Oil-Dri Corp of America (ODC) Q3 2021 Earnings Call Transcript

Oil-Dri Corp of America (ODC -1.64%)
Q3 2021 Earnings Call
Jun 09, 2021, 10:00 a.m. ET

Contents:

• Prepared Remarks
• Questions and Answers
• Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Oil-Dri Corporation of America third-quarter 2021 investor conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speakers' presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session.

[Operator instructions] Please be advised that today's conference may be rerecorded. [Operator instructions] I would like to hand the conference over to one of your speakers today, president and chief executive officer, Dan Jaffee. Please go ahead. 

Dan Jaffee -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you. Welcome, everyone, to the third quarter and nine-month investor teleconference. Joining me remotely, again, this will probably be our last remote one, we'll see, hopefully, our last one, is Susan Kreh, our chief financial officer; Molly VandenHeuvel, our chief operating officer; Jessica Moskowitz, vice president and general manager of the consumer products division; Fred Kao, our vice president of global sales for Amlan International; Laura Scheland, general counsel; and Leslie Garber, our manager of investor relations. And, Leslie, if you would walk us through our safe harbor, please.

Leslie Garber -- Investor Relations Manager

Thank you, Dan, and welcome, everyone. On today's call, comments may contain forward-looking statements regarding the company's performance in future periods. Actual results in those periods may materially differ. In our press release and in our SEC filings, we highlight a number of important risk factors, trends, and uncertainties that may affect our future performance.

We ask that you review and consider those factors in evaluating the company's comments and in evaluating any investment in Oil-Dri stock. Thank you for joining us. And now I'll turn the call back to Dan.

Dan Jaffee -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Great. And before I turn it over to Susan for a detailed review of the quarter and nine months, I just want to say we are painfully aware that we are our numbers, and we have lessons learned at Oil-Dri, and one of them is just because you can explain something doesn't make it acceptable. And we certainly can explain what's going on with the margin pressure and really rampant cost increases in my career as president, which started in 1995, I haven't seen this since Hurricane Katrina back in August of 2005 when natural gas went through the roof. So I think we're seeing it everywhere.

Supply chains are being squeezed. Materials are being -- demand is exceeding supply, i.e., prices are going up. And so we are obviously working very hard to get increases to offset these. But, you know, fell woefully short in the quarter.

And that's why you saw the top line look fine, but gross profit and bottom line are not fine. So, Susan, I will turn it over to you. 

Susan Kreh -- Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, Dan. Well, let me jump right in. For the third quarter of fiscal year 2021, Oil-Dri delivered net sales of 76.3 million, which was on par with our record third quarter in fiscal 2020. My three key themes for this morning's discussion are continued net sales growth; significant challenges in the forms of increasing market-based costs, which Dan just referenced; and the timing of price increases that will help offset the financial pressures of these costs.

Staying with net sales, I would remind you that our third quarter compares to a unique third quarter in the prior year, where we experienced very high sales in our cat litter products that were driven by consumer-pantry loading as the pandemic began to close down many businesses, schools, ball fields, etc. And consumers stocked up on cat litter, toilet paper, and other essential goods in anticipation of potential supply chain disruptions. On the positive side, during the quarter, our industrial and sports businesses began to rebound from the pandemic as businesses in ball fields that had been shut down as a result of the pandemic began reopening. In addition, we experienced steady growth of our agricultural and our animal health products.

The third-quarter net sales in our business-to-business products group decreased 1% from the prior year to 26.3 million. The higher demand of agricultural and animal health products that I mentioned earlier was offset by decreases in co-packaging, of course, cat litter, a result of the prior year's pantry loading, as well as decrease in bleaching clay sales. Agricultural product revenues rose 7% in the third quarter compared to the last year, primarily resulting from increased sales to our existing customers. Sales of animal feed additives increased 3% in the quarter versus the prior year, driven by higher demand within Asia and Latin America that was partially offset by lower revenues in China.

