All right. Hello, everyone, and thank you all for joining us during the Lytham Partners Spring 2025 Investor Conference. Again, my name is Robert Partner at Lytham Partners. Today, Chad Summers, Chief Executive Officer of Jewett-Cameron, will be taking us through a slide presentation, and then we'll follow that up by a brief Q&A session. Jewett-Cameron trades on the NASDAQ under the ticker JCTC. All right, let's go ahead and get started. Chad, welcome.
Thank you, Robert, and thank you for everyone listening. I'm excited to present to you today. I'll begin by saying that Jewett-Cameron is a small cap with large cap potential. We serve durable markets with functional products. The organization is investing wisely for growth, improved margins and cash flow, and shareholder value creation in the years ahead. For investors seeking a fundamentally sound, asset-based, growth-focused company with room to re-rate, Jewett-Cameron is well worth a closer look. If you were to ask, who exactly is Jewett-Cameron and what does the company offer that would interest investors and compel them to invest? I would say Jewett-Cameron is a 70-year-old NASDAQ-listed company that designs, sources, and delivers innovative, practical solutions for professionals, DIYers, and pet owners, primarily focused on fencing, pet containment, and sustainable home products. We are more than just a product company.
We're a business in the midst of strategic transformation. Historically lean, opportunistic, Jewett-Cameron has evolved in recent years into a focused, growth-oriented platform with clear product leadership and categories that serve everyday needs in outdoor living and home improvement. Here's what sets us apart and why investors are taking interest. We offer proven, high-utility products that solve real problems, such as Adjust-A-Gate, Lifetime Steel Post, which lead the fencing category in strength, ease of use, and design innovation. We have My Eco World, which offers compostable, post-consumer recycled alternatives in growing global market focused on sustainability. We also have Lucky Dog, which provides durable, safe pet containment solutions, a staple in resilient pet ownership market. We have deep retail relationships with shelf presence and growth momentum. We're trusted by top-tier national retailers such as Home Depot, Lowe's, and Costco.
Our products are on shelf, they're online, and our in-aisle display program continues to grow, providing products where consumers want them in the right stores, in the right locations, and acting like mini storefronts that drive recurring sell-through and replenishment. We also have a strategic supply chain built for today's global trade reality. We've proactively diversified our sourcing to include China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and even Indonesia, giving us flexibility to offer quality and well-priced products from multiple sources in response to geopolitical pressures or natural disasters as needed. We have a disciplined, innovative-led growth platform. From patent-pending anti-sag technology to low-profile steel frame designs and eco-friendly bag innovations, we lead with differentiated products that create stickiness with consumers and retailers alike. As you can see here, we are undervalued with a strong potential upside. We're trading at a steep discount to book value.
We have no long-term debt and a valuable 11.6-acre property on the market that could deliver a significant one-time boost to equity upon sale. We're actively transitioning from a turnaround to growth mode, executing on pricing, optimization, expanding distribution, and reducing overhead to drive long-term profitability. Our primary product category is fence products made up of fence board pickets and steel fence accessories, including our gates and posts, as well as our composite Euro Fence products. Pet containment is our second largest product category, made up of welded wire and chain-link dog kennels primarily. Our newest category is our sustainable products, made up of compostable and post-consumer recycled bag products for bin liners and dog waste bags.
Our Greenw ood is our industrial wood products specialty lumber trading subsidiary, with an emphasis on proprietary plywood panel products for transit buses and motor coaches, but has the flexibility to serve construction and other industries as well. Here you can see the growth of our metal fence products through the pandemic and beyond. Our wood sales previously fluctuated quite a bit from year to year, but now that we have an agreement as the primary supplier for several DCs of a major retailer, our sales have stabilized and have the ability to grow from this baseline. The pet category, as you can see here, grew during the pandemic and continues to adjust to the downstream inventory effects that followed.
