All right, great. So we're pleased to have The Andersons here with us for our next discussion. The Andersons plays an integral role in the U.S. ag supply chain across its three main businesses: grain storage and merchandising, ethanol production, and plant nutrients. Over the last several years, the company's taken actions to streamline its business and enhance core operations through investments in efficiencies, driving superior margin realization and extension into higher-value revenue streams. The efforts have enabled The Andersons to establish and then raise its 2025 EBITDA target. We're pleased to have with us CFO Brian Valentine and COO Bill Krueger. Welcome. Thanks both for being here with us.
Thanks for having us.
Thank you.
So maybe, I guess, where I wanted to start is kind of on the model that you have and the asset-light model that you guys employ. Can you talk about the advantages of that for your business? And do you expect any changes to that or see any reason to change that over time?
Sure. I'll start with thanking everyone this morning. It's great to be at this event. It always is. The first thing that when I get asked this question, which I have a lot the last five years, we need to start with the concept that The Andersons is the sixth largest grain company in North America in terms of fixed assets and the fifth largest ethanol company. So we, in fact, do have substantial fixed assets. Over the last five years, what we've done is divest of our inefficient grain assets, one ethanol plant, while simultaneously growing a substantial asset-light model, as we define that.
And we have found that we've been able to leverage our current assets and also be able to take advantage of the more than 25,000 producer relationships that we have across the system in the U.S. and Canada. So from our perspective, we're not opposed to fixed assets. In fact, we're making a lot of capital assets in our ethanol plants and substantial maintenance capital and growth capital in our current grain assets. We are looking for opportunities to where we can take our footprint as it currently is and continue to extend it, whether that's through asset-light, merchandising businesses or fixed assets.
Want to just add to that a little bit. One of the things that we've—you've probably heard us talk about before was really the complementary nature of the combination of The Andersons' with Lansing and Thompsons'. Granted, that was 5.5 years ago already, but it was complementary from an Eastern-Western footprint within the U.S., but also trading and merchandising and assets that balance between the two, and so I think that's been a really nice thing. But we really have the business. If you think of it as a portfolio, within our trade business, we have more than 50 profit centers, and it's those profit centers have direct line of sight and are incentivized really to it is their own little profit center. It's kind of an EVA model, if you will.
And so we really like that it gives them that line of sight, and it gives the incentive for them to drive cash flows and drive profitability.
When you think about the outlook that you've provided for 2025, kind of, yeah, obviously, going back, so that was a forward view several years. Now, you've talked about a bit of a more challenged operating environment, especially from a grain perspective. I guess, what's your level of confidence in achieving that 2025 number, and how do you think about building to that, whether it's internal, external acquisitions, those types of things? What's the build and the confidence level in those numbers?
Yeah, I mean, I, as we think about that number, so we have a $475 million EBITDA run rate target by 2025. We've said consistently that we expect about half of that to come through M&A. It's probably a little bit more than that that would be necessary now, given, given how the markets have shifted. What I would say, though, is we feel good about a lot of the deals that we've been seeing. We've been seeing the pipeline has been increasingly active, and it's really been across all of our segments. So if we think about trade, renewables, when we think about our fertilizer businesses, we've been seeing a lot more activity and a lot more deals coming to market. Now, the question, of course, is: Are people gonna be expecting peak valuations, or are they coming off?
But are there some places where we're able to get some things done? So I'd say we feel good on the whole, but we're gonna take a responsible, disciplined approach. We're gonna make sure that we're generating appropriate shareholder returns, and so, you know, if at such time, that number needs to change a little bit, we'll, we'll modify it. We're in the process, actually, of doing a refresh of our strategy. So three years ago, back in 2021, we did a deep dive corporate strategy review. We did use an outside consultant with that. That ultimately led us to divest to the rail segment or the rail business back in 2021 and 2022. We're doing a refresh of that now.
