Alico, Inc.
Q4 2020 Earnings Call Transcript

Published: 8 Dec 2020

[Operator:]

Welcome to Alico's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2020 Earnings Conference Call. As a reminder, today's conference is being recorded. I would like to now turn the call over to your host, Mr. John Mills with ICR.

[John Mills:]

Thank you, Darryl. Good morning, and thank you for joining us for Alico's fourth quarter and full year 2020 conference call. On the call today, are John Kiernan, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Rich Rallo, Chief Financial Officer. Earlier this morning, the Company issued a press release announcing its results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended September 30, 2020. If you've not had a chance to view the release, it is available on the Investor Relations portion of the Company's website at alicoinc.com. This call is being webcast, and a replay will be available on Alico's website as well.

[John Kiernan:]

Thank you, John. And thank you, everyone, for joining us for Alico's inaugural earnings call this morning. Since this is our first earnings call together, I'd like to start with a bit of context. Alico has rebounded well from a tough year. I joined more than five years ago to help transform Alico into a more competitive company. In early 2017, we implemented a comprehensive modernization program called Alico 2.0, to improve our operational efficiencies and optimize our asset returns. This initiative scrutinized every key aspect of our citrus and land operations, including our corporate and operational cost structures, crop costs, purchasing and procurement programs, professional fees, and human resources efficiency. We also identified non-performing and underperforming assets. The result was to combine our three legacy businesses into one efficient enterprise - Alico Citrus. We eliminated certain costs that we believed would not negatively affect our citrus production, divested assets, and lines of business that generated low rates of return, and outsourced parts of our operation that were not profitable. We decreased operating costs by more than $16 million, which represented a 19% reduction, and two years after executing on this initiative, we continue to maintain this reduced operating cost levels. At the end of 2018, we had substantially completed these changes and began to concentrate our focus on improving our competitive position as a leader in the global citrus industry. Today, as a result of these initiatives, we are the leading high-quality, low-cost producer of citrus in Florida, and one of the largest citrus growers in the United States.

[Rich Rallo:]

Thank you, John, and good morning, everyone. As this is our first earnings call in many years, I would like to remind everyone of the seasonality of our business. The majority of our citrus crop is harvested in the second and third quarters of our fiscal year, and the majority of our profit and cash flows are typically recognized in the second and third quarters as well. Based on this aspect, today, we will focus primarily on full-year results of our business. For the fiscal year 2020, total operating revenues was $92.5 million compared to $122.3 million for the previous fiscal year. Citrus revenues were $89.4 million compared to $190 million for the previous fiscal year. For the fiscal year ended September 30, 2020, we harvested approximately 7.6 million boxes of fruit, a decrease of 6.6% from the prior fiscal year. The decrease in processed box production was the result of greater fruit drop and smaller fruit size in the current harvest season as compared to the prior harvest season. As mentioned previously by John, the average blended price per pound solids decreased from $2.42 in the prior fiscal year to $1.86 in the current fiscal year. The decrease was primarily due to Florida citrus crop being greater than expected in the 2018-2019 harvest season, leading to high inventory levels at Florida citrus juice processors at the beginning of the 2019-2020 harvest season. The price was also impacted by the continued inflow of imported orange juice, though at lower levels than the prior year. As we look ahead into fiscal year 2021, we do expect an improvement in pricing due to increased consumption of not-from-concentrate orange juice by retail consumers, which in turn is resulting in lower inventory levels. This inventory trend has us well-positioned for the upcoming harvest season, which recently commenced.

[John Kiernan:]

Thank you, Rich. Alico is the leader in the Florida citrus industry with huge cost and scale advantages. We believe that we have transformed the Company into a low-cost producer with strong margins, and are well-positioned for long-term growth within this $27 billion global industry. We have an experienced, stable management team, focused on growing the business and returning capital to our shareholders. We have invested heavily in our business to fuel organic growth through the strategic decision to increase the density of our citrus groves by planting more than 1.3 million new trees over the past four years, which we expect to be fruit-bearing in the next couple of years. We are also fueling growth inorganically by constantly evaluating opportunities to acquire well-managed neighboring citrus groves and deploying capital thoughtfully when we see a strategic acquisition at an attractive price. Additionally, we have expanded into fee-generating lines of related businesses, as you saw this past fiscal year with the growth of our third-party management service. The increased confidence we have in the rebound of market pricing in the next fiscal year, along with our control of our cost structure will allow us to provide some guidance as to net income, adjusted net income, EBITDA, and adjusted EBITDA for the upcoming fiscal year. We are projecting net income of $7.5 million to $10 million; adjusted net income of $4.5 million to $6.9 million; EBITDA between $29 million and $33 million; and adjusted EBITDA between $25 million and $28.8 million. These projections do not include any gains from asset sales. In the event that asset sales are realized, Alico may decide to update these projections. We believe that we have built Alico into a low-cost, high-margin Company dedicated to unlocking value for our shareholders, and believe our fiscal year results and accomplishments demonstrate our commitment to being the long-term citrus leader. I'd like to end now by thanking our 250 or so dedicated employees and our management team for their incredible work this past fiscal year and thanking everyone on the phone today for their continued support of Alico. We look forward to speaking with everyone again on our first quarter earnings call in February.

[Operator:]

Thank you. That does conclude today’s conference. you may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation and have a great day.

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