Earnings Call Transcript - STKL Q3 2025

Operator, Operator

Greetings, and welcome to SunOpta's Third Quarter Fiscal 2025 Earnings Conference Call. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Reed Anderson with ICR. Thank you. You may begin.

Reed Anderson, ICR

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us on SunOpta's Third Quarter Fiscal 2025 Earnings Conference Call. On the call today are Brian Kocher, Chief Executive Officer; and Greg Gaba, Chief Financial Officer. By now, everyone should have access to the earnings press release that was issued earlier this afternoon and is available on the Investor Relations page of SunOpta's website at www.sunopta.com. This call is being webcast and a transcription will also be available on the company's website. The investor presentation referenced during this call and webcast is also posted on the company's Investor Relations website. As a reminder, please note that the prepared remarks, which will follow, contain forward-looking statements, and management may make additional forward-looking statements in response to your questions. These statements do not guarantee future performance, and therefore, undue reliance should not be placed upon them. We refer you to all risk factors contained in SunOpta's press release issued this afternoon, the company's annual report filed on Form 10-K and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a more detailed discussion of the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projections and any forward-looking statements. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly correct or update the forward-looking statements made during the presentation to reflect future events or circumstances, except as may be required under applicable securities laws. Finally, we would like to remind listeners that the company may refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures during this teleconference. A reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures was included with the company's press release issued earlier today. Also, please note in the prepared remarks to follow, unless otherwise stated, the company will be referring to the continuing operations portion of the business and all figures are in U.S. dollars, occasionally rounded to the nearest million. Now I'll turn the call over to Brian to begin. Brian?