I don't see a massive shift change, but if you think about all the dynamics that have changed in the renewable space over the last three years, if you think about EV penetration rate changes and more hybrids, the Inflation Reduction Act wasn't a thing three years ago. So there's a lot of things that are on point and on trend that we'll be bringing into that mix as well.
What about from an internal kind of growth capital perspective? What does the pipeline look like at this point? What is attractive or priorities, and kind of how do you think about the returns you get on that capital allocation?
Yeah, I mean, I would say right now the internal growth pipeline is pretty robust and active. We've said we expect to spend between $150 and $175 million of CapEx this year, and we expect about half of that will be maintenance CapEx, the rest will be growth capital. And that does exclude any M&A investments. If we think about it, and Bill can certainly chime in and talk more about this, but if we think about the... I would say it's probably renewables, then trade, then fertilizer from a order of magnitude. And when we think about returns, a lot of those projects, so a lot of those projects, I would say, are kind of in the teens, the growth projects that we're looking at.
But really, we need those higher returns to offset all that maintenance capital that essentially is stay in business and has no real effective return from that perspective. I don't know, Bill, if you want anything more on the projects.
I agree.
Can you talk about how you characterized the grain environment as sluggish, I believe, on the last earnings call? Can you talk a little bit about what you're seeing there? How much of that is timing of farmer selling or demand? How much of it is kind of the nature of where we are from a broader kind of ending stock, supply, demand perspective? Maybe if you can run through kind of the operating environment currently.
Sure. The one thing I would add to Brian is looking at deals, we are not going to chase EBITDA-
Right
... for lower returns. We've had plenty of opportunities the last three years to do that, and we are disciplined. We're looking out for the long-term aspect of the shareholder. We're committed in our belief that our strategy will work. And specifically, you know, for those of us who've been in the industry for a while, we see cycles. There's benefits to cycles. Deal flow is going to increase, we're certain of that. But specific to your question, we're in a pretty good equilibrium today globally, looking at supply and demand. Specifically to the North American producer, they did get caught on the downdraft, late Q4, Q1.
Mm-hmm.
Now, the last 30 days, they've had a very nice corn rally. December corn now above $5. We've seen a lot of movement. That opportunity is what we just need to be patient for. Whether it's our grain elevators or our ethanol plants, we feel like that is one of our key competencies, is having the patience and being there when the market provides opportunities. You know, we're gonna see a changing dynamic across the entire U.S. ag sector as new soybean crush comes online, as RD plants become a little bit more efficient and are able to run. So the dynamics are gonna present a lot of opportunities, and that's where we're trying to be well-positioned to take advantage of that.
I guess, does it change the year as a whole, the current operating environment, versus maybe what you would've expected coming in, or does it just change or impact the cadence of the earnings through the year?
Yeah, it is, it's the latter. The cadence is really what is affected the most and, you know, we've talked about it pretty clearly. You know, the trade side of it, we're not gonna see the volatility unless something changes dramatically, and it has to be weather driven, it appears, this year. So we're gonna look for those opportunities. Simultaneously, though, with the amount of elevator space that we do have, the carries that we're seeing come back into the wheat market, the carries that we plan to see with the size of the corn market should provide a lot of benefits.
I mean, I would say, generally speaking, what's good for the farmer is gonna be good for The Andersons. But we should be more price-agnostic. However, high prices, volatility are gonna tend to be better. I think to Bill's point, we do feel like it shifts more of it to the back end of this year, on a relative basis. And, you know, given the environment, you know, carries will be good for our business, but they won't necessarily offset all the volatility that we've seen in the past couple of years.
Can you talk a little bit more about the carry and how that impacts your business? How you guys are positioned to capitalize on that, given the return of the carry in the wheat market?
Sure. Being one of the few delivery companies in the U.S. against the Chicago soft wheat contract provides benefits. We have seen the first variable storage rate trigger, which adds $0.03 a bushel. But more importantly, what it allows us to do is continue to maximize our origination with producers, whether it's in Ontario, the Eastern U.S., and really focus on accumulating that basis at harvest or pre-harvest. We've seen a lot of new crop wheat and corn move with this rally, and so we're able to buy reasonable basis and take advantage of that. Brian can talk to how strong our balance sheet is and our ability to leverage our working capital lines and capture that carry.
