MGP Ingredients, Inc. Stock

Good morning and welcome to the MGP Ingredients Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call with Julie Francis, President and CEO; and Brandon Gall, CFO. [Operator Instructions] Please also note this event is being recorded today.

In addition, this call may involve certain forward-looking statements. The company's actual results could differ materially from any forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including the risk factors described in the company's annual and quarterly reports filed with the SEC. The company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made during the call, except as required by law.

This call will contain references to certain non-GAAP measures, which the company believes are useful in evaluating the company's performance. A reconciliation of these measures to the most comparable GAAP measures is included in today's earnings release, which was issued this morning before the markets opened and is available at www.mgpingredients.com.

At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Julie Francis, President and CEO of MGP Ingredients. Please go ahead.

Good morning. I'd like to thank you all for joining us today on our third quarter 2026 earnings call. For the third quarter, sales came in at $117.9 million, down versus the prior year and in line with our expectations. Adjusted EBITDA of $21.5 million and adjusted basic EPS of $0.39 also declined versus the third quarter of last year. However, both of these key metrics were ahead of our expectations.

This quarter reinforces 3 themes about our company. First, we have a right to win in each of our 3 businesses. And in a challenging industry, this means taking the actions necessary today to emerge stronger, better aligned and more resilient. Our third quarter performance shows the success of our strategic clarity and road map as our efforts are having positive impacts and are delivering results.

Second, we are doing what we said we would do. As we previously shared, our ownership cost management mindset has helped offset the pressures in our businesses, and those savings, together with more efficient and effective A&P spending, are the key reasons adjusted EBITDA came in ahead of our plan. And today, we are reaffirming our full year guidance.

And third, our financial strength, cash generation and cost discipline give us the staying power to win. We saw that this quarter as we reduced total debt by $28 million and ended the quarter with a leverage ratio of 3.6x. This was ahead of expectations due to better-than-anticipated adjusted EBITDA and strong operating cash flows.

Before turning to our segments, I want to touch on 3 important updates. As we announced on October 15, we will become Sempreon this Monday, November 2, and our shares will begin trading on Nasdaq under our new ticker symbol CASK. This is an important milestone for our company. Since 1941, we have grown from a single distillery into a business spanning 3 separate segments: Branded Spirits, Distilling Solutions and Ingredient Solutions.

Sempreon brings these 3 business segments together under one corporate identity and represents the next chapter in our company's evolution, building on the legacies of MGP Ingredients, Luxco and the many businesses, brands and teams that have joined the organization over time.

Our commitment to tradition looking forward captures that well. We are building on the expertise, relationships and capabilities that have brought us to where we are today while continuing to evolve, innovate and create long-term growth and value. Importantly, our rebrand does not change the 3 reportable segments, how we report our results, our 2026 guidance or our leadership team. Our next earnings call will be our first as Sempreon.

Second, we are also introducing EPIC MASH, our internal leadership and shared values framework for how we work together and lead across the company. It represents 4 leadership attributes, EPIC, which stands for Execution, Performance, Impact and Care; and 4 shared values, MASH: Mindset, Accountability, Shift paradigm and Highest standards. At Sempreon, we will continue building on the strength of our 3 businesses, investing in our capabilities and pursuing opportunities to deliver for our customers and shareholders. That commitment reflects our new mission: Creating moments that matter. Building a legacy that lasts.

Finally, I want to highlight the significant progress we have made on strengthening our distribution network and route to market. During the third quarter, an additional 6 markets transitioned to new distributors. As you may recall, we transitioned 10 markets to a large new distributor in June. As is typical, these distributor transitions included system cutovers, with many of these occurring during the third quarter.

As anticipated, this negatively impacted our Branded Spirits sales volumes in these territories, but we are pleased that our third quarter Branded Spirits sales, excluding our other category, which is primarily composed of international sales of private label bottled products, were consistent with prior year and ahead of our expectations.

Now turning to our business segments. I will begin with Branded Spirits, our primary long-term growth platform. Third quarter segment sales were $58.2 million, down 4% versus the prior year. Excluding our other category, sales were in line with the prior year despite the distributor systems cutover pressures. This performance is consistent with Nielsen industry trends, which were flat for the 13 weeks ending October 3, 2026, and exceeds NABCA trends, which were down 2% for the 3 months ending August 31.

Gross profit was $29.2 million and gross margin was 50.2%, down 280 basis points year-over-year, primarily due to higher costs, partially offset by favorable price and mix. The higher costs largely reflect bottling facility maintenance and outside contractors supporting efficiency improvements. We expect these costs to continue in the fourth quarter, but at a lower rate.

Premium Plus sales were down 1% for the quarter, influenced by a planned shift on the positioning of Ezra Brooks Bourbon, which has moved into the mid-price tier with the reintroduction of a consumer favorite, Ezra 90 Proof. Excluding Ezra Brooks, Premium Plus would have grown by 1.5%.

Penelope sales increased 12%, which is particularly impressive because this growth is building on Penelope's 166% sales growth in the third quarter of last year. In the quarter, Penelope's core expressions, which are composed of the recently introduced Kentucky Straight Bourbon and Rye as well as our Four Grain and Wheated, grew by 35%. Other launches in the quarter included seasonal limited-time offerings: Architects of Golf, Cigar Sessions Chapter 02 and the Estate Collection.

Yellowstone declined 23% in the quarter, influenced by the shift of the single barrel program from the third quarter to the second quarter of 2026 and cycling against last year's ready-to-pour launches. However, Yellowstone's core expressions continue to show positive momentum, with Select growing 11% and Toasted growing 38% as we continue to expand digital paid media investments along with revenue growth management initiatives into more markets.

Everclear grew 4%, building on the momentum shown in the second quarter and reflecting the continued strength in the brand's core positioning as well as increased consumer engagement in key consumption occasions. Our mid- and value-priced brands collectively grew 1% for the second consecutive quarter, comparing favorably to Nielsen-reported declines of 5% and 6% declines reported by NABCA for these categories.

Our mid-priced brands grew by 6%, led by the successful rollout of Ezra Brooks 90 Proof, the continued expansion of Exotico and Juarez tequilas and growth in Saint Brendan's and Arrow. These results show that our stabilization efforts and select investments continue to gain traction as our mid-value portfolio growth was driven by improved execution, targeted price actions and focused brand support. The results also reflect that value-seeking consumers are turning to established brands they can trust, further demonstrating the importance of this price tier to our portfolio.

Innovation remains an important growth lever. This quarter, we also released MGP Chapter 1: Out of the Shadows, a 10-year-old 111-proof straight bourbon that brings our whiskey-making expertise directly to consumers under the MGP brand name for the first time. In addition, expanding distribution remains a key strategic priority and an important source of future growth, particularly within national chains.

For the third quarter, our Premium Plus portfolio added over 3,500 off-premise points of distribution, led by growing distribution of our Penelope core expressions and ready-to-pour offerings. We also expanded our on-premise chain presence during the third quarter with new programming and distribution in certain national accounts, including menu and cocktail features of our Premium Plus whiskeys and tequilas.

Overall, these results reinforce our confidence that our Branded Spirits portfolio is becoming increasingly stronger, more focused, more balanced and diversified and, equally importantly, able to cater to consumers across the broad economic spectrum.

Turning to Distilling Solutions. Third quarter sales were $29 million, down 29% year-over-year, and gross profit was $9.4 million, was down 34%. Gross margin was 32.4%, down 230 basis points. We continue to make gradual progress on the actions within our control and continue to believe we are well positioned to compete in a very challenging market where the industry remains oversupplied and elevated barrel inventories continue to weigh on both demand and pricing. These dynamics contributed to our own brown goods sales decline of 47% for the quarter. Despite the difficult backdrop and increased reliance on spot sales, our brown goods sales were ahead of expectations for the quarter.

Our large national and multinational customers remain focused on reducing inventory and preserving working capital rather than making new long-term commitments. As a result, we continue to expand our offerings to all customers with opportunistic aged whiskey sales, white goods offerings such as premium GNS and gin, and other value-added services. Premium white goods sales to large national and multinational customers increased during the quarter, driving our 32% year-over-year increase in sales of white goods and other co-products.

As industry dynamics are shifting, our strategy has evolved to focus on expanding into ready-to-drink and private label customers using the breadth of our product offerings and our differentiated value proposition. On a year-to-date basis, total product sales to this customer set have grown 90% versus prior year, representing more than 25% of total brown and white goods product sales, demonstrating the success we are having with this important and emerging customer segment.

In addition, our warehouse services grew 3% compared to the prior year quarter and represented 29% of segment sales. Operationally, for the quarter, the business achieved lower distillation costs driven by higher white goods production volumes and our cost savings initiatives. We continue to believe our long-term customer relationships, reputation for quality and our diverse and expanding product offerings uniquely position us to win as the industry normalizes.

Turning now to Ingredient Solutions. Third quarter sales grew 5% to $30.8 million. Specialty wheat protein sales, which include textured protein sales, grew by 15% and sales of biofuel and other byproducts also increased. Specialty wheat starch sales declined 12%, primarily due to longer-than-expected downtime following our scheduled plant shutdown. Gross profit was $1.8 million and gross margin was 6% due to continued losses in biofuel and other byproducts, where our waste starch stream costs sit. These costs were in line with our expectations for the quarter and were partially offset by an initial insurance recovery payment received during the quarter related to a 2025 equipment outage.

Operational reliability continues to improve in 2026. Our third quarter production volumes were 10% higher year-over-year despite the longer-than-expected downtime during the quarter. Demand remains strong for our specialty fiber and protein products driven by consumer preferences for high-protein, high-fiber and nutrient-dense food products. We also remain confident in our ability to lower waste disposal costs, although it's taking longer than we expected.

Across all 3 businesses, our ownership cost management mindset continues to deliver savings that helps fund our priorities. One example is marketing agency spend where, by the end of the year, we expect to consolidate the number of our primary agency partners, leading to an annual savings of more than $3 million versus prior year. A portion of these savings are being reinvested into working advertising, such as digital media campaigns, with the remaining savings being one of the many initiatives that is contributing to our bottom line.

With that, I will turn the call over to Brandon.

Thank you, Julie. Turning now to our financial results. For the third quarter 2026, we reported consolidated sales of $117.9 million, which were down 10% versus the prior year period. Gross profit of $40.5 million was down 18%. Consolidated gross margin of 34.3% declined by approximately 350 basis points, primarily due to higher waste starch stream costs in Ingredient Solutions, higher costs in Branded Spirits and lower brown goods sales volumes.

Advertising & Promotion expenses decreased 4% to $6.4 million. Branded Spirits A&P spend represented 10.9% of segment sales, a 60 basis point increase from the prior year quarter. For the full year, we now expect Branded Spirits A&P to be approximately 12% to 13% of Branded Spirits sales as we realize nonworking advertising savings from outside agency consolidation.

Our total SG&A increased 14% in the third quarter, while adjusted SG&A increased 13%, primarily due to a higher incentive compensation accrual tied in part to the savings delivered by our ownership cost management mindset. When removing the impact from the incentive compensation accrual, adjusted SG&A was down mid- to high single digits. For the full year, we now expect adjusted SG&A to be approximately 16% of sales, a significant improvement from our initial outlook driven by the ownership cost mindset initiative.

Net income of $6.9 million was down 55% versus the prior year, while adjusted net income was $8.6 million. Earnings per share for the third quarter were $0.32 versus $0.71 in the prior year. On an adjusted basis, earnings per share of $0.39 decreased 54% year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA of $21.5 million decreased 33% over the same period. Our effective tax rate was 22.9% in the quarter, and we continue to expect approximately 23% for the full year.

Turning to cash flow and the balance sheet. Year-to-date operating cash flows, excluding the Penelope earnout payment, were $39.8 million. Q3 operating cash flows were $31.9 million, our highest since Q3 of 2025. Our year-to-date net whiskey putaway was $18.9 million, down from $23.9 million as of June 30. Year-to-date capital expenditures were $11 million. We continue to estimate full year net whiskey putaway in the range of $13 million to $18 million and CapEx of approximately $20 million.

We reduced total debt by $28.4 million during the quarter. As Julie described, we ended the quarter with a net debt leverage ratio of 3.6x, which was ahead of our expectations and in line to where we expect to be at year-end. In August, we amended our debt agreements as a precautionary step to allow us to add back up to $20 million of losses on receivables from specified customers in our covenant calculations through the end of 2027.

We also have elected to take advantage of the elevated leverage ratio period that runs through the first quarter of 2027. Both were fully supported by our lending group, and we remain in compliance with our covenants. Holders of our $201 million convertible senior notes have the right to require us to repurchase their notes on November 16. We expect most, if not all, holders to exercise this right.

We have ample capacity to fund these repurchases through our credit agreement, our note purchase agreement or a combination of both. And similar to what we did in Q2, we may deploy interest rate swaps to manage our exposure to rate fluctuations. Because current interest rates are well above the notes' 1.875% coupon, we continue to expect fourth quarter interest expense to be sequentially higher than Q3 and full year interest expenses of approximately $12 million.

Turning to annual guidance for the full year of 2026. We are reaffirming our expectations for net sales to be between $480 million and $500 million. Adjusted EBITDA is still projected to range from $90 million to $98 million. Adjusted basic earnings per share for 2026 is still expected to be between $1.50 and $1.80 with weighted average basic shares outstanding of approximately 21.4 million. We are maintaining our expectations for full year 2026 operating cash flow of $50 million to $55 million and free cash flow of $30 million to $35 million, both excluding the impact of the Penelope earnout payment.

From a business segment perspective, our full year outlook for all 3 segments is consistent with previously shared estimates. We continue to expect Distilling Solutions sales to be down approximately 35% year-over-year and gross profit to be down approximately 40%; Branded Spirits sales to decline mid-single digits with Premium Plus up low single digits; and Ingredient Solutions sales to be in the $140 million to $150 million range, with gross margins in the high single to low double-digit range for the full year.

As we said last quarter, we expect the fourth quarter to be stronger than the third. And as in prior years, we will provide our 2027 outlook when we report fourth quarter and full year results in February.

To close, cash generation, balance sheet delevering, cost management, capital stewardship and maintaining great support from our lending group are our financial priorities, and we are pleased with the progress we are making against each.

And with that, I'd like to turn the call back over to Julie.

Thank you, Brandon. Before we wrap up, I want to thank the entire MGP team for another quarter of execution, performance, impact and care. Our strategic road map is designed to drive growth across all 3 businesses, and we are making progress in each.

For Branded Spirits, we will continue to focus on winning in the Premium Plus category and across the mid and value spectrum, prioritizing our best-performing brands, including Penelope Bourbon, increasing our penetration in national accounts and strengthening our digital marketing capabilities. This quarter, Penelope grew 12% and our mid-tier portfolio grew 6%.

For Distilling Solutions, we will remain focused on partnering with our customers across our diverse range of product offerings, growing our private label and ready-to-drink programs, rebuilding our aged whiskey pipeline and expanding our value-added services. This quarter, white goods and co-product sales grew 32%.

