EcoSynthetix Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the EcoSynthetix 2025 fourth quarter and year-end results conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. Instructions will be provided for you at that time for questions. If anyone has any difficulty hearing the conference, you may press star zero for operator assistance at any time. Listeners are reminded that portions of today's discussion may contain forward-looking statements that reflect current views with respect to future events. Any such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. For more information on Ecosynthetix risks and uncertainties related to these forward-looking statements, please refer to the company's annual information form dated February 17, 2026, which is posted on CEDAR. This morning's call is being recorded on Friday, February 20th, 2026 at 830 a.m. Eastern Time. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Jeff McDonald, Chief Executive Officer of EcoSynthetix. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you. Good morning, and thank you all for joining us today. Yesterday afternoon, we reported our 2025 fourth quarter and year-end results. Sales were up 9% in the quarter compared to the same period last year. And they were up 12% for the year. We also reported our first full year of positive adjusted EBITDA with $400,000 for the year, an improvement of more than $1.3 million from fiscal 2024. What's most exciting to us in those numbers is that the growth is coming from where we want it to. Our three key strategic end markets, pulp and tissue, wood composites, and personal care, each posted record results. showing significantly more growth than the overall business. The growth from the new strategic end markets in 2025 more than eclipse the erosion in the legacy end markets. Our diversified product strategy is working. We've illustrated our progress here on page four of the presentation. Our sales into the strategic markets, which we define as pulp, tissue, specialty packaging, wood composites, and personal care, is now more than 70% of the business. At the same time, our sales into the graphic paper end market, which was 60% of the business in 2021, is now less than 30%. That is a dramatic transition. This strategic shift has also made a significant improvement to our margins given the value our offerings provide to our customers in these strategic markets. So what's driving that momentum? We now have 15 lines running our surf lock products to enhance fiber strength in pulp-based applications. We've won eight of those new commercial accounts in 2025, which shows that the momentum is building. The distribution and service provider partners that we're working with are telling us they haven't seen a new chemistry crash the scene like this in a very long time. The ability for Surflok to convert customers has our partners all very excited at a time when their customers are asking for solutions to the growing challenges with fiber availability and cost. We appreciate that it may not feel like we're moving fast enough for investors, and we share your appetite for faster growth. The service provider and distribution partners have the context of the pace and what it takes to make change in the pulp and paper industry, and they're excited. The tissue end market is moving faster for us, as the lines there are smaller in scale with less complexity in their fiber mix. Given this scale, they also represent smaller opportunities for us in terms of volume, but there are more of them. These lines typically use hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of our material annually. And these earlier wins are building experience and confidence within our network. Our impact is clearly happening rapidly when we introduce SurfLock. We address the supply shortage and high cost of long fiber by working with shorter fiber that is less expensive and more available now and in the future. By using our surf-lock strength aids, the manufacturers are able to increase the strength of the final product with less expensive fiber and achieve further benefits in production efficiency, energy usage, and in some cases, improve product quality. We continue to explore new distribution partners in this area as well. The success of our partners is helping to drive the awareness of Surflock globally. Even since our last call, we've made progress with multiple new partners, with some progressing from lab work to mill trials in a relatively short timeframe. The momentum in the tissue end market is clearly taking hold. The pulp end market is a large opportunity. Our first commercial account is a top global pulp manufacturer. We believe the pulp end market will be one of the major growth drivers of the business. Our basis for that belief isn't our forecast. It's what our strategic account is telling the market. We aren't making it any better or worse. We're just piggybacking on what they're saying publicly. Amid a fairly cautious sentiment from them about the pulp and paper industry overall, They've made a specific point of saying this does not impact their belief and the investments they've made in the enhanced pulp offering and their value-added products. They've provided greater granularity on their pipeline of opportunities. They've shown how onboarding one of their customers to enhanced pulp is a step-by-step conversion and a significant process of change. These large-scale lines don't switch chemistries like a light switch. In painting this picture for the market of what they've accomplished to date and what they see as the opportunity going forward, they recently updated their addressable market for enhanced pulp, increasing it by 50% from what they were reporting just six months ago. It's important to mention that they became a commercial account of ours just one year ago, introducing a brand new product to the market in an industry that takes some effort to change. And in that short period of time, they've already grown to become one of our top five accounts with the opportunity to grow much larger in the near term. This is still the early innings, but you start to get a sense for their belief in the value they're bringing to the market. They're winning new business by turning pulp from a commodity into an innovation that delivers greater value to their customers by reducing cost, which is why our account is making the investment they're making and increasing their addressable market. And we couldn't be more excited about that. We believe our strength aids have a compelling value proposition across the pulp, tissue, and packaging end markets. We know these markets and the players in them well. We've spent years building relationships and trust through both our earlier legacy offerings and now our strength aids with the largest players in the market. This puts us in a great position to continue to grow our pulp-based offering. On Wood Composites, we posted significant growth in this end market for the year. The international retailer, which is a key account of ours, continues to make steady progress. We helped them improve their economics through the course of the year with continued innovation on our end. At the same time, the commodity markets were favorable as well, which supported the value we offer. The economics were instrumental in the improved uptake that we saw from them, and through the start of the year, it's steady as it goes. Our primary role today is to help support them as they push to make good on their 2030 commitments to move to bio-based glues across their own network and with their supply chain. As a reminder, they produce approximately 30% of their own wood panels with the remainder procured from other suppliers. There is a tremendous amount of work to be done to achieve that 2030 target. We're engaged with both the international retailer and their other suppliers. And we've already done a significant amount of technical work with the other suppliers. We're at a stage now where it's a discussion between the retailer and their suppliers on how they want to move forward together. We're by their side helping to drive the agenda and smooth any potential hurdles to adoption. On the personal care front, we saw record volumes in the fourth quarter and in fiscal 2025 albeit still off a small base in earlier years. Our development and marketing partner, Dow, is excited by the progress they're making in building this channel. The shift to all natural ingredients remains a top driver in personal care. We believe some of the more recent volumes were building inventory at Dow as they prepare to enter a new region with their maize care offering. We continue to believe pulp tissue and wood composites are the core needle-moving end markets for us. Personal care is a warrant on our foundational growth markets. However, based on Dow's engagement and progress, I'm becoming even more confident in the opportunity for us in personal care. With that, I'll turn it over to Rob to review the financials. Rob?