This decreased demand within China was really primarily due to the shift in timing of the Chinese New Year when many businesses temporarily shut down in observance of the holiday. That occurred during the second quarter in fiscal year 2020, but in the third quarter of fiscal year 2021, making the quarter comparison a little bit differ. Third-quarter sales of our bleaching clay and fluids purification products declined by 3% from the prior year due to the timing of orders, improved crop conditions that require less material for purification, and the negative impact for the pandemic as many edible oil manufacturing plants have delayed plant tests or have unused product on-hand due to lower production. The pandemic has also negatively affected our sales of our Ultra-Clear products, which are used for jet fuel processing.

Now switching to our retail and wholesale products group. Third-quarter net sales reached a record of 50 million, a 1% increase over the strong quarter in the prior year. A 20% increase in our sales from our industrial and sports products drove much of this growth as commercial businesses are recovering since the pandemic and many sports fields have reopened. Although we continue to experience the positive impact of increased pet adoption resulting from COVID-19 and the overall macro trend of higher spending on pet, net sales of cat litter decreased in the third quarter compared to the prior year, which, as I mentioned earlier, benefited from the unprecedented pantry loading during the early stages of pandemic.

Now switching to costs. Our third-quarter gross profit of 16.5 million was approximately 4.9 million lower than the third quarter of fiscal 2020. This decline can be attributed to a 14% increase in cost of goods sold per manufactured tons driven by higher freight, packaging, materials, natural gas, and nonfuel manufacturing costs. Domestic trucking supply constraints and elevated fuel costs resulted in a 28% increase in freight costs for manufactured tons compared to the same period last year.

A 19% increase in packaging costs for manufactured tons due to higher resin prices also contributed to the reduction in margin. Natural gas and material costs for manufactured tons increased by 11% and 9% respectively in the third quarter over the prior year. Dan mentioned, we certainly did experience some market-based increases in costs, and to offset these significant cost increases, the general managers of our businesses have been implementing and continue to evaluate price increases, many of which are effective as of May 1, which will result in us seeing the impact during our fiscal fourth quarter. Further, some of those price increases required 90-days notice to our customers and costs continued to rise since those increases were set.

Therefore, we continue to evaluate the needs for further price increases, particularly in our consumer business that is significantly impacted by increases in freight and resin-based packaging costs. Shifting to total selling, general, and administrative expenses for the third quarter. They were approximately 1.1 million lower than the prior year, representing a 7% in decrease. Increased advertising and marketing expenditures were offset by reduced travel, reduced bad debt expense, and a lower estimated annual incentive bonus for fiscal year 2021 compared to fiscal year 2020.

Our effective tax rate in the quarter is worthy of mention. During the third quarter, it was a negative 1%, compared to 17% in the same period in the prior year. This reduction reflects not only a decrease in our expected annual taxable income as we have a better line of sight to the impact of cost increases versus price increase on our fiscal year ending July 31, 2021. It also includes certain employment-related tax credits of which we were able to take advantage during the quarter.

In addition, we were able to claim a new tax deduction for foreign-derived income, which further reduced the effective tax rate for the third quarter. Net income attributable to Oil-Dri was 2.2 million in the third quarter, compared to 4.6 million during the third quarter of fiscal 2020, resulting from the impact primarily of the increased costs we discussed earlier. And for the same reasons, our earnings per diluted common share of $0.32, compares to $0.65 in the third quarter of the prior year. All that said, our financial position remains strong as is reflected in our balance sheet.

We ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of 30 million and have very little debt, equating to a debt of total capital ratio of about 6%. One of the primary uses of our cash flow is to fund our trade working capital. Taking a year-to-date perspective here, during the first nine months of fiscal 2021, our accounts receivable increased 3.9 million, reflecting our sales growth, as well as a shift in our customer mix, which includes an increase of sales to foreign customers who tend to have longer term. Our income taxes shifted from a 2.6 million payable balance included in accounts payable as of July 31, 2020, to a prepaid balance of 2.3 million as of April 30, 2021, representing a use of cash of 4.9 million during the first nine months of fiscal 2021.

