NextPlat Corp

Good morning and welcome to the next Black Corp 2025 first quarter earnings conference call. Certain statements made during this conference call constitute forward-looking statements. These statements include the capabilities and success of the company's business and any of its products, services, or solutions. The words believe, forecast, project, intend, expect, plan, should, would, and similar expressions and all statements, which are not historical facts, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve and are subject to known and known risks, uncertainties, and other factors, any of which could cause the company to not achieve some or all of its goals or the company's previously reported actual results, performance, finance, or operating, including those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. More detailed information about the company and the risk factors that may affect the realization of forward-looking statements is set forth in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC, copies of which may be obtained from the SEC's website at .sec.gov. The company assumes no and hereby disclaims any obligation to update the forward-looking statements made during this conference call. Joining us on the call today are Charles M. Fernandez, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Chairman of the Board, David Pipps, President and CEO of Global Operations, and Cecil Monique, Chief Financial Officer. I'll now turn the over to meeting to Charles Fernandez for his opening remarks. Please go ahead.

Good morning and welcome to NextLabs First Quarter 2025 Call. Thank you for joining us. I will begin our call with a high-level discussion of NextLabs development in the first quarter. Our CFO, Cecil, will review our financial results and discuss activities in our healthcare segment. Then our President and CEO of Global Operations, David, will discuss developments in our e-commerce business segment. I will then conclude the conference call by responding to questions that were submitted by our shareholders. The first quarter has seen some challenges and some positive progress in each of our businesses. In terms of e-commerce, here are some highlights. Our satellite product business continues to see steady growth and additions to our new domestic and foreign contracts. As noted last month, the tariff situation has created significant challenges, especially for the launch of our Florida Sunshine products in China, which we pause. We believe that certain constructive developments on tariffs have the potential to result in more agreeable terms if achieved. And as such, we will resume our launch plans once the situation becomes clearer. If the situation isn't resolved, it will materially impact the anticipated significant growth and contributions we were expecting late this year and into 2026. While we are hopeful for a resolution between the US and China, in the meantime, we are exploring other markets for Florida Sunshine. Our launch of OPCO products in China continues to show steady progress. In terms of healthcare, we are making positive progress in the face of challenges faced by independent pharmacies like us from drug pricing and payer reimbursements. I am proud to say we recently received a substantial performance bonus from one of our payers, recognizing our strong execution and unwavering focus to quality. We will continue the progress in our 340B and long-term care business development efforts with new contracts coming online during the quarter. Before I turn the call over to Cecile, let me sum up the business challenges we are addressing To be clear, as of today, the current tariff situation will make the launch of Florida Sunshine and other products we intend to sell in China economically unattractive. So we are exploring other options here in the US and in foreign markets. The current tariff levels, even with a reset, as currently being discussed by the administration, will effectively delay and possibly eliminate the planned growth we had anticipated for our e-commerce development program in late 2025. As a result, this condition will create substantial pressure against achieving our goal of achieving a cash neutral position from operations by 2026 as we had originally planned. In healthcare, we will continue to work very hard to improve the overall business and that will require a change in the focus away from our traditional retail model and toward long-term contracts and other new service offerings. To address these critical issues, with the Board's approval, we are working to strategically evaluate how best to generate and protect shareholder value. We are exploring several options at this point, including the possible sale and or merger of certain operations as well as new strategic partnerships and joint ventures. As the biggest shareholder of Next Plat, myself, our team and members of our Board are committed to maximizing the value of our business to benefit all shareholders. At this point, I will turn it over to Cecile.

Thank you, Charlie. I will now provide a summary of our results of operations for the quarter and our financial and cash position as of March 31, 2025. Total revenue for the first quarter was approximately $14.5 million compared to $17.5 million in the same period last year. This decline reflects a combination of factors. In our healthcare operations, we experienced some changes in our 340B Pharmacy Service Agreement where certain relationships transitioned to other pharmacy partners. One covered entity opened an in-house pharmacy and another covered entity no longer participates in the 340B program. Furthermore, we saw a decline in prescription volume during the first quarter of 2025 and was influenced in part by changes in provider relationships and shifts in patient flow due to insurance network adjustments or provider decisions to align with different pharmacy partners. Our e-commerce operations experienced an increase driven by the growth in recurring airtime and the additional revenue from the outfitter acquisition in 2024. However, these were offset by a decline in hardware sales. During the quarter, we experienced a decrease in our gross profit margin. The decline in our healthcare segment was mainly driven by lower 340B contract revenue. In our e-commerce segment, gross profit was impacted by the expiration of an airtime contract at the end of 2024, which added new costs starting in 2025, along with temporary rate cuts for customers affected by service disruptions. As expected, overall operational costs decreased due to the elimination of several non-recurring expenses such as an impairment loss from the write-down of a -of-use asset as a result of taking the leased equipment out of service and not returning to service in the future. Stock-based compensation for grants fully vested and legal and consulting fees as it related to the merger of Progressive Care. We ended the quarter with approximately $17.7 million in cash. I encourage you to review our financial statements as it contained in our quarterly report on Form 10Q files with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Next, I would like to provide an update on our healthcare operations. While the retail pharmacy industry continues to face headwinds, as I mentioned earlier, we are making meaningful progress on several fronts. During the first quarter, we continue to take proactive steps aimed at improving our expense structure. While it is still early, we are actively working towards achieving cost savings through initiatives such as optimizing our delivery process and renegotiating vendor contracts. We remain committed to ongoing cost reduction efforts and operational efficiency improvements. From a pharmacy standpoint, I am pleased to share that following the close of the quarter, we received a substantial performance bonus payment from one of our payers. This recognition was based on meeting the adherence and quality measures of the enhanced quality improvement program. We also expanded our service space during the quarter by signing several 340B Pharmacy Service Agreements, which are expected to contribute to revenue growth and provide more favorable margins compared to our traditional retail pharmacy business. This will remain a key focus area for our healthcare operations moving forward. Lastly, we continue to evaluate strategic alternatives to further diversify our healthcare operations, including opportunities in additional services, joint ventures, and other collaborative structures. We believe these avenues could deliver operational synergies and help drive top-line growth at attractive margins. I would like to turn over the meeting to David, our President and CEO of Global Operations, who will provide you with the highlights and accomplishments in our e-commerce business segment.

