Aterian, Inc.

Thank you for standing by. My name is Demi and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Ethereum Inc fourth quarter and full year 2024 earnings conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star, followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, again, press the star one. Thank you. I would now like to turn the conference over to Devin Sullivan of the Equity Group. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Demi. Thank you, everyone, for joining us today to discuss Ethereum's fourth quarter and full year 2024 financial results. On today's call are Arturo Rodriguez, our CEO, and Josh Feldman, the company's CFO. A copy of today's press release is available on the investor relations section of Aetherian's website at aetherian.io. Before we get started, I want to remind everyone that the remarks on this call may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that are based on current management expectations. These may include, without limitation, predictions, expectations, targets, or estimates, including regarding our anticipated financial performance, business plans and objectives, future events and developments, and actual results could differ materially from those mentioned. These forward-looking statements also involve substantial risks and uncertainties, some of which may be outside of our control and that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. These risks and uncertainties, among others, are discussed in our filings with the SEC. We encourage you to review these findings for a discussion of these risks, including our annual report on Form 10-K when it is available on the investors' portion of our website at atarion.io. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. These statements are made only as of today, and we undertake no obligation to update or revise them for any new information except as required by law. This call will also contain certain non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin, which we believe are useful supplemental measures that assist in evaluating our ability to generate earnings, provide consistency and comparability with our past performance, and facilitate period-to-period comparisons of our core operating results. Reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measures and definitions of these indicators are included in our earnings release, which is available on the investors portion of our website at atrium.io. Please note that our definition of these measures may differ from similarly titled metrics presented by other companies. We are unable to provide a reconciliation of non-GAAP-adjusted EBITDA margin to net income margin, the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure on a forward-looking basis without unreasonable efforts because items that impact this GAAP financial measure are not within the company's control and or cannot be reasonably predicted. With that said, I will now turn the call over to Arti. Arti, please go ahead.

Thank you, Devin, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. On today's call, I'll be discussing the following. One, a brief introduction to Ethereum for our new callers. Two, a brief highlight of the fourth quarter results and a summary on how we have focused, stabilized, and simplified Ethereum throughout 2024. And three, our plan for 2025, which will be focused on our avenues for growth, our continuing improvement in our profit profile, and we'll discuss the subject of tariffs, including our responses to date. Josh, our CFO, will then cover in-depth our financial results for the fourth quarter and will provide details on our financial outlook for 2025 and beyond. For those of you joining us for the first time, Ethereum owns and operates its own brands, marketing and selling consumer products across multiple categories, primarily on e-commerce marketplaces. We sell our products primarily in the U.S., and today we derive our revenues primarily from Amazon.com, Walmart.com, Target Plus, and our own websites. Since 2014, we have either organically launched or purchased brands, and today our focus is on operating six amazing brands. They are, number one, Homelapse, which currently focuses on dehumidification and refrigeration, a best-selling leader of dehumidifiers on Amazon. Number two, PureSteam, another best-selling brand on Amazon, which leverages the natural power of steam to clean your home with its steam ops or reduce wrinkles in your clothes with its steam irons. Healing Solution, a collection of essential oil brands, provides consumers a great essential oil experience. Photo Paper Direct, our DIY or do-it-yourself iron-on transfer and photo paper, provides joy and fulfillment to all consumers who love making their own T-shirts, arts and crafts, and printing their own photos from home. Number five, Mueller Living, which focuses on innovative quality products for your kitchen and has multiple top-selling products on Amazon. And number six, and finally, Squatty Potty, The original toilet stool, the leader in the category. Squatty Potty is the number one way to go number two as it continues to help people daily around the world poop easier and better. With these six foundational brands, Atterian is well positioned to grow and consistently deliver high quality affordable products to consumers. Now, briefly to our fourth quarter performance. We are pleased with our fourth quarter results as we delivered our net revenue at the high end of our guidance. Adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter landed essentially at break-even in line with guidance and improvement of $5.5 million versus the same year-ago quarter. And we