Balchem Corp (BCPC) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to the Belgium Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1. To withdraw your question, press star 1 again. I would now like to hand the conference over to Martin Bengston, Belgium CEO. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining our conference call this morning to discuss the results of Balkan Corporation for the quarter ending June 30th, 2026. My name is Martin Bengtsson, Chief Financial Officer, and hosting this call with me is Ted Harris, our Chairman, President, and CEO. Following the advice of our Council, Auditors, and the SEC, at this time I would like to read our forward-looking statement. Statements made in today's calls that are not historical facts are considered forward-looking statements. We can give no assurance that the expectations reflected in forward-looking statements will prove correct, and various factors could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations, including risks and factors identified in Balkan's most recent Form 10K, 10Q, and 8K reports. The company assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements. Today's call and commentary also include non-GAAP financial measures. Please refer to the reconciliations in our earnings release for further details. I will now turn the call over to Ted Harris, our Chairman, President, and CEO.

Thanks, Martin. Good morning, and welcome to our conference call. We were extremely pleased with our second quarter performance reported this morning, which was once again driven by healthy, broad-based growth across all three of our reporting segments and continued solid execution on our strategic growth initiatives. Our healthy growth continues to be fueled by the ongoing market penetration of our unique portfolio of specialty nutrients and delivery systems and the favorable, better-for-you trends within the food and nutrition markets that are well aligned with our product offerings and capabilities. As a result, we delivered record quarterly consolidated sales, adjusted EBITDA, and adjusted net earnings, as well as solid cash flows. Before discussing our second quarter financial results in more detail, I'd like to take a moment to comment on the broader operating environment within each of our business segments and highlight a few areas of progress in the quarter, particularly within our capital allocation strategy. Demand trends across our businesses remain healthy. Our unique portfolio, strong market positions, and focus on innovation continue to drive above market growth. Within Human Nutrition and Health, we delivered another very strong quarter, supported by solid demand across both our nutrients portfolio and our food ingredients and solutions businesses. Heightened interest in supplementation and healthier, nutrient-dense, high-protein, high-fiber, and lower-sugar products continues to create opportunities for our customers and subsequently our science-based ingredients, formulation expertise, and application capabilities. In animal nutrition and health, we continue to generate healthy growth as a result of both expanding adoption of our precision-release rumen-protected nutrient technologies within the dairy industry, as well as realizing higher year-over-year volumes and margins in our European monogastric business. We remain encouraged by the momentum across our animal nutrition and health portfolio and the value our products provide to producers seeking greater efficiency, productivity, and sustainability. And specialty products also continues to drive healthy top and bottom line growth on solid volume and pricing growth, particularly within our performance gases business. So demand trends across our businesses remain healthy and each of our reporting segments is performing well. On a consolidated basis, we delivered strong growth and healthy margins despite higher input costs related to the conflict in the Middle East as a result of both mitigating actions and growth-driven operating leverage. And we remain confident in our ability to drive continued growth and margin performance going forward. On the capital allocation front, consistent with our balanced approach to capital allocation, we took several actions during the quarter to enhance financial flexibility and return capital to shareholders. First, we recently completed the refinancing of our revolving credit facility. The new amended agreement increases our borrowing capacity from $550 million to $650 million, and extends the maturity of the facility into 2031. This transaction further strengthens our financial position and provides additional flexibility to support our growth strategy, including continued investment in innovation, capacity expansion, and strategic acquisition opportunities. Second, we repurchased approximately $29 million of Valchem common stock during the second quarter and $114 million over the trailing 12 months, reflecting our continued commitment to disciplined capital allocation and shareholder value creation. Now, regarding the second quarter financial performance, this morning we reported record quarterly consolidated revenue of $284 million dollars, an increase of 11.2% versus the prior year. We delivered record quarterly gap earnings from operations of $59 million, an increase of 15.1% versus the prior year. Consolidated net income closed the quarter at a record $45 million, an increase of 16.6%. This quarterly net income translated to diluted net earnings per share of $1.39 on a gap basis, up 18.8%. On an adjusted basis, we delivered record quarterly adjusted EBITDA of $78 million, an increase of 12.6%. Our quarterly adjusted net earnings were a record $48 million, an increase of 15.7%, which translated to $1.49 per diluted share, up 17.3%. Overall, we delivered an outstanding second quarter, highlighted by record financial results, broad-based growth across our businesses, the strengthening of our balance sheet via our newly amended credit facility, and continued execution on our long-term strategic objectives. And with that, I'm now going to turn the call back over to Martin to go through the second quarter financial results in more detail and the results for each of our business segments.

