Hello, and welcome to Virtual Investor Conferences. On behalf of OTC Markets, we are very pleased you have joined us for our quarterly Small-Cap Growth Virtual Conference. Our next presentation is from Reed's. Please note you may submit questions for the presenter in the box to the left of the slides. You can also view a company's availability for a one-on-one meeting by clicking "Book a Meeting" in the top toolbar. At this point, I'm very pleased to welcome Cyril Wallace, Chief Executive Officer, and Doug McCurdy, Chief Financial Officer of Reed's, which trades on the OTCQX best market under the symbol REED. Welcome, Cyril and Doug.
Thanks, Greg.
Thank you.
I appreciate it. Thanks for the intro. Yeah, no, and it's great to be here this afternoon. I appreciate everyone joining. Really excited to talk a little bit about our business here with you all. Let me just start off by saying that, you know, really excited, you know, been here with the business now going on two months, a long-standing career within the business and consumer package goods. Really excited to come on and talk about, you know, our business here and some of the incredible things that we're doing with Reed's. You know, Reed's has, you know, just an incredible long-standing history, and they started back in the 1980s and have grown into this, you know, very recognizable brand.
I think for most people that say that they've tried, you know, our products, that, you know, they're really, really impressed with the quality of the product and certainly, you know, the journey that our product has been on. I think, you know, as you look at some of the key milestones here, you know, we started back in the 1980s. We've since added to our portfolio with Virgil's back in 2000, excuse me, in 1999. We've expanded in innovation in 2011. We launched, you know, what I believe is, you know, one of the, you know, cornerstones and one of the best ginger ales out on the marketplace in 2020.
Really excited, and I'll talk to you in just a little bit about some incredible innovation that we just launched this year that's on par, I believe, with where consumers are headed. I mean, you know, when you think about, you know, our business, right? I mean, you know, ginger ale, ginger beer, and this, you know, FMB or flavor malt beverage is certainly an area that consumers are continuing to lean into. And certainly, as, you know, we continue to evolve and think through innovation, I think there's areas within each one of these that still within the U.S. market still has legs and that are growing, and it's growing exponentially.
I think here at Reed's, we are, you know, thinking of ways how do we continue to, you know, position our brands, position our products, and position our innovation for the future to be relevant and continue to capture sales. If you look at our overall product portfolio, this is just a quick snapshot of, you know, our brands and the different places that we play in, you know, Reed's, ginger ale, ginger beer. We started ginger beer, and then we expanded to ginger ale. You know, we know ginger just in terms of how we, you know, manufacture and produce our ginger ale. We then have this incredible brand in Virgil's, which is more of this craft soda. If you haven't tried it, it's a really good, you know, craft soda. In terms of this, you know, FMB, right?
I mean, I think this is, you know, an area that, you know, consumers are certainly continuing to lean into, and it's an area that we continue to invest and lean into as well. For those that are really good fans of Reed's and have, you know, really know our brands and know how we operate, certainly during the holiday season time, we offer these holiday seasonal items that, you know, our consumers love and they write in to us about, and they're really excited about launching these every year. If we think about ginger beer, right? I mean, this is obviously a fan favorite. It's what Reed's does extremely well.
You know, you can see the overall share in terms of, you know, what we represent in the marketplace, but also the fact that ginger beer in traditional and non-traditional channels is still an area that continues to grow. It is an area that, you know, here within the U.S., we feel like we have an opportunity and a right to win and continue to expand in different channels in different places. Ginger ale, right? I mean, like I said, we, you know, we talked about ginger ale. Ginger ale is still on the surge here in the U.S. It is a market and a, you know, a subcat that continuously, you know, performs well. You know, we're continuing to expand into different and unique spaces.
Certainly when I think about, you know, food service, on-premise, you know, convenience, even in dollar stores, there's this enormous opportunity for us to, you know, build upon our current distribution in ACV beyond where we are today, just given where the category continues to grow and outperform. It's a unique formula, right? It's really all natural. Our ginger is sourced from some of the highest quality gingers in the world in terms of how we produce and make our product. It is just absolutely incredible. It's functional, right? It's, you know, we know that consumers are using, you know, ginger ale or ginger-based products for multifunctional uses in the U.S. You know, we were excited to also be on par in terms of where consumers, you know, are headed, launching our zero sugar ginger ale as well too.
