Next up, we've got Solo Brands, and Solo is a Three Part Advisors client, so we're working hard with these guys with some introductions, and happy to have them here today. I think the materials say NYSE traded. It's actually an OTCQB traded with a ticker of SBDS, and this is a really exciting story. The management team is executing a transformation and expansion with a lot of exciting stuff going on domestically as well as internationally for innovative products. The team is John Larson, Chief Executive Officer, Laura Coffey, Chief Financial Officer, and Mark Anderson, IR and Treasury on the first row. I'll hand it off to the team.
Thanks, Andy, and good afternoon. Appreciate everyone taking the time to hear about our story. It's been a journey for sure, but I think we're on the right track and happy to answer any questions you have with the meeting right here. I'll run through a handful of slides quickly. I've done this about 10 x today, so who knows? I might start speaking when it's not on a slide, but I'll do the best I can here. With that, let's talk about what Solo Brands really is, and it's a portfolio of products, really an outdoor lifestyle brand, but it's about developing connection between family, between friends. The fun part of running a company like this is I use all the products.
On Tuesday night, I had a cookout at my house, and I was griddling steaks on our griddle, which out there, and people coming out, and my buddy's like, Oh, my God, this is great. It's so easy to clean up. It's stainless steel. It's a spectacular product. Last weekend, lost something at a lake, jumped in a boat that our Watersports Division makes really quick with my wife and paddled out there to pick it up. That night had a campfire sitting out there on our patio with our fire pits. It's really fun brands, as we'll talk about on the next slide here. Great net promoter scores. The reason I came to join the board of this brand a year and a half ago was because I thought, these are enthusiast brands. That's my space and wheelhouse.
They're omni-channel, so you have to balance retail with DTC. I've had a long career in building DTC within the companies I'm at. More importantly, they're just great products. As my daughters say, Dad, we won't date someone if they don't wear Chubbies. Of course, they got it. A little side story, and I do this occasionally. My daughter, she just graduated college. I'm out at a bar, Dad. All of a sudden, some comment's made, and a guy walks by me and goes, We could cut your dad's lawn for Chubbies, you know? She's like, What? How do they even know my dad works there? Those are the kind of brands we have, ones that people recognize, are really excited about. If I dimensionalize it for you, we're 50% Solo Stove. That's fire pits, that's griddles, that's coolers.
It's kind of the outdoor part of consumer products. We're 40% Chubbies. That's menswear. Started in suits, but has now moved into polos and athletic pants. Shorts is where it really started, and bathing suits is where its wheelhouse is. We have a Watersports Division. It's about 10% of our revenue, roughly $30 million. More in the kayaks, paddle boards, kind of that kind of space. Has some really interesting patented. This Oru Kayak is an origami kayak that you actually pack like a suitcase. It weighs 25 pounds. You can put it in your trunk and walk like this, open it up, three straps, and it's a kayak on the water, all patented. Really unique, cool brands. Let's talk about the first quarter's results. $63 million in revenue, $1.6 million of EBITDA.
Last year, we were at $77 million of revenue and $3.5 million of EBITDA. Obviously, not the kind of results we're looking for, but I can dimensionalize it a little bit. Last year, we had tremendous load-in in March for Chubbies for their retail sales at their retail stores. Some of that moved into Q2 of this year. With that, sales down $14 million, EBITDA down $2 million, fully dedicated to tariffs that we ate in the first quarter of this year. We would've been $3.5 million Or $4 million without tariffs, and some timing. With that, we've continued significant structural cost reductions. I'd say the big reductions are on payroll and headcount and in fulfillment. For Q2 of this year, starting April 1, we took another $8 million- $10 million out in terms of payroll.
You'll see in the charts ahead how we have significantly reduced structural costs to where this company will just deliver any dollar of revenue right to the bottom line, $0.30 or $0.40. Significant strides in AI. I worked as a consultant with an AI-based company out of Silicon Valley before I joined this board, and that was to do introductions in the auto industry. I believe in the power of AI and the tools and what they can do. As we came into the company, we have pushed very aggressively into the space, and it's in our everyday operations. I would say we're a five or a six on a scale of 1-1 0. On our way to being an eight as it comes to AI, and I'll talk about that a little bit more. Launched four new products March 12th.
