Escalade Incorporated Q4 2025 Earnings Call - Cost Actions Lift Margins and Cash, Paving Way for M&A-Led Growth

Conference Operator: Good day, and welcome to the Escalade fourth quarter 2025 results conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by 0. After today’s presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then 1 on your telephone keypad, and to withdraw your question, please press star then 2. Please note today’s event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Wes Smith, Vice President of Financial Reporting and Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Wes Smith, Vice President of Financial Reporting and Investor Relations, Escalade, Incorporated: Thank you, operator. On behalf of the entire team at Escalade, I’d like to welcome you to our fourth quarter 2025 results conference call. Leading the call with me today is Interim President and CEO, Patrick Griffin, and Stephen Wawrin, our Chief Financial Officer. Today’s discussion contains forward-looking statements about future business and financial expectations. Actual results may differ significantly from those projected in today’s forward-looking statements due to various risks and uncertainties, including the risks described in our periodic reports filed with the SEC. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update our forward-looking statements. At the conclusion of our prepared remarks, we will open the line for questions. With that, I would like to turn the call over to Patrick.

Patrick Griffin, Interim President and Chief Executive Officer, Escalade, Incorporated: Thank you, Wes. Welcome to everyone joining us on today’s call. We ended 2025 on solid footing. While the consumer environment remains mixed, our focus on operational excellence and on reshaping our cost structure is paying off. Over the past years, we have built a durable foundation for the business. This foundation gives us a healthier margin profile, the ability to maintain operating leverage in a dynamic environment, and a strong platform from which we can pivot towards profitable growth. Consistent with broader consumer spending for discretionary leisure products and as expected, net sales declined 2.2% in the quarter, driven by a softer consumer demand in categories such as basketball and outdoor games in our e-commerce sales channel. At the same time, we partially offset these declines through healthy growth in archery and billiards, driven by a recent acquisition and new product introductions.

These trends reaffirm that we are positioned in the right niche categories where consumers remain engaged and where our brands have equity. The impact of our operational improvements was also reflected in our fourth quarter results. Gross margin improved 280 basis points year-over-year to 27.7% of net sales, despite a 2.2% decline in net sales. This improvement reflects the structural cost actions we’ve executed and the discipline embedded across our operations. We also made meaningful inventory efficiency improvement in the quarter. Total inventory declined 10% year-over-year, reflecting our ongoing effort to sharpen working capital management to support improved free cash flow. We expect to further reduce inventory levels in 2026 as we work towards our longer-term target of 3 times inventory turns. This objective is a key element of our broader balance sheet management strategy.

Looking ahead to 2026, we expect consumer conditions to remain mixed, shaped by the contrast between moderating interest rates and persistent inflation. Less affluent consumers will likely continue to be more price sensitive, while more affluent consumers will likely continue to be less price sensitive. Against this backdrop, our focus is shifting from cost optimization to profitable growth, while continuing to leverage our leaner balance sheet and the operational discipline we established in 2025. We are closely monitoring emerging tariff policy changes and are prepared to adjust as market conditions clarify. We do not see any immediate impact from the recent changes. Our established playbook enables us to remain agile and proactive in navigating through this dynamic environment. A central component of our growth agenda is to strategically invest in our businesses.

Our strength in free cash flow allows us to invest in growth opportunities and pursue accretive M&A opportunities. Following our recent Gold Tip Archery purchase, we completed another acquisition during the fourth quarter to further support growth. The acquisition of AllCornhole brings a leading brand in competitive cornhole bags to our growing outdoor recreation portfolio. During the fourth quarter, we fully integrated Gold Tip Archery, which was acquired in the third quarter. This business was accretive in the fourth quarter. Looking forward, M&A remains a capital allocation priority as we concentrate our profitable growth. Our approach will remain consistent, focused on strategic acquisitions that are accretive and complement existing product categories, as well as strengthen our market position where we have competitive advantages. In addition to M&A, we expect to increase growth investments in 2026 through targeted capital expenditures that expand capacity, improve efficiency, and support long-term growth.

