Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for participating in today's conference call to discuss iPower's financial results for its fiscal second quarter, 2024, ended December 31, 2023. Joining us are iPower's Chairman and CEO, Mr. Lawrence Tan, and the company's CFO, Mr. Kevin Vassily. Mr. Vassily, please go ahead.
Thank you, operator, and good afternoon, everyone. By now, everyone should have access to our fiscal second quarter 2024 earnings press release, which was issued earlier today at approximately 4:05 P.M. Eastern Time. The release is available in the investor relations section of our website at ipower.com. This call will also be available for webcast replay on our website. Following our prepared remarks, we'll open the call for your questions. Before I introduce Lawrence, I'd like to remind listeners that certain comments made on this conference call and webcast are considered forward-looking statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are neither historical facts nor assurances of future performance.
Instead, they are based only on our current beliefs, expectations, and assumptions regarding the future of our business, future plans and strategies, projections, anticipated events and trends, state of the economy, and other future conditions. As forward-looking statements relate to the future, they are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks, and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict, and many of which are outside our control. Our actual results and financial condition may differ materially from those indicated in these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are also subject to other risks and uncertainties that are described from time to time in the company's filings with the SEC, including our annual report on Form 10-K, which was filed with the SEC on September 15, 2023. Do not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which are being made only as of the date of this call.
Except as required by law, the company undertakes no obligation to revise or publicly release the results of any revision to any forward-looking statements. With that, I would like to now turn the call over to iPower's Chairman and CEO, Mr. Lawrence Tan. Lawrence?
Thank you, Kevin, and good afternoon, everyone. In our fiscal second quarter, we continued to expand gross margin, drive down operating costs, and generated another period of positive cash flow from operations. We also gained further traction in our SuperSuite supply chain business, which represents an exciting opportunity for us as we continue to work through a robust pipeline of prospects with compelling product portfolios. Due to the improvement in the supply chain environment, our largest channel partner has progressively tightened their inventory management as shipping lead times have become more favorable. Although our order volumes were impacted for the quarter, we believe this channel partner's inventory is now at the preferred level, and we are well-equipped to meet the demand with the high quality, market-leading products that our customers expect.
Over the past several quarters, we have placed a strong emphasis on diversifying revenue, showcased by the launch of our SuperSuite supply chain offerings. We have also created a strong brand presence on social channel, commerce channel, like TikTok Shop, where we are an approved seller for both short-form videos and live shopping. Although the sales channel is now in its infancy, the early results are compelling, and we will continue to invest in the channel as it grows, both in the U.S. and abroad. As I mentioned earlier, we have building positive momentum in our SuperSuite business, which is growing at a strong clip. The acceleration of revenue, alongside a growing pipeline of prospects, reflects the strengths of our superior supply chain, warehousing, and merchandising expertise. We are optimistic about this area of our business and hope to have a few more partners in the coming quarters.
In addition to evaluating new partners for our SuperSuite business, we have also continued to pursue additional sales channel in the U.S. to expand our reach, diversify our client base, and explore omni-channel opportunities. For example, we currently have relationships with Home Depot and Lowe's, allowing us to sell products through their captive e-commerce sites. Although we have initiated with a small subset of our categories, we believe our portfolio is well aligned with Lowe's and Home Depot's in-store and online customer base. We are optimistic that this partnership will bring future omni-channel opportunities, specifically in brick and mortar. We look forward to deepening our relationship with Lowe's, Home Depot, and other current partners, as well as expanding into new channels across the United States. Turning to OpEx, we continue to drive material savings in our selling and fulfillment operations.
We no longer bear the burden of additional warehousing expenses, as we have sold through the bulk of our excess inventory. With the normalizations of supply chain, we can run our business with lower levels of inventory, specifically due to faster overseas shipping lead times. As of December 31st, we have brought down inventory level by 23% compared to June 30, 2023. We have also begun to outsource our warehouse staffing to a third party, lowering our production overhead. We expect to realize cost savings from this initiative over the medium to long run. Looking ahead, we will continue to evaluate each segment of our business to ensure our cost structure is both lean and to position for future growth.
