Turning Point Brands Fourth Quarter 2025 Earnings Call - White pouch surge forces front-loaded investment

Conference Operator, Moderator, Conference Services: Good morning, welcome to the Turning Point Brands fourth quarter 2025 earnings conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today’s presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Andrew Flynn, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Andrew Flynn, Chief Financial Officer, Turning Point Brands: Good morning, everyone. Earlier today, we issued a press release covering our fourth quarter results available in the investor relations section of our website at www.turningpointbrands.com. During this call, we’ll discuss consolidated and segment operating results, the operating environment, and our progress against our strategic plan. Before we begin, please refer to the forward-looking statements and risk factors in our press release and SEC filings. We’ll also reference certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations and explanations are included in today’s earnings release. With that, I’ll turn the call over to our CEO, Graham Purdy.

Graham Purdy, Chief Executive Officer, Turning Point Brands: Thanks, Andrew. Good morning, everyone, thank you for joining our call. We are pleased with how the year wrapped up and the momentum we’ve built for 2026. Revenue increased 29% to $121 million for the fourth quarter, including $41.3 million in Modern Oral net revenue. Adjusted EBITDA increased 14% to $30 million for the quarter. We are initiating 2026 Modern Oral gross revenue guidance at a range of $220 million-$240 million and Modern Oral net revenue at a range of $180 million-$190 million. As we’ve stated in the past, we are ready, willing, and able to increase our investment behind our white pouch brands and expect a portion of that investment to be accounted for as contra revenue under GAAP.

We think it’s valuable for us to provide transparency into difference between gross and net to evaluate our progress over time. Our focus is on building lasting consumer relationships that require front-loaded investment. Once consumers enter the franchise, we tend to see consistent repeat purchasing that supports revenue over many years. While this category is still in the early stages, we believe the average consumer’s lifetime value could last decades. We expect first quarter 2026 consolidated adjusted EBITDA to be between $24 million and $27 million. We are currently working on several significant and exciting sales and marketing initiatives and investments for white pouch that make it difficult to accurately project EBITDA beyond Q1. Obviously, when looking back at 2025, we are most pleased with the growth of our white nicotine pouch brands.

Their long-lasting, vibrant flavor options, comfortable mouth feel, and flexible nicotine levels continue to win with consumers. Both FRĒ and ALP have cultivated strong brand identities that resonate with their respective consumer bases. During the quarter, net white pouch sales increased by 266% year-over-year, and gross sales increased 337%. We continue to make progress expanding FRĒ’s distribution to larger regional and national c-store chains. ALP, already one of the top D2C pouch brands in America, has started to appear on bricks and mortar shelves in select retailer tests. Recall that we initially expected ALP to be exclusively D2C for all of 2025. Suffice it to say, we are pleased ALP is running ahead of schedule, and we expect to significantly expand bricks and mortar distribution of ALP during Q2.

We believe the nicotine pouch space, like most other nicotine businesses, will ultimately feature 5 to 6 widely distributed brands that command most of the market. Analysts’ expectations for the size of the category differ, but most believe it’ll approach, if not exceed, $10 billion in manufacturer’s revenue by the end of the decade. Our Q4 performance and sales growth trajectory support our long-term target of double-digit market share in the category. In order to best position the company to capitalize on this multi-billion dollar opportunity, we have made and will continue to make significant investments in the business and refine our route to market strategy to prioritize FRĒ and ALP while continuing to generate strong cash flow from our heritage brands.

Key investment initiatives include reallocating sales and marketing resources, increasing the headcount of our sales force, improving our online presence, ramping up investment in chain accounts, pursuing brand-enhancing partnerships, expanding to international markets, and building out U.S. manufacturing for our white pouch brands. We are pleased with our progress on the manufacturing front and expect to qualify the first production lines at our new Louisville factory over the next several months. We’ve been particularly encouraged by our ability to identify and onboard new sales talent. We are ahead of schedule in our goal of doubling the size of our sales force. The rest of the Stoker segment portfolio also performed better than expected in the quarter. Overall, Stoker’s net revenue increased 70% to $81 million, reflecting 9% increase in our legacy brands and the aforementioned 266% increase in Modern Oral revenue.

During the fourth quarter, Zig-Zag revenue was down 13% to $40 million and 9% sequentially. This decline was as anticipated and in line with expected opportunity costs with our laser focus on Modern Oral. With that, I’ll hand the call over to Summer to walk through the progress of our key go-to-market initiatives.