And for Ingredient Solutions, our efforts remain focused on growing sales of our high-demand specialty fiber and protein products, sustaining operational reliability and reducing waste starch stream costs. This quarter, specialty protein sales grew 15%.

We have the right to win in each of our businesses. We are doing what we said we would do, and we have the financial discipline and support, which gives us the staying power to win. On November 2, we are excited to begin our next chapter as Sempreon.

And with that, I would like to turn the call over to the operator for any questions.

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Marc Torrente with Wells Fargo.

Can we start with the reaffirmed guide? Where did Q3 land versus your expectations for each of the segments? And then Q4 is implied to be stronger, with sales and EBITDA potentially up year-over-year. Any color on the building blocks and confidence there? And how should we think about exit rate into 2027?

Yes. Thanks for the question, Marc. I'll start with how the quarter came from a business standpoint versus our expectations. So Branded Spirits sales did come in ahead of where we thought for the quarter. There's a lot of transition going on with our distributor route to market, and there were puts and takes within. But largely speaking, total sales did come in above.

Within Distilling Solutions, brown goods sales also came in above our expectations. A lot of that business is spot-market driven, which we feel is just an added proof point of the importance we play in the industry with our customers.

Ingredient Solutions, due to the prolonged shutdown that we discussed, top-line sales came in below our expectations for the quarter. However, gross margins were still in line for 2 reasons. Number one, our starch waste stream costs were in line to slightly better than we anticipated, which is the first quarter in a little while where we can say that. And secondly, we did benefit a little bit from an insurance recovery in the quarter.

So all in all, top line sales came in a bit below. But due to the cost-savings initiatives and the hard work the team is doing, we were able to come in ahead of expectations on both adjusted EPS and adjusted EBITDA. And our net leverage ratio also came in ahead of expectations, Marc.

Okay. And then just the implied sequential progress in Q4, any more color there, again, building blocks to get to the full year guide? And then any early thoughts on exit rates into 2027?

Yes. As far as building blocks go, we gave a lot of full year guidelines by business and -- for OpEx. But Q4 is a big quarter for us, which is traditionally typical. But I will say there's a lot of variables we are managing. And just as we've managed all year, the distributor transition being one within Branded Spirits. All that being said, we are very focused on execution and delivering the quarter needed to hit our goals.

Within Ingredient Solutions, we do expect there to be sequential improvement, both from a waste starch cost perspective, but also from a production reliability and throughput and sales perspective. The prolonged shutdown set us back for Q3. But in August, September and month-to-date in October, the throughput and reliability has been top percentile where we want to be. So we believe that we have the right momentum going forward to deliver the quarter needed there.

Within Distilling Solutions, like I already shared, a lot of this business is spot, but we are an important supplier to an expanding customer set. We shared on the call that 25% of our white goods and brown goods sales year-to-date have now gone to ready-to-drink and private label customers. And so these are areas that -- customer sets that are either historically underserved, which creates a good void for us to fill, or they're growing. Ready-to-drink spirits is the fastest-growing category in spirits, and positioning us with them, we feel is a very strategic move.

Our next question comes from Sean McGowan with ROTH Capital Partners.

Kind of following up a little bit on the previous question. You talked about branded being affected by the cutovers in distribution. When do you think that, that impact is over? And would you expect Branded Spirits to pick up when those cutovers are complete?

Yes. Sean, it's Julie. Thanks for the question. Yes, we've got 6 more markets that transitioned in Q3. That was following the 10 that did in June. So we do have a larger portion of our control states will transition in Q4. But as you probably know, those transitions are very different than system cutovers as they're NABCA, they're control states. So those are state-run systems. So the impact will be far less. So as we're exiting the year, we would expect the transition cutover and the system cutover headwinds that we're having to be disappeared.

We certainly -- our largest distributor that did do the system cutovers, it was a pretty meaningful headwind in Q3. We're on the phone calls with those folks all the time. We do have plans for Q4. We are seeing sequential improvement, but there are some headwinds. But our guidance fully reflects that. But I would say, broadly speaking, that's one large distributor. We are very pleased with our branded performance for the quarter. Premium Plus up 1.5%.

When you take in consideration, we did reposition Ezra. Ezra was positioned as a $24.99 brand at Ezra 99. We saw an opportunity to position it lower. We had a lot of American Whiskey brands at the same price point. And so we went to Ezra 90, which was a fan favorite, it's at $14.99. We think in this economy and with the headwinds that our consumers are experiencing, it's a well-known brand at a really nice price.

And I do want to say, as we switch to the core 10, and so we have focused on core 10 across Premium Plus, mid and maybe there's a value brand in there. Year-to-date September of '25, so 1 year ago before we had this new strategic road map with clarity investments, only 1 of those 10 core brands, 1, which have been Penelope, would have been growing.

Now year-to-date, 6 out of the 10 of those core 10 brands are growing. And the other 4 have shown meaningful sequential improvement. So we're very pleased. Yes, there certainly were significant headwinds in the quarter from our larger distributor, great partnership there. They're great operators, and we certainly expect that headwind to dissipate as the year goes on.

That's helpful color. Another question I had was in locations where intoxicating hemp might be expiring in terms of legality or something in limbo, would you expect to see a benefit if that legalization expires?

Yes. Listen, we definitely think there's -- I would say there's other categories that are probably more -- have higher headwinds than we do in the spirits category. But certainly, the ready-to-drink category, the ready-to-pour category, we do see that this is a switchable category for them. And as you know, we've entered into ready-to-pour and ready-to-drink. Our Penelope products are up over 100% year-to-date.

And then I'd also just say from a spirits perspective, we have expanded our distribution network for best athletes. So we are on -- several of our new regional distributors are also beer. And as you know, most of that system or most of those products goes into those convenience retail, those type of outlets. And so we will now be on those trucks.

And as you expect, we do have innovation coming up in 2027, which you would expect us to target at that same core consumer that we will start testing in Q1, and that certainly will be on a different route to market that we've never been on. So we're certainly prepared. We've got a test market going on the first quarter in a couple of markets on a different route-to-market truck that will go head-to-head and should compete for that consumer.

The next question comes from Seamus Cassidy with TD Cowen.

I wanted to ask on Branded Spirits' profitability. Gross margin was down 280 basis points despite sort of the continued mix shift between Premium Plus and some of the RGM and SKU rationalization initiatives you discussed. I was just hoping you could provide a bit more detail on what specifically drove that cost pressure. Is it higher barreled inventory costs flowing through the P&L, in which case it's somewhat unavoidable? Or is it more near-term inflationary pressures like freight and fuel costs? And I guess, how much of that should we expect to persist into 2027?

No problem. Very good question. These costs are actually associated to our continuous improvement efforts. I think you heard we've launched a new shared values framework and one of our attributes is highest standards. And as we've got a year into a new operations leader, we obviously rolled out a ramped-up maintenance and reliability plan in Atchison. And as we looked at our largest bottling facility, that maintenance and reliability and our downtime and attainment was nowhere near where we would expect.

So what we did is, we took the same external resources that we use from Atchison. We put them in our largest bottling facility. We also have added headcount there. And so we're rebuilding a world-class maintenance and reliability program that down the road will certainly help us. And so we expect these costs to continue into Q4, but at a much lower rate.

And year-to-date, the segment gross margin is still at 50.6%, and our full outlook still has us having slight gross margin improvement and is unchanged. And as you saw, we did have favorable price/mix. So again, it's the maintenance and reliability headwind. It will dissipate towards year-end and into Q1, and we are reaffirming the margins that we shared in our guidance.

Okay. Understood. So I guess maybe like all else equal, we would expect those improvement plans to sort of be a margin tailwind, I guess, for the back half of '27 once the efforts are complete?

Very well said.

The next question comes from Ben Klieve with StoneX.

First, a question on the price/mix dynamic within brown goods. There's a lot of variables here. And I'm wondering if you can help us understand the degree to which the price/mix dynamic was driven by your comment on elevated spot sales or maybe the switch between aged and new distillate versus kind of true price dynamics? Any comments within that would be helpful.

Yes. Thanks, Ben. So pricing in aged and new is under pressure. And that's been the case for, going on 2 years now. And the first 2 quarters of this year, while brown good volumes were down, we actually had a price/mix benefit, if you recall. This quarter, to your point, both volume and price was down, but we did have some mix benefit, but that gets lumped in. And the reason there is we're continuing to have more proportionate sales toward aged rather than new distillate, which you'd expect. And so we're seeing that mix benefit.

However, we've gotten more pointed on our pricing on aged. There have been a lot of spot sales at certain points where we're partially below where we've historically gone. And we've decided to, in certain cases, price match with the right customers to better align with them and form more of a direct relationship. That's still profitable sales and that's probably what you're seeing in the price differential between Q3 and the first 2 quarters, but it's also led to not only higher-than-expected brown goods sales in the quarter, but tremendous free cash flow generation, as you witnessed.

Okay. Very helpful. And then one more from me on the Ingredients segment and the fourth quarter outlook here. I heard your comments earlier about all the various dynamics around efficiency improvements here and how encouraged you are by the outlook from August, September and quarter-to-date. But I want to double-click on this. The implied outlook here of $140 million to $150 million on a full year basis suggests 30% plus sequential growth out of that segment and record revenue in the fourth quarter here. And I want to really understand the drivers here and especially the degree to which you have a customer base lined up to take this volume off of the facility here now that it is up and running to the degree to which you're hoping for.

Yes. Thanks, Ben. I'll take that. I'll be really clear. It's not a demand issue. We are fully booked. Every bit of pound, including if we are able to get more pounds, but we do run continuously the entire time, someone -- a customer will take. So that -- there is not a demand. There is no customers. We have every bit of demand for every pound that we have.

And what gives us reasons to believe, again, as you know, it was a year ago that I got on this call and I was very transparent. That plant was not operating anywhere near that we would expect for almost 2 years. Brought in a new operations leader, brought in boots on the ground, and we had a turnaround program that started in November. And we had a very large equipment outage over multiple months that we decided to shut down and to repair. And we've done what we said we're going to do. We came back up on time from there.

The pounds and the attainment that we're now getting; again, to put it in kind of context, our peak performance is at 90% capacity utilization. That's a pretty high one. In 2024 then, we did that one time. In 2025, we did that one time. Since our plant shutdown that we came up out of July, we've done this, including October, 3 straight months. And before that, we did it another 3 months.

So we have a high certainty of our reliability measures, in particular, after the plant shutdown, the extended period that we're able to deliver the pounds and attainment that we want. Using those measurements, and we are on track, that's what gives us the confidence to reconfirm that range.

The next question comes from Mitch Pinheiro with Sturdivant.

Most of my questions have been asked and answered. I just want to follow up on the Ingredient Solutions segment. So your demand -- you don't have a demand problem, you're selling everything you have. But during your inefficiencies, your customers went elsewhere. How does the competitive outlook look like in Ingredient Solutions? Are you getting all the customers that you had or had to sort of give up a little bit? Are you getting them back? Is pricing as firm as it should be? Or is there any competitive pressures in that?

Thanks, Mitch. I appreciate it. We did not lose one customer during the span of the last few years. We've been transparent. We've been upfront, and we've worked with all of them to make sure with our inefficiencies and some of our downtime that we've been working with them to ensure that they know about it and they can prepare for it, and they've been able to get through it. So we have not lost a customer.

Now that we do have customer service and reliable customer service, and they can depend and count on when we're getting out the pounds, certainly, there is the ability to capture some of the market value that we haven't been capturing because we haven't had good service.

And then I'd just say, third, our customer funnel. We have a very robust customer funnel. Our R&D and sales teams and the co-creation events that we're having with blue-chip companies, especially ones -- and a lot of them are repeat customers, meaning they have co-created an event, it's in the market, and now they're coming back, and we have multiple other projects in the pipeline.

So we feel very strong with our partnerships, our differentiated value proposition. And obviously, no one is thrilled with the reliability we had in 2024 and 2025, but I certainly can say that we've done what we said we're going to do. We did our plant shutdown. When we extended it, we talked to our customers, and everyone is aligned with our path forward. And it goes back to our differentiated platforms that we have; they are in demand, they taste better, they have better texture, and we continue to be the partner that they would expect and can count on.

In the white goods, that was post-COVID and all of the industrial alcohol and white goods production capacity that was out there. What's changed? Why is your white goods growing again and growing profitably versus that prior period?

Well, listen, when you don't have an oversupply of whiskey, you focus on whiskey. And so our sales teams were maniacally focused on delivering on American Whiskey. The differentiated value proposition and the Swiss Army knife of MGP distillery was focused on brown goods. Now that obviously ready-to-drink and that portfolio is out there and growing, and obviously now we do have the production time to focus on providing quality premium white goods.

And I want to say premium white goods -- we're going back and talking to large and small multinational customers. And I'd say the majority of our customers that we're getting that are delivering the 32% increase are all large customers we had on the brown side. Now that they know that that opportunity is there for MGP, they're absolutely taking us up on it. And so we're certainly pleased.

And then again, it goes back to our partnership approach, working and being very agile and very transparent on what we can bring, and they've been pretty happy with us.

Yes. And if I could add to that, Mitch, we've talked a lot about how aged brown is an on-ramp into new distillate with customers. And we view premium white goods the same way. And we don't just view it that way; we've seen it play out.

So for example, one of our private label relationships in American Whiskey launched in the last 12 months this American Whiskey brand with us. But they had been a premium white goods gin customer for years before that. So seeing this transition, and it's not anything new or novel. In fact, once they get used to our high level of quality, our customer service, it becomes quite easy for them to consolidate even more and more of their business with us, which is why having success with private label and with ready-to-drink is becoming more and more important for us because it really best demonstrates and utilizes all of our capabilities.

Yes. And Mitch, since you brought up MGP, I do want to take a chance to share we're very pleased with our new innovation that came out of MGP distillery. It's called MGP Chapter 1: Out of the Shadows, a 10-year, 111-proof straight bourbon that brings our whiskey-making experience out of that distillery directly to consumers under the MGP brand name for the first time.

And I can tell you, consumer industry on-premise reaction, I was out in the market last week. And admittedly, it was within 60 miles of the MGP distillery, but an on-premise and a liquor store customer -- owner certainly shared that it won't hit the shelf. So we're pleased to, again, take that differentiated MGP distillery and use it in multiple ways. And certainly, that's one example that we're very pleased with.

Okay. And by the way, how are the margins, white goods versus brown goods?

Yes. White goods margins are accretive to overall segment margins. So when we say premium, that's what's different. What we're producing out of Lawrenceburg for these customers on the whole is differentiated from typical white goods or industrial-grade alcohol like we're producing out of Atchison.

Okay. Then just final question. On the brown goods and new distillate, I know your customers have paused, they have inventory that they want to maintain a tight control over. But at some point, formulas and the products they're taking the new distillate for, ultimately, they do need to buy new distillate, I would think. And this has been going on for what seems like 2 years where we've had major customers pausing. When do they have to start to buy new distillate just for their own product consistency?

