EnWave Corporation (ENW.V) Q4 FY2025 Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, and welcome to EnWave Corporation's Fourth Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Melissa, and I will be your operator for today's call. Joining us for today's presentation are the company's President and CEO, Brent Charleton; and Dylan Murray, EnWave's CFO. [Operator Instructions] The conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] Finally, I'd like to remind everyone that this call will be made available for replay via a link in the Investor Relations section of the company's website at www.enwave.net. Now I'd like to turn the call over to EnWave's CEO, Mr. Brent Charleton. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, and a very good morning to everyone who has joined us today for EnWave's Q4 fiscal 2025 Quarterly Conference Call. Q4 yielded outstanding financial results, and I'm very pleased to summarize our performance details today and discuss our business outlook for the upcoming fiscal year. Now as always, the information we will present today contains forward-looking information that is based on our management's expectations, estimates and projections. Our statements are not a guarantee of future performance and involve a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Please consider the risk factors in the filings made by EnWave on SEDAR when reviewing this information. Also, all amounts discussed today will be in Canadian dollars, unless otherwise noted. So again, our performance in Q4 was very strong as we reported revenues of $6.2 million, which was up 71% year-over-year. Net income from continuous operations of $928,000, which was up 58% year-over-year and adjusted EBITDA of $1.4 million, an increase of almost $1 million year-over-year. These excellent Q4 results helped us to achieve fiscal year revenues of $13.8 million, a 69% improvement year-over-year and the highest fiscal year revenue generated by EnWave's licensing royalty business as a stand-alone entity. In Q4, we continued to build 2 60-kilowatt REV machines purchased by Milne MicroDried for their new dairy co-manufacturing facility in Washington State. We resold a high-margin 120-kilowatt REV machine to BranchOut Foods, and we also commissioned 6 10-kilowatt machines. Now in regards to our quarterly and fiscal year royalty performance, most important to me is that our base royalties, which are royalties generated through the sales or production of REV-dried products, were $418,000 in Q4, which is the highest quarterly third-party base royalties ever generated and up 31% year-over-year. We also generated $1.8 million in base royalties for the full fiscal year 2025, which was up $228,000 year-over-year. Total royalties year-over-year were flat, and that was due to the decision of one existing royalty partner deciding not to pay an annual exclusivity royalty to maintain rights to produce certain tropical fruit products in a Central American country and rather use those proceeds as part of their capital expenditure to acquire 2 60-kilowatt machines during fiscal 2025. Overall, our royalty growth is trending in the right direction and the fact that all 4 large-scale REV sales in fiscal '25 were repeat orders from existing royalty partners, it's likely that we'll see faster base royalty growth in future quarters. In regards to deals getting done in Q4 and to the date of this call, we confirmed the sale of the second 60-kilowatt quantaREV machine and 2 10-kilowatt REV machines to MicroDried. In 2026, MicroDried will be operating a total of 5 large-scale REV machines and 2 10-kilowatt units, producing the largest portfolio of REV-dried products available from a single royalty partner of EnWave. We also sold 2 additional 10-kilowatt units to Dairy Concepts IRL in Q4 to support their growing market demand for their premium shelf-stable dairy snacks in the United Kingdom and Europe. They now operate 5 10-kilowatt units for commercial production. The most material transaction in Q4 was the resale of the 120-kilowatt machine taken back from a U.S. cannabis company and resold to BranchOut Foods. This machine is scheduled for installation in Peru during the upcoming month of January. BranchOut will then have a total of 4 large-scale REV units and 1 10-kilowatt unit commissioned for their growing production needs in 2026. BranchOut Foods' outlook for sales growth and subsequent royalty payments to EnWave is incredibly bullish. Lastly, in Q4, we signed a new royalty-bearing commercial license with Solve Solutions of Brazil, who also purchased a 10-kilowatt for initial production. Our understanding is that Solve intends to grow their manufacturing capacity through 2026 for both fruit, vegetable and dairy product production. And in order for Solve to maintain certain product exclusivity in Brazil, they are required to purchase a large-scale REV machine on or before March 31, 2026. Their strategy will be a blend of direct-to-consumer and co-manufacturing contracts. Now subsequent to Q4 and prior to this call, we signed 2 additional commercial licenses, one with a U.S. snack company that will first establish production in Mexico and the second with a company called Shinyway of New Zealand, a cannabis drying company. The U.S. snack company purchased a 10-kilowatt unit and is expected to acquire additional REV units in fiscal '26 to expand production. Although we can't be certain when every deal will close, we have numerous new license agreements, evaluation agreements and machinery sales, both first time and repeat that we are actively pursuing for fiscal '26. Across our royalty partner ecosystem, we are seeing most partners increase their capacity utilization and some have already communicated an imminent need for more machinery this year. We are targeting superior machine sale performance in fiscal '26, both in the number of large-scale units and 10-kilowatt sales. And of these prospective sales, we anticipate at least half of these potential orders to come from existing royalty partners. In the past 3 months, from a sales and marketing perspective, we attended 6 international FoodTech trade shows, including the PPMA in the U.K., FoodTech Mexico, SupplySide Global, AFTEA in Singapore, Fi Europe and the PLMA show in Vegas. That's a lot of travel. And as we head into the new year, we're preparing to attend 3 additional shows in Q2, including Expo West in Anaheim, ProSweets in Europe and the North American Petfood Forum. I'm overall very pleased with the efforts of our sales and marketing team to date. We've begun to put that $3 million gross proceeds generated from the life offering closed in Q4 to use. We're building 2 large-scale machines, 1 100-kilowatt nutraREV and 120-kilowatt quantaREV, along with 2 additional 10-kilowatt units for our inventory and prospective demand. This will allow us to deploy large-scale machinery more expeditiously in the new year, and there are numerous active discussions regarding machine sale opportunities that we hope to be able to discuss in the near term. Now with my summarized update complete, I'll now ask Dylan to summarize EnWave's detailed quarterly financial performance. Here we go.

