FutureFuel Q2 2026 Earnings Report

FutureFuel EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $0.25
• Consensus EPS: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

FutureFuel Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $78.73 million
• Expected Revenue: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

FutureFuel Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q2 2026
• Date: 8/10/2026
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Tuesday, August 11, 2026
• Conference Call Time: 12:00PM ET

FutureFuel (NYSE:FF) Corporation (NYSE: FF) operates as a specialty chemicals and biofuels producer, combining industrial chemistry with renewable energy solutions. Through its wholly owned subsidiary, FutureFuel Chemical Company, it manufactures a diverse portfolio of chemical products that serve fiber and textile applications, agricultural markets, water treatment processes and industrial coatings. In parallel, the company produces biodiesel using vegetable oils and animal fats as feedstocks, supplying both wholesale fuel distributors and commercial users seeking lower-carbon fuel alternatives.

The company’s manufacturing hub is located in Decatur, Arkansas, on a site originally constructed as an ordnance plant during World War II. Over time, that facility was converted to specialty-chemicals production and later acquired by FutureFuel Corporation in 2005 in a spin-off from FMC Corporation. Since its public listing, FutureFuel has focused on optimizing production processes, expanding its biodiesel capacity and diversifying its specialty-chemical offerings.

FutureFuel serves customers primarily in North America, with select exports to international markets where demand exists for high-performance chemical intermediates and renewable diesel blends. Its specialty-chemicals segment produces polymer additives, ester intermediates, and other custom molecules tailored to customer specifications. The biofuels segment leverages the company’s chemical expertise to refine feedstocks into biodiesel that meets industry standards for blending and combustion performance.

Complementing its manufacturing capabilities, FutureFuel invests in research and development to enhance product yield, reduce environmental impact and develop new specialty compounds. The company’s integrated approach—from feedstock sourcing through finished product delivery—positions it to respond to changing regulatory requirements, evolving customer needs and the growing emphasis on sustainable industrial practices.

FutureFuel Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Positive Sentiment: FutureFuel returned to profitability in Q2 2026, reporting $78.7 million in revenue, $15.0 million in gross profit, $11.4 million in net income, and $11.8 million in adjusted EBITDA versus losses in the prior-year period. Management remains on pace for positive full-year adjusted EBITDA.
• Positive Sentiment: Chemical production increased 34% year over year, with chemical gross profit rising to $5.0 million and capacity utilization improving to 65% from 54%. A new customer program and stronger energy and industrial demand supported the improvement.
• Positive Sentiment: Biofuels gross profit improved to $10.1 million from a $13.5 million loss a year earlier, supported by higher production, regulatory clarity, record RVO levels, and improved pricing. Production is expected to increase further in the second half, while the company expects approximately $22 million of gross proceeds from 45Z credit monetization in Q3 and Q4.
• Neutral Sentiment: FutureFuel said plant reliability improvements are roughly 60% to 70% complete, with additional efficiency and infrastructure projects still ahead. The company also has a pipeline of customer-funded chemical capacity projects, but commercialization typically requires 1.5 to 2 years.
• Negative Sentiment: Elevated soybean oil and other raw-material costs remain a near-term headwind for biofuels margins, and quarterly results benefited from a timing-related $9.1 million inventory and hedging impact. Management also noted potential exposure to commodity, oil-and-gas, geopolitical, and broader economic shocks.

Presentation

[Operator]

Welcome to the FutureFuel second quarter results conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow a formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce Rose Sparks, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

[Rose Sparks, CFO at FutureFuel]

Thank you. Good morning and welcome to the FutureFuel second quarter 2026 results conference call. Leading the call today are our Chairman and CEO, Roeland Polet, and I am Rose Sparks, the company's Chief Financial Officer. After the close of U.S. trading yesterday, we issued a press release detailing our second quarter operational and financial results. This release is publicly available in the investor relations section of our corporate website at www.futurefuelcorporation.com. I would like to remind you that management's commentary and responses to questions on today's conference call may include forward-looking statements, which, by their nature, are uncertain and outside the company's control. Although these forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and beliefs, actual results could differ materially.

[Rose Sparks, CFO at FutureFuel]

For a discussion of some of the factors that could cause actual results to differ, please refer to the Risk Factors section of our latest reports filed with the SEC.