Yes. We shared -- we kind of reaffirmed all that on the Q2 call, Mitch, which is our large multinational new distillate customers are in a holding pattern. And it's not anything MGP or even American Whiskey specific as much as it is broader enterprise mandated from their corporate office. We're still in that holding pattern. And when are they going to come back? We're having those conversations as often as we can. And the more business we do with these customers in premium white goods and other, the more opportunities we have to have those conversations.

But absent of that, that's a lot of new distillate brown goods visibility that we don't have going into next year that we've had historically. However, we still have increasing confidence in 2027 and beyond. And here's why.

Firstly, 1/3 of our revenue in distilling today is warehouse services revenue. That is all contracted. If it's not -- if anything that's up for renewal, we fully expect to recontract again with those customers. So that's 1/3 of our top line, very -- it's gross margin accretive to the segment, but it's also very free cash flow generative. So that's 1/3 of the business.

When we look at the rest of it, Q3 is a really good proof point for white goods and brown goods. So, as we've talked about, the emergence of private label in RTD customers has the potential to serve as an important source of growth and shock absorber for those large multinationals. We shared that they're now 25% of those white and brown goods sales and growing.

It's typical for these customers to purchase across the portfolio, as we've shared. Private label customers are having brand success to the point where we do have orders for aged through Q3 of next year. The ready-to-drink customers, they've only more recently become a focus, but what we are seeing is that their volumes and frequency of purchase are increasing. Then there's our craft customer base, which traditionally does not contract, and they're not today either. However, they continue to purchase on a spot basis and remain a very important part.

So going back to the multinationals and the pausing, we're working with them on these other projects, such as premium white goods, gin and so on. We're keeping them close while expanding the relationship. And this is important because our unique ability to produce white goods means that we don't have to be at 70% whiskey capacity to be cost competitive; we can cut over as demand dictates. So we feel this positions us well to re-partner on new distillate with these larger customers when they are ready as well as attract new customers in the future.

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Julie Francis for any closing remarks.

Thank you, everyone. We appreciate your engagement, and we look forward to talking with you again next quarter as Sempreon. Take care.

Thank you. The conference has now concluded. You may now disconnect.

Thank you. Good morning and welcome to the MGP Ingredients Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call with Julie Francis, President and CEO, and Brandon Gall, CFO. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star, then 1 on a touchtone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star then 2. Please also note this event is being recorded today.

In addition, this call may involve certain forward-looking statements. The company's actual results could differ materially from any forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including the risk factors described in the company's annual and quarterly reports filed with the SEC. to update any forward-looking statements made during the call, except as required by law. This call will contain references to certain non-GAAP measures, which the company believes are useful in evaluating the company's performance. A reconciliation of these measures to the most comparable gap measures is included in today's earnings release, which was issued this morning before the markets opened and is available at www.mgpingredients.com. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Julie Francis, President and CEO of MGP Ingredients. Please go ahead.

Good morning. I'd like to thank you all for joining us today on our second quarter 2026 earnings call. For the second quarter, sales came in at $124.4 million down versus the prior year as expected, adjusted EBITDA of $27.6 million, and adjusted basic EPS of 72 cents also declined versus the second quarter of last year. However, both of these key metrics were ahead of our expectations. These results reflected continued momentum in our premium plus portfolio led by Penelope Bourbon and Yellowstone and an improvement in select mid and value price brands. We also delivered sales growth in ingredient solutions against our best quarter of 2025, which reflects continued strong customer demand supported by approved, operational reliability, and inventory availability. In a challenging environment, our distilling solutions team delivered both lower distillation costs and favorable sales price and mix, resulting in gross margin expansion versus the prior year. We are pleased with this performance as it reflects the success of the actions we took during the second quarter to execute against our strategic roadmap.

It also demonstrates the positive impact of our efforts to strengthen and revamp our sales, marketing, and supply chain functions while adding specific capabilities across all levels of the company to address new and existing problems. existing growth opportunities. We also continue to drive progress across the business by eliminating waste, driving efficiencies, and maximizing effectiveness through the implementation of our Ownership Cost Management Initiative, which I've discussed in previous calls. While we'll talk more about our segment performance later in the call, I'd like to take a few moments to update you the progress we have made with our key initiatives. As I've mentioned previously, we've been strengthening our core by adding specific capabilities to our leadership team. Yesterday, we announced four strategic appointments designed to expand our commercial and marketing excellence across the Silling Solutions, Brand and Spirits, and overall MGP. Tom Nyhalsos joins us as Vice President to lead Distilling Solutions Sales. For Brand Experience, Saul Clayhane is now serving as Managing Director and Leader of National Accounts, while Marilyn Chen has taken the role of Brand Director to lead the marketing efforts behind Penelope Bourbon.

On the corporate side, David Sanders has joined us as Vice President to lead enterprise financial planning and analysis. Together, these appointments expand our leadership and expertise across customer strategy, national retail and on-premise partnerships, brand marketing and planning, as well as reinforce our focus on driving growth across our business and executing against our strategic roadmap. Before turning to our business segments, I want to address the recent distributor news regarding RNDC's bankruptcy filing. Since the beginning of the year, we have known about RNDC's financial challenges, and while the bankruptcy has a financial impact, which Brandon will cover in his remarks, I want to highlight the significant progress we've made strengthening our national distribution network, and expanding our route to market capabilities. The team has been executing a disciplined transition strategy, conducting extensive market by market distributor assessments and carefully evaluating each market's unique dynamics. Through this process, they successfully identified, vetted, and validated new distribution partners to ensure business continuity and position the portfolio That preparation is already impacting results. During June, we successfully transitioned 10 markets to raise the beverage group with minimal changes to our route-to-market model and disruption to customers or field operations.

Just last month, we launched But less is importantly, the partnership is generating early positive momentum. During the first month of operation, depletions in our Premium Plus and mid-tier portfolios increased 7% and 4% respectively. While we are encouraged by this early success, our work is not yet complete. We are currently progressing through various stages of distributor transition for certain open and control states with many transitions targeted to go live later this quarter. Together with our new distributor partners, we will concentrate on expanding distribution, elevating in-store execution and accelerating growth across our premium plus portfolio. Now turning to our business segments, I'll begin with Branded Spirits, our primary long-term growth platform. The second quarter provided another strong proof point that our strategy is working and our initiatives are strengthening performance despite a challenging industry backdrop.

Throughout the quarter, we continue to outperform the broader spirits category by accelerating growth in our premium plus portfolio while stabilizing our mid and value tier price brands. At the same time, we remain focused on building the capabilities needed to sustain long-term growth, including digital marketing, trade marketing, national accounts, and on-premise execution. While reported sales were modestly below prior year, excluding sales of our other products category, which primarily consists of contract bottle products sold in Europe, our branded spirits sales increased 3% compared to prior year. This performance exceeds both Nielsen industry trends, which declined 2% during the quarter, and NAPCA trends, down 3 percent. Our premium plus portfolio grew 5 percent in the quarter, significantly outperforming both Nielsen and NAPCA, which were down 3 percent and 5 percent respectively. We also delivered approximately 1% growth in our mid and value price brands, comparing favorably to declines of 2% at Nielsen and 4% at NAPCA. These results reflect the strength of our portfolio and the effectiveness of our brand building and revenue growth management, or RGM, initiatives.

Profitability also continued to improve. Second quarter gross margin expanded 20 basis points to 53%, driven by favorable portfolio mix and early benefits from our RGM efforts. Gross profit totaling $31.6 million was below prior years, resulting from the anticipated decline in our other products category. Overall, we are encouraged by the continued momentum in Brandon Spirits and believe our portfolio remains well positioned to deliver differentiated growth while gaining share in a difficult operating environment. Let's take a moment to focus on our Premium Plus portfolio, which continued to be a key growth engine during the quarter, led by Penelope, Yellowstone, and Everclear. The NLP sales increased 13% despite cycling the highly successful launch of Weedit in the prior year period. Growth was supported by continued strength in 4Grain, an original core brand, which benefited from increased media investment and expanded distribution. The core also benefited from recent innovation, including the introduction of 2Grain. new core expressions, Penelope Kentucky Straight Bourbon and Penelope Rye.

We were We're also excited to add to our ready-to-pour portfolio with the launch of our new BlackBerry Old Fashioned, while also staying true to our brand's ethos with newly introduced limited time offerings of Penelope Rivera and Architects of Golf. Yellowstone delivered another exceptional quarter, with sales increasing 54%. Growth was driven by innovation, including our recent limited-time release commemorating the United States' 250th anniversary, as well as improved performance of Yellowstone Select in targeted markets supported by increased marketing investment and RGM initiatives. Everclear grew 13% reflecting increased consumer engagement in key consumption occasions and continued strength in the brand's core positioning. Turning to our mid-price portfolio. Stabilization efforts continue to gain traction. Growth was led by Exotico, Juarez Tequila, and Ezra Brooks, and driven by improved distribution, targeted price actions, and successful distributor transitions and focused brand support. Overall, these results reinforce our confidence that the portfolio is becoming increasingly more balanced with growth in premium plus brands complemented by improving performance across our larger heritage brands.

Another important strategic initiative is portfolio optimization. During our last earnings call, we discussed plans to rationalize lower priority brands and SKUs to improve focus and profitability. I'm pleased to report that we've exceeded our original expectations. As of the second quarter, we have rationalized 52 brands, representing approximately 47% of our product portfolio. While these brands account for approximately 1% of sales, this effort is expected to improve analyzed gross margin by approximately 25 basis points, while also enhancing the sales top-line performance estimated to be 42 basis points through improved commercial focus. Beyond the direct and readily visible P&L benefits, this initiative is creating enterprise value by simplifying operations, improving inventory management, and driving working capital efficiencies across the business. Expanding distribution remains a key strategic priority and an important source of future growth.

During the quarter, we grew our national and regional chains off-premise points of distribution by 7% and on-premise points of distribution by 4% sequentially. For these same customers, our Premium Plus portfolio grew off-premise points of distribution by 14% and grew on premise by 10% sequentially. Overall, we are encouraged by the momentum across brand and spirits and remain focused on expanding distribution, increasing consumer awareness, optimizing our portfolio, and accelerating growth across our highest priority brands. Turning to distilling solutions. Second quarter sales were 29.2%. down 42% compared to prior year. Gross profit of 11.3 million declined 40%. However, gross margin improved approximately 110 basis points to 38.7%, driven by favorable ongoing cost savings initiatives and sales mix. We continue to make gradual progress and believe we remain well-informed well positioned to compete intelligently and aggressively in a very challenging market.

As you know, the industry remains significantly oversupplied with elevated inventory levels continuing to pressure demand. Despite these market conditions, we remain one of the leading global providers of contracted new make and aged American whiskey and continue to focus on the actions within our control to strengthen the business and position it for long-term success. The primary focus of our larger national and multinational customers, which historically represent the majority of our new distillate demand, is reducing inventory and managing working capital. Many customers are operating under strict capital allegation guidelines and are limited in their ability to enter into long-term supply commitments as they work through existing inventory positions. Importantly, these discussions are less about production capabilities and more about balance sheet management in a market that remains oversupplied. In response, we continue to deepen customer relationships by providing solutions beyond traditional new distillate supply. This includes opportunistic aged whiskey sales, premium white goods offerings such as premium GNS and gin, and other services that help customers improve profitability, optimize inventory, and support their broader business objectives.

While brown goods sales declined approximately 59% in the quarter versus the prior year, we are seeing encouraging progress in several targeted initiatives. We continue to expand our presence in private label whiskey, and the significant national private label customer we discussed last quarter has increased its business beyond the original demand levels communicated to us. to focus on driving cash generation by expanding our portfolio of value-added services and strengthening customer retention. White House services represented approximately 30% of distilling solution sales during the quarter with both sales and gross profit increasing versus the prior year. While industry conditions remain challenging, we believe our customer relationships, commercial capabilities, aged whiskey expertise, and expanding service offerings position us well to capitalize when the market ultimately normalizes. Turning now to ingredient solutions. Demand across our specialty ingredient portfolio remains healthy. specialty starch sales, including Fibersen, increased 2% and we continue to ship all available production to meet customer demand. Our specialty protein platform marketed under Arise also grew, benefiting from favorable mix in pricing. These results underscore the continued demand for high protein, high fiber, and nutrient-dense food products.

Trends such as GLP-1 adoption, lower net carb diets, and protein-focused nutrition continue to drive innovation across bakery, snack, and meal solution categories. second quarter, ingredient solution sales increased 2% to 35.5 million, despite lapping a particularly strong prior year comparison. Growth was driven by favorable pricing and mix within our specialty protein and specialty starch portfolios, as well as improved sales of biofuel and other co-products as operational performance stabilized. These results are also reflected an addition of four significant new national customers. While revenue trends remain encouraging, profitability continues to be impacted by elevated waste starch disposal costs associated with the transition following the closure of the Atchison Distilling and startup of the biofuel facility. As a result, gross profit declined to $3.6 million and gross margin was 10.1% during the quarter. Since the beginning of the year, the team has significantly improved operational reliability and reduced unplanned downtime, resulting in higher production throughput. While these improvements are encouraging, they also generated greater waste start stream during the first half than initially anticipated.

Through various engineering solutions, the team successfully reduced during the second quarter. These solutions have proven to be more cost effective than traditional waste disposal methods and reduce reliance on third party providers. However, implementation costs were higher during the quarter than originally expected. While we expect these costs to improve over time as our processes are further optimized, the impact is reflected.

in our updated full year ingredient solutions margin outlook and incorporated into our 2026 guidance. With that, I will turn the call over to Brandon. Thank you, Julie. Turning now to our financial results. For the second quarter of 2026, we reported consolidated sales of $124.4 million, which were down 50% versus the prior year period. Gross profit of $46.5 billion was down 20%. Both metrics were lower versus the prior year, primarily due to expected declines in brown goods sales in this time zone. This was partially offset by higher ingredient solution sales.

Consolidated gross margin of 37.4% declined by approximately 270 basis points as higher waste start stream costs in ingredient solutions pressured overall profitability, both in Both branded spirits and distilling solutions saw gross margin expansion in the quarter relative to prior year. Branded Spirits advertising and promotion expenses decreased by approximately 12% year-over-year. It represented 9.3% of Branded Spirits sales, primarily due to the timing of spend throughout the year. For the first time, Branded Spirits sales were down by approximately 12%. For the full year, we continue to expect Branded Spirits A&P to be approximately 13 to 14% of Branded Spirits sales. Total SG&A spend declined by 13% in the second quarter, while adjusted SG&A declined by 19%, with both amounts showing the benefit of our expanded cost savings efforts. These SG&A savings were partially offset by a $2.1 million credit loss provision taken in the quarter relating to the RNDC filing.

