Fiscal 2023 Earnings Conference Call. For those who are unfamiliar, BuildDirect trades on the TSXV under the ticker BILD. My name is Rory Wizbicki, and I'll be the moderator for today's call. Before we begin, I'd like to note that some of the comments today will contain forward-looking information and statements under applicable securities law that reflect management's current views with respect to future events. Any such information and statements are subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking information and statements. Please refer to the various materials the company has filed with Canadian securities regulators for a broader description of operational and risk factors that could affect the company's performance. In addition, please note that all dollar amounts mentioned in this presentation are in U.S. dollars, unless otherwise stated.
On today's call, we'll be covering BuildDirect's Q4 and full year 2023 financial and operational highlights, as well as its growth outlook for 2024. Following BuildDirect management's comments, the call will be open for questions. Questions can be sent using the Zoom Q&A function at the bottom of your screen. If you're calling in to listen to this webinar, please email your questions directly to ir@builddirect.com. Our presenters today will be the CEO of BuildDirect, Shawn Wilson, and Interim CFO of BuildDirect, Marshall Rosichuk. I'll now turn the conference over to Shawn.
Thank you, Rory. For first-time viewers, BuildDirect operates e-commerce and brick-and-mortar stores that provide flooring products and services to home improvement professionals. Our aim is simple, to become the leading provider of flooring to the pro customer in North America, including through strategic acquisitions and organic growth programs. It's a $70 billion total addressable market, and we're in a strong position for future growth. Here's a quick glance at our financial highlights for the full year 2023, which will be covered in greater detail by Marshall during today's call. For the three months ended December 31, 2023, we generated $16.9 million in total revenue while producing a gross margin of roughly 35.2%. Lastly, we generated a total adjusted EBITDA of $0.073 million.
Q4's 2023 adjusted EBITDA was partially impacted by planned projects related to our ERP change for our e-commerce operation. BuildDirect's primary focus remains on the U.S. flooring industry, a market valued at approximately $70 billion, predominantly comprised of independent retailers. This landscape is marked by fragmentation, with only a handful of major players. This reality underscores a promising market with significant opportunity for BuildDirect. It's been almost two years since I joined the company, and it's been a great journey. Back in 2022, I saw an incredible amount of potential with BuildDirect business, despite challenges with some of the business' unit economics at that time. The company had developed an efficient direct sourcing model and had ventured into acquired brick-and-mortar locations, all focused on the pro flooring customer.
All in all, it was a great starting point for building a leading North America pro-focused flooring company, and that's still what we intend to do. Before diving into our regional financial performance, let's shed some light on the intricacies of our business model and the spectrum of our customers. To begin with, we procure products from manufacturers worldwide. These products are then shipped to our network of brick-and-mortar establishments, referred to as Pro Centers, which are located in the United States and Canada. Within these Pro Centers, our teams cater to the needs of local professional clients, a category encompassing general contractors, commercial developers, property investors, and flooring specialists. These professionals play an integral role across various sectors of the construction and renovation industries.
Complementing our physical presence, we operate an e-commerce platform at builddirect.com, providing an efficient avenue for professionals to place and manage their orders efficiently. Moreover, homeowners keen on adopting a professional approach to their flooring project can also access wholesale options on our website, empowering them to shop like a pro. With this context in mind, I'll now pass the floor to Marshall, who will dive into the finer details of our fourth quarter 2023 financial results.
Thank you, Shawn. I'm pleased to share the strides we've made in Q4, or fourth quarter. Let's delve into the key financial highlights for Q4 and the full year of 2023. In Q4, our total revenue amounted to $16.9 million. As anticipated, this reflected a year-over-year decrease of $4.8 million, or 22.1%. Additionally, there was a sequential decrease of roughly $1.5 million or 8.2% quarter-over-quarter. The year-over-year decline in revenue stems from the deliberate scaling down of our e-commerce operations. This decision was instrumental in rectifying the unit economics of our business and facilitating our e-commerce platform enhancement initiative, which in turn led to a reduction in fixed costs for this segment.