[Rose Sparks, CFO at FutureFuel]

Additionally, please note that you can find reconciliations of all historical non-GAAP financial measures mentioned on this call in the press release issued this morning. Today's call will begin with prepared remarks from Roeland Polet, who will provide a business update, followed by my review of our second quarter financial performance. At the conclusion of these prepared remarks, we will open the line for questions. With that, I will turn the call over to Roeland.

[Roeland Polet, Chairman and CEO at FutureFuel]

Thank you, Rose, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining our call today. Again, I am Roeland Polet, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of FutureFuel. I joined the company nearly two years ago, following more than 35 years in the specialty chemicals industry, including senior leadership roles at global manufacturing companies such as Valspar, Celanese, and DHM Furmanesh. Since joining FutureFuel in late 2024, I have had the privilege of working alongside more than 500 dedicated employees to position the business for a new chapter of profitable growth and long-term value creation. Over that period, we have strengthened the foundation of the company, sharpened our strategic priorities, and developed a clear roadmap for the future, which I will be discussing in greater detail today. This is FutureFuel's first quarterly results conference call with investors in more than a decade.

[Roeland Polet, Chairman and CEO at FutureFuel]

With that in mind, my remarks today will serve as a reintroduction of the company, who we are, what we do, how we are competitively differentiated, and the opportunities we see to create meaningful shareholder value over time. Going forward, our leadership team is committed to providing shareholders with greater access, transparency, and insight into our business. The resumption of quarterly investor conference calls is an important step in that commitment and reflects our intention to engage more consistently with the investment community. With that introduction, and given that this is our first conference call together, let's begin with a high-level overview of our business for those less acquainted with us. FutureFuel is a 100% U.S.-based manufacturer operating through two distinct businesses, specialty chemicals and biofuels.

[Roeland Polet, Chairman and CEO at FutureFuel]

Both are supported by our approximately 2,200-acre manufacturing complex in Batesville, Arkansas, where we combine product development, engineering, and commercial production on one integrated campus. The Batesville site has supported complex chemical manufacturing for approximately 50 years and represents an established operating platform that would be difficult to replicate were it built today, given factors of scale, permitting, and production unit complexity. Our chemicals business has two primary areas of focus, custom chemicals manufacturing for third parties together with proprietary specialty chemicals manufacturing. In custom manufacturing, we work closely with customers to develop, scale, and commercially produce specialized products under long-term production agreements. Our proprietary portfolio involves the production of our formulations using our own IP, which are then sold into a variety of different applications. The total production capacity of our chemicals operations is approximately 250 million pounds annually.

[Roeland Polet, Chairman and CEO at FutureFuel]

Our biofuels business manufactures biodiesel from the same Batesville complex, which has approximately 60 million gallons of annual biodiesel production capacity. The business benefits from significant feedstock optionality, which allows us to optimize production economics. While biodiesel economics differ from those of our specialty chemicals segments and are more influenced by commodity and regulatory conditions, the biofuels segment serves as a complementary business to our core specialty chemicals focus, serving to further optimize the Batesville complex while facilitating economies of scale. Next, let's walk through our unique value proposition and why we win in the markets we serve. Our primary competitive advantage is the scale, integration, and technical depth of our Batesville complex. When a chemical customer comes to us, we provide them with one integrated site that includes state-of-the-art laboratories, engineering resources, flexible manufacturing units, wastewater treatment, logistic infrastructure, permits, and experienced technical teams.

[Roeland Polet, Chairman and CEO at FutureFuel]

Our platform allows customers to move from development to commercial production with fewer handoffs, lower execution risk, and more capital-efficient production options. We offer a one-stop-shop solution that is difficult to replicate within the continental United States, positioning us as an attractive reshoring play for chemicals customers who want to avoid supply chain risk associated with sourcing key formulations from overseas partners. While the integration of the Batesville asset is itself a major draw for customers, our deep technical expertise and experienced, skilled workforce are another integral piece of our overall value proposition. At Batesville, our teams manage production, raw material procurement, production quality, and formulation consistency across batch and continuous processes. We have built a strong reputation for being the go-to production partner on complex, technical, demanding programs that customers may not be able to manufacture efficiently themselves.

