NYSE:TPB Turning Point Brands Q1 2026 Earnings Report $89.79 -1.73 (-1.89%) Closing price 05/22/2026 03:59 PM EasternExtended Trading$89.92 +0.13 (+0.14%) As of 05/22/2026 04:10 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 Turning Point Brands EPS ResultsActual EPS$0.76Consensus EPS $0.68Beat/MissBeat by +$0.08One Year Ago EPS$0.91Turning Point Brands Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$124.28 millionExpected Revenue$115.67 millionBeat/MissBeat by +$8.61 millionYoY Revenue Growth+16.80%Turning Point Brands Announcement DetailsQuarterQ1 2026Date5/7/2026TimeBefore Market OpensConference Call DateThursday, May 7, 2026Conference Call Time8:30AM ETUpcoming EarningsTurning Point Brands' Q2 2026 earnings is estimated for Wednesday, August 5, 2026, based on past reporting schedules, with a conference call scheduled at 9:30 AM ET. Check back for transcripts, audio, and key financial metrics as they become available.Conference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptSlide DeckPress Release (8-K)Quarterly Report (10-Q)Earnings HistoryCompany ProfileSlide DeckFull Screen Slide DeckPowered by Turning Point Brands Q1 2026 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrMay 7, 2026 ShareLink copied to clipboard.Key Takeaways Positive Sentiment: Modern Oral accelerated sharply — gross sales +167% and net sales +133% YoY in Q1, and now represents 42% of total revenue (up from 21% a year ago) driven by D2C strength and early chain wins. Positive Sentiment: Management raised full‑year Modern Oral guidance to $280–$300M gross and $210–$225M net and introduced FY EBITDA guidance of $70–$90M, signaling confidence in scale and profitability potential. Negative Sentiment: The company is front‑loading growth investments — planning $80–$105M in 2026 sales & marketing, plus increased salesforce and merchandising spend — which drove Q1 negative free cash flow (‑$27.4M) and a wider EBITDA range that may pressure near‑term cash and margins. Negative Sentiment: Regulatory and operational risk remains — the PMTA review timing is uncertain and the Louisville manufacturing ramp is being synchronized with PMTA outcomes, creating potential delays to domestic production, margin improvement, and inventory benefits. AI Generated. May Contain Errors.Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallTurning Point Brands Q1 202600:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2xTranscript SectionsPresentationParticipantsPresentationSkip to Participants Operator00:00:00Good morning, welcome to the Turning Point Brands first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. Should you need operator assistance today, please press star zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note that this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Andrew Flynn, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead, sir. Andrew FlynnCFO at Turning Point Brands00:00:29Good morning, everyone. Earlier today, we issued a press release covering our first quarter results, available in the investor relations section of our website at www.turningpointbrands.com. During this call, we'll discuss consolidated and segment operating results, the operating environment, and our progress against our strategic plan. Before we begin, please refer to forward-looking statements and risk factors in our press release and SEC filings. We'll also reference certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations and explanations are included in today's earnings release. With that, I'll turn the call over to our CEO, Graham Purdy. Graham PurdyCEO at Turning Point Brands00:01:07Thanks, Andrew. Good morning, everybody, and thank you for joining our call. We started the year with strong momentum led by accelerating growth in Modern Oral, with gross and net sales up 167% and 133% year-over-year and 30% and 26% sequentially. These results are driven by ongoing growth in both brands' D2C platforms, FRE's early expansion into larger, higher volume chain accounts, and ALP's very early move into bricks and mortar. In the quarter, Modern Oral accounted for 42% of our total revenue, up from 21% in Q1 2025. Before we dive into details of the quarter, I want to step back and frame the opportunity in front of Turning Point Brands. Graham PurdyCEO at Turning Point Brands00:01:58We believe we are in the midst of a greater than $50 billion generational shift in nicotine consumption, and we are positioning the business to capture a meaningful share of nicotine users in this evolving high-barrier category. We are strengthening that position through foundational investments in our sales force, marketing, and commercial capabilities. These investments are critical to building a durable growth platform that can scale into a leading player in the post-cigarette nicotine market over time. While this infrastructure will ultimately allow us to compete across the modern nicotine ecosystem, our priority today is clear: winning in nicotine pouches. We believe the nicotine pouch category is still in its nascent stages of development and can become the dominant revenue and profit driver of the company over time. Graham PurdyCEO at Turning Point Brands00:02:49As we've said before, we expect the market to consolidate around a limited number of scaled brands, and we are increasingly confident that FRE and ALP will be among them. Our confidence is grounded in execution. We continue to see encouraging consumer response across both FRE and ALP, supported by product quality, brand positioning, and repeat purchasing behavior. Our outsized share of direct-to-consumer sales, coupled with our continued market share gains in bricks and mortar, are evidence that our plan is working in the early innings. Based on our Q1 performance, we believe our results captured mid-single-digit category share of both gross and net sales, giving confidence that we are on track to achieve our long-term goal of double-digit market share by the end of the decade. We are using that momentum to build scale across channels. Graham PurdyCEO at Turning Point Brands00:03:41FRE continues to expand into larger regional and national convenience chains, while ALP has moved from a strong direct-to-consumer base into retail faster than we originally expected. We've had several notable chain wins, driving confidence in our growth. We expect our chain store count to increase 70% by the end of 2026 versus the prior year. As you know, we are building an operational foundation to further support scale in Modern Oral. Commissioning our Louisville manufacturing facility is an important step in localizing production, improving supply control, and reducing freight and tariff exposure over time. As we build production, we expect that work to strengthen unit economics and support margin improvement as domestic inventory moves through the P&L. At scale, we believe our margins should approach 70% in this category by the end of the decade. Graham PurdyCEO at Turning Point Brands00:04:39We also continue to invest in the commercial infrastructure needed to support growth, including sales force expansion, chain account support, enhanced consumer visibility, and manufacturing capabilities. In 2026, we plan to continue investing in our sales force and marketing to secure chain placement, build brand awareness, and support our growing distribution footprint. Based on achieving our sales and financial objectives, we expect total sales and marketing investment for the year to range from $80 million-$105 million. Given the strong gross sales growth we have experienced, we are confident that these investments will provide attractive returns for investors over the long term. In short, we are making front-loaded investments in a category where acquiring brand-oriented adult consumers can drive repeat purchasing and strong margins over extended periods. Graham PurdyCEO at Turning Point Brands00:05:35Over time, we believe our investments in physical execution, particularly sales force expansion, distribution support, and retail presence, will become a more important source of competitive advantage. Overall, we are encouraged by the momentum we are seeing, the progress we are