Brian Kocher, CEO

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us today. With my prepared remarks, I want to cover three topics: review our third quarter performance, including some underlying trends supporting our tremendous growth, provide transparency around some near-term operational opportunities we are navigating, and reinforce our confidence in our long-term growth trajectory, margin expansion initiatives, and value creation potential. Greg will then cover 3Q financial results and our updated 2025 expectations and initial 2026 outlook in more detail. Following our scripted comments, we'll take your questions. Let me begin by saying that Q3 marked another quarter of exceptional commercial success. We exceeded our expectations for revenue and met our Q3 expectations for adjusted EBITDA. We continue to demonstrate our revenue diversity and ability to grow market share. Our categories and customers continue to grow at an accelerated rate compared to broader food and beverage trends. We did a fantastic job of creating capacity within our existing manufacturing network to service 17% volume growth. We have now achieved nine successive quarters of, on average, 15% volume growth and have done so while maintaining the highest food safety and quality standards. As you can see on Slide 6, revenue increased 17%, driven entirely by customer demand, and we continue to experience broad-based gains across our portfolio. Sales volume across our top six customers all increased over the previous year. We continue to win with category-leading customers in high-performing categories and channels. Plant-based milk volumes increased at a high teens rate in Q3. We have exceptional momentum in the club channel as well as continued strength in foodservice, where we continue to drive both menu expansion and share gains. Broth had another solid quarter with volumes up high single digits. And tea was our fastest-growing product category in both retail and foodservice during the quarter. In better-for-you fruit snacks, we achieved our 21st consecutive quarter of double-digit revenue growth. Note that demand for fruit snacks continues to significantly outpace supply, and we look forward to bringing on the previously announced additional capacity in 2026. Turning to Slide 7. I want to expand on the strength of the plant-based beverage category in foodservice. Circana data disclosed the plant-based beverage category grew 9% in foodservice. Menu innovation is creating new purchase occasions and driving frequency. Mintel reports that 46% of consumers are expected to visit coffee shops at increasing rates. With plant-based offerings increasingly at the core of this innovation, we are seeing increased levels of demand. In addition, based on consumption trends and population growth, we anticipate that the number of U.S. coffee shop units will grow by approximately 20% over the next five years. Remember, our products are featured in eight of the top ten coffee chains across North America, including all four of the fastest-growing chains. As a value-added solution provider with broad-based and diversified distribution, we already benefit from and are positioned to continue winning from these trends. During the quarter, a major club channel customer, a co-manufacturing customer, and two broad customers accelerated their supplier of choice decisions. We had opportunities to capture the volume immediately, along with some expected temporary inefficiencies that would accompany servicing the volume, or forgo the business and profits for several years. We seized every single one of these opportunities. These are exactly the kind of openings that validate our solutions-based approach and demonstrate why customers view us as an indispensable partner. When the commercial marketplace presents these windows to expand our footprint and deepen customer relationships, we do not hesitate. Taking advantage of all that new demand did present short-term challenges to our supply chain, and I want to be completely transparent about the operational realities of accelerating business into 2025. To put this in perspective, at the beginning of the year, our production and cost plans were built in anticipation of approximately 9% revenue growth. We actually grew 17% in Q3. In stretching our operations to satisfy customers' incremental growth needs, we quickly reengineered our network to drive more volume output. While we were able to create enough capacity to service the increased demand, the production schedule was not as efficient as it could have been and equipment maintenance requirements were more significant than planned. We paid more in parts, technicians, and outside services to keep the equipment running and incurred additional overtime costs to accomplish this. We also had to push some of the new volume to our Midlothian facility, exacerbating the pre-existing limitations at that facility. Given we will never compromise our food safety and quality standards, the new volume opportunities also increased our short-term cost of compliance. Finally, as we were focused on servicing our customers with safe and high-quality product, we were forced to delay some of the previously planned margin expansion initiatives. As we digest the incremental volume, driving operational efficiencies will be back on center stage. While it would take us a couple of quarters to fully absorb all the volume growth, we have a clear understanding of the root causes of the short-term increased spend and are implementing corrective action plans. These plans include maintenance scheduling changes, labor balancing between shifts, and network optimization between plants. I am confident in and fully expect to get back to our planned adjusted EBITDA growth and margin expansion pace by mid-2026. We are incredibly excited about the long-term benefits of the customer volume recently gained and fully expect to see incremental benefits in 2027 and beyond. I do not want the short-term increase in cost to overshadow the most important part of our third quarter results. Our categories are roaring. Our customers are voting with their business, and they are voting for us. We are winning in the marketplace. And by virtue of these opportunities, we are growing volume faster than we anticipated. As we look into 2027, we see a growth trajectory well in excess of our expected supply chain capacity. Just as we realized last quarter with our fruit snacks business, our aseptic customers are quickly demanding more capacity than we can deliver. We must now invest for growth in 2027 and beyond. As such, we are announcing the investment of an additional line of aseptic processing capacity at our Midlothian facility. We are timing the launch of this new line with the completion of the previously announced wastewater management investment. I am looking forward to finally utilizing the full power of our Midlothian facility. Greg will have more details on the financials, but I'm proud that we can invest in growth at an accretive ROIC while maintaining disciplined leverage. Our confidence in the future continues to be based on what we can see, not on what we hope. Our fundamentals remain intact, and we are growing faster than we even anticipated. I remain incredibly confident in our strategic position and execution capabilities. This extraordinary growth does put some near-term pressure on our production network, but we have a plan and know what we need to do to reach our margin targets. Our ability to create value for customers while driving sustainable returns for shareholders remains our North Star. Now I'll turn the call over to Greg to cover the financial details and our updated outlook.