reduced our net losses by approximately $6.4 million to $1.3 million for the quarter. The fourth quarter now closes 2024, which has been a year of achievement for Ethereum, as we have delivered on key strategic objectives of focusing, stabilizing, and simplifying our company. Here are the five key highlights. One, streamlining our product portfolio to six highly regarded foundational brands I just mentioned. This focused approach ensures that we are concentrating our efforts on those products that deliver the highest ROI while retaining our ability for diversification with our brands as we grow and evolve. Two, optimize our go-to-market strategy by simplifying our marketplace account structure, which improves efficiency, marketing effectiveness, and conversion rates. Three, strengthen supply chain. through diversified partnerships, reduced warehouse footprints, and expanding the volume of our shipping contracts, making our operations more agile and resilient. Enhance our technology stack. Our transition to a best-in-class third-party tech platform has improved efficiency, reduced cost, and enabled faster expansion into new channels and geographies. And five, improved our financial position by right-sizing our inventory, renegotiating and extending our credit facility, and strengthening our working capital setting a solid foundation for our future growth. These actions, along with the support of a remarkable team, produced significant improvements in 2024 in the areas of margin expansion, narrowed losses, and an improved financial position. We believe the foundational work we accomplished in 2024 will allow all of us to grow and scale more predictably and efficiently starting in 2025 and beyond. We believe our momentum from 2024 will carry over to 2025 and drive a resumption of growth and improved adjusted EBITDA. We expect our net revenue for 2025 will increase between 5 percent and 7 percent from net revenues of $99 million in 2024. Excluding approximately $4 million in net revenue from discontinued SKUs that occurred in 2024, net revenue is expected to increase on a performed basis by 9 percent to 12 percent. We are targeting 2025 to be essentially break-even, including the impacts of tariffs, representing a significant improvement from the 2024's adjusted EBIT loss of $2.1 million. Our 2025 growth will be driven by two key elements. One, channel and geo-expansion, and two, new product launches. Channel expansion, along with omni-channel approach, is a natural progression for any product company, whether they started on Amazon, direct-to-consumer, or brick-and-mortar. With our third-party best-in-class software model and more nimble supply chain, Ethereum is poised to expand channels which we believe will allow us to grow our top line. In 2024, we started our expansion with MercadoLibre in Mexico and late in Q4 with Target+. 2025's growth on channels will continue with further expansion on our portfolio within Target+, as well as further growth to other MercadoLibre marketplaces. We also expect to add at least two more well-known channels in the second half of 2025. In 2025, we expect to expand further into brick and mortar and to land a select group of products into a national retailer sometime in the second quarter. For geo-expansion, our focus in 2025 will be the UK. Late in 2024, we qualified our accounts for Amazon Seller Fulfilled Prime in the UK, which will allow us to expand many of our U.S. products in the UK in the second half of 2025. As it relates to new product launches, we restarted this engine in 2024. And late in 2024, we launched three new products across our PureSteam and Mueller Living brands. As we look into 2025, we expect to launch approximately five new categories across brands. With our focus brands, we are being very thoughtful on ensuring the products we launch are in tune with our brand vision and strengths. This includes consumable-based products. We believe our product portfolio, rounding it out with consumer-based products, will allow consumers to buy repeatedly and often, and will help us grow our top line and improve margins long-term. Further, consumable products will allow us to pursue broader sourcing opportunities, including products sourced within the United States. Along these lines, we are very excited about the launch of our Squatty Potty flushable wipes. In 2025, these wipes will be sourced from Italy with the intention to begin sourcing them from the United States sometime in 2026. When launched, we believe these 100% plant-based, wipes will be amongst the best in the market, delivering a great cleaning experience for users while still being safe for sensitive and eczema-prone skin, pH balanced, alcohol-free, and up to the latest plumbing and septic standards for both the U.S. and the U.K. These wipes will be a natural fit to the Squatty Potty family and will continue to iterate the brand's dedication to improving the bathroom experience. We expect these wipes to be available in early fall and will be launched practically simultaneously in both the U.S. and the U.K. markets. As to our profitability in 2025, as we continue to grow, we expect to realize improved leverage and associated profits as our growth rates outpace our fixed cost investments after factoring the impacts of recently announced tariffs. This will be further enhanced over time as we expand our push into consumable products, which, with the achievement of certain volumes, will, on average, have better contribution margin than many SKUs in our current portfolios. As to tariffs, this has been a very sensitive and valuable topic for the world. Our expectation and guidance does factor the latest tariffs, the 20% on