Flexible Solutions International Full Year 2025 Earnings Call - Food contracts ramping toward $50M+ as Panama shift aims to eliminate tariff drag

Jen, Conference Call Operator, Conference Services Provider: Good day everyone, and welcome to today’s Flexible Solutions International’s Full Year 2025 Financials Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, you’ll have the opportunity to ask questions during the question and answer session. You may register to ask a question at any time by pressing the star and one on your telephone keypad. Please note this call is being recorded, and I’ll be standing by if you should need any assistance. It is now my pleasure to turn the conference over to Dan O’Brien. Please go ahead.

Dan O’Brien, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Flexible Solutions International: Thank you, Jen. Good morning. This is Dan O’Brien, CEO of Flexible Solutions. The safe harbor provision. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a safe harbor for forward-looking statements. Certain of the statements contained herein, which are not historical facts, are forward-looking statements with respect to events, the occurrence of which involve risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements may be impacted either positively or negatively by various factors. Information concerning potential factors that could affect the company is detailed from time to time in the company’s reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Welcome to the full year conference call for 2025. I’d like to discuss our company condition and our product lines first, along with what we think might occur in Q1 and Q2 2026. I’ll comment on our financials in the second part of the speech. Nanochem division.

NCS represents the majority of FSI’s revenue. In 2022, NCS started food grade operations, and by the end of 2026, we expect that NCS will be 100% focused on food grade products. Growth in the NCS division will be in food and nutraceuticals only. The Panama division. This division makes polyaspartic acid, called TPA for short. It’s a biodegradable polymer with many valuable uses. Panama also manufactures SUN 27 and N Savr 30, which are used to reduce nitrogen fertilizer loss from soil. Panama is taking over production of all the legacy industrial and agricultural products historically made at NCS. This is a step-by-step process that is intended to be complete by the end of 2026. TPA is used in agriculture to significantly increase crop yields. TPA is also a biodegradable way of treating oil field water for scale prevention.

It’s also sold as a biodegradable ingredient in cleaning products and as a water treatment chemical. Nearly all of our product for international sales will be made in Panama using materials sourced without the U.S. tariffs. There will also be shipping advantages. The new plant is 30 minutes from the port. Inbound raw materials and outbound finished goods will not have to be shipped across the U.S. to and from Illinois for our international customers. Delivery times will be shortened by many days. Reduced shipping times and no exposure to U.S. tariffs on international sales would allow us to increase sales to existing customers and obtain new customers over the next 2 years. We’re already engaging with potential new customers. NCS food products. Well, our Illinois plant is FDA and SQF certified. We’ve commercialized 2 food products. The first was our wine additive based on polyaspartates that was developed in-house.

Last August, we announced our second major food grade contract of 2025 and our third overall. As noted in the news release, it’s a five-year contract with protection from tariffs and inflation. It has a minimum revenue of $6.5 million per year and a maximum, if the customer requests it, of greater than $25 million per year. The August contract has reached full production. It’s running 24 hours per day and is now our second food grade product after the wine product. We’re reviewing methods of increasing production quickly if the customer requests it. Production utilizes equipment we’ve been buying and installing over the last 2 years but did not have a customer for. Therefore, little CapEx will be needed to reach about $15 million per year in sales for this contract and mild CapEx in the $2 million-$3 million range to reach $25 million.

In January 2025, we announced another larger food grade contract. Actual production at small volume started this week and will be increased weekly until full production is achieved. Significant revenue from this contract may be visible in our Q2 financials. Growing these two food contracts to the estimated maximum revenues of greater than $50 million per year is our critical goal for the next 4-6 quarters. We hope to execute this to the customer’s absolute satisfaction and obtain all their business before taking on additional major projects. It does not mean that we’re not looking for more customers. We’re already doing R&D work in certain areas. However, it does mean that several quarters are likely to elapse before other major customers are announced. We would also like to be clear regarding margins in the food division.