Net income of $12 million was down 17% versus the prior year, while adjusted net income of $15.8 million decreased 25% on a year-over-year basis. Earnings per share for the second quarter were 55 cents versus 67 cents in the prior year. On net On an adjusted basis, earnings per share of 72% decreased 26% year over year. of $27.6 million decreased 23% over the same period. Capital expenditures declined 66% to $6.4 million on a year-to-date basis. We continue to estimate CapEx of approximately $20 million for the full year as we look to optimize our capital deployment in the current industry environment. As of June 30th, our net debt leverage ratio was approximately 3.5 times, up from 2.1 times at the end of March. This expected increase was primarily due to the Penelope earn-out payment of approximately $111 million, which was made during the second quarter.

According to annual guidance, we are reaffirming our expectations for 2026 net sales to be between $480 and $500 million. Adjusted EBITDA is still projected to range from $90 to $98 million. This is consistent with previous expectations as the efficiencies and savings from our recently implemented Cost Management Mindset Initiative are expected to offset our reduced gross profit outlook in ingredient solutions in our Branded Spirits second quarter provision for credit loss. Adjusted basic ETFs for 2026 is still expected to be between $1.50 and $1.80, with weighted average shares outstanding remaining at approximately 21.4 million. We now expect our full-year 2026 effective tax rate will be approximately 23% due to a recent revision to 2025 Kansas State law, which resulted in a favorable revaluation of certain deferred tax liabilities. Turning to our balance sheet and cash flow outlook, we maintain our expectations for of 2026 operating cash flow of $50 million to $55 million and free cash flow of $30 million to $35 million. Both of these exclude the impact of the Penelope earn-out payment.

We anticipate our net leverage ratio will peak during the third quarter. We continue to estimate net whiskey put away in the $13 million to $18 million range for 2026, which includes both new production and procurement of barrels. From a business segment perspective, our four-year segment outlook for distilling solutions is consistent with previously shared estimates, with sales down approximately 35% and gross profit down approximately 40%. Our four-year sales outlook of $140 to $150 million for ingredient solutions reflects strong growth as we expect improved year-over-year reliability and throughput gains from our operational initiatives. However, due to increased waste start stream costs, we now anticipate ingredient solutions gross margins to be in the high single to low double digit range for the full year. Our full year segment outlook for branded spirits is unchanged as we continue to expect sales declines of mid single digits with slight gross margin improvement. To close, I'd like to reiterate Julie's previous comments.

As we move through the second half of 2026, we will maintain our strategic roadmap and continue to drive our key growth initiatives while prioritizing our best opportunities for growth. We won't stop taking the decisive actions that are key to the company's long-term growth, and we will continue to execute with discipline.

And with that, I'd like to turn it back over to Julie. Thank you, Brandon. Before we wrap up, I want to thank the entire MGP team for another quarter of execution, performance, impact, and care, and for their hard work and commitment to deliver against our strategic roadmap. This strategic roadmap is designed to drive growth across all three businesses. For our branded spirits, we will continue to focus on winning in the premium plus category with Penelope Bourbon, while strengthening our overall brand focus. We will prioritize our best performing brands and plan to rationalize approximately 47 percent of our product portfolio. We will also strive to increase our penetration in national accounts and to strengthen our digital marketing capabilities. For Distilling Solutions, we will remain focused on rebuilding our Asia Whiskey pipeline while broadening our premium white goods offerings to complement our brown goods portfolio.

We will also continue to work on attracting and retaining a wider pool of customers by growing our private label and international whiskey programs and by expanding our value-added service offerings. We are pleased to have an industry veteran join who is immediately engaging in the business and with customers. And for ingredient solutions, our efforts will remain focused on driving growth through our industry leading specialty fiber and specialty protein product offerings. We expect to continue our operational reliability, enhance inventory availability, and to make continuous improvements across the segment. Managing high waste disposal costs will remain a key priority for this business. Looking ahead, I'm encouraged by the progress we are making across our organization. As I stated earlier, our strategy remains grounded in focus, execution, discipline, and accountability.

We're actively evaluating all levers to operate more efficiently and effectively. While the industry outlet remains challenging, we're committed to addressing our challenges in order to position MGB to emerge as a better aligned and more resilient company that is capable of doing more. capable of delivering long-term value creation. And with that, I'd like to turn the call over to the operator for any questions.

We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then 1 on your touchtone phone. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, Please press star, then two. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. The first question comes from Seamus Cassidy with TD Cowan.

Go ahead. Spirits, you mentioned some strong innovation and distribution gains that help drive growth for some of your brands this quarter. So I guess two part question. One, would you characterize this quarter as above average in terms of innovation or is the pipeline fairly well balanced throughout the year? And then two, what's the runway for distribution expansion going forward? and I guess thus far, how have your teams sort of been successful in realizing these distribution gains? Thanks.

Seamus and Julie, the very first part of your question was cut off, so I just want to make sure that we have exactly what you said because you didn't start right away.

Yes, sorry, I was just saying strong innovation and distribution gains drove the growth. So I guess is this quarter above average in terms of innovation or is the pipeline fairly well balanced? Okay, got you. Well, first and foremost, appreciate you joining the call. And yes, this quarter we were.

We're certainly pleased with our brand spirits performance, really driven by our premium plus portfolio. Yes, we certainly did have innovation in the quarter. So it was a strong quarter on innovation, but we had strong quarter last year as well. If you recall, Penelope, I scripted marks, Penelope was up 13% in the quarter, and we were lapping 100% up last year. So very pleased with the team. we're demonstrating that we can cycle very good innovation with new innovation as well. And in the quarter, we did launch in Penelope two new core expressions, Kentucky straight bourbon and also everyday rye. And so now we have a core lineup, all of which are under $40 that we have to put on the shelves.

And then we'll continue to certainly spice in those limited time offerings that the Penelope core consumer certainly does appreciate. But I would say that innovation, we're pretty measured over the next couple quarters. And we did have a lot of innovation last year. So we're doing about, I'd say about 15% less innovation innovation, but again, it's better. It's, you know, we have digital investment behind it. And so we feel very bullish that the innovation that we are bringing to market is working. Ready to pours was another opportunity that we saw in the product roadmap that we weren't participating in as effectively as we should, and now we're up to seven, our four of which are in Penelope.

We did launch BlackBerry in the quarter as well. And so far those seven SKUs, we already have a 2.4 share. So certainly pleased with the performance. Great. And then just the runway for distribution expansion for the Branded Spirits portfolio. Yes, that's great. Yes, we certainly in the national and regional accounts, I think you've seen the numbers. We're very pleased with the expansion and what we're seeing there. And we do think there's more opportunity.

We did recently announce I would say a seasoned 30-plus year industry vet to come lead the national accounts. We do think that we're under indexed in both regional and national. So that runway certainly is there. And I think we've said before, we have anywhere between a 3x to 6x disadvantage in average number of items in national and regional. So we're certainly very pleased with the performance, but we certainly think there's a bigger runway to be had.

Great. Thank you. Next, we have Mark Tarente with Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning and thank you for the questions. First, this was another quarter of solid results versus expectations, yet you still reaffirmed the guide. You called out ingredient solutions costs as an offset. Any other changes to your outlook for the other segments or those progressing the plan?.

or are you thinking about cadence for the remainder of the year? Yes, I'll take the first part on that, Brandon, so I'll talk about cadence. But as you saw, Brandon Spheer, we certainly have confirmed our full segment outlook, and we've also done that with Distilling Solutions. And I would say on distilling solutions, you know, certainly the oversupply environment certainly is there, but we're certainly pleased to see some of the performance that we're able to still deliver. The team's doing a great job of managing operating expenses and also in talking to our customers, expanding our white goods, our premium white goods. white goods. And we're certainly pleased to have an industry veteran like Tom join us, you know, three different distilling solutions, multinational companies he's worked for, for our next chapter of of growth we've got our margins were in the mid 30s and we still expect that to be had in green solutions we did update that full segment outlook for the increased costs due to the west the waste stream disposal i'll tell you that we've always had in our full year segment outlook for ingredient solutions that the back half we were going to have you 20% more pounds. So as those pounds are a bit more costly on the waste disposal side, That's why we sequentially took down that performance. And I'll turn it over to Brandon for cadence.

Yes, as far as cadence goes, Mark,.

Depending on the segment, it can be a little different, We are, as typical with our business, Q4 will be stronger relative to Q3. And as we're working through the ingredients issues, which are more near end, we expect those to affect profitability in Q3 as well. So Q4 relatively stronger.

than Q3. Okay, I appreciate that. And then entering the year, it seemed you were cautiously optimistic 26 could be a bottom. You had also said that you hope to get some better visibility on key distilling customer needs for 26 and beyond at some point during Q2 or front half of the year.

Any updates here in terms of order outlook and maybe your ability to grow off the 26 base? Thanks. Yes, we'll certainly talk about, let's talk about distilling solutions visibility. I think that's a very good question. You know, Tom and Tina have recently had customers across across large multinational and also certainly the large and medium craft. And all the customers still remain very focused on reducing inventory. They're in an oversupply situation, preserving working capital rather than making new long-term distillate commitments. In addition, tighter inventory finance and availability of attractively priced age WISD continues to discourage new make purchases across most of the customer segments.

We do We remain very engaged. Our partnership approach is working with our customers. We'll continue to find opportunities through aged whiskey sales, private label. I think you heard some nice progress and some nice results from our new customer that we just launched in May, and also in premium good and white warehouse services. We're still very bullish on how well we are positioned at the end of this. And as we get through this very difficult time, that there'll be a few winners. And we think we're really we're positioned to be one of those.

But the market does continue to be driven by inventory rationalization at capital allocation discussions. We've seen a lot of good things happen. certainly, again, we reaffirmed our full year outlook, which is good. And I do want Brandon, and we do have some new TTV data that would have been launched recently. And I think it's important for Brandon to share that. Yes. And so TTV data was recently updated through March. So we got five incremental months of data recently. And the data supports that exact.

view, which is this is fundamentally an inventory rationalization cycle. On the production side, trillion 12 month, production is down roughly 28% year over year, which is we're now operating as an industry at the lowest run rate we've seen since 2018. On the demand side, we're – dumps for bottling in and others is down approximately 9%, not a great print. However, a lot of this we believe is being driven by weak export data in demand due to tariffs and international trade flows. The most encouraging thing within the data is inventory. Although they remain elevated, year over year inventory growth has been cut roughly in half. from what it was six months ago, which is an important signal that production cuts are beginning to work their way through the system. So overall, Mark, we view the data as supportive of a gradual rationalization scenario.

We don't yet see evidence of a sharp recovery, but we also don't see evidence that the industry conditions are deteriorating further. Finally, we're seeing a market that is slowly working through excess inventory, moving towards other routes over time.

The next question is from Sean McGowan with Roth Capital Partners. Please go ahead.

Thank you. I'd like to drill down a little bit more on the ingredient solution side. So can you talk about, you know, what is it that's holding up the improvement in margins.

and when would you expect to start to see some progress on on that year over year yes thanks i appreciate that yes uh here's here's what has improved reliability um As you know, there were significant opportunities as we closed down our Atchison Distillery in operating that facility with RISD. Good news is since March we have been able to produce the pounds that we expected. And again, in the back half, those pounds will be up over 20%. So that's the good news. The opportunity is obviously as we produce those pounds, the waste start stream disposal streams are more costly. The implementation costs and both the costs of disposing them are more costly. costly. We've made great progress on one of the work streams called affluent where we talked last time about sequentially improving that and that has gone down but But we do see this certainly this headwind, especially with the more cows produced in the second half. We do see this persisting to the end of the year and our full segment outlook does represent that.

And for 2027, our expectation, again, the same team that has improved the reliability, same team that is solving the fluent is the same team that has identified the different work streams that we can improve the other two different disposals. And so we expect, and I'd say by the end of the 2027, you can expect ending the year around the low 20s for the gross margin. And so certainly pleased with some performance, but not pleased with some of the other areas that we're encountering.

Okay, and if I can ask you to clarify something you said earlier. when you were talking about rationalizing brands. Yes. I think you said that the brands that have been rationalized accounted for 1% of sales. Did you mean 1% of branded spirit sales or 1% of total company sales? No, 1%, yes, that's a great question. No, just 1% of the segment sales. Sorry about that. 1% of the brand spirit sales. Yep. And listen, I do want, since you brought it up, I mean, certainly I'm,.

I mean, we said last time we were at 30, we targeted 45 and we're at 52. And as we've talked to our newest distributor partner in what's important on making sure that we can execute against our plan, certainly they're very pleased to see that we're focused on product portfolio, which we're very happy about. with their encouragement, it made us rethink that even more. And as we're seeing early proof points that when you focus on the main brands and provide the investment, we've got heavy investment on five, we've got mid investment on the mid five and then selective this investment, some of the value brands, when you're able to streamline the focus and the investment, we're seeing some nice results. So I appreciate that question, but we are pleased with some of the progress we're making there.

Thank you very much. The next question comes from Mitch Pinheiro with Sturtevant. Please go ahead.

Hey, good morning. I had a couple questions. So first, just a clarification. Brandon said on the barrel distillate, you still expect, and they put away between $13 and $18 million. Did I hear that correct? Yes.

That's correct, Mitch. So we're basically at the high point of the –.

of the barrel distillate inventory level? Is that- yes, that's correct. Is that fair to say? Yep, and if you go- Okay.

at last year, we fall at a very similar arc in that we strive for efficiencies and the front half, we we scheduled most of our put away. So this is going according to plan. Okay. And obviously this put away is for the branded business, correct? For both, branded and distilling. As you recall, last year we cut back a distilling put away all the way. And this year we're turning that back on to support our long-term strategy in support of our customers. And so it consists of both this year, Mitch.

Okay, and then you talk, and also I saw, you see the finished goods down. Is the finished goods down, is that...

Is that in the branded spirits business? Yes, much of that's going to be in the brand spirits business.

Okay. And then when you're looking on the branded business, The, obviously the focus has been on Yellowstone and I guess Penelope of course. Are you going to focus at all or how do you think about the Remus brand on the Ross & Squibb side and how that factors into the branded spirits?.

your outlook? Yes, listen, Remus brand is a fantastic brand that is well received by bourbon consumers. They love our our annual release, but it's a very, very small percent of our business. And certainly what we've noticed is having that limited time release and doing it at a frequency that those bourbon consumers are looking for. We think that's the right approach, given the quality of juice and the core consumer that's behind that, which is the highly engaged bourbon consumer. So that's the strategy there. And then certainly you can see we have very clear strategies for Premium Plus, Penelope, Yellowstone, El Mayor, and Rebel. And then selectively we're investing against mid in value and just to see some of the movement I mean, Mitch, Yellowstone is up 54% this past quarter. You know, a couple of different things.

One, yes, we had a limited time offering, the 250th US anniversary bottle came in a tube. It had the Statue of Liberty, seven year juice. So great juice that was well received. But last quarter, I spoke that we started testing our digital investments. Again, we ramped up. up both capabilities, the person running it gave a very, 15% of our A&P is now targeted towards digital. It was zero last year. And we tested two different markets on Yellowstone Select, California and Pennsylvania, and I shared they're up double digits. Good news is that momentum continues and we've actually expanded in another eight markets and we're seeing similar results.