You know, wheat today is substantially higher returning for all grain elevators in terms of carry versus corn. Corn's good, but wheat's really good.
You mentioned what is good for the farmer is good for the Andersons. How would you characterize the health of the U.S. farmer at this point? What implications, I guess, does that have from a farmer selling a fertilizer demand perspective as you look forward?
Go ahead.
You know, the farmers had three really good years. Cost of production, most people, like, would say $5 for corn. Maybe it's a little lower in some areas, a little higher in others, but as a good measure, the producer has done well. Fertilizer prices have really come down. The application rates for fertilizer are much more dry-weather driven than the health of the producer. They're going to put the fertilizer down, and we're seeing that. It's been an interesting start to the year, as I talk with our PN team, you know, generally you just see the flow across the Eastern Corn Belt, Western Corn Belt. Western Corn Belt has done fairly well getting applications, spring applications down. Eastern Corn Belt's kind of bounced around.
You know, weather forecast this morning looks good for the next seven days. We'll get the corn planted, we'll get the fertilizer down. It's just a function of timing.
How does what's going on in South America maybe impact how you're thinking about the rest of the year? We have slow farmer selling there, obviously, you've got floods on the soybean side, you've got Argentina on the corn side with some disease issues. I guess, to what degree is that able to impact the grain operating environment in the U.S. and the earnings outlook for you guys?
Yeah, South America doesn't have a large effect on the Andersons' earnings outlook. You know, we're a North American supply chain company. Yeah, it will affect exports, it will affect the competitive nature, but our target markets really are the North American consumer. Across the board, they're doing pretty well. Consumer meaning what, the meat companies, ethanol companies, flour milling companies, when I mention consumers. So they're having a reasonably good year. Our outlook is that we feel like the last half of the year could be really good for the Andersons. We do pay attention to South America. I mean, daily, we are getting reports, but in terms of our earnings, it's not material.
You know, focusing on Black Sea wheat is something that probably has more effect on The Andersons' earnings. Again, not material, but we are a big player in the U.S. wheat market, whether it's exports out of Houston, whether it's our ability to carry wheat in Toledo, or our ability just to work with the U.S. flour milling. So, if you want to talk international, we're probably paying more attention to that today than we are specifically to South American premiums.
Can you talk a little bit more about the impact that basis has had on your business? And maybe if you think regionally about what's going on.
Mm-hmm.
You did mention the ability to buy grains at better basis levels. I guess, can you frame it versus history and maybe where we've been regionally?
Yeah. So, again, when we talk volatility, that's what we're talking about as an, as an organization, right? Is basis volatility. We really like that. It's, it's good for our company. With over 200 merchants spread across the U.S., we're able to take that information and capitalize on it. So far, we've had pretty weak basis in general compared to the last couple of years in the Eastern Corn basis, or in the Eastern Corn Belt, excuse me, and, and that's brought a lot of benefit to our ethanol plants. It's, it's allowed us to gain ownership and be able to offset some of the co-product values with cheaper corn basis. DDG values are lower, DCO is lower, with soybean oil being lower. So it's really been a benefit to us in the east.
In the west, quite honestly, it's been a slow rise and a slow fall with this recent corn rally. So it's kind of been ho-hum, so to speak. You know, we're able to take advantage of it, but not the opportunities that we've seen in the last two or three years, which was what Brian was referencing.
Okay. On the ethanol side, can you talk about how, you know, your assets and your frankly, the margin realization that you guys have relative to what we look at from an industry perspective is extremely impressive. Can you talk about what drives kind of that superior performance? And maybe frame some of the puts and takes for that for us.
