Emerge Commerce Ltd

XTSX:ECOM

Earnings Call Transcript

[Operator]

Good morning, and welcome to EMERGE Commerce Third Quarter 2024 Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Also note that this call is being recorded on November 28, 2024. Your hosts today are Ghassan Halazon, Founder and Chief Executive Officer; and Kyle Burt-Gerrans, Chief Financial Officer.

Before we begin, I am required to provide the following statements respecting forward-looking information, which is made on behalf of EMERGE and all of its representatives on this call. Certain statements made on this call will contain forward-looking information. These forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the use of words such as intend, believe, could, expect, estimate, forecast, may, and other words of similar meaning.

This forward-looking information is based on our opinions, estimates and assumptions in light of our experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments as well as other factors that we currently believe are appropriate and reasonable in the circumstances. Actual results could differ materially from the conclusion, forecast, expectations, belief or projections in the forward-looking information.

Certain material factors and assumptions were applied in drawing a conclusion or making a forecast or projection as reflected in the forward-looking information. We caution investors not to rely on the forward-looking information. Additional information about the material factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the conclusion forecast or projection in the forward-looking information and the material factors or assumptions that were applied in drawing a conclusion or making a forecast or projection as reflected in the forward-looking information are contained in the EMERGE's filings with Canadian provincial securities regulators. During today's call, all figures are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise stated.

And with that, I would like to turn the call over to Mr. Ghassan Halazon, Founder and CEO. Please go ahead, sir.

[Ghassan Halazon, executive]

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. We appreciate you taking the time to join our Q3 2024 results conference call. Joining me today is Kyle Burt-Gerrans, our CFO. This morning, I will first walk through EMERGE's Q3 results and share some insights on our business as well as our key priorities heading into 2025. Following my remarks, Kyle will provide further details on our financial results.

Q3 is our third quarter of reporting based on our streamlined go-forward business, which mainly includes truLOCAL and our Golf vertical, following the sale of multiple noncore businesses, primarily to pay down debt during most of 2023 and early 2024. First, despite Q3 historically being our most seasonal quarter of the year, we are pleased to report that gross merchandise sales, or GMS, for short, which captures the actual sales volume being transacted across our sites, accelerated to 10% organic growth year-over-year, our highest growth rate all year.

In dollar terms, GMS grew to $7.4 million in Q3 2024 versus $6.8 million in Q3 2023. We view GMS as a figure -- a key figure that informs investors on our ability to grow overall customer spend on our platform and grow market share over time. In certain instances, GMS also reflects deferred revenue to be booked in future quarters as revenue once redemptions occur.

Second, revenue. We recorded revenue of $4.6 million in Q3 2024 compared to $4.4 million in Q3 '23, an increase of 5%. Excluding Carnivore Club, our smallest brand and a business that is actively eliminating loss-making revenue to optimize profitability, EMERGE's revenue grew approximately 8%. This marks our second consecutive quarter of positive organic revenue growth, setting us on a path to deliver on our return to growth plan we laid out earlier in the year.

Now that we have reported on 3 quarters in 2024 with the go-forward business of Grocery and Golf verticals only, investors can extrapolate a directional annual revenue run rate baseline for the business, which is based on the past 3 quarters is around $20 million in yearly revenue, noting the seasonal nature of our businesses at different times of the year. Beyond top line growth, the team's efforts in Q3 also translated into meaningful year-over-year gains across gross profit, gross margin, adjusted EBITDA and net income.

Much like in Q1 and Q2, we drove more gross profit in dollar terms as well as a higher gross margin. Gross profit increased by more than 6% to $1.8 million versus $1.7 million in Q3 '23. Q3 gross margin improved to 39.3% compared to 38.9% in Q3 '23. These gross margin improvements reflect a series of initiatives across our businesses, including price increases, renegotiated vendor costs, improved pricing and increased service fees among other items.

We also saw another large improvement in adjusted EBITDA, which came in at negative $280,000 in Q3 versus negative $560,000 in the prior period, approximately half of the EBITDA loss. We can attribute this large improvement to a combination of the aforementioned revenue growth, gross margin enhancements as well as reduced expenses. With respect to overheads, we continue to make measurable progress on reducing SG&A expenses given our more streamlined operations that are now almost exclusively centered around truLOCAL and the Golf business.

In Q3 and early Q4, EMERGE actioned certain cost reductions that amount to approximately $500,000 annually. These savings will partially be reflected in Q4 and fully be reflected in Q1 2025 onwards. Management expects these savings should have a significant impact on our go-forward profitability. Put simply, our more focused strategy requires considerably less HQ staffing and all-around expenses.

The EMERGE 2.0, a centralized strategy we shifted to earlier this year, whereby EMERGE management directly operates and optimizes a more focused set of brands rather than overseas middle management on a decentralized basis across the wider range of verticals is continuing to yield encouraging results as demonstrated by our top line acceleration and improved bottom line year-to-date.

Next up, I would provide some commentary at the brand level. As a reminder, EMERGE currently owns 4 brands across 2 main verticals: Grocery and Golf in Canada and the U.S., namely truLOCAL, Carnivore Club, UnderPar and JustGolfStuff. truLOCAL, our meat subscription service and EMERGE's largest business by revenue, saw strong organic growth again in Q3 and is off to an excellent start in Q4. Management believes truLOCAL represents an outsized strategic opportunity for the company with a large total addressable market. We view it as an anchor asset that we can build around in the food tech space at large where we have big ambitions. We take inspiration from Butcher Box, the $500 million revenue market leader in the U.S. and believe the truLOCAL opportunity is one worth doubling down on.