[Roeland Polet, Chairman and CEO at FutureFuel]

In regard to our value proposition, it centers on reducing technical, operational, and supply chain risk for the customer. A typical relationship begins with customer bringing us a molecule, process, or manufacturing challenge. We then evaluate the chemistry, safety requirements, production economics, and equipment needs, then work through development and scale-up before entering commercial production. As we demonstrate value, the relationship may expand through additional volumes, longer contracts, new products, or customer-funded capacity. Because changing manufacturers can require requalifications, audits, process transfer, and production risk, customer programs are often multi-year engagements, creating long-term stickiness within the customer base. To that end, the average relationship of our top customers in 2025 was more than 15-20 years, highlighting the long-term nature and stickiness of our customer relationships.

[Roeland Polet, Chairman and CEO at FutureFuel]

Before I walk us through what's next for FutureFuel, it is important to provide some perspective around the challenges we faced over the last several years, how we've responded to those challenges, and why we were excited about what comes next for the organization. In the years leading up to 2026, there were three primary factors that impacted our operational and financial performance: plant and production reliability, regulatory uncertainty around biofuels economics, and elevated raw material input costs. Beginning with plant reliability, over the past two years, we have made strides to improve the plant process, enhancing the site safety, and driving higher site utilization through executing on a number of high-impact capital projects. As I'll discuss shortly, we're encouraged by the improvement utilization of Batesville in the first half of the year.

[Roeland Polet, Chairman and CEO at FutureFuel]

Second, with respect to the regulatory environment, we, together with the broader biofuels industry, were granted much-needed relief with a new set of two RFS volume mandates issued by the EPA in March of 2026. Under the new mandates, the EPA established the highest blending mandates in the program's history, targeting a 60% increase over 2025. To meet the 2027 volume targets, existing U.S. domestic biofuels production levels are expected to reach peak capacity, which we expect will benefit us. Further, also during the first quarter of 2026, the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service issued regulations providing expanded guidance on the 45Z credit, integrating changes from the Budget Reconciliation Act of 2025.

[Roeland Polet, Chairman and CEO at FutureFuel]

The rule is expected to help level the competitive environment for biodiesel by reducing the tax credit for SAF from $1.75 per gallon to $1 per gallon, effective January 1st, 2026, requiring that all feedstocks be sourced from North America, and requiring for biomass-based diesel, and extending the 45Z credit for additional two years through year-end 2029. Rose will speak more on how this benefits our business model shortly. Finally, while both plant reliability and regulatory environment have improved meaningfully for us, raw material input costs remain elevated, which remains an area of focus for us. Looking ahead, our value creation roadmap centers on three key pillars, including commercial growth, operational excellence, and a return-centric approach to capital allocation. Within our commercial growth pillar, our first priority is to increase penetration of key existing accounts, as well as scale production volumes across the Batesville complex.

[Roeland Polet, Chairman and CEO at FutureFuel]

We are focused on expanding the specialty chemicals pipeline, converting development products into commercial production, and securing additional volumes from existing customers. We will also pursue new custom manufacturing contracts and expand our proprietary chemicals portfolio into adjacent products and end markets, where our technical capabilities and our existing infrastructure provide a clear advantage. Our objective is not simply to add volume. We intend to pursue programs that accelerate our shift towards higher value add sales mix, whereby we capture ratable growth in margin realization within durable reoccurring revenue streams. By applying greater commercial discipline, we can concentrate our resources on the customers and opportunities which strongest potential to deliver profitable growth through this cycle. Within our operational excellence pillar, we will seek to improve cost efficiency, utilization, safety, reliability across the Batesville complex.

[Roeland Polet, Chairman and CEO at FutureFuel]

Higher sales volumes create value only when we can manufacture those volumes safely, consistently, and an appropriate unit cost. We are therefore focused on plant reliability, production scheduling, procurement, energy efficiency, maintenance practices, and process productivity. We also intend to make operating performance more measurable and transparent by tracking metrics such as capacity utilization, plant uptime, safety performance, and unit product costs. We can and will identify opportunities for improvement and hold our organization accountable for those improvement results. Finally, with respect to our capital allocation pillar, organic reinvestment will remain the top priority where products are supported by identifiable customer demand, including contractual commitments. Where appropriate, we will continue to seek customer-funded capacity expansions while strengthening long-term commercial relationships. We will also evaluate complementary acquisitions, particularly opportunities to add intellectual property, proprietary products, or specialized capabilities that can be integrated into our Batesville platform.