Our sustainable category experienced early success with our previously branded Lucky Dog compostable pet waste bags, but we rebranded to expand the product offering to include bin liners and yard debris bags, and it is beginning to grow impressively over the last year, even into new channels such as grocery. Finally, our Greenwood sales experienced a decline during the pandemic due to supply shortages of other materials needed for bus manufacturers, for example, but has since rebounded. This gives you a better visual of our fence products and brands that make up our fence product category. Now, our best-selling product is our Adjust-A-Gate. Our adjustable full steel frame gate is designed to accommodate a gate opening perfectly and prevent sag.
Late last year, we actually introduced our new innovative Four-Corner Adjust-A- Gate Unlimited Gate, the only complete gate kit of its kind on the market offered today. We also offer a chain-link version of an adjustable gate. Our fastest-growing product right now is our Lifetime Steel Post, which we launched only a few short years ago, and it's now being put in displayers in the lumber aisle to better serve consumers looking to build a fence with a post that will last. I'll talk more about that here in a second. We also offer a high-end, low-maintenance composite fence system called the Euro Fence and our Perimeter Patrol, which is a temporary fence system built to be portable and storable for site security and convenience.
Over there on the far right, of course, is our Cedar Fence Pickets products, which include a highly desired Western Red Cedar supply as well as alternative quality import cedar products as well. The Lifetime Steel Post displayer has been a transformational growth driver for us. Each fence project, as you can imagine, includes one or two gates, but dozens of posts. The time, labor, and materials to install a traditional treated four-by-four post can be expensive, and over time, they will rot and require replacement. Our Lifetime Steel Post reduces installation time, labor, and materials and is built to last. Having these steel fence posts available in the lumber aisle with the wood fence material makes it easier for pros and consumers to get all their necessary materials in one convenient location. The Lifetime Steel Post displayer is a growth opportunity for the following reasons.
They place our Lifetime Steel Post directly in the path of the fence builders inside major home centers next to the wood fence materials. Each displayer acts like a mini storefront, functioning similar to a vending machine filled with inventory that turns over with replenishment orders. We grew to 350 stores in just over half a year with these displayers, and other regions are requesting them to be added to their stores. The point of sales data shows strong consumer demand, confirming that the strategy is working. Our s`ales reps and our marketing teams are optimizing this presentation, and early momentum in the off-season suggests this will continue to impact our fiscal 2025 and beyond results. As I mentioned previously, our Lucky Dog pet products primarily focus on dog containment in the form of quality welded wire and chain-link kennels, although we do offer crates and exercise pens as well.
With regards to our sustainable products, many users tell us they like how these bags perform better than their traditional plastic bags. We did not want to compromise performance in the pursuit of sustainability. If you have not tried these bags yet, I encourage you to try them. You can find them on our website or Amazon and potentially at a grocery store near you eventually. These include, of course, the compostable technology as well as the post-consumer recycled bags. I have already mentioned a little bit about Greenwood previously, so I will move on to our strategic plan. We have put out a plan to drive value, which includes growth drivers, efficiency, and innovation. Over the past two years, we have undergone a major operational transformation, and the key initiatives include diversifying our supply chain.
We now source from Bangladesh, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia, which reduces our dependency on China and allows us to mitigate tariffs that are particularly high out of China currently. Engaging in strategic partnerships such as with Continental Sales & Marketing to help set up, ensure quality in-store presentations, as well as our exclusive rep relationship with My Eco World brand of sustainable products to provide alternatives to traditional plastic bags with our compostable and post-consumer plastics family of products. Inventory reduction and a tighter working capital management. We've reduced our inventory since the peak in 2023 to be more in line with our needs and growth plans and have maintained a healthier age trial balance to improve our cash flow.
We're also improving our product innovation, enhancing our existing products to remain cost competitive, as well as identifying opportunities to solve other backyard challenges to expand our suite of quality products. These changes allow us to be cost competitive, resilient, and aligned with retailer and consumer expectations. Here you can see the dramatic move we've made to multi-source our production and no longer be as dependent on China as a primary source of our import goods. We are now capable of evaluating where we can produce and offer the best quality and best price as needed when geopolitics begin to influence the landscape. A pretty dramatic shift in recent years. Many of you may not be familiar with Oregon, but I wanted to touch base quickly here on our property that we have for sale.
