Synergy CHC Corp. ($SNYR)

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for participating in today's conference call to discuss Synergy CHC Corporation's financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2025. Joining us today are Synergy's CEO, Jack Rost; CFO, Jamie Fickett; and Greg Robles with Investor Relations. Following their remarks, we'll open the call for analyst questions. Before we go further, I'd like to turn the call over to Mr. Robles as he reads the company's safe harbor statement.

Thanks, Liz. Good morning, and thanks for joining our conference call to discuss our fourth quarter and full year 2025 financial results. I'd like to remind everyone that this call is available for replay and via a live webcast that will be posted on our Investor Relations website at investor.synergychc.com. The information on this call contains forward-looking statements. These statements are often characterized by terminologies such as believe, hope, may, anticipate, expect, will and other similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. and the actual results may be materially different from the results implied by forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause results to differ materially from those implied herein include, but are not limited to, those factors disclosed in the company's SEC filings under the caption Risk Factors. The information on this call speaks only as of today's date, and the company disclaims any duty to update the information provided herein. Now I would like to turn the call over to the CEO of Synergy, Jack Ross. Jack?

Thank you, Greg. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today to discuss Synergy's performance for the fourth quarter and full year 2025. While 2025 was a year of transition in many areas of our business, it was also a year of meaningful strategic progress that tests an important foundation for sustainable long-term growth. Before discussing our performance, I want to briefly address the 8-K we filed regarding our international license agreement covering the UAE and Turkey. As many of you recall, in mid-25, we expanded our international license partnership to include UAE and Turkey for a baseline licensing fee with additional royalties tied to product performance. However, the licensee has elected to terminate the agreement, giving the increasing instability and uncertainty across the region. As a result, the $2.5 million licensing revenue associated with the agreement had to be reversed in the fourth -- sorry guys. I have technical difficulties here. Just 1 second. Okay. Well, unfortunate, this outcome reflects the macro volatility outside of our control rather than any change in our conviction around the potential of FOCUSfactor internationally. We continue to view the UAE and Turkey as an attractive multiyear growth market for both our supplements and functional beverages. The groundwork we laid in 2025 hasn't been lost, the demand remains intact. The brand is strong and our international strategy continues to be focused on scalable, capital-efficient expansion. Before I turn the call over to Jamie, I want to touch on another development that further supports our international growth strategy. During 2025, we established our wholly owned subsidiary in Mexico. And in December, we initiated our first product shipments to Costco, Mexico. On the beverage side of our business, during the first quarter of 2026, we have generated over $600,000 in gross revenue surpassing the entire 2025 revenue, which now equates to $2.5 million run rate for 2026. We have shipped our focus in energy RTDs in shots to new key distribution locations, including EGF America, the parent company of Cumberland Farms, convenience stores, Wakefern Foods, Indian Nation wholesale, McCool distributors, Mancini beverages, tennis incubation and Pine State beverages to name a few. We have millions of cans of RTDs and shots in stock and ready to ship, and we expect 2026 to be a foundational growth year for our Beverage division. We continue to execute on our supplement side as well, having just shipped 3 new SKUs to all 1,600 Kroger locations. One initiative that we did not achieve in 2025 was turning back on the TV advertising, which is hugely important for our existing store growth. We will be diligently working towards executing this in 2026 to drive same-store growth within our key retailers. If the results that we achieved in the past hold true, we expect to see at least a 15% lift in same-store sales once the TV advertising is up and running. With those updates, I'd like to turn the call over to our Chief Financial Officer, Jamie Fickett. Jamie?

