HF Foods Group, Inc. Stock

you Greetings and welcome to the HF Foods Group second quarter 2026 earnings call. At this time, our participants are in a listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. anyone to require operator assistance during the conference, please press star zero on your telephone keypad. note this conference being recorded I would now like to turn the conference over to your moderate today John D Domenico of ICR please proceed.

Hello, everyone. Welcome to HF Foods Group's second quarter, 2026 earnings conference call. Joining me on today's call are Felix Lin, the company's President and Chief Executive Officer, and Paul McGarry, the company's Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, let me remind everyone that today's discussion contains forward-looking statements based on management's current beliefs and expectations about future events, which are subject to a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties, including statements regarding our previously announced agreements, to acquire Sea Ray Foods and the timing, terms, and anticipated benefits of that transaction. If you refer to HF Foods earnings release, the CRA acquisition press release, as well as the company's most recent SEC filings, you will see a discussion of factors that could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. The company undertakes no obligation to up update or revise these forward-looking statements in the future. In these remarks, the company will make several references to non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted EBITDA and non-GAAP diluted earnings per share. We believe that these measures provide investors with a useful perspective on the underlying growth trends of the business and have included in the earnings has released a full reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable GAAP measures.

Now I will turn the call over to Felix. Hello everyone. Welcome to HF Foods second quarter, 2026 earnings call. I'll provide a business update and Paul will speak to our second quarter financial results. Then we will open up the line for Q&A. We continue to build momentum in the second quarter, even as tariff pressure, softer foot traffic, and rising fuel costs continue to weight on the industry. REVENUE INCREASED 2.8% YEAR-OVER-YEAR TO $323.8 MILLION, OUR HIGHEST EVER QUARTERLY REVENUE. First profit was essentially flat at $55 million for the quarter.

Adjusted EBITDA was $13.6 million, down 2% year-over-year, representing a 4.2% margin compared to 4.4% in the prior year quarter. These results are especially impressive on a year-over-year basis, given that last year's second quarter benefited from low-cost inventory positions and better pricing, which lifted margins in the second quarter of 2025. We continue to make progress on our long-term transformation plan this quarter, including our sales operations, digital infrastructure, and facilities upgrades. We remain confident these investments are building a stronger foundation for sustainable growth, even as we continue to navigate some near-term pressure from rising fuel costs. which we are actively managing. The clearest proof point of our strategy came on July 17th, when we entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Sea Ray Foods, a leading Canadian importer and distributor of ethnic and specialty frozen seafood based in Richmond, British Columbia. It's our first transaction outside the United States and extends our M&A playbook into a new geography. Sea Ray brings six proprietary brands, including Sea Ray Foods, Pie Best, Pinoys Best, Smart Fish, Diamond Shrimp, and Gold Label into our seafood category, which already makes up about 36% of our net revenue.

C-Rate has revenue at roughly 15% a year since 2019, with EBITDA margins in the mid teens. And approximately 5X C-Rate 2025 adjusted EBITDA, we expect the transaction to be accretive to both margins and EPS from close, supporting the consolidated adjusted EBITDA margin target of 4.5% to 5% plus we've laid out for the next three to five years. We expect to close in the third quarter, subject to customary conditions and regulatory approval, and C-Rate's existing management team, led by incoming CEO Derek Nott, will continue running the business day-to-day. Consideration is a mix of cash and H-Food stock and will disclose the final split at closing. Once closed, C-Ray gave us a platform to grow in Canada. C-Ray's business carries a margin profile well above our current company, and it becomes a meaningful part of our growth story in the market for years to come. Beyond Sea Ray, M&A remains a core pillar of our growth strategy.

HF Foods is the only scale food service provider in the Asian specialty market in the United States, and we believe we are the strategic acquirer of choice within our space. We're focused on expanding our geographic footprint in high potential markets, capturing operational synergies, broadening our customer base, and enhancing our product and service capabilities. We remain disciplined but optimistic about additional M&A opportunities in 2026 and beyond. are actively evaluating opportunities from potential sellers who understand our unique position. We believe our proven ability to successfully navigate the Terra landscape positions us uniquely to identify and execute attractive token acquisitions that will benefit from our operational expertise and scale. I want to emphasize the significant runway ahead of us. The $50 billion adjustable market we've talked about historically reflects the U.S. alone and we'll see right now giving us a foothold in Canada. Our total opportunity is even larger.

At just over $1 billion in net revenue, we're the largest player in the Asian specialty space. No one, whether larger or smaller competitors, is in a better position than HFU to capture this opportunity in the coming years. Now, Paul, our CFO, will walk you through more details of our financial performance for the quarter.

Thanks, Felix. I will now review our results for the quarter ended June 30, 2026 versus the same period in 2025. NET REVENUE FOR THE QUARTER INCREASED 2.8% OR 8.9 MILLION TO 323.8 MILLION FROM 314.9 MILLION IN THE PRIOR YEAR QUARTER. The increase was primarily due to volume growth and improved pricing in seafood, followed by volume growth in commodity, partially offset by price decrease in meat and poultry. Gross profit was $55 million for the quarter, essentially flat compared to $55.1 million in the prior year quarter. Gross profit margin decreased to 17% for the quarter compared to 17.5% in the prior year quarter. Margin was impacted by incremental tariffs that took effect beginning Q3 of 2025, partially offset by some IEEPA tariff refunds received during the quarter. DISTRIBUTION, SELLING AND ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSE, OR DSNA, INCREASED 1.2 MILLION, OR 2.4%, TO 52.2 MILLION FOR THE QUARTER.

THE INCREASE WAS DRIVEN PRIMARILY BY HIGHER AUTO AND TRUCK EXPENSE REFLECTING ELEVATED INCREMENTAL FUEL COSTS OF APPOXIMATELY 1.4 MILLION YEAR OVER YEAR. TO GET TO THAT, together with higher insurance and professional service expense, partially offset by lower personnel expense as a result of our transformation initiatives. DS&A's percentage of net revenue was 16.1% for the quarter compared to 16.2% in the prior year quarter. Adjusted EBITDA decreased 2% to $13.6 million for the quarter compared to $13.8 million in the prior year quarter. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 4.2% compared to 4.4% in the prior year quarter. Total interest expense was $2.9 million for the quarter compared to $2.8 million in the prior year quarter. Next slide. The increase reflects a higher average daily line of credit balance of $12.1 million to $65.7 million, partially offset by lower average term loan balance and modestly lower floating rates.

Net income attributable to HF Foods was $2.6 million for the quarter compared to $1.2 million in the prior year quarter. The improvement was primarily driven by an employee retention credit of 1.8 million, which includes interest. The improvement was primarily driven by an employee retention credit of 1.8 million, IEPA tariff refund of approximately 1.1 million and a 1.4 million favorable year-over-year change in the fair value of our interest rate swap contracts. These items are partially offset by a $1.3 million decrease in income from operations and a $0.7 million year-over-year change in net income attributable to non-controlling interests. Adjusted net income attributable to HF Foods was $6.4 million for the quarter and essentially flat compared to the prior year quarter. Earnings per share improved to five cents compared to two cents in the prior year quarter. adjusted earnings per share was 12 cents for the quarter and flat compared to the prior year quarter. Now on CapEx, we spent approximately 20.3 million for the first six months into June 30, 2026.