Thank you, Ted. The second quarter was another strong quarter. Our record second quarter net sales of $284 million were up 11.2% compared to prior year, driven by strong performances across all three segments, human nutrition and health, animal nutrition and health, and specialty products. Our gross margin dollars were $104 million, up 11.4%, and our gross margin percent expanded to 36.5% of sales, up 10 basis points. The gross margin performance was driven primarily by sales growth and manufacturing efficiencies, partially offset by certain higher manufacturing input costs. Consolidated operating expenses for the second quarter were $44 million as compared to $42 million in the prior year. The increase was primarily due to higher compensation-related costs. Gap earnings from operations for the second quarter were a record $59 million, an increase of 15.1%. On an adjusted basis, as detailed in our earnings release this morning, record non-gap earnings from operations of $64 million were up 13.9%. Adjusted EBITDA was a record $78 million, an increase of 12.6%, with an adjusted EBITDA margin rate of 27.4%. Net interest expense for the second quarter was $2 million, a decrease of $1 million, primarily driven by lower outstanding borrowings and lower interest rates. Our net debt was $89 million with an overall leverage ratio on a net debt basis of 0.3. The effective tax rates for the second quarters of 2026 and 2025 were 22.8% and 21.9% respectively. The increase in the effective tax rate from the prior year was primarily due to lower tax benefits from stock-based compensation consolidated net income closed the quarter at a record of 45 million dollars up 16.6 percent this quarterly net income translated into diluted net earnings per share of one dollar and 39 cents an 18.8 percent increase on an adjusted basis our second quarter adjusted net earnings were a record $48 million, an increase of 15.7%, which translated to $1.49 per diluted share. Cash flows from operations were $47 million, with free cash flow of $36 million, and we closed out the quarter with $63 million of cash on the balance sheet. As we look at the second quarter from a segment perspective, our human nutrition and health segments saw record sales of $177 million, up 10%, driven by growth in both our nutrients business and our food ingredients and solutions businesses. Record earnings from operations of $42 million were up 10.5%, driven by the higher sales and favorable mix, partially offset by certain higher manufacturing input costs and higher operating expenses. Second quarter adjusted earnings from operations for this segment were a record $46 million, up 10.9%. We are excited about the growth outlook for human nutrition and health, where consumer demand for healthier nutritional solutions continues to support growth. Our differentiated ingredients, regulation expertise, and branded portfolio position us well to continue serving our customers and expanding our market opportunities. Our Animal Nutrition and Health segment delivered sales of $64 million, up 15%. The increase was driven by higher sales in both the monogastric and ruminant businesses. Animal Nutrition and Health delivered earnings from operations of $5 million, up 48.7%, Driven by the higher sales, partially offset by certain higher manufacturing input costs and higher operating expenses. Second quarter adjusted earnings from operations for this segment were $6 million, up 47.7%. We delivered another quarter of improved year-over-year performance in our animal nutrition and health segment. Growth was driven by continued adoption of our encapsulated rumen-protected nutrient technologies in the dairy market, stable demand in our U.S. monogastric business, and ongoing improvement in our European monogastric business, following the implementation of EU anti-dumping duties. And we were also pleased with the year-over-year margin improvement delivered in the quarter within A&H, despite higher input costs related to the conflict in the Middle East, as a result of both mitigating actions taken and growth-driven operating leverage. We are encouraged by the momentum across the animal nutrition and health segment and remain confident in our ability to continue expanding adoption of our technologies and delivering long-term growth. Our specialty product segment delivered record quarterly sales of $41 million, up 8.9%, driven by healthy growth in both performance gases and plant nutrition businesses. Specialty products delivered a record quarterly earnings from operations of $13 million, up 14.4%, driven primarily by higher sales, partially offset by certain higher manufacturing during input costs and higher operating expenses. Second quarter adjusted earnings from operations for this segment were a record $14 million, up 12.1%. We were encouraged by the continued strong performance in specialty products, which once again delivered healthy, profitable growth. Supported by favorable market positions and disciplined execution, we believe the segment remains well positioned for continued success overall our second quarter reflects all-time record financial performance continued momentum across our businesses and strong execution across the organization with that I'll turn the call back over to Ted for some closing remarks thanks Martin we are very pleased with the results we reported earlier today Our teams executed exceptionally well during the quarter, delivering record financial performance while continuing to advance our strategic priorities.

