Where Food Comes From, Inc.

Greetings. Welcome to Where Food Comes from First Quarter Earnings Call. At this time, all participants will be in listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If anyone should require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. Please note, this conference is being recorded. At this time, I'll turn the conference over to Jay Pfeiffer, Investor Relations. Jay, you may begin.

Good morning and welcome to Where Food Comes from 2021 first quarter earnings call. Joining me on the call today are John Saunders, CEO, Leanne Saunders, President, and Danette Henning, CFO. During this call, we'll make forward-looking statements based on current expectations, estimates, and projections that are subject to risk. Statements about current and future financial performance, growth strategy, customers, business opportunities, market acceptance of our products and services, and potential acquisitions are forward-looking statements. Listeners should not place undue reliance on these statements as there are many factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our forward-looking statements. We encourage you to review our publicly filed documents as well as our news releases and website for more information. Today we'll also discuss adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP financial measure provided as a complement to GAAP results. Please refer to today's earnings release for important disclosures regarding non-GAAP measures. I'll now turn the call over to John Saunders, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

Good morning, and thanks for joining the call today. This morning, we released our first quarter financial results before the market opened. Once again, we were pleased with our overall performance despite the ongoing COVID-19 impact on the economy in general and some of our core customer segments in particular. Our Q1 performance builds on a year in which we held up very well under difficult circumstances, from both a revenue and profit standpoint, delivering results that underscore the resilience of our business model and the flexibility of our personnel who were quick to adapt to new ways of doing business. The success we're enjoying as a company truly is a team effort, and I couldn't be prouder of the people I work with. Turning now to our Q1 financial highlights. Total revenue came in at $4.4 million in Q1, which represents a 14% increase over $3.9 million in the same quarter last year. You'll recall that audit activity in four of our core revenue categories, pork, poultry, eggs, and dairy, was significantly curtailed early last year due to restrictions on outside visitors at more enclosed production facilities that were instituted at the onset of the pandemic. Those restrictions are still in place for the most part, although we've recently seen some instances in which they've loosened up. We are hopeful that at some point in the second half of the year, we'll start returning to normal in this area. In spite of these restrictions, our Q1 verification certification revenue increased 16% year-over-year to $3.3 million from $2.8 million. This was a beef business. which continues to be our largest and most profitable growth driver. As outlined in our press release this morning, our new CARE initiative continues to build momentum across all protein segments, but particularly in beef, where we brought on two anchor processor customers in 2020 and continue to add producer customers at a steady clip in 2021. Recently, we announced that the Heinen's Grocery Store chain became the first retailer to implement where food comes from CARE certified across its beef, pork, and poultry products. CARE, which stands for a community of agriculturalists who respect the earth, directly addresses consumer demand around sustainability. As an aside, CARE's three core pillars, animal care, environmental stewardship, and people and community, also happen to dovetail nicely with emerging ESG and socially responsible investment trends. We are increasingly engaging with investment funds that have taken the time to understand and appreciate that we actually walk the walk in terms of our products and services aligning with the aims of the ESG and SRI movements. Tag sales in Q1 were flat year over year due to one large order slipping into Q2. As you know, tag sales are a leading indicator of revenue growth. As we tag more cattle, we create a compounding effect with additional revenue events occurring as those cattle moved through the supply chain. Net income in the first quarter totaled $1.2 million, with approximately $1 million of that attributable to PPP loan forgiveness. On a normalized basis, net income was approximately $113,000, which represents roughly a $350,000 positive swing over last year's Q1 loss of $241,000. Adjusted EBITDA in the first quarter was a positive $348,000 compared to a negative $44,000 in Q1 last year. We generated $1.2 million in cash from operations in the first quarter, up from $900,000 in the same quarter last year. Our balance sheet is still solid with cash and cash equivalents up 14% year-over-year to $5 million from $4.4 million, and working capital improving to $4.6 million from $4.4 million year-over-year. One last highlight of our first quarter was our uplifting to the NASDAQ capital market, which I know many of our legacy shareholders were eagerly awaiting. This is an important milestone for us as we think it makes our shares more attractive to institutional investors. It likely also enhances our profile with our larger corporate customers. And with that, I'll open the call to questions. Operator?

Thank you. We'll now be conducting the question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question today, please press star 1 from your telephone keypad, and a confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you'd like to remove your question from the queue. For participants that are 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. Once again, that's star 1. And once again, as a reminder, you may press star one to ask a question at this time. Thank you. Our first question is coming from the line of Andreas Ayan with Symmetry Investments. Please proceed with your question. Hello, guys.

You hear me? Yes. Hey, Andreas. Ah, perfectly. This is Andreas from Denmark. Congratulations on some good numbers here. It's quite impressive, the circumstances in mind. So I have three questions for you today. So if we look at these closed facilities like the pork and the poultry, where are you in the kind of opening? Are we talking like... Really back in the, like, October timeframe or is it, like, maybe all the summer? Have you got any indications from some of your bigger customers there what kind of their feeling is around this?