[Roeland Polet, Chairman and CEO at FutureFuel]

Any acquisition must strengthen our competitive position and meet disciplined financial return requirements. Beyond reinvestment and acquisitions, we will continue to evaluate cash dividends and optimistic share repurchases as part of a balanced approach to returning capital to shareholders. Taken together, each of the pillars of our strategic roadmap are designed to drive higher sales volumes, more efficient operations, and stronger returns on invested capital. By growing selectively, operating more efficiently, and allocating capital with discipline, we intend to produce more consistent earnings, cash generation, and long-term shareholder value. Turning now to a review of our second quarter results. The second quarter marked a return to profitable growth for FutureFuel, a performance driven by strengthening end market demand, improved production economics, continued cost discipline, and enhanced optimization of our Batesville plants.

[Roeland Polet, Chairman and CEO at FutureFuel]

At a strategic level, we remain highly focused on driving safe, reliable operations across the organization while continuing to pursue customer co-investment in new capacity and capabilities as we seek to further accelerate growth within our core specialty chemical contract manufacturing markets. As before, we remain on pace to deliver positive adjusted EBITDA for the full year in 2026. At an operational level, total production increased 26% on a year-over-year basis in the second quarter, supported by broad-based demand growth across our specialty chemicals and biofuels end markets. Both segments generated positive gross profit per unit sold in the period and continue to exhibit strong operational momentum entering the second half of 2026. Total chemical segment production increased 34% year-over-year in the second quarter, as increased demand across the energy and industrial end markets drove broad-based strength in both performance and custom chemical manufacturing.

[Roeland Polet, Chairman and CEO at FutureFuel]

Chemicals gross profit was $5 million in the second quarter versus $1.1 million in the year-ago period, reflecting improved volume throughput and stronger margin realization. Biofuels segment production increased 21% year-over-year in the second quarter, despite the impact of a more than three-week biodiesel plant outage during the period, as improved regulatory clarity and mandated renewable fuel production targets for 2026 and 2027 incentivized domestic production. Biofuels gross profit was $10.1 million in the second quarter versus gross loss of $13.5 million in the year-ago period, reflecting improved plant reliability, higher throughputs, better production economics, including a timing benefit related to ongoing biofuels hedging activities. Our biodiesel production continues to ramp higher with third quarter production rates expected to exceed second quarter levels. Looking ahead, demand continues to remain robust across our Chemicals and Biofuels segment.

[Roeland Polet, Chairman and CEO at FutureFuel]

While elevated input costs may continue to represent a near-term headwind for our business, we believe that our 100% domestic production footprint, deep technical expertise within specialty chemical manufacturing, capital-light approach to growth, and long-term collaborations with world-class customer position our business for continued positive momentum. With that, I'd like to hand the call over to Rose for her prepared remarks.

[Rose Sparks, CFO at FutureFuel]

Thank you, Roeland, and good morning again to all those joining us. Today, I will provide a high-level overview of our second quarter financial performance, including a discussion of our balance sheet and liquidity profile at quarter end. Please note that the prior year comparisons have been adjusted to conform to the weighted average method of inventory costing adopted by the company January 1st, 2026. Total revenue was $78.7 million in the second quarter of 2026, an increase of 120.7% compared to $35.7 million in the second quarter of 2025. The increase in revenue was driven by higher throughputs and improved revenue volume mix and higher average pricing in both the Chemical and Biofuel segments. Total volume growth was 40.4% during the second quarter of 2026, while average blended price increased by 80.2%.

[Rose Sparks, CFO at FutureFuel]

Total gross profit was $15 million during the second quarter of 2026 versus a gross loss of $12.4 million during the second quarter of 2025. Second quarter gross profit benefited by $9.1 million related to the sale of physical inventory at prices above hedge levels, which fully offset realized derivative losses of $9.1 million recognized during the first quarter of 2026. Gross profit was benefited by unrealized derivative gains of $3.2 million during the second quarter of 2026. Excluding the derivative impacts, the year-over-year improvement in gross profit was driven by higher throughputs, improved price realization in both Chemicals and Biofuels segments. We reported net income of $11.4 million during the second quarter of 2026 versus a net loss of $14.2 million in the second quarter of 2025.