So again, very pleased with the focus and attention we have our product portfolio, both streamlining it and then making sure that each brand, each product portfolio plays a role that should and is appropriately resourced.

The next question is from Ben Clive with Benchmark Phonics. Please go ahead.

All right, thanks for taking my questions and congratulations on a nice quarter here. First, I want to double click on the ingredient solutions dynamic. And I'm wondering if you can talk about kind of what the end objective is going to be here for this waste stream. Is your expectation that, you know, you're going to have less of the waste stream when improvements are made? more successfully be able to upcycle it, say, to the fuel plant, or just that your costs to get rid of it are going to decrease? And then also I'm wondering if the elevated cost associated with this dynamic this year is, how much of it is a mechanical issue or an operational one? Yes.

I just say on the three items that you said, what are the piece? Are we going to, where's it going to come from? It's going to come from all three, right? One, we're going to, you know, we have a new dryer, right. That we implemented. We did have the successful shutdown, you know, 100 different projects, a large piece of equipment, two large pieces of equipment in there, four miles of electrical cables underground to replace, and we came up on time, the team did a great job. So that dryer will help reduce it, right? So that's one. The second one is being more efficient and effective and where we're disposing of that. And then third, certainly we would expect... once we get class implementation, and I tell you, implementation of this type of facility, and really any facility, are 18 to 24 months. So we do know what the costs are, we know where they're ahead of our financial thesis, and the same team that has worked on getting the reliability back is the same team working on this, and we do have a roadmap on how to reduce those costs.

cost. Got it. Got it. Thank you, Julie. And then one other one for me, and I'll get back to you is I'm wondering if you can elaborate a bit on the ready to drink business that you're building here. And can you talk about how you are balancing the kind of innovation pipeline you have with introducing new flavors versus kind of stepping on the of existing flavors of products that are getting commercial traction and really leaning in on what you've already built. And maybe that's not a trade off, but I'm just curious how you're thinking about this balance so we can understand how significant this product is going to be later this year or next year.

Listen, it's a measured approach, right? We have a product portfolio that we streamline, which allows us to have attention or resource that each brand needs. We have a portfolio roadmap for both innovation and also optimization that is ongoing, it's not episodic. RTPs play a really important role. We're early days into it. I mean, 2.4% market share with just seven SKUs is pretty good, right? So we want to make sure that we're not just launching innovation and launch innovation. Our distributor partners and consumers want, you know, want one that they connect with and that are going to sell. And so by having being really mindful of not just launching a bunch of innovation, being purposeful, what's the right flavor, how is it differentiated. We're very focused on price package architecture.

All of these are below $30. There's 12 pours to a bottle. That's less than $3 a drink for a fantastic tasting drink. And I can tell you what, people are very enthused with both. the SKUs, the price point, and also how it connects with them. And it's not just in whiskey, it's also we've got, we certainly have some new flavors in espresso and really on those trends. So we're going to be thoughtful, but we also have a whole other piece of business, right? Our five focus brands, that we're going to make sure that we are innovating. The new alcohol consumer is drinking, right? But they do want moments, they want experiences, and they want to try different things.

And so ensuring that we continue to engage in that, certainly Penelope is a fantastic example of a highly engaged bourbon consumer who loves to try different things. Very excited about about Penelope expressions and Penelope drops. We're going to continue those drops and we're going to be very mindful of that. But then there's other areas like core. We didn't have a Kentucky straight bourbon. We didn't have an everyday rye. Those certainly play a role in any national brand.

So launching those and being very purposeful. Our price point. is below $40. In this value-minded world with consumers expecting value, that's a great price for grape juice. So we're being measured, we're being thoughtful, and we're being impactful.

Very good. That's really helpful overview, Julie. Thanks for taking my questions. Congratulations again and a good quarter, and I'll get back in queue.

Thank you. Thank you. This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Julie Francis for any closing remarks.

Thank you, everyone. We appreciate your engagement in our business and we look forward to talking again in the next quarter. Take care. Cheers.

The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

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

[Call has ended.]

Good morning, and welcome to the MGP Ingredients First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call with Julie Francis, President and CEO; and Brandon Gall, CFO. [Operator Instructions] Please also note that this event is being recorded today.

In addition, this call may involve certain forward-looking statements. The company's actual results could differ materially from any forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including the risk factors described in the company's annual and quarterly reports filed with the SEC. The company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made during the call, except as required by law.

This call will contain references to certain non-GAAP measures, which the company believes are useful in evaluating the company's performance. A reconciliation of these measures to the most comparable GAAP measures is included in today's earnings release, which was issued this morning before the markets opened and is available at www.mgpingredients.com.

At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Julie Francis, President and CEO of MGP Ingredients.

Good morning. I'd like to thank you all for joining us today on our first quarter 2026 earnings call. Let's kick it off with a review of some of our quarterly results and progress made against our key initiatives, and then Brandon can go into the financial metrics during his comments.

Sales in the first quarter of 2026 came in at $106.4 million, down versus the prior year, but in line with our expectations. Adjusted EBITDA of $15 million and adjusted basic EPS of $0.15 also declined versus the first quarter of last year. However, both of these key metrics were ahead of expectations. We are pleased with this performance as it helps to validate the work we've been doing to drive progress in our business while simultaneously navigating a challenging industry backdrop.

In the first quarter, we continue to focus our energy on the areas we can control and to sharpen our strategic focus and strengthen execution across the organization. For Branded Spirits, we maintained momentum in our Premium Plus portfolio in the first quarter, which was led by Penalty Bourbon and benefited from improved demand for select mid-price offerings. We also delivered solid growth in Ingredient Solutions as the improvement the team has made in operational reliability are taking hold and delivering results.

While I plan to talk more about our segment performance later, I'd like to share a few recent actions we have taken. As you know, we've been strengthening and revamping our strategy, marketing and supply chain functions in order to add specific capabilities to address new and existing opportunities and to build out best-in-class processes designed to balance improved commercial planning while driving disciplined execution and long-term success. As part of these efforts, we recently announced there will be a temporary idling of our distilling operations in Kentucky at Limestone Branch and Lux Row starting in May.

Like many companies across the industry, we are navigating this challenging environment and taking the steps we believe are necessary to better align our operations and inventory. While this temporary idling will unfortunately affect 33 employees, it is not expected to impact the availability of our products or our services to our customers, and it is necessary to adjust our production to align with current inventory levels. We'd like to remind everyone that our largest facility in Lawrenceburg, Indiana remains fully operational and will continue to operate to serve our brands, clients and customers.

Shifting to our business segments. I'll begin with Branded Spirits, which remains a focus as our primary long-term growth driver. As expected, first quarter sales were down year-over-year. However, we continue to see constructive progress, particularly within the Premium Plus and mid-priced tiers. We view these price tiers as critical to the long-term health of our portfolio, and we are pleased to see they both saw growth in the quarter. Importantly, gross margin expanded 180 basis points to 47.8%, reflecting improved mix and early benefits from our revenue growth management initiatives.

Gross profit of $21.1 million was down versus the prior year and primarily driven by an expected decline in sales of private label products within our other category. Premium Plus sales increased 1.5%, supported by continued consumer demand for our differentiated high-quality offerings and the increasing effectiveness of our focused growth strategies. Penelope Bourbon once again delivered strong performance with sales up 10% year-over-year.

As you recall, this brand is cycling the highly successful launch of Penelope weeded in the first quarter of last year. Even against this comparison, we saw growth driven by sustained and growing momentum in our core SKU Penelope Four Grain, along with strong consumer response to limited time releases such as Havana, Rio and American Light whiskey. We are also encouraged by the early traction from our new ready-to-pour offerings, including our black walnut and apple cinnamon old-fashioned products, which continue to expand Penelope's consumption occasions.

Turning to Yellowstone. Despite a year-over-year decline for the first quarter, we are seeing early signs of stabilization and recovery, supported by deliberate investments in innovation and digital capabilities. Our ultra-premium limited release Yellowstone recollection has been exceptionally well received, earning strong critical acclaim and press coverage with consumer demand exceeding our initial expectations.

As discussed in our last earnings call, we continue to increase our investment in digital marketing and media capabilities. Yellowstone is the first brand we've deployed a fully integrated digital activation strategy, combining best-in-class social media execution with targeted paid media in focus states, including select control states. In Pennsylvania and California, for example, this approach, combined with revenue growth management initiatives drove robust double-digit growth for Yellowstone in the first quarter versus the prior year.

Turning to tequila, where our El Mayor brand delivered year-over-year growth, driven by continued progress in price pack architecture efforts. This included expanded 1.75-liter offerings and the introduction of 375-milliliter sizes as consumers increasingly adopt premium tequila across a broader range of occasions and price points. Similarly, Exotico tequila was up strong double digits, fueled by the addition of a 1-liter offering, which is enabling continued gains in on-premise distribution alongside price optimization. Additionally, the 375-milliliter size is allowing consumers to trade up from mixed tequila to high-quality 100% agave tequila at an attractive price point in off-premise channels.

For mid- and value priced portfolios, combined sales declined 3% in the first quarter. These are improving trends as we continue to prioritize our strongest performing SKUs and channels. Revenue growth management and price pack channel optimization remain critical levers in these categories, and we are encouraged by early results as we execute against this strategy. Looking ahead, we are intentionally concentrating resources behind approximately 10 of our most promising brands with a clear focus on purposeful differentiation and innovation to support sustainable long-term growth.

At the same time, we are managing the portfolio with discipline. As discussed on our prior call, we have initiated comprehensive portfolio review and rationalization. During the first quarter of 2026, we discontinued more than 30 tail brands with approximately 15 additional brands planned to be discontinued by the end of this year. Combined, these brands represent approximately 1% of segment net sales, and we expect, when annualized, will represent an estimated 20 basis point of improvement to the segment's gross margin profile.

For our Branded Spirits segment, we are excited about the opportunities ahead across our broader portfolio. As with all growth trajectories, we will take many steps forward, some bigger and some smaller. We also will likely alternate between some really healthy quarters and some softer ones as we continue to successfully prioritize our best-performing offerings and ramp up our investments in these brands while continuing to cycle new product introductions.

Turning to Distilling Solutions, where despite the challenging domestic whiskey supply environment, our first quarter results came in as expected. Segment sales of $28 million decreased 40% over year, while gross profit of $8.6 million declined 54% as elevated inventory levels continued. In the first quarter, we maintained our focus on creating a differentiated value proposition to better position MGP as a long-term strategic partner for both large and small customers.

Our grounded customers expansion efforts are taking hold as demonstrated by growth of 9% in aged sales and the addition of more than 20 new customers in the first quarter, including a significant national private label whiskey customer. We are proud of the customer expansion progress we are making, particularly given the current industry backdrop. As discussed on our last earnings call, we are also broadening our premium white goods offerings, and these efforts are focused on complementing our brown goods portfolio.

During the quarter, we transacted our first customer sale under this new highly customized initiative. While we are pleased with the progress we are making, given the unique and highly customized nature of these product offerings, these projects will take time to fully commercialize and scale. That said, we now expect growth from this initiative to begin picking up in the second half of this year.

Our focus on premium white goods is designed to leverage the scale, heritage and quality of our Indiana distillery to produce premium gin and grain neutral spirits, which can then be customized to meet each customer-specific needs. We expect that this effort will allow us to move beyond commoditized offerings, generate more attractive economics and better asset utilization rates and also serve as a bridge to longer-term and deeper relationships with strategic customers.

Our efforts are also focused on driving cash generation by increasing our value-added service offerings as we look to attract and retain a wider pool of customers. Warehouse services made up approximately 30% of our Distilling Solutions segment sales in the first quarter, and both sales and gross profit were up versus the prior year.

Turning now to our Ingredient Solutions segment, where sales of $34.2 million increased 29% versus the prior year. This growth was primarily driven by higher sales volume, price and mix for our specialty wheat proteins and starches. Gross profit of $3.8 million was up 56% with gross margin of 11.2%, up nearly 200 basis points as higher sales of specialty protein and starch products were partially offset by higher waste disposal costs. This successful first quarter was driven by continued improvements in operational reliability with each month better than the past one.

For the quarter, efficiency was up 14% year-over-year with a slower start to the year firmly offset by a solid March. We plan to continue to move towards greater efficiency as we improve overall and as we begin to cycle previous throughput issues. In fluid disposal has been more complex and more costly than initially projected. Reducing waste and disposal costs are a key priority, and we're implementing additional measures by year-end and continue to expect to remove these costs over the long term.

At the end of the second quarter and into the third, we have a planned shutdown for scheduled maintenance and capital projects designed to further improve reliability and throughput and to provide some relief in our waste stream disposal costs. Brandon will share the related financial impacts in a moment. Despite the affluent challenge, we are moving in the right direction ingredient Solutions. We are pleased with the momentum as better operational reliability means we have more product to sell. And this is key as we continue to see increasing demand for our proprietary and unique products. We will remain focused on driving growth through our specialty fiber. Fibersym, our specialty protein Arise and our extrusion protein, ProTerra.

Now I'd like to highlight the progress we are making in driving an ownership cost management mindset that is supporting growth and our bottom line by eliminating waste, driving efficiencies and maximizing effectiveness. One reinvestment example of this is the work we completed to streamline marketing services and to reduce our nonworking media spend while reinvesting those savings into our Yellowstone digital marketing programs.

Going forward, we will continue to reinforce this mindset by embedding productivity and cost discipline into our operating routines, performance management and compensation metrics. Productivity and a cost management focus are becoming a part of our regular management teams, helping us to uncover and track opportunities to eliminate waste and driving us to operate more efficiently and effectively across the entire organization.

And with that, I'd like to turn the call over to Brandon.

Thank you, Julie. Turning now to our financial results. For the first quarter of 2026, we reported consolidated sales of $106 million. While sales decreased 13% compared to the year ago period, they were in line with expectations. Gross profit of $33.6 million was down 22%, while gross margin of 31.6% declined by approximately 400 basis points.

Our total SG&A spend declined by approximately 1% in the first quarter, while adjusted SG&A declined by approximately 2%. As expected, Branded Spirits advertising and promotion expenses or 13.6% of Branded Spirits sales, a reduction of approximately 24% year-over-year as we cycled the final period of elevated marketing spend prior to our current, more disciplined and efficient realignment efforts. We continue to expect full year Branded Spirits sales A&P to be 13% to 14% of Branded Spirits sales.

Net income decreased to a loss of $134.8 million, primarily due to a discrete noncash adjustment of $179.5 million to reduce the carrying amount of goodwill and other long-lived assets in the Branded Spirits segment. This also included approximately $27 million for equipment unrelated to the distillation process at our Lux Row facility in Kentucky. Adjusted net income of $3.3 million decreased 57% on a year-over-year basis. On a per share basis, we had a loss of $6.30 for the first quarter versus a loss of $0.14 in the prior year, primarily due to the adjustments I just noted.

