Jamieson Wellness Inc.

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the Jameson Wellness Conference call to discuss the financial results for the fourth quarter and full year 2024. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session, and instructions will be given at that time. Please be advised that the reproduction of this call in whole or in part is not permitted without written authorization from the company. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded. On the call today from management are Mike Pilato, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Chris Snowden, Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Secretary. Before I turn the call over to Mr. Pilato, please note that a press release covering the company's fourth quarter 2024 financial results was issued this afternoon, and a copy of that press release can be found in the investor relations section on the company's website. Please note that the prepared remarks which will follow contain forward-looking statements, and management may make additional forward-looking statements in response to your questions. These statements do not guarantee future performance, and therefore, undue reliance should not be placed upon them. We refer you all to risk factors contained in Jameson's press release issued this afternoon and in filings with the Canadian Securities Administrators. for a more detailed discussion of the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those of projections and any forward-looking statements. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly correct or update the forward-looking statements made during the presentation to reflect future events or circumstances, except as it may be required under applicable securities laws. Finally, we would like to remind listeners that the company may refer to certain non-IFRS financial measures during this teleconference. A reconciliation of this non-IFRS financial measures was included with the company's press release issued earlier today. Also, please note that unless otherwise stated, all figures discussed today are in Canadian dollars and are occasionally rounded to the nearest million. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Pilato to get started. Please go ahead, sir.

Thanks, John. Hello, everyone, and thanks for taking the time to join us for our Q4 and 2024 results. On today's call, I will share our strong 2024 performance with you in some detail before turning it over to Chris for a review of our Q4 financials and guidance for 2025. Then I'll conclude with some additional colour around our key operational and strategic initiatives before taking your questions. 2024 was another strong year for Jameson Wellness, as global consumer demand for our products reached new highs and health and wellness continued to dominate consumer trends. Our strategic execution and brand strength drove market share gains across all key markets, delivering 14% branded revenue growth in the year. Importantly, this performance also translated into substantial cash generation, with record cash flows and EBITDA margins exceeding our expectations. Looking at the year from a high level, Consolidated revenue increased nearly 9%, crossing the $700 million mark to $734 million. Adjusted EBITDA was a record high of $141 million, with adjusted EBITDA margins of over 19%. Adjusted diluting earnings per share was $1.61, and diluted earnings per share was $1.19. Strong results in 2024 stemmed from consistent, coordinated execution of our strategy. driving growth across all branded business units. Branded revenue continued its momentum with growth of just over 14%, offset by 16% lower strategic partners revenue, as expected and discussed on past calls. We began shipping to a new customer in the strategic partner segment in Q4, driving 7% growth, and we anticipate this portion of our business to reach 2023 highs again in 2025. We further expanded our Canadian market leadership in 24 through targeted marketing programs that celebrated our heritage of domestic manufacturing, quality, and trust. This business delivered strong revenue growth, exceeding overall market performance with increases in both dollar and unit consumption, reflecting sustained consumer interest in foundational health products and innovative natural solutions, and the success of in-market pricing during the year. The continued successful implementation of our accelerated investment strategy in China delivered nearly 80% reported revenue growth in this key market. Our targeted investments to drive brand awareness and increase market penetration in traditional retail channels yielded strong results. We continue to see growth through successful demand-driving marketing initiatives supporting our cross-border e-commerce programs, particularly during promotional windows like the 6-18 and 11-11 events. Our 11.11 campaign in Q4 grew by 51%, comping impressive growth in the prior year as well. Our Utheory expansion continued to gain traction in 24, with new distribution, e-commerce, and international expansion revenue increasing by almost 20%. Consumer consumption within our traditional customer set continued to outpace market growth, particularly for trending products like Ashwagandha and Shilajit. In Q4, we continued to see distribution gains drive growth, partially offset by the timing of promotional purchases within our traditional distribution base, and we were proud to get our GLP-1 support products to market as a test launch. Innovation and consumption growth were the core drivers of our international growth of plus 16% on a constant currency basis in 24, with notable gains in both the Middle East and Europe, as consumers deepened their engagement with the Jameson brand. This strong performance, complemented by market expansion, demonstrates continued momentum throughout our global footprint. Looking at the year ahead, we're executing from an even stronger foundation. The global megatrends propelling our industry continue to gain momentum, creating unprecedented opportunities for growth. Our strategic marketing investments are already delivering tangible results, driving revenue growth, improving profitability metrics, and generating sustained improvements in cash flow. The remarkable journey we've been on since 2017 is truly just the beginning of what this exceptional company will achieve. With our latest guide for 25 showing revenue and adjusted EBITDA growth of 144% and 130% respectively since our IPO. With that, I'm going to turn it over to Chris for some more details on our financials.