Greg Gaba, CFO

Thank you, Brian, and good afternoon, everyone. Turning to Slide 11. We had another exceptionally strong top line performance with third quarter revenue of $205 million, up 17% compared to last year, entirely driven by volume growth. Gross profit increased by $2.6 million or 11% to $25.5 million compared to $22.9 million in the prior year. Gross margin decreased by 60 basis points to 12.4% compared to 13% in the prior year. Adjusted gross margin was 13.6% compared to 16.6% in the prior year period. The decrease partially reflected incremental investments in variable labor and infrastructure to improve long-term margins, increased maintenance expense, overtime costs, and higher waste as a result of certain manufacturing pressures from tremendous volume growth, together with temporary volume limitations and increased downtime resulting from the excess wastewater issue at our Midlothian, Texas facility. These factors were partially offset by higher sales and production volumes for beverages, broth, and fruit snacks, driving improved plant utilization. Operating income increased $6.1 million to $6.9 million compared to $0.8 million in the prior year. The increase mainly reflected lower employee variable compensation costs based on performance, lower professional fees related to operational productivity initiatives, and the $2.6 million increase in gross profit. These factors were partially offset by non-cash asset impairment charges of $2.6 million in the third quarter of 2025 related to the decommissioning of the tote filling equipment and the early retirement of certain nonproductive assets. Earnings from continuing operations were $0.8 million compared to a loss of $6.2 million in the prior year period. Adjusted earnings from continuing operations were $6 million or $0.05 per diluted share compared to $1.8 million or $0.02 per diluted share in the prior year period. Adjusted EBITDA increased 13% to $23.6 million compared to $20.8 million in the prior year period. Turning to our balance sheet. At the end of the third quarter, debt was $266 million and net leverage was 2.8x, down from 2.9x in Q2 and 3x at the end of 2024. Cash provided by operating activities of continuing operations in the first three quarters was $34 million compared to $19 million in the first three quarters of the prior year. The increase mainly reflected higher operating profitability driven by revenue growth and reduced SG&A spending, partially offset by increased working capital to support the strong revenue growth. Cash used in investing activities of continuing operations was $23 million in the first three quarters of 2025 compared to $17 million in the first three quarters of fiscal 2024. We are updating our outlook for the full year to reflect accelerated demand and short-term incremental costs. As shown on Slide 12, we now expect revenue in the range of $812 million to $816 million. From an earnings perspective, we expect adjusted EBITDA of $90 million to $92 million. We also continue to expect interest expense of $24 million to $26 million and capital expenditures on the cash flow statement of approximately $30 million to $35 million. We now expect free cash flow of $20 million to $22 million. Please note that essentially all of the free cash flow in 2025 is allocated for mandatory debt and notes payable repayments. Our capital allocation priorities remain the same: deleveraging, investing in capacity expansion, and returning excess capital to shareholders. Based on our updated expectations for adjusted EBITDA, we expect to maintain our current leverage of 2.8x at the end of the year compared to our prior expectation of 2.5x. As Brian mentioned, we are in a great position to announce the next phase of capacity for our beverage and broth operations. With a total investment of $35 million, primarily occurring in 2026, this will increase network capacity by approximately 10%. We anticipate that the new equipment at our Midlothian facility that is already over 50% subscribed will come online in late 2026. This investment, along with our previously announced fruit snacks line in Omak, Washington, will be key components to delivering our long-term growth algorithm in 2027 and 2028. Even with adding this growth CapEx in 2026, we plan on maintaining our leverage ratio under 3x throughout the year with a target of 2.8x by the end of 2026. Given the expected reduction in adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter of approximately $10 million compared to our prior expectations, we want to ensure you have a complete understanding of the scope along with the pathway forward. Turning to Slide 15. There are four temporary issues related to our beverage and broth facilities that are impacting our results. First is our current wastewater limitations at Midlothian. Context is important. Since our Midlothian plant came online in 2023, we have been aggressively increasing output. This rapid growth, combined with the temporary wastewater limitations, has resulted in inefficient operations. We expect a $2 million impact compared to our prior expectations in the fourth quarter. As Brian mentioned, this will be resolved by the installation of new wastewater equipment by the end of the second quarter of 2026. We are conservatively planning our equipment and processes to catch up to this increased volume demand by mid-2026. Second, for the rest of our beverage and broth network, the third quarter incremental volumes strained our equipment and people, resulting in unplanned downtime events, increased short-term variable labor costs and overtime, together with additional parts and maintenance spending. To address these issues, we implemented an equipment maintenance recovery plan. We expect to continue to incur these costs for the next few quarters until we realize the benefits of the recovery plan. This will have a $3 million impact in the fourth quarter compared to our prior expectations. Third, we prioritized servicing the accelerated demand, which resulted in delaying our margin improvement plan. As Brian mentioned, it will take a few quarters to digest the incremental volume. We expect our previously announced margin expansion plan will resume in the second half of 2026. This will have around a $3 million impact to the fourth quarter compared to prior expectations. Finally, in preparation for the new aseptic line in Midlothian, we shut down operations at the plant for one week in October for infrastructure work. This will have a $2 million impact to the fourth quarter versus our prior expectations. To provide clarity on how this impacts 2026, we are introducing our initial outlook. We expect revenue in the range of $865 million to $880 million, growth of 6% to 8% versus the midpoint of our 2025 outlook and adjusted EBITDA of $102 million to $108 million, which represents growth of 12% to 19% compared to the midpoint of our 2025 outlook. From a pacing standpoint, we expect the back half of the year to be stronger than the first half as we work through our recovery plan in the beverage and broth facilities. We expect a 48% first half and 52% second half split for revenue and a 45% first half and 55% second half split for adjusted EBITDA. We will provide additional details on the Q4 call. In summary, we are continuing to drive strong volume-based revenue growth, grow gross profit dollars, adjusted EBITDA, net income, EPS, and free cash flow. We expect to see continued improvements in all of these areas in 2026 and beyond. Our original revenue outlook for this year projected 9% growth at the midpoint. We are currently expecting 12%. The strong growth has exceeded our expectations and has a compounded impact on our operations as this is on top of a 15% growth in 2024 for a two-year stack of 27%. The good news is we managed to support the volume-based growth without compromising food safety or quality and found additional opportunities during this time. We see tremendous opportunity to improve our operations, expect to see continued strong revenue growth, and feel great about the opportunity to significantly drive shareholder value. Before opening the call for questions, just a reminder that for competitive reasons we do not provide detailed commentary regarding customer or SKU-level activity.