The decrease in accrued expenses of 4.1 million for the nine months ending April 30 was primarily driven by a reduction in the incentive bonus accrual. During the year, we used our cash in line with our plan to fund capital investments in our business, including those required for growth and those required to drive cost reductions in addition to normal repair and replacement capital. We also used cash to opportunistically repurchase stock to help offset dilution that occurs as shares of our restricted stock less. Year to date, we have repurchased approximately 82,000 shares of our common stock for $2.9 million.

In conclusion, Oil-Dri remains in a strong financial position with low leverage and is well-positioned to capitalize on the strategic investment opportunities that may become available. And with that, Dan, I'll turn it back over to you.

Dan Jaffee -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Susan. Thank you for the recap. And at this time, I would like to open up the Q&A so we can cover the issues that are most important to our investors. As always, I ask you to prioritize your questions as your most important question first and then go to the end of the queue, which will allow everybody a chance to at least ask one important question.

So let's open up the Q&A line.

Questions & Answers:

Operator

Thank you. [Operator instructions] And it looks like our first question is going to come from the line of Ethan Star. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Unknown speaker

Good morning. Please discuss the progress you are making with Amlan in terms of sales and sales-related metrics and what will it take to significantly increase Amlan revenue. The product sounds so good. I don't know why you weren't selling more of them. 

Dan Jaffee -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Jack, Fred? I mean, you know, we're not getting into too many specifics like the specific customers and things like that, but we do have a lot of really positive momentum. I guess before I turn it over to Fred, I will tell you, you know, the biggest change we've had since I took over the division November 1 is we've added, I don't know, six to eight people globally who are just world-class poultry experts, whether it's on the sales side or the tech service side. And so we've really built this, what I call, a dream team. But it obviously takes time to turn that dream team into production.

We've got a lot of great opportunities out there, but I'll turn it over to Fred. But on that side, you know, that's still to come. But I couldn't be more happy with the team we've assembled and the progress they've made to date.

Fred Kao -- Vice President of Global Sales for Amlan International

Thanks, Dan. I'm just going to piggyback on what you were saying, right? So we have added quite a lot of people in the poultry industry. At the same time, we've added experienced people in the feed additive industry as well. So I think right, Dan, like you said, you know, the -- it does take time to build every relationship that we have and form a different perspective, meaning either they were partners in the poultry, we want to make sure they are also partners with us on the additive side.

It takes time but we do have a lot of tremendous opportunities there. So we are currently working on that. We're not able to disclose but, I mean, I think, that's all we can talk about, right? But definitely, a lot of things are happening right now.

Dan Jaffee -- President and Chief Executive Officer

You know, I guess, Fred, a follow-on to what you've been saying is, OK, so you joined the company nine months ago?

Fred Kao -- Vice President of Global Sales for Amlan International

Right.

Dan Jaffee -- President and Chief Executive Officer

OK. And obviously, you joined because you saw -- you spent a lot of time researching our product line, and our data, and what we could do, and then that -- in juxtaposed against the market opportunity where the globe is going antibiotic-free. So nine months later, how do you feel? I mean, do you feel more confident, less confident, is the market opportunity weaker, stronger? What do you see today versus what made you join us nine months ago?

Fred Kao -- Vice President of Global Sales for Amlan International

OK. Got it. Understand. You know, I mean, there's just more and more confidence that we have.

And I think this has a lot to do with the fact that we are seeing more positive feedback from the customers with a different direction to push. We are focused on our mineral technology, right, which is something that, you know, we are focusing strongly on right now. And you know, I think the confidence there was not just me, that's high with all the customers or that distributors were dealing with. They're also showing the same confidence level.

However, it does take time because they do have to compare the products. They do have to know that the efficacy of the product works for them. We know it works. We've seen that it works in every way to bring into so far, but it does take a little bit of time for them to actually go through their process before that decision to be made.