The second quarter of 2026 was our 28th consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth and adjusted EBITDA. We believe this achievement reflects the strength of our unique portfolio, the resilience of our business model, and the consistent execution of our teams across a wide range of market conditions. And as a team, we are extremely proud of these results and excited about the future of our company. I will now hand the call back over to Martin, who will open up the call for questions.

Thank you, Ted. This now concludes the formal portion of the conference at this point. we will open up the conference call for questions.

And we are now opening the question and answer session. Please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 to raise your hand. To withdraw your question, press star 1 again. We ask that you pick up your handset when asking a question to allow for optimum sound quality. If you're muted locally, please remember to unmute your device. Now please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. The question comes from the line of Bob Labbick with CJS Securities. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Good morning. Congratulations on continued strength and record results.

Thanks, Bob.

Yeah. You've been really successful, you know, in growing, you know, minerals and nutrients in particular, choline, you know, K2, magnesium, and more. The question is, how do you evaluate new products? You know, is it based on where you can improve bioavailability or markets or what? And so how do you evaluate new products for that area? And then how do you decide if it's a kind of build versus buy opportunity to enter markets for new products?

Yeah, thanks for the question, Bobby. We're really, really pleased with the performance of the nutrients business as well as the food ingredients and solutions part of H&H, both contributing to very, very strong results in our human nutrition and health business. And specifically in nutrients, as you know, over the years we have developed our own products, sometimes with outside partners in the case of Optifolin Plus that we launched a year or so ago. That's a good example of a kind of an internal development with external support. And then we've acquired technologies like we did with vitamin K2 in buying Kappa solutions. And I think it has to do with, you know, how you select which path to go down. It has to do with, you know, how close is that technology to our core? And, for example, in Optifolin Plus, you know, part of the backbone of that technology is choline. And so we were able to use our expertise to expand into that technology with an outside partner. And so that was more sort of ripe for internal development, if you will, whereas the vitamin K2 was very different technology, and so it made sense to do that through acquisition. But, you know, when we step back and look at the marketplace, how do we decide, you know, which nutrients we want to invest in and we think would be valuable as part of our portfolio? Certainly one thing we start with is the science. So we want to make sure there is already good existing sound science behind the products that we're bringing in. And I think that that clearly has been true with all of the additions to our portfolio over the years. So the science is really important. And then kind of as you touched on, I think it's the what is our point of differentiation that's going to make our product different and more special and so forth. I think that's also a very, very important aspect to the product. For example, when we bought Kappa Solutions and vitamin K2, it was very important to us that one of the primary forms of K2 that Kappa Solutions had was an encapsulated K2 that was protected with patent, was very different, very unique, and very special in the marketplace. So lots of points of differentiation there and moats, if you will, on that product. So differentiation, I think, is another key point. The other thing we like to look at is how well penetrated is that nutrient. Our nutrients still, even after, you know, many years of effort, still are relatively well known. They're increasing in awareness and increasing in market penetration. But, you know, it's a very different dynamic if you have a nutrient that, from your perspective, is fully penetrated in the marketplace, has very high awareness, like, for example, I'll say vitamin B3. Our nutrients tend to be lesser known, more nitty, And we have a real opportunity with that science and that differentiation to drive awareness, drive market penetration, and really drive above market growth rates. And I think you can see evidence of that on all of our products that are part of our nutrient portfolio. So, I think those are sort of the key elements that we look at, and we're excited by the fact that we do see opportunities in the marketplace to add additional products to our nutrient portfolio, and we're working hard on that.

