Earnings Call: Q2 2020

Jul 27, 2020

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by, and welcome to Calabar's Second Quarter twenty twenty Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session open to analysts only. Instructions will be provided at that time for you to queue up for questions. Before turning the meeting over to management, I would like to remind listeners that this conference call contains forward looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws and subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. I refer the audience to the forward looking statements as detailed in the presentation supporting this conference call and available on the company's website in Investors section under Events and Presentation at www.colavor.com. Furthermore, risks are discussed in the Q and A Phase five fifty two week periods ended December 2839 under the headings Risks. I would like to remind everyone that this conference call is being recorded today, 07/27/2020. I would like to now turn the conference over to Louis Frenet, President and CEO. Please go ahead, sir. Thank you, Joan. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Cadavers Group twenty twenty second quarter results conference call. This is Luis Renepe, President and Chief Executive Officer. On Friday afternoon, we released our earnings results for the twelve and twenty four week period ended 06/13/2020. The press release and disclosure document can be found on our website at www.sedar.com. I'm joined today by Pierre Garnier, our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. The last few months have been unprecedented in recent history, and I can express how proud I am of all our employees, who stood up the challenge and worked tirelessly to help us navigate through this crisis. We entered our second quarter '2 weeks after the Quebec government declared a state of emergency in the wake of rising COVID-nineteen cases. The hospitality industry had already been preparing for a virtual shutdown of their operations and only restaurants offering takeout and delivery services could remain in operation. We also saw our suppliers starting to experience shortages and many food of many food categories and essential goods. As essential provider of goods and services to the public, our mission was and still remain critical. We immediately implemented rigorous health and hygiene practices and social distancing measures, furloughed one third of our staff, relocated resources where possible and implemented liquidity preservation measures, which include applying for the Canadian Emergency Wage Subsidy Program and temporarily reducing the remuneration of our executive team and board member. Thankfully, the transformation initiative that we have started deploying during the last two weeks, such as the rightsizing of our operations, selling non core assets and various efficiency measures contributed to strengthening our balance sheet as we entered the pandemic. These measures, together with a tight control over expenses and working capital during the second quarter, help us successfully navigate this unprecedented storm. And as a result, during this period, with only twothree of our staff, we managed to keep our customers well stocked while navigating a constantly changing operational environment. The good news is that we surpassed our own revenue and EBITDA guidance and as we speak, have been able to calm back half of our furloughed employees. We hope to reintegrate our remaining employees gradually as conditions continue to improve. We also completed the sale of our Ontario Broadline distribution activities in the middle of the second quarter, and we are proud to have come to an agreement during these difficult times. This will allow us to concentrate even more on our core activities, further our transformation plan and improve our ability to raise our overall profitability. I would now like to quickly review our environment and operational performance during the second quarter. As we navigated the confinement period, the restaurants and hospitality industry came to a virtual halt with the mandatory closure of all in dining operations, only restaurants offering takeout and delivery services were able to remain open, resulting in aggregate operating capacity in the range of 20% to 25%. Thankfully, what was set apart from other folks' food service distributor is our diversified customer base and wide geographical reach within the province of Quebec. We serve a complete range of customers in what the industry refers as to the food away from home markets, specifically targeting the hotel, restaurants and institutional market. We serve this market either directly through our distribution activities or indirectly by selling to smaller distributor through the our wholesale business. This diversification allows us to minimize the effect of the pandemic on our consolidated sales, which were down by 47.2% and compare favorably to other distributors that primarily exposed to the restaurant industry. During the second quarter, our specialized distribution sales of fish, seafood and meat saw an important volume reduction from the end of a distribution contract and from a lower demand from fine dining establishment from the effect of COVID-nineteen. Anecdotally, the pandemic resulted in a shift towards more affordable cuts. Our broadline distribution activities performed well considering the context from a diversified