Operator, Operator

Your first question comes from the line of Jim Salera from Stephens Inc.

James Salera, Analyst

I wanted to start off just with maybe helping us out with the cadence around the new investment and building out the production capacity around broth. So if my quick math is correct, it implies gross margin down like 180, 200 basis points in 4Q to get to the midpoint of the updated EBITDA guidance. Does that kind of jive with what you guys are expecting? And then if we think about 2026, if I recall correctly, 4Q of '26 was supposed to be kind of around that 20% gross margin rate. Should we think about 4Q of '26 looking like what we expected 4Q of '25 to look like? Or just any thoughts around kind of the sequencing there and any additional color you can provide on 4Q?

Brian Kocher, CEO

There are a few key points to address, Jim. First, I want to clarify what is affecting the fourth quarter of '25 and what will impact future periods. We had an opportunity to leverage customer allocation decisions that were initially set for 2026, but we were able to utilize them in 2027. We still believe that this will positively contribute to our long-term strategy. It was a beneficial moment for us to onboard this volume rather than delaying it for many years. We confidently believe that this was the right choice. However, I must express my disappointment regarding the challenges we've faced in absorbing this volume. Greg highlighted some impacts for the fourth quarter, including increased equipment maintenance costs and the necessity to direct much of this volume to our Midlothian facility, which is currently constrained and our least efficient plant. We made this decision to maintain customer service standards and optimize operations among our facilities. Additionally, since this volume increased, we had to reallocate resources that were initially focused on improving yield and direct labor efficiency, which are critical for our margin expansion plans, to instead meet customer expectations related to service, quality, and food safety. There are significant differences between our previous guidance and the current guidance for the fourth quarter of '25. We believe this is a temporary issue and have established clear plans for equipment reliability at the Midlothian site, which we've discussed in earlier calls. Our concrete plans will enable us to manage this volume and return to our margin expansion targets in the second half of 2026 and into 2027. We provided some insight into 2026 to emphasize the short-term nature of these operational hurdles. In the next call, we'll offer a more detailed forecast for each quarter of 2026. We wanted to ensure that the investment community understands these challenges are temporary and that we have a solid plan to address them, after which we will return to focus on margin expansion and long-term growth opportunities.

James Salera, Analyst

Got it. That's helpful. And then I guess kind of building off that, is it safe to say that given you had all of these customers, it sounds like from kind of different end markets come to you at once that the capabilities that you have are either don't exist outside of your network or are not scaled in a meaningful way outside your network, and that's why everyone came to you at the same time? Or is there something unique about what these customers are experiencing that caused them all to kind of come to you at the same time?