Summer, Head of Go-to-Market Strategy, Turning Point Brands: Thank you, Graham. As he noted, we continue to make significant investments to support our go-to-market strategies, prioritizing FRĒ, while also maximizing the cash flow from our legacy brands. Throughout the quarter, we continued to expand our efforts and our initiatives to support the growth of FRĒ, focused on sales and marketing. We remain committed to optimizing our approach to expand distribution, improving brand merchandising, and ensuring adequate inventory conditions. We are seeing the early benefits of the new sales and merchandising tools referenced in prior quarters, which are enabling our sales team to secure the ideal assortment, establish shelf space, and execute a premium look and feel at retail. We finished 2025 strong with our continued progress in large scale chains and look forward to sharing further progress throughout 2026.

We were grateful to have recently spent time with some of you at the sold-out Professional Bull Riders event in Madison Square Garden. These events are high octane and nationally televised, providing a unique opportunity to engage with our consumer base and build brand awareness. We look forward to sharing other opportunities that we’re exploring, which align with FRĒ’s Own Your Edge tagline and brand ethos. With regards to Zig-Zag, we continued executing product, retail, and cultural initiatives that build upon our 145-year legacy and strengthen our premium position across the segment. During the quarter, we advanced the rollout of Natural Leaf Flat Wraps, expanding distribution and awareness in this fast-growing tobacco segment. We also supported trial of our legacy paper products through targeted regional programs and sampling tied to major sporting weekends in key markets.

We continued to advance the brand’s evolution into a lifestyle platform with new apparel lines and culturally relevant brand activations that embody Zig-Zag’s Live fast, burn slow ethos. In the quarter, we also had some exciting news from Stoker’s with the launch of a new flanker brand, Stoker’s Proud. Stoker’s Proud offers a traditional long cut while delivering the same 100% American-made quality dip that Stoker’s is known for. It’s designed to attract value-seeking can consumers while insulating the broader brand from category pricing pressure. We’ll share more about this expansion in coming quarters. In closing, we continue to build our brand for the long term, execute and deliver against our omni-channel plan, and win consumers. Our focus is to prioritize strategic investments that maximize the value of our world-class brands and further strengthen and leverage our distribution capabilities.

Let me now turn the call back over to Andrew to go through our financial results.

Andrew Flynn, Chief Financial Officer, Turning Point Brands: Thank you, Summer. Sales were up 29% year-over-year to $121 million for the quarter. Growth was driven primarily by Modern Oral, while we continue to invest in sales and marketing to support that expansion. For the quarter, gross margin was 55.9%, which was flat versus last year. Reported SG&A was $47.7 million for the quarter, which was up $3.1 million sequentially. The increase is driven by our planned commitment to invest in Modern Oral related sales and marketing, as well as increased outbound freight charges. Adjusted EBITDA was up 14% year-over-year to $30 million for the quarter at a 24.8% margin. Going into segment performance.

Zig-Zag segment net sales were down 13% year-over-year to $40 million for the quarter, which was in line with our expectations. For the quarter, Zig-Zag gross margin was 54.6%, which was up 40 basis points versus last year. Stoker’s segment net sales increased 70% year-over-year to $81 million for the quarter. The Stoker’s segment now accounts for 67% of consolidated net sales. Legacy Stoker’s brands increased by 9% year-over-year to $39.7 million for the quarter, driven by continued share growth in MSD that was partially offset by anticipated declines in loose leaf. Modern Oral nicotine pouch net sales, FRĒ and out, were up 266% year-over-year, achieving total revenue of $41.3 million.

For the quarter, white pouch now accounts for 34% of consolidated net sales, up from 12% a year ago. We ended the quarter with $222.8 million of cash. Free cash flow for the fourth quarter was $19.2 million. CapEx for the quarter was $3.3 million. On to guidance and other items. As previously noted, we are initiating full year 2026 Modern Oral gross sales guidance of $220 million-$240 million and net sales guidance of $180 million-$190 million. We expect first quarter 2026 EBITDA of $24 million-$27 million inclusive of increased white pouch sales and marketing investment. For modeling purposes, the effective income tax range is 23%-26% on a go-forward basis.