China-sourced imports, and to a lesser extent, Canada. We have planned to raise prices to offset as best as possible the impacts amongst other actions. We do believe further increased tariffs on China goods will be impactful in the short term, and we would see pressure on our growth rates and leverage. During 2024, we have made efforts with our manufacturing partners to find alternative regions to source and manufacture our key products. Today, we source approximately 75% of our net revenues from China, and we are working with our manufacturer partners to have that number reduced by 50% by the end of 2026. Once the previously announced reciprocal tariffs are communicated, we will be able to more definitively understand the impacts to our cost of goods if we're to move manufacturing away from China. and revise these sourcing targets as necessary. We feel confident that we have the ability to further diversify our supply chain away from China over the coming years on our existing products if the cost structure makes sense. Further, as previously mentioned, as we continue to expand our product launches into consumable-based goods, we naturally will see a diversification away from China. With our strong balance sheet, we believe we can navigate these challenges, allowing us to adapt as needed while continuing to focus on long-term growth and profitability. As to our capital deployment, we are excited to announce that our Board of Directors has approved a two-year share repurchase program, allowing us, at our discretion, to repurchase up to $3 million of shares of our common stock on the open market over the next two years. This buyback reflects a collective confidence in the company's future, the strength and flexibility of our financial profile, and our commitment to shareholders. We firmly believe that Ethereum stock is significantly undervalued, and this repurchase program underscores our conviction in the long-term value we are creating. Finally, we continue to consider M&A, and we still believe this may help our growth opportunistically. However, given the opportunity landscape for organic growth, this is not a primary focus. In closing, Ethereum is a turnaround story that is evolving into a growth story. Our passionate, talented, and tenacious people worldwide have worked and addressed a variety of issues that impeded our success in the past and have reconstructed a foundation that we believe will allow us to grow and deliver long-term shareholder value. It was just about 12 months ago that we reported an adjusted EBITDA loss of more than $22 million for 2023. In just one year's time, we've improved that figure by more than $20 million. And now... We are proud to report our expectation for even further progress in 2025, including our first year of growth in a very long time. Still a lot of work to do, but we are excited for the challenges ahead. We are confident that we have the balance sheet strength and operational agility to navigate this environment, including tariffs, allowing us to continue to grow Ethereum while improving our operating performance. And most importantly, we remain grateful for the continued support of our shareholders. I am looking forward to a successful 2025. And with that, I will pass the call to Josh. Thanks, Artie. Good evening, everyone. We're pleased to report that our efforts to focus, simplify, and stabilize our business have produced positive results. These initiatives have led to improved key metrics, and we're proud to report that we have reduced our adjusted EBITDA losses in 2024 to $2.1 million compared to an adjusted EBITDA loss in the prior year of $22.3 million. While there's still work to be done, a 91% reduction in our adjusted EBITDA losses is a testament to the effectiveness of our strategic initiatives and the meaningful progress we have made towards strengthening our business. Now, let's take a closer look at our overall fourth quarter performance. Net revenue for the fourth quarter of 2024 declined 25% to $24.6 million from $32.8 million in the year-ago quarter. primarily reflecting our skew rationalization and lower liquidation levels of high-cost inventory. Adjusting for the impact of skew rationalization, net revenue would have only declined approximately 4%. Our launch revenue was $0.3 million during Q4 2024 compared to $0.4 million in Q4 2023. As planned, we had three new products and one new variation launched in the fourth quarter. As already mentioned, we expect to continue launching new products in 2025. Overall gross margin for the fourth quarter increased to 63.4% from 51% in the year-ago quarter. The year-over-year improvement was driven by the positive impact of our skew rationalization efforts, product mix, and less liquidation of high-cost inventory compared to the prior period. Our overall Q4 2024 contribution margin as defined in our earnings release, was 19.4 percent, a significant improvement from last year's negative 0.8 percent and up from 17 percent in Q3 2024. The year-over-year increase in contribution margin was driven by the positive impact of our skew rationalization efforts and less liquidation of higher cost inventory compared to the prior period. Looking deeper into our contribution margin for Q4 2024, our variable sales and distribution expenses as a percentage of net revenue decreased to 44.1% as compared to 52.8% in the year-ago quarter. This decrease in sales and distribution expenses as a percentage of revenue is primarily due to product mix and a reduction in logistics cost as a percentage of revenue. Our operating loss of $1.