Q2 2024 Charles & Colvard Ltd Earnings Call

Participants

Don O'Connell; President and CEO; Charles & Colvard Ltd

Clint Pete; CFO; Charles & Colvard Ltd

Paul Johnson; Analyst; Johnson Investments

Presentation

Operator

Good day, and welcome to the Charles & Colvard Second Quarter Fiscal Year 2024 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast.
And all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions.
To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touchtone phone. And to withdraw your question, please press star then two. This earnings call may contain forward-looking statements as defined in Section 27 A. of the Securities Act of 1933 as amended, including statements regarding, among other things, the Company's business strategy and growth expressions that and identify forward-looking statements are based largely on our company's expectations and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, some of which cannot be predicted or quantified and are beyond our control Future developments and actual results could differ materially from those set forth in contemplated by or underlying the forward-looking statements. In light of these risks and uncertainties, there can be no further assurance that these forward-looking this forward-looking information will prove to be accurate.
Accompanying today's call is a supporting PowerPoint slide deck, which is available in the Investor Relations section of the company's website at ir dot charlesandcolvard.com. French slash events Company will be hosting a Q&A question and answer session. At the conclusion of the prepared remarks, should you have any questions if you'd like to submit, please e-mail ir at Charles & Colvard.com. Please note this event is being recorded.
I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Don O'Connell, Mr. Dan O'Connell, President and Chief Executive Officer.
Please go ahead, sir.