Budgeted CapEx for 2026 is $4 million-$5 million, exclusive of projects related to our Modern Oral business. We expect to spend between $3 million-$5 million for the full year to supplement our Modern Oral PMTAs. Let me turn it back to Graham.

Summer, Head of Go-to-Market Strategy, Turning Point Brands: To conclude, we are pleased with our year-end results and excited about our prospects for 2026. I’ll now turn it over to questions.

Conference Operator, Moderator, Conference Services: We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, press star then 1 on your telephone keypad. We kindly ask that you please limit your questions to 1 and 1 follow-up. Our first question comes from the line of Eric DesLauriers with Craig-Hallum Capital Group. Please go ahead.

Graham Purdy, Chief Executive Officer, Turning Point Brands: Great. Thanks for taking my questions, congrats on another very impressive quarter here. First one from me on the investment opportunity. You know, you mentioned you’re ready, willing, and able to invest in nicotine pouch growth this year. It sounds like you have some investments picking up in Q1 with that EBITDA guide. Just wondering if you could provide a bit more color on the sales and marketing sort of opportunities that you see in front of you right now and just how we should be thinking about that for this year. Thank you.

Andrew Flynn, Chief Financial Officer, Turning Point Brands: Hey, Arik, Andrew here. Thank you for the question. Yes, the way we were, we’re thinking about the EBITDA guide is that we are investing in sales and marketing, and we’re also preparing ourselves for the launch of ALK in bricks and mortar in Q2. We’ll need to invest dollars upfront in order to have a successful launch in the second quarter.

Graham Purdy, Chief Executive Officer, Turning Point Brands: All right. That’s helpful. And then on domestic production, it’s nice to hear the progress there. I think you said initial lines to be qualified in the coming months. Could you just expand on the domestic production outlook for the year? Whether that’s, you know, how many lines you expect to bring online, or how we should think about the mix of domestic versus international production, and how that should evolve throughout the year. Thanks.

Andrew Flynn, Chief Financial Officer, Turning Point Brands: Yeah. We expect to qualify the lines in the next couple of months. Really what we’ve done is we’ve, in 2025, we spent CapEx dollars on investments in the infrastructure of the building. These are things like HVAC systems, electrical, plumbing, et cetera. We’ve got those lines, and those lines are becoming more efficient week by week. We’re encouraged with the progress that they’ve made. We will continue to use our Indian partner because both brands are growing, and so the U.S. will supplement the growth. We, we think that between the two locations, we’ll have no supply chain constraints. In terms of enhanced margins, it’s gonna take a while to get, you know, the inventory out of the, you know, in the U.S. and through our P&L.

We expect to see some green shoots in margin enhancements towards the end of the year. One thing I will say is what we’re doing to help with the margin profile is we are very much focused on freight, our inbound freight. There’s some opportunities for us to optimize there, and we’ve taken advantage of that.

Conference Operator, Moderator, Conference Services: Our next question will come from the line of Ian Zaffino with Oppenheimer. Please go ahead.

Ian Zaffino, Analyst, Oppenheimer: Hi, great. Thank you very much. You know, as far as the investment and, you know, the ramp of Modern Oral, what should we expect as far as timing of all this investment? Maybe the better way to, to ask it is, you know, what does that investment look like exiting 2026? You know, how much will it come down? Maybe what do you view as kind of a sustainable rate? Thanks.

Andrew Flynn, Chief Financial Officer, Turning Point Brands: Yeah. I think the way we’re thinking about it is that the investment will be somewhat lumpy through the year. As we see opportunities to invest that we think are high ROI projects, we will do that. To give you an exact figure in terms of investment ratio, I think it’s gonna modulate quarter to quarter.

Ian Zaffino, Analyst, Oppenheimer: Okay. You know, would you be able to give us a kind of a sense of what you expect as far as the store count ramp for ALK? You know, should it be similar to what we’ve seen in FRĒ recently? You know, just maybe use that as a benchmark. Thanks.

Graham Purdy, Chief Executive Officer, Turning Point Brands: Thanks, Ian. Look, I think that we’re number one, incredibly excited about the ALK launch in Q2. We’ve laid some groundwork here as of late, we think that we’re gonna come out of the gate very strong there. You know, as we think about it, we’re entering 2026 with a ton of enthusiasm and a ton of excitement around, you know, the both potential for FRĒ and ALK and really putting some investment dollars behind that to yield the strong growth. That said, we think that, you know, the store count growth will probably look similar to the sort of early days of the FRĒ launch.