But definitely, the confidence level is super high right now. 

Unknown speaker

Thank you.

Dan Jaffee -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Great. Yeah, yeah. And, Ethan, I would say, I'm more confident than ever in the team that Fred has assembled, and Wade, our new vice president in marketing, you know, they are just well-respected throughout the globe in this area. And so they brought instant credibility to Oil-Dri and to Amlan.

And so we are now getting phone calls and certain trials scheduled and traction, where in the past we were just one of many people that these customers had never heard of trying to hawk our wares. And now, it's a totally different ballgame. So it's going to take time. There's no doubt about it.

But we don't -- we're very, very confident about the future. Let's go to the next question.

Operator

Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Robert Smith. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Unknown speaker

So I just wanted a little more color from Fred. Fiscal 2022, what kind of a -- is this going to be the take-off year?

Fred Kao -- Vice President of Global Sales for Amlan International

Can I answer that, Dan?

Dan Jaffee -- President and Chief Executive Officer

I mean, you can answer generally. If you go too far, I'll hit your mute button.

Fred Kao -- Vice President of Global Sales for Amlan International

OK. Bob, you know, that's a very good question, right? So the way I look at it is, you know, if you look at swine business, it does take longer than the poultry cycle, right? And the way I'm saying cycle is in the poultry cycle, it took about probably two months of time chicken will be harvested. But in the swine business, you're going from the sows all the way to the piglet it takes more than a year. So for a decision to be made on key customers that we're focusing on right now, it really depends on which animal species we're talking about.

So for chickens, we're going to see lots of activities, you know, like we're seeing right now. And then I think, you know, it will definitely translate into some sort of business in '22. But in swine, I'm being honest about this, is that you know, it will definitely see something, but at the same time, it does take a longer cycle for that decision to be made.

Dan Jaffee -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah.

Fred Kao -- Vice President of Global Sales for Amlan International

I don't know if that --

Dan Jaffee -- President and Chief Executive Officer

But I guess, Bob -- yeah, no, that's -- 

Fred Kao -- Vice President of Global Sales for Amlan International

Sorry, go ahead.

Dan Jaffee -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Bob, I can answer your question somewhat this way, because, obviously, everything you're asking about and concerned about are the same thing the board and I are interested in, is we've invested heavily in building this team, and when are we going to start seeing some of the monetizations. I can tell you that, you know, we don't have a lot in the first six months of the fiscal '22 plan, nothing material of new. We've got some existing customers that we're actually growing with and they're giving us a lot of positive vibes, which is great. But the new customers that we started with trials and then actually turn it into sales, with repeat sales, it's really going to be in the back-half of the year.

So you're talking February and beyond is when you could hope to see a material impact from new business.

Unknown speaker

Thank you.

Dan Jaffee -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Yep. Next question. 

Unknown speaker

I'll be back in the queue.

Dan Jaffee -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Yep. Thank you. Good question.

Operator

Thank you. [Operator instructions] And we do have another question from the line of Ethan Star. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Unknown speaker

Yes. At the end of last quarter's call, you mentioned a study, a test with a big player and big country, where Amlan's products had a similar feed conversion ratio to the control, but a much better mortality rate. And I'm wondering if that test resulted in sales to this big player, and also whether Amlan's product outperforms many different competing products?

Dan Jaffee -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Fred, you want to --

Fred Kao -- Vice President of Global Sales for Amlan International

I can take that, Dan.

Dan Jaffee -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah.

Fred Kao -- Vice President of Global Sales for Amlan International

Yeah, so we definitely see steady growth from that particular country I mentioned to you, Ethan, back last quarter. Definitely, we're seeing that. At the same time, you know, we had a lot more field trials or customer studies that came back and it remains the same positiveness. Meaning that we outperformed the competitors or the control in the trails, right, we definitely see the same thing.

