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spk00: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Summer Brands' fourth quarter conference call. At this time, all participants are now in listening mode. Following management's prepared remarks, we'll hold a Q&A session. To ask a question, please press star followed by one on your touch-tone phone. If anyone has difficulty hearing the conference, please press star zero for operator assistance. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded today. March 17, 2022. I would now like to turn to Chris Witte, Investor Relations Advisor. Please go ahead.
spk05: Hello, and welcome to the Summer Brands 2021 fourth quarter conference call. With me on the call today is the company's CEO, Stuart Noyes, and interim CFO, Bruce Meyer. I would now like to provide a brief safe harbor statement. This call may include four looking statements that relate to Summer Brands outlook for 2022 and beyond, and the pending transaction with kids, too. These forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and events to differ materially from these statements. Please refer to the risk factors contained in the company's annual report on Form 10-K, its quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and in our other filings with the SEC. During the call, management may make references to adjusted EBITDA, adjusted net income, and adjusted earnings per share. These metrics are non-GAAP financial measures, which the company believes help investors gain a meaningful understanding of changes in summer brands' operations. For more information on non-GAAP financial measures, please see the table for a reconciliation of GAAP results to non-GAAP measures, included in the company's financial release issued yesterday evening. And with that, I'd like to turn the call over to Stuart Noyes. Stuart?
spk02: Thanks, Chris, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining our fourth quarter conference call today. I'll start by providing an overview of recent developments, after which Bruce will go through our financial results in detail. First and foremost, we recently announced a significant transaction to unlock value for our shareholders. While the company has made great strides over the past few years, recovering from the Toys R Us bankruptcy, Chinese tariffs and the COVID-19 pandemic, recent supply chain constraints have proven extremely difficult for a company our size to maneuver. The added costs for shipping and logistics, increased lead times, and in tandem, higher working capital requirements have certainly impacted our performance. The team and I have worked tirelessly to manage through these challenges and get our product to market. But in line with our fiduciary responsibility, we as a board saw a great benefit in merging summer with a larger, stronger global organization. Closing is expected sometime in the second quarter, and we will work hand in hand with the Kids 2 team to prepare for the eventual integration while positioning summer for success. Regarding our quarter four operating performance, let me summarize the major factors that impacted our results. As with last quarter, the company faced continued headwinds caused by supply chain issues across the globe, severely limiting our ability to get product to market on time, and concurrently driving up costs due to added freight, logistics, demurrage, and other factors. Such expenses, along with higher overall material costs, greatly reduced gross margins, which fell to almost 20% during the quarter. While we were successful in continuing to shift to direct import selling, this was not enough to offset overall margin pressure and the difficulty getting product to market through our regular brick-and-mortar channels. It's a credit to our staff and our brands that many categories grew year over year, including potties, bathers, strollers, and boosters, with Amazon revenue up more than 30%. Presently, as we near the end of the first quarter, things remain a mixed bag. Our products remain in demand, but due to continued supply chain disruptions and delays, it is very hard to have the kind of visibility we'd like in terms of purchasing and long-term planning. This obviously impacts our ability to use capital efficiently as we need to purchase inventory with longer lead times. This has all clearly stretched working capital requirements, and I'm thankful to our bank group as well as Winfield for providing the flexibility required during such unusual times. It is with this backdrop that we reported a net loss of $4.8 million, or $2.20 per share, in adjusted EBITDA of negative $2 million for quarter four. We remain committed to continuing to manage and grow our operations through these uncharted times. Just as before, we are actively and aggressively working to reduce costs, manage working capital, and get product to market. This means working closely with our suppliers, shippers, and customers, all with the same goal, getting our brands in the shopping carts of consumers. We're continuing to raise prices when possible, although it takes time for implementation and the margin recovery that follows. We're also migrating production for certain items to more efficient areas with fewer logistics constraints, costs, or bottlenecks. As you can imagine, this is often a moving target. The overall environment continues to be challenging, and container rates have remained elevated into quarter one. It has been an honor working here at Summer, and I appreciate all that our team has put into improving the company, its brands, and innovative products. The management team and board are proud of all that's been accomplished under very difficult and unusual circumstances. At the same time, we would be here without the steadfast support of Winfield and so many of our investors who have stood by us even as we've tackled multiple headwinds since my arrival several years ago. We thank all our shareholders for their patience, passion, and interest in our future. We will continue working diligently to position the company for the future as we work to close the deal with Kids2. Please see our SEC filings for additional information about the transaction. With that, I'll turn it over to Bruce to review our financial results in detail. Bruce?