I'll have Leanne answer that question.

Hello. Good morning. So it's a little bit of a mixed bag right now. We have some – a lot of it depends on the states in which they're operating – So if we have kind of free movement, then a lot of those operations are requesting onsite audits again. Virtual audits, while in some ways we can do a lot of things, it's really hard for them in preparation of records. So many of those establishments are looking forward to us coming back onsite. So we're starting to see that come back with pork and poultry, but in some states, specifically California, we're still fairly restricted and still looking at virtual audits for some of those companies that we work with. So it's just a mixture right now, and it's hard for them to predict. But we are getting back onto a cadence that we were previously on, so we're hopeful that this year will look more normal as we get towards the end of the year.

Okay, that makes total sense. But my last question is about, like, pricing. So what I hear, and I don't know if the situation is the same in the U.S., but here in Denmark, a lot of farmers are making a lot of money now. So what I hear is that a lot of suppliers are now coming out and saying, like, you know, we supported you guys for, like, five years without price increases. So now it's kind of also you make money now, so now we also have to make some price increases. Is it the same in the U.S. that you feel... better equipped to raise prices a little bit, or how should we think about that?

That's a great question. I think there probably are a few key differences within the European and the U.S. production base, and I would say it's related to the voluntary nature of most of the verification that we're doing, so where that comes into play is that we feel that most consistently all parts of the supply chain, including those that get closer to the consumer, are participating in that benefit and the mutual activity or the increased prices. I will say, though, in specific industries, and one that comes to mind right now is that in the cattle industry, The cow-calf producers are being very successful. The packers are as well. But the feeding entities are struggling to some degree because of the high price of corn. So while it's a benefit to row crop corn producers to have very, very high commodity prices related to their soybeans and their corn, that is a negative when it comes to the feeding of animals. So it's a higher cost basis that they have to compete with. So I don't know if that gives any clarity, Andreas, but I think it's a little different. We're hopeful that we continue to see all parts of the supply chain benefit here as we have, especially last year.

Okay, that's perfect. Okay, so my last question was really about the capital allocation. So you You continue to build cash, I think more than $5 million now, and you've got the PPP loan for gifts, so you don't have any debt. How should we think about the uses of this? Are you still looking at M&A? Is it accelerating the share buybacks? What kind of options are there?

Good question again. Yes, we're continuously looking at potential acquisitions. As they become available, we will proceed with them, and we feel like we're very well capitalized right now to do that. I think the other thing that we see, as I've mentioned several times, because of the lack of us participating in association meetings and different kinds of conferences where we would have the previous year, we've got a significant increase in our marketing budget, and I really think we're going to continue to use social media and to invest in ways that we're able to promote our customers specifically. And I'll just reference Heinen's really quickly. We've implemented a campaign around Northeast Ohio related to the launch of that program. The suppliers that are engaged in that program we're partnering with to create specific videos and we're hopeful that they'll then take that marketing and that collateral to other retailers So we really started to invest very specifically in very specific areas. And as I mentioned, Heinen's is also based in Chicago. So we see a great opportunity to continue to focus on how we promote those products and make sure that care is a big success for them because we have a lot of other larger customers that are really paying attention to what happens with Heinen's and how successful their rollout is. So we're going to invest a lot specific to that marketing. And, again, if we see some acquisitions that become available, you know, we'll execute on those as quickly as we can.

Okay, that makes sense. That was everything from me, guys.

Thank you. Thanks, Andres. Thank you. As a reminder, you may press star 1 to ask a question. Our next question is coming from the line of Chris Brown, a private investor. Please receive your question.

Thank you. I appreciate Andrea's question, too. I was going to ask about the cash balance and the balance sheet. But if I can, I'm trying to get a feel for where you guys are versus what you would consider kind of a run rate when you're fully back to kind of – I know it's difficult given the world has changed in the last year, but where are you from kind of a revenue and an earnings perspective relative to what you see as your kind of run rate in a normalized environment? And I know it's a broad question, but any color you could give would be appreciated.

Yeah, no, that's actually a great question. Pre-pandemic, we were 50% reliant on the beef industry, meaning that all of our other audits that we did, pork, poultry, dairy, combined equaled the same revenue that we were generating specific to the beef industry. Through the pandemic, through the last year, I'd say that number is probably closer to 60% to 65% that we rely upon beef. So our other industries have declined, you know, on the order of probably 30%, 25% to 30%, sometimes even 50% based on the specifics that we saw there. So all of the growth that we've seen over the last year has been in – in spite of the fact that these other industries had really slowed down so much, our beef business just continued to flourish, and it does right now as well. So I think if we're able, whenever it comes back online and we see, you know, we probably have another 25% to 30% growth in there just related to our pork, poultry, and dairy business coming back online. The other industry that's been significantly affected that we haven't talked about as much is organic. And as I've mentioned over the past, we have a brand-new offering with where food comes from organic that we're really excited about. And we currently are a relatively small player in that market, and we see some good opportunity to growth there. So I think if you combine that with, you know, as Leanne said, if hopefully by the end of this year we're getting back into the groove and everything – and our beef business just continues to grow. It could be even in excess of that. So 25% is probably the number that I'm just kind of getting back to that I think we're kind of off. We're missing one of our cylinders there.