The Steelfire 22, the Summit 19, and the Summit 27 are now in our top 10 of sales on DTC. The new products are being received extremely well. We just got the Windchill 30 in stock. We launched a women's brand for Chubbies called Cheekies. Chubbies is having an argument with Cheekies, and they're talking. We got all kinds of stuff going on, but it was fun. Ten months ago, we decided, why don't we take a step into the women's apparel space? Within 10 months, designed, engineered, manufactured, and had it in Dick's Sporting Goods 10 minutes from the day we said go. We're small, we're scrappy, we're pushing new products into new categories. We had the IEEPA tariffs ruling. Refunds are in process. We announced in our 10-Q, was it the Q or the K? I can't remember. That we have roughly $10 million.
The Q, first quarter Q, coming back in refunds. We have received $2 million already, significant opportunity there. It does not mean we do not still have tariff challenges, but it is certainly lightened the load a bit for us. We are delisted from New York Stock Exchange based on market cap value. We are appealing that process. We have a number of initiatives in place looking at de-leveraging with some other opportunities that could put us in compliance very quickly, or maybe if two people buy stock here, we will be in compliance quickly. We are right on the edge of it, to be honest with you, in terms of $15 million market cap. Let us talk about the first quarter. I am always about being fully transparent. As we said before, $77 million to $63 million in sales.
Our gross profit pressured a little bit, both with tariffs and simply because our revenue did go down by $14 million. I want you to notice SG&A going down dramatically, another $6 million out year-over-year. Q1 2025, $3 million, $3.5 million. This year, rounded up to $2 million, $1.5 million, dropped down a little bit here, but with a $14 million decline in revenue and a $1.5 million to $2 million decline in revenue, it does show that our cost structure has come down dramatically. With a little revenue boost, we will have significant EBITDA gain. I will just give you numbers here. Roughly $0.40 on the dollar, give or take, would flow to the bottom line of EBITDA for revenue. Had we been at $77 million instead of $63 million, $0.40 on the dollar on $14 million is $5.5 million of EBITDA.
We would have been coming in closer to $7 million versus $3 million the prior year. That just shows you, on an apples-to-apples basis, our EBITDA level is about double on a revenue basis. Here is a walk, part of the transparency, $3.5 million last year, $7 million in margin related to sales and a little bit of mix because we did have a little heavier Costco in that first quarter. Marketing spend and payroll savings showing over $5 million in savings there, getting to the $1.6 million that I did talk to you about before. What is the update? Give me some good news. You look at that first quarter and you go, Hmm, okay. It is kind of a sleeper. Really strong sales in April and May.
Instead of being down 20% that we were in the first quarter, we are up year-over-year for April and May in terms of sales. What really drove it? The new products launched in March. The new Cheekies line came out in March, as well as the all-new fire pit line, as well as the new griddle line. The new products are being accepted well. Sales are up for Q2 at this point in time. We have got tariff refunds, as I said, almost $2 million we have received now, with $8 million+ more on the way. We are reiterating our guidance, which we put out at the end of the first quarter, that is revenue of $280 million- $ 310 million and EBITDA $240 million- $30 million, or virtually up 50% year-over-year. Again, simply because of the cost structure.
If you look at the fact that we're guiding revenue flat to slightly down, yet we're guiding EBITDA up 50%, that just shows you, again, the cost structure changes we have put in in the last 15-18 months, I would say. What are the biggest operating initiatives? Continued structural cost reduction and simplification. On the distribution side and warehouse, as we're about 50% direct-to-consumer as a company in digital-based sales, we had warehouses of 10 warehouses over a year ago. Right now, we have five, on our way to three. Complete consolidation, a 3PL partner, which has been really helpful for some Amazon business, saved us almost $3 million a year, and now this new initiative is going to save us an additional $3 million a year.