making, and the platform we are building to scale profitably. With that, I'll hand the call over to Summer to walk through the progress of our key go-to-market initiatives. Summer FreinChief Revenue Officer at Turning Point Brands00:06:06Thank you, Graham, and good morning, everyone. I'll focus my comments on our go-to-market execution in the nicotine pouch segment. This remains our top commercial priority, and as we scale the business, we continue to benefit from the strength of our legacy distribution relationships and broader commercial capabilities. Our strategy is to build demand across both online and retail channels, with retail expansion as the key lever to scale the business. To support that effort, we are investing in sales coverage, merchandising support, and brand-building programs that help us win distribution and improve in-store execution. That includes securing the right assortment, shelf placement, and visibility to support trial, repeat purchase, and long-term performance. These investments support both near-term execution and the broader foundation we need to scale the business. In the first quarter, we made progress against that plan. Summer FreinChief Revenue Officer at Turning Point Brands00:07:00We secured new wins across critical top chain convenience stores that will expand distribution across our portfolio. Our brands are designed to resonate with distinct consumers, and we will continue to promote the expansion of both FRE and ALP into retail stores. We believe our brand credibility, market performance, and ongoing marketing support were important drivers of those wins. While nicotine pouch growth sales grew nearly 500% in 2025, we still have meaningful room to build brand awareness relative to category leaders. Our early strategy was to establish distribution first, using our existing retailer relationships to build a strong retail foundation. With the progress we made in 2025 and the additional distribution we have secured, we believe we are now at a point where increased brand investment can drive stronger returns. Summer FreinChief Revenue Officer at Turning Point Brands00:07:50Over time, that should improve consumer awareness, support retail productivity, and increase the value of the nicotine pouch opportunity. Accordingly, we are investing aggressively in brand building to support future scale. Last month, we announced a partnership between FRE and six TKO properties, including UFC, Zuffa Boxing, and PBR. This expansion is a result of the demand and brand alignment success we validated through our initial partnership with PBR, which started in May of last year. We believe this broader platform will help accelerate brand awareness and consumer engagement with adult consumers. We are off to a solid start already having executed a few events since the announcement, and we'll share more as the partnership unfolds. Building on ALP's success in direct-to-consumer, this was the first quarter that TPB sales organization started to sell ALP on retail shelves. Summer FreinChief Revenue Officer at Turning Point Brands00:08:44We began with a manageable launch and expect to incrementally add stores this year through our new chain account wins. While it's early innings, we are encouraged by the initial results. With regards to Zig-Zag, we continued executing against our core brand pillars, strengthening the core business while scaling new product innovation and expanding brand presence in target markets. We accelerated growth in new products, including Natural Leaf Flat Wraps, by expanding retail distribution through targeted merchandising programs. At the same time, we are growing brand awareness with a focus on under-indexed markets through integrated marketing campaigns and in-store activations that embody Zig-Zag's new Life's Fast, Burn Slow tagline. Overall, we are seeing encouraging early proof points across both brand building and retail expansion, and we believe that progress positions the nicotine pouch segment to become a major contributor to growth over time. Summer FreinChief Revenue Officer at Turning Point Brands00:09:41Let me now turn the call over to Andrew to go through our financial results. Andrew FlynnCFO at Turning Point Brands00:09:46Thank you, Summer. Starting with consolidated results, sales were up 17% year-over-year to $124.3 million for the quarter. Growth was driven primarily by Modern Oral. Gross profit of $68.3 million increased 14.6%, driven by Modern Oral. Gross margin was 55%, which was down 100 basis points versus last year. Reported SG&A was $55.8 million for the quarter, which was up $8 million sequentially. The increase was driven primarily by our nicotine white pouch investments, including approximately $1 million of incremental spend tied to expansion of our sales force. We also spent approximately $7 million on increased marketing investment and broader brand-building initiatives. Adjusted EBITDA was $25.9 million for the quarter at a 20.8% margin, which exceeded the midpoint of the guidance. Andrew FlynnCFO at Turning Point Brands00:10:40This was primarily attributed to accelerated growth in Modern Oral, offset by our strategy to increase sales and marketing investment and softness in Zig-Zag. Stoker's segment net sales increased 48% year-over-year to $88 million for the quarter. The Stoker's segment now accounts for 70% of consolidated net sales. Regarding Modern Oral, I want to briefly address our disclosure of gross sales. Because most contra revenue investments relate to slotting-related distribution fees, we believe both gross and net sales provide the clearest view of underlying business performance. Support of our growth investments, Modern Oral nicotine pouch net sales, FRE and ALP, were up 133% year-over-year, achieving net revenue of $52 million. Gross revenue was $69 million, up 167% year-over-year. Andrew FlynnCFO at Turning Point Brands00:11:33For the quarter, Modern Oral accounted for 42% of consolidated net sales, up from 21% a year ago. Legacy Stoker's brands net revenue decreased 3.5% year-over-year to $36 million for the quarter, driven by continued share growth in MST that was partially offset by anticipated declines in loose leaf. Stoker's gross profit increased 39% to $47 million. Gross margin decreased 350 basis points to 54%, due largely to the impact of tariffs. Zig-Zag segment net sales were down 22% year-over-year to $36.7 million for the quarter. For the quarter, Zig-Zag gross profit decreased 18% to $20.9 million, and gross margin was 57.1%, which was up 300 basis points versus last year. Andrew FlynnCFO at Turning Point Brands00:12:23First quarter free cash flow was -$27.4 million, reflective of our investments in trade and brand marketing programs, as well as working capital and U.S. manufacturing CapEx. We ended the quarter with $192.4 million of cash. Our expectation is to be approximately cash flow breakeven for the remainder of the year. Our capital allocation approach remains disciplined and aligned with the opportunity we see in nicotine pouch. As we invest behind growth initiatives, the timing of those investments and the timing of their benefits may not always align evenly within a given quarter. That reflects our effort to position the business to capture incremental share in a category with substantial long-term annuity value. Today, we are increasing full-year 2026 Modern Oral guidance. Andrew FlynnCFO at Turning Point Brands00:13:10We now expect gross sales of $280 million-$300 million, up from a previous range of $220 million-$240 million, and net sales of $210 million-$225 million, up from a previous range of $180 million-$190 million. Implied gross revenue growth at the midpoint is 83.7%. We are also introducing full-year EBITDA guidance of $70 million-$90 million, inclusive of increased nicotine pouch investments in salesforce expansion, merchandising support, and consumer marketing. For modeling purposes, we expect the effective income tax rate to be 23%-26% on a go-forward basis. Budgeted 2026 CapEx is $4 million-$5 million, excluding projects related to Modern Oral, and we expect to spend an additional $3 million-$5 million this year to support our PMTAs. Andrew FlynnCFO at