In order to obtain such large contracts from a very low base, and in order to negotiate tariff and inflation protection clauses, we have lower margins than we prefer. We hope to be in the 22%-25% range before tax. Future customers will be selected in order to increase our average margins now that we have a strong base in place. The ENP division represents most of our other revenue and is focused on sales into the greenhouse, turf, and golf markets. ENP grew in 2025, and growth is expected again in 2026. Q1 is the weakest quarter for this division, followed by Q2, and growth is usually concentrated in the second half of the year for ENP. The Florida LLC investment had a small profit for the 2025 year. It’s focused on international agriculture sales into multiple countries.

Its management has advised us that they estimate a return to growth in 2026, which should translate into increased revenue for FSI. However, the international agricultural markets, like the U.S. market, are stressed, so we expect the growth rate to be low. Agricultural products in the United States remain under extreme pressure. Crop prices are still not increasing at the rate of inflation, and extreme uncertainty is present due to tariff changes, energy costs, and fertilizers scarcity. Growers are facing a conflict between rising costs and low crop prices, aggravated by political actions and war. In some cases, sales are being lost for the whole season. As a result, we saw a weakness in agriculture throughout 2025 and expect 2026 to be another difficult year. Tariffs.

The current tariff on all our imports of raw materials from China into the United States is between 15% and 58.5%, depending on the material. We are very careful not to import materials unless destined for U.S. customers who are guaranteed to purchase from us and are aware that the tariffs will be added to their invoices. We did not manage our transition to Panama perfectly and have had to import some raw materials into the U.S. in the second half of 2025. Some of this tariff cost will be passed on to customers. Some will qualify for the rebate program, and some reduced our 2025 margins. Moving most agriculture and polymer production to Panama has freed space in the Illinois plant so that food grade production in the U.S. can be optimized and expanded substantially as more U.S. customers are found. Shipping and inventory. Shipping prices are not stable.

Shipping times are longer than usual on the routes we use. These issues are caused by the Iran war and are expected to subside if the war does. Raw materials prices are unstable and increasing to account for the oil prices caused by the Iran war. We have significant inventory of most raw materials, but we estimate that we’ll have to raise prices to our customers in the third quarter unless there’s a significant reduction in the price of oil that also reduces our raw material costs. The highlights of the financial results. Sales for the year were unchanged compared to 2024, $38.51 million versus $38.23 million. Profits. 2025 recorded a gain of $787,000 or $0.06 a share compared to a gain of $3 million or $0.24 a share in 2024.

Many costs incurred to prepare for the potential new revenue from the food grade contracts announced in January and August negatively affected 2025 profits because they were expensed as they occurred. Substantial costs for the Panama factory were also expensed quarter by quarter. This will continue in the first half of 2026 for Panama and for food products in Illinois, but at much lower levels. We anticipate some profits in Q1 and Q2 2026, followed by rapidly increasing profits in the second half of the year. We’ve done our best to maintain profitability as we built the new factory and repurposed the existing one for the new revenue streams in food products. For 2025, we achieved these goals. We did so while reducing net debt and avoiding any equity financing. This should be considered very significant for shareholder value. Operating cash flow.

This non-GAAP number is useful to show our progress, especially with non-cash items removed for clarity. For 2025, it was $5.54 million or $0.44 per share, down from $7.08 million or $0.57 per share in 2024. Cash flow has been reduced by the same cost as noted for profits, and it’s expected to rebound similarly in 2026. Long-term debt. We continue to pay down our long-term debt according to the loan terms. The loan we used to buy our ENP division was paid in full in June 2025. Our three-year note for equipment was fully paid in December 2025. This has freed up more than $2 million in cash flow per year for other purposes. Only one small term loan and the mortgage on our Illinois factory remain. Working capital is adequate for all our purposes. We have lines of credit with Stock Yards Bank & Trust for ENP and NCS subsidiaries.

We’re confident that we can execute our plans with our existing capital and without resorting to any equity actions. The text of this speech will be available as an 8-K filing on www.sec.gov by Monday, April 20th, and email copies can be requested from Jason Bloom, [email protected]. Thank you. The floor is open for questions. Jen, will you set that up for us, please?