We are continuing to look at cost structure that goes right to the bottom line while we're really pushing to drive growth. The next bullet is growth-focused innovation and core adjacencies. We own the fire pit space. It blew up during COVID. Our fire pits are great. The problem is our fire pits are great. They have a lifetime warranty. They're made from stainless steel. They work forever. They last forever. We sold four million of them. Those four million people still use them and love them. They don't really need a new one. No planned obsolescence when this company started up from scratch here. What we have to do is really build in adjacencies. We have 250,000 five-star reviews. Our NPS scores are 73. People love the brand. How do we extend that brand into some adjacencies?
The things we've done is, number one, let's come out with an all-new fire pit lineup to try to move people up or bring some more people into the category. It is called the Summit Series. Lower profile, so you can see the flame, an instant start feature, where you drop a proprietary fluid in the top, it goes underneath. You don't need kindling. You don't need work. You don't need anything. You put it on, you light it runs underneath, gets hotter quicker, gets smokeless quicker. Makes it very simple as one, two, three. Stylistically, it looks much more beautiful. We built an open frame underneath. People used to think it wouldn't happen, but it would discolor their deck. It would ruin their patio if they set it on. It looked like the fire was sitting on the ground.
This flow-through design allows people to realize that's not the case. Oh, by the way, those products are doing spectacularly since they've launched. They're now our number two and number three selling SKUs are part of the new Summit Series for the entire Solo Stove lineup. Chubbies, as I said, expanded into the women's line, into Cheekies. Excited about that. Going more broadly next year. It's already in Dick's Sporting Goods. SCHEELS has already put in significant orders for next year to line up their portfolio, we're excited about expanding the women's lineup further. Water sports has actually been the biggest growth story so far this year. Expanded their water sports line dramatically using the Tommy Bahama license, which we had for years. Costco has now brought us in to be their primary supplier of water sports.
We added some products I'll show you later. We are significantly up in sales in water sports with Costco being a big driver. Discipline, international focus, and expansion. International business is 7% of our total revenue. It is 21% of YETI growing at 25% a year. It is 38% of SharkNinja growing at over 20% a year. International is where all of our competition set, whether it is in apparel or whether it is in consumer goods, is growing dramatically. We are at 7%. We started out as two domestic brands. You had two kids in a garage making a campfire so they could light it when they are camping to cook their food and cook their coffee. You had four guys out of college decided to start a shorts brand because they used to have parties where they would all dress up and wear wild clothes, then they decided to make a company around it.
These are very domestic, out of Austin, Texas. The idea is we are so underrepresented internationally. It has become apparent to me. I look at the growth that has occurred internationally. We have been working on this six or eight months. I now have three distribution or rep partners signed up across the world, Europe, U.K., Australia, in Asia-Pacific for Chubbies. Water sports a little more Asia-Pacific. We have a web platform that is set up and works across those markets for Solo Stove. We have moved to Salesforce. I have Salesforce in Australia. I have it in Canada. I have it in Europe. I have it in the U.K. I have it here, which gives us latitude to sell direct there.
We have now set up a distribution partner, I should say more a fulfillment partner with warehouses in Europe, in the U.K., moving into Spain, with further growth opportunities. We can immediately deliver for Amazon and be Amazon Prime in those markets. We can immediately deliver DTC. We have signed the distribution partner that grew YETI from 0%- 21% of their business in Europe, and YETI has now taken that all in-house. The partner came to us and said, We think your brand would be spectacular, negotiated and just put them in play as our main partner in Europe. Really excited about international growth, and we think it is all going to flow to the bottom line. Also, tariffs are lower international. We can deliver direct from our supply chain partners direct into Europe, and we avoid the tariffs that we have here in the U.S.
People say, Margin is going to cost you a lot if you use a partner there. I am like, Nope, I want to get to market right away. They have the relationships and the people. I have the margin room to do it because of the lowered tariffs in those international markets. The last place is building a scalable AI infrastructure. As I talked about before, we are sold. What AI can do for efficiency, what it does for instant market research on product design, what it can do for you in terms of marketing, creative design, placement of our media, where you are getting the effective real-time return. We are hooked up live. I can turn on my PC. I can go right into a Claude interface with all of our data with real-time access. I can look at seasonality, sales trend.