Turning Point Brands00:14:04Additionally, as we focus on strengthening our market presence, we expect to spend between $80 million-$105 million to expand our salesforce and bolster our marketing strategy in 2026. As we continue to scale, we expect the overall cost structure of the business to become more efficient. Many investments we are making today, slotting-related brand building and go-to-market spend, are tied to building distribution and driving initial trial and growth of our products. As our consumer base grows, these costs should become a smaller percent of sales. Now, let me turn it to Graham. Graham PurdyCEO at Turning Point Brands00:14:40Thanks, Andrew. We are encouraged by the momentum we see in the business and by the progress we are making against our strategy. As I said at the outset, we believe we're in the midst of a generational shift in nicotine consumption, and we believe Turning Point is uniquely positioned to capture meaningful share in that transition. Our focus remains on winning in Modern Oral by investing in the brands, commercial capabilities, and infrastructure needed to scale. We are seeing continued proof points in both consumer traction and distribution growth, and we believe that positions us well to build a meaningful and profitable business over time. With that, I'll turn it over to questions. Operator00:15:22Thank you, sir. Everyone, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. We do ask that you limit your questions to one initial and one follow-up. Our first question today will come from Eric Des Lauriers from Craig-Hallum Capital Group. Eric Des LauriersAnalyst at Craig-Hallum Capital Group00:15:41Great. Thanks for taking my questions. Congrats on the strong results. Very encouraging to see nicotine pouch sales reaccelerating into Q1 here. You raised guidance for Modern Oral net sales by about $30 million and then gross sales by about $60 million. Suggesting a big increase in contra revenues with these national chain wins. How did these wins announced today compare to your expectations coming into the year? Have you won more chains than initially expected? Any national chains that we should expect both FRE and ALP, or is it mostly FRE right now? Summer FreinChief Revenue Officer at Turning Point Brands00:16:17Great question. Thanks, Eric. We were really, really excited about the springtime negotiations that we worked through over the past few months. As Graham noted in his comments, we expect our store count to increase by nearly 70% by the end of the year. I think, as you know, every chain account is different, so we're currently in the process of determining the rollout schedule, and the doors will come online over the balance of the year. Where we have opportunities to bring both brands in, we will. You'll hear more about that as the year rolls out, and we're encouraged and excited about the success that we had over the past few months. Eric Des LauriersAnalyst at Craig-Hallum Capital Group00:16:58Yeah. No, certainly sounds very exciting. I guess, Summer, you touched on this in your answer there, and maybe it's just, you know, we'll see over the next couple of quarters. How should we think about the timing from these wins? When should we expect to see them on shelves? You know, how should we think about the sort of impact on gross versus net sales? Should we look for net sales to sort of pick up from these in the back half, or is that more of a 2027 thing? Thanks. Summer FreinChief Revenue Officer at Turning Point Brands00:17:30Yeah. I'll answer the first part, and then I'll turn it to Andrew to answer the second part. You'll start seeing some of these chain wins roll out over the next few weeks. As the progress of rolling out these chains requires resets of fixtures and different dynamics that they're sorting out with getting everything situated in store, it just takes time. You'll see those stores sort of fill out across the balance of the year. I'll turn it to Andrew to explain how we thought about the dollar impact. Andrew FlynnCFO at Turning Point Brands00:18:02Yeah. As we think about the net sales trajectory over the course of the year, we'd expect to see some pickup in the back half, as it relates to the Modern Oral category. Eric Des LauriersAnalyst at Craig-Hallum Capital Group00:18:17Awesome. Well, it's all very encouraging. Congrats again on the strong results. Summer FreinChief Revenue Officer at Turning Point Brands00:18:22Thanks, Eric. Operator00:18:24Your next question comes from Ian Zaffino from Oppenheimer. Ian ZaffinoAnalyst at Oppenheimer00:18:29Hi, great. Thank you very much. You know, great guidance on that MO side. You know, question would be on the PMTA process. How is that going? You know, I know there's been a couple news articles about that. Any kind of change in discussions there or thoughts about getting kind of final approval? How are you thinking about the Louisville plant, you know, which because I guess they're kind of connected events. Thanks. Graham PurdyCEO at Turning Point Brands00:19:04Yeah, great question, Ian. Look, the PMTA process is, it's a rigorous scientific process. We're not surprised by the timing, to be frank. You know, our approach is, you know, we respect the process and, you know, any additional commentary around sort of where we're at on that timeline, probably wouldn't be appropriate at this time. In terms of Louisville, manufacturing, you know, we're threading a bit of a needle here with respect to the PMTA process and in scaling our infrastructure here in Louisville. We've made really great progress relative to, you know, laying down the infrastructure to support manufacturing here in Louisville. Graham PurdyCEO at Turning Point Brands00:19:51We've certainly got equipment, in Louisville, and we feel really good about, you know, where we're at from a, from a, you know, throughput on those machines in the early innings. Ian ZaffinoAnalyst at Oppenheimer00:20:03Okay. That's Thank you. Then I guess maybe a question for Summer is, you know, when you're going to market this portfolio, like, I guess you now have the newly expanded portfolio. How are you going to market? Are you going to market as far as FRE being your higher nicotine pouches and ALP being your lower nicotine pouches? Is that the strategy? Also, maybe talk about, you know, this portfolio, expanded portfolio which has significantly more SKUs, how that's resonating with retailers, bringing them, you know, incremental SKUs, and any other kind of color you can give us maybe about the synergistic effects of having those two brands together. Thanks. Summer FreinChief Revenue Officer at Turning Point Brands00:20:46Yeah, sure. I would say the retailers are consumers, and our sales organization are all very excited about us having both brands in the portfolio and in the sales bag to bring to market. What's been great about both of these brands is that they've built strong base with consumers, especially ALP. You know, they've created a really strong D2C presence, and there was some pent-up demand at retail that we were really able to start leveraging. As these brands are being put into market, we're really thinking about the end consumer. While the product itself is important, and they certainly have their differences, what's resonating with retail, what's resonating with consumers, is that these brands are really focused on two very distinct consumer bases. Summer FreinChief Revenue Officer at Turning Point Brands00:21:33There's room in this category for both brands to win, and we've seen some really encouraging early results as we've been bringing them to market. Ian ZaffinoAnalyst at Oppenheimer00:21:42Okay. Thank you very much. Summer FreinChief Revenue Officer at Turning Point Brands00:21:45No problem. Operator00:21:46Next up is Nick Anderson from Roth Capital Partners. Nick AndersonAnalyst at Roth Capital Partners00:21:51Great. Thanks for taking the questions, and congrats on the quarter. First for me, just on the rising fuel price environment, have you seen any impact on C-store visits or consumer behavior? Tobacco is typically more resilient when it comes to higher fuel prices. Are you seeing the same trend emerge within