And I want to give a little color on that. The spend is driven principally by the $12.4 million purchase of our previously leased Chicago distribution center, along with $2.8 million of solar investment, which is expected to lower operating costs, $2.1 million of capacity expansion, and $1.4 million of fleet upgrades. Recurring maintenance expenditures were approximately $1.7 million. On the solar investment, we will benefit from an investment tax credit refund that will reduce our overall investment by 40%. Turning to the balance sheet. After quarter end on July 29th, we closed an amendment that refinanced and upsized our credit facility. Our bank group is JPMorgan Chase as administrative agent and the lender, together with Fifth Third and TD Bank, which joined the facility in connection with this transaction. We increased our asset base revolving commitments from $125 million to $140 million, and refinanced our existing term loans, which had an outstanding balance of approximately $95 million, into term loans totaling $125 million.

The revolving facility now matures in July 2031 and the term loan in July 2036. The transaction gives us meaningful incremental liquidity to fund our growth initiatives for both the C-Ray acquisition and our ongoing facilities investments. Because the refinancing closed after quarter end, it is not reflected in this quarter's financials. These terms are available in the Form 8K we filed on July 31, and I want to thank our banking partners for their commitment in helping us drive the growth of HF Foods. Now for the transaction we announced on July 23rd. On July 17th, we signed a definitive agreement to acquire Sea Ray Foods. This is the first acquisition outside the United States in HF Foods history and is the clearest evidence yet of what we mean when we say we are the acquirer of choice in this The transaction is expected to close in August 2026 and is the most consequential thing we have done this year.

The aggregate base purchase price is CAD 47.9 million, or approximately 35 million U.S., with the sellers also eligible for contingent earn-out payments tied to specific EBITDA targets over a two- to three-year period following the closing. Consideration is a mix of cash and HF Foods common stock, which can be reviewed in the Form 8-K we filed denouncing the transaction. We expect to close no later than August 31st, subject to customary closing conditions and the receipt of any required regulatory approvals. Now the economics, which are what makes this acquisition compelling. The base purchase price represents approximately five times C-RAE's baseline adjusted EBITDA of roughly CAD 9.6 million, or approximately 7 million U.S. CRA runs adjusted EBITDA margins in the mid-teens against our consolidated adjusted EBITDA margin of 4.2% this quarter. So this is a business that is margin accretive to the platform from day one, and moves us towards the 4.5 to 5% plus consolidated target we have laid out.

We are adding a higher margin business at a mid single digit multiple, and that is exactly the discipline we told you we would bring to M&A. Let me close by putting the quarter in a broader context. This is our sixth consecutive quarter of year-over-year net revenue growth. And at $323.8 million, it is the highest quarterly net revenue in the company's history. On a trailing 12-month basis, we are now at approximately $1.25 billion, and all of that growth has been driven by organic volume increase and better pricing. So we entered the second half with three things in place we did not have a year ago. First, a refinance and upsize credit facility with revolving commitments at $140 million, term loans turned out to $2036, and materially more liquidity to deploy.

Second, a signed definitive agreement for our first acquisition outside the United States at an attractive multiple with a margin profile well above our own. And third, a transformation program that is now largely built rather than under construction. which lets us shift from implementation to optimization with purchasing discipline, drought and warehouse efficiency, cross-selling opportunities, and tighter cost control as fuel and other input costs remain elevated. We will stay disciplined on capital deployment and selective on the tuck-in opportunities that strengthen the platform. The balance sheet capacity we just created is there to support that, and C-Ray is the first demonstration of what we intend to do with it. With that, I'll turn it back to Felix.

Thanks, Paul. Before we move to Q&A, I want to spend a moment on why C-rate is such a significant milestone for us. Sea Ray has spent 25 years building its business in Canada, and we're proud to have them join HF Foods. Just as Sea Ray gives us a platform to grow in Canada, Sea Ray has recently established its own operations in the US, including a planned direct import operation in Los Angeles. We believe our distribution network, sourcing scale, and West Coast infrastructure can help accelerate that. C-Rate also brings a customer base that includes retail, wholesale, and restaurants. We've talked for a long time about extending our platform beyond the United States, and C-Rate is the first step in that long-standing strategy. Now our focus turns to executing well, working closely with the C-Rate team on a smooth transition, and beginning to act on the cross-selling and supply chain opportunities as the deal moves toward closing in the third quarter.

Alongside that, we'll keep advancing the facilities and system work already underway. and will stay disciplined as we evaluate further opportunities that strengthen the platform. Thank you for your continued support. We look forward to updating you on our progress next quarter. I'll now turn it over to the operator for Q&A.

Thank you. We will now conduct a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. again that star one at this time one moment while we pull for the first question The first question comes from Erin Gray with Alliance Global Partners. Please proceed.

Hi, good evening. Thank you very much for the question. I guess first question for me, just in terms of the C-rate acquisition, Obviously adding the geography with Canada, but we'd love to hear more in terms of some of the depth or scale specifically within seafood category and what opportunities the acquisition will bring for you guys. Thank you.

Hi, Aaron. It's Felix. Yes, specifically from a customer mix standpoint, we see C-Rate as a great platform to potentially open up new channels here for us. Historically, for the US market, HF, our business has been focused on independent restaurants. For Sea Ray, independent restaurants in Vancouver, in the western part of the Canadian market, it's actually a smaller part of their mix. They have a pretty healthy mix of retail and also wholesale. business channels that goes into Asian specialty grocery stores. And with the margin that we're seeing, we see that as a huge opportunity for us for the future. So that's one thing that, in addition to the margin profile, that's very exciting to us.

Okay, great, thanks, appreciate that. Second question for me, just on the gross margin profile, came above our estimates, even if we strip out some of the tariff refund benefit that you got. So just as we think about the gross margin going forward, particularly as we layer in C-Ray, you know, where do you see the gross margin and profile evolution as you guys look to offset some of these freight headwinds and otherwise. Thanks.

Yes, you know, one of the things that we talked about for the last couple earnings call is we're focusing on how do we expand our gross profit dollar, especially, you know, coming in 2026. The focus has been trying to conquer new market shares through our expansion in the southeast with new. and higher amount of seafood mix that's coming into the business. So I think, you know, obviously one thing that was not expected in 2026 was the rising fuel costs. So we expect volume is going to continue to tick up to offset some of the margin and conquest accounts related issues. margin concession they'll be giving. But with C-Ray, their gross profit margin is north of 20%. So I think over time, especially in Q4, that's going to be a nice mix of business coming in.

the fourth quarter of the year for us. Okay, great. Thank you very much for the detail. I'll go and jump back in the queue.

The next question comes from Daniel Harriman with Sidoti and Company. Please proceed.

Hey guys, good afternoon. Thank you for taking my questions and congrats on a great quarter. a couple quick ones for me kind of following up on the last one there. Just curious if you can update us on some of the cross-selling initiatives across the Southeast and the Midwest and where you are in that ramp and how we should think about the pace from here and And then regarding operating income, just looking to see when we can expect maybe Charlotte and Atlanta to start showing up in some of the numbers. Thanks so much.