The property is located along a major highway on the way to the Oregon coast. This slide at least gives you a kind of an aerial view of the property, as well as some insight into the available warehouse space. Quite a bit of space available, great location on a corner lot in one of the fastest-growing communities here in Oregon. With that presentation, I'll hand it back to you, Robert, to see if you have other questions you want to ask me.
Yeah, no, thank you so much, Chad, for that overview there. Let's dive into a couple of other topics. Let's maybe start with the tariffs have been on everyone's mind.
You talked about it a little bit on your last conference call, sort of how Jewett-Cameron is adapting its multi-sourcing strategy to mitigate the impact of these tariffs, particularly with the recent addition of Indonesia to your network, along with, as you mentioned there, Vietnam, Malaysia, Bangladesh. Are there plans to further diversify sourcing to ot her regions?
Yeah, that's a timely and important question given what's in the news. Tariffs, especially the recent expanded 25% global steel tariff just as a baseline, continue to present real challenges for importers, and we've taken proactive steps to insulate our business from these risks. Over the past two years, Jewett-Cameron has executed a comprehensive multi-sourcing strategy that has significantly reduced our reliance on any one country, as you mentioned, from those countries.
The addition of Indonesia further diversifies our manufacturing footprint and gives us better agility to manage around both geopolitical risk and shifting tariff structures. This kind of diversification helps us maintain a more competitive landed cost and gives us that flexibility to move production based on changes in trade policy, freight, or input costs. As for further expansion, yeah, we're actively exploring additional sourcing partners in other strategic regions as part of our ongoing effort to build a more resilient and cost-efficient supply chain. We view sourcing diversification not just as a tariff mitigation tactic, but as a core part of our long-term operational strategy to improve margin stability, reduce risk, and support scalability as we grow. These efforts, combined with our continued operational streamlining and process automation, are part of how we're positioning Jewett-Cameron to navigate uncertainty and emerge stronger in the quarters ahead.
Yeah, I mean, just maybe expanding or following up there a little bit further. What sort of, given this overall uncertainty surrounding the tariffs, maybe talk a little bit more on some of the contingency plans that are in place. You touched on a few of them there, but on getting countries like China or others that may increase or have further retaliatory tariffs and sort of how it affects your exports there.
Yeah, I mean, obviously, we take tariffs very seriously. Over the past two years, we've built up that operation and supply chain to be more agile, as I just mentioned. Our strategy is at the heart of our contingency planning. While tariffs out of China have made that market less practical for many of our products in the near term, we are already ahead of that curve.
Shifting to those other countries, like you mentioned, Vietnam, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, gives us that flexibility to rebalance. In addition to geographic diversification, we've built contingency into our product planning and pricing strategies. We conduct ongoing landed cost comparisons across sourcing regions to remain cost competitive. We remain dual; we maintain, I'm sorry, dual tooling and vendor readiness in multiple regions so we can pivot quickly without supply disruption. Our product pricing models are being continuously refined to account for tariff-driven cost variability, allowing us to maintain margins while staying competitive at retail. In short, we're not dependent on any single country or supplier. We've invested in strategic flexibility, and that's one of the key ways we're protecting margins and ensuring that continuity and setting ourselves up for that long -term resilience.
All right, no, that's very helpful there.
On the flip side of it, how have customers responded, by and large?
Overall, I would say customers' response to our recent price adjustments have been measured and largely positive. I'd say thanks to our proactive steps we've been taking over the past two years to diversify, we've been able to minimize that impact of the new steel tariff on all of our landed costs. As a result, the price increases we've communicated to customers have been relatively modest and remain competitive with market rates. In many cases, our pricing is in line with or better than what customers are seeing from other suppliers who are still more heavily exposed to high tariff countries like China. We're currently in the final stages of negotiating and finalizing new pricing with key customers. So far, I'd say the conversations have been constructive.