Chris. Thank you, Mike. And good afternoon, everyone. In the fourth quarter, Consolidated revenue increased by 11.1% to $244.8 million, driven by growth in both Jameson Brands and our strategic partners segment. Jameson Brands revenue increased by 11.9% to $202.6 million. Jameson Canada revenue increased 11.4% to $105 million, driven by strong consumer consumption and in market pricing. Utheory revenue was $56.3 million in the quarter with international new distribution and e-commerce revenue increasing by over 25% in the quarter through innovation and expanded offerings. Total Utheory growth was 2.3% or 9% year to date. Despite double digit consumption growth, this was offset by the impact of pricing changes associated with our new e-commerce partnership, and the timing of promotional purchases within our traditional customer base. In China, revenue increased 38.9% on a constant currency basis. This is in addition to the 90% pro forma growth in the fourth quarter of 2023. This reflects the successful investment strategy to drive trial, brand awareness, market penetration, and our highly successful 1111 e-commerce programs. Jameson International revenue increased by 14.2% on a constant currency basis, driven by innovation and growth in the Middle East and Europe. Strategic Partners revenue grew 7.1% in the quarter, driven by customer ordering patterns and the initial shipment of new programs commencing during the fourth quarter. Normalized gross profit margin increased by 400 basis points after adjusting for the normalization of fair value inventory acquired in the prior year. Within the Jameson brand segment, gross profit margin increased by 620 basis points to 46.6%, while normalized gross profit margin increased by 490 basis points, mainly driven by volume growth, operating efficiencies, and favorable channel mix in China. Gross profit margin in the strategic partner segment decreased by 130 basis points to 13.8% in Q4, impacted by lower volumes in year. SG&A expenses of $49.1 million in Q4 increased by $6.8 million, or 16%, compared to Q4 2023. Excluding the impact of specified costs, SG&A expenses increased by $9.1 million, mainly driven by the timing of variable compensation and investments to grow our brands as we continue to prioritize our global expansion initiatives. Specified costs of $3.8 million in Q4 are mainly comprised of $2.1 million in developmental costs associated with our IT system implementation to augment our system infrastructure. Adjusted net earnings were $34.6 million in the quarter, representing a year-over-year increase of 21%. Our adjusted earnings per diluted common share was $0.80, a 19% increase compared to the prior year. A reconciliation of adjusted EBITDA and adjusted net earnings is provided in today's press release, announcing the company's fourth quarter results. Turning to the balance sheet and cash flow. We generated $37.8 million in cash in the fourth quarter from operations, an increase of almost 45% compared to the prior year. Cash from operations before working capital considerations of $41.3 million was more than double the $20.4 million generated in the prior year's fourth quarter. Higher cash flow was primarily related to higher earnings, as volumes and expanded margins drove growth in the bottom line. Excluding non-cash items, cash invested in working capital increased by $9.2 million, driven by timing of sales and customer collections in the quarter, partially offset by higher outstanding payables. In the fourth quarter, we distributed almost $9 million in dividends and ended up with $237 million in cash and available operating lines. Based on our strong cash flow and earnings, We have announced a dividend of 21 cents per common share, payable on March 14th, 2024, to all shareholders of record as of March 7th. Now turning to guidance. In 2025, we remain focused on profit contribution, driving operating efficiency at the gross margin level while continuing to invest to drive growth in our Jameson and Utheory brands. In fiscal 2025, we expect... Consolidated revenue between $800 million and $840 million, representing 9 to 14.5% growth. Adjusted EBITDA of between $157 and $163 million, or growth of 11 to 15.5%. Adjusted EBITDA margins to range from 19 to 19.5%. Adjusted diluted earnings per share, of $1.82 to $1.93 or growth of 13% to 20%. We expect our Jameson brand segment to deliver revenue growth of 9% to 14.5% in 2025, driven by ongoing traction in China and growth in the US through our focus on expanded digital e-commerce. We expect strategic partners revenue to grow between 10% and 15% driven by new customer initiatives and programs. Our 2025 guidance does not consider any potential impact of tariffs imposed on trade between Canada and the United States. As such, actual results may differ from those expressed or implied in this guidance due to unforeseen changes in trade policies or economic conditions. A complete discussion of our 2025 and our Q1 2025 guidance as well as factors impacting our expected performance, is included in the outlook section of our MD&A file this evening. Now with that, I will turn the call back to Mike.