Brian Kocher, CEO

I see it as a strong affirmation of our market value, showcasing our nationwide network for customer accounts, R&D capabilities for rapid product launches, and appropriate packaging options. It reinforces our value proposition. What's noteworthy is that, typically, customers tend to delay their projects, but in this case, several customers approached us with opportunities that were quicker than we expected. I will always welcome such developments. This demand comes from notable customers in desirable channels and product segments aligned with long-term trends. I believe this situation will enable us to exceed our long-term growth expectations in late '26 and into '27. However, it did bring some challenges. While I'm disappointed that we didn't see more of this increase contribute to our bottom line, I am confident we understand the underlying issues and have effective, timely solutions in place. I believe that by the second half of 2026, we will return to the growth path we discussed previously.

Operator, Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Andrew Strelzik of BMO Capital Markets.

Andrew Strelzik, Analyst

I appreciate the insights you provided about the profit bridge and the factors contributing to some of the challenges. However, I'm unclear about why the revenue is falling short in the fourth quarter and into next year. I noticed you mentioned downtime on the slide. Ultimately, I'm trying to understand why this demand isn't translating into revenue at the same pace in the following quarters. I'd like to gain more clarity on this.

Brian Kocher, CEO

Yes, certainly, Andrew. One of the factors is the transition from the pipeline from 2026 to the third quarter of 2024; we anticipated some volume for 2026 to arrive in 2024, specifically in the fourth quarter. As a result, you'll see that the fourth quarter has a slight decrease compared to previous estimates. However, for the year overall, we're close to our original expectations and actually slightly ahead. Initially, we projected a 9% revenue growth, but we're now expecting a growth of 12%, which is a significant increase. At the start of the year, we indicated that our current network could support a 20% growth over the next two years. Therefore, the revenue guidance for next year is influenced by capacity constraints until we install new equipment for our beverage, broth, and fruit snacks lines at the year's end, which will enable future growth. Nevertheless, we are still on track to achieve the anticipated 20% growth over the next two years based on our network's capacity.

Andrew Strelzik, Analyst

Okay. Okay. I guess I understand that. I guess on the flip side, from a demand perspective, pretty much all the consumer commentary that we hear from other CPG companies is pretty poor. Yet you're seeing the stronger-than-expected new business, category dynamics that you referenced as well. I guess how do you square what your business is seeing from a demand perspective and what the category is experiencing versus the broader consumer backdrop?

Brian Kocher, CEO

I'm going to give you a brief answer, Andrew, and I don't want it to sound dismissive, but I won't apologize for being in growing categories while others may not be. We provided more detail on the foodservice category this time. Coffee shops are indeed expanding; they have been since COVID. Some data indicates there are 8% to 9% more coffee shops now than before COVID. Looking ahead over the next four to five years, data from large coffee chains suggests we can expect up to 20% growth in coffee chains and coffee cafes. This is driving a foodservice business where we are well-positioned, as our products are featured in eight of the top ten coffee chains and four of the fastest-growing ones. This growth benefits us. Another area worth mentioning is our presence in consumer hotspots. For example, better-for-you fruit snacks are growing over 20%, and we have achieved double-digit growth in that category. We have a high demand for our CapEx equipment, and if I could, I would rush to get it installed. There's significant category growth based on various underlying actions we observe. Furthermore, looking at our products and their shelf prices, they are not considered luxury items. Many of our fruit snacks retail for $0.50 each or less, which is not seen as luxury even when consumers are visiting coffee shops. As noted in our prepared comments, while consumers are expressing concern, we see similar data. Nonetheless, 46% of consumers are expected to visit coffee shops more frequently in the coming year. Our products are seen as necessities, which is significant. Lastly, it’s important to note the diversity of our categories. We’re involved in co-manufacturing, foodservice, and private label, with representation across mass merchants, traditional retail, club channels, and QSRs. In tough economic times, consumers typically shift channels, potentially moving from branded to private label products. The positive aspect is we are represented in all those channels and formats through our customers, which contributes to our continued growth. Additionally, our value proposition seems to resonate in the market, resulting in nine straight quarters of approximately 15% or more volume growth.

Operator, Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Jonathan Anderson of William Blair.