I just put an incentive on, are the sales up? What's the return on it? It's fortunate and it's unfortunate for my team because they get AI messages from me all the time questioning what we're doing or what we could do differently. I really believe it's allowing us to scale dramatically as we move forward, while the fact that we've taken out almost 40% of cost in head count in the last 15- 18 months. Okay. I think I've covered AI and technology. I don't need to hit it again. We did have a hackathon workshop. I do want to mention that. We had the whole team in for the Solo Stove division, had our five key initiatives for the year, some of which I'm touching on here.
Put 10 people each in a conference room on each initiative, went in there, recorded it with Fathom, which is AI based, which summarized their recording. They came to a decision, told them to take the summary of the recording, put it into Claude, present an executive level management report, and come out and present what they would do going forward to accelerate each one of those initiatives. Everyone in our company was involved in how it worked, how it got translated, how AI can do it. We spent the afternoon and we sent everyone away by function and said, How will you improve the operations in your function using this? Same thing. Went through it, worked with the LLM, went through their mapping of the processes that they do day to day, asked the LLM, How could I improve this?
What could we do to make this more efficient? Came back with a presentation and presented, and we've got items going in play right now. Trying to really push the AI piece. New leadership and talent. As we looked at international being a major growth opportunity and some challenges on domestic retail at the stove division, we've been consolidating key functions across all three of the Solo Brands divisions. We were pretty much three divisions at a point in time acquired. You had Chubbies over here, apparel. You had Solo Stove starting with fire pits and other accessories, and then you had a Watersports Division. The idea is how do we bring sales together, sales administration together? How do we get more efficient? How do we have people that can talk to each of the stores?
Oddly enough, we sell through a lot of the same retailers. Dick's Sporting Goods is the biggest carrier of Solo Stove. It's the biggest carrier of Chubbies. You go to SCHEELS, similar things out there. You go to Academy, similar. We have some very similar partners in place. We ended up hiring a new SVP of Sales. He's been here two weeks. What's his growth? International, Europe, building businesses and growing them internationally. What's his background? Heavy in apparel, used to be Igloo, heavy in consumer products, knows our buyers. I'm having dinner with him day one and he's like, Oh, the buyer from Dick's Sporting Goods just texted me and said, 'I heard you got the new role. I'm so glad to work with you at Solo Stove. Looking forward to meet with you.' Bringing that talent in.
What I have found, people want to work at this company bad. You might look at our balance sheet and say, At 10 leverage, are you kidding me? At the same time, every one of them looks at the brand and goes, The opportunity is huge. When I walk through transparently, here's the challenge, I'm going to have to take EBIT out of $40 million to $50 million, $60 million in two years. That's what we need to do. They're like, We're in. We completely believe it'll happen. These are very senior executives that are looking for equity growth. Given our market cap, I can't give them much value. They all believe, oh my gosh, we're going to unlock this equity value. We'll get to $60 million EBIT, and the stock price will be $25 or $30, and this is going to be a windfall.
Very excited about the salesperson we brought in, very excited about who's going to come in to grow Chubbies internationally and grow a women's line where he's done that before. Brought a young lady in to be Chief Digital Officer on DTC, given we got multiple platforms. Moving to how do we optimize that? She's so fired up. She goes, We can double this. We'll get the right platforms. I got the tools we want to put in place. Let's get more efficient here. Every additional DTC conversion is the biggest dollars you can add to the bottom line of profitability. Very excited about adding talent into exactly the upside revenue streams that we're looking at and profit streams. Excited about that, and I already talked about international, so I won't hit it again.
Structural cost, I mentioned this as well, $3 million in annualized savings just identified during this year. Starting at the end of the third quarter, it will be fully operational. We've reduced 50% of our distribution center square footage. Put 3PL partners where they're more efficient, have better buying capability with FedEx, et cetera. They wanted our business so bad they gave us tremendous incentives to move, so I couldn't financially walk away from it. It looks like $3 million a year in savings. Talking about products, it all starts with products. It's a busy slide, so I apologize for that. If you look in the middle of this slide here, every one of those products is new in the last year. That's Solo Stove. That's talking about people thought, Oh, you're going through this restructuring. It's going to be difficult.
