Natural Health Trends Corp.
Q1 2021 Earnings Call Transcript

Published: 8 May 2021

[Operator:]

Greetings. Welcome to Natural Health Trends First Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call. Please note, this conference is being recorded. I will now turn the conference over to Kim Orlando from Investor Relations. Kim, you may begin.

[Kimberly Orlando:]

Thank you, and welcome to Natural Health Trends First Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call. During today's call, there may be statements made relating to the future results of the company that are forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results, performance or achievements could differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements due to the result of certain factors including those set forth in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It should also be noted that today's call will be webcast live and can be found on the Investors section of the company's corporate website at naturalhealthtrendscorp.com. Instructions can be found for accessing the archived version of the conference call in today's financial results press release, which was issued at approximately 9

[Chris Sharng:]

Thank you, Kim, and thanks to everyone for joining us this morning to discuss our first quarter 2021 financial results. With me today is Scott Davidson, our Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. I'll begin with a review of our first quarter financial performance, which reflected the impact of the ongoing pandemic and seasonality resulting from the Chinese New Year holidays. Revenue of $13.5 million decreased 10% compared to $14.9 million in the first quarter of 2020. Following a highly productive January, the government-mandated travel restrictions around the Chinese New Year holidays, which were much more severe than what we had experienced in the previous year, resulting in roughly 3 weeks of last working days in February. We also experienced a surge in orders late in the first quarter, which resulted in an increase in our ship orders as of the end of March with our quarter-end deferred revenue balance increasing $1.1 million from December to March, this accounts for a substantial amount of the reduction in our first quarter revenue which we expect to recognize in Q2. Notwithstanding the challenges, we reported our fourth consecutive quarter of positive operating income and net income in addition to our second consecutive quarter of positive cash-flow generation. Importantly, despite the severity of the social gathering restrictions, our first quarter order volume was still consistent with the prior year quarter. As a reminder, our order volume in the first quarter of 2020 was bolstered by several product promotions, including one for essential pro-biotic products to support immune health at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The curtailing of product promotions, a year later, was made evidenced by the significant improvement in our first quarter gross profit margin. A strong contributor to our order volume in the first quarter of 2021 was our January in-person Fly High training in China, which attracted nearly 700 participants. After hosting predominantly virtual events through the pandemic, the January Fly High event was very well received and attended. Our second attempt at an in-person Fly High in China during the quarter was postponed from March to early April due to some local COVID-19 outbreak. That said, the most recent Fly High event also turned out very positive with the number of attendees exceeding that of the January event. Following the occasion, our leaders have continued to sponsor and organize a series of marketing activities, including product and business training road shows. Next, we expect to hold our first major in-person event since the beginning of the pandemic in Macau, in June, where we intend to introduce a new wellness product, time release Ultracomplex to an audience of over 1,500.

[Scott Davidson:]

Thank you, Chris. Total revenue for the first quarter was $13.5 million, a decline of 10% compared to $14.9 million in the first quarter of 2020. As Chris mentioned, the year-over-year decline in revenue was primarily due to the restricted government measures over the extended Chinese New Year holiday period in February as well as an increase in unshipped orders at the end of the quarter. While we remain cautiously optimistic the macroeconomic climate will improve, we expect our financial results may continue to be adversely impacted by the lingering effects of the pandemic as cities work to ease restrictions and re-open slowly and safely. Our active member base decreased 5% to 49,420 at March 31 from 52,230 at December 31, and was down 13% from 56,490 at March 31 last year.

[Operator:]

[Operator:]

Thank you. This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. We thank you for your participation.