Thank you, Jack. I'll now review our financial results. Beginning with the fourth quarter, net revenue was $6.07 million compared to $10.27 million in the year ago quarter, a 41% decrease versus the prior year. The decrease was due to the termination of the license agreement of $2.9 million. Without that reversal, net revenue was $8.97 million, a 12.7% decrease. Gross margin for the fourth quarter was 36.6% compared to 63.3% in the same quarter last year. The decrease in gross margin was primarily driven by the termination of the license agreement of $2.9 million and the write-off of obsolete inventory of $1.04 million. Without those 2 items, gross margin would have been 68.8%, an increase from prior year. Operating expenses for the fourth quarter were $15.53 million compared to $5.14 million in the year ago quarter. The increase in operating expenses was largely due to one-time items of an allowance for bad debt of $6.6 million and the write-off of prepaid media credit of $0.9 million. Without those 2 items, operating expenses would have been $8 million. The majority of the increase was due to professional fees for our corporate development. Loss from operations for the fourth quarter of 2025 was $13.31 million compared to income from operations of $1.35 million in the fourth quarter of 2024. As discussed, this is largely due to onetime items of allowance of bad debt of $6.66 million, termination of the license agreement of $2.9 million, write-off of the obsolete inventory of $1.04 million and the write-off of a prepaid media credit of $0.9 million. Without those onetime items, loss from operations would have been $1.85 million, which is impacted by the increased professional fees for our corporate development. Net loss on the fourth quarter -- net loss for the fourth quarter was $14.82 million or $1.35 per diluted share compared to net income of $105,700 or $0.01 per diluted share income in the fourth quarter of 2024. This is largely due to onetime items of allowance of bad debt of $6.66 million, termination of the license agreement of $2.9 million write-off of obsolete inventory of $1.04 million and the write-off of prepaid media credits of $0.9 million. Without those one-time items, net loss would have been $3.35 million, which is impacted by the increased professional fees for corporate development. EBITDA loss for the fourth quarter was $13.28 million compared to EBITDA income of $1.68 million in the fourth quarter of 2024. Adjusted EBITDA loss for the fourth quarter was $4.48 million compared to adjusted EBITDA income of $2.79 million in the fourth quarter of 2024. Now turning to our full year results. For the full year of 2025, revenue was $30.38 million compared to $34.83 million in the year ago period. without reversing the $2.9 million in license revenue, our net revenue would have been $33.28 million in 2025. Gross margin for the full year of 2025 was 66.8% compared to 67.9% in the year ago period. Without the previously discussed inventory write-off, gross margin would have been 70.3% and increase over prior year. Operating expenses for the year were $28.76 million compared to $17.84 million a year ago. Without the one-time items previously mentioned, operating expenses operating expenses would have been $21.24 million, which is impacted by the increased professional fees for corporate development. Loss from operations for the year was $3.46 million compared to income from operations of $5.8 million a year ago. The decrease is also due to the one-time items as discussed. Without them, the full year income from operations would have been $3 million, impacted by increased professional fees for corporate development. Net loss for the year was $12.3 million or $1.27 per diluted share compared to net income of $2.1 million or $0.28 per diluted share a year ago. This is also due to the one-time items as discussed, offset by a gain on the settlement of our notes payable of $2.15 million. Without those items, the full year net loss would have been $3.03 million, which again is impacted by the increased professional fees for our corporate development. EBITDA loss was $6.9 million in 2025 compared to EBITDA of $6.46 million a year ago. Adjusted EBITDA and income was $800,000 compared to adjusted EBITDA income of $7.35 million a year ago. Moving to our balance sheet and cash flow. As of December 31, 2025, we had cash and cash equivalents of $2.6 million compared to $687,900 as of December 31, 2024. Inventory was at $3.7 million at the end of the fourth quarter compared to $1.7 million at the end of 2024. At the end of December 31, 2025, we had $33.3 million in total liabilities compared to $33 million in total liabilities December 31, 2024. At December 31, 2025, we had a working capital surplus of $1.78 million as compared to a working capital deficit of $1.12 million as of December 31, 2024. For the 12 months ended December 31, 2025, our cash used in operating activities was $2.6 million compared to cash used in operating activities of $4.8 million at December 31, 2024. The decrease primarily reflects higher noncash charges, including bad debt write-offs and stock-based compensation as well as improved cash collections and accounts receivable, partially offset by the increased inventory investment and the gain on the settlement of debt. Now I will turn the call back to the operator.

[Operator Instructions] And our first question will come from Sean McGowan with ROTH Capital Partners.

Can you hear me okay?

We can.

On your comments on the RTD year-to-date being better than all of last year, it kind of implies that the fourth quarter was, I don't know, maybe $200,000 or something and -- so what is still going on there that kept out from being a lot higher in the fourth quarter?

We -- as you know, we just raised the money to actually build the inventory in August. -- and to actually get the inventory built takes time, meaning 8 to 12 weeks to build the inventory. So we just really received the majority of the RTD inventory in-house in December. So that's what affected that.

Okay. And looking at some of the other lines, was, let's say, compared to the third quarter, was Flat Tummy up?

No. Flat Tummy continues to decline. The weight loss business is being heavily impacted by the GLP1s. It seems that the whole industry has moved to those. So we'll be making a strategic decision on flat come in the near future.

Okay. And then on the core supplement group, what's going on there?

The core supplement group, I think, is relatively strong. We continue to add key retailers like Kroger, we mentioned although the TV advertising is very key to that same-store growth. We have our competitors. We all know who the competitors are pounding the TV airways every single day and night. -- and we need to get that TV turn back on.

Okay. And what do you think the outlook is going to be with a lot of these onetime things behind you regarding gross margin?

Jamie, you want to talk to that?

Sure. We anticipate gross margin to maintain its current level or increase Again, it was impacted largely by those onetime items. But other than that, our gross margin remains stable.

Do you mean -- when you say at the current level, you mean excluding those onetime items?

Yes. Sorry, like as I read in the script -- we look at it normalized.

Okay. And has there been any other changes to your approach to kind of go-to-market strategy on the RTD as you look to roll that out?

No. I think again, it's a sales cycle, Sean, right? So these things are all driven by planograms. So you really get twice a year where you can really call gain meaningful distribution and we'll call it the major chains. Certainly, you can add smaller chains in the meantime. But we continue with the sales cycle. We do expect -- this is big news. We do expect to have some Costco roadshows coming up in different regions, and we expect to have a BJ's road show coming up. So it should be some meaningful growth there on the beverage side.

[Operator Instructions] And our next question will come from Edward Woo with Ascendiant Capital.

Congratulations on the growth in Mexico. You guys recently formed a subsidiary in Mexico. Are there other international markets that you plan on creating a subsidiary to ship directly in those markets?

Edward, good speaking with you today. No, we don't have any other any other plans on open and international markets directly at this time. Although Mexico is a massive opportunity for us to build out the retail network there. So having that subsidiary there allows us to do that. But as you can see, we've started a lot of initiatives last year and for synergy 2026 is about executing against those initiatives. If those CVs turn back on, get the same-store sales growing get the opportunities in Mexico that we've already identified up and running and continue to grow our beverage business. That's the focus for 2026.

At this time, this concludes our question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the call back over to Mr. Ross for closing remarks.

Thank you, everyone, after joining the earnings call today. We look forward to speaking to you shortly as we report our first quarter 2016 results. Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.