The business continues to see favorable active customer behavior, including increased average order value, coupled with reduced overhead expenses. truLOCAL's future growth is expected to come from a mix of consumer subscription revenue growth, B2B initiatives and partnerships, geographical expansion and acquisition opportunities down the line. Our Golf vertical, which includes UnderPar and JustGolfStuff, is much improved year-to-date. The Golf business has gained from the weakening macro climate, which has resulted in more golf courses and products returning to the marketplace platform. In some cases, for the first time in years, offering more aggressive deals to see customers. Credit cards and travel partnerships have also contributed to this year's strong growth, including in Q3, including from AmEx and Travelzoo.

Carnivore Club is EMERGE's smallest business by revenue and is being optimized for profitability, as mentioned, which includes active elimination of loss-making revenue. EMERGE's Q3 2024 revenue is up approximately 8% year-over-year once Carnivore Club revenue is excluded. All in all, we are pleased to deliver continued progress from top line to bottom line once again in Q3, and notably our second consecutive quarter of reigniting positive organic growth with accelerated top line growth. The team is hard at work to ensure we build up this streak. To sum up, focus has proven to be a wonderful thing, our more streamlined strategy and direct oversight of our brand is starting to pay dividends, and we're excited to build on this momentum.

Now for an update on the debt side. Following the sale of WSP to Tiny, earlier in Q1 and subsequent $10 million debt paydown, our senior debt facility was brought down to $5.85 million from $15.85 million prior to the transaction and $25 million originally. Alongside the transaction, we entered into an amendment facility with our existing lender, offering us up to 24-month term, inclusive of a 6-month extension term, which would bring the maturity to January 31, 2026. We remain in good standing with our lender, which we have worked with since November 2019.

In addition, the recent interest rate cuts as well as the highly anticipated upcoming rate reductions are expected to result in meaningful cash savings for the business given our variable rate under the facility. We believe that our improving operational results, coupled with reduced overall debt levels and the more favorable interest rate climate, could lead to the possibility of securing cheaper alternative refinancing options in 2025, further driving savings and improving cash flow. Currently, EMERGE's net debt position after subtracting approximate cash on hand is now approaching $5.5 million, down from $27.8 million combined originally.

The company's top priorities in the near term are to continue to drive organic growth, extract further operational efficiencies to drive profitability and opportunistically explore avenues to enhance cash flow and reduce interest expense.

Finally, I would like to offer a sincere gratitude to our resilient and determined team, Board, shareholders and trusted partners as we deliver another growth quarter and look to build on this momentum in the final quarter of the year and position the business for continued growth in 2025 and beyond.

I will now turn the call over to Kyle for a review of our financial results.

[Kyle Burt-Gerrans, executive]

Thanks, Ghassan. Good morning, everyone. For our third quarter results, as a reminder, WholesalePet results have been reflected as discontinued operations in our financial statements with prior periods reclassified to account for this where noted. Our gross merchandise sales, or GMS, for the quarter was $7.4 million, an increase of 10% compared to the prior year at $6.8 million. As a reminder, GMS is a non-GAAP measure and represents the total dollar value of customer purchases of goods and services through our brands, excluding applicable taxes and net of discounts and refunds. GMS is also a leading indicator of future deferred revenue in certain instances where revenue is recognized at time of shipment or redemption, which may occur in future quarters.

Q3 revenue from continuing operations was $4.6 million versus $4.4 million in Q3 2023. Carnivore Club, EMERGE's smallest business continues to be optimized for profitability, which includes the elimination of loss-making revenue. Excluding Carnivore Club, EMERGE's Q3 2024 revenue increased by approximately 8%. Gross profit for the quarter increased to $1.8 million versus $1.7 million in the prior year. Gross margins also increased to 39.3% from 38.9% as we continue to review and execute on a variety of initiatives and maintaining our increase in gross margins.

Adjusted EBITDA losses were $281,000 compared to a loss of $568,000 in 2023. This decrease is attributable to a combination of revenue growth year-over-year, stronger gross margin performance as previously noted, coupled with reductions to SG&A through efficiencies realized during the quarter and the continued focus on improving profitability. The net loss from continuing operations for Q3 was $0.7 million compared to $0.8 million for the same period in the prior year. The decrease in net loss this year over last year is mainly due to lower amortization and depreciation and lower finance costs. The company's cash on hand at September 30, 2024, was $1.6 million.

I will now pass it back to Ghassan for some closing comments.

[Ghassan Halazon, executive]

Thanks, Kyle. In closing, Q3 was another strong quarter for EMERGE. Our top line growth accelerated to 10%, our highest all year. We achieved a second consecutive quarter of organic revenue growth, and we drove visible improvements across the P&L, including improved EBITDA. This is the second full quarter under the EMERGE 2.0 playbook. Management's near full-time focus on directly managing and operating truLOCAL and our Golf business has resulted in multiple unlocks again.

As we recapped earlier in the year, our #1 priority has now shifted from debt reduction last year to driving excellent operational results and ultimately delivering on a return to positive organic growth year for the business overall in 2024, along with much improved profitability. The additional $500,000 in savings already actioned in Q3 and early Q4 should have a meaningful positive effect on our Q4 results and our 2025 overall profitability. We believe that combining our reignited organic revenue growth with much improved profitability is the right mix to ultimately offer us new optionality to reignite our business to new heights, both organically and inorganically. We hope investors are satisfied with the results we have delivered in Q3 here and the continued progress we have demonstrated year-to-date.

Thank you very much, everyone, for joining us today and for your continued interest in EMERGE Commerce. We look forward to reporting on our progress in Q4, historically, our most exhilarating quarter of the year. And don't forget to check out our sites for special offers this holiday season, starting with Black Friday tomorrow. Have a nice day. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, this does indeed conclude your conference call for today. Once again, thank you for attending. And at this time, we do ask that you please disconnect your lines.