Jon Anderson, Analyst

I wasn't sure if you mentioned or if you could mention what the new line, what kind of product or end market is that going to supply? And in terms of lining that up with the work you're doing on the wastewater, how does that kind of come together? Because as I understand it, the wastewater limitation is something that you're having to work around now with a couple of lines. And if you add another, that issue could become worse.

Brian Kocher, CEO

Jon, great question. A couple of things. We mentioned it's an aseptic line that we're adding. And I would think of it to support our beverage and broth business, the large package size beverage and broth. About 50% of that line is already subscribed. We're roughly a little less than a year away from go-live. So we'll continue to work on that. But we went where the customers and the dollars and where we thought the margin would be, and that was in the larger-sized beverage and broth format on the aseptic line. I think you asked a great question. We tried to articulate this and maybe didn't do a good enough job, but we are actually timing the aseptic launch with the wastewater launch. So the wastewater has to come first. You're 100% on. The wastewater processing has to come first. After that, we will have more than enough wastewater management capacity to not only unlock the efficiencies in the lines that we have now, but also the additional CapEx growth that we're planning for Midlothian. Also remember, we've had Midlothian for three years and really have never been able to unlock the full power. I've been really excited to see what Midlothian looks like when, a, we've got the ability to run the existing lines at full bore, we get another one in there. And oh, by the way, you get all that volume to dilute the fixed cost or absorb the fixed cost. I think that's going to be a really powerful leverage point in our margin.

Jon Anderson, Analyst

I understand your point about accommodating customers and managing service volume. However, at times it can become a problem as it may delay some of your targets. Have you thought about, or is it possible for you, to adjust pricing for excess volume in a way that recognizes your manufacturing capabilities? This could help you maintain your margins while still supporting your customers. There has to be some balance, especially considering your value proposition.

Brian Kocher, CEO

Jon, I think it's a great question. We have, over the course of the last year or so, been able to take some price where we thought that there was an opportunity. I would also tell you, it gets a little muddled, particularly in our P&L because you've got raw product prices that are going up and down. This year, we also had tariffs that were in the mix. And although we've been able to pass along tariff costs so that from a P&L standpoint we've more or less been able to offset that and be whole. But don't forget that, that tariff increase has gone right to the consumer. And although I think we've got enduring trends in our category that have helped us, and I mentioned that on a previous answer, Jon, don't discount the impact that passing along those tariff costs have had on our customers and their ability and potentially concern about passing those along to the end consumer. So it is a little muddy. We are 100% aligned with taking price where we can. I think the other area, Jon, that we don't talk much about, but you notice it in this quarter's results, where there's an opportunity to either deemphasize or rationalize either products or potentially some relationships, we've done that, too. And this quarter was a good example. We did some aseptic tote filling of products for certain customers, and it just wasn't going to give us the return that we wanted. It was going to also take capacity from some of the customers that we really wanted to grow with. So we managed to work our way through that customer relationship and then exit that in favor of the new volume that we brought on. So it's a little bit about all of those things. But a really good question, Jon. Thanks for bringing it up.

Jon Anderson, Analyst

I have one more question. Brian, you mentioned the investments you're making and the additional volume you've taken on. Is this primarily short-term business, or do you have long-term commitments from customers with this increased volume? How does that work in terms of evaluating the long-term value of taking on this volume and how it might affect your internal efficiency efforts?

Brian Kocher, CEO

Well, Jon, let me be completely clear. We took this business on because we believe it will benefit us in 2026, 2027, 2028, and beyond. There are two main reasons for this. First, once we acquire customers, we provide exceptional service, which means we have very little customer turnover. In fact, I'm not aware of any customers that have left us. This means when we gain customers, we see an opportunity to retain them for the long term. That was our intention from the start. We wouldn't have pursued this if we were only anticipating a short-term or promotional relationship. We have a long-term perspective and aim to enhance our overall performance. Second, many of our customers have multi-year contracts with varying durations, some lasting three to five years, although I can't disclose specific details about individual customers. The takeaway is that I would seize this business opportunity every time if it were presented to me again, as it aligns with our long-term goals and positions us for better performance than we initially expected for 2026, 2027, 2028, and beyond.