hotel, restaurant and institutional customer base and region most of the region in Quebec that were less affected by COVID-nineteen. And lastly, our wholesale business fared relatively well during the pandemic with revenues that were down only by 24% from the contribution of a new customer from new customers in the retail and institutional market such as food banks and from a diversified end customer base being served by our distributor clients. Their end customers include smaller retailers, institutions and small convenience stores. Since June 15, restaurants in Quebec have been allowed to gradually reopen and are now and we are now helping many of our restaurant customer restart their dining operation and helping them implement the new sanitary guide. As we speak, 90% of our restaurant customers have started ordering again. Although this was a very difficult time for many of our customers, particularly independent restaurants, we have yet to witness significant closure of the bad debt. We are in a good position to serve our customers and help them reopen and adapt to this new reality. Our main priority still remains the health and safety of our employees, customers and the community. We are keeping all safeguards measures in place, remain focused on managing the effect of the pandemic on our business and pursuing the transformation of Calabar in this new context. With this, Pierre, I turn the call over to you for a review of our financial results. Thank you, Louis, and good morning, everyone. As Louis said in his opening remarks, because of our improving financial situation, entering the quarter, diversified customer base and our team's ability to adapt and innovate, we've exceeded our own guidance for the second quarter of twenty twenty. In the second quarter of twenty twenty, consolidated sales from continued activities were down 47.2% to $95,500,000 which was higher than our revenue guidance of $80,000,000 to $90,000,000 Sales in the distribution segment decreased by 56.4% to $60,400,000 Specialty distribution activities were down by $50,500,000 dollars from the end of a distribution contract, which represented $40,000,000 in the equivalent quarter of last year and from lower volume related to the COVID-nineteen pandemic during the entire quarter. Our broad line distribution sales were down by 27,600,000 from lower volume of sales from our restaurant and institutional customers due to the pandemic and from our earlier decision to stop serving non profitable regions in the fourth quarter of twenty nineteen. Sales in the wholesale segment decreased by 24% to forty three million dollars mainly from the effect of the pandemic and from lower inter segment sales. Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations reached $7,600,000 or 8% of sales compared with $8,700,000 or 4.8% in the second quarter of last year, which was higher than our EBITDA guidance range of $5,000,000 to $6,000,000 The improvement in margin stems from the Canadian Emergency Wage Subsidy Program for $4,400,000 the adoption of IFRS 16, which reduced rent expenses by $2,000,000 the decision to stop serving less profitable contract and the efficiency measures we implemented. This was mitigated by the lower volume of sales experienced during the quarter and the favorable reversal of a provision of $400,000 taken in the second quarter of last year. When removing the effect of the adoption of IFRS 16 on our twenty twenty second quarter EBITDA and adjusting for the positive effect of $400,000 provision reversal in the second quarter of twenty nineteen, our adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of sales stands at 5.9% compared with 4.6 last year. Net earnings from continuing operation was $1,600,000 or $0.02 a share, down from net earnings of $2,900,000 or $0.03 a share in the corresponding quarter of 2019. This results from a lower adjusted EBITDA, higher depreciation charges and expenses not related to current operation. This was mitigated by lower financing charges and income taxes. Net loss was $2,900,000 or $0.02 a share compared to a net earnings of $9,000,000 or $0.09 a share in Q2 twenty nineteen. The reduction is attributable sorry, the reduction is attributable in large part to the increase of $10,600,000 and the net loss attributable to discontinued operation and from the items just explained. Cash flow from our operating activities amounted to $3,200,000 in Q2 twenty twenty, up from $1,200,000 in Q2 of twenty nineteen. This increase is mainly due to a lower use of our working capital. On 06/01/2020, we announced the extension of the terms of our credit facility and subordinated debt. In our view, this is an important reminder that we have the support of our key financial partners and provide us with additional flexibility required in case of additional issues arising from the pandemic and to support any potential future investment projects. As of 06/13/2020, our net debt, including the convertible debentures and bank indebtedness, amounted to $62,900,000 compared to $68,200,000 at the end of fiscal twenty nineteen. Higher cash flows since the start of the year were used to reimburse a portion of the debt. Our financial ratio leverage ratio now stands at 2.3 times versus 2.5 times in fiscal twenty nineteen. By excluding the effect of IFRS 16, our leverage ratio stands at 2.6 times, which includes the convertible debenture. As these numbers demonstrate, Calabar remains in a good