nicotine pouches? Just any discernible changes to gas prices, that would be helpful. Graham PurdyCEO at Turning Point Brands00:22:12You know, I think, you know, given the backdrop of our results, we feel, you know, really good about, you know, sort of where we're at today, you know, with the consumer. As Summer had mentioned in the last question with Ian, we're really focused in on, you know, building brand equities, building brand identity, and really winning on the premium front over the long haul. We view the fuel prices as transient. We think where we generally see that more so is in the heritage businesses, I think what's an interesting aspect of that, you know, historically, consumers tend to not move out of the categories. They tend to look for more value, I think we feel very well-positioned with our Stoker's heritage products, you know, with respect to, you know, spiking gas prices. Nick AndersonAnalyst at Roth Capital Partners00:22:58Great. That's helpful. Second for me, just on the retail landscape, with the momentum from TKO and brand awareness obviously ticking higher here, have you seen a difference in appetite from market chains to carry for you now? As brand recognition grows, I would assume your negotiations should become smoother, but any color there would be helpful. Thank you. Summer FreinChief Revenue Officer at Turning Point Brands00:23:19Great question. We are really excited about the TKO deal. As you know, we invested in PBR last year. We learned a lot. That gave us some momentum to build upon because I think having this TKO deal really has us show up as a credible partner that's investing for the long term to win with our brands. Certainly, while it's early, it has been part of the conversation with retail. We've seen some early consumer excitement. We have some events under our belts and more to come as that partnership unfolds. Encouraged about the credibility it brings to us and sort of the proof point that comes to the table of us being a brand and a company that's investing in the long term here. Nick AndersonAnalyst at Roth Capital Partners00:24:04Great. That's it for me. Congrats again on the quarter. Summer FreinChief Revenue Officer at Turning Point Brands00:24:06Thank you. Operator00:24:08The next question is from Gerald Pascarelli, Needham & Company. Jack HigginsAnalyst at Needham & Company00:24:14Hi, this is Jack on for Gerald, thanks for taking my questions. I guess for EBITDA guidance, obviously implies a decline relative to last year. Jack HigginsAnalyst at Needham & Company00:24:24Which at this point I think is well understood, but the range is pretty wide. Could you just kinda go through some assumptions that get you to the high end versus the low end? Andrew FlynnCFO at Turning Point Brands00:24:34Sure thing. Look, what's driving the EBITDA guide is, as we discussed, we've got big investments in terms of sales force, retail distribution, as well as marketing spend. Those are the big drivers of the year-over-year change. Also, as you know, our outbound freight costs are captured in SG&A. That's also up on a year-over-year basis. What's kind of driving the range here is, one, it, the biggest driver is our ability to get that spending and what we will spend on in the future. That spending is dependent on what we see in terms of sales, because we'll be able to pivot if needed, and we're being judicious about that investment. Andrew FlynnCFO at Turning Point Brands00:25:36As we monitor it, we may make some changes. That's really the reason for the guide. There could be a real upside opportunity in terms of the TKO agreement that we just launched. This is very new. Some of these chain wins are also very new, and that could provide a very large upside for us as well. Jack HigginsAnalyst at Needham & Company00:26:02Okay, that's helpful. For the UFC sponsorship, looks like it can be pretty transformative. It's incremental to your OpEx outlook relative to last time you presented. As we kinda look forward, is there the potential for Turning Point to enter into some more of these sponsorships? If so, can that imply another leg down on EBITDA, or do you think the low end is the floor at this point? Summer FreinChief Revenue Officer at Turning Point Brands00:26:29I'll take the first part of that question, and Andrew may wanna chime in on the dollar aspect. As you know, investing in TKO is a bet for us that we're really excited about. We are also, you know, doing other marketing activities, other consumer engagement building activities, like with motorsports and other avenues. I think to Andrew's point, we will invest prudently as we go and make changes as we may need to. Excited about the awareness opportunity this gives for the brand, and I'll turn it to Andrew on the dollar aspect. Andrew FlynnCFO at Turning Point Brands00:27:00Yeah, in terms of what that may mean for the low end of guidance, as I said before, we're gonna be judicious about our spending. If something makes sense for us to gain incremental market share, we will do that. That's really how we think about these opportunities. Operator00:27:27Everyone, at this time, there are no further questions. I'd like to hand the conference back to Mr. Graham Purdy for any additional or closing remarks. Graham PurdyCEO at Turning Point Brands00:27:35Thanks, operator. Really wanna thank everybody for joining the call today. Look, in closing, I think ultimately I wanna emphasize a couple of points, you know, to our investors. You know, for one, I'm been in this industry for, I'm closing in on my 30th year, and I can't tell you how excited I am about the opportunity in front of us with the generational, you know, transformation that we've spoke of, you know, earlier in the, in the script. And what, how TPB fits into that, you know, long term, I think is incredibly exciting. The Modern Oral opportunity, it's real, it's gaining momentum. Graham PurdyCEO at Turning Point Brands00:28:12I think you're seeing early progress from our company that, you know, across our D2C platforms, progress we're making in bricks and mortar, you know, gives us a lot of enthusiasm around, you know, where we're at in terms of harvesting that long-term opportunity. As Andrew mentioned, you know, our investments in this category are gonna be incredibly disciplined and ultimately tied to our sales objectives in this category. I think lastly, the heritage business for us is still very important. It provides, you know, strong cash flows for the company, and it gives us cash flow to invest in the future and ultimately harvest the opportunity that we see in front of us. It's really exciting times at Turning Point Brands. Graham PurdyCEO at Turning Point Brands00:28:57You know, with that, I'll sorta close by saying look forward to talk to you, talking to you all in a few months here and updating against, you know, our progress against the plan. Thank you so much for joining. Operator00:29:09Once again, everyone, that does conclude today's conference. We would like to thank you all for your participation. You may now disconnect.Read moreParticipantsExecutivesAndrew FlynnCFOSummer FreinChief Revenue OfficerAnalystsEric Des LauriersAnalyst at Craig-Hallum Capital GroupGraham PurdyCEO at Turning Point BrandsIan ZaffinoAnalyst at OppenheimerJack HigginsAnalyst at Needham & CompanyNick AndersonAnalyst at Roth Capital PartnersPowered by Earnings DocumentsSlide DeckPress Release(8-K)Quarterly report(10-Q) Turning Point Brands Earnings HeadlinesTurning Point Brands' (NYSE:TPB) Shareholders May Want To Dig Deeper Than Statutory ProfitMay 16, 2026 | finance.yahoo.comTurning Point Brands (NYSE:TPB) Downgraded to Strong Sell Rating by Wall Street ZenMay 16, 2026 | americanbankingnews.comRead this warning immediatelyPorter Stansberry, founder of one of the world's largest financial research firms, says he's breaking the biggest story of his 26-year career. A famous historian whose books have sold over 45 million copies in 65 languages is warning of a structural shift so large it has only one historical parallel - 1776. One Stanford economist calls it 'the biggest change ever - bigger than electricity, bigger than the steam engine.' Stansberry outlines the stocks to buy, the stocks to sell, and three money moves to position yourself on the right side of this shift.May 24 at 1:00 AM | Porter & Company (Ad)Turning Point Brands, Inc. (NYSE:TPB) Receives Consensus Rating of "Hold" from BrokeragesMay 14, 2026 | americanbankingnews.comTurning Point Brands, Inc. 2026 Q1 - Results - Earnings Call PresentationMay 11, 2026 | seekingalpha.comAnalysts Are Bullish on These Consumer Goods Stocks: Turning Point Brands (TPB), Performance Food Group (PFGC)May 11, 2026 | theglobeandmail.comSee More Turning Point Brands Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like Turning Point Brands? