Andrew Peller Limited

Good morning, my name is Sharon and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Andrew Piller Limited Q1 2025 Financial Results Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you'd like to ask a question during this time, simply press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press the star, then number two. Thank you. I would now like to turn the call over to Jennifer Smith, Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Ms. Smith.

Thank you. Good morning. Before we begin, this is a reminder that during this conference call, management may make statements containing forward-looking information. This forward-looking information is based on a number of assumptions and is subject to a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those disclosed or implied. Please refer to the company's earnings release, MD&A, and other security filings for additional information about these assumptions, risks, and uncertainties. I'll now turn things over to Paul Dukowski, Chief Executive Officer.

Thank you, Jen, and good morning to everyone on the call. It is great to be here, and we do apologize for the slight delay with decision. I am very pleased to address you for the first time since I assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer last month. At the same time, Patrick O'Brien was named President and Chief Commercial Officer. Unfortunately, due to travel delays, Patrick is unable to join us today, but will be on future calls. But I am happy to be joined today by Renee Kauke, our controller. I would like to start by recognizing John for his over 30 years as CEO. Not only has John been an inspirational leader for our business and our employees, but a committed advocate for the industry and the communities we operate in. As we outlined in our press release last month, John is continuing to serve the company in a strategic consulting role and remains on the board of directors. I'd also like to thank the board of directors and the Peller family for entrusting me with the leadership of the company. As the new CEO, I look forward to building on the company's strong foundation established over the last 64 years and will continue to focus on building a winning team with a commitment to driving profitability and shareholder value. I will do a review of the financial and operational highlights of the quarter, address other key business matters, and then open the call for any questions. Moving on to Q1, I will start by saying, like most other businesses, we are operating in a challenging economic period of elevated interest rates and ongoing stubborn inflation. While conditions are beginning to improve, and we expect that to continue over time, we are seeing ongoing pressure on consumers' wallets and some trade down in terms of spend. With that being said, we are pleased to report our operating results were largely consistent year-over-year as our significant work on cost savings initiatives and operational efficiencies enabled us to generate solid EBITDA performance through a period of expected softer market conditions. Sales in the first quarter of fiscal 2025 decreased 1 million or 1% year-over-year to 99.5 million. We saw solid performance from sales to provincial liquor boards restaurants and hospitality locations, as well as sales from our personal wine making business. These results were further supported by the new revised Ontario VQA support program announced in December 2023 and further explained in our disclosure materials. Offsetting these positive trends, we experienced softness in sales from the estates and wine clubs due to lower guest traffic and reduced consumer discretionary spending, an impact that has been felt across the retail segment and the wine industry. Overall, the breadth of our brand portfolio and sales channels allowed us to mitigate the impact of these softening conditions and continue to meet the evolving tastes and preferences of our consumers. Through this period, we've been able to achieve above category performance and improve our market position nationally in both BQA and ICB wines. As an example, we have seen continued strength and are healthier for you on a slot brand, zero sugar offering across several varietals. Our owned imports under the Neon Coast and Ahmed Bene brands have performed well since launch. And our domestic VQA sparkling offerings across the Gretzky, Peller, and Trius brands are up double digit year over year. Moving to margins, margin in the first quarter of fiscal 2025 ended at 38.2 million, down 849,000 or 2.2%. from $39 million in the prior year. Margin as a percentage of sales was 38.4%, slightly down compared to the prior year at 38.8%. Margins were impacted by reduced sales and high margin channels, such as the estates and wine clubs, as well as continued cost pressures on raw materials and international freight and shipping charges. impacts were largely offset by our production efficiency and cost savings programs that were implemented over the last year and continue. Looking ahead, we are confident these cost savings measures and production efficiency programs, combined with additional reductions in our cost inputs, are sustainable elements that will positively impact our margins in the long term. Selling and administrative expenses landed at 25.3 million for the quarter, down 1 million or 3.8% to the prior year, As a percentage of sales, expenses were 25.5% in the quarter, down from 26.2% in the prior year, due primarily to compensation optimization at our retail stores and estate wineries and rationalization of marketing spend in line with current market conditions. EBITDA landed at $12.9 million