Thanks, Jeff, and good morning. Net sales were $5.9 million in Q4 2025, up 9% or $500,000 compared to the same period in 2024. Annual sales were $20.8 million, up 12% from 2024. The improvement in the quarter was primarily due to higher average selling price as a result of product mix. The improvement in the annual period was primarily due to higher volumes of $1.6 million or 9% and a higher average selling price accounting for $700,000 or 3%. Net of manufacturing depreciation, gross profit as a percentage of sales was 38.1% in the quarter and 33.6% in the annual period, compared to 34.4% and 33.2% in the same periods in 2024. The improvements were primarily attributable to higher average selling price, partially offset by higher manufacturing costs. Gross profit was $2 million in a quarter, up 27% or $430,000 from the same period last year. The improvement was primarily driven by higher average selling price, partially offset by higher manufacturing costs, both attributable to changes in product mix. In the annual period, gross profit was $6 million, up 14% or $730,000 compared to 2024. The increase was primarily due to higher sales volumes. SG&A expenses were $1.7 million in the quarter and $6.2 million in the annual period, compared to $1.8 million and $6.5 million in the same periods of 2024. The improvement in the annual period was primarily due to asset relocation costs, which we incurred in 2024. R&D expenses were $430,000 in the quarter and $1.6 million in the annual period compared to $360,000 and $2 million in the same periods in 2024. The change in the annual period was primarily due to higher product scale-up costs incurred in the prior year as well as lower asset depreciation. R&D expenses of percentage of sales was 8% in the annual period Our R&D efforts continue to focus on further enhancing the value of our existing products and expanding our addressable opportunities. Adjusted EBITDA was $480,000 and $420,000 in the quarter and annual period, respectfully, compared to $92,000 and a loss of $860,000 in the same periods in 2024. The 390,000 improvement in the quarter was primarily attributable to higher gross profit adjusted for non-cash items. The 1.3 million improvement in the annual period was primarily due to higher gross profit and lower operating costs adjusted for non-cash items. We now have reported a positive adjusted EBITDA in five of the last six quarters. And as Jeff mentioned, this is the first full year of of being positive adjusted EBITDA on a full year basis. As of December 31st, 2025, we had 29.6 million of cash and term deposits compared to 32.2 million as of December 31st, 2024. During Q4, we invested 400,000 in NCIB to purchase and retire 118,000 shares. And in fiscal 2025, we invested 1.4 million to purchase and retire 463,000 shares. We have also increased our working capital investment this year, primarily due to 1.8 million higher finished goods inventory and accounts receivable compared to the prior year. We have demonstrated our ability to responsibly manage our cash reserves through multiple cycles while continuing to invest in our long-term growth strategy. With that, I'll turn it back to Jeff for closing comments.