Hi, Daniel. So let's address Southeast first, right? And again, you know, Southeast, we have enjoyed a little bit of additional capacity here in the first half of the year and one thing to note is that you know we're Our additional freezer capacity likely won't be ready until later in the year or even into 2027, but we have seen a meaningful volume increase with respect to seafood, so volume has grown in that category. Charlotte is still going through inspection at the moment, so all the renovation is 100% completed. So hopefully within the next week or two, Charlotte can be operational. And Charlotte itself, specifically, it's more of an efficiency play with us being able to cut our distribution routes for our distributors. Great wall, probably going to be in Q4 or so. We'll just see some DSNA improvement coming from Charlotte. With the Midwest, we are doing some minor capacity improvement.

So again, likely it's going to be toward the end of 2026 and then 2027 before we see some meaningful capacity expansion opportunity there.

That's really helpful. Thanks so much. The next question comes from Bill Kirk with Roth Capital. Please proceed.

Hey, this is Nick on for Bill. Thanks for taking the questions. First for me, just on traffic, you mentioned previously that takeout strength has offset dine-in. Has that trend held, and were there any notable changes in traffic related to the World Cup in any of your regions or any other drivers of incremental traffic on the quarter? Any color there would be helpful. Thank you.

Yes, I mean, not specifically to World Cup. Now, there is a seasonality to our business, right? I mean, Q2 generally is one of our higher kind of foot traffic volume quarter. And then as you get into Q3, you know, with kids going out of school and summer vacation happening, then the foot traffic typically kind of slows down. down a little bit. But we have seen a pretty meaningful kind of improvement on takeout that we've seen historically in Q2, offsetting by some continued foot traffic, noise that we're seeing on the buffet and dining restaurants. So nothing... two different versus the prior year. It's kind of normal seasonality that we're seeing in 2026 so far.

I appreciate that. Second for me, on the EBIT.B, you mentioned recently being more aggressive pricing-wise in some categories to take share. The margins were up sequentially and EBIT came in higher. Just help us unpack that a little more and where specifically that came from. Thank you.

We've been actively going on the offense. Historically, we've really benefited from business coming to us over nearly three decades in business. So, for the first time, we've been running a lot of promotional campaigns with our West Coast business, working with some key vendors to partner, kind of expand our business. expand their brand and their awareness in the market. And then specifically in the Southeast, it is a heavy push on seafood. So I think, you know, specifically in Q2, we've seen some meaningful volume gains on the seafood side, which drove some of the, gross profit dollar improvement that's kind of offsetting some of the pricing pressure that we're seeing, both because of the rising diesel costs and from a conquest standpoint. So I expect, you know, the rest of the year in 2026, we're still going to be in this kind of conquest mode before, you know, margin and everything else gets normalized. probably in 27 and beyond. Great. That's it for me. Congrats again on the quarter.

Thank you. Thank you. At this time, I would like to turn the floor back over to Felix Lin for closing comments.

So again, I want to thank everyone for your continued support of HF Foods. It's an exciting time for us as we continue to execute on our strategy. We look forward to closing the C-rate acquisition in the coming weeks, which will be a significant milestone for us. update you all on the progress of integration on our next earnings call. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. This does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation and have a great day.

This live transcript is auto-generated without human intervention or review.

[Call has ended.]

Greetings, and welcome to HF Foods Group First Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host to turn the call over to Mr. John DeDomenico. Thank you, and over to you, Mr. DeDomenico. You may begin.

Hello, everyone. Welcome to HF Foods Group's First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. Joining me on today's call are Felix Lin, the company's President and Chief Executive Officer; and Paul McGarry, the company's Chief Financial Officer.

Before we begin, let me remind everyone that today's discussion contains forward-looking statements based on management's current beliefs and expectations about future events, which are subject to several known and unknown risks and uncertainties. If you refer to HF Foods' earnings release as well as the company's most recent SEC filings, you will see a discussion of factors that could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. The company undertakes no obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements in the future.

In these remarks, the company will make several references to non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted EBITDA and non-GAAP diluted earnings per share. We believe that these measures provide investors with a useful perspective on the underlying growth trends of the business and have included in the earnings release a full reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable GAAP measures.

Now I will turn the call over to Felix.

Hello, everyone. Welcome to HF Foods First Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. I'll provide a business update, and Paul will speak to our first quarter financial results. Then we'll open the line for Q&A.

As we mentioned on our last call, 2025 brought headwinds for the broader foodservice industry in terms of tariff pressure and lower foot traffic. We saw many of these pressures continue, particularly with the added pressure from rising fuel prices. But against this backdrop, we drove meaningful continuous momentum for our business. Net revenue increased 4.5% year-over-year to $312 million due to higher volume and gross profit decreased slightly to $50.5 million, driven by higher mix of seafood during the quarter. Also notably, adjusted EBITDA increased 3.8% year-over-year to $10.1 million.

We made meaningful progress on our long-term transformation plan with respect to sales operations, digital infrastructure and facilities upgrades. We consolidated 2 sales call center operations into one unified team as of late December 2025. This consolidation provides us better control over the overall sales process and improved customer service while maintaining the distinct connection we have with our customers through our understanding of their business, language and product needs.

Importantly, this unified approach enables us to maintain consistent pricing strategies across our network, while the efficiency gains are already evident with lower DS&A spend on sales commissions as the new team continues to adapt. With the ERP implementation completed, we're now actively working on driving operational efficiencies through system and data optimization. The new system positions us to achieve higher level of purchasing efficiency by consolidating buying across our distribution centers and enables operational improvements through enhanced route optimization capabilities.

We recategorized a significant number of SKUs as part of the system implementation. The next phase of our digital transformation focuses on improving overall customer experience. We're actively developing a customized customer portal that will enable transactional visibility and improve efficiency. On facilities, we successfully completed the acquisition of our previously leased facility in Chicago and are actively expanding cooler and ambient capacity. This move is part of our broader cross-selling strategy, driving organic growth.

The Charlotte facility is largely ready and still pending final permits from local government. We expect Charlotte to be fully operational in late second quarter or early third quarter of 2026, which will shorten our seafood distribution routes in the Southeast. We're also kicking off Phase 2 of Atlanta's freezer expansion plan, which will nearly double our cold storage capacity in the Atlanta market from 10,000 to 20,000 square feet, where we've historically been limited by cold storage capacity. This will likely be operational ready by the end of 2026. We see all 3 facilities upgrades as a cornerstone of our cross-sell strategy in the Southeast and Midwest in the future.

Between the Southeast and Midwest, there's several hundred million dollars worth of organic growth opportunity as we continue to invest and expand capacity. These exciting infrastructure investments reflect our ongoing commitment to optimizing our distribution network and creating a stronger foundation for sustainable growth. Based on current trends, we do expect some short-term pressure due to increased cost of goods sold and outbound distribution costs related to rising fuel costs, which we're taking actions to mitigate this impact.

We remain extremely confident in our long-term growth strategy and are committed to our capital investment plans as we continue our growth momentum in 2026 and beyond. M&A remains a core pillar of our growth strategy. HF Foods is the only scale food service provider in the Asian specialty market in the United States, and we believe we are the strategic acquirer of choice within our space. We're focused on expanding our geographic footprint in high potential markets, capturing operational synergies, broadening our customer base and enhancing our product and service capabilities.