financial position. At the end of the second quarter of twenty twenty, we had $15,000,000 outstanding on our subordinated debt, which is now due on 02/15/2022, which was extended by ten months. Our bank facility, which was extended by 12 rounds, is now due in October 2021, remained on Hughes and on which we still have $34,100,000 of available borrowing capacity. In addition, the federal government Canadian emergency wage subsidy was extended until December 2020, and we should remain eligible for this subsidy, thereby offsetting part of the expected decrease in sales and profitability year over year. Although the pandemic will continue to have an impact on our sales and short term adjusted EBITDA, we do not expect this situation to have a material impact on our available liquidity. I would now like to turn the call over to our operator, Joanne, for the Q and A period. Your first question comes from the line of Derek Lessard from TD Securities. Your line is now open. Good morning, everyone. And I guess I'd say congratulations on navigating through a pretty tough period here. I guess number one question is in terms of the guidance you gave in Q2, could you talk about what I guess drove the better results on both the sales side and EBITDA? And I guess more specifically on EBITDA, was it due more to a greater than expected benefit from the CEW or cost control? Look, Derek, very good question. So what happened is during the quarter sequentially, so when you take the first period of the second quarter, second and third, we saw a better improvement as a result of takeout becoming more prominent from our different restaurants. So more restaurants are starting to reopen with takeout, which we were not expecting originally. And so the additional volume has helped us improve, if you want, the margin, the gross margin. And by constraining the costs, it has trickled down to our on our EBITDA. So essentially, if I'm trying to do a broad strokes of what happened during the quarter, this is what happened. It's better sales sequentially period over period, which trickle down to on our EBITDA line having the costs relatively fixed. Okay. That's very helpful. Are you providing any type of guidance for Q3? Well, good question. So essentially, look, we were for all the investors when we came in into our second quarter, everybody was navigating, most of us anyway, in the dark. We were very concerned, and we wanted to reassure the financial community at the time that, look, although it's difficult time, we could we'll navigate and we'll be, if you want, on an EBITDAS line, we will be positive, which is more than positive. It's a very good quarter. Now knowing that sequentially, now with the reopening of restaurants, our view is that sequentially, again, we're hoping to see an improvement in sales, although I cannot comment on Q3. But that's what you should expect to see sequentially month after month with a lower wage subsidy because now we're we'll potentially be below the 30% threshold the government has put in place. So now there's a new calculation. Quarter before. Okay. Yes, that's helpful. I guess, excluding COVID, maybe could you talk about what you're seeing operationally both in wholesale where you exited those unprofitable contracts at the end of the year and as well in Quebec broad line distribution? Yes. Thanks, Derek. The we cleaned out the contracts that were nonprofitable in the quarter. As you know, we closed the summit sale. So all that is improving the margin, the bottom line, and we gained some new customers there during this pandemic, helping managing the growth and the profitability. So the mix is favorable. Good thing that we're we were not only in the restaurants business as some of our distributors that lost sales up to 90% during the confinement. So our position, our mix, what was done operationally to work on productivity, efficiencies has been helping quite a bit. Louis, can you remind me again, and I think you might have mentioned it in your prepared remarks, who these new customers or what segments of the industry they're in? Yes. I can't name the customers by one by one and for confidentiality also, but we made significant gains on the institutional side. We won some contracts to serve present. I'm allowed to name also the food banks that we gain as new customers. Also, lots of retailers, as I said at the Q1 report, the last time that we were starting to gain some retailers to help them fill fill in their orders as suppliers was a challenge with the suppliers and we had some inventory that didn't have. So that was important and we gained while most of the some of the restaurants were shut down, we gained a few new customers for when they would reopen, and we're seeing that in our results now. Okay. Louis, I remember you telling us that the retailers or the I guess the growth from the retailers or the volumes from the retailers would likely be more temporary. Is it something that you're seeing that a part of that could actually be more permanent going forward? Well, the good news is that we thought it would be just for that period and some of the retailers said that they want to continue with us. We call that we have two roles, B, the fillers, one, they have issues on with their suppliers. So we can help on that. But also they open their what they call their backdoor. So most of the stores are allowed to order, let's say, around 10% of their volumes through backdoor, which means not