[Rose Sparks, CFO at FutureFuel]

Adjusted EBITDA was $11.8 million during the second quarter of 2026 versus a loss of $11.4 million during the second quarter of 2025. Turning to the Chemical segment, Chemical segment revenue increased to $25.8 million during the second quarter of 2026 compared to $16.6 million in the second quarter of 2025. The increase was primarily driven by a 49% increase in volume product mix effects and a 6% benefit from higher average prices. Custom Chemical revenue increased to $18.5 million during the second quarter, up 30% from $14.3 million last year, primarily due to higher volumes of products sold to energy customers. Performance Chemical revenue of $7.3 million during the second quarter was up from $2.4 million last year, primarily due to increased volumes for a new customer that began production during the fourth quarter of 2025.

[Rose Sparks, CFO at FutureFuel]

Chemical segment gross profit was $5 million during the second quarter of 2026, an improvement from $1.1 million in the second quarter of 2025. The improvement was driven by increased sales volumes in the energy market, including the new product revenue brought online in the fourth quarter of 2025, as well as increased fixed price absorption driven by the improved biofuel volumes. Market conditions within the Chemical segment continued to improve during the second quarter, as demonstrated by improved capacity utilization, higher pricing, and a growing pipeline of project activity. During the last 12 months, we have increased total chemical production capacity by 12% and expect to achieve continued improved operating leverage as production scales from current levels. Chemical segment capacity utilization improved to 65% during the second quarter of 2026, up from 54% in the prior year period.

[Rose Sparks, CFO at FutureFuel]

Biofuels segment revenue increased to $52.9 million during the second quarter of 2026 compared to $19.1 million in the same period last year. The increase was primarily driven by increased regulatory clarity surrounding the Clean Fuel Production Credit and record high RVO levels. Biofuels segment gross profit for the second quarter of 2026 was $10.1 million compared to a gross loss of $13.5 million in the prior year period, reflecting meaningful improvement driven by higher sales volumes and stronger price realization. While we continue to benefit from significant feedstock optionality, elevated input costs have partially offset the favorable pricing environment for finished products. As previously disclosed, we recognized a $9 million hedging loss in the first quarter of 2026, and second quarter results reflect corresponding benefit of a similar magnitude as the underlying physical inventory was sold and those previously recognized hedging costs were recovered.

[Rose Sparks, CFO at FutureFuel]

Market conditions within the Biofuels segment continued to improve during the second quarter of 2026 given a favorable regulatory environment. Biofuel capacity utilization improved to 56% during the second quarter, and sales volumes are expected to further improve during the second half of 2026 given improved regulatory clarity. Input costs for soybean oil and other raw materials used in the production of biofuels remain elevated, which is expected to have a continued near-term impact on biofuels growth, gross profit per gallon sold. Turning the discussion to cash flow, balance sheet, and liquidity, net cash flow from operations was $18.8 million in the second quarter of 2026, compared to $5.2 million in the prior year period. Capital expenditures were $8 million in the second quarter, including $2.9 million of maintenance-related expenditures and $5.1 million of discretionary programs.

[Rose Sparks, CFO at FutureFuel]

In the first six months of 2026, capital expenditures were $13.4 million, including $4.1 million and $9.3 million related to maintenance and discretionary programs, respectively. Of the discretionary capital expenditures in the second quarter and the first six months of 2026, approximately $1.9 million and $3.5 million, respectively, were customer-funded investments related to capacity expansions and new customer programs. As of June 30, 2026, the company had total cash and cash equivalents of $34.3 million, up from $22.4 million at March 31, 2026, and a $35 million revolving credit facility with no outstanding borrowing.