Thanks, Chris. 2024 closed with tremendous momentum at the consumer level across all major markets, driven by our strategic investments to maximize our potential, particularly in China. We are driving accelerated growth in these markets through Jamison management, best practices, and operational excellence. As we move through 25, our growth initiatives remain firmly on track. We continue to monitor and adapt to the evolving macroeconomic environment, including ongoing trade tensions. I want to emphasize that our business model positions as well to navigate these challenges. We manufacture the vast majority of our branded products for Canada in our Canadian facilities and for the U.S. in our U.S. manufacturing facility. With no materials imported from China to the U.S., This structure insulates our branded business from significant risk. Based on recent potential tariff announcements, we do not see any material pressures on our direct cost of goods. However, if this were to change, our global supply chain provides flexibility to adjust and protect our margins. A portion of our lower margin, low growth priority strategic partner segment could experience some pressures in the short term. as US customers could be facing tariffs on import into the United States. However, I'm confident in our team's ability to mitigate any potential long-term effects, such as cycling into new contracts globally. Taking a step back to view the bigger picture, history has shown that consumers continue to prioritize health and wellness, even during economic uncertainty. The global megatrends driving our category continue to accelerate, not slow down, and we remain uniquely positioned to capture this opportunity. Our journey from a primarily Canadian company in 2017 to a global force today with a clear path to continued growth demonstrates the power of our approach. We've built world-class capabilities by bringing together vitamin, mineral, and supplement industry experts and broad consumer goods veterans from global leaders, all united by an entrepreneurial spirit and our distinctive culture of rolling up our sleeves to get things done. In closing, our ability to navigate and deliver exceptional results in this constantly changing global environment is a testament to the strength of our strategy and the solid execution by our team. The resilience and grit of the Jameson team has enabled us to completely transform this organization over the past eight years, particularly the last five, while maintaining above-market growth in our Canadian home market. I want to thank everyone for their unwavering commitment to delivering best-in-class products and best-in-class results. Thank you for joining tonight's call, and we'll now turn it over to questions.

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 number one on your touchstone 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 number two. If you're using a speakerphone, please lift the handset before pressing any keys. The first question comes from the line of Derek Lessard from TD Cowen. Your line is now open.

Hi, good afternoon. This is Cheryl calling in for Derek. Thanks so much for taking our question. So our first question is on U3. In the press release, you noted that U3 shipment was impacted by timing of promotional purchases. Could you maybe elaborate on that? And based on Nielsen data, we see your POS numbers in the U.S. actually look fairly strong. So what is the disconnect there?

Yeah, so thank you for that question, Cheryl. Thanks for joining us. Yeah, so the timing of promotional period orders comes down to the way that customers order for the big Q1 promotional window that we talk about every year, right? So they order in Q4 and then that promotional window hits the market in Q1. Sometimes the timing of how those orders come in can cross fiscal years. So typically we have a bit of a bigger December than we have this year. This year, some of that ordering will shift into the next quarter. It's just some timing order in the way that accounts are handling their inventory through that promotional window this year. When you talk about consumption, you're right, and I alluded to that even in the script. Where we have been expanding distribution over the last couple of years, we have seen great POS growth, double-digit POS growth. Even in our traditional channels, in some of the distribution points, the main distribution points that we inherited when we bought Utheory, we continue to see very strong POS growth there as well, also in the double-digit range. So from a market perspective, POS and consumption is continuing to trend very strong. We're just seeing some timing on some shipments right now around promotional windows.