Thanks, Rob. Our key end markets performed really well in 2025. Volumes in each of pulp, tissue, wood composites, and personal care reached record levels. We've lapped the depressed demand in the legacy end markets. We reported positive adjusted EBITDA on a full year basis. We have the production capacity in place to more than 5x the business from these levels without the need for any incremental capacity investments. We appreciate that it would be better if the results and the momentum we are building were moving faster. We believe we're still in the early innings of the opportunity from these more recent strategic end markets. We've won eight new surf lock lines in 2025. We've expanded the number of channel partners we're working with to introduce surf lock around the globe. And our key strategic account in pulp has just surpassed its first anniversary with us with an increasingly optimistic view toward their opportunity. Our key strategic account in wood-based panels remains committed to its 2030 target for the complete transition to bio-based glues. And Dow is building strong engagement with multiple parties and entering new influential regions with their all-natural offering for personal care products. We're engaged with the right players in our core end markets to deliver for shareholders. And with that, I'll ask the operator to open the call up to your questions. Thank you.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Should you have a question, please press star, followed by the one on your touchtone phone. You will hear a prompt that your hand has been raised. Should you wish to decline from the polling process, please press star, followed by the two. If you are using a speakerphone, please lift the handset before pressing any keys. One moment, please, for your first question. Your first question comes from Brian Morrison. Your line is now open.

Good morning, Jeff and Rob. Hey, Jeff, can I start with the pulp? Can I just start with the wet end segment? The sequential contribution from your major pulp client was modest. It's obviously very good on an annual basis. In the interim, though, in their presentations, they're even... expanding or there's a growing structural gap for softwood pulp and they plan on accelerating fiber to fiber with their vertically integrated growing tissue operations. Just reconcile what they're saying relative to your orders and what is the catalyst for maybe a material ramp in their production volumes to meet their 2028 targets?

Yeah, thanks, Brian. Yeah, I don't think we can or we wouldn't spin it any better than they have. And I guess I just remind everyone that It was in the July timeframe when they stepped up their demand for our product, and we talked about them through the course of 2025 being something in the neighborhood of a $3 million account, and they made good on that. I think the other thing that maybe we should just ground people in is the supply lines that we're working with, from our inputting ingredients, our raw materials that go into creating surf lock, to holding surf lock to be able to meet their demands, Inc. Inc. Inc. Inc. I think they've also really laid that out nicely in some of their recent investor sessions where they go into great detail in both the process that they go through in converting customers and what that takes in terms of manpower and time. And they've even given some granularity into the pipeline that they're building. I think what we saw in the last year was the result of the initial pilot work they were doing with early customers prior to them becoming commercial with us. And they ended up making good on what they said they were going to do through the year. So I don't think we can spin it any better than that. The catalyst for them is going to be having the people that they've now put in the field with great case studies from their initial work now replicating that in the pretty significant pipeline that they've developed. So it's them doing that work on that pipeline and that process that they've illustrated to their investors. And I won't step outside of Just echoing what they're telling the market, we couldn't say it and shouldn't say it any better than they do.

Okay, so but in your press release, you mentioned orders to support production from your pulp client for a second mill. I'm not sure, I'm not clear really on the read-through. When could they, you know, why are they ramping production at a second mill when they could materially ramp at the first? How should we interpret this?