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on Turning Point Brands and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About Turning Point BrandsTurning Point Brands (NYSE:TPB) (NYSE: TPB) is a U.S.-based consumer products company focused on the manufacture, marketing and distribution of smokeless tobacco, vaping and cigar products. Headquartered in Old Hickory, Tennessee, the company serves retail outlets across all 50 states through a direct-store-delivery network and select third-party distributors. Turning Point Brands operates two reporting segments—Smokeless Products and Cigar—and leverages its logistics capabilities to offer a broad portfolio of brands and SKUs. In its Smokeless Products segment, Turning Point Brands produces moist smokeless tobacco under leading brand names such as Grizzly, Kodiak and Stoker’s. The company also markets dissolvable tobacco products, tobacco lozenges and pouch formats designed to meet evolving consumer preferences. This segment benefits from a geographically diverse footprint and a sales force that maintains close relationships with convenience stores, supermarkets and other retail channels. The Cigar segment encompasses the manufacturing and distribution of machine-made cigars, little cigars and pipe tobacco products. Through a combination of company-owned distribution centers and partnerships with wholesale distributors, Turning Point Brands offers a range of flavored and traditional cigar products. This segment targets mass-market and private-label customers and relies on efficient inventory management to support nationwide availability. Founded in 2002, Turning Point Brands completed its initial public offering in 2014 and has since grown through organic brand building and strategic acquisitions. The company is led by President and Chief Executive Officer Jason D. Conway, supported by a senior management team with deep experience in tobacco manufacturing, consumer marketing and supply-chain logistics. With an emphasis on product innovation and regulatory compliance, Turning Point Brands continues to expand its presence in the U.S. alternative tobacco market.View Turning Point Brands 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 Latest Articles Was Decker’s Double Beat a Bullish Signal—Or Mere HOKA’s-Pocus?Workday Validates AI Flywheel: Stock Price Recovery BeginsOverextended, e.l.f. Beauty Is Primed to Rebound in Back HalfDeere Beats Q2 Estimates, But Ag Weakness Weighs on OutlookNVIDIA Price Pullback? 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PresentationSkip to Participants Operator00:00:00Good morning, welcome to the Turning Point Brands first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. All participants will be in a listen-only mode. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. Should you need operator assistance today, please press star zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note that this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Andrew Flynn, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead, sir. Andrew FlynnCFO at Turning Point Brands00:00:29Good morning, everyone. Earlier today, we issued a press release covering our first quarter results, available in the investor relations section of our website at www.turningpointbrands.com. During this call, we'll discuss consolidated and segment operating results, the operating environment, and our progress against our strategic plan. Before we begin, please refer to forward-looking statements and risk factors in our press release and SEC filings. We'll also reference certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations and explanations are included in today's earnings release. With that, I'll turn the call over to our CEO, Graham Purdy. Graham PurdyCEO at Turning Point Brands00:01:07Thanks, Andrew. Good morning, everybody, and thank you for joining our call. We started the year with strong momentum led by accelerating growth in Modern Oral, with gross and net sales up 167% and 133% year-over-year and 30% and 26% sequentially. These results are driven by ongoing growth in both brands' D2C platforms, FRE's early expansion into larger, higher volume chain accounts, and ALP's very early move into bricks and mortar. In the quarter, Modern Oral accounted for 42% of our total revenue, up from 21% in Q1 2025. Before we dive into details of the quarter, I want to step back and frame the opportunity in front of Turning Point Brands. Graham PurdyCEO at Turning Point Brands00:01:58We believe we are in the midst of a greater than $50 billion generational shift in nicotine consumption, and we are positioning the business to capture a meaningful share of nicotine users in this evolving high-barrier category. We are strengthening that position through foundational investments in our sales force, marketing, and commercial capabilities. These investments are critical to building a durable growth platform that can scale into a leading player in the post-cigarette nicotine market over time. While this infrastructure will ultimately allow us to compete across the modern nicotine ecosystem, our priority today is clear: winning in nicotine pouches. We believe the nicotine pouch category is still in its nascent stages of development and can become the dominant revenue and profit driver of the company over time. Graham PurdyCEO at Turning Point Brands00:02:49As we've said before, we expect the market to consolidate around a limited number of scaled brands, and we are increasingly confident that FRE and ALP will be among them. Our confidence is grounded in execution. We continue to see encouraging consumer response across both FRE and ALP, supported by product quality, brand positioning, and repeat purchasing behavior. Our outsized share of direct-to-consumer sales, coupled with our continued market share gains in bricks and mortar, are evidence that our plan is working in the early innings. Based on our Q1 performance, we believe our results captured mid-single-digit category share of both gross and net sales, giving confidence that we are on track to achieve our long-term goal of double-digit market share by the end of the decade. We are using that momentum to build scale across channels. Graham PurdyCEO at Turning Point Brands00:03:41FRE continues to expand into larger regional and national convenience chains, while ALP has moved from a strong direct-to-consumer base into retail faster than we originally expected. We've had several notable chain wins, driving confidence in our growth. We expect our chain store count to increase 70% by the end of 2026 versus the prior year. As you know, we are building an operational foundation to further support scale in Modern Oral. Commissioning our Louisville manufacturing facility is an important step in localizing production, improving supply control, and reducing freight and tariff exposure over time. As we build production, we expect that work to strengthen unit economics and support margin improvement as domestic inventory moves through the P&L. At scale, we believe our margins should approach 70% in this category by the end of the decade. Graham PurdyCEO at Turning Point Brands00:04:39We also continue to invest in the commercial infrastructure needed to support growth, including sales force expansion, chain account support, enhanced consumer visibility, and manufacturing capabilities. In 2026, we plan to continue investing in our sales force and marketing to secure chain placement, build brand awareness, and support our growing distribution footprint. Based