Yeah, I think it's kind of a simple model. We have really good plants that are well-maintained and efficiently operated. We have a high level of focus on making sure that we run the plants efficiently. We couple that with the core competencies that we've just been talking about on our ability to originate corn, sell DDGs, sell DCO, and sell ethanol at or above our market competitors. And when you put those two together, you're gonna consistently have higher returns than maybe some others in the industry. And our ethanol plants benefit greatly from the knowledge that I was talking about earlier. We understand what western ethanol plants are paying for corn. We know how that's gonna relate to our eastern plants, and vice versa. So we're able to take that information and really capitalize on it.
Yeah, I mean, I would just add to that a little bit. I think we consistently are investing in the plants so that they are top quartile, top decile plants. We just came off all of our spring maintenance over the past month or so. That all went well. The other thing I would say, though, is particularly our three eastern plants are what I would call geographically advantaged. If you think about the markets that you're serving and where some of the finished product is going, even with our Albion, Michigan plant and the Detroit market, and you're close to the... So you get some logistics advantages as well.
How do you see the ethanol environment, margin environment playing out from here, maybe through 2025? There's, you know, a lot of moving pieces, obviously, and so if you could kind of think about the drivers of that outlook, the components maybe of the margin build to kind of frame, frame how you expect that to evolve.
Yeah, I feel very positive on the outlook. You know, we all are looking at ways to sequester carbon, focus on the 45Z. The opportunities for The Andersons, not only are figuring out, in the East, all three of our plants, we believe are geologically capable of, either on premise or very close to, being able to sequester, CO2. We think, that Denison, obviously, is very close to the, pipeline that, has been talked about a lot. And so for all four of our plants, we have a path for carbon capture sequestration.
Simultaneously, as you look at the recent 40B ruling, the fact that we are able to, whether the products are bundled, as the 40B had mentioned, or if we looked at individual farming practices, again, we buy over 80% of all of our corn to our ethanol plants directly from the producers. No different than we do at our grain elevators. So we're able to combine our plant nutrient group with our originators at our facility and help them figure out the farming practices that are gonna allow them to reduce the CI score of the corn. So we feel like both sides of that equation, we have, we're able to capitalize on, and we're focused on it very heavily as a group.
Do you feel like the guidance that was provided is the right way to think about maybe once we get into the 45Z, and on a go-forward basis, obviously there's going to be updated guidance even-
Mm-hmm
... again, beyond that. So, how do you expect that to evolve? And maybe what's the appetite if you don't have carbon sequestration, or maybe that's, you know, for some folks, years away, how... What's the appetite for the farmer to maybe meet some of those criteria, that would be required?
It's gonna be all about the economic return for the producer. And so I'm not so sure that, when you say far away, two or three years down the road, there are gonna be a fair number of ethanol plants that are able to sequester the carbon.
Mm-hmm.
I think that will happen. I think the producers are very interested, specifically in these, lower-priced environment, you know, corn below $5, they're very interested in finding opportunities, for premiums. Now, many of the good producers are already well down the path of good farming practices. So we think just being able to enhance that with them and helping them figure out the right way to be able to keep the records on it, that's one area that we think is gonna be very critical. The 45Z is gonna have to figure out or address that for producers specifically, as you look at the ethanol production. But we do think that that's gonna create an opportunity.
From an investment perspective on your side, to be able to, to capitalize on that, how do you think about the needs there?
The needs on the producer side, quite honestly, are a little bit of sweat equity and some infrastructure IT spend. We have the producers already. We're already buying from those producers. So we see that as kind of low-hanging fruit and just doing what we've done for 75 years. On the CCUS side, there's a lot of opportunities. You can either partner, obviously, the pipeline. So I think as we continue to go down the path of 45Z, those opportunities are gonna come out, and I think there's gonna be a way to either do it on your own or partner.
Okay. The implications of SAF for underlying ethanol fundamentals seems like there's been some gallons that, you know, it's gonna take some supply off the market. I guess, is that a... Is, is it fair to think of that as a meaningful positive for kind of underlying ethanol margins, or, or is there something that would maybe prevent that from being the case?
