10/10/2025

speaker
Operator
Conference Call Operator

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for participating in today's conference call to discuss Educational Development Corporation's financial and operating results for its fiscal 2026 second quarter and year-to-date results. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. On the call today are Craig White, President and Chief Executive Officer, Heather Cobb, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, and Dan O'Keefe, Chief Financial Officer. After the market closed this afternoon, the company issued a press release announcing its results for the fiscal 2026 second quarter and year-to-date results. The release will be available later today on the company's website at www.edc.ca. Before turning to the prepared remarks, I would like to remind you that some of the statements made today will be forward-looking and are protected under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied due to a variety of factors. We refer you to Educational Development Corporation's recent filings with the SEC for a more detailed discussion of the company's financial condition. With that, I would like to turn the call over to Craig White, the company's president and chief executive officer. Craig, please go ahead.

speaker
Craig White
President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, operator, and welcome everyone to the call. We appreciate your continued interest. I will start today's call with some general comments regarding the quarter, then I will pass the call over to Dan to run through the financials. After which, I will provide an update on our sales and marketing and end up the call with an update on our progress of the sell-leaseback of our headquarters, the Hilti Complex. During the second quarter, we experienced decreased sales compared to the prior year second quarter. This was driven primarily by our reduced brand partner levels within our paper pie division. Also, recent sale events which offer our products at higher than normal discounts have been short-term tactics used to generate cash and to reduce our borrowings. Over the past year, we have seen our brand partner levels decline due primarily to the challenging sales environment with the fact that we have not introduced new titles that typically energize our sales force for roughly 18 months. We have developed a conservative phased approach to introducing new products for post-building sale clothes arriving later in the spring. Further, the direct sales industry, especially those within the product sector, have experienced a challenging period of sales. We are focusing our IT and marketing efforts toward increasing brand partner counts as opposed to only focusing on incoming cash. With this focused effort, we are targeting a new generation to the industry, young millennials and older Gen Z. Recent studies have shown this age group is very receptive to this business model, but few have taken steps to join this industry. There's a great opportunity right now. We know they have very little patience for technology that is clunky or unnecessary. As a result, we are improving our technology to have a mobile-first impact and make it easier to do business with us, including our onboarding process. I am encouraged with our continued focus on reducing our costs and improving our results by seeing lower losses even on lower sales. The next big step towards profitability will be returning to revenue growth, which will be driven by adding brand partners, as mentioned before. With that, I will now turn the call over to Dan O'Keefe to provide a brief overview of the financials. Dan?

speaker
Dan O'Keefe
Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Craig. Second quarter summary compared to the prior year second quarter Net revenues were $4.6 million compared to $6.5 million. Average active Paper Pie brand partners totaled $5,800 for the quarter compared to $13,900 in the second quarter last year. Losses before income taxes were $1.8 million compared to a loss of $2.5 million in the second quarter. Net loss totaled $1.3 million compared to a loss of $1.8 million. And loss per share totaled $0.15 compared to a loss of $0.22 on a fully diluted basis. Year-to-date summary compared to the prior year. Net revenues were $11.7 million compared to $16.5 million. Our average active Paper Pie brand partners totaled $6,800 compared to $13,700. Losses before income taxes totaled $3.2 million compared to $4.2 million. And net losses totaled $2.4 million compared to $3.1 million. Our loss per share totaled $0.28 a year to date, compared to $0.37 on a fully diluted basis. Now for an update on our working capital and banking relationship. Inventory levels have decreased from $44.7 million at the beginning of fiscal year 2026 to $40.7 million at the end of August, generating $4 million in cash flow from inventory reductions. This cash flow has been used to pay down vendors, reduce bank debts, and to fund our operational losses. Our bank loan agreement expired on September 19th, and the bank has indicated that they are not going to renew them at this time. Following the credit agreement expiration, we received a notice of default and reservation of rights from the bank detailing their ability to demand payment liquidate collateralized assets, and charge an additional default rate on our loans of 2%. To date, the bank has not taken any of the rights outlined in the notice of default. Craig will discuss this further on in the call. That concludes the financial update, and I'll turn it over to Heather Cobb for a sales and marketing update. Heather?

Disclaimer

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