Greystone Logistics Inc

Good day, everyone, and welcome to today's Graystone Logistics Q1 Results Conference Call. At this time, all parts of this are in listening mode. Later, we'll have the opportunity to ask questions during the question and answer session. You may register to ask a question at any time by pressing the star and 1 on your telephone keypad. Please note, this call is being recorded, and I will be standing by if you should need any assistance. It is now my pleasure to turn the conference over to Brendan Hopkins. Please go ahead.

Thank you. And thank you, everyone, for joining us, especially with the short notice. We have a brief safe harbor, and I'll hand it over to Warren. So, except for historical information contained herein, the statements in this conference call are forward-looking statements that are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause our actual results in future periods to differ materially from forecasted results. With that said, I would like to turn the call over to Warren Krueger, CEO of Greystone.

Good afternoon and welcome, everyone. Thank you very much for joining. This will be a relatively short call. We actually had the K call just, gosh, 30 days ago. But I do want to talk about the first quarter. We had $13,460,000 in revenue. We ended with operating income of $824,000. This is This is something that, well, I'll get into it in a moment. We had an income per share of a penny a share. So let me tell you where we are. If people were on the K call, we are really in a lull. I haven't experienced this really since 2020. And even in 2020, we were actually quite busy in 2020. This year, and I'm talking about the calendar year now, it has been really we are in a economic recession for the manufacturing sector and i'm in touch with a lot of people in the manufacturing side and we we are there orders are off across the board in the thermal forming industry the extrusion industry the injection industry uh it's it's just really i think that people are a little unsure as to where they are ford general motors those companies they're They're not really moving forward on some new models. We've had Stellantis close, I mean, layoff people. John Deere is moving some people. Walmart, who's a big customer, they're closing stores. Walgreens, CVS, Dollar Store. It's really been, I think, really hasn't been talked about enough, but it has affected us. Now, that being said... I'm not going to gloss over anything. I'm going to tell you how I believe it is. So I'm very disappointed with the numbers for the first quarter. And our sales were really off about $1.4 million under where I thought they'd be on a monthly basis. And that's a combination of things. Last year we have a new mold that we designed in concert with Walmart and and they made some ergonomic changes and some weight changes and that was about 120 days later than what we anticipated. But I was just in a DC, Walmart DC on Tuesday of this week. They love the product. We've put in about 44,000 pallets in that DC. They love them. They've had 44,000 and they had three broken ones. And while we walked around, We fixed two of the broken ones. So it wasn't broken. It was just a leg out of a slot. So it's a product they're really happy with, and I anticipate our growth with Walmart to continue to flourish. As a matter of fact, I'm so bold about that that I've actually ordered another tool, and we call it the warehouse tool. but it is a very good tool. Walmart has 35 different distribution centers. We've probably put pallets in three now. So we've got a long run with them ahead of us, and we're excited about that. I'm also disappointed in our extrusion business. We spent quite a bit of money acquiring the extrusion equipment quite some time ago now. So we're about nine months behind Walmart the the uh where i'd love to be there uh that uh we toyota we've actually made our our products for toyota our test sample products for toyota toyota loved it this is for their export and it's something that they looked at prior to us acquiring the equipment and changing the design on that extrusion palette and i encourage everyone to go to our website And look at our welding line. It's on, it's under investor relations, I believe. And if you go to the video, it's quite nice of our automatic line that will weld the extruded pallet for us. We are really excited about that. And we got in this business because Uline had requested a 48 by 96, a very large pallet. And Uline is a customer of ours, and we provide our 4848 product there for them. So we are having a welding equipment manufactured right now to go in concert with our line, our automated line. Our automated line can only go up to 60 by 60. So to accommodate the Ulines of the world and others that have any sizes over Over 60 inches, we have a welding line that is almost complete. They're actually doing some testing at the end of this month, so I'm excited about that. But be that as it may, we're not getting any revenue that we anticipated out of that. We've also shipped our 4456 can pallet back to our mold maker overseas because it had some adjustments that needed to be made. And so we have an old 4456 that we sold. Our new one is a much, much better tool. But we've got customers now that are probably about six months behind the curve. So it sounds like a lemony snicket, but it is. We've got orders that are down. We've got some products, some new products that I anticipated hitting the market that haven't hit the market. Uh, but, uh, the good news is we've got, uh, IGPS is very happy and where our relationship there's great. Our relationship with Walmart is on the uptick and it's very, very, very good. Uh, and we've got a Toyota and many others in ahead of us. So our pipeline is like a hundred million dollars in revenue. We've just got to get people ordering. So, uh, I want to open it up to questions now and, uh, hopefully I can answer one. One thing I do need to mention now at this point too, uh, we, I have been spoiled for 22 years. I had a wonderful, uh, CFO, Bill Ray Hall was a fan. He's not only a fantastic CFO, he's a fantastic human being. And at 83 years old, he said, Hey Warren, I, you know, I can't do this. Uh, my wife wants me out. So, uh, we did hire, uh, uh, our, our recent CFO was late on our queue was late on our K. So I've, I've, uh, we've actually released him and we're in, we're right now we're looking for a new CFO. So that's been a little stumble in our Giddy app as well. Uh, but I can answer most financial questions for you. Uh, and we'll just open it up for questions.

Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we will open the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star and one on your telephone keypad, and you'll be placed into the queue in the order received. You may remove yourself from the queue at any time by pressing pound and one. Once again, to ask a question, press star and one on your phone now. We'll take our first question from Brad Bullock. Please state your question.

Thank you. Warren, I understand the economic recession side of things, but I'm a little concerned. You've gone through a couple of CFOs. You announced a buyback in June. The quarterly results were less than encouraging. The conference call today, no real notification. Still not on there. I'm probably the only guy on it. You've given some insight as to how tough things are or maybe disappointment in terms of ordering. Is there any other encouraging words you can give us or where is the buyback as it stands now? Actually, it works in your favor, I think, with the stock price down 30% plus. Any other things you can fill us in on that are encouraging?

Yes, I will say I've been in this business now for 22 years. And, you know, the first year we had 600,000 sales and, and, and, you know, we've, we're, we track four to 5 million a month now. And so the encouraging thing is this is a business that's not going any, not going away. It's a business that there are, there are millions and millions. As a matter of fact, the, the, The numbers are astronomical. They anticipate 2 billion pallets are in America and 800 million going in the system each year. And I can tell you that every time I go into like a Walmart, I'm very encouraged because they have so much wood in one facility, and then there's 35 facilities, and there's the – it just goes on and on and on and on and on. But it is getting the sales. The sales cycle is sometimes – a lot longer than what we anticipate. I do, we do, the buyback is still, as a matter of fact, I had a call on the buyback today. We are waiting, we waited until, we had to wait until after this queue was filed, which is done. We have, we actually, I need a letter. There are two things that they needed. They needed a letter from our attorney, which our attorney, I talked to them yesterday, they're working on. And the second thing they needed was a some corporate documents that I need to get to them. Besides that, we will be in the market and we'll be acquiring some shares. I will say that I have to take this. The buck stops on my desk. And I hired a CFO for the local market in Iowa. I mean, I wanted someone there. I did this in concert with my old CFO, and so we acquired the gentleman. He came in, and he was disruptive. He did not our corporate culture. He wanted to disrupt our corporate culture, and it was very, very difficult for him, for me, and for my really loyal people up there. It was very difficult, and so I couldn't have that. So we released him, and then I knew that Bryce Dilley, who I'd known for some time, he was kind of at the end of his career, and he was a CFO, kind of have gun, will travel kind of CFO. And so we wanted to use him for a year until we got a nice young guy in there that could take us when we up list and be with us along the way. And, uh, and frankly, I, I can't, I mean, I'm giving you excuses. I don't really accept excuses. So I'm just telling you the truth. Uh, so I just said, Hey, I can't be late on these. So I'm outsourcing that, uh, with a top 10 firm that, um, uh, that'll be doing, helping us with our Q's and K's. So I don't have that problem again. And, uh, I will find a good CFO. I've got a lot of people looking and I actually have a, uh, a search firm looking as well. We'll find the right person in the right fit. So that, that kind of takes care of those in terms of the notification, the CFO generally handles that. And it was something that I should have talked to with Brendan Hopkins about. He and I talked about it and it was like, we didn't mention it to one another. And so when the CFO, the notification didn't get out because we didn't have a CFO. So that was a, It was scramble around. So again, I'm telling you the truth as it is, and the buck stops on my desk, and believe me, Brendan and I learned a lesson this time. But I've never gone through late Qs and late Ks, and so these are all new experiences to me, and I will tell you that I don't like it. And in terms of where we are growth-side, We need to be bigger. I acquired $7 to $9 million, $7 to $10 million worth of new equipment for our growth phase, which we have not done. And that's on me. And it's paramount of me to add sales. And so I'm disappointed. And I will tell you, it's from no lack of effort. We have, like I said, a lot in the pipeline. We just don't have the orders coming in. I had an entire quarter. One of my big customers had an entire quarter I didn't get one order from the last quarter. I mean, the first this June, July, and August. Very unusual. And it's just people are holding off. And so that's the truth as I know it. But I will tell you, this company is headed north. It's not heading south. We are going to grow this company. And I am motivated to take care of my shareholders and my employees. So I will tell you that this has been, like I said, a disappointing quarter for me, but I am optimistic about where we are long term.