in the quarter, up from $12.7 million last year. We are confident that the cost savings and productive labor efficiency work we have undertaken will continue to protect our bottom line results while we continue to manage the impact of a challenging economic environment. Turning to our balance sheet at the end of the quarter, inventory was 176.5 million versus 192.5 million at the end of fiscal 2024 as we continue our focus on working capital. Total debt was 207.3 million, down from 208.3 million at the end of fiscal 2024, and there was capacity in our revolving credit facility of approximately 67 million, with shareholders' equity landing at 550 per share. For the quarter, we generated 15.3 million in cash from operations, compared to 13.7 million last year, largely due to improvements in working capital, and our net cash debt position improved by 6 million. Moving on to some other business matters, As reported, the Okanagan Valley and surrounding areas experienced a significant freeze winter event in January of 2024, in addition to the winter event in December of 2022 that has resulted in significant crop damage across the valley, as reported, which will have an impact on some BQA supply moving forward. As discussed in previous quarters, the industry has continued to work with the British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Finance to develop policies for replacing the 2024 vintage and replanting damaged vineyards to help support the industry long term. At the end of July, the BC government confirmed temporary financial support for wineries, bringing in replacement wine to help protect jobs and ensure the BC wine industry remains viable and strong. We've developed several sourcing opportunities to offset the volume shortage, and we will be able to use our scale and size to source grapes and or wine from other regions, including the US and Ontario. Our sourcing plan and the commitment of the government should allow us to keep a largely consistent amount of wine on shelf and mitigate any economic impact. We're also focused on replanting over the next two years in the Okanagan Valley. We expect to receive both insurance and government support to help with the capital cost of the replant program and offset some of the cost of rehabilitating our vineyards. Shifting to the Ontario retail environment, As previously disclosed, the Ontario Provincial Government has accelerated its plan to expand retail distribution points for the sale of beverage alcohol. As we work with government and industry partners on understanding the full rollout of the program, we continue to be encouraged by the government's efforts to help strengthen and grow the wine industry in Ontario. A focus on a strong and competitive marketplace for Ontario produced and manufactured products will benefit all stakeholders, including the regions and communities we operate in. With the changes currently in progress and expected, our team is engaged and committed to ensuring we win in a highly competitive landscape with the increased distribution. Moving on to the recent LCBO strike. As many of you are aware, the LCBO was on strike for two weeks in July. As the LCBO was a key distribution partner for us, and July is a high volume period in the summer period, our team quickly mobilized to ensure we could meet consumer demands during the strike period. With a focus on increasing shipments and availability of our product at our wine shop stores and increased availability through our states and online channels, we're able to meet our consumers' needs and protect the revenue profitability of the business. We will provide more detail when we release our Q2 results. And finally, moving on to Port Moody, our development land for Salem, B.C., we continue to work closely with our consulting and real estate partners in the region with a goal to sell the property in the next 12 months. While conditions for sale have been challenging with elevated interest rates and high construction costs and a changing lower mainland BC real estate environment, the property remains highly valuable and as conditions continue to improve, we remain confident in the sale of the property within the timelines noted. Additionally, during the quarter, we completed some tax planning initiatives to crystallize a portion of the capital gain in APL on the property to take advantage of the 50% capital gain inclusion rate that was increased to 66.7% in July. We will provide further updates related to Port Moody in future quarterly releases. So in summary, I'd like to close by saying that I am energized and motivated through CEO Andrew Peller. We will continue to be adaptable in a changing economic and industry environment. In the near term, we will remain focused on building market share and protecting growth, continuing our margin recovery, increasing cash generation, and lowering our debt levels to create capacity for growth and to drive shareholder value. Our portfolio is well positioned to meet our customers where they want to shop, as evidenced by our strong relative performance over the last 12 months. We remain focused on our key brands while also introducing new products within our core wine segment and other growth categories and building on our company's history of innovations. These revenue initiatives, in addition to a focus on cost savings and profitability, will help drive margin and EBIT expansion as we move forward. To finish, I'd like to thank our Andrew Peller teammates for their passion and commitment to our customers and our culture. Our success is made possible by their dedication and efforts. Thank you, and I'll turn it back to the operator for any questions.