We remain disciplined but optimistic about M&A opportunities in 2026 and beyond, and we're actively evaluating opportunities from potential sellers who understand our unique position. We believe our proven ability to successfully navigate the tariff landscape positions us uniquely to identify and execute attractive tuck-in acquisitions that will benefit from our operational expertise and scale. I want to emphasize the significant runway ahead of us. We operate in a $50 billion addressable market and at just over $1 billion in net revenue. We are the largest player in the Asian specialty space. No one, whether larger or smaller competitors is better positioned than HF Foods to capture this opportunity in the coming years.

Now over to Paul, our CFO, to walk you through more details of the financial performance for the quarter.

Thanks, Felix. I will now review our results for the quarter ended March 31, 2026, versus the same period in 2025. Net revenue for the quarter increased 4.5% to $312 million from $298.4 million in the prior year quarter. The increase was primarily due to volume growth and improved pricing in seafood, followed by volume growth in commodity, partially offset by volume decreases within other categories. Gross profit slightly decreased by 0.8% to $50.5 million for the quarter compared to $51 million in the prior year quarter. The decrease was primarily due to increased sales in lower-margin products like seafood and an uptick in landed costs. Gross profit margin decreased to 16.2% for the quarter compared to 17.1% in the prior year quarter.

Distribution, selling and administrative or DS&A expenses decreased by $0.3 million to $49.5 million for the quarter, primarily due to decreases in professional fees and bad debt expense, partially offset by an increase in auto and truck expenses and depreciation. DS&A expenses decreased as a percentage of net revenue to 15.9% for the quarter compared to 16.7% in the prior year quarter. Adjusted EBITDA increased 3.8% to $10.1 million for the quarter compared to $9.8 million in the prior year quarter. Total interest expense increased slightly to $2.8 million for the quarter compared to $2.6 million in the prior year quarter.

Net income attributable to HF Foods was $1.2 million for the quarter compared to a net loss of $1.6 million in the prior year quarter. The quarter-over-quarter improvement was primarily due to strong revenue growth along with controlled cost oversight and the gain on sale of an asset. Adjusted net income attributable to HF Foods decreased $0.1 million to $3.4 million compared to $3.5 million in the prior year quarter. Earnings per share improved to $0.02 compared to a loss per share of $0.03 in the prior year quarter.

Adjusted earnings per share decreased to $0.06 compared to $0.07 in the prior year quarter. Stepping back from the details, the quarter reinforces the business is progressing in a challenging cost environment. Our focus is now on execution, converting the transformation work we've completed into measurable operational gains, including purchasing discipline, route and warehouse efficiency and tighter cost control as fuel and other input costs remain elevated. As the systems foundation is now in place, we're moving from implementation to optimization while continuing to support organic growth through cross-selling and network capacity investments. We'll stay disciplined on capital deployment and remain selective on strategic tuck-in opportunities that strengthen the platform.

With that, I'll now turn it back over to Felix. Thanks, Paul.

As we look ahead to the remainder of 2026 and beyond, I want to emphasize our commitment to executing the comprehensive transformation initiatives that are reshaping HF Foods. 2025 was a year of strategic investment for HF and the investments we're making in our facilities, digital infrastructure and operations will establish a strong foundation for our next phase of growth. While short-term uncertainties persist, we remain focused on our long-term strategic objectives. Our investments in digital transformation and infrastructure are strategically designed to drive organic growth through cross-selling opportunities while positioning us to complement this expansion with targeted M&A initiatives.

Our key competitive advantages stem from the growing demand for our Asian cuisine and our unmatched position as a leading nationwide agent specialty distributor. We're methodically building the infrastructure, systems and capabilities needed to fully capitalize on these strategic advantages. As we move forward, we'll continue to identify and implement additional efficiency measures while maintaining our commitment to service excellence and sustainable growth. Thank you for your continued support as we execute our strategic transformation. We look forward to sharing our progress with you on our next call.

I'll now hand over to the operator for live Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from the line of Aaron Grey with Alliance Global Partners.

Just first question for me. I just want to think about the gross margin, talk a bit more on it. Obviously, you guys have some headwinds right now given the macro backdrop and rising fuel prices. So how do we think about the near to medium impact of that as we also think about potential offsets in terms of your own efficiency gains, particularly with the implementation of your ERP program?

Yes. So I think in the short term, the elevated costs, as Paul had mentioned, is probably continue to persist here for a little bit. If we look at our business specifically, we talked about in the past, we operate very much in the spot market where we buy and sell everything from a spot standpoint versus contracts. So at least on the year-over-year comparisons, as we get into the second quarter, we benefited last year from lower cost inventory as the tariffs were implemented.

So going forward, we saw some of that higher cost coming through in the second half of 2025 that had continued on to Q1 of '26, which, again, we think that's going to be here for a little while in Q2 and maybe even Q3 of '26 here. But internally, again, we're doing a lot of things trying to mitigate from an overall cost structure standpoint. So a lot of the programs that we have implemented in place. One of the things we mentioned is the transaction to convert a lease to -- of a facility to something that we own today, which has cut down on our occupancy expense. Professional fees have gone lower and then also the sales operation, these are the things that we're actively working on trying to improve operational efficiency to make sure that overall, there's still going to be this bottom line improvement that we've seen year-over-year.

Appreciate the color there, Felix. Second question for me. As we think about some of the headwinds with fuel prices obviously have an impact on you guys, often, we'll see these types of headwinds have an even bigger impact for smaller operators. So wondering if that's the case that you're seeing here and what impact that might have maybe positively on potential M&A targets who are more inclined to want to partner with a larger operator with you. So just any impact on the broader competitive environment and if that's helping you in terms of potential M&A targets?

Yes. We're definitely seeing the amount of inbound M&A costs tick up over the last several months or so. As we talk about a lot of smaller players, they are really being squeezed, whether it's from the elevated inventory costs or now from an operating cost standpoint with the added few costs. So over time, we do see that as an advantage. Similar to what we saw back in the pandemic days where the operating environment becomes a lot tougher for the smaller players, and you have these family-owned businesses that generally because of the pressure, looking for an exit. So that is a positive for us, and we're actively evaluating an increased level of activities and opportunity behind the scenes for sure.

Next question comes from the line of Daniel Harriman with Sidoti & Company LLC.

Congrats on the great quarter. Guys, I just kind of wanted to follow up on that prior question about gross margin and give you an opportunity to talk a little bit about Charlotte and what your expectations are longer term for gross margins and also DS&A just as Charlotte comes online and some of your distribution routes shorten, maybe even within seafood. I know the mix there was a cause of the gross margin contraction in the quarter. And then now that you've got Atlanta up and running and kind of like a cornerstone of your cross-selling strategy in the Southeast. I'm curious if you have any proof points you could share with us in terms of new accounts or expanded wallet share or even more SKUs to really help us understand what the long-term impact could be of that facility?