Okay, thank you. That's very helpful. So would it be fair to say we can probably see a stronger growth in Q1 because they overflow from Q4?

The only thing I'll caution on Q1, we don't give specific guidance by business unit, but the one thing I will caution on Q1 is that we did have a big pipe fill last year on a new innovation in Q1 that we'll be lapping. So we'll have to parse that out when we report our Q1 results and explain, excluding that pipe fill, what the growth rate looked like.

Okay, got it. Thank you. And just one more before I requeue. So you've been to a couple of Double Eleven events in China now and did really well this time. But I'm curious, how does this year's industry environment differ from the prior years? Are there any changes in consumer behavior? Or what about the competitive and promotional environment? Thank you.

No, I mean, we didn't see any material changes. I mean, China continues to be a very competitive marketplace. The one thing we have picked up on, I would say, throughout the year is, as everyone knows, China's going through a bit of an economic downturn. Our business has continued to grow. We grew 80% in a year. We've been extremely resilient in this time period. I think us being in that market now for multiple years helps in a time like this. We're a brand that is known. We're a brand that has awareness. The consumer knows who Jameson is. They're resonating with our high-quality message, with our Made in Canada message, and continuing to grow our brand. So I think us being there for some time definitely has helped us during these times of a bit of economic bumpiness in China. And we continue to drive great growth with plus 55% growth in that 11-11 promotional window. We're quite proud of the work that the team has done there.

I think the other thing to think about, Cheryl, is that while other consumer products type businesses have not seen the growth or maintained consumer interest, health and wellness is a priority for Chinese consumers. and we continue to see strong industry growths in VMS, and we continue obviously to outpace that.

Great. Thank you both for the call.

You're welcome.

Your next question comes from the line of Stephen McLeod from BMO Capital Markets. Your line is now open.

Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Just wanted to pick up on the US, just some of your commentary in the outlook section was around changes to that segment's revenue reporting structure on a new e-commerce partnership. So I'm just curious if you could just give us some color on what those changes are. And it sounds like excluding these changes would growth be different than what you expect to report, which is the 5% to 15% guidance?

Yeah, so we started talking about this a little bit last quarter, Steve, and what it relates to is how we fund our presence online. Before our partnership, we would report a gross revenue net of promotional costs, and things like distribution and marketing would be on the individual lines of the P&L. With our new partnership, all of that is rolled into one number, and they get a net revenue number off of that. So that falls further down from a cost perspective. Those other elements aren't broken out in our P&L, they're netted against revenue. And that business continues to have the same profitability on a dollar basis and actually better profit margins under the new structure.

But when it comes to 2025 guidance, Steve, to the second part of your question, If we wouldn't have made that change, that revenue growth would be higher in 2025 by about four to six percentage points is kind of the rough math.

Oh, okay. Okay, that's helpful. Thank you.

And then maybe just turning to Canada, can you talk a little bit about kind of the volume and pricing breakdown you saw in Q4? It sounds like you continued to have both strong consumption as well as pricing in the quarter.

Yeah, we had strong volume and pricing growth in the full year, and we continue to see that through the fourth quarter. I would say kind of high single-digit growth in dollars and low single-digit growth in units is the best way to think about that, with the difference being the pricing that we put into market.

All right. Okay. Okay. Got it. Thank you. And then maybe just thinking about 2025 and the overall Jameson Brands business. You know, you've highlighted, obviously, a higher gross margin for the year. Do you expect maybe not all of that to flow to the EBITDA margin line just because of the SG&A investments that you continue to make? Is that the right way to think about it?

I think first and foremost, it's... It's necessary to point out that we did exceed our margin expectations in fiscal 2024. So when you look at our expectations for 2025, we're maintaining a similar margin profile in fiscal 2025. Gross profit margin growth that's based on the efficiency and operational initiatives is being reinvested in the business to grow our brands.