Yeah, so we don't have great visibility into their strategy, nor should we disclose it if we did have better visibility. But I guess I'll say that pulp is not pulp at every mill. Trees are not trees in every different part of the geography. And so pretty clearly, they're dealing with some variability in what is a natural feedstock. So it does have to be proven when it moves somewhere else. We also know that they serve different regions and customers from different mills. So You know, assumption on our side is that that's driving the strategy to have it at an additional mill. But, yeah, we don't have great clarity on that. Our job is really just to be there by their side when they go through the trialing program at the second mill, which we've got it on the calendar to be there.

Okay. So I guess from their perspective, just to solicit the pulp benefits from SureFlox, They would have to implement surf locker. You would think it's likely in their internal tissue facilities that should grow substantially through recent acquisitions. Would you agree with that? And when you think of the eight new lines that you were able to achieve this year, should that then be a low bar for 2026 based on the acquisition and the addition of new service providers you have?

Again, we don't have super granularity into exactly how they're deploying their enhanced pulp, but I think it's safe to say that they've already implemented it in some of their existing tissue operations before the new transaction that I think you're probably referring to. So that's happened for sure. And maybe if we think about the, you know, on our side, not the enhanced pulp side, on the direct side, if we think about the eight lines that we won in 2025, Those are all coming from the first two service providers that we established. We now have eight. We're in discussions with three more, which I think should be partners within the first six months. So that's the best math I can give you. But service provider partners that we brought on two years ago as our sort of pilot activity have yielded the eight new wins we had in the first year. Safe to say the others are at work now building similar pipelines.

Okay. Maybe one or two more questions. You stated earlier that in paper board or container board, you're seeing much improved trialing. Can you just elaborate on what's driving this commentary and maybe what kind of turnaround time you can see from results to translate into revenue? You've been down this road before with these players.

Yeah, I'm not sure. That might have been a misunderstanding. I'm not sure we said that there was increased trialing activity. There's good activity. I will say that. I think maybe in the early days we underestimated the complexity in paperboard of the fiber mix. So tissue tends to be a fairly steady and usually a virgin fiber mix that we're working with. Quite predictable, not a lot of added chemistries that are going into the mix, and that's very different from packaging where on a daily basis you can have shifts in long fiber, short fiber, and recycled fiber going into the mix. And so dealing with that adds some complexity for sure. There are also additional chemistries that are used there that we've had to understand and develop our own capability to work with those chemistries. In the last, yeah, just four or five months, we've had some fantastic learning in that space, some of that through the service provider relationships we have, and some of it through some sort of step-back development work we're doing. And that's fed, I think, an early approach to a new way of looking at this application and the pipeline. Big results at the end of it, which all the service providers are very excited about. That's what they all see as the ultimate goal. And we're getting some good early traction with what I would say is a better understanding than we had in the early days of Surflock. In the meantime, they've built a great understanding of the application of our product through tissue and have gained a lot of confidence from that. So I think it's been a success with some learning on the packaging side that we now need to build on.

Okay. Last question. I guess personal care, it seems to be moving quite quickly, but on small numbers that makes it feel maybe a little bit glacial. What are we seeing in the potential for larger orders from key brands in this ultra-high-margin business?

Well, we don't see it directly, so it is all secondhand. We do see the excitement of our partner. We do know that they are working on some of these big brand opportunities. We also know that sometimes there are loopbacks to the reformulations when you're talking about taking a mainstream brand on the shelf. and making a significant change to it. So we do know that they're working through all that and they remain excited about some that are, I'd say, closer to the goal line. The other, I think, really important thing that we're seeing in their pipeline is that in the earliest days of MaizeCare, we saw a lot of not just emerging brands but emerging companies sort of new to the scene, willing to take a risk on something brand new. And they were successful in introducing those, both Dow and those end customers. And I think that woke some people up. The next phase of what we've been seeing for the last year and a bit has been some of the big CPGs transitioning some of their smaller brands into maize care. So we now see wins from their pipeline with some of the big five personal care companies that ultimately I think that they see the big prize in converting some of the big brands. So I think it's a step-by-step way of building some confidence and getting some good results step-by-step as well. I think it's something that for them, it goes beyond just the success of MaizeCare. It's actually helping them to carry in some of their other complimentary products to help customers reformulate things. So it still remains from what we see a pretty big thing for them.