spk03: Thanks, Stuart, and good morning, everyone. As a reminder, our 10-K and related press release were issued yesterday. In addition to listening to this conference call, I encourage you to review our filing. Now to the results. Fourth quarter net sales were 35.3 million compared with 36.0 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2020. As Stuart discussed, the company's lower revenue was a result of ongoing supply chain disruptions and inefficiencies, negatively impacting our ability to get product to market. That said, many product categories saw substantial growth year over year, including potties, bathers, strollers, and boosters. Sales continued to shift to e-commerce channels during the period, with Amazon revenue up over 30% year over year. Gross profit was $7.3 million. versus 10.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2020. And our gross margin as a percent of sales was 20.6% versus 29.9% last year. The year-over-year margin decline reflects higher transportation and raw material costs, primarily related to supply chain constraints. We are taking steps to improve margins going forward, including raising prices where possible migrating manufacturing to low-cost locations, and enhancing supply chain management processes. Selling expense was $2.8 million in the fourth quarter versus $2.6 million in the prior year period. And as a percentage of net sales was 7.9% this past quarter versus 7.2% in 2020. The increase year-over-year and as a percentage of revenue, was primarily due to high freight out costs. General and administration expenses were $7.7 million in the fourth quarter versus $7.6 million in the prior year period. And G&A as a percent of sales was 21.9% this year versus 21.1% in 2020. Interest expense was $0.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2021 versus $0.5 million in 2020. The company reported a net loss of $4.8 million or $2.20 per share in the fourth quarter of 2021 compared with a loss of $3.4 million or $1.59 per share in the prior year period. Note that the company recorded a tax provision of $0.6 million in fiscal 2021 fourth quarter, which included a $1.5 million valuation allowance on its deferred tax asset versus a provision of $0.2 million in the comparable period of fiscal 2020. The 2020 fourth quarter also included a $1.8 million debt extinguishment charge related to refinancing the company's credit facilities and a 0.7 million impairment charge associated with dissolving an Israeli subsidiary. Adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter of 2021 was negative 2.0 million versus 1.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2020. Adjusted EBITDA in the fourth quarter of 2021 included $1.2 million in bank-permitted add-back charges, compared with $0.7 million in add-back for the prior year period. Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of net sales was negative 5.8% in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021 versus 3.9% last year. Turning to the balance sheet, as of January 1, 2022, Summer Infant had approximately 0.5 million of cash and 40.6 million of bank debt compared with 0.5 million of cash and 30.9 million of bank debt at the beginning of fiscal 2021. After the end of the quarter in January, the company reached an agreement with Winfield Capital, its largest shareholder, for a subordinated term loan of up to $5 million providing additional liquidity and financial flexibility. We drew down $2 million of this in late January. Inventory at the end of the fourth quarter was $28.6 million, compared with $25.1 million as of January 2, 2021. And our inventory turns were 3.9 versus 4.0 turns at the beginning of the 2021 fiscal year. Trade receivables as of January 1, 2022, were $30.9 million compared with $26.0 million at the beginning of fiscal 2021. Day sales outstanding, or DSOs, were $79 as compared to $66 at the start of last year. Accounts payable and accrued expenses were $33.7 million as of January 1, 2022, compared with $34.1 million at the beginning of the fiscal year. In addition, as disclosed in its Form 10-K for the year ended January 1, 2022, the report of the company's independent auditors on Summers financial statements as of January 1, 2022 includes a going concern matter of emphasis. With that, I'll turn the call over to the operator and open it up for questions.
spk00: We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then 1 on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then 2. At this time, we'll pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Our first question comes from Rick Smith with Smith Capital. You may now go ahead.
spk01: Good morning. I haven't seen a deal in a while that's contingent upon financing. Can you guys walk us through that and then also walk us through the new going concern language in the 10-K, please? Thanks.
spk02: Yeah, I'll talk to the contingent, and then you can talk to the GC language first. On the contingency, we're getting ready to file a proxy that will have all the details on the actual agreement. That should, you know, happen in short order here over the next couple weeks. We really need to wait until that's filed. You'll have all the information then.
spk01: Does that mean it was part of the negotiation?
spk02: Say again?
spk01: Does that mean it was part of the negotiation?
spk02: Well, yeah, we announced that right in there that it was contingent on that, so it was part of what we negotiated, correct. Okay.
spk04: Yeah, and as it relates to the going concern, look, generally accepted accounting principles requires that you go through certain analyses such as trends, recent losses being incurred, et cetera, et cetera, and upon reviewing that criteria, it was decided that we would have a going concern opinion.
spk01: All right. Well, how does that differ from last year? Was it just the technicality because of the financials?
spk04: It's just an interpretation of the technical language that we need to go through.
spk01: Understood. Have a good day. Thanks.
spk02: Thank you.
spk00: Again, if you have a question, please press star then 1. At this time, there appears to be no further callers in the queue. I'll now like to turn it over to Stuart Norris for any closing remarks.
spk02: Great. Thank you very much for everybody joining our call today. Have a nice afternoon.
spk00: The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.
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