Earnings Call Transcript - CITR 2026-11-11

Operator

Greetings and welcome to Citro Tech 3rd Quarter 2026 Financial Results Conference Call. All lines are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question and answer session. If you should require operator assistance at any time, press star zero. Today's call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Brett Moss of Hayden IR. Please go ahead, sir.

Brett Moss, Head of Investor Relations

Thank you, Operator. This call today is being hosted by Wes Bolson, Chief Executive Officer, and any questions can be sent to CITR at HaydenIR.com, and they'll be answered following this call. We appreciate the opportunity to review the third quarter results and recent business highlights. Before we get started, let me remind you this call is being recorded in webcast. During this call, management may make forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions. And are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Please refer to the cautionary text regarding forward-looking statements contained in earnings release and shareholder letter issued today, Tuesday, November 10th. Well, actually, it's November 11th, which applies to the content of this call. I'd like to now turn the call to Wes Bolson, CEO. Wes, please go ahead.

Wesley J. Bolsen, CEO

Thank you, Brett. Before I get started this morning, I want to recognize that today is Veterans Day. And I want to thank everyone who has served and is currently serving in our military. Many who've served in the military continue their commitment to service after transitioning to civilian life by joining the fire service, protecting our homes, our families, and our communities. And I want to take this opportunity to extend my sincere thank you to all of our veterans, as well as those who put their lives at risk every day to protect our communities from the threat of wildfire. Your courage, dedication, and commitment to service do not go unnoticed. With that, I'll now turn to my comments on Citratec's third quarter earnings call. Citratec provides critical solutions that are becoming the industry standard for fire retardant treated wood, proactive fire prevention and protection of infrastructure and assets from the threat of wildfire. And in the third quarter, we focused on expanding our partner network and increasing sales, reducing costs, and working on projects alongside our partner, Hexion, to deliver the next generation of fire-retardant treated wood and engineered wood products. Let's start with the financial performance and the cost discipline that's been put in place by the great team that I get to work with every day at Citra Tech. I'm proud to report that third quarter 2026 revenue increased 130% year-over-year to $264,000, up from $228,000 in the third quarter of 2025. We achieved this milestone despite a couple of significant purchase orders, shifting by just a couple of weeks from the third quarter into the fourth quarter. Just as important as our top-line momentum is how carefully we're managing our cash. And building operating leverage. In the third quarter of 2026, we cut our losses from operations nearly in half, down to $2.3 million compared to $4.2 million in Q3 of last year. In October, we took a major step forward, strengthening our balance sheet by closing an underwritten public offering that generated $5.6 million in gross proceeds. Notably, the offering was structured entirely with common stock, with no warrants attached, which we view as a positive outcome given the challenging capital markets environment. Another notable highlight is that our own leadership stepped up alongside our shareholders. Our board chair and director, Craig Hoff, through Bolt Rocks Holdings, LLC, purchased $500,000 of common stock at the $250,000 offering price. As publicly reported in his Section 16 filings with the SEC, this additional capital gives us the runway we need to sign and execute commercial contracts, build inventory ahead of 2027 wildfire season, and keep pushing forward with the U.S. Forest Service towards achieving qualified products list or QPL status. What I'm most excited to talk about are the operational achievements that are starting to drive our commercial momentum. The certified partner network that we're building. It's becoming an engine of our scalable, repeatable revenue strategy, enabling trained operators to deploy CitraTech and CitraSafe systems across the western United States. After growing from 13 partners at the end of Q2 to over 20 in August, our network expanded to 31 trained and certified partners as of September 30, 2026. We're experiencing tremendous interest from leaders in the industry that want to switch from legacy retardants to a fire retardant that is safe not only for their customers and the environment, but also for their own employees. In response to this growing demand for Citratec and our CitrusSafe systems, we will host our fifth certified partner training cohort on December 7th and 8th in Oceanside, California. where we plan to train an additional five to 10 partners. Following the training, we'll bring all of our great partners together with our entire team for a holiday celebration. We view our certified partners as an extension of our Citro Tech family, not simply as vendors or distribution channels. We believe that relationship-driven approach sets us apart and makes a difference in the way that we work together to grow the business. Our partners are stepping up on the front lines, both in proactive prevention and in emergency asset protection. A great recent example of this is All Risk Shield during the Norte Fire in Orange County, California. That fire, which broke out on October 16th, burned 570 acres and injured two firefighters. While the official cause remains under investigation, having our partners out there actively protecting assets. In those moments, demonstrates the real-world value of this network. I'll reach shield a great example of a leader in the industry, moving to a product that we believe is among the safest and most effective products in the industry, based on current testing data. Finally, it's incredibly rewarding to see our innovation and our real-world impact gaining recognition on a national stage. Time Magazine recently named