Meanwhile, the sequential decrease in revenue can be attributed partially to the diminished demand and a one-time revenue adjustment associated with our e-commerce platform enhancement initiative. Following the completion of this initiative in early September 2023, management redirected its focus toward growth initiatives for the e-commerce segment. Thus far, we remain optimistic about the prospects of this strategy, anticipating a positive impact on both top-line growth and overall segment profitability. As noted by Shawn, I'm pleased to report that we achieved another quarter of positive adjusted EBITDA, which was $73,000, a decrease of approximately $1.3 million sequentially, quarter-over-quarter, and a decrease of approximately $338,000 year-over-year. This is our eighth consecutive quarter of positive adjusted EBITDA results.
In addition, it's worthy to note, Adjusted EBITDA for fiscal year 2023 was $3.6 million, for an increase of $2.3 million over the prior year of fiscal 2022. Now, moving down the P&L, our gross margin in Q4 was $6 million, representing a decrease of $1.3 million sequentially, quarter-over-quarter, and $1.9 million year-over-year. Likewise, our gross margin percentage in Q4 2023 was, was 35.2%, a decrease of 120 basis points sequentially quarter-over-quarter, and 120 basis points year-over-year.
Both the year-over-year and sequential quarter-over-quarter change were driven by lower revenue, both sequentially quarter-over-quarter and quarter-over-quarter, resulting in lower gross margin contribution therein, and change in mix toward brick-and-mortar products versus e-commerce products. Moving to operating expenses in Q4 2023, these were $6.7 million, representing a decrease of 7.2% sequentially quarter-over-quarter, and a decrease of 22.2% quarter-over-quarter. The decrease quarter-over-quarter can be attributed to reductions in fulfillment costs, administration, research and development, and depreciation and amortization, with exception, selling and marketing were higher. Moving over to the balance sheet, I'm pleased with the significant positive changes to the balance sheet this quarter.
As at December 31, 2023, our current assets, which primarily consist of cash and cash equivalents, receivables, inventory, and prepaid items, totaled approximately $14.6 million. Our current liabilities, which primarily consist of accounts payable, accrued liabilities, deferred revenue, and current portion of lease liabilities, loan payable, promissory note, and deferred consideration payable, total approximately $11.8 million. This gives us a current ratio of 1.2, as our current assets exceed our current liabilities by $2.8 million. The increase of $2.8 million is often referred to as working capital, which represents an increase in working capital of $1.1 million from $1.7 million at December 31, 2022.
The increase is due in part to cash of $4 million provided by operating activities in fiscal 2023, representing an increase of $5.9 million, from fiscal 2022, where operating activities used cash of $1.9 million and the restructuring of our debt. In September 2023, we restructured our debt obligations, namely the 2018 and 2022 secured notes, which have been extended to September 2025 and April 2026, respectively. In addition to extending the maturity date, we reduced the interest rate on both notes from 15% to 12%. Given the current interest rate environment, we believe the drop in the interest rate is a strong show of support from our existing debt holders.
Along with the restructuring of the debt, in fiscal 2023, we paid down the following principal debt amounts related to $1.2 million of promissory note, $1.6 million of loan repayment, and $675,000 of deferred consideration repayment. In addition to these principal debt payments, we made approximately $1.1 million in interest payments. To close, I want to highlight or reiterate that our focus on profitability has allowed us to make approximately $3.5 million of principal debt and deferred consideration repayments in fiscal 2023. This has created stability and deleveraged our balance sheet, so we are in a better position to refocus on growth. Moving forward, we'll continue to maintain and improve profitability, as well as looking for opportunities to scale our e-commerce and bricks-and-mortar operations.
Now, I'll turn the call back over to Shawn, who will go over our operational highlights for the company.
Okay, great. Thank you. In 2023, we successfully revamped our e-commerce platform, overcoming historical challenges stemming from legacy tech stack issue and fulfillment constraints. Moreover, we broadened our market reach by diversifying into new professional sectors such as commercial, multifamily, and hospitality. These initiatives resulted in notable enhancement of our gross margins to 38.5%, an increase of 3.8, and subsequent improvement in net margins or contribution to 31.7, an increase of 5.1, laying a solid foundation for addressing outstanding debt and fostering future growth. While our revenue experienced a decline from $92.2 million to $72.3 million, it was largely due to our deliberate scale-back of the e-commerce segment during the rebuilding phase. This tactical approach reflects our commitment to rectifying underperforming business models before scaling them back up.