on achieving our sales and financial objectives, we expect total sales and marketing investment for the year to range from $80 million-$105 million. Given the strong gross sales growth we have experienced, we are confident that these investments will provide attractive returns for investors over the long term. In short, we are making front-loaded investments in a category where acquiring brand-oriented adult consumers can drive repeat purchasing and strong margins over extended periods. Graham PurdyCEO at Turning Point Brands00:05:35Over time, we believe our investments in physical execution, particularly sales force expansion, distribution support, and retail presence, will become a more important source of competitive advantage. Overall, we are encouraged by the momentum we are seeing, the progress we are making, and the platform we are building to scale profitably. With that, I'll hand the call over to Summer to walk through the progress of our key go-to-market initiatives. Summer FreinChief Revenue Officer at Turning Point Brands00:06:06Thank you, Graham, and good morning, everyone. I'll focus my comments on our go-to-market execution in the nicotine pouch segment. This remains our top commercial priority, and as we scale the business, we continue to benefit from the strength of our legacy distribution relationships and broader commercial capabilities. Our strategy is to build demand across both online and retail channels, with retail expansion as the key lever to scale the business. To support that effort, we are investing in sales coverage, merchandising support, and brand-building programs that help us win distribution and improve in-store execution. That includes securing the right assortment, shelf placement, and visibility to support trial, repeat purchase, and long-term performance. These investments support both near-term execution and the broader foundation we need to scale the business. In the first quarter, we made progress against that plan. Summer FreinChief Revenue Officer at Turning Point Brands00:07:00We secured new wins across critical top chain convenience stores that will expand distribution across our portfolio. Our brands are designed to resonate with distinct consumers, and we will continue to promote the expansion of both FRE and ALP into retail stores. We believe our brand credibility, market performance, and ongoing marketing support were important drivers of those wins. While nicotine pouch growth sales grew nearly 500% in 2025, we still have meaningful room to build brand awareness relative to category leaders. Our early strategy was to establish distribution first, using our existing retailer relationships to build a strong retail foundation. With the progress we made in 2025 and the additional distribution we have secured, we believe we are now at a point where increased brand investment can drive stronger returns. Summer FreinChief Revenue Officer at Turning Point Brands00:07:50Over time, that should improve consumer awareness, support retail productivity, and increase the value of the nicotine pouch opportunity. Accordingly, we are investing aggressively in brand building to support future scale. Last month, we announced a partnership between FRE and six TKO properties, including UFC, Zuffa Boxing, and PBR. This expansion is a result of the demand and brand alignment success we validated through our initial partnership with PBR, which started in May of last year. We believe this broader platform will help accelerate brand awareness and consumer engagement with adult consumers. We are off to a solid start already having executed a few events since the announcement, and we'll share more as the partnership unfolds. Building on ALP's success in direct-to-consumer, this was the first quarter that TPB sales organization started to sell ALP on retail shelves. Summer FreinChief Revenue Officer at Turning Point Brands00:08:44We began with a manageable launch and expect to incrementally add stores this year through our new chain account wins. While it's early innings, we are encouraged by the initial results. With regards to Zig-Zag, we continued executing against our core brand pillars, strengthening the core business while scaling new product innovation and expanding brand presence in target markets. We accelerated growth in new products, including Natural Leaf Flat Wraps, by expanding retail distribution through targeted merchandising programs. At the same time, we are growing brand awareness with a focus on under-indexed markets through integrated marketing campaigns and in-store activations that embody Zig-Zag's new Life's Fast, Burn Slow tagline. Overall, we are seeing encouraging early proof points across both brand building and retail expansion, and we believe that progress positions the nicotine pouch segment to become a major contributor to growth over time. Summer FreinChief Revenue Officer at Turning Point Brands00:09:41Let me now turn the call over to Andrew to go through our financial results. Andrew FlynnCFO at Turning Point Brands00:09:46Thank you, Summer. Starting with consolidated results, sales were up 17% year-over-year to $124.3 million for the quarter. Growth was driven primarily by Modern Oral. Gross profit of $68.3 million increased 14.6%, driven by Modern Oral. Gross margin was 55%, which was down 100 basis points versus last year. Reported SG&A was $55.8 million for the quarter, which was up $8 million sequentially. The increase was driven primarily by our nicotine white pouch investments, including approximately $1 million of incremental spend tied to expansion of our sales force. We also spent approximately $7 million on increased marketing investment and broader brand-building initiatives. Adjusted EBITDA was $25.9 million for the quarter at a 20.8% margin, which exceeded the midpoint of the guidance. Andrew FlynnCFO at Turning Point Brands00:10:40This was primarily attributed to accelerated growth in Modern Oral, offset by our strategy to increase sales and marketing investment and softness in Zig-Zag. Stoker's segment net sales increased 48% year-over-year to $88 million for the quarter. The Stoker's segment now accounts for 70% of consolidated net sales. Regarding Modern Oral, I want to briefly address our disclosure of gross sales. Because most contra revenue investments relate to slotting-related distribution fees, we believe both gross and net sales provide the clearest view of underlying business performance. Support of our growth investments, Modern Oral nicotine pouch net sales, FRE and ALP, were up 133% year-over-year, achieving net revenue of $52 million. Gross revenue was $69 million, up 167% year-over-year. Andrew FlynnCFO at Turning Point Brands00:11:33For the quarter, Modern Oral accounted for 42% of consolidated net sales, up from 21% a year ago. Legacy Stoker's brands net revenue decreased 3.5% year-over-year to $36 million for the quarter, driven by continued share growth in MST that was partially offset by anticipated declines in loose leaf. Stoker's gross profit increased 39% to $47 million. Gross margin decreased 350 basis points to 54%, due largely to the impact of tariffs. Zig-Zag segment net sales were down 22% year-over-year to $36.7 million for the quarter. For the quarter, Zig-Zag gross profit decreased 18% to $20.9 million, and gross margin was 57.1%, which was up 300 basis points versus last year. Andrew FlynnCFO at Turning Point Brands00:12:23First quarter free cash flow was -$27.4 million, reflective of our investments in trade and brand marketing programs, as well as working capital and U.S. manufacturing CapEx. We ended the quarter with $192.4 million of cash. Our expectation is to be approximately cash flow breakeven for the remainder of the year. Our capital allocation approach remains disciplined and aligned with the opportunity we see in nicotine pouch. As we invest behind growth initiatives, the timing of those investments and the timing of their benefits may not always align evenly within a given quarter. That reflects our effort to position the business to capture incremental share in a category with substantial long-term annuity value. Today, we are increasing full-year 2026 Modern Oral