Operator, Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Daniel Biolsi with Hedgeye.

Daniel Biolsi, Analyst

Brian and Greg, on Slide 15, I was wondering if you could help me think about the $10 million headwind in Q4 for 2026, is that a per quarter amount? It sounds like each one of those continues except the Midlothian operations downtime?

Greg Gaba, CFO

Yes, Daniel. So we said that this will impact us in the first half of 2026, not in the second half. We anticipate to have all these issues resolved by then. You're correct, the downtime is onetime in October here in Q4. That will not have an impact. The fix for Midlothian wastewater, as Brian discussed, is getting the new CapEx in place, which is on schedule by the end of the second quarter, and that will go away after that, as we won't have that limitation anymore. And then when it comes to the impact related to the accelerated volume and having the additional maintenance costs and labor costs as we work through that, again, we expect that to lower each quarter, Q1 and Q2, and get that all resolved by the end of Q2 as well. And then, of course, by focusing there and handling this volume and bringing that into our network, we haven't been able to spend the focus on the margin optimization plan. We fully expect to get back on that work and start to see some benefits here in the second half of the year. So no, it is definitely not a $10 million per quarter impact going forward. We will have, compared to prior expectations, a little bit lower Q1 and Q2, but we expect to be back on track by the second half of 2026.

Daniel Biolsi, Analyst

Okay. And then like once these are all sorted out, if we could sort of see the incremental margins from this new business, would we see that the higher margins in this, would we be able to see that in terms of dropping some lower-margin customer or being able to raise price? Would that be evident once we get through all this?

Greg Gaba, CFO

I mean we do have some pretty ambitious margin targets. We do feel there's a path to this, the margin improvement plan, and we think there's tremendous opportunity. Brian talked earlier, when we get that wastewater in Midlothian, the limitations that, that has created with the wastewater, it was actually more than our expectation. Once that gets fixed, once we get the new line in there with the fixed cost leverage, we expect to see some huge margin improvement. But yes, it will definitely be evident. Brian mentioned, once we get to 2027, we still expect to be fully on target and even potentially above the target before. And if you recall, we said we expect to get up to 20% margin in 2027, and we still expect to get there.

Operator, Operator

There are no further questions at this time. And with that, I will turn the call back over to Brian Kocher, CEO, for closing remarks. Please go ahead.

Brian Kocher, CEO

Thank you, Kelvin. Look, thanks so much for joining us today. Really appreciate your questions and your interest. Before we wrap up, I would just really like to summarize three key messages to take away from the call. First of all, I am energized by the fundamentals of our business. We continue to deliver best-in-class growth based on the strength of our customers, our channels and the categories we serve and the value of our solutions-led proposition. So I'm really energized by that. In this quarter, we intentionally chose a path by accelerating some of this volume. We intentionally chose a path that prioritize long-term value creation and gives us the opportunity with marquee customers in important channels and categories gives us a pathway to overdeliver our long-term algorithm in '27 and beyond. So I'm energized by that. Secondly, I am really proud of the employees and how they responded to the volume challenge and how they met the expectation of the customers while maintaining our standards for service, quality, and food safety. We are never going to negotiate or bargain with that. That being said, I am also not satisfied at all with the progress we're making on gross margin. While taking the accelerated volume was the right strategic decision, I'm dissatisfied that we didn't realize the profitability and have that flow through. However, we've got a clear and finite plan on how to address that. We know what we need to do in the fourth quarter of '25 in the first quarter of '26 and the second quarter of '26. And we know by delivering against those clear definitive plans we'll have the margin improvement initiatives, and we'll have the profitability back on track to our original outlook. So I'm confident in that. And then lastly, what I would tell you as a takeaway, I am convinced the actions that we're taking now and the decisions we're making now are for the sustained success of SunOpta, and that's what creates a path to outperform our revenue and profit targets in '27 and beyond. So those would be the three things that I would take away. Thanks so much for your support. Thanks for being on the call. Thanks for your questions. And Greg and I look forward to updating you during the next quarter.

Operator, Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's call. We thank you for participating. You may now disconnect your lines.