What are you guys investing in? I tell you what we're investing in, brand new products. Whether it's an all-new line of fire pits that sets the standard, whether it's a new line of griddles, whether it's a new line of coolers, those have all come out in less than the last year, and we even got the Infinity Flame on the slide, which was missing. It's a propane version of a fire pit launched in the fourth quarter of last year. It's now the number 1 selling SKU for our company. We're doing an up-level version of that for Q4 this year, and very excited about the continued escalation of that product. Lots of new products on the Solo Stove side. Here's a more detailed picture of Infinity Flame and what it does. It's actually quite cool.
It's propane, and there's a lot of propane fire pits out there, but what we did was we made the flame in the center boil up just like it's a wood-burning fireplace. If you look at the picture there on the right-hand side, it's a large flame that comes up. In our wood-burning fire pits, at the top you have a secondary flame which we mimic with those candlelight lights you see on the left side of the slide there. That's exactly what our wood-burning fire pit looks like. We've named a flame, we've trademarked our flame, and we put it into propane, which people really haven't seen before. I'm excited about the continued growth in that product. These are the fire pits I was talking about, the new Summit Series. There's the look on the right-hand side. You see the built-in stand.
You see the lower profile than we normally had before there, and this is the one that has the InstaLight. I could have brought you a video, but sometimes they're a little glitchy here. We now have a new Summit 19, Summit 24, and Summit 27. We call it the Summit Series. It's now taken over our sales leadership versus our core fire pits, the Legacy Series, which we still have. It's $100 premium over our Legacy by size, but ironically, the cost of goods is the same. Because of the steel tariffs, we lowered the profile on the side, so we use less steel. It took a lot of work with airflow to make it work and burn as good, but therefore, I have a $100 premium with the same cost of goods sold.
I increased the margin that's offsetting the tariff issues we've had, and it's being really well accepted in the marketplace. The Windchill Cooler, we don't launch a product unless it has a unique advantage over everything else out there. Now, I won't say it's selling like YETI, but what it does is it is a portable air conditioner that's also a cooler for your drinks. If you're sitting out with your kids at soccer, softball, whatever it is all summer, and you're hot, you hit a button on here, it blows tremendously cool air like a mobile air conditioner at you. You can hit it on mist, and it blows a big misting spray. What we have is videos of all the kids running off the soccer field, and all they do is run to this thing and stick their faces in it.
If you're a parent that doesn't like too many kids, don't get it, but otherwise it's going to be the magnet at those events. The Steelfire Griddles, as I said, I was cooking on these Tuesday night, and cooking the previous week at the office on lunch making burgers for people at work. They said, Do you want to come out and have a smash burger? I didn't know I was going to be the guy cooking out there. We were showing the new sales guy the new product. Great product. The whole difference is the material, it's stainless steel. You don't have to put butter down. You can drop anything on it. It comes off immediately. It cleans up immediately. This is what professional restaurants have. This is what very high-end outdoor kitchens that are charging four, five grand for the unit would do.
We stuck to our premise of keeping it. With tariffs, it was a lot of work. We had to redesign the Steelfire 22 a little bit to make sure the cost structure was in line, but they are now taking off, and they're winning awards left and right. We feel good about that for the last group of products for Solo Stove. On Chubbies, what we're doing is really moving much more into the polo space. Many different materials in polo. One surprising category that has grown up for us has been the golf space. Not the high-end country clubs that you guys go to, but on the municipal courses where guys wear some wild patterns and run out there. Chubbies is really picking up sales in that particular market. In addition, the kids market has built up.
All the guys who grew up on Chubbies over the last 16 years now have little kids, and now the kids market is exploding. It's in Dick's Sporting Goods now, and they're getting matching suits with the father and son kind of theme going on. Kids is growing up quite a bit for us. We're moving into a denim line this fall, and we're updating our NFL. We got big associations with the NFL, but now we're changing our patterns 4 times a year instead of just once a year. Far right, not to be lost, is the Cheekies line. It's doing well. Losing my voice a little bit here, sorry. In the Watersports Division, the biggest opportunity here is our new products. We've had the Tommy Bahama license for years.