On an adjusted basis, earnings per share of $0.15 decreased 58% year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA of $15 million decreased 31% over the same period. Capital expenditures declined 75% to $2 million in the first quarter, and we continue to estimate CapEx of approximately $20 million for the full year as we look to optimize our capital deployment in the current industry environment. Finally, as of March 31, our net debt leverage ratio was approximately 2.1x.

Turning to annual guidance for 2026, which we are reaffirming. We continue to expect net sales between $480 million to $500 million. Adjusted EBITDA is projected to range from $90 million to $98 million. This is consistent with previous expectations as the efficiencies and savings from our recently implemented ownership cost management mindset initiative is expected to offset our reduced gross profit outlook in Ingredient Solutions. Our adjusted basic earnings per share range remains between $1.50 and $1.80 and average shares outstanding should be approximately 21.4 million shares for the full year. Our annual tax rate is expected to be approximately 27%.

Turning to our balance sheet and cash flow outlook. As Julie shared, the decision to temporarily idle our Kentucky distilling operations beginning in May was difficult. However, given the current environment, it is an additional example of the capital prudence necessary to position us for long-term success. As a result, we expect full year improvement in cash flows of $10 million versus previous expectations.

Excluding the impact of the Penalty earn-out payment, we now anticipate 2026 full year operating cash flow of $50 million to $55 million and free cash flows of $30 million to $35 million. We also anticipate an improvement in our net leverage ratio as a result of the temporary idling and expect it to peak at approximately 3.5x, down from the 3.75x figure we provided on our fourth quarter earnings call.

We continue to estimate net whiskey putaway in the $13 million to $18 million range for 2026, which represents our second consecutive year of meaningful capital investment optimization and stewardship. This target includes both new production and procurement of barrels and is consistent with prior expectations as much of the temporary idling was factored into the previously provided outlook.

From a business segment perspective, our full year segment outlook for Distilling Solutions sales and gross profit is consistent with previously shared estimates. However, our white goods sales outlook for 2026 has been reduced and is now expected to be up mid-single digits, largely due to the time needed to fully commercialize and scale these customized new projects. Much of this reduction is expected to be offset by improved sales within other product lines.

Our full year sales outlook for Ingredient Solutions is consistent with previously shared estimates. However, we now expect full year segment gross margins to be in the mid-teens as a result of the increased ethylene costs and planned shutdown at the end of the second quarter and into the third quarter. Our full year segment outlook for Branded Spirits is unchanged from previously shared estimates.

To close, I'd like to stress Julie's comments regarding our performance to date as it helps to validate the work we've been doing to drive progress in our business while simultaneously navigating a challenging industry backdrop.

And with that, I'd like to turn the call back over to Julie.

Thank you, Brandon. Before we wrap up, I want to thank the entire MGP team for another quarter of persistence, dedication and hard work and for the commitment to executing against our strategic road map. This strategic road map is designed to drive growth across all 3 businesses.

For our Branded Spirits, we will continue to focus on winning in the Premium Plus category with Penelope Bourbon while strengthening our overall brand focus. We will prioritize our best-performing brands and plan to rationalize approximately 20% of our tail brands. We will also strive to increase our penetration in national accounts and to strengthen our digital marketing capabilities. For Distilling Solutions, we will remain focused on rebuilding our aged whiskey pipeline while broadening our premium white goods offerings to complement our brown goods portfolio.

We will also continue to work on attracting and retaining a wider pool of customers by growing our private label and international whiskey programs and by expanding our value-added service offerings. And for Ingredient Solutions, our efforts will remain focused on driving growth through our industry-leading specialty fiber and specialty protein product offerings. We'll also continue to implement new processes to help return to operational excellence and improve reliability and throughput. In addition, managing high waste disposal costs will remain a key priority for this segment.

Looking ahead, I'm encouraged by the progress we are making across our organization. As I stated earlier, our strategy remains grounded focus, execution, discipline and accountability. We're actively evaluating all available levers to operate more efficiently and effectively. While the industry outlook remains challenging over the near term, we are committed to addressing our challenges in order to position MGP to emerge as a better aligned and more resilient company that is capable of delivering long-term value creation.

And with that, I'd like to turn the call over to the operator for any questions.

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Robert Moskow with TD Cowen.

This is Seamus on for Rob. I was hoping you guys could provide a little bit more detail on sort of the early learnings from your portfolio review in Branded Spirits and I guess, what approach you took to this review. You mentioned the investment in Yellowstone and 10 brands in total. I guess what went into the decision to invest in these brands? And I guess, secondly, does rationalizing tail brands have any impact on sort of like capacity or distributor alignment or any considerations there?

It's Julie, thanks so much. Appreciate it. Let's try -- let's do this SKU conversation first. As you've read, we did discontinue over 20 -- excuse me, over 30 tail brands in Q1 with expected another 15 by year-end. We are seeing that, that's approximately 1% of our segment net sales. And when we analyze it, we expect 20 basis points of improvement. We do see some learnings, as you said. The learnings are that these weren't highly visible brands in the market, but they consume resources.

And so you think about it, there's changeover configurations, there's glass containers, there's liquid that we had. So it does improve line efficiency. It provides more line time for core SKUs, and we do have a few that are growing quite nicely. And the main impact is really inventory reduction. We're reducing working capital over $2.5 million and other logistics supply chain costs like warehouse and storage.

From a distributor focus, it doesn't take away their focus. If anything, I'd have to say is that it's allowed them with our partnership approach this year of really targeting our top 10 brands for them to focus their execution, focus their activation on. We're seeing some nice momentum in their planning and both in their execution in Q1. And I'd say from a kind of shifting there to a power brands, the 10, how do we do it? I think you might recall, we did bring in new capabilities about 6 months ago to lead the marketing organization. And so as you can imagine, it's been a robust 6 months.

First and foremost, doing comprehensive reviews of our top 2 portfolios, which are American whiskey and tequila. So you can think about the positioning, where the brands stand for, consumer segments, competitive sets, key occasions, price pack architecture, A&P allotment, any overlap from the robust portfolio that we have that we're blessed with in American Whiskey and the same for tequila. And from that, you really come out with those key brands and then a strategic road map for investment and for execution.

We then kind of put a what we call a brand growth framework around those brands to make sure that they're selectively being pushed and executed and invested against a couple of key areas. One, it's about kind of mental availability and think about -- you referenced digital. Think about reaching out to more consumers through increased paid media, our ability to target those geo segments that we want based on ZIP codes. It's about having the right and dynamic content, the right message to the right consumer, the right channel at the right time.

And then it's physical availability, right? How are we going to increase our pods, our distribution, our velocities across all accounts. In particular, you've heard us talk about national account expansion and opportunities across off-premise and on-premise. And so increasing store visibility and execution remains a goal. And one of the heavy-up areas we did focus on is elevating our digital media capabilities. And so we've doubled the investment there. We've brought a highly capable, high expertise into the team.

We've also tested in-house digital media. So as you heard in my prepared comments, Yellowstone was our first test and learn. We did a couple of states. Within those states, we're seeing a nice turnaround for Yellowstone select up double digits. And that's really around both media and pricing heavy up in those markets and really tied to targeting those ZIP codes to actually purchase Yellowstone. So we're pleased with the results. It's early days, but you can see that type of approach going to our other focus brands as well.

The next question comes from Sean McGowan with ROTH Capital Partners.

I wanted to get a little bit more color on some of your gross margin comments. Well first, specifically to clear up, when you're talking about the 20 basis point improvement, is that on a run rate basis as you exit the year? Or is that for the full year?

Yes, that's a run rate annualized basis. So the impacts we mentioned, Sean, and thank you for the question, won't necessarily all hit in 2026. However, what is going to hit is factored into our guidance and can be expected on an annualized basis going forward.

Okay. And that's just within Branded Spirits, right? That's correct. Okay. And then on the ingredients side, so would you expect that by the end of the year, you would kind of be back to where you thought you would be on gross margin? Or is this hit going to linger into next year?

Yes. No, thanks for the question. First, I do want to say we are pleased with the operational reliability improvements we've sequentially made as the year has started. Our downtime is -- and we're more efficient by 14%. And really, what's driving that is our unplanned equipment outages have reduced since December by 10 basis -- or excuse me, 10 points and also throughput improvements are up 18%. So operational reliability has allowed us to obviously get more pounds out.

We have robust consumer demand for our proprietary platforms across starch and fiber. And so you saw that with our -- certainly with our sales number. So more to sell, more reliable. And the gross margin is being impacted by affluent. We talked about that before. And we are -- we do expect starting in the second -- the end of the second quarter with our planned shutdown that's going to cross over the end of Q2 into Q3.

We expect to bring in a piece of equipment that a third dryer that's going to help us eliminate some of that affluent. So we expect that impact to sequentially go down by the end of the year and cut it in half. And so by the time we end the year, we expect mid-teens on gross margin. And then again, as I stated before, by the end of 2027, we expect that to be into the high 20s.

Okay. And then on distilling, is that the commentary that you made about white goods maybe coming a little bit slower and offset though by other products. What are the gross margin implications for that shift?

Yes. We're still expecting, Sean, low to mid-30s gross margins for the Distilling Solutions segment. As we said in our prepared remarks, those sales are expected to be offset by other product lines within the segment and business unit. And so we're staying consistent with what we said last time.

The next question comes from Marc Torrente with Wells Fargo.

I guess first on Distilling Solutions. Last quarter, you talked about discussions with larger customers to take shape through the second quarter and potentially provide some color on the 2026 outlook and beyond. Wondering if you had any incremental color there? What are you hearing in terms of customer needs and timing to demand inflection? And any further comfort that 2026 could be a bottom?

Yes. Thanks Marc. Thank you. I appreciate that. I'll start with kind of the end. We do continue to view that 2026 will likely be a trough year for Distilling Solutions. Nothing we saw in Q1 necessarily changed that view. I'd tell you, we still are very pleased with our partnership approach that we've enacted. We believe it's working.

Our conversation with customers remain active. They're pragmatic. They're constructive. Inventory levels across the industry are still elevated, but we're certainly seeing customers move from a posture of broad pauses to much more targeted planning discussions. And importantly, those conversations are increasingly focused on how they want to reengage product types and customization services, not necessarily if.

We still do expect clarity as we move through the end of Q2, which is consistent with what we said previously from some of those multinationals on where they stand in their cycle. While the overall cycle, we think, is normalizing and will take time to normalize, we believe that we're going to exit this period stronger. better customer relationships with our more differentiated offering than before. And so again, we certainly will keep your abreast as we have those conversations, but not so many things have changed since the last time we talked.

Okay. And then just more color on the decision to idle distilling in Kentucky. Was there anything incremental you're seeing in the market that drove that decision during the quarter? And then what percent of your overall distilling capacity does that represent? And how much of that is for your own brands versus outside brands? And it doesn't really sound like that has any impact to your outlook for distilling sales or branded product availability.

Okay, Marc. No, good. I'll start the has no impact on either brand or distilling. And then I'd just say our decision to temper and idle our Kentucky distilling operations really impacts a modest portion of our total distilling capacity. And it really was driven by inventory alignment, not customer demand disruption. Most of the pause production was intended for future age inventory for our own brands rather than near-term customer commitments. As you recall, in 2025, I think we did a very nice job of really balancing our distilling solutions production to the sales impact. We had significant production reduction to more balance within our needs in the industry reset.

And also, as you know, it meaningfully reduced our fixed costs, and we're able to optimize production schedules and still hit into the 30s. We thought it was very prudent to do the same thing for our brand spirits. And once we did -- once we were able to hit our 2026 production needs that were met for our brands and for any of our customers, we did choose to idle that. And we announced that, as you know. And Brandon, I don't know if you want to clean up any impact to that idling to some of the balance sheet.

Yes. We showed the balance sheet and cash flow benefits. This is -- as Julie said, this is inventory-driven and working capital driven and us just being good stewards to the balance sheet. And as far as operations and the impact to the income statement, these costs that we incur there because they're primarily for our branded spirits put away, these are -- have historically been capitalized and so show up later in the income statement. But -- so we don't expect much of -- on an adjusted basis, much of an impact to operating margins, et cetera.

The next question comes from Ben Klieve with Lake Street Capital Markets.

A couple for me. First of all, in your prepared remarks, you talked about onboarding 20 new customers in the -- I can't remember if you said that was the Branded Spirits segment collectively or brown goods specifically. But I'm wondering if you can talk about kind of who this new customer base is, the extent to which these are aged versus new customers? And then kind of in this difficult environment, kind of how this really came about and kind of where they were sourcing from historically, if you can provide any context there?

Ben, yes, thanks for that question. Yes, we're pleased. Again, our partnership approach is working, and I kind of want to step back from the top of the funnel. You've probably heard of us talk about we believe the addressable market is around 1,000 customers in which we've been targeting the last couple of years, really engaging in some data, we've been able to address -- define an addressable total market of 4,000. And so we've allocated them out to our sales team who is, I would say, very adverse now on our differentiated value proposition and bringing that to life to our customers.

And they've had some hits. 75% of that pool was really new-to-industry customers and then 25% -- approximately 25% was sourced from competitors. Broadly speaking, these are brown goods, typically aged purchases. I think some of it is -- the team has done a nice job of really ensuring that the broader market and consumers and customers know that we're open for business. The craftsmanship that you get at MGP for brown and for white goods, we've got different mash builds.

We've got different ability to finish barrels. And we also have capabilities to do all sorts of sizes. And I think before, number one, they might not have heard of MGP that we actually do, do smaller batches. And some of these customers certainly are the ones that are hearing it and calling us surprise and they thought they had to go a different route to get our quality juice.

Very good. That's helpful. One more for me on the tax line. So 27% rate on a full year basis. Wondering if you can help us understand your expectations around cash taxes given the noncash expenses in the first quarter.

Yes. The OCM initiative that we highlighted on this call and last call, which is ownership cost mindset management is taking effect all across the organization and up and down the P&L. And the cash taxes are being optimized from an outflow and timing standpoint as much as possible. And so those benefits are going to be felt there. We still are expecting, excluding the impact of the impairment, around for the year, knowing that Q1 was going to be a little bunky because of a couple of discrete things that took place. But the cash management mindset is in full force. And so we're going to mitigate that as much as possible throughout the course of the year.

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Julie Francis for any closing remarks.

Thank you. I just want to say thank you on behalf of the entire MGP team, we thank you for your continued confidence and support. We look forward to talking to you in the next quarter. Take care.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

Good day and welcome to the MGP Ingredients Fourth Quarter 2025 Financial Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Amit Sharma, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to MGP's fourth quarter earnings conference call. I'm Amit Sharma, Vice President of Investor Relations. And this morning, I'm joined on the call by Julie Francis, our Chief Executive Officer; and Brandon Gall, Chief Financial Officer. We'll begin the call with management's prepared remarks and then open to questions.