You know, as we focus in and hone in on areas where we’ve gotten FRĒ distribution currently, so we can round out the portfolio inside of those particular retail stores. We have a specific focus around FRĒ this year with chain wins. We’re pretty excited about sort of, you know, all the above relative to both FRĒ and ALK.

Conference Operator, Moderator, Conference Services: Our next question comes from the line of Aaron Gray with Alliance Global Partners. Please go ahead.

Aaron Gray, Analyst, Alliance Global Partners: Hi, good morning. Thank you for the questions here. First question for me, just wanna piggyback off the last one here, maybe focus more on that FRĒ distribution, which you just alluded to there, Graham. Appreciate the color that you provided on ALK distribution. But for FRĒ, which has been kind of the main horse for brick-and-mortar distribution, it seems like you still see some opportunities for wins in white space in 2026. Maybe some more color in terms of expectations there, and you mentioned some change there, I know that can be, you know, sometimes a big step change and uncertain in terms of the timing. Any color there will be appreciated. Thank you.

Andrew Flynn, Chief Financial Officer, Turning Point Brands: Yeah. Look, I think that there’s still tremendous amount of store opportunity out there in both sort of the chain environment, which we view as substantial at this point in time, as well as, you know, continued growth in our independent customers. We also see green shoots relative to the level of distribution that we have in stores and specifically, you know, our share of shelf and what we see in our internals in terms of what that yields. It’s not necessarily at all times about, you know, raw store count adds. It’s about the maturity of each of the stores that we get in distribution and making sure that we’re winning inside those specific stores. We do expect continued store growth this year.

It may be a little bit lumpy relative to when chains come online, but, you know, we continue to expect upward trajectory there.

Gerald Pascarelli, Analyst, Needham & Company: Appreciate the detail there. Second question from me, just wanted to get some color in terms of how are you thinking about innovation in the category? You know, the need to stay ahead, on that front as other large players aim to introduce new products, particularly given the FDA’s, you know, new fast-tracked PMTA program. I know we’ve talked about flavors a lot, but also, you know, moisture, ’cause it seems like that’s a big initiative for some of the larger players. How are you thinking about innovation in the category? Any color there would be helpful.

Graham Purdy, Chief Executive Officer, Turning Point Brands: Yeah. Look, I think, our first focus is, you know, winning with the existing products that we have. We think we have a tremendous edge, relative to our flavor profiles, our satisfaction levels within our product, our moisture level. You know, the majority of the category today is sold in, sort of the mint and wintergreen environment. We feel very confident that we’re sort of covered up where, you know, the biggest portion of the market is. In terms of long-term innovation, you know, as we continue to grow our store counts, we continue to grow the business, we certainly see opportunities down the road, you know, to, you know, make some investments behind additional flavor options.

At this point in time, we think we’ve got a portfolio with both FRĒ and ALP that we can win.

Conference Operator, Moderator, Conference Services: Our next question comes from the line of Scott Cederberg with Roth Capital Partners. Please go ahead.

Scott Cederberg, Analyst, Roth Capital Partners: Yeah, good morning. Thanks for taking the questions. First one from me, just on nicotine pouch consumption, it looks like US consumers are using more on a per day basis than they were a year ago. That’s still well below some of the more developed international regions. Just curious how you see growth evolving in this industry near term. Will it be more from existing consumers using more or new users entering the category? Just any color there would be helpful. Thank you.

Graham Purdy, Chief Executive Officer, Turning Point Brands: I think the great news is both. As you pointed out, you know, the consumption patterns of existing consumers continues to grow as Modern Oral becomes a greater share of their nicotine requirements. As you see the growth in the category, certainly we’re seeing, you know, consumer uptake from other tobacco products, you know, specifically cigarettes, and even vapes. I think it’s just a tremendous opportunity where sort of both, you know, provide growth vectors for the category.

Scott Cederberg, Analyst, Roth Capital Partners: I appreciate that. Second one for me on the tax landscape within Modern Oral. We’re seeing several states considering tax hikes on nicotine pouches. Just wondering if you could provide some color on the potential for these increases this year and just how that might impact the pricing and promotional environment going forward? Thank you.