Got it. Well, I've appreciated getting to know you guys over the last few years. Thank you. Thanks, Chris.

Thank you. As a reminder, you may press star one to ask a question at this time. Our next question will be coming from the line of Rafi Savitz with RYS Advisors. Please receive your question.

Good morning, guys. Really, really good quarter. You know, I think the question I generally try to ask you guys is, you know, how do you think about this business over the next few years? You know, what would you say are, you know, if you have a, you know, $20 million or so, you know, revenue base, give or take, you know, as you think over the next few years, what are going to be the major drivers of, you know, overall growth in this business? Is it something to do with, is it kind of the core auditing business? You know, is it the ear tags? Is it software? I mean, how do I think about that?

Yeah. No, that's a fair question. And I've asked myself that a lot over the last years as well. I think we've really identified a sweet spot for us in the U.S. beef industry. And, you know, there's 25 million cattle in the U.S. that are produced annually. We currently do about two and a half million. So we're only 10% of the current market in the beef industry in the United States. So there's There's a lot of runway there for us. It's also the primary meat that's being affected by alternative meats and the question around sustainability. So as I look at that even related to our CARA program and sustainability and making beef a more sustainable protein is a huge opportunity for us. And we really see that... As a core driver, and then obviously I've talked about China a lot too, and China just continues to take more of our proteins, and that's really good for a lot of our customers. So we really think that that's a positive long term. So, you know, I think we're really, really focused on beef. And, you know, I think, again, we're always looking for acquisition opportunities. So, you know, I think we've completed 13 in the last – since 2006. So we see that as a big potential, too. And I think we've got some big opportunities that aren't necessarily related just to the verification activities, as you asked. I think there's bigger potential for us. And we're always trying to get closer to the consumer and get the consumer – brand awareness with our programs. So that's the holy grail.

And that's very helpful context. And I guess if I think about, you know, kind of the more, you know, what I'd call probably the macro environment, you know, how do I think about, you know, kind of the change in the administration and, you know, any sort of, you know, regulations or, you know, I'd say regulations that may be kind of in the work you know, ones that could be headwinds or tailwinds for you. Can you just help us think about kind of the overall environment and what that means for your business over the next few years?

Yeah, I may take a real quick stab at it. And then if Leanne wants to say something, I'll let her answer that as well. But we typically fare well. Our business is relatively politically resistant. And what I mean by that is that If there's higher regulation within the government structure, it may not necessarily be good for our customers, but it's usually good for us because it's going to mean more audits. We're going to have to do more work, but it's going to cost more for our producers. So I would say as you look at the current environment, I think it's a positive. It's maybe not a positive for agriculture in general. And I think there's more defensive type things that are going to have to happen within meat. And we see ourselves at least providing a resource to producers to answer those questions around sustainability and animal care and how they're dealing with their employees and with their workers. So I think, yeah. You want to add anything, Leigh Ann? Yeah, I think it's a positive. I think we're going to have added costs, as everybody will potentially, but it usually ends up better for us as a company.

Got it. Okay. That's helpful. And I guess just maybe lastly, like how much, you know, the auditing business, you know, which obviously did quite well this quarter, how much visibility do you have into that over the next, few quarters, you know, I guess both within Beath and outside of Beath?

It's pretty tough. I would say, you know, as I've said, I think just looking cyclically over our business, the first quarter, which I think is probably the most encouraging side of this quarter's results is typically our most difficult quarter. We don't do a lot of verification. There's not a lot of audits that we can do in Montana, for example, in the middle of January. So I think the fact that we got through the first quarter the way that we did, and I think if you just look at our historical data, it's probably the best way to gauge what will happen this year.

I do think it's important to note some weather challenges across the United States that are happening. And there's quite a bit of cattle liquidation happening right now in the state of California and in some of the southwest, which we're watching closely. A lot of what happens with that is that will then move up some of our activities sooner because they're going to have to liquidate herds earlier. So that is affecting a little bit here that's hard to know how that will trend throughout the rest of the year.

Got it. Okay. Thank you for your time.

Thanks, Rafi. Thank you. At this time, I'll turn the floor back to John Saunders for any further remarks.

Well, once again, we really appreciate your interest in the company. As I mentioned, we're extremely excited to be listed on the NASDAQ capital market, so we appreciate all your long-term support. You guys have been around a long time, and we'll look forward to talking in a couple months.

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