Okay, I guess, Jeff, you're clearly making progress on all fronts here with record business in each of these new markets. And I know you're not likely to submit to a timeline for your $100 million top-line target, but how are you thinking about its evolution and your ability to still achieve that figure?

100% committed to it, 100% excited that it's still a real goal for us. If you just think about the large pulp player, The recent step up in addressable market that they've put out there, that has us close to that opportunity just following them. And it's clearly being proven out there that surf lock can be much bigger than that. We're introducing it now to some new geographies that have tremendous growth potential. And similar to what we've seen in our initial introductions in Europe and North America, we're seeing some really excited people in other geographies now as well. So, yeah, it's a matter of time, but it for sure is still there as our goal.

Thanks very much and good luck.

Thanks, Brian.

Your next question comes from Jeff Schachter with TD Wealth. Your line is now open.

Hey, Jeff. Hey, Rob. Good morning. Good morning. A few questions. Could you kind of break down how many lines in the different verticals you're currently running or on right now?

I think we gave more granularity than we ever have on surf lock just to give people some context of what we've done and what is in that market a fairly short period of time. So we're on 15 lines with surf lock. Otherwise, I'll report what we have reported. We're on two lines with our key strategic customer in wood panel market. And I'll say many, many lines through Dow's work in maize care, albeit largely in emerging brands, but in a few sort of larger volume brands that they've been able to win as well. That's probably all the granularity we can give in terms of line wins.

Okay. And on the, like, since going commercial with the pulp clients, have you noticed, like, is there now a defined baseload that is, you mentioned lumpiness, but is there a defined baseload that is, Yeah, so to the first question, I think the base load is what they told us.

Inc. Inc. Inc. If I looked conservatively at a base load, that would be the base load, and that's consistent with the orders we've seen over the long run. They do come in lumps. They do come in fits and starts, but they did almost to within $100,000 make good on what they said they were going to do through 2025. The second line, commercialization, unclear as to exactly what they want to do, but what has become clear to us is that these guys don't just go off and do science projects or trials with no intended outcome. So when they say they're moving to a new line, and it's a very significant line, we take it seriously. We're there to support them, and I believe they probably have some good commercial goals coming from that. I imagine there's specific demand from customers that that line serves.

Right, so a new set of customers potential that could be coming. And how is this sort of the word in the industry at large? Like are you seeing interest beyond sort of these core partners, early adopters? How is the momentum and realistic momentum to start something up this year with others?

Yeah, so probably the best color I can give on that is I've met to start the year with seven of our partners. And the enthusiasm they have is – Some of them came to us through word of mouth, actually. Most of them we proactively engaged and did work with them, but some of them came to us through word of mouth when they had heard what was being accomplished in other regions. So that was pretty exciting. These guys are all entrepreneurs. They wouldn't spend time on stuff if it didn't really make good sense for their own profitable growth, and they've all invested significant time with us. and with their customers using Surf Lock. So that's kind of the best indicator I see. We've had some interesting calls from other people who are impacted by Surf Lock in the market as well. And so clearly we're waking some people up with the early results.

Okay, and then finally for me on the graphic paper side, has that decline hit its peak low? How do you put it in context for how it impacted last year to kind of break out the two, the area of sort of the traction versus the area of growth of the new part? Can you better discuss that? And was there any U.S.-Canadian dollar impacts on the quarter? That's it for me.

No U.S.-Canadian dollar impacts on the quarter, just to knock that one off. Sorry, Jeff, I lost my train of thought.

Yeah, it was just more of the graphic paper, like whether it's reached peak low and how it breaks out sort of the decline versus the growth of the new areas.

