Jess Jankowski, President & CEO
Thank you, Lisa.
Good morning to all of those listening live, and welcome to those who choose to listen later online. We’re glad you could join us for our fourth quarter and full year 2022 investor call. Today’s discussion will cover current results, the current state of the business, and some of our plans for 2023. Kevin Cureton, our Chief Operating Officer, will be joining me on the call today.
I’m going to start this call a little differently than I have in the past. After my initial remarks, we’ll do a much deeper dive into our financials.
The good news is that we continue to see volume growth within our Solésence portfolio, we continue to add new customers, and we continue to innovate. You may have seen our recent Fast Company award where we were recognized as one of the Most Innovative Companies in Beauty of 2023. We won the Number 2 spot on the list for our innovations in inclusive, SPF-infused beauty, that protects all skin tones from sun damage. This is the most recent award we’ve received relating to our Solésence products, which came atop two other major awards within the beauty industry in 2022.
As a Company, we have found the sweet spot in a key and growing market, with products where our core technologies and knowledge represent a commercial advantage. And, we’ve been able to successfully bring this to bear, evidenced by the rapid and broad growth we’ve seen with Solésence.
Today, we want to bring you up to speed on what our results mean for the future, and why we’re so optimistic.
I’ve said in the past, maybe ad nauseum to some of you, that the hardest thing about a startup, and getting new technology into the market, is in developing products that markets want. We’re there. We can sell everything we can make, more than we can make, and we’ve been able to accomplish this growth, on a shoestring. The nature of our financing over the past years has been a blessing and a curse. We grew faster, using fewer resources, than most people thought was possible. With Solésence, we went from less than $2M in sales in 2019 to more than $23M in sales in 2022. We added $21M in new revenue, through new customers, in new markets, in three years.
We’ve been entrepreneurial in leveraging knowledge, willpower, working capital, and grit to get where we are. The downside of all of this has been that a forty-to-fifty-million-dollar company requires a much higher degree of administration, and proceduralization, than we were built for entering 2022.
Clearly, we had results in the 2nd half of the year that were disappointing. Some of the notable expense-side issues we’re contending with have been one-time events, and some relating directly to our planned infrastructure expansion, which weighed us down financially, as we work to improve on our operational execution. I want it to be clear, we are not going to grow the Company further at the expense of being profitable. We’re in a temporary situation that we are confident we can fix.
Let’s go to some specifics:
Unless identified otherwise, all numbers will be stated in approximate terms.
Our Q42022 revenue was $8.3M, versus $7.4M for the same period last year, up 12%. Full-year 2022 revenue was up 27%, at $37.3M, compared with then-record revenue of $29.5M for the previous year.
For the fourth quarter of 2022, we had a net loss of almost $2M, or $0.04/share. This was up $1.5M, or $0.03 per share, compared to Q42021. This has had a material impact on our annual results.
For the full year 2022, we had a net loss of $2.6M, or $0.05/share. The story of this drastic change merits more discussion before I move on.
I’ll address it in two parts:
- In terms of gross profit impact, which is where we’ve struggled the most, and where our efforts to improve execution are focused; and
- In operating expenses, where we also invested in infrastructure, but saw some one-time events that had an outsized impact.
For gross profit, Q4 is typically a weaker quarter in our business, and isn’t representative of the full year. I’m just going to highlight the year-over-year numbers. For all of 2022, we have operated three production facilities, all in Illinois, one in Burr Ridge, one in Romeoville, and our newest and largest facility in Bolingbrook. All-in, this represents approximately 320,000 s.f. of space, the largest being the 260,000 s.f. facility in Bolingbrook.
While, to reduce the near-term burden, we are subletting about a third of the Bolingbrook space, our schedule for upfitting the building was some months behind, and we were only able to begin moving production in Q4 of 2022. We were able to run some of our production there late in 2022, and finished the transfer of all of our Solésence filling and assembly late in Q1 of 2023.
As a result of all of these factors, this space has had several impacts on our costs, mainly our costs of goods. Our facilities costs are up $1.1M YOY, almost all of which is charged to manufacturing. This accounted for about a 3% reduction in 2022 gross margin. Another critical factor was Direct labor, or “DL,” the labor it takes to make the product, which was significantly higher than we expected it to be in 2022. Our product revenue was up 25% last year, but our direct labor was up over 40%. This trend was in the opposite direction of what we expected, given more automation and higher production volumes, both of which should have increased our labor efficiency. As a % of sales, Direct labor expanded 2% YOY.