We are seeing early signs of normalized order volume with our largest channel partner and look forward to continue providing them with our high-quality products. These actions, coupled with the acceleration of a SuperSuite business, will enable us to deliver on our goals with the aim of returning to profitability in 2024. I'll now turn the call over to our CFO, Kevin Vassily, and take you through our financial results in more detail. Kevin?
Thanks, Lawrence. Unless referenced otherwise, all variance commentary is in comparison to the prior quarter last year. So, let me dive into the fiscal Q2 results. Total revenue was $16.8 million, compared to $19.3 million in the prior period last year. The decrease was driven primarily by lower promotional activity as compared to last year, given our normalized inventory level right now, as well as lower order volumes from our largest channel partner, who is more tightly managing inventory levels due to the improved supply chain environment and shorter lead times to receive product. This was partially offset by growth in our SuperSuite supply chain business.
Gross profit in the fiscal quarter of 2024 was $7.3 million, compared to $8 million in the same quarter of fiscal 2023. As a percentage of revenue, gross margin increased 220 basis points to 43.6%, compared to 41.4% in the year ago period. The increase in gross margin was primarily driven by favorable product mix as we have worked through the bulk of our higher-priced inventory. Total operating expenses for fiscal Q2 improved 18% to $9.9 million, compared to $12.1 million for the same period in fiscal 2023. The decrease was primarily driven by lower selling fulfillment in the marketing expenses.
As Lawrence mentioned earlier, we've reduced our warehousing space now that we can keep lower levels of inventory on hand, given the improved supply chain environment. Net loss attributable to iPower in the fiscal second quarter improved 42% to $1.9 million or a $0.06 per share loss, compared to a net loss of $3.3 million or a $0.11 per share loss for the same period in fiscal 2023. The improvement in net loss was driven primarily by the higher gross margin and lower operating expenses. Moving to the balance sheet, cash and cash equivalents were $1.5 million as of December 31st, 2023, compared to $3.7 million in June 2023.
Total debts stood at $5 million, compared to $11.8 million, as of June 30, 2023. The decrease was driven by our continued efforts to pay down debt, resulted in a 56% reduction in net debt to $3.6 million, compared to $8.1 million as of June 30, 2023. For both fiscal Q2 and year to date, we continue to generate positive cash flow from operations. As Lawrence mentioned above, the work we've put in place to reduce our supply of high-cost inventory and optimize our cost structures continues, sorry, continues to bear fruit as we have achieved another period of 40%+ gross margins, and some meaningful OpEx savings.
In addition, we reduced total debt by approximately $2 million compared to the last quarter, demonstrating our commitment to strengthening the balance sheet where we can. Between these efforts, we've built a foundation to continue to deliver on our growth objectives and profitability objectives in 2024. This concludes our prepared remarks, and we'll now open it up for questions. Operator?
Thank you. At this time, we'll conduct a question-and-answer session. To ask a question, you will need to press star one one on your telephone and wait for a name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. One moment for our first question. Our first question will come from the line of Scott Fortune from Roth. Your line is open.
Yeah, good afternoon, and thanks for the questions. You mentioned lower promotional activity and tightened inventory by your largest channel partner, leading to kind of these lower order volumes here. Did seasonality play into this? And where are we in the progression of reaching normalized levels? We just want to get a sense of how you're viewing the overall health of the consumer and the sustainable trends kind of in your non-hydroponic category. And a follow-up on that, in looking at the kind of do-it-yourself hydroponic side of the business, has that stabilized, or is sales still decreasing in that segment with the non-hydroponic sales as a percentage increasing the overall mix? And just kind of follow up on, are you investing in the hydroponic space still?