And it kind of comes back to my answer to you earlier, you know, for companies to make a decision like that, it takes more than a pen trial of small farm size. So we're seeing customers that go from a small pen trial to a couple of chicken houses to a whole farm. We have customers who are now that's doing for a whole six-month period as a way to doing the eco validation, right? So definitely, we're seeing the same trend that we have been seeing for the last months.

Unknown speaker

OK. Thank you.

Fred Kao -- Vice President of Global Sales for Amlan International

Thank you.

Dan Jaffee -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks, Ethan.

Operator

Thank you. And we do have a follow-up question from the line of Robert Smith. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Unknown speaker

So I'm wondering how much of the price increases -- what are we talking about as the magnitude of the price increases that you've put into place or expect to put into place? And how much of a recapture of what you've given up in margin will you be able to -- will be able to see in the fourth quarter?

Dan Jaffee -- President and Chief Executive Officer

So I'll take some of that, and then I'll probably turn it over to Jessica for a little more detail on the consumer side. The B2B is easy. You know, it seems to be a very rational market. And there, you don't necessarily have the 90-day clause in your customer service agreement, where you can't put in price increases.

So, we feel fully covered in B2B. So, you should see, you know, the margins right where they need to be historically in the fourth quarter. We feel very good about B2B. On the B2C side, as we mentioned in the release, we've got a couple of dynamics working against us.

The first was the 90-day lag where we had the ability to take price increases and, you know, we've been very transparent with, you know, where we have price, you know, or product leadership and where we're more of a follower. Clearly, on the scoopable branded side, you know, we have a three share, we are not the price leader. You know, you guys all know if you've been following this company or if have access to public data, the three largest players are Nestle Purina, you got Church & Dwight, and then you have Clorox that sells fresh stuff. And they're the branded leader.

And, you know, we are going to be fast followers, we're watching to see what they do, we've got to believe that they're experiencing the same price increase -- cost increase pressures we're seeing. And so, you know, we're -- our ears are to the ground, and we will move as fast as we can. But it's obvious as the, you know, the distance per player there that we're not -- we're not in the driver's seat on that side of the equation. So, that's where you did see in the -- in our either the K or the Q or wherever we put it that we do expect advertising expenses to be lower than they were a year ago and that some of this is going to have to come through cut.

It's not all going to come through price increases. We're going to have to do both. Jessica, I don't know if I stole all your thunder and you want to add anything, but that -- that's sort of what I want to do out there. 

Jessica Moskowitz -- Vice President and General Manager, Consumer Products Division

You -- yeah, you captured it. Thanks, Dan.

Dan Jaffee -- President and Chief Executive Officer

OK.

Operator

Thank you. [Operator instructions] Now we do have another question from the line of Ethan Star. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Unknown speaker

Yes. How are your e-commerce efforts for cat litter going? It looks like you have some good new talent working in the e-commerce area.

Dan Jaffee -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Jessica?

Jessica Moskowitz -- Vice President and General Manager, Consumer Products Division

Yeah, I can take this one. So, e-commerce has continued to be an area of focus for us. We have continued to upgrade our talent across the board and e-commerce is no different. You know, you probably see our presence on Amazon and CHUWI and other e-commerce retailers continue to grow.

So, you know, obviously, just looking for continued ways to continue to profitably grow and focus on this part of the business.

Unknown speaker

What about marketing to people who don't -- who buy it in the store? Online.

Jessica Moskowitz -- Vice President and General Manager, Consumer Products Division

What's your -- can you expound on your question?

Unknown speaker

What about marketing -- what are marketing online to people who buy in the store? Do you do any of that?

Jessica Moskowitz -- Vice President and General Manager, Consumer Products Division

Absolutely. I mean, mark, you know, our marketing efforts have been -- have evolved as have, you know, where our consumers' eyeballs are. So, you know, we know that consumers are looking digitally for, you know, digital marketing -- digital marketing has become an increase -- increasing percentage of our overall marketing budget. And that's just because we're, you know, in line with where consumers are.

So, you know, continue to evolve that as we see changes in consumer trends. But yes, has digital marketing efforts both at e-comm -- for e-commerce as well as for retail.