Yes. Yes. Look, both the Charlotte facility and the Atlanta expansion facility toward the end of last year from a strategic investment standpoint have very much been a center point of our cross-selling strategy. And I talked about this previously in that in the Southeast, historically, we have not done a whole lot of frozen seafood business. And given our scale, I think today, frozen seafood as a product category is the largest of our mix at just over $400 million of top line revenue on an annual basis. And with shortened routes with improved distribution efficiency, we do see that as significant leverage where we have over the smaller competitors where we can be a lot more efficient, and that's going to enable us to have better pricing power over those guys as well.

So now we're just a few months into the year with Atlanta specifically, we have opened up a couple of dedicated seafood routes servicing our existing customers. So with Charlotte, again, the construction and the renovation of that facility have largely been complete. We've been just waiting on the permitting from the local government for months now. So the latest on that is we're expecting, again, towards the end of Q2 or beginning of Q3 for the permit to be finally approved and get that up and running, and that should benefit us in the second half of the year.

Next question comes from the line of Bill William Kirk with ROTH Capital Partners.

Felix, on that higher fuel price conversation that you were doing earlier, have you seen any changes in foot traffic as a result, meaning maybe people leaving restaurants in favor of grocery or maybe switching into buffet style customers within restaurants? Are you seeing any foot traffic changes in kind of behavior because of higher fuel prices?

Not in a material way. I think the foot traffic that we're seeing in Q1 of 2026 has been pretty consistent with what we've been seeing in the second half of 2025, largely the lower foot traffic is still limited to some of the larger buffet restaurants that we service throughout the country. But again, with elevated fuel price, there are a number of things that we're doing.

Every single market is different, where in markets where we have a significant market share, for example, our Salt Lake business where we have 80%, 90% of the market share, and it's a lot more rural routes that we're running. We're able to pass along a fairly good bit of the fuel increase. In other locations where there's high competitive pressure, again, over foot traffic play a role in that, and it's very limited opportunity where we can pass on the cost.

Okay. Is it fair to say then that for your customers, April foot traffic would be similar to 1Q?

Yes. I think April, there's a lot of noises, right? April, at least on the year-over-year comparison, I talked about earlier with the tariff impact. Again, we were sitting on a lot of low-cost inventory last April. So we had a significant margin uptick because we're able to sell through that at a higher price.

I think there's a lot of noise from a perspective of both increased fuel price this April and inventory cost at an elevated level. So I think it's still a little bit too early for us to tell specifically through the entire month of April and for the rest of Q2, how much of the impact is going to be due to tariff and how much of it is due to the elevated cost from a fuel perspective.

Got it. And then my second question is on the refining of the sales force. Where are we in terms of that process? And when we're on -- fully on the other side of that refinement, how does the new sales force help HF and drive better customer acquisition or account penetration? What's on the other side of the sales force refinement?

Yes. I think from a business stabilization standpoint, that has been largely complete going through the Q1 of 2026. I think the rest of the year is really about additional training around new product SKUs that we're trying to introduce to the market. Specifically, when we talk about cross-selling of the seafood product in the Southeast. This is where, again, at the end of the day, we have over 20,000 SKUs, right?

And specifically, for the Southeast, there haven't been a significant amount of frozen seafood sales in the past. So that's a bit of a learning curve for the new sales force. But I do expect them getting there in the second half of the year. And a lot of this volume offset is going to come from pushing out seafood here.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have reached the end of question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the floor over to Felix Lin for closing comments.

First of all, thank you guys for, again, the continued support and paying attention to HF Foods. We are fully committed to what our long-term strategic plan is here, and we're executing on that plan quarter after quarter, and I look forward to updating you guys on the progress here in the coming quarters ahead. Thank you.

Thank you. This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

Greetings, and welcome to the HF Foods Group Fourth Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Jon DeDomenico with ICR.

Hello, everyone. Welcome to HF Food Group's 2025 Earnings Conference Call. Joining me on today's call are Felix Lin, the company's President and Chief Executive Officer; and Paul McGarry, the company's Chief Financial Officer.

Before we begin, let me remind everyone that today's discussion contains forward-looking statements based on management's current beliefs and expectations about future events, which are subject to several known and unknown risks and uncertainties. If you refer to HF Foods earnings release as well as the company's most recent SEC filings, you will see a discussion of factors that could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements.

The company undertakes no obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements in the future. In these remarks, the company will make several references to non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted EBITDA and non-GAAP diluted earnings per share.

We believe that these measures provide investors with a useful perspective on the underlying growth trends of the business and have included in the earnings release a full reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable GAAP measures. Now I will turn the call over to Felix.

Hello, everyone. Welcome to HF Food's 2025 earnings call. I'll provide a business update and Paul will speak to our 2025 financial results. Then we'll open up the line for Q&A.

It's no secret that 2025 brought headwinds for the broader food service industry in terms of tariff pressure and lower foot traffic. But against this backdrop, we drove meaningful continuous momentum for our business. Net revenue increased 2.2% year-over-year to $1.23 billion, and gross profit increased 1.2% to $207.6 million. Also notably, adjusted EBITDA increased 6.9% year-over-year.

We made meaningful progress on our long-term transformation plan with respect to sales operations, digital infrastructure and facilities upgrades. On sales operation, we have consolidated 2 sales call center operations into 1 as of late December 2025.

The consolidation provides us better control over the overall sales process and improve customer service while maintaining the distinct connection we have with our customers through our understanding of their business, language and private needs.

This will reduce costs while further strengthening our competitive positioning. On digital transformation, we completed the full ERP implementation across all of our distribution centers. The new system will enable us to achieve higher levels of purchasing and operational efficiencies over time.

I would like to note that as part of this implementation, we recategorized many of our SKUs which drive some variability in our year-over-year sales by category. You will see clean comparisons once we lap the implementation in second half of 2026. I'm also happy to announce that with the implementation of a new ERP system, we have fully remediated IT general controls related efficiencies as of year-end 2025. This is a significant milestone.

On facilities, the renovation of our Charlotte location is largely complete with final permits imminent. We expect Charlotte to be operational in Q2 of 2026, which will shorten our seafood distribution routes in the Southeast. Phase 1 construction of our new state of the art Atlanta DC has been complete, becoming operational in January 2026.

We plan to kick off Phase II cold storage capacity expansion in Atlanta to launch in the second half of 2026. Once complete, our co-source capacity in Atlanta market will have almost doubled, expanding from 10,000 square feet to 20,000 square feet. We see cross-selling as a major organic growth playbook and expect the Atlanta facility to be a cornerstone of our cross-selling strategy in the Southeast in the future.

Between Southeast and Midwest, there are several hundred million dollars worth of organic growth opportunity as we continue to invest and expand capacity. In September, we announced the acquisition of our Chicago warehouse. This strategic acquisition advances HFF's ongoing transformation plan to improve operational efficiency reduce costs and strengthen organic growth through cross-selling opportunities.

Acquiring the facility enables us to exit the lease agreement early, improve operating expense and invest to grow additional capacity and drive consolidation opportunities. These exciting infrastructure investments reflect our ongoing commitment to optimizing our distribution network and creating a stronger foundation for sustainable growth.