A good number of these inefficiencies related to our facility issues as well. As timing stretched out on our move, the gains we expected to achieve through a more linear and less-compressed filling and assembly layout, obviously didn’t come to fruition in 2022. We had additional labor costs relating to this move, as we had to maintain multiple lines in two different facilities, while we pushed to get Bolingbrook up-and-running. We accomplished all of this, while we continued to produce at record levels. Lastly, the timing of the move, and getting the building ready for production, has delayed our ability to get a much higher degree of automation in place. Most of this automation has already been paid for, with the bulk of the installation beginning in Q1 of 2023.
All of these factors caused our expected direct labor numbers per dollar of sales to balloon YOY. The combination of the extra time it took us to move, along with the related postponement of the planned gains from a new layout, and the resulting delay in adding automation, contributed to this large margin hit. Had we operated at 2021 labor efficiencies, which none of us were proud of, we would’ve seen another 2% pickup in gross profit last year. We expect to see a significant reduction in labor cost per dollar of sales in 2023, with more of this happening in the 2nd and 3rd quarter than in the 1st. Total 2023 direct labor should come in closer to 2021 direct labor, than that of last year, which could lead to another 5-6% of improvement in gross profit margin.
We made investments in 2022 that are going to bear fruit, not just in supporting more growth, but also in pulling costs out of existing production. Our supply chain team has been expanded, and reorganized. Our warehouse is operating well, and we are continuing to improve upon that, which leads to greater throughput, as well as reductions in cost. This has helped us put our inventory issues behind us, having remediated our material control weakness during 2022.
Another benefit we expect to see in 2023 gross profit, beginning in Q1, has been a series of price increases we were able to implement, generally effective in Q1, to offset increases in materials costs and labor costs we saw in 2022. Kevin will cover this more during his comments. We were forced to be much more reactive, than proactive, in our pricing during 2022, as we have been in many areas. This was due to prioritizing growth, which we believe is critical in these types of quickly growing markets, over beefing up our lean overhead model.
In terms of the expansion of our operating expenses, we need to separate investment from some of the singular costs we were hit with in 2022. We had two unfortunate events happen in Q3 and Q4 of 2022, the bulk of which hit Q4. We were the victim of cyber theft, which resulted in a loss of $660K, and we recognized ~$440K in legal fees, relating to our ongoing litigation with BASF, which they initiated in Q3 of 2022.
2022 also saw a few other things that aren’t indicative of ongoing operations:
- A YOY increase in non-cash expense of ~ $460K for stock compensation, relating to the accounting treatment for stock options, which were granted in December of 2021 at a modern high in stock price;
- We also recognized $180K in accrued G&A consulting expense. This related to our application for an Employee Retention Credit under the CARES Act. If we do not receive this credit from the U.S. Treasury, the expense will be reversed and no cash will have changed hands, and, finally;
- We recognized ~$300K in Bad Debt Expense which, between aggressive changes in our credit policies, along with additional resources to follow up on late payments, we expect to drop significantly going forward.
Taken together, these items made up over $2M, almost 80% of our loss for 2022. So, most of these expenses are things that we don’t expect to be structural or ongoing, but We do know there will be more legal fees due to our litigation with BASF.
Regarding stock compensation expense, it’s a non-cash expense that is directly related to the price of our stock.
Looking at the areas in Operating Expenses, at the more structural changes we made to the Business, let’s start with R&D. R&D expenses, which, in our Company, include Engineering, were up $800K YOY. About 40% of this related to adding a few more engineers to support the plant expansion, equipment installation, and throughput optimization.
The engineering increases are directly related to improving both production costs and throughput in the near-term. They will pay for themselves this year, and help us to support future growth more efficiently, avoiding some of the snarls of 2022.
The balance of the increase was in more traditional R&D, and was split in two roughly equal parts:
- We rounded out staffing in our R&D group to support the growing new product development and commercialization process. This includes the collaborative work required to coordinate this complex process, with their counterparts at the brands we work with. This is becoming a strength of our Company. When added to our strong formulation team, along with our long history making these regulated products, we are viewed as an excellent partner. This is true both for up-and-coming brands, as well as brands that are adding sun care to their offerings and haven’t the internal experience to approach a heavily regulated market on their own. This is something that will help us to ship more products to meet our strong demand. On the product development side, we will also be able to continue to innovate and update our products to keep us competitive in a marketplace that requires innovation for there to be growth.
- And, second, the other piece of the increase in R&D expenses represents something Kevin and I are very focused on: our continued investment in intellectual property. This spending is relating to legal fees for new patent applications, shepherding those applications through various patent offices in the U.S. and internationally, and maintaining all of our patents. Nothing is more important to our brand partners than bringing safe, effective, and innovative technology to the market through Solésence.