We expect capital expenditures to increase next year. We also plan to selectively invest in and optimize our manufacturing and distribution footprint. In the fourth quarter, we purchased a 110,000 sq ft facility to support continued growth in our safety and fitness categories. We had several significant new product launches during the fourth quarter to support our growth agenda. In our Bear Archery business, we launched the new Alaskan Pro Bow, which has been awarded Best Value Compound Bow in many publications and online review platforms. We also launched an entire new line of Trophy Ridge accessories featuring new designs and a fresh new look. During the quarter, our US Weight business expanded our safety offering with several new umbrella bases to fully address market opportunities. Strengthening our balance sheet continues to be a priority.

During the fourth quarter, we repaid nearly $2 million of long-term debt, while also increasing our cash levels. Given the current interest rate environment and our low cost fixed rate debt, bank debt, we are taking advantage of attractive cash arbitrage. Our strong free cash flow generation gives us confidence in our ability to meet our financial commitments while continuing to invest in future growth. In summary, we have made significant progress in repositioning the company as we move from cost optimization toward profitable market share-driven growth. As we move further into 2026, we believe we are operating from a position of strength, supported by a leaner cost structure, stable free cash flow profile, and a disciplined capital allocation strategy aimed at expanding our leadership in key categories. These actions will allow us to deliver durable value for shareholders as we move through the cycle.

With that, I will turn the call over to Stephen for a review of our fourth quarter financial results.

Stephen Wawrin, Chief Financial Officer, Escalade, Incorporated: Thank you, Patrick. For the three months ended December 31st, 2025, Escalade reported net income of $3.7 million, or $0.27 per diluted share on net sales of $62.6 million. For the fourth quarter, the company reported gross margins of 27.7%, compared to 24.9% in the prior year period. The 280 basis point increase in gross margin was primarily the result of lower operational costs, driven by our facility consolidation and cost rationalization program, a reduction in storage and handling costs, and the benefit of the Gold Tip acquisition, which was completed in the third quarter of 2025 and accretive to our fourth quarter results.

Selling, general, and administrative expenses during the fourth quarter increased by 6.8% or $0.7 million compared to the prior year period to $11.6 million. The increase in SG&A primarily reflects $0.5 million of non-recurrent executive transition expenses incurred during the fourth quarter of 2025. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization increased by $0.6 million to $6.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2025, versus $5.9 million in the prior year period. This increase primarily reflects the improvement in our gross profit, partly offset by the non-recurrent executive expenses I just mentioned. Total cash flow from operations for the fourth quarter of 2025 was $14.9 million, compared to $12.3 million in the prior year period.

The year-over-year increase in operating cash flow primarily reflects a 10% or $7.6 million decrease in our inventory, coupled with improved profitability. As of December 31, 2025, the company had total cash and equivalents of $11.9 million. At the end of the fourth quarter of 2025, net leverage was 0.3 times. As of December 31, 2025, we had $18.5 million of total debt outstanding. With that, operator, we will open the call for questions.

Conference Operator: Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press Star then one on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, we ask that you please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press Star then two. We’ll pause for just a moment to assemble our roster. Today’s first question comes from Rommel Dionisio with Aegis Capital. Please go ahead.

Rommel Dionisio, Analyst, Aegis Capital: Good morning. I wonder if we could just ask a couple of questions on the acquisition of the new facility, the 110,000 sq ft facility. Is that production or distribution or both? Is it domestic, and if so, would that alleviate some of the tariff pressure? Thank you.

Patrick Griffin, Interim President and Chief Executive Officer, Escalade, Incorporated: Hey, Rommel. Patrick, here. That’s a good question. The facility is located in Olney, Illinois, where we already had two facilities there. Initially, it’s gonna be used primarily for warehousing for our fitness and safety businesses. You know, we’re looking at other uses for that facility, so we may consolidate some additional categories, you know, into that facility or, you know, acquisitions further down the road could go into that. It’s really was meant to support future and growth in those categories, for our US Weight business, but then also maybe some future growth plans as well.