Don O'Connell

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to our Second Quarter Fiscal 2024 financial results conference call. During our second quarter, we continued to experience the effects of a challenging year for the jewelry industry, but we were not alone reports by Tenaris indicate that the US jewelry market sank 5.8% in 2023, despite the impacts on our business and margins from challenging economic conditions, rising commodity prices and downward pricing pressure on lab-grown diamonds, we remain resilient in the face of adversity. We ended the quarter debt-free with $11.1 million in total cash delivered $7.9 million in revenue and decreased inventory to $25.8 million as lab-grown diamond pricing pressure impacts the value proposition of Lloyd's tonight and retailers seek competitive prices and alternative sources. It is imperative that we forge direct relationships with independent jewelers to protect our brand equity and the value of Charles & Colvard moist snuff. As a result, we anticipated the decline in our traditional segment, specifically loose gemstone sales as we continue to transition away from our distributor model and prepare to engage directly with thousands of independent jewelers through our new owned web property, Charles & Colvard direct.com, allowing independent doors to purchase directly from the source will enable them to be more agile and responsive to market conditions to help maximize their profits. We feel this ongoing transition will be critical to the business, reaffirming our position in the lab-grown market as the original creator and source of the world's finest voice and IGM, we believe we will begin to see the positive impact of this strategic shift in the coming quarters. While we experienced softness in loose gemstone sales during the quarter, we were encouraged by our finished jewelry holiday performance with our brick and mortar partners. We continue to modify and optimize our Forever One moissanite in-store assortment with new designs and increased carat weights, highlighting moist Knight's value proposition and further differentiating ourselves against competitive diamond alternatives. Additionally, we are pleased to have introduced Arcadia lab-grown diamonds finished jewelry in key Elsburg diamond stores ahead of the holiday season. We believe this addition to our in-store assortment highlights the importance of our strategic merchandising to offer design supporting both moist nine and lab-grown diamonds, reinforcing the market opportunity for both our GEM categories as more retailers adopt lab-grown diamond assortments to meet the growing consumer demand. We believe this important expansion will allow us to gain a greater share of the overall fine jewelry market in our online channels. Segment, which now represents 84% of total net sales. We experienced sequential growth in lab-grown diamond sales up 15% year over year on Charles & Colvard.com. for the quarter. Lab-grown diamonds continue to climb as a percentage of our total revenue, increasing our total achievable market opportunity. We continue to make strategic capital investments to optimize our web property Charles & Colvard.com as we prepare to launch Phase one of our next-gen e-commerce platform in Q4, we believe next gen will transform our Charles & Colvard direct to consumer e-commerce experience in myriad ways designed to create a better user experience and increase sales conversion. We believe our new headless front-end e-commerce platform powered by custom proprietary code contained within industry leading open source applications will dramatically increase our site speed, gather critical consumer data and shopping behavior, split, test shopping journeys, bolster SEO rankings and add a variety of new shopping experiences these advanced product configuration capabilities and new two-step custom engaging builder will allow consumers to browse the catalog more efficiently. We believe these significant changes to the shopping journey will greatly increase the overall customer experience while driving additional revenue. Our web property more site outlet.com, up 21% year to date in revenue compared to last year remains an important revenue driver and disposition outlet for obsolete and legacy inventory as we refine our merchandising strategy to support our other channels, more site, outlet.com continues to serve consumers seeking clearance and low cost merchandise outlet.com enables us to capture the lower end of the market without diminishing the Charles & Colvard brand.
During Q2, we also successfully launched a new transactional web property made Shopping.com to support our streaming and broadcast initiatives made shopping. In October, we launched our pilot programming on made shopping featuring Charles & Colvard products across satellite linear broadcasting and live streams on social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and X and other mediums, our Phase one current and follow the traditional home shopping model featuring nationally recognized host. We are pleased to note an overall lift in direct consumer traffic on Bay Shopping.com, as well as Charles & Colvard.com, which we believe is due to our main shopping presence, reaching a broader audience since the launch of our new initiative made. For those who want to understand the why behind their purchase for those who prioritize trust in their purchasing decisions. And for those who appreciate products that are thoughtfully created with a better world in mind and made shopping, we're on a mission to redefine our customer shop, starting with a curated collection of exquisite fine jewelry by Charles & Colvard as the flagship brand. But that's just the beginning. We're working behind the scenes to explore potential partners who share our commitment to quality craftsmanship and to meet eat those with plans to eventually expand our made shopping offerings to other product verticals. Phase two of May, Charlie will evolve into a mix of traditional and modern content, a unique blend of education, entertainment and interactive live shopping and storytelling, creating a personal and purposeful destination for today's consumer. We believe this initiative will be our solution for consumers seeking hyper curated shopping experiences, further solidifying our brand's presence in a growing market and thereby helping to increase shareholder value. Although we experienced softness in the beginning of the quarter. We witnessed an increase in demand in December year-over-year for Charles & Colvard.com, which we attributed to top of funnel awareness driven by our direct to consumer shopping initiatives. Our concerted efforts across multiple properties collectively fueled top line revenue growth during the quarter's final months. Furthermore, we are thrilled to have launched two strategic online partnerships within the quarter with Fred Meyer jewelers and the Army and Air Force Exchange Service for the exchange. These partnerships performed well out of the gate and will we believe become important revenue drivers for us in future quarters. As we look ahead, we remain focused on preserving cash while strategically scaling resources to support current and future state revenue drivers. I will now turn the presentation over to Clint Pete, our CFO, to provide detailed insight into Q2's financial performance claim. Please proceed.