We've used it on our product in certain retailers, and it's become a big hit at Costco. Now we're the primary water sports provider for Costco. On the left-hand side, we've had paddle boards and kayak adjustable boards for sale in Costco, previously the Marlin. The new water hammock and waterproof bags have gone into Costco this year. Doubled our sales into Costco. Some 400,000 weatherproof water bags, waterproof bags in place right there. Had to stand up a whole new plant for that with a supply chain partner, as well as the water hammocks. Last part, I think I've hit this on international for you. This just happens to mention the actual partners that we've signed contracts with for growth. In the end, we talked about AI and how important it is to what we're doing. The item's already in motion.
I talked about that our marketing mix model for optimizing media are built by Solo AI tool that we've already deployed internally, and it's rolling out across the organization. Corel AI, it's a real-time ad performance measurement that's going well with a partner that we activated actually in the fourth quarter of last year. Automation in our corporate sales, immediate response to input leads, immediate lead generation going out automatically, et cetera. These are some of the partners we have. I won't go through this in detail, but we use chef testimonials with the new griddles that come out. We've gone to high-end chefs and challenged them to say, Look at our product, tell us what you think. We get nothing but great reviews. These are on YouTube. Chef Leah Cohen is great. Rich Nooki's been out there talking about what a great tool it is.
Miguel is like, Man, this is as good as it gets on a griddle. They're all out there using them on their own right now. The product is really, really good. We just aren't known for the griddle space. That's my job and my challenge, to make sure we get the awareness out there. We're winning endless awards. If you look at this page, Gear Junkie named us the best outdoor griddle. Men's Health named us the best griddle in a griddle-off. The Barbecue Lab had all these griddles. They have a 25-minute video if you really want to watch it, but in the end, they pick out one that's the winner, and it's us. It's not Weber, it's not Blackstone, it's not the other Traeger that's out there. Nope. It's Solo Stove and our new griddle that's out there.
Just ease, usability, very cool racetrack burner system, even heat throughout, super easy cleanup. We're excited. We're excited about the awards we're winning and what people are saying about our products. We just need to build that revenue growth. Quick wrap-up and summary. Stabilized the business in 2025, really reduced our cost structure dramatically. That full benefit of cost structure is coming through in 2026. New products are driving the growth that we do have. Still some challenges on the core business that Solo Stove once had with retailers, trying to build that back up with our new products. International expansion, where we see immediate return with capital discipline. I'm an ex finance guy. I'm a recovered finance guy. I care about profits. I care about the bottom line. I care about cash flow. Every initiative we look at, that's how we measure it.
It needs to return to the bottom line. If I get excited and go after revenue, Laura reminds me that we're a cash flow company. She keeps me in line for sure. Our clear priorities, expand EBITDA, increase cash flow, and reduce leverage. With that, I'll just make one little mention here I said at the beginning. We need to grow into our capital structure. We need to deleverage the company. We're looking at initiatives to deleverage, nothing to announce here. In terms of growing the company into where we need to be, I feel very confident that we can grow this company. It'll deliver to the bottom line. It's up to us, though, to make sure we do grow the top line, it will flow right to the bottom line. Again, a comparison.
In 2024, over $450 million of revenue, we are delivering $30 million of EBITDA. If we get to $370 million of revenue, we'll get between $55 million and $60 million of EBITDA. We're at the spot where we're delivering shareholder returns, we're covering the debt structure we have, and it makes sense. Our goal, our challenge, how do you build revenue by $50 million-$60 million? At this point in time, international, all the new products we got rolling out, a new women's line in Chubbies, a new leader on DTC who can take that next level of effectiveness at our platform when it's 50% of our revenue to make sure we are delivering everything we can to the bottom line there, and a new head of sales that's well-versed, hugely experienced in international growth to focus on the global opportunity we have.
With all that in line, that's what we as a team need to do to deliver shareholder value. That's my story. Questions?
Yes, sir.
We throw them in the water, we drop them, and we find it works. I cannot understand the financials, to be really honest. The product is so good, every one of us wants to buy Solo. I buy one Solo equipment every year. You make the new gas stove-
I'm a customer for life, guaranteed. Your stoves are open, I've tested them, phenomenal.