through their own wholesaler. So we capitalize on that and we have some retailers that were very appreciative about the service levels we're able to give and in a timely manner during these difficult times for operations. And they ask us to continue to service them on a regular basis. Of course, we will the filler the filling part was quite big at the beginning. It's less and less, but we keep have orders from them, which is incremental to what we used to have as a business. Okay. And maybe just again, I guess still on the COVID beat, I was wondering if you could maybe talk about the current macro environment that you're seeing, how much of the industry remains shut? And I guess what kind of business are you doing or able to do given that social distancing measures are still in place? Yes. So comparing our because we have as I said, we have a diversified portfolio with the hospitals and institutional retail. But if we focus only on the restaurant business that we're managing directly today, only 10% of our restaurants did not open. So the way it works, every year there's about without surprises, there are restaurants closing all over Canada and The U. S, but here there's above 1,000 stores that close and reopen under another name. So let's say that the orders we have after confinement, as I said, only 10% of our restaurants we had did not order. So that's a good news. The thing we look for is for more volume per orders. So the good news is that most of them are reopened, but they have smaller menus. With the dispensation and the measures that are in place in dining is it's about 50% less people can be in the restaurant. So they continue. The good news is that they're continuing for to sell for takeout and ordering. So that's better than we thought. And if you remember, we didn't know if it would be a 20%, thirty % we're reading all sorts of things. And also note that our restaurant business is more in Eastern Quebec as we don't do much on the Island Of Montreal and the rest of Quebec is quite active such as Ghespizzi as we speak in those regions, in Cotonou and that we're very strong. Okay. And I think a few years back there was and that's a good point. I guess, but a few years back, there was a move to become, I guess, for lack of a better word, stronger in the Montreal region. Is that something you're still, I guess, attempting to attack? Or is it more of a longer term strategy like once COVID once we move past the COVID impact? So yes, that's something that we want to grow at one point in time. But today, we have distributors that cover as well Montreal and that we distributors that we cover, that we sell to. And we make decision to focus on our strength and gain market share where we are, okay? It's the especially the ensuring COVID, it's not we didn't want to open new markets as we had to focus on our operations with the third of this task not working and under different context conditions, we decided to focus on that. So yes, that's a possibility. And for now, we're really focused on where we're good. Okay. And I think you mentioned just actually just previously, you were looking for the volume per customer to pick up. Have you seen any indication of that beginning to happen? Yes, of course. And although we don't have a crystal ball, what I can tell you is that the volumes per order has increased since the confinement and but not to the level it was before. So like Jeff said, we were surprised with the for many restaurants that were doing deliveries or takeout, how good they were with their volumes with reduced staff and everything, and then we're very pleased with that. But with the end dining opening, so of course, the size of the orders are increasing, but not to the level they were. Right. Okay. Okay. And And maybe one last one for me. I was wondering if you what the competitive side of the business looks like as the industry begins to open up? Has it gotten more competitive as some of your competitors might have lost volumes and they're looking to rebuild those or get those volumes back as you are? Just maybe touch on what the competition looks like right now. Well, the whole industry was affected. And as I mentioned earlier, our volumes dropped. We were seven sorry, 47%, zero point two % down, but the industry is at minus 75%. So in general, for the ones that are focused on restaurants and mainly restaurants and the big competitors, so it varies between minus 6585% depending on their mix. Ours is at 47%. And we focus on gaining, acquiring new customers during that period. So our sales development team knock at doors or virtually knock at restaurants to gain new business and also in the institutional and houses for older people. And the many activities were new things were tried during this period by our competitors and by us. But overall, the answer is no. People are trying to catch back and do as much as they can. Favorably, we gain some customers. Okay. So I guess the question is maybe if I could drill down just a bit further into that. There's been no moves from some of the bigger competitors who are more focused on the restaurants into the smaller, I guess, the smaller markets or the institute like some of the, I guess, industries where you've been more successful over the last quarter or so. Exactly. So imagine a distributor that is down 90%. They're in a survival mode. They had to shut down almost all of their operations. And they just wanted to keep trying selling a