Rommel Dionisio, Analyst, Aegis Capital: Okay. As a follow-up question, I wonder if we could just delve into product mix a little bit in the quarter. I know there’s a lot of moving parts there, so between, you know, product categories and price points, but you highlighted, demand across your -- I’m just reading from your press release. Demand across your higher value premium brands remains resilient. Would that have been a sort of a positive mix driver during the quarter? I know that’s offset with, you know, consumer shifting down to some lower price points as well. I just wanna think about how do we think about product mix shift overall in the quarter. Thank you.

Patrick Griffin, Interim President and Chief Executive Officer, Escalade, Incorporated: Yeah, no, great question. I mean, we’re, you know, on the higher price points, we’re, you know, generally seeing, you know, favorable sales trends there. You know, on our opening price point product, we’re not seeing as favorable trends. With our, you know, leading brands, which you kind of referred to with Bear Archery, you know, that’s accretive to the overall, you know, margin profile, and I would say that’s true for, you know, a lot of the Brunswick portfolio as well.

Rommel Dionisio, Analyst, Aegis Capital: Okay, maybe just one last one. I know you took some price increases last summer to help offset some of the tariff impact. How do you kind of think about that situation? Obviously, it’s a very fluid environment with regards even the last few days with regards to tariffs. How do you guys think about, you know, the proclivity for additional price increases as we look out to 2026? Thanks.

Patrick Griffin, Interim President and Chief Executive Officer, Escalade, Incorporated: Yeah, no, we feel good. We were early, you know, on our price increases, Rommel, as you mentioned there. You know, to the extent that that environment changes, we’ll see where that ends up. You know, we don’t have any, you know, near-term changes right now. We’re not planning on passing on any significant, you know, additional price increases at this point. If tariff, you know, if that environment changes a lot, but, you know, there could be some changes down the road, but we’re, you know, we don’t see any near-term impact as you know, the environment’s very dynamic, you know, at this point in time.

David Cohen, Analyst, Minerva: Great. Thank you very much.

Conference Operator: Thank you. Our next question today comes from David Cohen at Minerva. Please go ahead.

David Cohen, Analyst, Minerva: Good morning, guys. Just a quick follow-up with regard to tariffs. Should the Supreme Court’s decision occasion the refund of tariffs paid, up until this point, is that a meaningful number for Escalade?

Patrick Griffin, Interim President and Chief Executive Officer, Escalade, Incorporated: Yeah, great question, David. Thank you. Yes, it is a meaningful number for us and, you know, we’re, you know, waiting to see what happens with the, you know, the actual implementation of those, of those refunds. Some of the tariffs we paid are, you know, not tied to the CEPA tariffs, so it’s not our total amount, but the amount that would be refunded is meaningful.

David Cohen, Analyst, Minerva: Do you want to put any numbers around that? A range, perhaps?

Patrick Griffin, Interim President and Chief Executive Officer, Escalade, Incorporated: Yeah, no, it’s in the, you know, I’d say, you know, $4 million-$5 million range.

David Cohen, Analyst, Minerva: Okay. Thank you very much.

Patrick Griffin, Interim President and Chief Executive Officer, Escalade, Incorporated: Yep, you’re welcome.

Conference Operator: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our question and answer session. I’d like to turn the conference back over to Wes Smith for any closing remarks.

Wes Smith, Vice President of Financial Reporting and Investor Relations, Escalade, Incorporated: Thank you, operator. Once again, thank you for your interest in Escalade and joining our call. Should you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us at [email protected], and a member of our team will follow up with you. This concludes our call today. You may now disconnect.

Conference Operator: Thank you. That concludes today’s conference call, and we thank you all for attending. You may now disconnect your lines and have a wonderful day.