Citrotech. One of its best inventions of 2026, providing meaningful validation of what we believe is the disruptive potential of our platform, standing out as the first and only long-term fire retardant recognized by the EPA's Safer Choice Program and tested to UL GreenGuard Gold standards. America has been built on innovation. And Citratech is proud to emerge as a leader in the environmentally safe fire prevention and protection market. We're a platform for broader fire tech to circle around, whether that's predictive capabilities of artificial intelligence, the leading drone makers in the industry, or even equipment and service providers. As a public company, Citratech is helping to unite leaders in our industry and to deliver the best solutions. As for expansion, turning to our municipal and regional expansion, the early success we're seeing in San Diego is serving as a blueprint for broader adoption. San Diego has continued buying and deploying Citrotech throughout the second half of the year, especially in ecologically sensitive areas where heavy metal-containing phosphate-based retardants simply aren't an option. Building on that momentum, we took a huge step forward across Southern California in the third quarter. In August, we hosted what I lovingly call the Big Burn Showcase. This was out in Los Angeles County that brought together six county fire agencies, more than 30 fire chiefs, top decision makers from utilities, and at least five of our commercial partners. That live demonstration validated in real-world conditions. What we believe the U.S. Forest Service testing has indicated, Citratech has performed favorably in both safety and efficacy evaluations relative to other fire retardants that have been tested. Since that showcase, we've seen growing interest in Citratech among county fire chiefs. We believe that firsthand validation is going to accelerate our adoption heading into 2027. Whether that's for utilities, railroads, transportation agencies, or even counties using Citratec to protect high-risk corridors, prevent ignitions around homeless encampments, or to contain prescribed burns, leadership in both state and federal governments is starting to take notice of Citratec's role in advancing wildfire prevention and asset protection solutions. When I turn to some of the technological developments, our field appointments in the third quarter also gave us some incredibly real-world use cases for how our technology protects critical infrastructure. For instance, during Q3, we treated wooden railroad bridges in East Los Angeles, where fire ignitions had been a recurring problem in the past. Not long after treatment, arson-related fires were set near the bridges on two separate occasions. While surrounding structures sustained significant damage, the Sickler Tech-treated wooden railroad ties were left charred but unburned. That was a significant real-world validation for us and a major proof point, not only for that railroad, but for the others in the industry as well. On top of that, we kicked off a milestone utility deployment in the western United States, where we sprayed a 50-foot radius. Around transmission lines and a 20-foot radius away from distribution lines. We believe the utility has been extremely pleased with both the application and the results, which really underscores the massive opportunity we see to help utilities prevent catastrophic ignitions from their assets and protect their utility infrastructure from incoming fire. We expect to expand our operations with utilities in the 2027 fire season. Subject to customer demand and available resources. Turning to fire-retardant treated lumber and engineered wood products, our Hexatech joint venture with Hexion is moving along well and achieved a milestone in the third quarter. We first started testing at Citratech. We were testing it on Douglas fir, a very common wood in the western United States. But in Q3, Hexatech successfully passed outside burn testing across other major wood species like spruce pine fir and southern yellow pine. This represents a significant milestone for us because it creates an opportunity for Hexatech to start replacing traditional fire-retardant treated lumber, which requires pressure treatment process, while expanding our total addressable market in fire-treated building materials. On the insurance front, As property insurers reassess their exposure and coverage in fire-prone regions, we continue to advance conversations, both at Citratec as well as through our certified partners, with some of the largest insurance carriers in the country. Based on our conversations, we believe many carriers are increasingly reluctant to have heavy metal phosphate-based retardants sprayed around the homes of their insured clients. We also hear that some carriers have concerns about reliance on water-based sprinkler systems that depend on municipal and backup water infrastructure. We believe insurers are increasingly interested in long-term fire-retardant solutions for home defense systems. That shift puts our non-toxic treatments and citrus-safe defense systems in the driver's seat to help solve residential insurability challenges and reduce risks for homeowners. In conclusion, looking ahead, we continue to significantly strengthen our position. When you combine the operational execution with our strength and balance sheet and the real-world validation we're seeing across utilities, municipalities, and wood product applications, we have tremendous confidence heading into 2027. We continue to accelerate the build-out of our partner network. Proving the effectiveness of the technology across major wood species and critical infrastructure, we believe we've secured sufficient capital to reach several significant upcoming milestones in our current operating plan. Simply put, we're entering 2027 with a strong operational position, and we're focused on working to convert a growing pipeline into what we believe can become, by margin, repeatable, recurring revenue for our shareholders. Thank you again for joining us this morning and for your continued support. I'll now turn the call back over to Brett Moss with Hayden IR to walk through the questions submitted by investors as well as potentially a couple of others. Brett, back to you.