Jen, Conference Call Operator, Conference Services Provider: Yes, thank you. At this time, we will open the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad, and you’ll be placed into the queue in the order received. You may remove yourself from the queue at any time by pressing pound and one. Once again, to ask a question, press star one now. Our first question will come from Ron Richards. Please go ahead.

Ron Richards, Analyst/Investor: Hey, good morning. I was just wondering on that $800,000 payment due from the Florida LLC, do you expect them to pay that this year?

Dan O’Brien, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Flexible Solutions International: We are negotiating the payment, and we don’t know which way it will go. That one I can’t answer you explicitly, other than to say that we are doing our best to obtain that cash.

Ron Richards, Analyst/Investor: Okay. That second nutraceutical contract, when do you think it’ll be at full production?

Dan O’Brien, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Flexible Solutions International: We’re hoping for end of second quarter, or the very earliest part of third quarter. That’s what appears to be feasible at this point, but without a guarantee, of course.

Ron Richards, Analyst/Investor: Okay. That sounds good. All right. Thanks, Dan.

Dan O’Brien, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Flexible Solutions International: Thank you.

Jen, Conference Call Operator, Conference Services Provider: Our next question will come from Tim Clarkson with Van Clemens.

Tim Clarkson, Analyst/Investor, Van Clemens: Hey, Dan. It was nice to meet you a month or so ago. Just wanted to ask, what would be a reasonable after-tax net margin by, forget about third quarter even, let’s say by fourth quarter. Are we looking at a company that can net 10% net or 5% net or 15% net? What would be a reasonable net margin once those new revenues start coming in?

Dan O’Brien, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Flexible Solutions International: I’ve got a calculator open because that was an unexpected question, Tim. It was good to meet you, too.

Tim Clarkson, Analyst/Investor, Van Clemens: Yeah.

Dan O’Brien, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Flexible Solutions International: I think we’re looking at 22x0.68. Yeah, probably a 15% net margin after tax.

Tim Clarkson, Analyst/Investor, Van Clemens: Okay, great. This is sort of a nerdy agricultural question, but it seems to me that with the price of nitrogen fertilizer exploding, some of your products that add value and allows the nitrogen fertilizer to stay in the soil longer, those should be really valuable products and benefit the fertilizer situation.

Dan O’Brien, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Flexible Solutions International: Yeah. In theory, you’re correct. On the ground, it’s not quite as clear. Remember that if the grower isn’t expecting to make a profit from his land, he not only cuts back on our products, but he cuts back on his nitrogen as well. In the farm industry, it’s known as fertilizer mining. In order to cut their costs, they actually, especially with phosphates, but to a certain extent with nitrogen as well, they cut back their usage of everything.

Tim Clarkson, Analyst/Investor, Van Clemens: Right.

Dan O’Brien, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Flexible Solutions International: accept a lower crop yield per acre, because it’s one of the ways to keep their doors open.

Tim Clarkson, Analyst/Investor, Van Clemens: Right

Dan O’Brien, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Flexible Solutions International: My analysis of this is that it’s not going to affect us this year, but if nitrogen prices continue to be high and crop prices rebound, then we will do very well.

Tim Clarkson, Analyst/Investor, Van Clemens: Right. Well, great. Yeah, I’m excited, and it doesn’t sound like you need to be raising any additional money from stock issues or anything like that.

Dan O’Brien, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Flexible Solutions International: No, definitely not. As everyone knows who’s been paying attention, we have a shelf registration in place, but that is not for use at today’s prices.

Tim Clarkson, Analyst/Investor, Van Clemens: Okay. Well, I know one cynical observer was commenting on that, but I know that you’re a large shareholder, the largest shareholder, so you’re not interested in diluting yourself. With that, I’ll pass. Thanks.

Dan O’Brien, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Flexible Solutions International: Thank you, Tim.

Jen, Conference Call Operator, Conference Services Provider: Our next question will come from William Gregozeski with Greenridge Global LLC.

William Gregozeski, Analyst/Investor, Greenridge Global LLC: Hey, Dan. On ENP, with the sales down in the fourth quarter relative to the third, should we be looking at ENP more as a first half against first half, second half against second half kind of thing?