Thank you, Cecil. I will discuss tariffs in Florida Sunshine in a moment, but would like to first provide an update on our e-commerce operations. On the communication side of the business, we continue to see significant global growth in this segment, as noted by several contracts we announced recently. These contracts provide not only high margin recurring airtime revenue, but they do not suffer from any tariff impacts. In fact, during the quarter, recurring revenue from airtime contract sales increased by 51% to record levels, driven by sustained growth in Internet of Things sales and the impact of the Outfitter acquisition in Q2 of last year. It should be noted that our high margin recurring airtime service revenues are not subject to tariffs. Regarding Outfitter and our U.S. business, while we have seen some impact from the tariffs, it should be noted that much of its business is conducted with state and local governments, who are to some extent more resilient in terms of pricing compared to a typical consumer. In the current environment, we view our diversified book of business and global reach as a positive, as a differentiator and potentially a competitive advantage. We believe there may be opportunities for additional organic and non-organic growth for us, created by uncertainty in the market for providers who lack the scale we have. As for our opto healthcare business, the delays we commented on during our last call have largely been addressed, and we are securing additional product inventory for sale across multiple online sites and marketplaces. This includes a recent shipment, our largest to date, which just arrived in China. Also, last month, one of our Chinese distribution partners has commenced initial in-store physical product sales in several retail chains. While this is a small test effort, we are optimistic about the potential we see here and look forward to adding physical stores to our distribution platform. As a reminder, opto products are not subject to any tariffs as they are not produced in the United States. Regarding opto's animal health products, we continue to await a delayed Chinese regulatory approval, which is conservatively expected by Q4, with initial sales expected to commence approximately 12 weeks from receipt. Finally, in terms of Florida Sunshine, as Charlie noted, the current tire situation makes the launch of this new line of products by our local partner significantly more challenging due to pricing, which dramatically disadvantages all US-produced goods. While this is clearly disappointing, and we are actively researching alternatives for Florida Sunshine, that could even include local in-country production, we view the current discussions as a positive step towards a more agreeable outcome. As I said last quarter, we have already set up a dedicated website and brand of stores on Amazon for Florida Sunshine, which we are readying for our rollout in the UK now. Navigating the current dynamic market and exploring alternatives for Florida Sunshine will take some time, but we are committed to determining our best path forward here. Now back to you, Charlie.

Thank you, David. Before I respond to shareholder questions, I would like to make some closing remarks. We believe there is value in our existing businesses and there are opportunities for each of them which can support both growth and future value creation. Our team and board are proactively working to address many significant industry challenges that will impact our businesses in the longer term. We are committed to the transparency and to sharing with our investors the various steps we are taking as stewards of the company and look forward to sharing our progress with you. That concludes our formal remarks. We can now conduct the Q&A portion of today's call. We have again asked investors and shareholders to submit their questions in advance and we would like to thank all of you who did. Question number one, what is the status of the share buyback? Currently we have not repurchased any shares under the buyback program. This is due to the fact that the company's insiders have been subject to blackout periods as required by law. The company enters into blackout periods two weeks prior to the end of a quarter and that ends four days following the filing of the financial statement. Additionally, under legal direction, we are also prohibited from conducting any transaction in our shares if we are in possession of any material nonpublic information. As an example, our recent statements regarding the impact of tariffs on the business qualify it as material and nonpublic information. While we intend to keep the share buyback as an option, the current situation demands that we continue to evaluate all the uses of cash and determine which investments can produce the most long-term shareholder value while complying with all SEC guidelines. Question number two, Jervis Hull, who served as a longtime director of progressive care, recently resigned as director of Next Plat. Can you comment on why and if a replacement will be found? We cannot speak for Jervis on this matter, only stating that it was not due to any disagreement with the company. While we will consider adding another qualified independent director under our bylaws, we are currently not required to add an additional director at this time. Question number three, what is the company planning on doing to address the NASDAQ letter and minimum bid requirement? The NASDAQ process for compliance affords us an initial six-month period to address the share price as well as a subsequent six-month period, assuming we continue to meet all our listing requirements. During this initial period, we intend to continue working to improve the financial results of the company and potentially complete some of our strategic alternatives I described earlier. So these efforts and continued communication with investors, we believe we can address the share price issue. Question number four, what is the status of ongoing lawsuits? We cannot comment on any ongoing litigation. That was the final question we received from investors. Thank you all for submitting them. Please remember you can submit your questions at investorrelations.com, which is investorsatnextplat.com, or with our IR contact listed on our press releases, .mwgco.net. We continually strive to respond to your questions in the timely manner. That concludes our earnings conference call. We look forward to continuing to share with you our progress in the weeks and months ahead. Have a nice rest of your day.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.