Before we begin, this call may involve certain forward-looking statements. The company's actual results could differ materially from any forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including the risk factors described in the company's reports filed with the SEC. The company yields no obligations to update any forward-looking statements made during the call, except as required by law.

Additionally, this call will contain references to certain non-GAAP measures, which we believe are useful in evaluating the company's performance. A reconciliation of these measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures is included in today's earnings release, which was issued this morning before the markets open and is available on our website at www.mgpingredients.com.

At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Julie for her opening remarks.

Thank you, Amit, and good morning, everyone. As we close out 2025, I want to start with a clear message. We are doing what we said we would do. We made progress on each of the 5 initiatives, and we finished the year above the top end of our guidance. The operating backdrop remains challenging for the spirits industry, and we recognize that 2026 is likely to be another down year for the industry and our company. That said, we are increasingly optimistic about MGP's future. Our confidence is grounded in 3 things.

First, our ability to deliver sustained growth off of our 2026 guidance expectations, which has been accelerated by our proactive self-help actions. Second, our new found strategic clarity, prioritizing our right to win, which we believe will also position us for solid and sustainable growth. And third, our financial strength which in this environment is a competitive advantage of increasing magnitude.

As I mentioned on our last call, we undertook an exhaustive review of our businesses to create a clear strategic road map for the next phase of our growth. This was a well-defined process grounded in an objective, data-driven assessment. We have since shifted from broad strategic discussions to a clear enterprise road map, including an organizational structure aligned to the strategic priorities of our business to further enhance our right to win. Strategy and structure are critical, but having the right talent and processes to execute with discipline is what we believe will lead to our ultimate success and sustainable growth. To that end, we recently announced organizational changes across our senior leadership teams. These are difficult decisions, but align with our strategic road map and position the company for long-term success.

On our last call, I shared the hiring of our new Chief Marketing Officer and Senior Vice President of Operations. Since then, we've also added a Senior Vice President of Strategy and Insights. Each of these leaders brings to MGP track records of success and global best practices. In the coming quarters, they will be the tip of spear of building out best-in-class processes that are designed to enable disciplined execution and long-term success.

Let me now provide a brief overview of our fourth quarter and full year results before outlining key elements of our strategic road map and the progress we are making against our key initiatives in each business. Our fourth quarter and full year 2025 results came in ahead of our expectations as the teams continue to act with diligence and focus. For the fourth quarter, consolidated sales declined 23% compared to a year ago. As double-digit sales growth in our Premium Plus portfolio was more than offset by the expected declines in the rest of our business. Adjusted EBITDA declined to [ $26 million ], while adjusted basic earnings per share reached $0.63. For the full year, we delivered consolidated sales, adjusted EBITDA and adjusted basic EPS of $536 million, $116 million and $2.85. Despite lower earnings, operating cash flows for the year increased by 19% to $122 million. Brandon will provide more detail on our financial results and 2026 guidance, but let me touch on the overall environment and our key initiatives that will shape our results over the next year.

At the broader level, the spirits industry has historically shown great resilience across economic cycles and periods of consumer behavioral changes. While we are confident about the long-term outlook for the industry, we expect near-term category trends to remain below historical levels. Consumer sentiment and spending remain under pressure, with competition from spending for online gambling, gaming and from cannabis-infused beverages, as well as an increased focus on health and well-being impacting consumer behavior. While we expect the near term to remain challenging, we are starting to see some encouraging signs, including a more balanced public conversation around alcohol, and its role in social settings and an overall well-being.

The recently released U.S. dietary guidelines placed greater emphasis on moderation and individual occasions for alcohol consumption rather than the no safe level guidance of the past. As we know, across generation, culture and geographies, shared moments and occasions of celebrations have included a drink among families and friends. In addition, a recent study from the American Heart Association concluded that low levels of alcohol consumption may not increase cardiovascular risk. The shift in overall tone is constructive and reinforces our long-term confidence in the category. But these developments are not expected to drive an immediate inflection in industry trends and our 2026 outlook does not assume a return to historical growth rates for the overall industry.

Shifting to our Branded Spirits segment. We believe this segment will continue to be our primary growth engine and the foundation of our long-term value creation strategy. In 2025, we executed well against our initiatives to concentrate on more attractive growth opportunities. Our Nielsen reported sales growth for the 52 weeks period ending December 27 came largely in line with the category, while our Premium Plus sales growth outperformed the overall category by 900 basis points during that same time period. As we look ahead, our focus here is clear. Win in the Premium Plus category with Penelope bourbon, strengthened our focus brands, increased penetration in national accounts, and strengthen our digital marketing capabilities.

Penelope is a key driver within this strategy. While Premium Plus American whiskey [ Listen ], reported dollar sales declined 3.5% during the 52-week period ending December 27, Penelope's reported dollar sales increased by 80%, making it the second fastest-growing brand during this time period among the top 30 Premium Plus American whiskey brands. This growth is fueled by innovation and distribution gains. With Penelope [indiscernible] cocktails being two of our biggest new product launches in 2025. These products were very well received and helped deliver a 100% growth in points of distribution, and a 12% increase in velocity. Our focus is on sustaining this ongoing momentum while strengthening our core by making incremental targeted investments designed to drive brand awareness, improving in-store execution and filling distribution gaps.

Beyond Penelope, we have a portfolio of high-quality brands, evidenced by Yellowstone and Luxco's inclusion in whiskey advocates prestigious top 20 whiskeys of 2025. We are the only company to have 2 brands in this year's top 20 list. This external validation reinforces the strength across our portfolio and highlights the unrealized potential of a focused portfolio. To achieve this potential, we have established a comprehensive cross-functional portfolio management review process, which will take a deeper look at the long tail of our Brand Spirits portfolio, reduce complexity and rationalize SKUs and brands.

As a first step, we are targeting a rationalization of 20% of the portfolio's tail brands. We believe this new rigorous portfolio review process will help us make even clear decisions about where we invest and where we protect to better position our brands across targeted consumer segments, channels, price points and consumption occasions.

Another key priority for the Brand Spirits segment is to increase our penetration in national accounts across both retail and on-premise accounts. We believe that having a greater presence with these customers not only creates additional distribution opportunities but also drives greater scale, visibility and recognition of our brands. Our continued commitment to invest behind our most attractive growth opportunities underpins these initiatives. We ended the year with Branded Spirits A&P spend at 12.5% of segment sales and expect it to increase modestly in 2026 to roughly 13.5%. We are also prioritizing investing in digital media, analytics and tools designed to drive awareness and consideration for our key brands, to bring greater discipline to how we track and improve brand health and allow us to connect more precisely with consumers around specific consumption occasions and social moments.

Our Distillery Solutions segment saw sales and profitability reset in 2025 as many large customers pause purchases in an effort to balance their whiskey inventories and manage working capital. Full year 2025 sales and gross margin declined significantly from 2024, but came in modestly ahead of our expectations. As our initiatives to strengthen our partnership with key customers led to improved visibility and alignment, we continue to stay close to these customers and expect to gain good clarity on their brown good needs for 2026 and beyond towards the end of the second quarter.

Overall domestic whiskey production continues to decline sharply, and we continue to see media reports about closing or idle distilleries. According to the latest available [ TTP ] data through October of 2025, domestic whiskey production was down 26%, 29% and 27% for the trailing 12-, 6- and 3-month periods. In this environment, we are focused on creating a differentiated value proposition to better position MGP as a long-term strategic partner for both large and small customers. That means broadening our premium white good offerings to complement our brown goods portfolio, rebuilding our aged whiskey pipeline, and attracting and retaining a wider pool of customers by offering greater value-added services.

Our increasing focus on premium white goods is designed to leverage the scale, heritage and quality of our Indiana distillery to produce premium gin and GNS spirits that are customized for our customers. This would allow us to move beyond commoditized offerings to not just generate more attractive economics and better asset utilization, but also serve as a bridge to longer-term, deeper relationships with strategic customers.

With respect to our aged whiskey strategy, producing and storing various vintages and mash bills is critical. And after taking a pause in 2025, we are committed to prudently building our aged whiskey offerings. MGP is one of the few distillers with the technical depth and operational expertise to consistently produce high-quality whiskey at precise specifications of our customers and that capability continues to differentiate ourselves. Our focus is broadening our customer base, better leveraging the depth of our aging whiskey inventories and capturing a greater share of aging whiskey sales. We also see meaningful opportunities to expand each whiskey sales to both domestic and international private label whiskey customers, an area that has historically been underpenetrated for our brown goods business.

While the industry-wide aged whiskey [indiscernible] is unlikely to improve meaningfully in the near term, the strategic repositioning of our Distillery Solutions business and the actions initiated by our team give us confidence that our [ distilling ] solutions segment sales and profitability will approach trough levels in 2026.

Turning to our Ingredient Solutions business. As expected, the outage of a key piece of equipment that impacted Q3 results remained a sales and profit headwind in the fourth quarter. The equipment came back online in the last part of November as planned. As I look ahead, I continue to draw confidence as our agreed solution business continues to enjoy consumer-driven tailwinds. Commercially, we continue to focus on driving growth through our 3 core platforms, [indiscernible] fiber with Fibersym, specialty protein with [indiscernible] and extrusion protein through ProTerra. Each of these platforms serve large and growing end markets. Consumer demand for high protein and high fiber products remain strong, and we are leveraging our R&D and innovation capabilities to make MGP an even more integral part of our key customer supply chain.

In our texture protein business, the continued commercialization of a large multinational customer is a clear example of our ability to build strategic, growing and sustainable relationships with leading food companies. With the commercial demand side of Ingredient Solutions on solid footing, our focus remains squarely on the supply side and returning to operational excellence. To that end, we are adding people, increasing capital investment and implementing new processes to return operational execution back to historical levels. As a result, we are seeing early signs that these efforts are paying off in the form of reduced unplanned outages and more consistent throughput. This improved reliability gives us confidence to deliver strong double-digit growth in segment sales and improved gross margins in 2026.

As I have set more time focusing on this business, it's become clear that lease treatment and disposal is more complex and more costly than initially expected. The commercialization of the biofuel plant along with our other waste stream handling initiatives is helping to reduce these costs. But a portion of these costs will persist in the near to medium term, and is reflected in our full year guidance. Managing high disposal costs remains a key priority. We are evaluating additional measures and continue to expect to remove these costs over the long term.

Finally, I want to highlight the progress we are making on our enterprise-wide [indiscernible] agenda, which was one of our 5 key initiatives in 2025. We are proud of our teams for delivering against all of our '25 [indiscernible] and more importantly, productivity is becoming embedded in how we operate at MGP. We're reinforcing an ownership cost mindset by incorporating productivity and cost discipline into our operating routines, performance management and compensation metrics.

Productivity and the cost management focus is becoming a part of our regular management routines, helping us uncover and track opportunities to eliminate waste and operate more efficiently and effectively across the organization. As we look ahead, we are encouraged by the progress we are making. Across all 3 businesses, our strategy is grounded in focus, execution and discipline, and we're actively evaluating all available levers to operate more efficiently. I am committed to addressing our challenges directly, focusing on disciplined execution and accountability, while positioning MGP to emerge better aligned, more resilient and well positioned for long-term value creation.

With that, let me hand it over to Brandon for a more detailed review of our financial results and 2026 guidance.

Thank you, Julie. For the fourth quarter of 2025, consolidated sales decreased 23% compared to the year ago period, to $138 million. Branded Spirits segment sales declined by 1% in the fourth quarter and 3% for the full year. Our Premium Plus sales posted its strongest quarterly sales growth of the year with a 10% increase, driven primarily by Penelope bourbon's continued momentum. Our mid and value price brands collectively declined by 11% for the quarter, slightly better than the 13% decline for the full year.

Fourth quarter Distilling Solutions segment sales declined by 47%, including a 53% decline in our brown goods sales. Full year segment sales declined 45% and gross profit declined 52%. Each of these came in ahead of our initial outlook, underscoring the improved visibility in our brown goods business. Ingredient Solutions sales declined by 10% for the fourth quarter and 7% for the full year. The equipment outage and higher waste starch stream disposal costs that Julie mentioned earlier were the key drivers of lower segment sales and profits.

On the other hand, fourth quarter extrusion protein sales reached a new high as we continue to increase sales volume to new customers and expand our extrusion platform beyond [indiscernible]. Consolidated gross profit declined 35% to $48 million during the quarter, primarily due to lower gross profits in the Distilling Solutions and Ingredient Solutions operating segments. Consolidated gross margin declined by 630 basis points to 34.9% in the fourth quarter. While full year gross margin decreased 350 basis points to 37.2%.

Fourth quarter SG&A expenses increased by 5%. Adjusted basis, SG&A increased by 18%, as the reinstatement of performance incentives more than offset our cost savings initiatives. Excluding these incentives, adjusted SG&A declined by 5% for the quarter and 4% for the full year. Advertising and promotion expenses declined 11% in the fourth quarter and 23% for the full year as we realigned our spending behind our most attractive growth opportunities. For the full year, our Branded Spirits A&P was approximately 12.5% of Branded Spirits segment sales.

Adjusted EBITDA decreased 51% to $26 million for the fourth quarter and decreased 41% to $116 million for the full year. Net income for the quarter declined to a loss of $135 million, primarily due to a discrete noncash adjustment of $153 million to lower the carrying amount of goodwill and certain [indiscernible] intangible assets in the Branded Spirits segment. On an adjusted basis, net income decreased 60% to $14 million. Basic earnings per common share decreased to a loss of $6.22 per share, while adjusted EPS decreased 60% to $0.63 per share.

Despite lower earnings, our cash flow from operations increased 19% to $122 million for the full year as we continue to prioritize strong cash generation by managing our working capital, including barrel inventory put away, which reduced from $33 million in 2024 to $19 million in 2025. Full year capital expenditures of $32 million were down more than 50% from the year ago level as we continue to optimize capital expenditures in the current environment.

Turning to our 2026 outlook. We expect the operating environment to remain challenging, and we are planning accordingly. Our outlook assumes continued pressure in certain categories. Lower contracting activity levels in Distilling Solutions, and improving execution in Ingredient Solutions as our operational initiatives take hold. Specifically for 2026, we expect net sales in the $480 million to $500 million range. Adjusted EBITDA in the $90 million to [ $98 million ] range, and adjusted basic earnings per share in the $1.50 to $1.80 range. With average shares outstanding of approximately 21.4 million shares and a full year tax rate of approximately 27%.

Our first quarter tax rate is expected to be approximately 75% due to the vesting impact of share-based awards granted during periods of higher share prices. Full year CapEx is expected to be approximately $20 million. We expect first quarter adjusted EBITDA to represent approximately 15% of our full year target and to be the lowest quarter of the year. 2026 Branded Spirit sales are expected to be down mid-single digits compared to 2025, as our continued momentum and growth in the Premium Plus category is expected to be offset by lower sales of our mid- and value-priced brands, as well as lower private label sales. We expect Branded Spirits segment gross margin to improve modestly in 2026.