Okay, great. And you mentioned, you know, science as part of differentiation and everything. maybe this isn't a kind of every quarter question because I know it's not this fast but I know you have a number of trials out there I was wondering if you could give us any updates on some of the trials that may come to fruition in this year and I guess just more broadly how you use that information once you get it to help grow the business certainly investing in clinical studies and, as I've referred to it, the science behind our products is really an important part of what we do.

It's how we help our customers have claims for their own products, which is an important part of marketing. So it's a fairly significant investment. At any one time, we have, you know, 20, 25 ongoing studies out there. And you're right. Some of these take, you know, many years. Some are a little bit shorter. There were four, you know, studies of note in the last quarter, one on Optifolin Plus, two on K2 Vital, and one on Vita-choline that are all really good studies and further enhance, you know, our already kind of broad library of studies for the products. It just kind of gives you a feel this is ongoing, and these are all a little bit different, but kind of add to that portfolio and add to that science behind our products. You know, the one that I am excited about, and unfortunately I don't have an update today, but I'm very excited about is one that I've talked about in the past, and that's the MD Anderson, you know, University of Texas, MIT, pilot clinical study that has people in the study that have the APOE4 gene, which is really the gene that leads to Alzheimer's. And so it is an adult cognition study that I'm excited to ultimately get the results about and hopefully be able to talk significantly about. Because if we can, from this study, see clear evidence that high doses of choline have an impact on the development of dementia and Alzheimer's, that would be really an important finding and an important part of the science behind the cognitive benefits of choline. I do think that that study, once it's published, will lead to another bigger study that will, you know, further reinforce those findings. But we have – we do know that that study is completed, and we do expect that that study should be published in the next couple of months. So I'm really hopeful that with the next quarterly update, I will be able to talk about the results of that study. So that's an exciting study that's going on that I'm particularly interested in, along with the four that I talked about that were published in the last quarter and the others that are ongoing.

Super. All right, thanks so much. I'll jump back in and let others ask questions. Thanks, Bob.

Your next question comes from the line of Ram Salvaraju with H.C. Wainwright. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Thanks so much, and congratulations on, once again, an excellent quarter. I was wondering if you could provide us with some additional granularity regarding how you expect sales and promotional strategies to shift over the course of the remainder of 2026, just based on trends that you're seeing in the market and product lines, products, product initiatives that you expect are likely to be most resonant with the consumer base, particularly within the H&H segment. And then secondly, on the financial front, Martin, maybe you could refresh my memory as to what you expect the effective interest rate to be on the new credit facility funds, as in when you draw them, you know, that have the maturity date of 2031, as well as how you expect the effective tax rate.

Thanks, Ram, for your questions and your opening comment. I'd really appreciate it. You know, obviously, we've been investing significantly in marketing, particularly in the human nutrition health business over the last few years. And, you know, our goal has been, you know, we have a little internal saying that is always on. And we've really tried to establish a scalable, always-on consumer engagement model for all of our branded ingredients over the last few years, really based on combining sort of omni-channel marketing, influencer engagement, consumer PR, and sports partnerships to drive ultimately that consumer awareness and, you know, market penetration of of our products and that effort alone in just the last year and a half or so has has uh you know generated a you know well over a billion consumer impressions which is a really big number for uh a company of uh uh our our size across our branded uh ingredients and, you know, really, at the end of the day, accelerating our brand awareness and demand generation. And, you know, kind of the influencer marketing, you know, you kind of asked, you know, how, you know, how we shift in that. It was certainly, you know, invested in certain influencer relationships and changed those over time with shifts in consumer behavior. certainly something that is trending more today than it was a couple of years ago, you know, is around targeting GLP-1 users for, you know, nutrient-rich, you know, snacks and meal replacements and so forth. And so, you know, kind of shifting your influence or marketing, you know, dollars to target, you know, those audiences more and the followership of the influencers more in line with that targeted audience is just an example of the shift that we do make. Sports partnerships as well, I mean, we've been kind of all in on soccer or, you know, kind of European football of late, You know, World Cup was part of that role, but that's kind of a shift in focus and attention of the community. And so we've been sort of doubling down in our sports partnerships in that area. So it is a dynamic investment in marketing and a shift in focus. But overall, really a, you know, kind of foundational goal of, you know, kind of establishing this scalable, you know, consumer engagement model via all of those mediums. So we're really excited about this edition. Ram, you know us well. you know, five, six years ago, we weren't really talking a lot about marketing, and I really feel like today we have really one of the leading nutrient marketing teams in the world, and it's really helping us drive the type of growth rates that we've been able to achieve over the last couple of years.