bit, but no big moves in the market. No. Okay. All right. Gentlemen, that's it for me. Thanks for taking my questions. Thank you, David. Your next question comes from the line of Brandon Moise from Stornoway. Your line is now open. Brandon Moise from Stornoway. Your line is now open. Sorry. Hi, Louis. Hi, Pierre. Hi. I was surprised, especially given the sales EBITDA beat that you used $3,000,000 of cash in the quarter. It looked like it was all from discontinued operations. So can you help me bridge the $7,700,000 of sale proceeds you got from the sale to Flanagan to the $3,400,000 of cash used and discontinued up. So what was that $11,000,000 Yes. So what you have is severances, you had termination cost of certain leases of equipment, plus you had the operations during Q1, the period of mid March till mid May, so two months where you had Q1 negative EBITDA impact for the quarter and some working capital situation that had to take care. So that's what happened in a nutshell. Nutshell. Right. So I mean the losses must have been pretty large because when I look at kind of how exiting the Cara Summit, the Cara contract and the Summit business as a whole was presented, it kind of looked like it'd be a net source of cash of at least $10,000,000 because you said Kara would be paid for by the working capital releases and then you'd be selling Summit for $10,000,000 when it looks like now it's basically zero net proceeds for that whole business, if I'm not wrong? Well, if you look after six months, you're looking at the quarter. But if you look after six months, it's positive, no? Yes. But don't you still have $4,800,000 of in payables that you haven't paid of those, call it, restructuring and exit costs? Yes. We still have some costs to be paid. But at the end of the day, what we've said to the financial community last fall is the fact that the closure of the Ontario operations would at the end of the day, the cash we receive and the closure of that would essentially offset one and the other? We still have some money to be received, by the way, from Flanagan in a year's time based on the contract. So there's still money to be had. That's the you're talking the $1,600,000 earn out or is there more? Yes. The earn out is that. We were able to return to give them a lot of our brand new equipment, so which for us, it was a customer avoidance in terms of contract terminations. So but at the end of the day, if we could if it's not the plan is to close it and with the working capital and the amounts left, we should be close to a breakeven or a little bit better in terms of cash, if you want, the cash in and out. So we should be a little bit better. That's the plan. There's still adjustments to be made, but that's our view. And just to close that off, is there anything you're still carrying that Flanagan didn't take related to that business that's, call it, owner? Yes. So good question. So we have two leases. We have one in Mississauga and one in London. And we're in the process of subleasing that. So I don't want to there's some very good prospects who are looking at the beach facilities. The London facility right now is sublease at 60% for a short period of time, but there may be a party that could be interested for a longer period of time. And in Mississauga, there is a party currently very interested in the facility. So if everything goes according to the plan, we should get out of these leases. And what's the cost of those leases today under the status quo? It's about roughly $1,000,000 each year. Okay. Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back over to Luis Ferdinet. Thank you. Thank you, Joan, and thanks, Derek and Brandon, for your questions. I'm very happy with our performance this quarter and our ability to efficiently manage both our operations and financial situation. We achieved better than expected results, beating our own revenue and EBITDA guidance. We successfully negotiated the extension of our credit facility and subordinated debt, demonstrating the support of our key financial partners. We concluded the sales of our Summit division, which for years was a drag on our earnings. We managed to increase our cash flow from operations, pay down debt and further strengthen our balance sheet. We are cautiously optimistic that we are coming out from the worst part of the crisis. Of course, we cannot predict the future effect of the pandemic on the hospitality industry. Additional measures required by the government to contain any further outbreak or the pandemic's effect on the economy in general, but I believe that the crisis demonstrated our resiliency, ability to adapt with operational excellence. Our priority remains the safety and health of our employees, customers and community. With strict safety measures in place, our old team was able to stay healthy. As for our remaining employees that are still furloughed, we are working hard to be in a position to call back as conditions improve. In the long term, we remain committed to pursuing the transformation of Calabar by focusing on our broad line distribution activities in Quebec, delivering efficiencies and improving our employee engagement level. We are grateful to be able to count on the dedication and hard work of our employees and the support from the labor unions, all financial partners, shareholders, our customers and our suppliers. Thank you. This concludes the yes. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.