guidance. Andrew FlynnCFO at Turning Point Brands00:13:10We now expect gross sales of $280 million-$300 million, up from a previous range of $220 million-$240 million, and net sales of $210 million-$225 million, up from a previous range of $180 million-$190 million. Implied gross revenue growth at the midpoint is 83.7%. We are also introducing full-year EBITDA guidance of $70 million-$90 million, inclusive of increased nicotine pouch investments in salesforce expansion, merchandising support, and consumer marketing. For modeling purposes, we expect the effective income tax rate to be 23%-26% on a go-forward basis. Budgeted 2026 CapEx is $4 million-$5 million, excluding projects related to Modern Oral, and we expect to spend an additional $3 million-$5 million this year to support our PMTAs. Andrew FlynnCFO at Turning Point Brands00:14:04Additionally, as we focus on strengthening our market presence, we expect to spend between $80 million-$105 million to expand our salesforce and bolster our marketing strategy in 2026. As we continue to scale, we expect the overall cost structure of the business to become more efficient. Many investments we are making today, slotting-related brand building and go-to-market spend, are tied to building distribution and driving initial trial and growth of our products. As our consumer base grows, these costs should become a smaller percent of sales. Now, let me turn it to Graham. Graham PurdyCEO at Turning Point Brands00:14:40Thanks, Andrew. We are encouraged by the momentum we see in the business and by the progress we are making against our strategy. As I said at the outset, we believe we're in the midst of a generational shift in nicotine consumption, and we believe Turning Point is uniquely positioned to capture meaningful share in that transition. Our focus remains on winning in Modern Oral by investing in the brands, commercial capabilities, and infrastructure needed to scale. We are seeing continued proof points in both consumer traction and distribution growth, and we believe that positions us well to build a meaningful and profitable business over time. With that, I'll turn it over to questions. Operator00:15:22Thank you, sir. Everyone, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. We do ask that you limit your questions to one initial and one follow-up. Our first question today will come from Eric Des Lauriers from Craig-Hallum Capital Group. Eric Des LauriersAnalyst at Craig-Hallum Capital Group00:15:41Great. Thanks for taking my questions. Congrats on the strong results. Very encouraging to see nicotine pouch sales reaccelerating into Q1 here. You raised guidance for Modern Oral net sales by about $30 million and then gross sales by about $60 million. Suggesting a big increase in contra revenues with these national chain wins. How did these wins announced today compare to your expectations coming into the year? Have you won more chains than initially expected? Any national chains that we should expect both FRE and ALP, or is it mostly FRE right now? Summer FreinChief Revenue Officer at Turning Point Brands00:16:17Great question. Thanks, Eric. We were really, really excited about the springtime negotiations that we worked through over the past few months. As Graham noted in his comments, we expect our store count to increase by nearly 70% by the end of the year. I think, as you know, every chain account is different, so we're currently in the process of determining the rollout schedule, and the doors will come online over the balance of the year. Where we have opportunities to bring both brands in, we will. You'll hear more about that as the year rolls out, and we're encouraged and excited about the success that we had over the past few months. Eric Des LauriersAnalyst at Craig-Hallum Capital Group00:16:58Yeah. No, certainly sounds very exciting. I guess, Summer, you touched on this in your answer there, and maybe it's just, you know, we'll see over the next couple of quarters. How should we think about the timing from these wins? When should we expect to see them on shelves? You know, how should we think about the sort of impact on gross versus net sales? Should we look for net sales to sort of pick up from these in the back half, or is that more of a 2027 thing? Thanks. Summer FreinChief Revenue Officer at Turning Point Brands00:17:30Yeah. I'll answer the first part, and then I'll turn it to Andrew to answer the second part. You'll start seeing some of these chain wins roll out over the next few weeks. As the progress of rolling out these chains requires resets of fixtures and different dynamics that they're sorting out with getting everything situated in store, it just takes time. You'll see those stores sort of fill out across the balance of the year. I'll turn it to Andrew to explain how we thought about the dollar impact. Andrew FlynnCFO at Turning Point Brands00:18:02Yeah. As we think about the net sales trajectory over the course of the year, we'd expect to see some pickup in the back half, as it relates to the Modern Oral category. Eric Des LauriersAnalyst at Craig-Hallum Capital Group00:18:17Awesome. Well, it's all very encouraging. Congrats again on the strong results. Summer FreinChief Revenue Officer at Turning Point Brands00:18:22Thanks, Eric. Operator00:18:24Your next question comes from Ian Zaffino from Oppenheimer. Ian ZaffinoAnalyst at Oppenheimer00:18:29Hi, great. Thank you very much. You know, great guidance on that MO side. You know, question would be on the PMTA process. How is that going? You know, I know there's been a couple news articles about that. Any kind of change in discussions there or thoughts about getting kind of final approval? How are you thinking about the Louisville plant, you know, which because I guess they're kind of connected events. Thanks. Graham PurdyCEO at Turning Point Brands00:19:04Yeah, great question, Ian. Look, the PMTA process is, it's a rigorous scientific process. We're not surprised by the timing, to be frank. You know, our approach is, you know, we respect the process and, you know, any additional commentary around sort of where we're at on that timeline, probably wouldn't be appropriate at this time. In terms of Louisville, manufacturing, you know, we're threading a bit of a needle here with respect to the PMTA process and in scaling our infrastructure here in Louisville. We've made really great progress relative to, you know, laying down the infrastructure to support manufacturing here in Louisville. Graham PurdyCEO at Turning Point Brands00:19:51We've certainly got equipment, in Louisville, and we feel really good about, you know, where we're at from a, from a, you know, throughput on those machines in the early innings. Ian ZaffinoAnalyst at Oppenheimer00:20:03Okay. That's Thank you. Then I guess maybe a question for Summer is, you know, when you're going to market this portfolio, like, I guess you now have the newly expanded portfolio. How are you going to market? Are you going to market as far as FRE being your higher nicotine pouches and ALP being your lower nicotine pouches? Is that the strategy? Also, maybe talk about, you know, this portfolio, expanded portfolio which has significantly more SKUs, how that's resonating with retailers, bringing them, you know, incremental SKUs, and any other kind of color you can give us maybe about the synergistic effects of having those two brands together. Thanks. Summer FreinChief Revenue Officer at Turning Point Brands00:20:46Yeah, sure. I would say the retailers are consumers, and our sales organization are all very excited about us having both brands in the portfolio and in the sales bag to bring to market. What's been great about both of these brands is that they've built strong base with consumers, especially ALP. You know, they've created a really strong D2C presence, and there was some pent-up demand at retail that we were really able to start leveraging. As these brands are being put into market, we're really thinking about the end consumer. While the product itself is important, and they certainly have their differences, what's resonating with retail, what's resonating with consumers, is that these brands are really focused