Yeah, I think on your questions on interest rate and tax rates, on the interest rate with the amendment and extension of the credit facility the structure is the same as the past so there are no significant changes obviously we increased the size of it from 550 million to 650 in terms of how much we could draw under it currently we have drawn 150 million as of end of Q2 that's sort of what's on the debt on our balance sheet the rate is is variable or floating as it has been for for the last two agreements it's not a fixed rate it is a floating rate so it gets reset with SOFR and then we pay a spread based on that so at the moment we're paying sort of around four and a half percent but But you can think about it as should the Fed do a rate hike of 25 basis points, then we will pay 25 basis points more. So we kind of, it's a variable rate that we pay. It is worth mentioning that we did improve on the spread that we pay above SOFR with this refinancing. So our pricing improved across the board by 10 basis points. And for the higher leverage tiers where we're not in them right now since we have very low leverage, it improved sort of by 22.5 basis points. It's a better pricing grid for us than the earlier ones, but it will vary with the market interest rates. On the tax rates, we're sort of at 23% year-to-date effective tax rate. I think we'll be in that 22.5% to 23% as we wrap up the year, is my best guess at the moment. So I would put it somewhere there in the 22.5% to 23% affected tax rate. Thank you very much.

Thanks, Ron.

Your next question comes from the line of Daniel Harriman with Sudati & Company. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning, guys. Thanks so much for taking my questions. I've just got a couple today. Thinking more about ANH and Martin, obviously the performance is well above what we were expecting, can you help delineate that a little bit between how much of that acceleration was volume versus the pricing actions that you took in April? And then if you wouldn't mind just providing us with more of an update on what's going on in the European monogastric trends, Just you talked about that last quarter, and it seems like things are really improving over there. So any color you could provide would be great. Sure.

Yeah, I mean, we're, you know, how a couple of quarters, right, and getting back to delivering year-over-year quarterly growth, which we've done for a number of quarters. When it comes to sort of the strong growth, we reported 15% here in the second quarter, and about half of that is volume driven and about half is price driven directionally. And Europe where we filed for anti-dumping and successfully got that through and that started as of January 1st or end of December of 2025. So we've been in that environment for six months now. we have really seen the return of that business we have seen more volumes coming our way so we're regaining some of that share that was lost due to the dumping and we've also seen a price recovery and that has improved sort of every quarter it started a little bit already and at the end of last year in anticipation of the dumping duties and has continued every quarter since so I would say it's playing out the way we were hoping for it to play out because we knew that if we could restore restore a more level playing field and if sort of people were were playing fair that we would have a really strong offering in the regions. It's nice to see that business return. So, yeah, it's working very well for us at the moment, and, you know, we're pretty excited about what's ahead.

Yeah, Daniel, I just kind of add to Martin's comment how pleased we are with the continued growth of the ruminant part of the portfolio, which, of course, is the higher margin. There's more science, more technology in those products, and a little bit more similar to what we're doing in the nutrient business in human nutrition and health, trying to create awareness. We'll build the science, create awareness, drive market penetration, and that business has been growing significantly over the last few years, and in the quarter alone grew, you know, about 20 percent, And that growth is almost all volume growth. And I think that's really, really exciting to see in that business driving the monogrowth, I mean, the ruminant growth to that extent with those products penetrating the market additionally. So we really are pleased overall with the performance of A&H and the momentum we have in that business.

That's really helpful, guys. Thanks, Martin and Ted, and congrats on the great quarter.

Thanks, Daniel.

There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back to Ted for closing remarks.

Thanks, Tracy. Once again, thank you all very much for joining our call today. We are really pleased with the second quarter results we reported earlier today and the outlook for our company. We very much appreciate your support as well as your time today, and we look forward to reporting our Q3 2026 results in October. In the meantime, we will be participating in the Wells Fargo Consumer Conference on September 23rd in Laguna Beach, California. Nice place to be, so hopefully we'll see some of you there. Thanks again for joining today.

This concludes today's call. Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.