Thanks, Brent. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Please note that the figures I'll be discussing can be found in our press release from this morning and in the financial statements and MD&A filed on SEDAR, and all amounts are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise noted. I will make reference to adjusted EBITDA, which is a non-IFRS financial measure, so please refer to the non-IFRS financial measure disclosures and reconciliation to GAAP net income, both in the press release and in our MD&A. Also, please note that the comparative period I'll refer to throughout this presentation is the prior year Q4 ended September 30, 2024. Revenues for Q4 were $6.2 million compared to $3.6 million in the comparative period, an increase of $2.6 million or 71%. The increase in revenue for the period was primarily a result of the sale and commissioning of 6 small-scale machines, the ongoing fabrication of 2 large-scale machines and the resale of a higher-margin large-scale machine during the quarter. On the year, the company reported revenues of $13.8 million compared to $8.2 million in fiscal 2024, an increase of $5.6 million or 69%. During the year, the company sold 8 small-scale machines and 4 large-scale machines, including a high-margin 120-kilowatt machine that had repurchased from a cannabis multistate operator. In 2024, the company sold only 3 small-scale machines and 2 large-scale machines, including a repatriated 100-kilowatt machine from NutraDried. Third-party base royalty revenue was $481,000 in Q4 2025 compared to $381,000 in the comparative period, an increase of $113,000 or 31%. Base royalties for the year ended September 30, 2025, were $1.8 million compared to $1.6 million for the year ended 2024, an increase of $228,000 or 14%. Royalties grew due to the increased number of royalty partners and machine capacity utilization for the quarter. Total royalties, inclusive of exclusivity payments were down $161,000 quarter-over-quarter. As Brent mentioned, the decrease in exclusivity payments was related to an existing royalty partner that committed to multiple large-scale machines during the year, deciding not to continue with exclusivity in an unspecified Central American country. This partner redeployed capital to a different strategic area to house the recently acquired large-scale machines. And as our royalty partners grow their businesses and increase capacity utilization of installed REV equipment, further REV installations will follow from new sales contracts and material base royalty growth should continue in the coming quarters. The 4 large-scale machines sold in fiscal 2025 are all expected to begin commercial production and generate royalties in fiscal 2026. And as of the date of this call, 2 of these large-scale machines have been commissioned or in the process of being commissioned. Gross margin for the company in Q4 2025 was 41% compared to 40% in Q4 2024. The increase in margin is result of the production mix of large and small-scale machines at various stages of production. SG&A expenses, including R&D, were $1.5 million for Q4 2025 compared to $1.3 million for Q4 2024, an increase of $223,000 or 17%. The increase primarily related to sales personnel and increased trade show attendance. The company will continue to further invest in sales and marketing activities in the coming quarters to drive further sales growth. Adjusted EBITDA is a non-IFRS financial measure, so please refer to our MD&A for the reconciliation from GAAP net income to adjusted EBITDA. The company recorded adjusted EBITDA of $1.4 million for Q4 2025 compared to $450,000 in the comparative period, an increase of $950,000. The increase in adjusted EBITDA was primarily driven by machine sales and the production sales mix relative to the comparative period. We finished Q4 2025 with cash and cash equivalents of $6.4 million and a net working capital surplus of $9.7 million as at September 30. And during the quarter, the company closed a fully subscribed private placement of 7.5 million common shares of the company at a price per share of $0.40 for aggregate gross proceeds of $3 million. And as Brent mentioned, the company is using the funds to increase inventory levels by manufacturing 2 large-scale machines. The manufacturing and fabrication process takes approximately 6 months per machine to complete. This investment, combined with an expanded marketing presence through increased trade show attendance and sales personnel is designed to ensure faster order fulfillment and support prospective future machine sales. EnWave has a credit facility with Desjardins for growth and working capital purposes. The amount available to the company under the credit facility is calculated as a lesser of $5 million and a function of royalties receivables and inventory. As of the date of our quarterly filings, approximately $1.2 million is available to the company at a rate of Canadian prime plus 1.5%, and the facility remains undrawn to date. With our cash on hand and amounts available under the company's Desjardins credit facility, we believe EnWave is well capitalized to accelerate the execution of its strategic growth initiatives given the current opportunity pipeline.