Thank you.
I sort of scratch my head. I've seen this product over years. Nothing comes even close. They are that good. It's because I have my friends who have used your tong, we use this thing. We only buy Solo Stove.
I don't see translating the finances. I used to work at McKinsey before, I worked in New York.
Oh, no. You're that consultant that put that structure in place.
No, I'm recovered.
You're recovered. I'm sorry. I'm just teasing.
No, I'm just looking at the financials. For example, on a $300 million revenue.
Yeah, right.
You have a big gross margin. I cannot understand your engineering finances. From $300 million revenue, 2/3 is engineering. I'm not close to the business, but I think that's where I see a big gap. It got upside in, I think.
Right.
This is a great brand, and I think it will succeed. I think to me, that's where the new Solo needs to be. I'm not close enough to understand how are you going to look at engineering. Everything else you're doing is phenomenal, and I think the brand strength is there. NPS, you're talking about.
Yeah
I was giving example of it.
Yeah.
Is there any opportunity in engineering?
Yeah. Let me rephrase the question briefly. Let's see. Your products are spectacular. We love it. Why aren't you doing a better job running the company? How can your financials be so challenged when, in fact, the products are as good as they are? Let me take you through a little bit of background on the company. Originally, our stock ticker was DTC. This company was being developed as a platform, a platform with warehouses and websites to compete with Amazon to allow premium brands to have another place to breathe. That was the vision back in 2021. You put 10 warehouses globally. You started investing dramatically in an infrastructure to support something that might be 15 brands, okay? You stated you wanted to be a billion-dollar company. You were close to a $500 million company, you started investing in people, in infrastructure, in deals.
New York Islanders, $20 million to sponsor your stadium here. Snoop Dogg, $10 million here. There was just a lot of big swings. This was a management team that had gone from $50 million to $300 million in one division, so taking big swings was working when you were in a category with all this acceleration. What happened when I came in is we're putting in infrastructure for a billion-dollar company, and our revenue has gone from $400 million to $300 million. That's what we've gone after. We have taken out so much cost that I'll take you back again to the thought process here. At $360 million, I can make $60 million. You'd say, Okay, that's a % EBITDA that makes sense as a company, getting above 16%-17%, $370 million-ish. Before, at $450 million, we were making $30 million, so you're at 8% or single digits.
We've taken a ton of cost out. We won't stop taking more out.
Yeah.
I just took $10 million out in a headquarter. The team did, April 1st, just in this year. That's when you had $38 million, and now you're down to $28 million. We're continuing to take structural cost out.
I can see it. You went from a $270 million-ish to $20 million.
Yeah.
You're paying more people.
You're telling me. Yeah. There's more to come. There's more to come with efficiencies, quite frankly, AI is making it very palatable to do that. Very helpful.
I mean, at least on the manufacturing, we're probably investing 1% more.
No, appreciate that very much. Look, if we had $100 million of debt, you'd be saying this, We're all good. There'd be some shareholder value, and the stock price wouldn't be at four. The reality is, we have way too much debt from bad decisions that were made before on big swings. We acquired divisions and wrote them off for $80 million. All those things went into a balance sheet that's challenging. We got the right plan to grow ourselves out of it into the balance sheet.
I think when you're going to pay 450 stores.
Yep
your product cannot be $17, $17.50. You believe it. You are the team.
Yep. No, thanks. I appreciate it. I know I'm running over time. Anyone else with questions?
Yes, sir.
Why are you a public company and not simply a division of a larger business exactly? I'm spending with us costs of overhead, you're a public company. Why aren't you just a division of a larger company?
I think that's a good question. I think that's something our board discusses fairly regularly. There's not a simple way to go private unless you want someone who's going to take you private and buy it. At this point in time, who wants to buy $240 million of debt? It's a little more challenged than that simply because of the balance sheet. I agree with you. I've run private companies. I've been the chairman of a number of public companies. It does cause some issues. Quite frankly, we are where we are. We just need to deliver the bottom line, the liquidity be appreciated by shareholders