I think the near term to mid-term focus needs to be CI reduction of the ethanol.
Mm-hmm.
I think that there are a lot of people trying to figure out where SAF and when SAF comes into play. For an ethanol producer, my thoughts are focus the next three years on being able to reduce the CI score of your ethanol, because that will give you a benefit, whether it's over the road, ethanol, or SAF.
And I think at a macro level, our view is that the plants that are gonna win are gonna be the higher production plants that are the highest efficiency with the lowest carbon intensity score. So regardless of some of that, 'cause SAF does feel like it will get here eventually, but it feels like it's probably, you know, call it 3, 5, 7 years out. But there's a lot of opportunities in the meantime, and if you're running the biggest plants, the best plants, the geographic locations, et cetera, et cetera, and you have the better corn basis, all those dynamics and just continuing to try to be the most efficient producer, we think those are the people that are gonna win.
That makes sense.
We have been pretty vocal or very public that we are interested in growing in ethanol production, whether that's acquisition of new plants or additions to our current plants. But to Brian's point, the criteria is very rigid on where we would invest and how we would invest.
Can you talk about, I mean, specific to ethanol, it's an interesting one, right? I mean, especially given the quality of your assets and some of those things. So I guess when you think about the range of possibilities there from growing your capacity, et cetera, I mean, what does that opportunity set look like in that criteria?
The criteria is, it's not a large data set, as we've looked through all the plants. We have a scorecard internally. We've had it for probably 2.5 years now, evaluating plants, but we're going to look for the largest, most efficient plants that have geology to be able to do CCS. Then it's going to depend on geographic location. We just talked about the risk management capabilities of corn origination, DDGs, corn oil, and we need those to all materialize. There have been a number of ethanol plants that have talked to us, and to date, we've not been able to find any that make sense and cover all that criteria.
Can we, maybe shift gears to the corn oil side? I'm curious how you guys are thinking about the outlook for corn oil prices, which have been volatile with the broader kind of veg oil complex. We know that we have renewable diesel capacity that's coming on. We have crush capacity that's coming on as well. I guess, how are you thinking about the go-forward expectations for corn oil prices?
That, that could take the rest of the time to answer. There, there are a lot of variables in that question. You know, clearly, RD production is going to drive the demand for RD feedstock. I'm stating the obvious a little bit there, but, but you, you have to create your opinion on that, okay? And then it's going to become, now, what are the competing feedstocks? And I, I know... I'm going to answer your question.
Sure.
But, we've all read about some of the Chinese UCO, the arbs closed today, but, you know, we do have to focus on the ability for international feedstocks to come in. Then we need to figure, look at the soybean oil capacity. We, soybean oil is higher CI than corn oil, but at a point, the, the price is going to come from the overall supply versus the demand. So those two variables are going to be a real driver of the, the DCO price. And, you know, a, a good measure for DCO is monitoring the, the soybean oil futures. You know, I tell, I tell everyone that wants to model that, that, focus on the soybean oil futures, and you're going to be relatively close. I mean, the, the CI score should have it trading slightly higher.
Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. You know, you do have feed demand for the corn oil also, but our outlook is going to be heavily dependent on the RD plants coming online or improving their efficiency, soybean crush, and that's going to drive the DCO pricing.
If I... And I haven't looked in the last couple days-
Mm-hmm.
... there's been a lot of volatility in soybean oil prices-
Yep
... the last couple days. If I remember correctly, the curve was kind of flattish-
Mm-hmm
... on a go-forward basis, but to your point, lots of puts and takes from the demand and supply side. I guess, do you view that as more positives than negatives, more negatives than positives? I guess if you had to kind of think about a flattish curve, does that just feel like the right place to be?
I like the thought of a flattish curve. Things will have to dramatically change to go back to $0.80.
Right. Sure.