on two very distinct consumer bases. Summer FreinChief Revenue Officer at Turning Point Brands00:21:33There's room in this category for both brands to win, and we've seen some really encouraging early results as we've been bringing them to market. Ian ZaffinoAnalyst at Oppenheimer00:21:42Okay. Thank you very much. Summer FreinChief Revenue Officer at Turning Point Brands00:21:45No problem. Operator00:21:46Next up is Nick Anderson from Roth Capital Partners. Nick AndersonAnalyst at Roth Capital Partners00:21:51Great. Thanks for taking the questions, and congrats on the quarter. First for me, just on the rising fuel price environment, have you seen any impact on C-store visits or consumer behavior? Tobacco is typically more resilient when it comes to higher fuel prices. Are you seeing the same trend emerge within nicotine pouches? Just any discernible changes to gas prices, that would be helpful. Graham PurdyCEO at Turning Point Brands00:22:12You know, I think, you know, given the backdrop of our results, we feel, you know, really good about, you know, sort of where we're at today, you know, with the consumer. As Summer had mentioned in the last question with Ian, we're really focused in on, you know, building brand equities, building brand identity, and really winning on the premium front over the long haul. We view the fuel prices as transient. We think where we generally see that more so is in the heritage businesses, I think what's an interesting aspect of that, you know, historically, consumers tend to not move out of the categories. They tend to look for more value, I think we feel very well-positioned with our Stoker's heritage products, you know, with respect to, you know, spiking gas prices. Nick AndersonAnalyst at Roth Capital Partners00:22:58Great. That's helpful. Second for me, just on the retail landscape, with the momentum from TKO and brand awareness obviously ticking higher here, have you seen a difference in appetite from market chains to carry for you now? As brand recognition grows, I would assume your negotiations should become smoother, but any color there would be helpful. Thank you. Summer FreinChief Revenue Officer at Turning Point Brands00:23:19Great question. We are really excited about the TKO deal. As you know, we invested in PBR last year. We learned a lot. That gave us some momentum to build upon because I think having this TKO deal really has us show up as a credible partner that's investing for the long term to win with our brands. Certainly, while it's early, it has been part of the conversation with retail. We've seen some early consumer excitement. We have some events under our belts and more to come as that partnership unfolds. Encouraged about the credibility it brings to us and sort of the proof point that comes to the table of us being a brand and a company that's investing in the long term here. Nick AndersonAnalyst at Roth Capital Partners00:24:04Great. That's it for me. Congrats again on the quarter. Summer FreinChief Revenue Officer at Turning Point Brands00:24:06Thank you. Operator00:24:08The next question is from Gerald Pascarelli, Needham & Company. Jack HigginsAnalyst at Needham & Company00:24:14Hi, this is Jack on for Gerald, thanks for taking my questions. I guess for EBITDA guidance, obviously implies a decline relative to last year. Jack HigginsAnalyst at Needham & Company00:24:24Which at this point I think is well understood, but the range is pretty wide. Could you just kinda go through some assumptions that get you to the high end versus the low end? Andrew FlynnCFO at Turning Point Brands00:24:34Sure thing. Look, what's driving the EBITDA guide is, as we discussed, we've got big investments in terms of sales force, retail distribution, as well as marketing spend. Those are the big drivers of the year-over-year change. Also, as you know, our outbound freight costs are captured in SG&A. That's also up on a year-over-year basis. What's kind of driving the range here is, one, it, the biggest driver is our ability to get that spending and what we will spend on in the future. That spending is dependent on what we see in terms of sales, because we'll be able to pivot if needed, and we're being judicious about that investment. Andrew FlynnCFO at Turning Point Brands00:25:36As we monitor it, we may make some changes. That's really the reason for the guide. There could be a real upside opportunity in terms of the TKO agreement that we just launched. This is very new. Some of these chain wins are also very new, and that could provide a very large upside for us as well. Jack HigginsAnalyst at Needham & Company00:26:02Okay, that's helpful. For the UFC sponsorship, looks like it can be pretty transformative. It's incremental to your OpEx outlook relative to last time you presented. As we kinda look forward, is there the potential for Turning Point to enter into some more of these sponsorships? If so, can that imply another leg down on EBITDA, or do you think the low end is the floor at this point? Summer FreinChief Revenue Officer at Turning Point Brands00:26:29I'll take the first part of that question, and Andrew may wanna chime in on the dollar aspect. As you know, investing in TKO is a bet for us that we're really excited about. We are also, you know, doing other marketing activities, other consumer engagement building activities, like with motorsports and other avenues. I think to Andrew's point, we will invest prudently as we go and make changes as we may need to. Excited about the awareness opportunity this gives for the brand, and I'll turn it to Andrew on the dollar aspect. Andrew FlynnCFO at Turning Point Brands00:27:00Yeah, in terms of what that may mean for the low end of guidance, as I said before, we're gonna be judicious about our spending. If something makes sense for us to gain incremental market share, we will do that. That's really how we think about these opportunities. Operator00:27:27Everyone, at this time, there are no further questions. I'd like to hand the conference back to Mr. Graham Purdy for any additional or closing remarks. Graham PurdyCEO at Turning Point Brands00:27:35Thanks, operator. Really wanna thank everybody for joining the call today. Look, in closing, I think ultimately I wanna emphasize a couple of points, you know, to our investors. You know, for one, I'm been in this industry for, I'm closing in on my 30th year, and I can't tell you how excited I am about the opportunity in front of us with the generational, you know, transformation that we've spoke of, you know, earlier in the, in the script. And what, how TPB fits into that, you know, long term, I think is incredibly exciting. The Modern Oral opportunity, it's real, it's gaining momentum. Graham PurdyCEO at Turning Point Brands00:28:12I think you're seeing early progress from our company that, you know, across our D2C platforms, progress we're making in bricks and mortar, you know, gives us a lot of enthusiasm around, you know, where we're at in terms of harvesting that long-term opportunity. As Andrew mentioned, you know, our investments in this category are gonna be incredibly disciplined and ultimately tied to our sales objectives in this category. I think lastly, the heritage business for us is still very important. It provides, you know, strong cash flows for the company, and it gives us cash flow to invest in the future and ultimately harvest the opportunity that we see in front of us. It's really exciting times at Turning Point Brands. Graham PurdyCEO at Turning Point Brands00:28:57You know, with that, I'll sorta close by saying look forward to talk to you, talking to you all in a few months here and updating against, you know, our progress against the plan. Thank you so much for joining. Operator00:29:09Once again, everyone, that does conclude today's conference. We would like to thank you all for your participation. You may now disconnect.Read moreParticipantsExecutivesAndrew FlynnCFOSummer FreinChief Revenue OfficerAnalystsEric Des LauriersAnalyst at Craig-Hallum Capital GroupGraham PurdyCEO at Turning Point BrandsIan ZaffinoAnalyst at OppenheimerJack HigginsAnalyst at Needham & CompanyNick AndersonAnalyst at Roth Capital PartnersPowered by