Let’s discuss a key example of the doors our technology can open. In early 2023, we received a Notice of Allowance by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, for our Kleair™ technology, which is part of the Active Stress Defense™ technology platform, offered exclusively through Solésence. The Notice of Allowance covers Kleair™ with a series of claims that are highly sought after in skin health and cosmetics applications.
They are:
- For use as a method of protecting skin from light damage, this is in our traditional wheelhouse;
- Another claim is in using Kleair™, as a method of suppressing lipid peroxidation, which I know is a mouthful. Think of it as a way to reduce the formation of free radicals, and the damage they can do to the human body, internally, and externally;
- Another is as a method of preventing or reducing lines and wrinkles on skin;
- Also as a method of preventing loss of skin elasticity;
- As a method of preventing thinning of the skin; and, lastly,
- The use of our Kleair™ technology as a method of protecting antioxidants in formulations
This technology represents a broad group of features that are marketable in a series of skin health and cosmetics applications. It’ll also provide the Company with substantial added intellectual property protection, in the health-infused beauty products space in the United States.
This patent further builds upon the Company’s existing IP in skin health, including our Original Active Stress Defense™ Technology patent, which was issued in March, 2020.
In addition, as we continue to drive innovation in skin health for all on a global scale, we have received additional allowances for a plant-based UV absorber technology in Australia – an area with the highest incidence of skin cancer on a per capita basis, along with some in Israel. We expect to be greeted with similar success as we roll this out to other countries as well.
Like minerals-based technology, plant-based technology represents our leadership in innovating marketable, next-generation technologies, that benefit the health of end-consumers.
The investment in intellectual property is ongoing. It has to be. We are actively protecting our existing products, which also means protecting our brand partners, and our position in the marketplace. We are also continuing to develop and protect new technology. Much of this has not yet been introduced to any of our markets, but we expect it to be part of our next generation of product offerings.
Moving to SG&A Expenses, these were up $3.5M, to $7.5M for 2022. Of this increase, $1.3M, or almost 36%, related to the cyber theft, stock comp expense, and accrued consulting fees. These were some of the expected non-recurring costs mentioned earlier.
Also as mentioned, we saw $440K in legal fees relating to our ongoing litigation with BASF in 2022. This will be an ongoing expense in 2023 as we work our way through the process. We feel that our case is a good one, but we will also pursue a negotiated settlement, with the goal of resolving this issue as quickly as is practical and beneficial to our Company.
As I also mentioned, we recognized about $300K in Bad Debt Expense which, with the additional resources we’ve added to our sales and customer experience team, we expect to control much better going forward.
These items make up more than half of the YOY increase in SG&A. The balance of the increase is made up of staffing increases, making up about 20% of the total, then trade shows, exhibitions and marketing, software costs, and a spike in our business insurance related to our growth.
It’s worth mentioning that the growth in Solésence hasn’t only been in dollar volume, but our unit volume, from incoming inventory through sales, has expanded exponentially. We went from having 10 SKUs, or product codes, to having and managing hundreds of them in a few years. We also went from having thousands of items in inventory to millions of items. Our transaction volume throughout the Company is a multiple of what it was a few years ago. Of course, with this comes complexity, and the managerial challenges related to it.
Companywide, as we worked to absorb all of the additional production volume, the new building, and the learning curves of a series of new people, frequently in newly established roles, there was too much happening, managed by too few people, and not enough germane experience in place entering 2022 to keep it all balanced efficiently. We added some critical senior leadership in Sales, Marketing and Business Development, as well as in the Accounting & Finance function. We also strengthened our customer experience team to help deal with the big increases in unit volume, in total customers, new products, and new product launches.
All of these things, whether in Supply Chain, Engineering, R&D, or SG&A, amount not only to an investment in our future, but also to allowing us to better control expenses and increase throughput.
We also spent about $2.8M on capital equipment in 2022, following $1.9M in purchases during 2021. This investment represents much of the spending required to support the automation, that we expect to profit from in 2023.
Now I’d like to introduce Kevin Cureton, our Chief Operating Officer, to discuss progress in these strategic areas, and their drivers, in greater detail. Kevin?
Kevin Cureton, Chief Operating Officer
- We leased a new 260,000 sf. building. It will allow us to consolidate a series of operations, to enhance our throughput, and our cost efficiency. While the timetable to get this up-and-running has stretched out, all of our warehousing and all of our filling and assembly is now in that building. We will enhance these operations this year, and consolidate other operations further.
- We also closed on new financing to support our growing working capital demands, providing $6M more in available capital.
- During early 2022, we filled two newly-created leadership roles on our commercial team, added our Controller and a new Supply Chain leader in Q3, and added key support staff across our manufacturing, supply chain, and customer service teams, and, we continued to develop new technology, with our powerhouse Kleair™ patent being among the latest, but not the last, of our impressive technology offerings.