all three. So on those market headwinds, which are affecting the industry and not the sectors where our customers are, there's weakness in that consumer packaged goods sector and other food and beverage sectors. And those inflationary pressures are putting pressures on the consumer goods prices and, therefore, from those customers, pressures on us, on our pricing and compressing our margins as well as tightening demand. As their sales might decrease, then their orders from us will decrease. If it impacts them, it'll impact us. Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:14:25We've seen that maybe in particular with sales this quarter of our sort of traditional core products. On the tariff side, and we've talked about this a little bit in the past, we've had direct tariff impacts. We've had indirect tariff impacts. Those impacts were just a little more pronounced this quarter than in the first half. On the direct tariff impacts, we've got tariff costs. They're impacting the cost of the products that we import into the U.S. and incorporate into the products that we sell. And so we've got tariff costs in those raw materials that we're having difficulty this past quarter capturing all of that in our sales to our customers. Then on the indirect impact, our customers have tariff impacts, which are impacting the sale of their products. Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:15:25Those tariffs might be impacting components of their products or packaging of their products, which has decreased their sales. And again, if their sales are decreasing, then potentially their orders to us are decreasing. On the product mix side, we had just a different mix of products with a little higher margins in the third quarter last year than we did this year. Some of those could be attributed, for example, to customer ordering based on forecasts of how they think their products were going to perform last year. So they might have ordered higher-margin products from us last year, ramping up for their sales into the market. And if those sales didn't turn out the way they had forecasted, then potentially this quarter, they would have had fewer of those sales or different products that they'd be ordering from us with slightly different margins. Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:16:28So it's a little bit of a margin mix. And then lastly, on the higher fixed costs, we've been talking about that for a while. We're still focused on scaling the business to absorb the costs and the investments we made to grow the ingredients business, including the expansion of our capabilities at the Lancaster Extracts facility. We continue to try to absorb those costs, which are impacting our margins and impacting our earnings. So we're positioned to offer innovative solutions-based products to our customers. And our sales are up 7% year to date versus last year, despite this challenging market. And our goal is to maintain that momentum. So sales of our new products have contributed to our increased sales, and we're focused on continuing to increase those sales and increase new and existing customer interest in Universal Ingredients. Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:17:29We continue to add to our active product development pipeline that leverages our broad product portfolio across the full Universal Ingredients foundation. We think those capabilities and the products that we offer can help our customers deliver new or improved or unique products to navigate the existing headwinds that are impacting them. Our focus on the ingredients side every single day is to convert that customer interest and the product portfolio into increased sales and volume across the factory floor. I'm really encouraged by the dedication of the team that's putting in the hard work on a daily basis. I'm really pleased with the progress that we've made and how far we've come since our early days of 2018. On the tobacco side, as you mentioned, this has been a solid quarter and year to date for our tobacco business. Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:18:36Last year was an extraordinary year for us. Last year's third quarter was really robust. We had very strong demand in the undersupply market last year. We moved a lot of tobacco in the third quarter, including accelerated shipments in the third quarter. Pricing, both for our farmer pricing, green pricing, as well as our sales prices, were high, resulting in high dollar margins. We also shipped more of certain kind of higher-margin dark tobacco last third quarter, which supported the high operating margin last third quarter. This year, year to date, our tobacco segment revenues and operating income are only down slightly from last year's extraordinary results. Quarter to quarter, tobacco segment revenues and operating income are good, except in comparison to such a big third quarter last year. Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:19:38Last year's year-to-date third quarter numbers were the highest that we'd seen in a number of years. Just looking at the last four years for us, which were all solid years, our current year-to-date tobacco numbers are the second highest during that period. Our third quarter tobacco segment revenues are second highest. Our tobacco segment operating income is within $4 million of being second highest for that period. Last year cast a big shadow, but we're still performing well this year and this quarter. This year's large crops, especially in Brazil and Africa, and still firm customer demand have given us opportunities to keep up with last year's sales. We've also increased our third-party processing based on the size of those crops. Pricing is down slightly from last year. Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:20:39We've had additional write-downs in certain dark air-cured tobacco that have impacted results. The comparative mix of products, which I just mentioned a second ago, that we sold this quarter, third quarter versus last year's third quarter, also had an impact with some higher margin styles shipped at higher volumes last third quarter versus this third quarter. Then there's also some shipment timing impacts to the quarter-to-quarter comparison. We've leveraged our tobacco expertise, our diversified footprint, and our strong customer relationships to navigate what's been a really complex year. We're moving into undersupply, from undersupply to oversupply. With all of that, I'm really proud of the job we've done around the world to deliver the results we've delivered and to support all of our stakeholders. Daniel HarrimanEquity Research Analyst at Sidoti00:21:36That's really helpful, Preston. Thanks so much. Best of luck the rest of the year. Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:21:41Thank you, Daniel. Operator00:21:45Your next question comes from the line of Ann Gurkin from Davenport. Your line is live. Ann GurkinSVP and Equity Research Analyst at Davenport00:21:51Good evening, everybody. Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:21:54Hi, Ann. Ann GurkinSVP and Equity Research Analyst at Davenport00:21:55I'd love to pick up with the conversation around the tobacco segment. Do you think you'd be able to exit fiscal 2026 with margins relatively in line with what you delivered in fiscal 2025? I thought Q3 was better than I would have expected, and it's very impressive. So I was just curious if you can give me any kind of direction as to the full-year tobacco segment margin. Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:22:16Yeah, I'd say we're still working hard on the quarter. We've got some tobacco to ship. Some of that tobacco is higher-margin tobacco that may have otherwise shipped in the third quarter. It's really going to come down to mix and to timing of shipments. Can we get all that tobacco out in the fourth quarter? Ann GurkinSVP and Equity Research Analyst at Davenport00:22:46Okay. And any comments on the, sorry, customers' inventory level or duration positions with your key customers? Any comments, any insight you can share there? Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:22:58Yeah, we're in near-constant communication with the customers. I think with customers, it's a little bit of a mix. Some of those customers last year and into this year, they've been buying what they need and maybe restoring some of their durations and looking at their duration policies. Some still have lower durations, and they'll decide in the upcoming years whether they'll return to those historically high duration levels or try to maintain a tighter duration and assume some of that risk as we go into oversupply. Ann GurkinSVP and Equity Research Analyst at Davenport00:23:40Okay. And then do you have a worldwide uncommitted leaf inventory number? Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:23:45Yep. So estimated unsold flue-cured and Burley stock was about 102 million kilos at December 31st, 2025, which is about the same as it was on 30 September 2025. Ann GurkinSVP and Equity Research Analyst at Davenport00:24:03Great. And then switching over to the ingredient segment, I'd be curious what your biggest surprise was from the Q3 results versus Q2 on a sequential basis? Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:24:17I think the market headwinds and the impacts and the length of those impacts we've seen in the third quarter on our customers, I think that's had a bigger impact than maybe I would have thought a year ago. We're hearing and we're seeing lots of customers trying to keep up sales, trying to keep up volumes and their own margins and results through the third quarter. But that will be cyclical, and we're going to continue to perform, continue to get in front of our customers and get our products sold. But I'd say, to me, that's probably the biggest surprise. Ann GurkinSVP and Equity Research Analyst at Davenport00:25:09Okay. And if you break out the revenue component, can you break it out in volume, price, and new customer wins? Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:25:19Now, we don't have that breakdown for public disclosure. It's also a little bit of mix, the mix this quarter versus same quarter last year. Ann GurkinSVP and Equity Research Analyst at Davenport00:25:33Do you anticipate in the next several quarters pricing catching up with the higher tariff costs or input cost? Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:25:43I think we're optimistic with continuing sales, that maybe the higher-cost inventory we have that's carrying those additional tariffs, that we can get that through the system in the coming quarters and then get that behind us. That will certainly help. Ann GurkinSVP and Equity Research Analyst at Davenport00:26:08Okay. And then can you quantify the amount of inventory write-down in the Ingredients segment? Johan KronerCFO at Universal Corporation00:26:19We had some, Anne, but that's standard. The methodology that we used, we just looked at some of the inventory at the end of the quarter and determined whether or not it was the realizable value was below the cost. So we took a little bit, but it was primarily in the dark air-cured space where we had to take some write-downs. Ann GurkinSVP and Equity Research Analyst at Davenport00:26:39There was more write-down in the tobacco space than it was in the ingredient space? Johan KronerCFO at Universal Corporation00:26:43Oh, yes. Yes. Ann GurkinSVP and Equity Research Analyst at Davenport00:26:44Okay. Okay. And then I'm just curious, with the CFO announcement, congratulations, but I think you put out a press release in January of a CFO, and then now you have another announcement today. I'm just kind of curious if you can walk me through what's going on. Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:26:59Yeah. We filed an 8-K announcing that we withdrew our offer from Mr. Mittal to become our CFO. And our 8-K really speaks for itself. Instead, we were thrilled to have our press release this morning. And Steve cannot wait to join these calls and talk to you. Ann GurkinSVP and Equity Research Analyst at Davenport00:27:28That he can't. That's great. Preston, I also want to tell you how much I enjoyed your presentation at ICR. I'm so glad y'all participated in that conference. Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:27:36Oh, good. Thank you. Ann GurkinSVP and Equity Research Analyst at Davenport00:27:37I thought you had a terrific presentation. I have a couple of questions if I can still ask questions in relation to that presentation. In the presentation, you talked about participating in the next-generation supply chain for tobacco companies. Can you just flesh that statement out a little bit for me? Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:27:56Yeah. As part of our strategy, we want to make sure that we have opportunities to participate in some way in that supply chain. Some of that we do today. So if they've got tobacco-based products like heat-not-burn, for those customers, we want to make sure that that tobacco is coming from us. And then as they develop and expand other products, we want to have opportunities to be part of that supply chain for that as well, whether it's liquid nicotine or going forward with our Universal Ingredients abilities with flavors. So all of that, we'd like to have that as part of our strategy, part of our growth going forward. Ann GurkinSVP and Equity Research Analyst at Davenport00:28:44Okay. Great. And then you talked about investing in commercial sales in the platform and opportunities to cross-sell across the two segments. I was wondering if I could get an update on your ability to leverage that investment. And are you recognizing, realizing wins or cross-selling successes, any kind of update there? Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:29:10I think that cross-selling referred to products within the Universal Ingredients platform, I think. And that's a big part of what we're doing in terms of building that active pipeline, getting those commercial sales teams in front of existing customers, selling new products in front of new customers, selling new products, getting those in the pipeline and back through. And we don't have them broken out separately, but that's a big part of the increased sales and also on the flavor side as well. Ann GurkinSVP and Equity Research Analyst at Davenport00:29:56Okay. Great. And then just one more question. What tax rate should I use for the year? Johan KronerCFO at Universal Corporation00:30:02It's a good question, Anne. As you could see in the filings, it ticked up a little bit. We had a hard look at our taxes. There were some taxes implemented in certain countries by law, so that had an impact on this. So like I said before, it's normally between 28% and 32%. We have been below that in the last couple of years, but we're ticking up slightly because of some of these changes. And of course, it depends on the mix. Where do we make it and the currency it's earned in? So all those things come into play in the next quarter. Ann GurkinSVP and Equity Research Analyst at Davenport00:30:38Okay. That's great. Thank you all very much for your time. I appreciate it. Johan KronerCFO at Universal Corporation00:30:41Thank you. Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:30:42Thanks, Ann. Operator00:30:49There are no further questions for the question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the call over to Preston Wigner for closing remarks. Preston WignerChairman, President, and CEO at Universal Corporation00:30:57Thanks, Jordan. Thank you for taking the time to join us today. We look forward to connecting again on our next earnings call. Operator00:31:07That concludes today's meeting. You may now disconnect. Have a great day.Read moreParticipantsExecutivesJohan KronerCFOPreston WignerChairman, President, and CEOWushuang MaVP and TreasurerAnalystsAnn GurkinSVP and Equity Research Analyst at DavenportDaniel HarrimanEquity Research Analyst at SidotiPowered by