Barfresh Food Group (BRFH) Q1 2026 earnings call transcript

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our first quarter 2026 earnings call. I'm pleased to report that Q1 2026 represents a continuation of the momentum built through 2025. We delivered revenue of $5.6 million, which is slightly above our expectations. The outperformance was driven by stronger than anticipated contribution from ARPS, dairy, raw and processed milk business.

While this additional revenue contributed to our top line beef, it operates at a lower margin profile than our core BARFRESH products, which is why the revenue outperformance did not flow through proportionally to adjusted EBITDA. Overall, we remain on track with our fiscal 2026 plan, and the strategic work underway gives me confidence in our long-term growth opportunity. Let me provide an update on the operational progress that underpins our outlook. The transition into our own manufacturing infrastructure continues to advance. The ARF dairy processing facility is operating and supported approximately 50% of our frozen beverage and food volume in the first quarter of 2026. At our larger 44,000-square-foot facility in Defiance, Ohio, we will continue to procure and install the proper equipment and personnel to enable more efficient and flexible production of our product range.

We remain on track to commission the facility before the end of 2026 and the million government grant for specialized equipment is supporting that timeline As discussed on our last call we closed the million senior convertible note financing in March and anticipate paying down a portion of those notes via remortgaging the new facility the larger facility in 2026 Turning to our commercial progress during the quarter, the education channel remains our primary area of focus and our greatest near-term opportunity. In the quarter, we continue to make tangible progress, rebuilding customer relationships and adding new school district wins.

Our broker network and direct sales team have been consistent in communicating our manufacturing progress and the supply reliability we all seek, and that message is resonating. Our recent award of the seven-year bid with the fifth largest school district in the United States reflects exactly the kind of large-scale relationship we are now positioned to pursue. This win demonstrates that we can compete successfully for the most significant contracts in the country, and it is a benchmark for the pipeline of similar opportunities we are building.

With that overview of our first quarter progress, I'll now turn it over to Lisa to walk us through the numbers.

Thank you, Ricardo. Let me walk you through our first quarter of 2026 financial results in detail. Revenue for the first quarter of 2026 was $5.6 million compared to $2.9 million in the first quarter of 2025, representing a 92% year-over-year growth as a result of the ARPS acquisition. As Ricardo noted, this came in above the high end of our guidance range of $5 million to $5.2 million, driven by stronger contribution from ARPS Dairy's raw and processed milk business. Gross margin for the first quarter of 2026 was 18% compared to 31% in the first quarter of 2025. Gross margins continue to reflect the ongoing contribution of ARPS Dairy's milk processing business, which operates at different margin profiles than our core BARFRESH products and remains subject to commodity pricing fluctuations.

Additionally, transition costs associated with producing in our newly acquired processing facility have impacted our margins. These are anticipated dynamics as we ramp toward our optimized operating model. We continue to expect incremental margin recovery throughout the year and into 2027, with a more significant improvement as new equipment is installed at the existing facility and construction is completed at the new facility.

Net loss for the first quarter of 2026 was $661,000, compared to a net loss of $761,000 in the first quarter of 2025. Selling, marketing, and distribution expenses were $697,000 compared to $824,000 in the first quarter of 2025. The year-over-year decrease reflects lower personnel costs as we increasingly leverage our broker network. Additional reductions are a result of reduced sampling expense following the launch of Pop&Go freeze pops last year and lower equipment maintenance costs as single-serve products, which require no customer equipment, G&A expenses for the first quarter of 2026 were $755,000 compared to $747,000 in the same period last year.

Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter was a loss of approximately $238,000 compared to a loss of approximately $506,000 in the prior year period. The adjusted EBITDA result compared to our break-even guidance reflects two primary factors.

First, the revenue mix was weighted more heavily toward the lower-margin milk processing business than we had anticipated in our guidance model. Second, we experienced startup inefficiencies in our newly acquired processing facility due to lower production volumes than planned. These inefficiencies are typical of facility transitions and are already improving as we optimize our production process and build volume. We continue to expect to achieve positive adjusted EBITDA in fiscal year 2026 as we realize the full benefits of our integrated manufacturing model and complete our facility optimization.

Turning to our balance sheet, as of March 31, 2026, we had approximately $4.1 million of cash and accounts receivable and approximately $1.8 million of inventory on our balance sheet. In March 2026, we secured a $7.5 million senior convertible note financing. Combined with the $2.4 million government grant approved for specialized equipment installation, we have a well-structured capital foundation to support the completion of our facility build-out and our operational growth through 2026.

We will continue to evaluate additional financing options, including mortgage and equipment financing against our unencumbered facility, as necessary to support our growth objectives and potential paydown of the convertible note. The financial flexibility we have built into our capital structure allows us to preserve cash for operational needs during the construction phase. Now I will turn the call back to Ricardo for closing remarks.