[Rose Sparks, CFO at FutureFuel]

The increase in total cash between the first quarter of 2026 and the second quarter of 2026 was related to the reported operating profit in the second quarter of 2026 and customer funding related to custom chemical contract, partially offset by increased working capital requirements related to new program activity and capital expenditures to support growth. During the second quarter, we secured a four-year agreement with a third party to monetize Section 45Z Clean Fuel Production and Small Producer Tax Credits, consistent with our continued focus on balance sheet optimization. During the second half of 2026, we expect to receive $22 million in gross proceeds from the monetization of credits, including approximately $3 million in the third quarter and $19 million in the fourth quarter. That concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, we are now ready for the question-and-answer portion of our call.

[Operator]

We'll now be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you'd like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please, while we poll for questions. Thank you. Our first question is from Jeff Grampp with Northland Capital Markets.

[Jeff Grampp, Analyst at Northland Capital Markets]

Hey, guys. Thanks for the time.

[Roeland Polet, Chairman and CEO at FutureFuel]

Yeah.

[Jeff Grampp, Analyst at Northland Capital Markets]

Roeland, I-

[Roeland Polet, Chairman and CEO at FutureFuel]

Thanks for being on the call, Jeff.

[Jeff Grampp, Analyst at Northland Capital Markets]

I was curious. Sure. I was curious to circle back on some of the comments you made about the improvements to plant performance and that being kind of a focus over the last couple of years for you guys. I am curious if you could kind of contextualize things, I do not know, from the innings in a baseball game standpoint maybe, or whatever analogy you would prefer. Where are we at in that kind of improvement cycle? Are we at where you guys want to be at today? Is there more optimization initiatives to go? Just any context there would be helpful.

[Roeland Polet, Chairman and CEO at FutureFuel]

Yeah. Very good. Yeah, Jeff. Now I am a soccer guy, so we are kind of at the first half in injury time, with the second half still need to be played. We have made significant improvements in the last Let me take a step back. You know, we have about $1 billion of invested replacement value assets here in Batesville. So we have a significant site with significant capabilities, significant infrastructure that support those capabilities. So we have chosen to invest in the infrastructure around our site, wastewater treatment, the chemical incineration, all the assets that we need, nitrogen, that we need to keep the plant running, the site running. And then our site contains a lot of manufacturing cells that are put here by our customers that need to be supported.

[Roeland Polet, Chairman and CEO at FutureFuel]

I think we're, I'm not a baseball guy, so I'm not sure about innings, but I'd say we're about 60% of the way, 60%-70% of the way there on really going after the most important infrastructure to make sure it's secure, to make sure it's dependable. Then our next step will be driving investment into efficiency. So we have a number of projects that we rank based on the payback that we can get on them, where we will deploy capital against those projects to gain further efficiencies, operational efficiencies in the plant.

[Jeff Grampp, Analyst at Northland Capital Markets]

Got it. Those are helpful details. And for my follow-up, with respect to 45Z monetization, I wanted to clarify, does that, the agreement that you guys discussed in the release, does that cover essentially all of your expected 45Z generation through 2029? Is there additional monetization to do? And any clarity, I guess, on the quantum of monetization throughout that contract period? Thanks.

[Rose Sparks, CFO at FutureFuel]

Hi, Jeff. This is Rose. So yes, the amount that we have quoted is for 2026 and 2025. So there's approximately $3 million that we were able to cash in Q3, and then there will be an additional $19 million on a gross basis that we will cash in December of this year. So that's an annual monetization that will occur each year as we produce product and sell it.

[Jeff Grampp, Analyst at Northland Capital Markets]

Perfect. Thank you. I'll hop back in the queue.

[Roeland Polet, Chairman and CEO at FutureFuel]

Thanks, Jeff.

[Operator]

Our next question is from Jason Tilchen with Canaccord Genuity.

[Jason Tilchen, Analyst at Canaccord Genuity]

Good afternoon, everyone. Congrats on the strong results, and for hosting the first call in quite some time. It's an honor to participate. One thing I was curious about, you mentioned focused on some of these very niche, complex, dangerous chemistries that others maybe don't want to or can't produce on-site. Can you elaborate on some of those core competencies that allow you to take on these projects in, say, it's a compliant manner? What are some of the ways, either through pricing or long-term relationships, that you're able to extract value from those capabilities?