Brett Moss, Head of Investor Relations

Thank you, Wes. Operator, you can go ahead and take our analyst from Northland, please.

Operator

Thank you. We'll hear from Robert Brooks with Northland. Please go ahead.

Robert Brooks, Analyst — Northland

Hey, good morning, team, and thank you for taking the question. I wanted to ask on the Certified Partner Network, that seems like a really big piece of the story going forward of driving adoption, right? And so I was curious to hear kind of what are the right qualities you want out of a business trying to join the Certified Partner Network? Have you turned down certain applicants because they weren't the right fit? And then lastly, have you given thought to what the right level of partners will be? I'm guessing it's still multiples above the current 31, but is it more like something in the hundreds or like 1,000 plus?

Wesley J. Bolsen, CEO

Yeah, thanks, Bobby. Appreciate the question. And we are very proud of our growing Certified Partner Network, and that's why we are turning down people, to answer that question kind of in the middle, because we want the best partners. We want the trained partners. It's not they're going to some training that somebody's making money off of it to try to teach them something. It's coming in, and we're actually giving them the chemistry, the details behind it. We're giving them the capabilities, Bobby, to go out and actually are kind of like our frontline sales force. They're going out and doing the things that need to be done to homes as well. Sometimes that's home hardening or helping homeowners with defensible space. And I mentioned a couple times we're proud. I mean, there's 31, but I mentioned Oliver Shield and there's some others in that that are just doing a great job going out. And these are everywhere from the high-end insurance companies, the multimillion-dollar homes, down to mom and pop. Everybody's home matters to them. What I see is some of those partners, Bobby, are going to actually expand out, build out like almost their own franchise and say, hey, our company is going to serve across multiple states and multiple geographies. We're already seeing that. So I actually don't see it in thousands, maybe a hundred or something at some point, but just because this is personal, this is local. These are partners who believe that Citratech is the answer, and they're coming to us. That's why it's an application process. I mean, from our website, you have to apply to get into the Certified Partner Network Program, and that's why we're hosting. We've had to cut off. In Cohort 4, we had to tell people, I'm sorry, it's full, because we want to give dedicated time to those certified partners. So, you know, you can hear me passionately talking about these are our partners. We're going to celebrate our holiday and Christmas with them because these are our friends that we're building out in the industry. We're going to welcome in people who have capabilities, people, trucks, equipment, already going out to the homes, know the communities that already are doing maybe some home hardening, vent screens, and doing other things on the home. Adding Citratec onto their business makes so much sense because it's, you know, it's going to be much better than a water-based sprinkler system or people out trying to do those kind of water-based defense systems. Long-term fire recharge is where the industry is moving, and those partners want the best. I hope I answered all the questions there, Bobby. If not, please feel free to add on to that.

Robert Brooks, Analyst — Northland

Yeah, no, absolutely. You hit them all. I appreciate that. And then, you know, this bridge, the East Los Angeles bridges, that sounds like a really profound, you know, find like real, real world test, right? A real world result is probably a better, better way to say it. And from my perspective, it's hard to see why the railroad would not then immediately place a bigger order, but I'm sure I'm just not thinking of all the nuances the large company needs to clear for a new innovative product. So I'm just hoping to get a sense of, like, your view of, like, what sort of – when these companies or when these larger companies are seeing these incredible results, like, what are the factors holding them back from placing a larger order and, like, covering all their bridges across America with such our tech?