Thank you Lisa As I reflect on the first quarter I energized by the progress we are making on every front Manufacturing customer relationships and the commercial momentum that is building as we recover lost ground and pursue new opportunities We said on our Q4 call that 2026 would be a pivotal year and I believe that more strongly now than ever The integrated manufacturing model we are building is not just an operational upgrade, it is the foundation of a fundamentally different company. One that can fulfill demand reliably and can pursue growth aggressively. We are now able to have conversations with the large school districts, food service operators, and other potential channel partners with a level of confidence we simply could not offer when we were dependent on third-party manufacturers.

Looking ahead for the remainder of fiscal 2026, our priorities are clear. First, we are executing on the completion and commissioning of our new facility. Second, we are aggressively rebuilding our customer base in the education channel.

Third, as our capacity expands, we are beginning to look beyond the education channel. Food service, convenience, and other channels represent substantial growth and long-term opportunities. Fourth, the co-manufacturing revenue opportunity from our expanded facility is a genuinely exciting prospect. We remain confident in our full year fiscal 2026 guidance of $28 to $32 million in revenue and $3.2 million to $3.8 million in adjusted EBITDA. The first quarter performance is tracking in line with our plan, and we expect year-over-year quarterly improvement in both revenue and profitability as we progress through the year and complete our facility enhancements. For the second quarter, we expect revenue of $5.2 to $5.6 million, and expect an adjusted EBITDA loss of $0.3 to $0.2 million.

We are in the midst of changing our business and our business model, and we could not accomplish it without the effort and dedication of our growing team, so a shout-out to them all. We look forward to updating you on our progress when we report second quarter results, and with that, I would like to open up the line for questions. Operator?

So the inefficiencies are really related to ramp-up and equipment and installations and training, So that's part of the transition as we're waiting for equipment and things to arrive. Some things have longer lead times. It takes a little bit longer to get projects completed.

The Q1 also represented product that we were still utilizing from our comans as well. So we had less production actually going through the facility, and that's continuing to increase. So in terms of expecting it to continue, a little bit we do, but that's just part of the process, but it is continuing to improve, right? So as we get through second quarter, that should mostly be behind us. We're seeing it in a couple of step functions. We're going through a step function right now of some more significant improvements in throughput and efficiency in the plan.

And then, obviously, once we get to the new facility, there will be a very significant step change in the new facility from a throughput efficiency profitability perspective as well.

Okay. In terms of revenue from that, Is it been completely converted over, or was there some legacy revenue from ARPS Dairy?

So I can address that. You know, in our 10Q, we actually have segment reporting, and the raw milk and processed milk component is all legacy ARPS. There's a small portion in Q1 that's also included in what's called the frozen beverage and food component. It's mostly Legacy BARFRESH in Q1 at least. A little bit of that is ice cream mix from ARTS. So kind of a good way of looking at it. It's not completely split out, Legacy versus new, but it should give you a pretty good indicator.

I mean, you know, even with the legacy raw milk and processed milk, which is, you know, pretty low margin, you can see also in the segment reporting, we break out the margins that we achieved in Q1. You can see we're running about 5% for that processed milk piece. That's going to be a smaller portion of our revenue, though, going forward as we, you know, kind of get into the new school year.

Yeah. At a normalized rate.

Yeah, as the new school year starts, you'll start to see some of that creeping through because we'll have, you know, those new products coming as well as, you know, the volume for them and the efficiencies of the new equipment and processes and things like that, even ahead of getting into the new facility more at the end of the year.

Yeah, well, we're still going through, it's still bid season, so we are still receiving bids for the upcoming school season, and we've received quite a few. So we are expecting, obviously, a strongest ever back half of the year, even for the BARFRESH products. We are going back to customers that we've lost, and we are gaining customers back. So overall, it's very positive in terms of the growth of the core business, especially for the new school year.

I mean, that's what we're expecting.

Not particularly. We expect it to be pretty flat.

It's just a possibility that may be open to us once the facility is up and running.

Oh, yeah, not looking at any. This year is our transition year. You know, this year we're really focused on just solidifying production, getting back into our core products, making sure our customers are serviced. And we're out there going and acquiring our own customers and business. It's really, that was more just with regards to, we're completing the construction of the new facility. We're going to have so many different options available to us. And as we look at what the business looks like in the future, we're going to have just a lot of other opportunities that are going to be presented to us.

Our core focus is really on growing our brands and expanding our business. And especially in a time like today, when there's so much consumer uncertainty, I feel like we really stand out because, you know, we're feeding kids around the country, you know, and it's not discretionary spending. It's funded by the government. So we really want to hone in and focus on our core customers.

All right. Thank you.