Graham Purdy, Chief Executive Officer, Turning Point Brands: Yeah. You know, taxes are something that tobacco companies have dealt with for decades now. I think the good news on the tax front is if you think about taxation at a specific state level, it impacts every product that’s within that state. There’s no, you know, disadvantage for one manufacturer over another manufacturer relative to the tax landscape. You know, we would anticipate that, you know, taxes, you know, will, over the long haul, will, you know, continue to grow and look more like sort of the existing tobacco products. You know, for us, that, the absolute opportunity of winning inside the states where taxes are or aren’t at this point in time, that doesn’t really matter to us because the playing field’s level, and we think we’ve got a winning product.

Conference Operator, Moderator, Conference Services: Our final question will come from the line of Gerald Pascarelli with Needham & Company. Please go ahead.

Gerald Pascarelli, Analyst, Needham & Company: Great. Thanks very much for taking the questions. I know you don’t provide a breakout by brand, understandable, but was hoping that you could maybe broadly unpack for us the revenue performance between FRĒ and ALP this quarter. Just wondering specifically if you saw a slowdown in ALP’s DTC growth, or if you had better than expected performance in FRĒ, which, you know, we know is lower gross margin. You know, the basis of the question is just trying to reconcile some of the drivers behind the negative mix that you cited, in terms of the Stoker’s segment level gross margin in the quarter. Any color there would be great. Thank you.

Graham Purdy, Chief Executive Officer, Turning Point Brands: Yeah. For, you know, for internal reasons, we haven’t split out specifically ALP and FRĒ, but what I can say is both brands performed within our expectation in the quarter.

Gerald Pascarelli, Analyst, Needham & Company: Okay. Thanks for that. For, for Graham, just I guess a high level question, now that we’re through year 1 of the white pouch rollout, if you could just talk about any learnings you’ve had, where you view the biggest white space opportunities from a distribution perspective, and how you balance getting into some of these larger national chains, which are seemingly more expensive, versus maybe doubling back to retail locations where you’re currently present and where you’ve done very well historically, to get more shelf space and more facings to build out your presence, at some of these retail locations you’re currently in. Any color there would be great. Thank you.

Graham Purdy, Chief Executive Officer, Turning Point Brands: Sure. you know, sort of, you know, reference, you know, prior answer here on this call, sort of green shoots all over the place for us. When you think about, you know, the leaning into ALP and the retail distribution there as we ramp that, tons of white space. It’s virtually all white space for ALP out there. FRĒ, still a tremendous amount of store level, you know, distribution opportunities. Still a tremendous amount of opportunities relative to expanding the portfolio inside of existing stores. We’re focused on really all of the above because we think that there’s so much opportunity out there. We’ve made a tremendous amount of investment in our sales force to really solidify sort of the ground troops to be able to go out and tackle that opportunity.

You can see sort of how we’re thinking about this coming year, in ramping up our investment. We think that there’s opportunities to invest in trade programs. There’s opportunities to invest in further strategic partnerships to build out our brand profiles. Ultimately what we think is long term, brands are gonna win in this space. For us, we think about ALP as probably one of the leading sort of brand properties in the space, given, you know, given the connection there and the large D2C footprint. FRĒ has done a great job relative to leaning into its equities with the Professional Bull Riders partnership. We think that there’s other opportunities out there that we’re incredibly excited to invest behind.

I think that it’s really all of the above, more stores, more facings, more product in there for both FRĒ and ALP. We think as we continue to build the brand profiles, that we have a winning combination and ultimately our goal is to be a strong challenger brand in the space where we think, you know, the combination of those two brands, you know, could achieve a number 4 position in the space and maybe with a little bit of upside.

Andrew Flynn, Chief Financial Officer, Turning Point Brands: I did wanna circle back to your first question about the gross margin performance in Stoker. One thing to keep in mind is that we had an elevated tariff rate in the fourth quarter, that had an impact on the Stoker’s margins because of the white pouch. We had an add back in EBITDA, but that’s in the adjusted EBITDA. It’s not in the gross margins.

Conference Operator, Moderator, Conference Services: This concludes our question and answer session. I’ll now hand the call back over to Graham for any closing comments.

Graham Purdy, Chief Executive Officer, Turning Point Brands: Yeah, thank you, operator. Really appreciate everybody getting on the call. We feel great about how we finished 2025. I can’t tell you how enthusiastic and excited we are about the opportunities in front of us in 2026. We look forward to talking to you in a few months here, and we’ll talk to you then.

Conference Operator, Moderator, Conference Services: This concludes today’s call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.