There is this other place, this FMB or, you know, flavor malt beverages, you know, continues to, you know, be an area that, you know, continues to grow in the U.S. You know, we're excited, you know, to be a part of this category or subcat with, you know, certain flavor offerings here, like our ginger ale, our ginger mules that have, you know, really done a nice job and have come on board here. We recently have our, you know, our ultimate mule here, which is a zero-based classic mule. We know that, you know, flavor malt beverages and, you know, on-premise restaurant and bar locations, and even in general retail, it certainly, you know, has legs and has an opportunity for us to grow.
I think for us, it's, you know, how do we, you know, take what we're currently doing today and figure out niche ways to build upon that. I think, you know, for us, we're uniquely, you know, in a really good spot as it relates to, you know, how we produce our products with ginger base. There's a wide variety of different, you know, innovations and different directions that we could go with our products. We're really excited about that. We have this incredible brand, you know, in terms of, you know, Virgil's, right? You know, we've recently expanded, you know, we continue to expand and leverage our zeros. We know that consumers are really focused on, you know, healthy habits, you know, zero sugar, zero-based, you know, products.
You know, our portfolio and our can and our packaging is, I think, adequately, you know, positioned to, you know, continue to, you know, outperform and do extremely well. I'd say certainly we've probably got an incredible opportunity to continue to place these items and others in different locations. You know, it's definitely a really great lineup of, you know, full sugar or cane sugar, and then also our zero-based items as well too and the different flavors that we offer. I think it's, you know, really incredible product. It's doing well. I think our sales team is focused on, you know, putting it in new places so consumers can enjoy it. One of the things I'll, you know, we talked about, talked about at the outset is this whole notion of prebiotics and, you know, innovation that we just recently launched this year.
It's our functional beverage line. And, you know, we're already starting to see, you know, repeat orders come in on this product. You know, consumers are really leaning into this, you know, functional use beverage, prebiotic beverage, right? And so, you know, I think for us, very similar to what I said as it relates to FMB, this is yet another area with, you know, ginger where we do ginger really well that really kind of makes sense and adds this functional use to, you know, to enjoy and carbonated soda in a different way. And so, you know, our four flavors here, and then there's a few other flavors that we're looking to launch as we head into 2026 that we're super excited about.
We'll continue to, you know, lean into this place and monitor it, but we're really excited about what our sales team has been able to do with this brand. You can see our broad distribution, right? We've had some huge wins here, and our products are distributed, you know, in a lot of places, you know, name brand retailers, large-scale retailers across the U.S. Certainly within that, you know, 32,000 doors, we know here at Reed's that there's still more opportunity out there. There's still more channels that, you know, we have to get into. There's more consumers that are out there that we still have to, you know, bring underneath our umbrella. We're, you know, we're just excited about the future and where we're headed with this product and our brand.
With that, I will turn it over to Doug to kind of walk you through a little bit of our performance.
All right. Thanks so much, Cyril. You know, let me just navigate through a few of the strategic initiatives that we've taken to strengthen the liquidity position. If we look back to the fourth quarter of 2024, the company did a recapitalization. That recapitalization reduced debt and also recapitalized the company with an infusion of equity through a PIPE transaction that actually closed right at the end of the year, at the end of December. That recapitalization reset the balance sheet and allowed us to reinvest in working capital in a way that the company hadn't been able to do in the past.
It allowed us to rebuild our, what I'll call our operating ecosystem at the same time and get ourselves to a more efficient system, a little bit more efficient capacity structure, and build inventory to a place where we had what we need to meet our customer demand. Debt obligations materially reduced, new $10 million credit facility, and, you know, brought in some new management team, you know, and adjusted what I'll call board and leadership, and, you know, put a renewed focus on profitable growth. You know, that idea of profitable growth, the company has not achieved yet, at least what I'll call in, you know, the current year period with a new management team. That idea of moving forward towards break-even and profitability, net profitability, is a very important milestone for the company.
You know, initiatives that we've taken or are taking to drive growth and better balance ourselves towards profitability. You know, the top-line growth piece, you know, sales velocity, we're looking very closely from a sales perspective at our existing customer base and what the velocity is off shelves and through those channels. We're also looking at channel expansion and taking some steps with channel expansion. Innovation, particularly around the functional products that Cyril had mentioned earlier, in addition to some of the other, you know, zero sugar or ginger ale or things like that. Margin expansion is certainly very important for us. You know, margins in the past have been somewhat compressed. As we look with the recapitalized balance sheet and, you know, some of the benefits that we have with that, we're also looking to drive efficiencies through the margin piece of the puzzle.