Unknown speaker

OK. Great. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. And we do have another question from the line of Robert Smith. Your line is open.

Unknown speaker

So, do you -- or doing that have price increases being first in the cat litter area?

Dan Jaffee -- President and Chief Executive Officer

We -- I mean, Jessica, I'll let you answer.

Jessica Moskowitz -- Vice President and General Manager, Consumer Products Division

We do have -- we have taken price increases in the cat litter area, yes.

Unknown speaker

OK. And then that -- I feel that that was a question that wasn't answered thoroughly my last go-round, but I -- I wanted to ask about the China swing. So, the -- you mentioned the China -- the difference in falling into different quarters. So, what kind of a swing are we talking about in the reporting period?

Dan Jaffee -- President and Chief Executive Officer

I'm not -- 

Fred Kao -- Vice President of Global Sales for Amlan International

I don't have it available in my head.

Unknown speaker

Approximately. Ballpark.

Dan Jaffee -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Half. I mean -- 

Fred Kao -- Vice President of Global Sales for Amlan International

I mean. OK. Yeah. I know.

So, regarding the overall average, right? So, for example, you look at Chinese New Year time, Bob, you know, what have -- what you see is, you know, usually you count every month on average if we have a back, say, X tons total sales in China. In the Chinese New Year, we went from X to maybe 40% -- 30% of that, by then makes sense just in the Chinese sales, right? I can -- I can read you the have number if this is not there, but I think you could look at the percentage why it's very different. And the recent is like two weeks off in China -- Chinese New Year. And this year, it falls right on February 9.

So, if you look at it, they start trialing a week before Chinese New Year to go home and then they take two weeks off the whole month of February month, right? So, pretty much that one week of business, which is the first week of February and actually the few -- first few days of February business in that month only. So, that's the reason why you see a swing to that month.

Unknown speaker

OK. So, the fourth quarter would be more robust?

Fred Kao -- Vice President of Global Sales for Amlan International

Yeah, definitely. That's what we're seeing already.

Unknown speaker

Thank you.

Dan Jaffee -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Great. I'm not sure --

Operator

Thank you.

Dan Jaffee -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Do we have time for one more question? Are we pretty much out of our time? One more?

Operator

We do have another question from the line of Ethan Star. Your line is open.

Dan Jaffee -- President and Chief Executive Officer

All right. Ethan, you'll be our final question.

Unknown speaker

Yeah. I really would like to emphasize that I think you should present at conferences again soon. I mean, I know you did three, I guess, was it last year, three or four in the last year or two. But, Dan, you know, you might try something different like Sidoti, which has microcap -- you know, virtual microcap conferences, and I would really encourage you to do that and try something different, even though you didn't get -- maybe didn't get the response you're hoping to from the other ones.

Dan Jaffee -- President and Chief Executive Officer

OK. Now, duly noted. Thank you. All right, well, listen.

Thank you, guys, and we're heading into the fourth quarter. I can't believe we're coming to an end of another fiscal year. I will tell you that, you know, relative to last year, you're going to start seeing SG&A bubble up going forward because if the world opens up, so does travel and entertainment expenses, T&E. We don't do a lot of entertaining, but we do shows.

And the trade shows are back on, they're back physical in -- for the most part. And so, you're going to start seeing some incremental SG&A, but obviously, that's all being spent to try and drive incremental sales and profits. So -- but year over year, SG&A is going to start going up just as we ramp up and the world opens back up. So, thank you, everybody.

Stay safe and we will talk to you again after our fiscal year-end is closed.

Operator

[Operator signoff]

Duration: 30 minutes

Call participants:

Dan Jaffee -- President and Chief Executive Officer

Leslie Garber -- Investor Relations Manager

Susan Kreh -- Chief Financial Officer

Unknown speaker

Fred Kao -- Vice President of Global Sales for Amlan International

Jessica Moskowitz -- Vice President and General Manager, Consumer Products Division

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