Wesley J. Bolsen, CEO

Man, I love your question because you're actually completely right, and you're even right that sometimes the wheel, getting the wheel in motion, we all know, takes a lot more effort, and that was a monumental real-world application, and like I said, it's not just, and I haven't named, and I probably won't name the carrier, but there's only a small number of powerful rail carriers, and they talk to each other. They work with one another on fire prevention, bridge, and asset protection. I mean, these guys talk to each other, and they're all going, hey, you've got to use Citrotec. Then what's the problem? Putting the wheel in motion. Honestly, SAP and getting in the supplier network and getting the paperwork. I mean, as an entrepreneur, paperwork frustrates me. I want to move. I want to start protecting. So they did. In fact, some of the sales that you saw in Q3 were from that. Some of the sales that I hope and anticipate in Q4. What I can say is, you know, Bobby, as California and some of the other states, you know, maybe fire season will start to slow down. We call it the shoulder season. We actually are seeing some other fires and fire risks picking up in, say, something like Texas. You know, we are seeing some concern and some real concern. You look at El Nino patterns. So we may be able to do some additional work with some partners, some institutional enterprise customers before the end of the year based on some of the results that we're seeing. So you're not wrong. It's just getting the wheel in motion. That is... But that means really good things for us in 2027. That's the forward-looking statement, but I'm hoping it was really, really good for momentum moving into 2027. Got it. That's super helpful.

Robert Brooks, Analyst — Northland

And then it feels like over the last year, your team has really leaned into testing and collecting data to really prove out and have data-driven answers to prove the effectiveness of the solution. Is that a fair statement? And then secondly, maybe just expand on what has been some of the best data you've compiled over the last year that really helps elevate or ramp up potential customer discussions.

Wesley J. Bolsen, CEO

Yeah, I'll put that in two categories. One is kind of our wildland fire side, and two is through our joint venture with Hexion. So I'll start with the Hexion side. It's an amazing organization. I mean, couldn't have a better partner that comes into their long-term customers, the leading engineered wood product companies. I mean, there's nobody better in the industry than Hexion to do this, but they're going to come in and they're going to lead with science. They're going to lead with the facts of what Citro Tech is doing, how it's working, the burn test, the large-scale test, the different woods, the pieces. This is what is, again, laying that foundation for an amazing long-term joint venture that is our science plus their strength built with, you know, more scientists and R&D and engineering and new technology and the things that are going into that. So always leave with facts and data. When you can have the best technology in the industry, you want to bring the science with it. So you are correct that maybe people wish it moved faster, but if you move a little slower at the beginning, it leads to faster in the long term by real adoption by the end customers. Flipping to, um. The wildland fire side, you know, when you think about out in the field, that big burn, the thing we did, that it wasn't just one fire chief or one little burn. I mean, we're talking 15-foot flames, 1,000 degrees burning through an area with a head fire, a back fire, trying to light fire in the middle of it. One of the fire chiefs joked that if I can't light where Citratec's been treating with a drip torch, it's sure not going to light on fire with a few embers or things blowing into that vegetation. I mean, it was an eye-opening moment. I mean, these guys have worked with the standard legacy retardants for decades. And their eyes were open and said, we've never seen something like this. That's the real world, not just the railroad bridge that we talked about, not just some of those other things that are seeing is believing, because these are the guys putting their lives at risk every day and saying, hey, when I put down a line of Citra Tech, when I do something, I need to know that it's going to protect. And that's why they pushed the product to its limits. And I think we surpassed what they're doing. In addition, though, I've got a great team. Our head of business, Kevin Schaff, is leading amazing data. Andrew Hostert. I get to work with an amazing team bringing cone calorimeter tests and different testing and science and working with universities. We need to lead to the market. We need to lead to insurers. They want to know that this is the safest and most effective product to be putting out around homes. So you are correct. The customers are asking the questions, and we're going to deliver both science and proven validation.

Robert Brooks, Analyst — Northland

That's really helpful and exciting to hear, and I can definitely agree. I haven't seen it myself. Seeing is believing, and it's a pretty incredible product when you see it happen in person. So appreciate it, Wes, and I'll return to the queue. Thank you.

Brett Moss, Head of Investor Relations

Thank you. A couple questions. Can you define the time frame of what it considered a historical fire season? Expand upon how that might be changing in the southern hemisphere? Are the seasons reversed in the northern hemisphere?