Based on current trends, we expect 2026 to be like 2025 with low single-digit growth on the top line as well as the bottom line for both adjusted EBITDA and gross profit. This also reflects our strategy to ramp up cross-selling opportunities over time, focusing on increasing our share of customers' wallet size and combat competitive pricing pressure in the short term. While we continue to navigate macro headwinds and including tariff pressures and shift in consumer spending behaviors. Our transformation initiatives are paving the way for continued growth and improvement.

We remain extremely confident in our long-term growth strategy and are committed to our capital investment plans as we continue our growth momentum in 2026 and beyond. M&A remains a core pillar of our growth strategy. HFF is the only scaled food service provider in Asian specialty market in the United States, and we believe we are the strategic acquirer of choice within our space.

We're focused on expanding our geographic footprint in high potential markets. capturing operational synergy, broadening our customer base, enhancing our product and service capabilities.

We remain disciplined but optimistic about M&A opportunities in 2026 and beyond. And are actively evaluating opportunities for potential sellers who understand our unique position. We believe our proven ability to successfully navigate the terra landscape positions us uniquely to identify and execute attractive tuck-in acquisitions that will benefit from our operational expertise and scale. I want to emphasize the significant runway ahead of us.

We operate in a $50 billion addressable market. and at just over $1 billion in net revenue. We're the largest player in the Asian specialty space. No one, whether larger or smaller competitors is better positioned at HF Foods to capture this opportunity in the coming years. Now over to you, Paul, our CFO, to walk you through more detail of the financial performance for the year.

Thanks, Felix. I will now review our results for the year ended December 31, 2025, versus 2024. Net revenue for the year increased 2.2% to $1.23 billion from $1.2 billion in the prior year. The increase was primarily attributable to volume growth and pricing improvement in seafood and meat, poultry and volume growth in commodity, partially offset by volume decreases within other categories. Gross profit increased by 1.2% to $207.6 million for the year compared to $205.2 million in 2024. The increase was attributable to increase in net revenue, partially offset by increased costs. Gross profit margin decreased slightly to 16.9% compared to 17.1% in 2024. Distribution, selling and administrative or DS&A expenses increased by $3.7 million to $21.8 million for the year, primarily due to increases in depreciation, occupancy and nonrecurring transformation expenses partially offset by a decrease in professional fees.

DS&A expenses as a percentage of net revenue remained relatively consistent at 16.4% in 2025 compared to 16.5% in the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA increased 6.9% to $45 million for the year compared to $42 million in 2024. Total interest expense increased slightly to $11.5 million in 2025 compared to $11.4 million in the prior year.

Net loss attributable to HF Foods was $38.8 million compared to a net loss of $48.5 million in 2024. The year-over-year improvement was primarily driven by a lower goodwill impairment charge and improved operating results.

These favorable items were partially offset by the absence of the prior year gain on lease guarantee liability termination and by the year-over-year change in fair value of interest rate swaps. Importantly, following the 2025 impairment, we have no remaining goodwill so this item will not affect results going forward. Adjusted net income attributable to HF Foods increased $2.9 million or 20.9% to $16.9 million compared to $14 million in the prior year period.

Loss per share improved to $0.73 compared to a loss of $0.92 in the prior year period. Adjusted earnings per share increased to $0.32 compared to $0.26 in the prior year period. To summarize, 2025 was a year of steady progress in a challenging operating environment.

We delivered year-over-year growth in net revenue, expanded EBITDA and continue to invest in the infrastructure and systems that support more scalable, efficient execution going forward.

Importantly, we finished the year having completed our ERP rollout across the network and remediate our IT general control deficiencies while also advancing key facility initiatives like Atlanta and Charlotte and positioning the business for improved operating leverage.

As we move into 2026, we remain focused on disciplined execution, driving operational efficiency supporting organic growth through cross-selling and network optimization and maintaining prudent capital deployment.

With the transformation foundation now largely in place, we believe we're well positioned to sustain momentum while remaining selective and strategic in pursuing tuck-in M&A that strengthens our footprint and capabilities. I'll now hand it back to Felix for closing remarks.

Thanks, Paul. As we look ahead to 2026 and beyond, I want to emphasize our commitment to executing the comprehensive transformation initiatives that are reshaping HF Foods. 2025 was a year of strategic investment for HF and the investments we are making in our facilities, digital infrastructure and operations will establish a strong foundation for our next phase of growth. While short-term uncertainties persist.

We remain focused on our long-term strategic objectives. Our investments in digital transformation and infrastructure are strategically designed to drive organic growth through cross-selling opportunities while positioning us to complement this expansion with target M&A initiatives.

Our key competitive advantages stem from the growing demand for authentication cuisine and our unmatched position as a leading nationwide Asian specialty distributor. We're methodically building infrastructure, systems and capabilities needed to fully capitalize on these strategic advantages.

As we move forward, we'll continue to identify and implement additional efficiency measures while maintaining our commitment to service excellence and sustainable growth. Thank you for your continued support as we execute our strategic transformation. We look forward to sharing our progress with you on our next call. I will now hand over to the operator for live Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Daniel Harriman with Sidoti & Company.

Paul, congratulations on the official title. Felix, congrats on great execution for the year despite the noticeable headwinds. But I'm just curious to start off, moving beyond 2025.

Can you talk a little bit about the biggest opportunities you see to drive incremental organic growth, particularly around cross-selling and expanding product availability across the customer base. And then secondly, just curious to hear a little bit more about how the operational initiatives implemented in 2025 are beginning to impact the day-to-day execution across the business.

Daniel, I appreciate the question. Yes, I think the biggest opportunity is going to be around cross-selling with respect in the Southeast, right? We just moved into our new facility that's effectively twice as big as the older facility in Atlanta, and we start to acquire some new accounts within the region but I think we're still going through a ramp-up phase here.

As I noted earlier, it's going to take a little bit of time to completely ramp up the volume and utilize the space and second phase of our freezer construction is going to start here in the Q2 of 2026. So likely it's going to be second half before we see some meaningful incremental frozen seafood volume come into play for the Southeast market for us.

And then fast forward, we also announced the acquisition of our Chicago facility. So the investments in the going in 2026 as well. prepping us for meaningful cross-selling organic growth in the Midwest region in 2027 and beyond.

Our next question comes from the line of Bill Kirk with ROTH Capital Partners.

This is Nick on for Bill. First, from me, on February traffic, it was weaker last year. Just wondering if you could comment on the year-over-year change you saw this year, just lapping that softer comp. And whether you've seen more or less traffic year-to-date would also be helpful.

Yes, sure. So with respect to February and Q1, obviously, we're seeing in the middle of it. But I do see that -- again, there's been a lot of good initiatives put in place, specifically even starting in late Q3 and Q4 of 2025, we've been working with a handful of strategic vendors to run promotional campaigns where the vendors are the one that's kind of providing initiatives on the table for our customers and our sales team to go out and drive new product growth or push out additional volume.

So that's been very impactful for us in the second half of 2025, and we're seeing that in the first quarter of the year as well. So I do see perhaps there's going to be some meaningful uptick from a volume standpoint so far in Q1 versus 2025.

Understood. I appreciate that. Second for me on the IEPA tariffs. Do you have an estimate as to what you paid? Are you taking any action to get that money back? And what would you do with that capital if you did manage to get any capital back there?