Dan O’Brien, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Flexible Solutions International: Yeah, that would be fair, Bill. What’s happening in the turf and ornamental market appears to be a general movement towards early buy programs. The best value on the early buy programs typically are in third quarter, because that’s when the people we sell to are trying to book next year’s sale. They drift into fourth quarter, and we don’t really control this process. My feeling would be, lump Q4 and Q3 together and lump Q1 and Q2 together to give you a better analysis of whether we’re doing a good job or not.

William Gregozeski, Analyst/Investor, Greenridge Global LLC: Okay. What kind of growth are you expecting from ENP this year, just year-over-year for the full year?

Dan O’Brien, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Flexible Solutions International: Very much in line with historical numbers, low double digits, 10%, 12%. Certainly not greater than that. It’s not a great environment in America right now.

William Gregozeski, Analyst/Investor, Greenridge Global LLC: Okay. With the Florida LLC, it looks like their margins were up quite a bit in the quarter. Is there anything going on there where they’re somehow getting better margins from customers, or was that more of a one-time thing?

Dan O’Brien, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Flexible Solutions International: I would say that’s a one-time thing, and in relation to earlier question from Ron, we are working with the Florida LLC to get them better organized and receive our payment tranche. I think that you should treat Q4 as an aberration. Let’s look at that company going forward more than going backward. As I get clarity on that particular topic, we’ll probably be making actual news release announcements to keep the transparency going.

William Gregozeski, Analyst/Investor, Greenridge Global LLC: Okay. On the January food contract, the big one that you mentioned is kind of going up slow. Should we be looking at kind of lower than the margins you disclosed what you expect for this as it ramps up, just because of the low base and just starting it up?

Dan O’Brien, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Flexible Solutions International: Well, let me explain that further for everybody. We’re carrying a substantial number of employees who are drawing nice salaries and installing equipment and testing equipment and learning how to run the equipment. That’s where all the pressure on our profits and EBITDA is coming from. It is people and large numbers of small value purchases that don’t qualify as CapEx and end up on the expenses. This is slowing down, and as the production ramps up, the amount of employee and operational expenses that are covered by the sale of the product increases. Throughout this quarter, as we ramp up, we will go from making a loss on every employee that’s working on this project to break even, and then onwards to making a profit on each of them. The margin is not going to ever exceed the 22%-23% level, because that is contractually limited.

Where we are aiming for is full production in Q3 at full margin, because each of the employees is properly utilized. Is that a useful explanation?

William Gregozeski, Analyst/Investor, Greenridge Global LLC: Yep, absolutely. Last question was on Panama. You mentioned the shift hasn’t gone as well as you planned. Are we going to see lower margins as that shift happens over the course of this year from where you initially thought, or how should we look at that?

Dan O’Brien, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Flexible Solutions International: It’s going to be similar margins to our legacy products in the past. We’re not going to increase our margins. What is happening there is identical to the food grade plant. We are employing people and building out a factory where the volume of sales doesn’t match the cost of expenses and people at this time. As the sales increase, the employees will be properly utilized for making stuff and selling it instead of building the factory, learning their jobs, and putting things in place. It’s happening at roughly the same rate. We’re expecting that by third quarter, most of the legacy business will be coming out of Panama. There will still be some until the end of the year coming out of Illinois. Again, margins in Panama will creep upwards as we utilize the factory properly and the employees properly.

They will creep up to historical margin levels for our legacy products.

William Gregozeski, Analyst/Investor, Greenridge Global LLC: Okay, perfect. Thanks, Dan.

Dan O’Brien, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Flexible Solutions International: Appreciate it. Thanks, Bill.

Jen, Conference Call Operator, Conference Services Provider: As a reminder, if you’d like to ask a question, please signal by pressing star one at this time. We’ll pause for just a moment to allow everyone an opportunity to signal. Mr. O’Brien, it appears there are no further questions at this time.

Dan O’Brien, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Flexible Solutions International: Well, thank you, Jen. Everybody, thanks very much. Sorry we were delayed for audit.

Jen, Conference Call Operator, Conference Services Provider: Mr. O’Brien has disconnected. This will conclude today’s conference call. Thank you for attending. The host has ended this call.