Robert Brooks, Analyst — Northland

You kind of touched on that a little bit with Bobby.

Brett Moss, Head of Investor Relations

But can the company go after business in, you know, different time frames throughout the year just so people understand the landscape?

Wesley J. Bolsen, CEO

Yeah, I think, Brett, the focus of Citra Tech has been U.S. base, and I think that's to make sure we establish ourselves and don't get stretched too thin, but we absolutely are looking at some international opportunities where things move around the globe based on fire season. And like I said in one of my earlier comments was, You know, fire season can move inside the US. I mean, we may still have some significant fire risk. It used to be fire season was kind of like, oh, everybody thinks May to, you know, September. I mean, we had our partners. Red flag warnings last week in Southern California. I mean, we've had fires in Colorado, like the Marshall Fire or others in January, December and January, or in the Palisades. I mean, so I think we have to be prepared 12 months a year. I think we have to have Citratec in the hands of people across, and I say the Western United States, it's really across the U.S. We've got a great new partner down in the southeast. Global Fireproof Solutions is doing a great job for us. Came in, got training, expanding down in the southeast. I mean, these are the kind of things where more and more of these certified partners are getting trained, capable product, Citratec product in their hands, and then starting to reorder. You know, so we're having some of those partners reordered based on, hey, we're going out to protect homes and properties. You haven't heard me say, hey, now we're going into Australia, Spain, France, et cetera, yet. We do have product up in Canada. We've talked about that. We have a partner up there that we're working with. I mean, so it's not just U.S., but as that fire season is now 12 months a year, as weather patterns change, we're looking at where is there high-risk fire threat situations, heavy winds, red flag warnings, particularly dangerous situations. Anytime there's ever going to be a public safety power shutoff, a PSPS event, you should be using Central Tech. Safest, most effective way of saying, hey, let's prevent an ignition during this, and maybe we wouldn't have to shut off as much power if we needed to in every area. So these are all things we're talking about for where Citrotec is going to be used, I believe, in the future.

Brett Moss, Head of Investor Relations

Great. And the expansion of the certified partner now will certainly help with that. Can you talk to the cost of Citro-infused wood products versus current products that are out there and how this could be a cost-benefit for builders and others considering purchase?

Wesley J. Bolsen, CEO

Yeah, thanks, Brett. I mean, the Hexatech Joint Venture is handling the commercialization of Citratech-treated lumber with products and building materials, and we anticipate it's going to be very comparable, maybe better even, than, you know, pretty intense. Pressure-treated process, when you have to incise wood to get fire retardant-y, FR-treated lumber, you're weakening that wood. By definition, incising it or impregnating it, whatever word you'd like to use, poking it weakens that wood. And Citrotec has the ability to spray onto that lumber or to even dip it. They call it dip coating. These are methods and processes that are exceptional. Again, back to Bobby's question. We're going to work with the science, though. We're going to work with the facts behind. Making sure the Citratec-treated FR lumber is going to deliver the characteristics to go out to the builders, and we're having a lot of great conversations with builders saying, hey, this could be tremendous for us in how we build, not having to ship lumber off. The time, let alone the cost, the time of shipping off lumber, having it pressured, fire retardant treated, and then having it shipped back, that makes so many unknowns for builders that I believe this is going to move upstream and builders will start to demand Citratec-treated lumber in the long term.

Brett Moss, Head of Investor Relations

Great. Thank you. I do want to acknowledge we did have a few questions submitted that the company cannot answer, given that answering them would violate nondisclosure agreements and for general competitive purposes. So answers to some of those questions may be disclosed publicly at a later date. Wes, thank you for your time and everybody for joining.

Robert Brooks, Analyst — Northland

This concludes the questions that have been submitted for our Q3 Citro Tech earnings call. I'd like to thank you for joining and remind you that if you have additional questions, please send those to

Brett Moss, Head of Investor Relations

citr at haydenir.com. And if we're able to answer them publicly, we will.

Wesley J. Bolsen, CEO

We can follow up with you individually at that time.

Brett Moss, Head of Investor Relations

Operator, we'll conclude the call. Thank you, everyone.

Operator

Thank you. This does conclude today's teleconference. We thank you for your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time.