[Roeland Polet, Chairman and CEO at FutureFuel]

Yeah. Again, thank you very much for calling in. Our history dates back to, and not to take you back too far, but dates back to the Kodak days, and this plant made photographic chemicals, as well as was set up to make sort of precursors to the pharmaceutical industry. So it has a long history, and it was permitted to operate very complex chemistries and in certain instances, dangerous chemistries. This was also the site that all chemistries for later on Eastman and all chemistries were proven at this site and were tested at this site, to make sure that they can be run, and we have extensive facilities to do that, to be run in the Eastman plant and now in the FutureFuel plant. So it has a history that it's permitted to run complex, dangerous chemistries. There's a lot of permit head space.

[Roeland Polet, Chairman and CEO at FutureFuel]

The equipment that was installed, and then we have since then reinvested in a lot of this equipment, was installed to handle those complex chemistries. We are sitting on 2,200 acres in the middle of Arkansas, where we have the permit capability, and we have the capability to expand even further to drive it. It really goes back to our history, as a plant that was purpose-built to make complex chemistries. Then I will add one point to that. Because we are in the middle of Arkansas, we are very self-contained, so we have everything that we need here. We also have the R&D department, the testing department. We have everything that we need in order to support that production.

[Jason Tilchen, Analyst at Canaccord Genuity]

Great. That is very helpful overview. In the release, in the prepared remarks, you mentioned an agreement with one of your customers to fund an investment of more than $40 million over the next two years to support incremental capacity. Just wondering if you could maybe share a little bit more about how that relationship has evolved and if that is one of those 15, 20-year relationships or maybe it is a bit on the newer side. More broadly, are there other opportunities like this that you are currently evaluating? If so, do those have to sort of happen consecutively? Can there be multiple projects similar to this that you are pursuing at once? Any color would be greatly appreciated.

[Roeland Polet, Chairman and CEO at FutureFuel]

Yeah, those are great questions. Our business model, and we do biodiesel, and we run chemicals, right? In our chemicals division, we have some proprietary chemicals that we make for ourselves and we market, but the majority of our business is contract manufacturing. So where on our site, under our permitting, with the benefit of chemical incineration, with the benefit of oversized wastewater treatment and all that, our customers build plants. We call them plants, but they are really kind of small production cells, right, that they build on our site and take advantage of existing infrastructure that we have here, so that lowers capital costs for them, the complex and dangerous chemistry knowledge that we have. That is our business model. We made reference to an expansion that we are doing. We are doubling or tripling the capacity in that expansion.

[Roeland Polet, Chairman and CEO at FutureFuel]

But that is our business model with other customers. We have a long pipeline, a healthy pipeline of customer product combinations that we are now in engineering phases to execute building of plants on our site that we then will operate on behalf of those customers. That is exactly what our business model is in chemicals.

[Jason Tilchen, Analyst at Canaccord Genuity]

Okay, that makes a ton of sense. Just last one from me. You've guided to positive adjusted EBITDA in 2026. If you were to sort of fast-forward six, seven months, and you're talking about your full year results, are there one or two things, either on the upside or the downside, if results come in above or below expectations, that would be sort of the key things that you can sort of see now that would either drive that upside or that downside relative to expectations?

[Roeland Polet, Chairman and CEO at FutureFuel]

Yeah, of course, we're like any other company, right? We are not impervious to things that happen in the economy or shocks in the economy that will have an effect on us as well. We stick with our guidance towards profitable EBITDA year-end, having a profitable 2026. There'll be some lumps in between that we work our way through. If there's a shock in soybean oil that could have a negative effect. The reverse of that is all our inputs in the biodiesel business are commodities. They are at all-time high, so we would expect them to start reverting back to more of the mean values, and that should have a positive effect on our business. We are exposed to the oil and gas industry and the oil and gas complex, so the current geopolitical situation is somewhat beneficial to that.

[Roeland Polet, Chairman and CEO at FutureFuel]

If that continues longer, that should be beneficial. Should that go away and oil prices come back down dramatically, that could have some effect on our business, right? So that's kind of how to think about it.

[Jason Tilchen, Analyst at Canaccord Genuity]

Very, very helpful. Thanks a lot for your time, and congrats on the strong results.

[Roeland Polet, Chairman and CEO at FutureFuel]

Thank you.

[Rose Sparks, CFO at FutureFuel]

Thank you.

[Operator]

Our next question is from Jeff Van Sinderen with B. Riley Securities.