Thank you.

Our next question comes from Anthony Perala. Please go ahead.

Hey, Warren, nice to chat with you again here. Just a couple of clarifying points from your commentary. So you mentioned the Walmart kind of the mold that they wanted some of those ergonomics on. So was that not shipping in the fiscal first quarter?

We did get some of that, yes. We were shipping in that first quarter. So I was talking about more this year. But, yes, indeed, we did ship to Walmart. As a matter of fact, we're on a good track with them. And now it's on a steady eddy every week for them. And that's one of their DCs. And we have a lot of the same product now that we've sent out to multiple other DCs across the country. And we just haven't sent out. We have our former... a plant manager, Ron Skellhaas, who I've worked with for 20 years. Ron's out there on the road actually full time. And Ron is, he is actually delivering these things out to Walmart DCs. And so it's, he's very good with customers. And I've got, I anticipate that our growth with Walmart will continue because we have a good product for them and We have an itch that we're scratching for them. And I wish you could have been with me yesterday when I was in Elwood, Illinois, at the D.C., because the comments that came back from them, it's very, very encouraging. Because at the end of every aisle, they have a red bucket, a red garbage can. And in that red garbage can, it says wood on the side. And they're just filled with wood, wood pieces from all the wood pallets that break in the facility. And this is daily. And it just drives them crazy. And then they've got a sweeper truck going around the huge facility around the clock just because of all the dust from the wood. And the encouraging thing is all the positive comments about how much less it is now after about a 25% fill in that facility. So I'm very, very encouraged by that, and we have the gentleman there that we're working with. They're talking to their compatriots across the country about what they're doing. So I hope to be able to create a transfer pallet for them that not only do they keep the pallets within their facilities, but when they're transferring between one DC and another, they're using their own transfer pallet. So we're working that hard because they're a great, great customer.

That's great. So is it on kind of a DC by DC basis that the decisions are made, or is there one purchasing decision across all these 35 DCs, just kind of who you have to convince for the sale for the other 32 that you don't have your palate into?