Customers recognize that we've worked hard to shield them from the full burden of these macroeconomic headwinds and that we're offering a fair, stable solution in an otherwise volatile environment. Our ability to maintain competitive pricing while preserving product quality and supply reliability continues to reinforce us as a valued and trusted supplier.
All right, very good. Let's transition just for a moment. I want to talk a little bit about that 11.6-acre facility for sale. I don't know if there are any updates you can provide or not, but anything new there?
No, I will tell you when I can, but here's what I will say as it relates to the property, and I'll just put that slide up here for your viewing pleasure. Yeah, we definitely understand the curiosity on this property.
I think it's important that we talk about, again, it is located just outside of Portland, Oregon, a very valuable asset with over 109,000 sq ft of warehousing on a premium corner lot along a major highway. It is situated in one of the fastest-growing communities in the state, as I mentioned previously, and it does make it a compelling opportunity for the right buyer. That said, a few factors have contributed to the slower sale timeline, I would say. First, we listed it in July of 2024, just ahead of a very unique U.S. presidential election.
In the months leading up to the election and into the early part of the year, many commercial buyers and investors took a wait-and-see approach from my read, opting to delay large capital commitments until the direction of the new administration and its potential policy changes became clearer, which seems pretty understandable. That broader uncertainty had a cooling effect on certain commercial real estate transactions, especially those involving non-traditional or specialized assets. Second, I would say it's important to note that the property is zoned rural-industrial, and that limits the pool of potential buyers who can use it as is within zoning constraints. This zoning is ideal for certain types of industrial or light manufacturing uses, but it does require a more targeted buyer profile, often businesses or developers who are working through more complex use case evaluations and permitting timelines.
That said, we remain confident in the long-term value of the property. Its location, visibility, infrastructure make it uniquely attractive, and we've continued to engage with interested parties. We believe that when the right buyer with a suitable use case comes along and market confidence improves, it will result in a sale that creates meaningful value for our shareholders. In the meantime, the asset remains on our books for under $600,000, and we've listed it for $9 million. The potential upside upon sale remains very significant. We're committed to monetizing the property at the right time and putting the proceeds to work in a way that improves shareholder value as well as strengthens our core business a nd long-term financial position.
All right, very good. Sort of bigger picture here.
Where do you see Jewett-Cameron in five or 10 years from now in terms of maybe market position, product evolu tion?
Given with the forward-looking disclosures that are in there, what I will say is we see Jewett-Cameron owning a dominant presence in the fencing aisle of major retailers, complemented by a broader range of products that make outdoor improvement easier and more sustainable. Our innovation pipeline is robust. We've committed to improving and launching new products annually, scaling existing brands like Adjust-A-Gate, MyEcoWorld, and continuing to adapt to evolving customer needs. We'll expand our distribution footprint, enhance e-commerce partnerships, and lead with resilient, lean supply chain that can weather economic shifts, as we've talked about here today. The long-term vision is clear. Deliver dependable growth by being the go-to brand for outdoor solutions that work, I would say, would be our focus.
All right, very good.
Just a couple of minutes left here, Chad. M aybe any final takeaways to investors?
Yeah, thank you again for the opportunity. I appreciate you all listening here today. I would say that as a final takeaway, Jewett-Cameron is executing a very clear focus strategy. We're innovating where it counts. We're growing in our strongest categories, and we're building an organization that can scale. With strong momentum in metal fencing, strategic sourcing initiatives underway, and a management team that's delivering, we believe that now is the right time for investors to take a closer look. I would welcome the opportunity to connect with any one of you and show you where we're creating real value.
All right, fantastic. Chad, thank you so much for your time today. Thank you to everybody for watching.
If you have any questions, as Chad just mentioned, or if you'd like to schedule a meeting with Jewett-Cameron, you can shoot me an email. That's blum@lythampartners.com. Again, if you'd like to learn more about Lytham, you can visit our website as well at lythampartners.com. Follow us on LinkedIn as well to stay connected on future events. Chad, once again, thank you very much for y our time today. Greatly appreciate it.
Thank you. Appreciate it.
All right, fantastic. Everyone, enjoy the conference and have a great day.