Clint Pete

Thanks, Don. Today I'll provide a summary of key financials for the second quarter ended December 31st, 2023. Additional details can be found in our earnings press release that we issued this afternoon, our Form 10-Q, which we expect to file tomorrow. Please note that all percentage comparisons are to the second quarter ended December 31st, 2022, unless specified otherwise.
First, we will start on Slide 9 with the comparative analysis of the second quarter of fiscal 2024 compared to the same period one year ago. And total net sales for Q2 2024 totaled $7.9 million versus $10.4 million, a decrease of 24% due primarily to the continued general economic uncertainties and the expected decline in the company's wholesale revenue as we shift to a more direct-to-consumer business model and as our independent dealer initiatives matures, net sales for our online channel segment, which is primarily direct to consumer and includes charlesandcolvard.com most at outlet.com Charles & Colvard direct.com made Shopping.com marketplaces drop, ship retail and other pure play outlets totaled $6.7 million for the quarter now representing 84% of total net sales, up from 76% one year ago. Net sales for our traditional segment, which consists of wholesale and brick-and-mortar customers, totaled $1.3 million for the quarter, representing now 16% of total net sales compared to 24% of sales in the year-ago quarter. Finished jewelry net sales represented 93% of total sales for the quarter, up from 81% of sales in the second quarter one year ago as we continued to position ourselves in the fine jewelry market and moved more to the direct consumer model as we expected due to the previously mentioned strategies, loose jewel net sales decreased 73% for the quarter. Domestic sales represent 98% of all sales in the second quarter within international net sales totaling 2%.
Moving on to Slide 10 to discuss gross margin reported gross margin of 36% versus 41% gross margin in the year-ago quarter, or gross profit at $2.9 million versus $4.3 million in growth profit in the year-ago quarter. For Q2 2020 for operating expenses increased 5% from the year ago quarter. Sales and marketing expenses decreased 1% to $4.3 million. General and administrative expenses were $1.5 million for the quarter compared to $1.2 million in the year-ago quarter or 26% increase. The increase in G&A for Q2 was due in large part, the increase in legal fees related to various corporate matters compared to the prior year quarter. We reported a net loss for Q2 2020 for a $2.9 million or $0.09 loss per diluted share compared with a net loss of $1 million or $0.03 loss per diluted share in the year-ago period. The main drivers for our increased net loss were again, as noted last quarter, the decline in revenues and additional expenses due to various ongoing corporate matters. Within the quarter, our weighted average shares outstanding on a diluted basis used in the calculation of loss per share for the quarter were approximately 30.3 million shares for the period ended December 31st, 2023, same as in the year-ago quarter.
Now let's move on to a snapshot of our balance sheet. Our liquidity and capital position remains strong as we ended the quarter with $11.1 million of total cash compared to $15.6 million at the end of the fourth quarter ended June 30th, 2023. Working capital remained strong at $15.3 million in addition, the Company was debt-free as of December 31st, 2023. Our cash flow used in operations was $1.3 million during the quarter compared to $600,000 of cash flow generated from operations during the same quarter a year ago and a reduction from our cash burn in Q1 2024, which was $2.7 million in terms of other sources of liquidity, we have access to a $5 million cash secured credit facility with JPMorgan Chase Bank. As of December 31st, 2023, there were no outstanding amounts due on the credit facility. Inventory as of December 31st, 2023, totaled $25.8 million compared to June 30th, 2023, when it totaled $26.8 million compared to $35 million at December 31st, 2022 year over year decrease of more than $8 million due to the inventory write-down in Q4 FY 2023. Loose jewels inventory was $8.5 million at December 31st, 2023, compared to $9.1 million as of June 30th, 2023 and compared to $15.9 million as of December 31st, 2022, a year over year decrease, again due to the inventory write-down referenced above finished jewelry inventory was $17 million as of December 31st, 2023, compared to $17.3 million as of June 30th, 2023 and compared to $18.8 million as of December 31st, 2022 Company remains focused on prudent inventory management strategies. Book value per share at the end of second quarter was $1.13 per share trading well below market.
In summary, we remain steadfast in our cash management while diligently deploying capital in support of our ongoing strategic initiatives, but that I'll turn it back over to Dan.

Don O'Connell

Thank you, Kurt. In conclusion, we acknowledge the recent industry shift has presented us with numerous challenges and has significantly impacted our earnings. However, we do not believe this setback will deter our progress or hinder our long-term growth and strategic initiatives. We remain committed to delivering long-term shareholder value and look forward to the opportunities that lie ahead.
Thank you for your continued support and confidence in our company.
At this time, I'll turn it back over to the operator, we'll open the lines for any questions.

Question and Answer Session

Operator

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session to ask a question. You may press star then one on your touchtone phone. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star then two. We ask that you please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. And if you have further questions, you may reenter the question queue. And at this time, we'll pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Again, if you have a question, please press star then one and the first question will come from Paul Johnson with Johnson Investments.
Please go ahead.