It's really, it's funny. Walmart, there's autonomy there. Each DC kind of makes their own moves based on where they are. There are import DCs. There are retail DCs. There are food DCs. There are regional distribution DCs. So a variety of different types. And on the regional DCs, they're doing a lot more automation. And they're they're picking goods up now more by clamping and trying to move goods very quickly because time is money with them. And it also means employees, less employees. And so consistency of product really makes a difference. When you're transferring from a plastic pallet onto a wooden pallet or it's, or from a wooden pallet to a wooden pallet, it can be very, very cumbersome because there'll be a board or there'll be a nail sticking up. And, And when they're doing it from plastic to plastic, it really works easy and speeds up the time and the clamping is easier. And so I am encouraged by what I'm seeing there because it's what we've been talking about for 20 years and it's really happening a lot.

So it's good. That's great. That's great to hear. On the Uline, that kind of that larger pallet, just curious if there's a ballpark of, you know, once you're able to service them, give them that, what was it, 48 by 96 pallet that they want, just kind of what kind of revenue opportunity that could be on either a quarterly or annual basis for you guys?

You know, I will tell you, I'm going to be honest, I am not going to venture that guess right now. and I don't know, I'm sorry to say, I don't know what the 4848 that we moved through there, but I do know that we, Uline, we've moved quite a little product through there. They came to me at a show and said, hey, Warren, we're looking for a 48 by 96. And he said, the only one we can find out there is a PVC 48 by 96, and it's a very expensive product. So this is for let's say moving a mattress or moving doors or moving a large piece of glass and so forth. That's the type of thing where they can wrap it up. And we will have, now that we have production on our extruded pallet that we're testing, we will have in the next two weeks, I'll have something on my website that'll show it, show the product and what it looks like and so forth. It's basically hollow lumber. That's what it is. And it's hollow lumber that, What I like about that is it fills small niches. So someone needs 2000. Well, if I don't have a, if I don't have something that size, when we buy molds, our molds are 300 to 400, $500,000 a piece. And so you, you really can't, when someone wants an odd size, it's a one-off and you miss all that opportunity. Well, with the extruded boards, you just, you make the extruded product to that size. You cut it to that size. and then you weld it to that size. So theoretically, we can do any size up to 60 by 60 that is automated on our automated line. And then on our larger line, because of this welding equipment, we'll be able to take the pieces and make them on our larger welding machine. And in addition to that, we've designed the product with a two by four that can actually, we can put one of our fiberglass rods in there. If someone needs some type of strength or if it's bowing, we can put fiberglass rods in there that will give it strength so that it has bone structure. So I'm excited about it, but I hate to say I just can't venture a guess at this time, but I will also tell you that this 48 by 96, it's the kind of thing at a trade show where Mathis Brothers, the big furniture manufacturers and sellers, they come by the booth and say, hey, do you have a 48 by 96 pallet we can put our mattresses on or our box springs on? And it's odd. So I'm encouraged. And at the show, we have the Pack Expo coming up the first part of November. And we will be introducing the extruded pallet at that show. And I anticipate that we will really see what kind of pallets interest will be shaken up. And I hope to tell you on the next quarterly call, I hope to give you an estimate on that because I will be making a 48 by 96 within the next two weeks as a test product. And we'll be going to Uline and we'll be showing them that product. So I hope to have more information for you on that in another 90 days.

Excellent. Yeah, that seems like a nice Another tool in the tool belt. Just one last one here. CapEx capital expenditures were a little higher than I had expected in the quarter. Was there anything to do with the rebuild of the warehouse or anything that drove that $3.3 million number this quarter?

And I will tell you off the top of my head, we had a chiller. I know that we had to do a new chiller. And that probably was this quarter. And that was not equipment related. That was not mold related or machine related. It was just operating related. So it was really in that operating capex type thing. But other than that, there was no other, maybe the welding equipment I'm doing for the, that probably showed up, the welding equipment that I'm doing for the extrusion line. And I also bought a CNC machine because on these hollow lumber, some people want four-way entry, so you have to make a slot on the 48-inch side so that you can put a fork tied through there. So some of that equipment was kind of an unusual for the quarter, but I don't anticipate making big capital expenditures the rest of this year.