Yeah, I think maybe the easiest thing for everybody is to think about how we all use graphic paper today. Most people answer less and less, and that's showing up in the numbers globally. It's not going to fall off the cliff in any given day, but it's still declining by double digits on an annualized basis. We're lucky to have a few customers that have remained strong in those spaces to have our own base load of that business, which I would say financially isn't going to be as important to us going forward for sure. But strategically, each of those companies that remain strong and an important customer to us in graphic paper, they're all doing work in surf lock without exception. So those relationships are super important to us going forward. Each one of them is a major player. Each one of them has a real interest in surf lock for other areas of their business.

Thanks, Susan.

Thanks, Jeff.

Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, should you have a question, please press star 1. Your next question comes from Gerald Wimmer with Investor File. Your line is now open.

Hi, Jeff.

Hi, Jerry.

Congratulations on a good year. Thank you. Just wanted to look forward through this year. I mean, for four quarters in 2025, we saw revenue quarter to quarter revenue growth for all four quarters. As we look to 2026, do you see that trend continuing?

Yeah, we're not going to give guidance. We will say, I guess, just to start the year that... There was definitely, in the case of one important customer, some inventory built in December. So, yeah, we could see a few headwinds in the first quarter. Nothing significant that causes me any concern. The most important thing is keep driving ahead. And I would say the pipeline in each of those areas that we just discussed in the call, the pipeline looks great for that growth to continue through the year. So, I think we're still out of size, and we rely on some very large customers within that small size where we'll still see some lumpiness from time to time, but the upward trajectory is really clear, both in top line and profitability. Okay.

How should investors look at your EBITDA? Are you flipped to positive? Do you think that stays consistent?

Yeah, yeah. I mean, it wasn't a windfall like in any one quarter. As Rob said – For the last five quarters, we've been EBITDA positive. We expect that to continue and grow. The business is now structured in a way that as the top line growth happens at these improved margins, most of that is falling to the bottom line. So I think we're really going to start to see some great bottom line results as we get each step of top line growth.

Okay, and gross margins, how should we model that, given that most of your business is coming from new accounts going into 2026? Gross margins will be similar to Q4?

Yeah, Q4 was a good margin quarter. We had the best mix we've ever had. I would look at 2025 on a full-year basis, probably to think about that in the right way. We introduced in the presentation today the view on the business of how it's transitioned, and you can see how the margins have improved. I think now that those new strategic markets are contributing in the 70% range, I think we should assume that 2025 is probably a good benchmark year for where we see our average margins for now.

Okay. How does an investor model OpEx? I took a look at the fourth quarter. I noticed your OpEx came down year over year. looking at fourth quarter at OpEx as a percentage of revenues or absolute. How should I model that for 2026?

Yeah, we'll see a little bit of growth in support costs as we expand our support for the growth markets that we have, but nothing substantial. It'll be sales and support people. The one thing in looking at our OpEx numbers compared to last year is we did have what we would consider to be some one-time OpEx results last year, which didn't recur this year. So it wasn't that there was a significant decline or that we underinvested anywhere. There were some one-time costs associated with scale-up that just didn't recur this year because we got those products scaled up. But I think 2025 represents a good baseline where you'll see like inflationary growth And then we'll make some strategic investments in personnel to support good customer growth in the markets we need to. We won't skimp on that.

Do you envision that the rate of growth in revenues will exceed the rate of growth in OpEx through 2026?

Oh, 100%. Absolutely.

Okay. And finally, Ecosynthetix is relatively an unknown company still in the small cap community. For 2026, are you looking to be more active on the IR front, telling the story to small cap investors?

Starting week after next for this calendar year anyway. So I'm not sure if we have it up yet, but I'll be making a reappearance on small cap discoveries. So that kicks off the year. And then we've got some other conference appearances planned through the course of the year. Definitely want to get the story out there more broadly.

Okay. Well, that's all my questions. I look forward to things progressing and the name Ecosynthetic getting into more investors' eyes. Thanks for taking the questions.

Thank you very much, Jerry.

For the questions at this time, I will now turn the call over to Jeff for closing remarks.

Thanks again, everyone, for joining us today and look forward to talking to you again soon.

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes your conference call for today. We thank you for participating and ask that you please disconnect your lines.