And then kind of any further updates on the big partnership, big box partnerships, you mentioned Lowe's and Home Depot, and kind of meaningfully moving that forward. Sorry, a lot there, but just kind of getting a sense for this quarter's revenue and kind of normalization, where we can expect that kind of moving forward here.
... Sure.
Right.
You want- Yeah.
Yeah, go ahead, Lawrence, take it first, and then I'd like to add in after.
Oh, okay. So, to answer your question, I think the inventory level from our channel partner are now normalized, I think, in the level where they will start to ordering on a pre-pandemic paces. So we have seen inventories being piled up. We have seen the reduction inventory efforts. And now, I believe the December quarter finally to reduce the level to a pretty normalized level that we prefer to see. So that's pretty healthy. The second question for hydroponics. The hydroponics overall market has been pretty stable for us over the past couple years. I don't see the sales drop, but I don't think it will substantially expand in the near future.
It will more go with the overall bigger market segment. By saying that, you know, during the pandemic, we have captured some of the market share, even though the whole market segment has gone down, and we have been able to keep the sales in dollar amount. But as the organization grow, the percentage of the hydroponics will keep decreasing as it does not grow as fast as other parts of the organization. Is that, does that answer your question?
Yeah, just a follow-up on the big box partnerships you mentioned. Is that going to become more meaningful here in 2024? How you view that?
It's still in the early days. We're making slow progress, but steady. It's towards the right direction. We have built relationships, and we have got vendor IDs, and we've been working with multiple vendors through the online platform first. Should the online sales take off, and it will naturally introduce our product into their preferred buying for their offline sales channel, meaning going to the store. So it's a working progress compared to 12 months ago, where we had nothing. Now we have sales, we have channels. It just, I think it's making good progress.
Hey, Scott, it's Scott, it's Kevin. Just real, real quickly on the... Your first question as it pertains to seasonality, too. So I think we've talked about this, you know, before and with you. The December quarter has historically been our weakest quarter seasonally. The reference to promotional activity was with reference to last year's December quarter. If you recall, you know, we entered that December quarter pretty close to our peak in inventory levels, and we were pretty aggressive at promoting, you know, portions of that product catalog in an effort to bring that inventory level down. So, the December quarter last year probably was a little stronger than it would have otherwise been had we not been so promotional.
Now that our inventory levels are back to what we think is a healthy level, you know, we made a decision in this quarter not to promote, because we, you know, are trying to make progress getting back to that breakeven and then to the kind of profitability threshold. And so I think that those were the two drivers as it pertains to kind of what happened last year and kind of the seasonality of the business.
I appreciate that color. That's helpful. And then shifting gears, kind of, obviously, last year, you rolled out the business services offering, and you brought on two partners. But can you provide more of an update on the SuperSuite supply chain growth and the partnerships kind of moving forward here? I believe last quarter, you were generating about $600,000 a month or about $7 million annualized revenue run rate. Just a little additional color on the next steps or the traction of offering by adding new partnerships and what categories are really taking more interest from that side of the business here.
Um-
Yeah, Lawrence, why don't, yeah, why don't you take that as it pertains to kind of who we're looking at and kind of what we think could happen over the next couple of months, quarters?
Yes, that part of the business has been growing. It's been growing substantially quarter-over-quarter. For the existing partners, we've been working well, particularly well with one of them. I believe we'll expand our portfolio with more consumer electronics as well as some other consumer goods, including food and beverage. We have signed more supply chain in the food and beverage part. That part, I think SuperSuite is working well as planned.
... Got it. Okay, and last one for me, just on the operational side. Obviously, you're up against higher cost inventory, higher inflation costs, and freight, you mentioned warehousing, but that seems to all be cleared now. Are we gonna see kind of steady improvement in margins? Just kind of provide an update on the gross margin drivers here, and then kind of the cadence throughout 2024. But more importantly, as you bring on higher service margins there, improving towards returning to profitability and any color or view on the timing of profitability throughout 2024 here.