Thanks very much, Dylan. I think it's evident that our base royalties are growing. We're seeing commercial momentum with our current royalty partners given the number of repeat REV machine orders we confirm in fiscal '25. And we have the liquidity to speed up the deployment of new machinery, which should lead to faster royalty growth. Precise timing to close each of those machine sales is unknown, but the sheer number of opportunities gives me confidence in the fiscal year '26 outlook. And with that, I'd like now to open up the call for your questions. Operator, please provide the appropriate instructions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Noel Atkinson with Clarus Securities.

Really well done in Q4. Congratulations on that. A few questions for me. Just firstly, are there any product areas of strength that you're seeing in your machine order pipeline?

Thanks for the question. Are you referring to market verticals where we see the most opportunity for fiscal '26?

That's right. Yes.

So we've been consistent in gaining a lot more pipeline in fruit and vegetable production beyond just the North and South American geographies where we've dominated in the past few years. There's a number of new opportunities at scale that we're hoping to close in Europe and Southeast Asia to add to our portfolio. In addition to those core competencies that we have, we've also engaged in some exploratory projects with alternative proteins. So if anyone has done due diligence in the black soldier fly larva space, there are many companies that need a drying solution at scale for those types of products. Whilst drying at a reduced temperature. And also, we're engaged with a few industrial companies. We've yet to be able to disclose what those products exactly are, but we're hopeful that we will be able to do so in the next quarter.

Great. And then maybe as a follow-on, just what are you seeing in terms of pipeline? Like relative to where you were kind of this time last year, what are you seeing in terms of your overall pipeline for large-scale machines?

Better pipeline than last, let's put it that way. So as you know, we confirmed 4 large scale in fiscal '25. We hope to improve upon that in fiscal 2026. And I think somewhere in the range of 6 to 8 machines is possible. But of course, it comes down to the timing of these decisions from both our current licensed royalty partners and the new business that we're driving. Of course, there's many, many, many more opportunities. But from history, providing some teaching lessons, of course, some of them, if not all, get sort of staggered out on a more less lumpy basis. So we're hopeful that's going to be the case here for fiscal '26.

And then just finally for me, just on your tolling activities. So that's been something that has been a help to the business in a few years back and it slowed down a little bit last year, I think. Are you seeing opportunities to ramp the tolling back up again? And what kind of -- how do you see tolling as a part of your overall strategy?

Great question. The establishment of our REVworx toll manufacturing facility was primarily to act as a launch pad for companies to bring a certain amount of product to market, justify their business case and invest themselves in internal manufacturer buying equipment from us and paying royalties long term. We never will intend that part of our business to grow much more than $1.5 million to $2 million in revenue per annum, and that's at full utilization. We also see it as a solution for some of our current royalty partners who start to experience material growth in market, needing more volume and simply don't have the machinery available at that time. So they will use REVworx as a Band-Aid processing solution until their new machinery arrives to then take on that increased volume. In regards to new companies using the facility, right now, we've got about a dozen different companies evaluating the timing on creating some new products through this particular tool. And again, hopeful of converting those companies into full-fledged royalty partners in the future.