Okay, so you'll stay kind of around what you've described as maintenance capex previously? Yes.

We do have some molds on order. I mentioned another warehouse mold, and we'll have the fix on the 4456 that we'll have to pay for. I'm waiting on two other orders for an odd size, 43 by 37, that So I'm encouraged, but I don't have a purchase order there yet, and I'd make a new tool for that. And then there's a 4343. We're waiting on an order from that from a big customer, and I'll probably order as soon as I get a PO, then I'll order a tool for that.

Okay, sounds great. I guess my last point is just more be a comment, but if you look kind of the last year, I appreciate you taking your flogging and responsibility for kind of results that aren't up to your measure, but last year, kind of as growth capital expenditures have fallen off, I think highlights the cash generation ability of the business at this level, which leaves quite a bit of cash left over for shareholders after debt requirements and the like. And I think you're going down the right track returning some of this to shareholders, and that can allay some of the other concerns that might be out there and help with the stock price and multiple over time. So I look forward to catching up with you again in 90 days here.

Good, good. Well, and I will say we're sitting on, you know, we sit on Oh, $4 to $5 million in cash. We did pay cash. As I think I mentioned on the Q call, we paid like $1.6 million, $1.6 million cash for a new piece of real estate that's within a half a mile of our facility, which we intend long-term to build a warehouse there to replace the burned warehouse that we had that was 35 minutes away. So we used up some of our cash, but we're creating cash, and we're sitting on $45 million usually now all the time.

Our next question comes from Joe Marcus. Please state your question.

Yeah.

Hi, everybody. I really didn't have a question per se. I just wanted to state a feeling. I have been with this company almost ever since Warren took over the company. And I have never in a 50 plus year career in this industry seen management as good, competent, and dedicated as Warren and the team that he has built around him. I have seen many, many cycles where the company spurts forward, you know, then retrenches a little bit, you know, goes on to new and different products. You know, one quarter may not, you know, live up to the expectations for that quarter, but the trajectory of this company has always been tremendously, tremendously higher. You know, Warren has with his group, built a new industry in plastic pallets. Plastic pallets are an absolute necessity and will absolutely replace all wooden pallets moving forward in, you know, our industrial economy. And I mean, this is This company is a rocket ship to success. So basically, people who are shareholders in Greystone need to be patient, need not to look at the small isolated picture of one quarter, but need to look at the overall trajectory of this company. This company is got a clear presence and future path to greatness. And basically, you know, you've got to look at this company on a trajectory as opposed to looking at it in simple little 90 day increments. Okay. This is, you know, what Greystone Logistics is. So, Warren, thank you for everything you've done. Thank you for everything you're going to do. The CFO transition has been a little bit rough. Okay. Things happen. I mean, there was only one perfect person in the world and he got nailed to a cross. So basically, okay, this little CFO glitch will resolve itself and this company will resume the trajectory of to where this company is going to go, which is infinitely higher than where it is now.

Thank you. Once again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your phone now. It appears that we have no further questions. At this time, I'll turn the program back to our presenters for any closing remarks.

I just want to tell everyone I really appreciate you guys being on the call. I appreciate you being shareholders. I will tell you that our people, our wonderful staff, work very hard every day. The comments that we get, I love the comments that I get when I'm out there and people say, gosh, your people are so nice. It really makes it nice. I had a gentleman who had been at 53, he'd lived in 53 different cities and and he worked with a Walmart. He came into our facility, and he said, you know, I can tell just when you walk into a facility what it's going to be like by the people, how they act, how they treat you, and then when you go out and you look at how clean the place is, and I took him over to our recycling center. He said, I've never seen anything like this in a recycling center because we take pride in making it look good and being efficient and effective, and we have dedicated, hardworking employees. So know that I want to get to the same spot you guys want to get to, and that's let's make a lot of money and let's do it in the right way and use 100% recycled plastic and make this world a better place. So thank you very much.

This does conclude today's Grace and Logistics Q1 Results Conference Call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.