Sure. Let me take that. So, you know, we don't give specific guidance. You know, I think we're still committed to the goal of, you know, getting to profitability in 2024. I think the things that we've put in place to help take expense out, where we can, you know, aren't short-term fixes, but we're making progress. You know, on one front, you know, I'll talk about the cost of product. You know, we've put in place a number of initiatives with some of our key contract manufacturing partners to help lower the cost of goods sold for us, which will, over time, provide us with even healthier gross margins.
You know, I think that's one of the areas where, you know, given our experience with the supply chain and our long relationships there, our ability to improve on that front, you know, is a real one. And secondly, we've never been either the lowest cost provider or the highest premium provider. We've been, like, what we like to call kind of the sweet spot of value for customers, which means our prices, you do have some room to go up if we choose to selectively do that. So there are some areas where, you know, we could pursue and will pursue, you know, very small price increases that will help also boost that gross margin line.
While there's gonna be variability from quarter to quarter, we still feel good about the idea that we can continue to push gross margins upward from here. That's one area. Secondly, we are working on a number of other initiatives on the OpEx side that we think can help bring costs down as well. You know, one that I think we can talk about is, you know, we've engaged with, you know, another kind of logistics/shipping partner where we feel like we can take meaningful costs out of the cost of shipping product, you know, out to customers, that you know we just kind of inked a contract over the last, probably in the last two months. And so as the balance of this calendar year rolls out, you know, some of that cost savings will roll through as well.
So, you know, I think the foundation has been laid and to continue to improve. But, I mean, you hit on a pretty important point. Some of the hard work is in the rear view mirror for us now. You know, we have reduced that inventory. Our inventory now sits at a more normalized level. You know, aside from some pockets, we haven't completely cleared all of it out, but, you know, we can bleed some of the rest of that out in a way that won't be hugely detrimental. And then, you know, just the cost of, you know, operating with that lower inventory accrues benefits to us as well. So, you know, I still think that we see profitability kind of on the horizon.
The question will be how quickly we get to that horizon, but it's there, so we're optimistic.
Thank you. I appreciate the update.
Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question will come from the line of Thierry Wuilloud from Water Tower Research. Your line is open.
Hi, good afternoon, gentlemen. This is Shawn Severson in for Thierry. Just had a question about the move into kind of the bricks and mortar side. And when you're talking about going from online to in retail, what are some of the criteria that you're looking at over the near term? I guess, how would that rollout look? And are there certain metrics or decisions that need to be made by the retailers, or what's the framework for a rollout there?
Once it's pretty much based on two things. One is the sales on particular SKUs. Now, once the sales become a certain volume, it will, the retailer will have the data to support their decision making. Now, secondly, is the product roadmap, how well the line of products that we can bring in in the future as well, not just the ones that lead our way into the store. So the first... We're working on the first step and the second step at the same time, where once the sales volume has achieved a certain level, we will get more attentions and potentially some SKUs get opportunities into the store.
Now, would this be just for a limited number of stores initially, or is this kinda gonna be looking across a region or, you know, a small region or large region? How would they address the size of the rollout?
It depends on the specific retailers and the category manager. Usually, I think it will be a trial period to certain number of stores and then depends on whether the product is a national product, it will go to all the stores.
Great, thanks. My last question is, any update on international in the quarter?
There's nothing particular. I think it's, it's kind, it's similar to what before. There's not much can mention here.
Okay. Okay, great. Thank you, gentlemen.
Thank you, Shawn.
Thank you. One moment for any more questions. Looks like we have a follow-up from Scott Fortune, from Roth, from Roth. Your line is open. Scott, your line is open. Okay. There are no further questions in the queue. I'll turn it back to Kevin for any closing remarks.
Okay. I just wanted to say thank you again to everyone for joining us today. We look forward to speaking with you again next quarter, or at an upcoming conference. Thanks again. Bye.
Thank you.
Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Everyone, have a great day.