Our next question comes from the line of Bart Goemaere with BeursTips.

Congratulations on the results. I have a few questions. First of all, in your balance sheet, I see that there's a huge increase in the long-term portion of the lease liabilities. Can you explain me that part?

Thanks, Bart. Yes. So in Q4, we entered into a new manufacturing lease that's closer to our head office. So that's where we manufacture all our small and large-scale machines, and it's closer to where our overall head office, R&D and REVworx facility are located. No change to the actual manufacturing capacity from our old lease location to our new lease location.

Okay. And regarding the verticals, something I didn't hear was cannabis and you sold one machine of an existing cannabis partner. But last week, there were some interesting comments from President Trump regarding the cannabis market. Do you still see potential there?

Absolutely, Bart. We do. And -- but as we've had many discussions throughout the past several quarters, the majority of our resources from a sales and marketing perspective have been put towards the food industry, and that's honestly where the majority of our resources will continue to lie. However, we are engaged with a few licensed producers here in Canada as well as a number in Europe and Australasia who are considering the technology for their future expansion. And there was a time where we weren't receiving any calls, and I think that was sort of a flux in the market. Now things are starting to stabilize with the better operators. And so we do see opportunity for cannabis transactions in fiscal '26. And more so, the Canadian company using the large-scale 120-kilowatt machine now, there is the possibility that they may wish to expand their production capacity using REV sometime during this fiscal year based on the results they're getting. So working towards it, but obviously, no guarantee yet.

Okay. And one last question. Can you comment a bit on the efforts in the pharmaceutical industry with your partner in Germany, I think?

Sure. So GEA Lyophil, for those who are familiar, is in a joint partnership with EnWave Corporation, and they have a pilot scale GMP vacuum microwave dryer that they've been using for product development with a number of the globe's leading pharmaceutical companies. And that particular situation remains the same as it was speaking about in maybe the past few quarters where they're still looking for a singular company and/or consortium of pharmaceutical companies to commit to the development of a specific drug going through multistage process for ultimate commercialization using vacuum microwave rather than lyophilization from the beginning. And that's critical because that drying method needs to be incorporated into their application and, of course, stage gate process for approval. And so still working on it. The other pharmaceutical activity that we've seen lately has been through Bio Technique, which is a toll manufacturing company out of the United States, who have engaged us for paid trials at our facilities in Vancouver. What we've seen, the results have been very encouraging. But again, it comes back to the brass tacks of which company or again, a consortium of companies will step up and invest several million dollars plus the cost of developing a new drug using vacuum microwave. So we continue to push, but that needs to be the next material step forward if we're going to take this into the broader pharmaceutical market.

At this time, we have no other phone questions. I'll turn the floor back for any web questions.

Thanks so much. First question is quite straightforward. When do you expect to become profitable? So let's talk about like our, call it, cash flow breakeven scenario with EnWave currently with our expense structure of about $4.5 million to $5 million. If we are able to recognize the revenue of 4 large-scale machines per annum with our historical royalty run rate, we're about a breakeven business. We're hoping to perform better than we did in fiscal '25, which was 4 large-scale machines and, of course, they're about $2 million, just a render of the royalties. So if we're able to improve upon our fiscal '25 numbers, we should be in a better position to get closer to profitability. Second question is based on existing machine sales and assuming similar usage volumes in 2026 with existing machines, what would royalties be next year? Trying to figure out the base rate, assuming no other machine sales, if you can provide an estimate at this time. So for us, our target what we think can happen based on the number of large-scale machines we're currently delivering. So the first machine for Milne MicroDried is being started up this month. The 120-kilowatt is planned to be installed and started up for BranchOut Foods in January. The 120-kilowatt machine that went to process here in Mexico only started up about 2/3 through the year of fiscal '25. So there still is a material opportunity for capacity utilization and help to rise the tide of royalties. So I think conservative estimate for fiscal '26 will be somewhere in the range of, call it, $2.3 million would be a sort of a conservative target based on the machines that we've already sold and increased in capacity utilization. And then it will come down to when and how we deliver the next wave of large-scale purchase orders that we're expecting to hopefully confirm in the coming months. Okay. And with that, I do not see any further questions submitted through the web frame. So I'd like to thank again everybody for joining the call today. Exciting times and good momentum at EnWave. And if you have any further follow-up, please do reach out to Dylan or myself in the coming weeks. Thanks, everybody. You may now disconnect.

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