[Jeff Van Sinderen, Analyst at B. Riley Securities]

Good morning, everyone. You mentioned sort of building out, I guess you would call them production cells for customers on the chemical business. Just wondering if you can give us more color on what you're seeing there. Has there been an increase in incoming requests to build out those cells? What does the time frame look like around those? How do you see that impacting revenue and profitability, say, over the next year or so for the chemical business?

[Roeland Polet, Chairman and CEO at FutureFuel]

I will tell you, there is something that is very positive about that business, something that could be frustrating about that business. The positive news is, once you build these out, it tends to stay on the site, and it does not leave. The frustrating part is there are lead times. There are one and a half to two-year lead times from starting the project to finishing the engineering, starting the build. We would have to modify part of our plants and build it and then start production. I would say you have to think about lead times around a year and a half to two years from the start of a project. We have projects that are currently in the pipeline, so not all projects that we are working on have that full two years.

[Roeland Polet, Chairman and CEO at FutureFuel]

Once commercialized, a lot of the capital is allocated by the customer to the projects. Or we will recover the capital over the life of a project. The life of a project, you have to think about, they usually start at about three years, three-year contracts, and they will often continue on to five to six years, if not longer. We have projects, products that we have been making here for 20 years under those kind of contracts. They take a little time to ramp up. There is an approval. They are critical processes. But once they are ramped up, they tend to stay here.

[Jeff Van Sinderen, Analyst at B. Riley Securities]

Okay, great. Then I guess if we can switch a little bit over to the gross margin outlook. Any more color or any sense you can give us on gross margin outlook for the rest of the year? Then overall, what sort of quarterly cadence do you anticipate for the remainder of the year, maybe versus Q2?

[Roeland Polet, Chairman and CEO at FutureFuel]

Quarterly cadence in terms of? Maybe you can clarify it a little bit.

[Jeff Van Sinderen, Analyst at B. Riley Securities]

Yeah, sure. Just trying to get a sense of, your metrics were really good here. I'm just wondering, do you think we're going to see sequential growth? Do you think we're going to see gross margins improve further? Just trying to get a sense of any metrics we can

[Roeland Polet, Chairman and CEO at FutureFuel]

Yeah.

[Jeff Van Sinderen, Analyst at B. Riley Securities]

Without asking you to give guidance, just any sense that, you know.

[Roeland Polet, Chairman and CEO at FutureFuel]

Maybe to give color, right? Biofuels, we are running at margins that are higher than what we had anticipated, yet our inputs remain highly elevated, right? When you see announcements like, I think it was ADM or Cargill bringing on more soybean crush capacity because there's a bit of a shortage in soybean oil, that's good news for us, right? That at some point needs to translate to lower unit costs or lower costs in soybean oil, right? Record harvests for soybeans that at some point will translate to lower input costs. The margin levels that we enjoy today, we don't see anything on the horizon that will dramatically disrupt that.

[Roeland Polet, Chairman and CEO at FutureFuel]

In biodiesel, the elements that drive that input cost in the biodiesel market would have you believe that there's going to be a reversion back to the mean in terms of the cost. There should be some upside, right? We don't have that in our numbers. We're not projecting that, but that's how we kind of think about it.

[Jeff Van Sinderen, Analyst at B. Riley Securities]

Okay, that's helpful. Thanks for taking my questions.

[Roeland Polet, Chairman and CEO at FutureFuel]

Yeah, you're welcome. Thanks for calling in.

[Operator]

Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I would like to hand the floor back over to Roeland Polet for any closing comments.

[Roeland Polet, Chairman and CEO at FutureFuel]

Yeah. Thank you very much, everyone, for showing an interest in FutureFuel. We believe we have a great business here. We also believe that we need to be more transparent with our investor base, and we intend to do so through investor presentations and further calls. With that, we look forward to welcoming you back on our Q3 call later in the year. Thank you.

[Operator]

This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you again for your participation.

Participants

Executives

• Rose Sparks, CFO
• Roeland Polet, Chairman and CEO

Analysts

• Jeff Grampp, Analyst at Northland Capital Markets
• Jason Tilchen, Analyst at Canaccord Genuity
• Jeff Van Sinderen, Analyst at B. Riley Securities