It affects, you know, the raw materials from ingredients to packaging through co-packing and distribution. You know, OPEX management, you know, candidly, our SG&A is a little bit on the higher side that was shown in the first quarter. What that really reflects is investment in growth initiatives, particularly on the human resources side, that, you know, growth needs to catch up to some of that investment as we look to balance the SG&A piece of the puzzle out for the overall company. Logistics and warehouse cost reductions, we're very focused on that.
You know, anecdotally, one of the things that we saw early in the first quarter when the company did not have the inventory position balanced properly or as we wanted to grow into, we saw a little bit of logistics that instead of East Coast production being centered on the East Coast for distribution as well, there was a little bit of cross-country zigging and zagging that we have been able to grow out of after the first few months of first quarter. You know, we are excited about some opportunity to see continued improvement there. Key performance indicators in the form of revenue, EBITDA, and gross margin, you know, generally, the company has reset the revenue piece of the puzzle as we have come into first quarter of 2025 and really first half.
What we expect to see going forward is sequential revenue growth on the gross sales side. As we manage our trade spend and discounts, we would expect to see net sales also have sequential growth. It is really where we are focused as we look to kind of balance operating performance on the top line going forward. On the margin side, we are really trying to maintain and improve our margins to be somewhere in the mid-30% range. As we move forward and, what I will say, this leadership team gets to know the business a little bit more and gets to drive the business a little bit more, we would hope that we can move those margins up to the high 30% range and at some point approach 40%. You know, investment highlights, just to kind of zip through this efficiently. You know, the company is a seasoned beverage company.
It's been around for a long time, almost 40 years. You know, I think the exciting thing that, you know, the new management team believes in is the strength of the brand and how good the product is, craft, natural, premium. We're very centered on continuing to make a great product that is good for people as they consider their beverage choices going forward. You know, the new multifunctional line, Soda Smarter, is the tagline we have there. That new functional line actually plays on what I'll call the history of the company. You know, what I mean by that is, you know, the company with its ginger base has always been a functional or better-for-you beverage. The channel partnerships, you know, we've got a good base set.
As Cyril mentioned earlier, we're very much focused on growing out that channel set and growing out our customer base in the U.S. You know, as we continue to build in the U.S., we're also looking at select international markets from a strategic perspective. The newly appointed management team, you know, we're excited about the opportunity. I think with that opportunity comes great responsibility to go out and actually execute and capture that opportunity. We're focused on that. You know, the near-term catalysts, again, I think what we've been given by the board is a nice opportunity with the recapitalization and cleaned-up balance sheet, a great brand, and an opportunity going forward. We're really excited about the opportunity to capitalize and go execute on that. At this point, I think we have time for the Q&A.
There's a couple of questions come in. There's a question around distribution wins on new products. I can tell you that, you know, focus on multifunctionals has been the sales team's focus since we've launched. You know, we've had some, you know, wins with Duane Reade and Costco, and, you know, it's in Kroger in certain divisions today. Obviously, you know, in terms of its performance, I mean, we're seeing repeat orders, still very new. You know, in a few weeks or so, we'll have, you know, more of the IRI data to be able to tell us a little bit more and give us a peek in the window on how it's performed across the subcat. Ideally, though, you kind of get a sense from, you know, what the sales, what you're hearing directly from your sales team, which is direct feedback, what you're hearing from customers.
So far, it's all promising. We're looking forward to, you know, getting more distribution on our new functional line and seeing it in different places. I think as a part of that too as well, I think there's certainly work that, you know, we're going to do in terms of marketing the product and making sure that it's divisible to help drive some demand. Then there's a question on our distributors and different partners. Listen, what I would tell you is that, you know, we are working to, you know, build our business and do it the right way and expanding into new channels and new places. Obviously, there's areas where we currently run and operate today. If you recall that one slide is in terms of customers that, you know, we partner with across the country.
You know, with our core products, which, you know, we can't lose focus on, right, in terms of how do we continue to build for the future. Our core business is going to play a big part in that. Even where we're running and operating today, we still have an opportunity to build distribution among our core products and then certainly bring in, you know, new channels, new places where we're not, where we don't run and operate today. As I spoke about that, that is going to, you know, generate huge upside for us. We are, you know, really excited about, you know, continuing to lean into these spaces. We feel like we have a right to given our product and how viable they are within the category.
I think we touched on quite a bit of the questions that have come in, but we certainly appreciate everyone taking the time to join and listen in to our presentation today. We really appreciate you guys being in tuned. Certainly, if there's anything that, you know, we have not answered over the course of the last 15 to 20 minutes or so, we will be happy to circle back with anyone offline. Thank you so much for the opportunity to share and hear a little bit more about our journey and where we're headed.