Okay. That's great. Thanks, Chris. Great. Thanks, guys. I'll turn it back over. Appreciate it.

Thanks, Steve.

Your next question comes from the line of Tanya Armstrong-Keith Hart from Canaccord Genuity. Please go ahead.

Hi, guys. Thanks for taking the question. First off, I just wanted to confirm. So that e-commerce partner in the U.S. that you referenced on the previous question, Did that have any impact in Q4-24 as well, or is that purely a 25 thing?

Yeah, that absolutely impacted Q4 as well.

Could you quantify to what extent it impacted Q4?

Similar to what Mike would have said, you know, a mid-single-digit impact in the quarter.

Okay, perfect. And then on pricing... Could you discuss what kind of pricing you plan to take for 2025 in the Canadian market if that's been rolled out yet and how you plan to roll that out?

We currently have no pricing built into 2025, Tanya. We have not seen a climate or an environment where our costs of goods are increasing in any material way based on the contracts that we have signed for next year and any of the pricing that we have seen. You know, we say this every year when we don't price. Right now, we don't see any reason to price. We don't see any costs going up. We do remain confident, though, if there was any change in that throughout the year or any other cost impacts were to hit us, such as a direct impact of some type of tariff announcement that we have not had yet to date, we're quite confident that we can react and market and ensure that we protect our margins.

Okay, that's great. That makes sense, holding off on those price increases for when you actually need them. Yes. And then lastly, on the tariffs, I know you've talked about the strategic partner segment potentially having some modest impact if those U.S. customers decide to cycle out of their contracts. What is that kind of lag period? I know you have some pent-up demand elsewhere globally that you can backfill it with, but once that U.S. partner cycles out, how long does it take to bring on a new customer? I know you had some shifts in strategic partners in years prior, and there is a bit of a lag period.

Yeah, you know, I think there's a couple pieces to that. There's a period of cycling out, like if someone decides they're going to cycle out of a contract, it does take some time because, you know, it's not, this isn't the type of business you just pick up and move overnight, right? There's formulas, there's stability, there's a whole bunch of moving, the quality, there's a lot of moving parts that have to work out. So there's a lag period of probably, call it anywhere from three to 12 months to rotate something out of the system, depending on the complexity of that formula. And we could roll something in probably in the same period. The way I like to think about it right now is if we had any impact due to tariffs on that strategic partner's business, we could probably keep this business whole over a 12 to 24 month period is probably a good way to think about it.

That's excellent insight. Okay. Thank you so much. I will get back in the queue.

Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Ryland Conrad from RBC Capital Markets. Your line is now open.

Yeah, thanks very much and good evening. So just two questions on my end. Firstly, just with consumer sentiment in Canada softening through February, just with all the tariff uncertainty, I'm just curious what you're seeing there. I believe you did mention some channel shifting through 2024, but is that still kind of what you're seeing or Are you seeing any trade-down activity in 2025 as well? And then just secondly, obviously, I know it's still early days, but is there anything incremental you could share on just the initial traction with GLP-1 products as those started to ship in Q4?

Yeah, thanks for the questions, Roland. Both great questions. So from a Canadian consumer perspective, you know, as we talked about in the script there, And the prepared remarks we don't typically see a downturn in our category in economically an economic bumpy period. We have not seen anything new in the early parts of 2025 or the late parts of 2024 we do continue to see some shifting in in channels, I mean you continue to see consumers. Looking for value at a club channel a discount a traditional discount grocery banner or online. That has been going on for some time now, and as we've talked about before, we're pretty margin agnostic the way we manage our business, so we're fine when that happens. The one thing I would say about consumer sentiment is, I mean, we're in a very interesting time right now in Canada with Canadians rallying around Canadian companies, so we'll see how that plays out over the course of the year. Obviously, in our Canadian business, we're sitting in a good situation for that, and Our new advertising campaign that we put into the market in Q3 of last year was celebrating our Canadian manufacturing locations and the employees here that make, the team members of ours here that make these products for us at a high-quality standard. We were celebrating that before this even became a thing, and I believe that will help us. When it comes to the initial GLP-1s, there's really nothing to share right now. We launched in Q4. We have some early distribution. We'll wait and see as we get through probably a couple quarters how it does. We are talking to more and more customers about listing the products. We're starting to see a push online around the products and really nothing more to report at this time as we watch and learn.

Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you.

As a reminder, if you have a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. Your next question comes from the line of Zachary Ebershed from National Bank Financial. Your line is now open.

Hey, everybody. Congrats on the quarter and thanks for taking my question. Thank you.

Nice to hear from you, Zach. So just two quick ones on the US. Without getting into guidance for Q1 of 2025, maybe we can talk about how much the pipe fill contributed in the US in Q1 last year.

Yeah, we had really strong growth last year in Q1.

It was between 30% and 40%. So that is an indication of how much that pipe fill was. When you look at year on year, our expectations for Q1 2025 for the U.S. business will show growth on 2023. Gotcha.

Thanks. Okay. Then on the Utheory e-commerce partnership, does that change your four to six year organic growth targets for the segment given the changes to revenue recognition?

No, I think it's just lapping in this year and last year that are slightly affected. But once we're fully on the new pricing program, growth should be back on pace with our long term target of 10 to 20%.

I would just add to that. The one thing I would say, Zach, is consumption through that channel is going to be much higher than the revenue growth as we lag through this. So we're monitoring, obviously, the revenue growth on the business. But what matters right now to us is the POS growth and the consumption growth year over year under the two different models. That's the number that would be apples to apples for us that we're monitoring very closely.

Makes sense. Thanks. And maybe I'll just throw in one more. With the NIH funding block, any potential knock-on impact expected there, maybe on the GLP-1-related research?

Sorry, what was the beginning of the question?

Related to the NIH funding block in the U.S.

Sorry, Zach, I'm not following the question, but there is nothing in the regulatory world in the U.S. right now that we have seen or heard of that would have any impact on our business. I do know that we've been in contact and talking to some of our customers about our products and the favorable kind of geopolitical world that they sit in in the U.S. right now. And we have ensured that all of our formulas are high quality and meeting all regulatory standards in the U.S. And in most cases, we exceed any of those standards. So we feel pretty good about our business from that perspective.

Perfectly clear. Thanks. I'll turn it over. Thank you.

As a reminder, if you have a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Your next question comes from the line of Justin Keywood from Stifel. Your line is now open.

Hi, thanks for taking my questions. Maybe just to follow up on the tariffs, is there any sales from the U.S. to China? And then also is, or maybe this answers it as well, is Utheory relatively contained in the U.S. or is there any cross-border product shifts there?

Most of the business for Utheory, like a vast majority of it, Justin, is sold in the U.S. We did run a very small test in 2024 in China. It remains very small. We're gathering those learnings and figuring out what to do with Utheory in China for the longer term. Nothing of any risk there at all. We do ship some product internationally, including to Canada. And there is no risk today based on any of the potential tariff announcements to date. We also have the flexibility of moving any of that product into our Canadian facilities if it became an issue. We make all of the same formats they make in the United States we make here in Canada. So we feel pretty insulated from that perspective and don't see any risk there.

Okay, thank you. And then on capital allocation, the cash flow improved pretty significantly in 2024. Cash from ops was up 100%. Leverage is looking pretty good right now, less than two times. What are some of the capital allocation priorities for 2025?

We're going to continue to invest in the business. That's our priority to drive organic growth. With the incremental cash, we will continue to return cash to our investors through dividends, and we will consider the NCIB when it is pertinent.

And M&A would not be part of that strategy?

Certainly, we're always kind of on the lookout for M&A. I think as we get closer to the end of fiscal 2025, that becomes more of a priority for the organization. But early 2025, while we're dealing with this With the trade issues between Canada and the U.S., I think we'll probably stand to that.

That's understandable. And just for working capital in 2025, any large differences to note that could be different from 2024?

Yeah, so 2024 included a pretty sizable reduction in our inventory. So we've guided 2025 working capital investment between $25 and $35 million. more reflecting top-line growth and the need to expand working capital to meet our consumer fill rates and our customer needs.

Okay. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you for your questions. This ends our Q&A session for today. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.