Paul Johnson

Yes, good afternoon. I have a question on the operating expenses, which are roughly flat with a year ago from some changes, but roughly flat. In the meantime, we lost $3 million and I know got $11 million in cash and I know it's not a straight line on cash burn, but if we have one more year of learning revenues and $3 million in the quarter on, that's going to destroy all the all the cash on the balance sheet. So I'm not hearing anything in the call that makes us think that leaving aside the plans and the marketing plans, what how are we going to preserve this cash based on the cash burn now?

Don O'Connell

Yes.
Hey, Paul, thanks for the question. So certainly our cash burn, I mean, we did reduce our cash burn from last year, which was I believe, was $2.7 million versus $1.3 million this quarter. So we're pretty good at, you know, kind of understanding that we are burning cash and it's costing us money to operate the business. I will tell you that what people don't look at is they don't look at the concentration of inventory. The concentration of the finished jewelry, which is a $17 million-plus at this time Inc.
And that finished jewelry is the commodity, which is gold itself.
So we're constantly making additional investments in the material and into merchandise that we bring to market.
So that gold within that product is highly liquid of all and we're able to raise cash on that.
So with that being said, we have $11 million plus in cash.
And then we have the cash equivalence between the inventory side, which is a much different dynamic in business than it was in the years past. So optically, it may seem a little bit different, but we're actually in a better place and we're spending the necessary dollars to make the investments where they need to be able to drive the business for the future. I'm pretty confident and kind of where we're going and what we're building is certainly a cash and preservation of cash is really, really critical. So look to us to be prudent and then look to us to make strategic investments where it makes sense and look to us to cut back in reserve when possible in the coming months.
But right now, we're launching a new web property that takes capital.
We're deploying capital to be able to kind of be bring forward the best in class of our web experience. We're making initiatives where we believe that's going to be driving growth for the future. We're making investments in resources. So we're bringing on staff that are specific to different areas of the business that we believe that's going to bring growth and drive growth from certainly, you know, your question is very valid, but moving forward, we're pretty confident in where we'll be in the future. So we had to shift and kind of moissanite versus lab-grown diamonds. We had some downward pressure on the moist snuff market, you had the economy, some other things, but I believe that kind of the quarters ahead will start to turn this a little bit will start to be more. You know, cognizant on the profitability of the business as the shift starts to happen once we start to get some of these things and these new initiatives online and focus more on the revenue side of it and streamlining the business and get the more profitable considerations to come.
So I don't know if I answered that, but --

Paul Johnson

I appreciate that. So if there's roughly $10 million in inventory. Going back to your point about a lot of it being gold or very liquid, just ballpark, how much of the $10 million could be liquidated if we need the cash, was it a quickly? I'm talking about not finished products.
But.

Don O'Connell

Yes, so again, when I was with Berkshire Hathaway's Ridgeline group, and we certainly looked at everything. And it we tried to drive the business if a catastrophic event were to occur, what is liquid?
The beauty of our business is the gold is commodities.
So it is highly liquid. So would our inventory at $25 million if you look at the concentration that inventory specifically, that inventory is comprised of finished jewelry at $17 million if you took, you know, 60% of that inventory, you said its goal that gold is at 14 carat. It's very, very simple to come up with the economics on that five. So I mean that's basically where you're at with that. And then you have the $11.1 million in cash. You have no debt right now in the business. So we still feel that we're in a good place.
We also have a $5 million credit line that's available to us to kind of continue to grow and kind of ship and shape this business.
So a lot of other companies don't have the commodity in gold in their in their finished products, right?
So that's one advantage we have.

Paul Johnson

Appreciate and thank you.

Don O'Connell

Welcome.

Operator

Again, if you have a question, please press star then one. This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Mr. Dan O'Connell for any closing remarks.
Please go ahead, sir.

Don O'Connell

So I want to thank everyone for their attention and continued belief in the Company, and we look forward to sharing our progress and achievements with you in the future.
Thank you.

Operator

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.