Okay? Does it need to be $0.38-$0.40? Probably not. I think a relative term and charts would indicate it needs to be somewhere towards the lower end of the middle of that range.
Got it. Okay.
So.
In terms of your low CI, you know, feedstock merchandising, how far along are you in terms of making progress in that, in that area, versus how big of an opportunity you see that as, you know, that, that, that becomes, obviously a more important piece of the equation from a biofuels policy perspective?
Yeah, I mean, so we started, we established a veg oil trading profit center back in 2021, I guess it was, 2021 or 2022, so it's been two or three years now. And it was a good example of trying to be sort of nimble and innovative and entrepreneurial. We took, we took some of our top talent, they stood up this trading desk. Last year, we traded 1.3 billion pounds of renewable diesel feedstocks. We have a goal of getting to 2 billion pounds. Now, the margin environment has changed a little bit, it's come off, but I would say on the whole, when you combine... If you think about it, one of the things that we've been trying to do, we talk a lot about our ethanol plants and efficiency and production.
One of the things we've been trying to do in our renewables segment, though, is also differentiate and expand outside the four walls of the ethanol plant. This is an example of doing that. When you combine it with some of our third-party ethanol trading and some of the, DDGs and things like that, that is probably order of magnitude, call it 20%-ish, plus or minus, of that, of that segment now.
Got it. Okay. I wanted to circle back to something I forgot to ask about, on the ethanol side, and that's the export environment-
Mm-hmm
... for ethanol. Can you talk about your expectations there? We've heard some projections of very large numbers for exports from some players. So, which markets do you see as the biggest opportunities? How are you seeing that kind of play into the margin outlook on a go-forward basis?
... Yeah, I mean, the numbers indicate that export demand is up. I think we're up 27% in Q1 on exports. Internally, we think the number's 1.7, maybe 1.75, for 2024, which is I think up from just under $1.5 billion last year. I mean, Canada has been the country that we have focused the most on as The Andersons on exports. But that market will continue to go to where the economics drive it. Today, the U.S. is a really good supplier to the world ethanol consumption.
Shifting gears maybe a little bit-
Mm-hmm.
To the value-added ingredients business. You know, I'm curious your conversations with customers. I guess we've heard a little bit of hesitancy to pay up for some of the more value-added ingredients, a little bit more trade-down. Can you talk about what you're seeing from that perspective, and how the business is positioned for the environment?
I think there's two very different answers on that, and I'm gonna hit on both of them real quick. The first one is the pet food ingredient business. I think your comment is spot on. I think that some of the... what I had always referenced to as the ultra-high premium pet food ingredients, the top's come off that. Whether it's inflation, you know, it's not lack of demand, but I think there's a number of reasons why. It's just the consumer's wallet is stretched right now, and so we are seeing that come off.
Now, to the inverse of that question, I do believe that there's an opportunity, maybe not as you would classify it, as premium ingredients, but CPG companies are willing to work with ag companies today on sustainable practices and work with producers over an extended period of time. Yes, they are wise, and they realize that low CI ethanol could be a competing factor. But we have really seen a pickup in the number of acres that the Andersons are able to contract for an extended period of time with the producer and the CPGs, and that goes to labeling. And so, there's two sides to that question, and we're we really feel like we're we understand both of them and see the opportunities on working with the CPGs.
And I would say our premium ingredients pillar is a business we feel good about the growth that's happened in that sector the past few years. We've been able to string together a few acquisitions, albeit small, with ACJ International, Bridge Agri. We've also had some growth projects on sort of the food corn side of it. So when you kind of stack some of these together, yeah, there may be $5-$10 million of EBITDA, but they're kind of this, those nice, logical things that fit and have efficiencies, and you're able to slot right in. I guess I'd weave it back a little bit, though, to your earlier question on M&A. You know, we would love to be...