Yes. I think it's still too early to exactly how much refund is going to be available. As you guys might recall, not all 100% of the tariffs were part to IEPA. There were some other terror measures that the administration has put in place last year. And is also a reflection of the industry that we're in, largely the supplier network in itself is made up of brokers.

And in the past year, even prior to liberation, we had really effectively negotiated with a large number of our overseas miners for them to absorb quite a bit of the tariff impact. So again, we're still assessing the situation and keeping it very, very close. I think in the coming months here, perhaps in the next quarterly earnings call, there might be a little bit more information for us to offer.

There are no further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the call back over to Felix for any closing remarks.

Overall, I think in 2025, it was a great year of strategic investment for the company, and we made some pretty good strides here in terms of overall 3-, 5-year transformation plan. So we look forward to 2026. 2020 is going to be a continuation of the momentum that we have built on 2025 results.

And again, M&A is going to be a huge part of our business. So that's where we're going to spend a lot of our time on is thoroughly evaluating all the inbound calls that we've been getting on M&A and making some impact there. And then at the same time, continue to improve our operational efficiency. So we appreciate everyone's continued to follow the HF story and support and look forward to updating everyone here in the coming quarters.

This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the HF Foods Group Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this event is being recorded. I will now hand over to Madeleine Kettle of ICR. Please go ahead.

Welcome to HF Foods Group Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. Joining me today on today's call are Felix Lin, the company's President and Chief Executive Officer; and Paul McGarry, the company's Interim Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, let me remind everyone that today's discussion contains forward-looking statements based on management's current beliefs and expectations about future events, which are subject to several known and unknown risks and uncertainties. If you refer to HF Foods earnings release as well as the company's most recent SEC filings, you will see a discussion of factors that could cause the company's actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements.

The company undertakes no obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements in the future. In these remarks, the company will make several references to non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted EBITDA and non-GAAP diluted earnings per share. We believe these measures provide investors with a useful perspective on the underlying growth trends of the business and have included in the earnings release a full reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable GAAP measures.

Now I will turn the call over to Felix.

Hello, everyone. Welcome to HF Foods Third Quarter 2021 Earnings Call. I'll provide a business update, and Paul will speak to our third quarter financial results. Then we'll open up the line for Q&A. I am pleased to announce that we continued our momentum in the third quarter of 2025. Net revenue increased 2.9% year-over-year to $307 million and gross profit increased 0.5% to $50.4 million. Also notably, adjusted EBITDA increased 41.5% year-over-year to $11.7 million.

Our results reflect our continued discipline execution against our strategic initiatives and showcase the resilience of our business model. Despite ongoing macro challenges, including tariff pressures and shifts in consumer spending behaviors, our transformation initiatives are paving the way for continued growth and improvement throughout the business. Our third quarter performance demonstrates the strength of our operational focus and strategic positioning. We have been actively diversifying our supplier base and exploring alternative sourcing strategies to ensure continuity and cost effectiveness in our supply chain.

Our strategic inventory management and proactive pricing actions have allowed us to effectively navigate the changing environment while delivering solid net revenue growth and significant adjusted EBITDA growth. We are encouraged by our strong performance in the third quarter and a solid foundation we built. While we have seen some lower foot traffic consistent with broader industry trends, this was offset by strong volume in select markets and pricing actions we have taken. Based on our current trends, we expect Q4 results to be similar to what we achieved in Q3. We remain extremely confident in our long-term growth strategy and are committed to our capital investment in growing our capacity as we continue building momentum for the rest of the year and into 2026.

Our digital transformation initiative continues to deliver on its promise. We've reached a major milestone on May 1 with the successful deployment of a new modern ERP application across our entire network. All of our locations are now offering on a single unified ERP platform that will help us to achieve breakthrough levels of efficiency, visibility and control across our operations, unlocking the full potential of our centralized purchasing capabilities over time. I am pleased to report that the ERP system is running smoothly as planned.

The next phase of this program is focused on rationalizing our sales force. With our operations unified on a single system, we now plan to restructure our sales operation which will reduce costs over time and further strengthen our competitive positioning. We expect the initiatives to kick off in the second half of Q4 2025 and run through the first part of Q1 2026, providing efficiencies in our sales operations. We're consolidating two sales operations into one, which we believe provides us better control over the overall sales process and provides improved customer service. This represents the final key piece to our business integration transformation.

Our strategic facility enhancement initiatives continue to advance across multiple regions, positioning us for sustained growth. Renovation at our Charlotte distribution center are largely complete with the final permits imminent. Our state-of-the-art Atlanta facility project, which we expect will create meaningful organic growth opportunities through expanded cross-selling capabilities is on track for completion later this year. The cold storage capacity expansion in Atlanta is expected to double our capacity in the region and enable us to significantly increase frozen seafood sales to our existing customer base along the Eastern Seaboard, meaningfully expanding our Southeast presence.

In the quarter, we announced the acquisition of our Chicago warehouse. This strategic acquisition advances HF's ongoing transformation plan to improve operational efficiency, reduce facility cost and strengthen organic growth through cross-selling opportunities. Acquiring the facility enable us to exit the lease agreement early, improve operating expenses and invest in facility to grow additional capacity and drive consolidation opportunities. These exciting infrastructure investments reflect our ongoing commitment to optimizing our distribution network and creating a stronger foundation for sustainable growth.

M&A remains a core pillar of our growth strategy. HF Foods is the only scaled food service provider in the Asian specialty market in the United States. And we believe we are the strategic acquirer of choice within our space. We are focused on expanding our geographic footprint in high-potential markets, capturing operational synergies, broadening our customer base and enhancing our product and service capabilities. We remain disciplined but optimistic about M&A opportunities in 2025 and beyond. We're actively evaluating opportunities, and we believe our proven ability to successfully navigate the tariff landscape positions us uniquely to identify and execute attractive tuck-in acquisitions that will benefit from the operational expertise and scale.

Before I turn the call over, I'd like to welcome Paul McGarry, who is joining us on the first earnings call as interim CFO of HF Foods. Paul has been a key member of our finance team as our Vice President, Corporate Controller, and brings extensive finance experience and deep knowledge of HF Foods business operations. We're grateful for his seamless leadership during this executive transition. Now over to you, Paul.

Thanks, Felix. I will now review our results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2025 versus the same period in 2024. Net revenue for the third quarter increased 2.9% to $307 million from $298.4 million in the prior year quarter. The increase was primarily attributable to volume increases and improved pricing in our meat, poultry and seafood categories. Gross profit increased by 0.5% to $50.4 million for the quarter compared to $50.2 million in the prior year quarter. The increase was primarily attributable to an increase in volume and improved pricing during the quarter.

Gross profit margin remained relatively consistent at 16.4% compared to 16.8% in the same period in 2024 due to an increased proportion of sales from lower margin products, particularly seafood. Distribution, selling and administrative or DS&A expenses decreased by $0.4 million to $49.3 million for the third quarter. DS&A expenses as a percentage of net revenue decreased to 16.1% from 16.6% in the prior year period, primarily due to increased net revenue and lower personal professional insurance costs, partially offset by increased rental occupancy and other expenses.