Furthermore, alongside operational enhancements, we sharpened our company's mission and refined our growth strategy, setting the stage for sustained success. Currently, we remain focused on growing through the pursuit of potential strategic acquisitions. Our focus lies in acquiring pro and B2B-focused retailers at favorable multiples. Post-acquisition, we aim to optimize operations and drive value by leveraging procurement and marketing synergies. With a direct import supply chain, innovative e-commerce market seeding approach, and a proven track record of enhancing EBITDA through procurement and marketing synergies, BuildDirect is well-positioned to deliver exceptional value to Pro customers in local markets, setting us apart from competitors. In addition, we are also piloting organic growth strategies. In our organic flywheel, we first initiate our expansion by introducing e-commerce capabilities in a target market, fulfilling orders from the nearest Pro Center. As e-commerce penetration grows, we then deploy local in-market sales teams to solidify our presence.
Building upon this foundation, we establish a new Pro Center in-market, transitioning to local e-commerce fulfillment and expanding our product offering and services. It's important to note that our organic growth program is currently being piloted prior to larger scale expansion. As previously mentioned, we're piloting this concept in Richmond, BC, and are scouting potential additional test markets in the U.S. I'll now turn the call over to Rory, who will moderate the Q&A session.
Thanks, Shawn. So we'll now begin the Q&A session. As a reminder, questions can be submitted using the Zoom Q&A function at the bottom of your screen. If you're calling in to listen to this webinar, please email your questions directly to ir@builddirect.com. So the first question: What is the timing of scaling back, back up your e-commerce business, and potential impact on revenue in 2024 and 2025?
So on the build back up on e-commerce, I would say it's more than likely back-weighted for 2024, and then a stronger build in 2025. More color on that, so for e-commerce, because we import products directly and then build out that funnel up, it takes a bit of time to both build up the marketing funnel, onboard the additional team members, and also layer in inventory to support that business. And so, I would say it's a heavier weight in the back half of this year, and then much stronger in 2025 forward.
Okay. Next one we have here is: Given the economic backdrop in the U.S., have you changed your growth outlook for 2024?
So I would say, we definitely see some headwinds. O ne of the primary, you know, not predictors, but one of the primary inputs for the flooring industry is housing turnover. So new construction is not nearly as large of a segment as just moving homes, renovation projects, things like that. And so for us, we definitely see a bit of a headwind on that side. So I would say I expected, probably a bit softer this year than I would've thought otherwise if the rates would've come down. But with that, we're also expanding our segments on the Pro side, so not overly concerned frankly, but yeah, definitely very aware of the headwinds there.
Great. So the next one is, in Q4, you wrote down approximately $2.1 million related to intangible assets at Superb. Does this change your growth outlook for the business?
So for that segment, that segment in particular is tied more to the new construction side of the industry. But we've been successful there also, securing contracts on the commercial side and other sectors that were net new to that business. So, as you know, old customers and the value they're in washes out or declines, new are onboarded. So on the growth side of that business, the short answer is no. That write down doesn't change my view of that business.
Great. And then, just a general question about our acquisition strategy and pipeline, if you can provide a little kind of general update or information on that?
Sure. So, I'm assuming just in regards to timing, we're looking at things like that. W e have an active pipeline that we're working through. We're very specifically looking for the right partners to acquire that have a pro focus model and also have real synergies that we can leverage with our direct import. So for example, a lot of businesses, even larger ones, throughout North America, buy from mid-market distribution when they sell to professional customers. And so in situations like that, when we can acquire, there are some real synergies there on the procurement side, because we effectively can skip the mid-market distribution. And also we're finding on the marketing side, opportunities as well.
And so we're actively working through those companies, looking at the teams, the process, the customers, things like that, and are pretty optimistic about making some movements there.
Great. Seems to address most of the questions I believe we've got in. So if you had any other questions, again, you could submit them to ir@builddirect.com. And Shawn, do you have any closing comments?
I just want to thank everyone for joining, for following our story, and I really appreciate the time, so feel free to reach out with anything further.
Thank you, Shawn and Marshall. Just a reminder to those who are unfamiliar with BuildDirect, the company trades on the TSXV under the ticker BILD. The recording of today's earnings call will be uploaded onto BuildDirect's investor relations site within the next 24 hours. If you have additional questions that are not addressed during the call, please send them to ir@builddirect.com. And I'd just like to thank everyone for joining today. Thanks a lot, and take care.