We've done a lot of what we call kind of singles, and some of them have been even smaller than that. But we'd love to do some stuff that is in kind of the, you know, $20 million, $30 million EBITDA. Maybe getting into the sweet spot we'd love to see would be $100-300 million type deals, and given the strength of our balance sheet, we'd—you know, that would be great. We're seeing more activity, but again, it comes back to valuation, and it comes back to fit, and, you know, our ability to add value.
What is the environment for M&A like now? I mean, when you just see the conversations around valuation, is that a hindrance, or are you seeing more assets that are attractive come to market? Obviously, interest rates being high maybe helps. I guess I'm curious for, for what the environment's like now versus where we've been.
Yeah, I would say the past 2, 3, 4 months we've seen it increase. It's becoming more robust. There's more stuff coming to market, and it's really across all of our businesses. And I would say that, you know, the question is, are some of them... Are there places where people become capital-constrained, and they're a little more distressed? Are there some opportunities there? Perhaps. But I would say no, it's been a more robust environment, and it's been, like we say, across all the segments.
Can you maybe just talk about the philosophy, singles and doubles versus maybe a little bit larger-
Yep
... and why that makes sense now? Is that something that more permanently shifts a little bit higher, just given the nature of the business now, or is that something where that's opportunistic, but singles and doubles is really gonna be the sweet spot over time?
I mean, I think singles and doubles is the sweet spot over time. I would say, look, we would love to do... So if you asked what would we characterize as a home run, it would be a deal like the Lansing transaction. We'd love to do another deal like that. It's just that they're few and far between, and they're not really actionable. So in the interim, are there some places where there might be some, you know, I guess we'd call them doubles or maybe even the occasional triple? I think, you know, the answer to that is yes. And we feel fortunate we're in a really good spot from a balance sheet perspective. I mean, our long-term debt to EBITDA is 1.5 times.
We have a stated target of being below 2.5x, but we've got a lot of opportunity from that perspective. And, you know, for the right deal, we wouldn't be opposed to using equity, too.
What about in the turf business? You know, that's one where you've made some acquisitions as well. Can you talk about the ability to continue to grow that business over time? Is there, you know, maybe the different levers that you see, in the environment there?
Go ahead.
All right. If you look at our PN or our plant nutrient group, turf is one of the smaller areas, but it's an area that we see the value add.
Mm-hmm.
So we did just close on the acquisition of Reed & Perrine in New Jersey, which just is an extension of a geographic footprint for that business. But turf really is an extension of our fertilizer business, and if you look at the capabilities and our ability to grow in that business, for years we've targeted the Eastern Corn Belt only. And with the opportunities, whether it's 45Z related, whether it's just better farming practices, whether it's us growing, we really see the opportunity in a combination of our wholesale business, which is the largest part of that business, our specialty liquids, which does focus on low salt starters, foliar that we have some IP work on.
And then in addition to that, our farm center business in the east, which ties those all together, we're not afraid to look for opportunities of growing in that. So when you look at those four together, they really tie into each other, and our goal is to continue to tie that into both trade and renewables.
Then maybe just, just to close, I mean, you, you, almost where we started, you, you guys provided the 2025 target a couple years ago. You've made a lot of progress with the business, raised that number, the operating environment's evolved. How, how do you think about kind of on a go-forward past 2025, That, that EBITDA trajectory over time, the greatest areas of opportunity to continue to, to, to build that, 'cause now 2025, it feels like is around the corner? So I, I guess, how, how, how are you thinking about that?
Yeah, I mean, I would say a combination of things. I mean, I think we feel, we feel really good about the balance sheet strength that we mentioned a moment ago. If we think about where we probably would say the order of magnitude, it's probably renewables, then trade, then fertilizer. And then the reality is we wanna make smart decisions and disciplined decisions. We've spent a lot of time the past several years really focused on earnings, cash flows, and return on invested capital, and so it's really about driving for those results that are gonna be best for shareholder returns and all our stakeholders.
Great. I think we'll go ahead and call it there. We're out of time, so thank you very much for being here.
Thanks. Appreciate it. Really appreciate it.