Income from operations for the third quarter of 2025 increased to $1.1 million compared to $0.5 million in the prior year quarter. The improvement was driven by the increase in net revenue, gross profit and a decrease in DS&A costs. Adjusted EBITDA increased 41.5% to $11.7 million for the third quarter 2025 compared to $8.3 million in the prior year quarter. Total interest expense increased slightly to $2.9 million for the third quarter of 2025 compared to $2.6 million in the prior year quarter.

Net loss was $0.9 million for the third quarter of 2025 compared to a loss of $3.8 million in the third quarter of 2024. The improvement was primarily driven by an increase in net revenue, gross margin and managing certain DS&A costs. Adjusted net income increased to $4.3 million compared to $2.2 million in the prior year period. Loss per share improved to a loss of $0.02 compared to a loss of $0.07 in the prior year period. Adjusted earnings per share increased to $0.08 compared to $0.04 in the prior year period.

In summary, our third quarter results demonstrate the effectiveness of our strategic transformation initiatives and operational discipline in driving meaningful progress across our business. While we continue to navigate macro headwinds, including tower pressures, and shifting consumer patterns, our proactive approach to pricing, inventory management and operational efficiency has enabled us to deliver growth and build momentum for the future. These strong results reinforce our confidence in the strategic foundation we've established and position us well as we continue to execute on our growth strategy.

I'll now hand it back over to Felix for closing remarks.

Thanks, Paul. As we look ahead to the balance of 2025 and beyond, I want to emphasize our commitment to executing the comprehensive transformation initiatives that are reshaping HF Foods. 2025 is a year of strategic investment for HF and the investments we're making in our facilities, digital infrastructure and operations will establish a strong foundation for our next phase of growth.

While short-term uncertainties persist, we remain focused on our long-term strategic objectives. Our investments in digital transformation and infrastructure are strategically designed to drive organic growth through cross-selling opportunities while positioning us to complement this expansion with target M&A initiatives.

Our key competitive advantages stem from the growing demand for attended Asian cuisine and our unmatched position as a leading nationwide Asian specialty distributor. We're methodically building the infrastructure systems and capabilities needed to fully capitalize on these strategic advantages.

As we move forward, we'll continue to identify and implement additional efficiency measures while maintaining our commitment to service excellence and sustainable growth. Thank you for your continued support as we execute our strategic transformation. We look forward to sharing our progress with you on our next call.

I will now hand it over to the operator for a live Q&A.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from William Kirk of ROTH Capital Partners.

Felix, you talked about capacity increases for 2026 between the active projects you laid out a couple and I guess, the possibility of M&A. How much do you think capacity increases in 2026?

Bill, yes, that's a good question. I mean capacity-wise, right now, if we think about what we've been communicating, it's limited to the Southeast. So specifically for Atlanta, we talk about cold storage, it's effectively going to double our capacity in the Atlanta market. So we're moving from a 100,000 square feet warehouse to roughly about 190,000 square feet warehouse in that market.

Okay. And thinking about restructuring of the sales force, I know you kind of said it goes from 2 to 1. How much cost savings do you think you can generate through that initiative, and maybe more importantly, how do you balance extracting those efficiencies while not losing the uniqueness that your sales force provides.

Yes. I think part of the moat that we've been communicating is the fact that, again, we understand our customers, especially in the way to do business, the language and the product rationalization itself. So all of that, again, will remain the same. This is really more of an efficiency play. So over time, we'll have better control over pricing strategy, promotion with our broader program here in the future.

So again, this is one of those things that we've been prepping here for the better part 2025. So really, we're just getting towards the end of execution itself. While at the end of the day, again, there might be some level of disruption, but it's going to be expected and planned based on everything that we've been working on internally. But I do expect going through the end of 2025 and certainly, midpoint through the Q1 2026 everything should get normalized here for us?

Okay. And if I can sneak one more in. Were there any standouts or like a differential in the monthly cadence in the quarter? And then when you're looking at the quarter-to-date period, where does that shape up versus kind of how you guided 4Q? And have you seen any impact from -- potential impact from government shutdown?

Yes. I mean, Q3 has largely kind of followed the trend that we saw in Q2, right? There's still the impact from tariffs in terms of inventory, pricing and certainly, foot traffic. Beginning of Q3, we saw it continue to be a little bit softer, but it rebounded nicely towards the end of Q3. And as we kind of get into Q4 as well, selected markets, I think there are going to be a little bit of impact from government shutdown. For example, Virginia where we have a nice frozen seafood business based out of Richmond, Virginia, certainly that the market they service have a large, call it, government employee population. So the shutdown have impacted volume and foot traffic in that selected market.

But overall, going through the entirety of 2025, I think the team has done a really good job. Other markets would pick up volume. One specific market, for example, in Salt Lake City where not just in 2025, but over the last couple of years, we've been very effective in rationalizing our product and our business mix to kind of get rid of some of the lower margin business and free up some capacity to drive better business performance. So that's probably one of the biggest reasons why we're still able to deliver year-over-year growth for the quarter.

Our next question comes from Daniel Harriman of Sidoti & Company.

Congratulations on the continued progress. Felix, I've got 2 quick questions, one of which kind of follows up on the previous questions, but with 2025 being a year of investment, looking out to '26 and '27, how should we think about maintenance CapEx on a sustained basis year-over-year?

And then secondly, again, referencing 2025 as a year of investment, can you just talk a little bit more about the timing of the ramp-up and how we should think about organic growth moving forward? Is it going to be -- are we going to see some of that in 2026 or given the external pressures or is your assumption that we may be needing to look at a little bit further?

Daniel. Yes, so addressing your first question regarding CapEx. I think on an annual basis, our typical maintenance CapEx budget probably fluctuate between $10 million to $15 million a year. So on a go-forward basis, that's largely going to be around, again, driving efficiency improvements, cutting cost out within our D.C. operations. And in '26, I think CapEx might be a little bit higher just given the fact that we announced the strategic acquisition of our Chicago warehouse. And certainly, as we make more progress trying to drive additional capacity in the Midwest market, there might be newer facility acquisition on the horizon. So for the foreseeable future, I think it's going to be more than the $10 million to $15 million that we have previously communicated in terms of normal maintenance.

Getting back to the organic growth, I think previously, we talked about, it's likely going to take about 3 to 4 years in terms of ramping up once the capacity is ready. So I do believe that '26 is going to be the first year there will be some incremental volume gains, specifically with respect to frozen seafood in the Atlanta and Southeast market. And it's going to take, again, probably a couple of years for us to get there and fully utilize the entire new capacity that's going to come along here at the end of the year. But I think the larger cross-selling organic growth opportunity, it's always going to be perhaps in the Midwest market. So certainly, the investment is going to go in as we plan to in 2026, which will pay dividends potentially '27 and beyond.

[Operator Instructions] With no further questions in the question queue, we have reached the end of the Q&A session. I will now hand back to Felix Lin for closing remarks.

So again, I'd like to thank everyone for joining the call today. We're pleased with the transformation and progress we've made to date and the results we have achieved this quarter. We remain extremely confident in our long-term outlook and invite all of these continue following the HF story. Thank you, and we look forward to updating you on our next earnings call.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes this event. Thank you for attending, and you may now disconnect your lines.