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2024 narrowed from a loss of $8.2 million in the year-ago quarter, an improvement of approximately 80.4%, primarily driven by the improvement in CM and the reduction of fixed costs due to our cost-cutting initiatives. Our fourth quarter 2024 operating loss includes $1.1 million of non-cash stock compensation expense, while our fourth quarter 2023 operating loss included $1.6 million of non-cash stock compensation expense, a reserve for barter credits of $0.3 million, and a non-cash loss on impairment of intangibles of $0.3 million. Our net loss for the fourth quarter, 2024, of $1.3 million, improved from a loss of $7.7 million in the year-ago quarter, up approximately 83.1%, primarily driven by the improvement in CM and a reduction in fixed costs. Our adjusted EBITDA loss of $0.1 million, as defined in our earnings release, improved by 98.5% from an adjusted EBITDA loss of $5.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2023, primarily driven by the improvement CM and the reduction of fixed costs. Moving on to the balance sheet. At December 31, 2024, we had cash of approximately $18 million compared with $16.1 million at September 30, 2024. Borrowings on our credit facility went from 6.7 million as of the end of the third quarter of 2024 to 6.9 million at the end of the fourth quarter of 2024. The credit facility balance is down from 11.1 million in the prior year period. At December 31st, 2024, our inventory level was at 13.7 million down from 16.6 million at the end of the third quarter of 2024 and down from $20.4 million in the year-ago quarter end. As we look at 2025, considering our new product launches and expansion into more channels, we believe that net revenue will be between $104 million and $106 million. Using the middle of the range, this would be an approximately 6% increase from the 2024 annual revenue of $99 million. Adjusting for approximately $4 million of net revenue from discontinued SKUs in the prior year, revenue at the midpoint is expected to increase by 11% compared to last year. The primary drivers of the sales increase year-over-year is new product launches and omnichannel and geo-expansion. Our sales seasonality remains largely consistent with prior years, with the exception of Q1, which we expect to contribute approximately 15% of full-year sales, slightly lower than historical trends. This shift is anticipated to be offset by stronger sales in Q4, while Q2 and Q3 are expected to align with typical seasonal patterns. Our current guidance reflects the impacts of recently implemented tariffs. Based on the current 20% tariff on China imports, And to a lesser extent, the 25 percent tariff on Canadian imports, we estimated the total impact on our 2025 cost of sales to be approximately $3.5 million. We believe we can mitigate approximately 50 percent of these additional costs through price increases. However, any future changes to tariff policies or unforeseen macroeconomic factors could affect our operating results. We will continue to monitor these developments and adapt our strategy as needed to manage potential risks. For 2025, we are targeting essentially break-even adjusted EBITDA, incorporating the estimated 3.5 million effective tariffs on our cost of goods sold. This represents an approximate $2 million improvement from 2024. As trends evolve, we will continue to assess the impact and update our plans accordingly. We remain committed to driving long-term sales growth and improving our operating performance over time. Our improved financial and operational foundation, combined with a well-respected product portfolio, exciting new product introductions, and strong vendor relationships have given us the confidence to provide longer-term sales growth goals. For the three-year period between 2025 and 2027, we expect to deliver a CAGR of at least 10% to 12%. We believe this will be achievable through a combination of factors, including launching new products to expand our portfolio, strengthening our omnichannel presence through deeper retail and e-commerce penetration, and entering new international markets. Alongside these growth drivers, our focus on operational efficiencies and cost discipline will support improved leverage, positioning us for sustainable profitability over time. We also continue to believe, based on our current forecast, that we have sufficient cash above our covenants to achieve our goal of consistent adjusted EBITDA profitability without raising additional capital. As previously stated, if we pursue additional financing, it will be predominantly for creative material M&A. As already noted, we are also pleased to announce that our Board of Directors has authorized a two-year, $3 million share repurchase program. This decision reflects our confidence in the company's long-term prospects and our belief that our stock is undervalued. We see this as a strategic use of capital, reinforcing our commitment to driving shareholder value while continuing to invest in growth opportunities. Excluding the buyback and factoring in our break-even adjusted EBITDA guidance, interest costs, and working capital, We anticipate ending 2025 with approximately $16 million to $17 million of cash on hand. In closing, I'm very proud of our team's efforts in stabilizing the business and positioning it for future success. We are confident that with our products, strong balance sheet, and our balance, our principles of focus, simplification, and stabilization, we have turned the corner as a company. I look forward with optimism as we continue our journey towards revenue growth, sustained adjusted EBITDA profitability, and ultimate aim to maximize long-term shareholder value. With that, I'll turn it back to the operator to open up the call for questions.