Given the ongoing [indiscernible] environment, we expect 2026 to be another down year for our Distilling Solutions segment, with sales down 35% and gross profit down 40% compared to 2025. We expect performance for both metrics to be down relatively more in the first half of the year than the second half when compared to the prior year as we cycle against completion of certain [indiscernible] contracts during 2025.

However, as Julie outlined earlier, we believe that our proactive actions are helping us stabilize this business and position it for growth from the 2026 levels. We also believe our Ingredient Solutions business is poised to recover after a tough 2025. Given sustained commercial tailwinds and expected operational improvements, we expect segment sales in the $140 million to $150 million range in gross margin, in the mid- to high teens in 2026. As Julie stated, we expect first half gross margins to improve from the second half of 2025 to the low teens, and improve again in the second half of 2026 as our operational efforts set in. We expect Branded Spirits A&P to be approximately 13.5% of segment sales and total company SG&A to be approximately 18% of total company sales, both of which are up versus prior year, primarily due to our lower sales outlook.

Maintaining a flexible balance sheet remains a priority. As we look ahead to 2026, we expect to pay $111 million in the second quarter as an earn-out payment related to our Penelope acquisition. We also expect to refinance $201 million of convertible notes in the fourth quarter. Given Penelope earn-out payment, our net debt leverage is expected to peak and be approximately 3.75x in the second quarter of 2026.

We remain committed to reducing costs, prioritizing cash generation, managing working capital and being deliberate about our capital allocation. We expect that these actions will allow us to delever over time following the Penelope payment. To that end, we expect 2026 CapEx to be approximately $20 million, and net whiskey put away in the $13 million to $18 million range, which represents a second consecutive year of meaningful capital optimization and stewardship. We expect full year interest expense to be approximately $12 million, and for it to increase sequentially during 2026 due to the Penelope payment and a convertible note refinancing. The Penelope earnout payment will reduce our 2026 operating cash flow by nearly $50 million. Excluding the impact of this payment, we expect 2026 cash flows from operations in the range of $40 million to $45 million, and free cash flow in the $20 million to $25 million range.

To close, I want to echo Julie's comments. 2025 was a year of progress, discipline and important foundational work and we believe that the actions we are taking position MGP to emerge stronger, more focused and more resilient over time.

With that, I'll turn the call back over to Julie.

Thank you, Brandon. Before we wrap up, I want to thank the entire MGP team for all their hard work persistence and focus in a dynamic environment. This past year would not without its challenges. The operating environment remains difficult, and we are clear eyed that 2026 will likely be another down year of sales and earnings.

At the same time, 2025 was a year of important progress for MGP. We delivered results in line with and in several areas ahead of expectations, while beginning the hard work we feel is required to reposition the company for the future. I've shared that since joining in the third quarter, I've made it my priority to look within, to fully understand what makes this company unique and what actions we need to take. In doing so, I've traveled to all of our facilities, many numerous times. I've spoken with customers and suppliers of all sizes, engaged in exhaustive business unit function reviews and hosted more than 60 one-on-ones with employees. These insights were used to formulate our strategy, design and effective organizational structure, bringing the right talent drive impact, make prioritization decisions and implement processes designed to enable sustainable results and growth.

The success we aim to achieve will not come overnight, nor will it be without tough decisions. But the progress we have made over the last 6 months has been made with expeditious prudence. We believe it has positioned us to deliver sustained growth off of our 2026 guidance expectations to sharpen our strategic focus and strengthen execution across the organization, and to utilize our financial strength to position us for long-term and sustainable growth. While I'm pleased with the progress we are making, what gives me the greatest confidence is the alignment I see across our teams. There is a growing clarity around where we can win, greater accountability for results and a shared commitment to doing what we said we would do.

Operator, please open the lines for questions.

[Operator Instructions] The first question will come from Sean McGowan with ROTH Capital Partners.

First question is a general one. What are you seeing regarding pricing in the industry? Are you able to hold the prices that you expected to? And then a more technical question on the -- does your credit facility allow -- is there any limitations on how you can use the credit facility regarding your Penelope payment?

Sean, Its Julie. Appreciate your question. On pricing, I would -- broadly speaking, listen, I would say pricing is rational. You certainly have pockets across some states in a couple of different categories. Affordability is an issue. So our price pack architecture, we've sharpened up. In particular, we're launching smaller patch size, [ 50 mLs and 375 mLs ] to kind of have a more affordable price point out there. So broadly speaking, [indiscernible], I'd say it's very rational.

In Distilling, obviously, we have an oversupply situation. So while pricing is certainly impacted, we have the tools that we need and we understand where we want to be on some of the barrel pricing, and we've been moderately pleased with our ability to work with our customers. And our partnership approach is working. We haven't lost any customers to date. And so certainly, our ability to have those conversations and understand their intent really helps us in that matter.

Now I'll turn it over to Brandon for your second question.

Yes, Sean, as far as the credit facility as it relates to the Penelope earn-out, no limitations. As you recall, we upsized and extended the facility on the first part of last year. Our bank group views this payment as a positive thing. They're excited for Penelope. They view this as all good news. And we're very, very fortunate to have such a supportive bank group that we do have impact.

We also have the ability to exercise our acquisition holiday in Q2, if needed, which actually gives us even more covenant headroom should we desire to do that. So no limitations on that side of things.

The next question will come from Robert Moskow with TD Cowen.

This is Seamus Cassidy on for Robert. First, I'm [indiscernible] your expectations for a down year for the industry takes into account the slightly positive year-to-date trends we're seeing in scanner data. And then on brown goods, can you speak to your visibility, sort of on 2026 being the trough, i.e., our new [indiscernible] contracts largely locked in? And then sort of on that point, you spoke to a pivot back to aged whiskey sales. This has historically been sort of more choppy and difficult to predict demand for. So I'm hoping you can talk us through that dynamic?

Yes. Thanks so much. Appreciate the question. Yes, I would say going back to Branded Spirits, our 2026 guidance does certainly reflects of both our Premium Plus momentum and then the mid- to value expectations across the industry. So we feel we've got good visibility in what we're seeing, and we're pretty encouraged by some of the commercialization strategy, planning and execution that we have newly introduced. We see that coming into play. But you would expect Penelope to continue to drive our Premium Plus brands. In addition, our other 3 focuses.

Some refinements in how we're looking at the mid- to value price tier. We do think that there's a few key brands that we can really dial in some of our pricing, some of our architecture on offerings and sizes to really address that. But I'd say, broadly speaking, our 2026 guidance reflects the industry and where we have visibility.

And then switching to your distilling question, I would say, from a guidance there. Certainly, most of our, I would say, substantially under contract for the majority of our aged and distillate customers for the year. So we've got good visibility in 2026. Our brown goods [indiscernible] reflects similar spot ages to 2025 at current market pricing. Partnership approach is working. And so we have expanded with some of our larger customers into the premium white goods. So we're reflecting that up. Guidance reflects up double digits. And we really like this.

Number one, it's sticky, right? We're deepening our relationships with some key customers. And two, it's a great mechanism to reduce cost -- reduce cost to cost of brown goods. And then our warehouse services continues to play an important role. Our customers are tight on working capital, and we can provide them service, and it's also a fairly strong cash flow generation. So that's a balanced approach, visibility. But certainly, I think our guidance reflects appropriately the oversight environment that we're seeing.

The next question will come from Marc Torrente with Wells Fargo.

I guess just building on the last one. Any more visibility that you could provide into the guidance building blocks for [indiscernible] Just specifically what is embedded from a fully committed orders that you proactively worked with customers on? How much potential spot business is assumed? And then just any other color you can give on cadence through the year?

Yes. Thanks for the question, Marc. On -- yes, so for our brown goods business, let's start with age. Age was obviously -- came in ahead of our expectations last year, albeit they did start from an expectation standpoint at a pretty low point. So what we're guiding for this year is the same spot volume sales that we were able to do last year. So we feel that level is appropriate in this environment given the success we were able to have last year. There are more age sales above that, and that's really due to the team's successful efforts in commercializing some private label large customers internationally and domestically. And so those age sales are under contract. So that's factored into our guide.

And then as it relates to our new distillate, substantially all that is under contract. So we feel that we are exercising the same discipline and visibility that we were able to exercise throughout the course of last year.

As it relates to Ingredient Solutions, then moving on there. As we've said in our opening comments, 2025 was a tough year. And we learned quite a bit, and we're doing the right things. We're putting the right efforts against it and you see sequential improvement as the year goes on. So that's going to be seen in double-digit growth in sales, as well as pretty substantial improvement in gross profit. So we're excited about what's to come this year with Ingredients. And Julie already spoke quite a bit to Brand Spirits, so those are building [indiscernible].

Yes. As far as quarterly cadence goes, Q1 will likely be the low point for the year, which is pretty typical. Brown goods customers tend to taking a little bit of a pause during the quarter and Branded Spirits, it's historically softer coming out of the holidays. But we do expect to perform against all these expectations as well as contracts as the year goes on.

Okay. I appreciate that. And then on Branded, you spoke to further rationalization of tail brands. Maybe talk about the ability to reallocate resources behind your premium brands. where this can take Premium Plus as a percentage of the portfolio in the near term? And how to think about margin potential, and I guess, the balance of the portfolio going forward?

Yes. No, thanks for that question. So we did do a pretty intense portfolio review process of all of our brands. We're starting this year. Again, we have a road map. So this strategic road map starts in 2026, shared on the call that 20% of the tail brands. And it's important to know they are tail brands. So availability, investments out in the marketplace is different across different states. These aren't the first 20% -- are high visibility, high volume ones, but certainly, they take away focus. They take warehouse space, they take raw ingredients. They take up production line availability, et cetera. So we're going to start there.

It's not going to reduce any scale with distributors or anything like that because, again, broadly speaking, we have our lineup in Premium Plus. So I won't say a change to Premium Plus lineup of our core 4 focuses. I kind of attribute our commercial execution and planning that we're really ramping up in that area, not directly linked to portfolio review, but really linked to with a new leader in marketing. We've got dialed in commercial strategies, dialed in execution plans and then certainly tools and enablement at a distributor level to ensure that we're delivering the key value drivers we expect.

And most importantly, what does that look of success that we expect in a different channel and different customers. That's really what's going to drive some nice movement, we believe, with our premium plus and our distributors. But we do think portfolio management and rationalization plays an important role. But as we get past this first 20%, you would expect towards the end of the year and into 2027 for us to focus on the next 20%, which we do [indiscernible] out there for rationalization.

The next question will come from Mitchell Pinheiro with Sturdivant & Company.

Yes. So most of my questions have been asked. I did want to sort of follow up on the on the Distilling Solutions business where we're looking sort of for a trough year here this year, and you talked about some of the reasons why you have some confidence there. What -- what would cause you to sort of miss that trough year expectation?

Yes, I'll start on that. What gives us the confidence are all the actions that we're taking and -- which we went into a lot of detail in our opening remarks. Our connection and continued connection with our customers, especially those large customers that are pausing on brown goods buying. We're talking to the other projects, whether it's ways to innovate with the barrels they currently have in our warehouses, or whether it's to do some of these really interesting premium white goods services and products that we've talked to. So just that connectivity definitely gives us a lot of confidence.

But as time goes on, they're going to have to come back to the table, and we got to be patient, and we got to continue to be good partners in the interim. And we've shared that. We hope to have more visibility by the midpoint of this year. But ultimately, we're going to do what's right for them and looks best for them. And what gives us a lot of the confidence is just the levels we're at today, Mitch. The level of brown good sales that we're forecasting and guiding to, a lot of the risk has been removed from that standpoint, not to say that there's not ever risk out there, but we feel like a lot of that has been alleviated from our outlook.

Okay. And then when you look at most recent, sort of, inventory data -- industry inventory. It's over like 13 years of inventory in it right now. And typically, back in the 2022, 2023 range, it was down around 9 or 10 years. So that delta [ for years ], some of it obviously has to do with consumer preferences for more aged products. But I'm wondering, how does that compare to sort of your inventory levels? Have you -- are you out there that long with your barrel distillate? Or is your barrel distillate closer to sort of -- sort of your near-term and needs? So I guess what I'm trying to say is, have you overproduced on your barrel distillate? Or do you feel that you're your performance is, sort of, in a better shape than the industry?

Yes. I think -- I don't think anyone's gotten it exactly right over these last 5 years, ourselves included. But what we do feel, Mitch, is that we've taken action very quickly. And the industry numbers are down over the last 12 months, anywhere between 25% and 30%. If you look at just our sales and Distilling Solutions and equate that loosely production, we're down much more than that. And then we're also guiding this year for Distilling Solutions sales to be down another roughly 35%.

So we've definitely taken our production down, but we're still putting away anywhere from $13 million to $20 million in both years for our future. Because both our brands and having a full age portfolio offering are critical strategies of ours, and we're committed to those. But we do think we're doing the right things. We've also been able to do so in a very cost-effective manner. Our cost structure overall for brown goods in a really, really great spot, really due to the team the team's ability to reduce costs, largely fixed costs out of the operations. But also our ability to do unique savings that our competitors can do, like offer premium white goods that can absorb a lot of the cost structure that otherwise wouldn't be there.

Yes. And the only thing I'd add to that, Mitch, I think Brandon did a great job to summarize it. As I'd say, yes, volume pricing is reflected in our guide. In the [ tough ] environment, we're still guiding to mid-30s. And as Brandon said, reducing our operating cost, team has done a great job. We've got cash-generating warehouse services. Aged whiskey sell inventory. We've expanded into aged whiskey with private label contracts, and we're pleased that a couple of them. These take a long time to get through the process. But by the end of first half, we should have some sales for a couple of them. And we're entering into premium white goods, both services and saleable products.

So again, tough environment. We're pleased with some of the progress. But certainly, I think our actions are very appropriate, and we're certainly pleased where some of the TTP data has come in.

Okay. That's helpful color. One last question is curious if you mentioned it before, I apologize, but I'm curious where your marketing focus is on your Branded Spirits? What particular brands? What you intend to do, if you can talk about that?

Sure, Mitch, I'd love to give you a little color. So first, Premium Plus will be our primary growth engine. Fairly pleased with our Penelope results. It continues to have a mass consumer appeal. Innovation has been robust. It's -- we would have another strong year as well in 2026. So you can certainly expect us to have that focus. We are going to have even more, I would say, digital dollars on Premium Plus led by Penelope. Our A&P in 2026 was about 12.5% of sales. We are modestly going to take that up in 2026. But most importantly, we're going to shift to digital media. We're increasing over 200%.

We are also taking a streamlined approach to our agencies. Better brand brief, better dial than RFPs. We think 1 to 2 points of shifting A&P to actually real media or in-store dollars. From a commercial support we did shift from 55% brand building to 45% commercial support for 2025. We think this is appropriate given the current environment to bring those pull-throughs. So will be mainly on focused Premium Plus, [ Elmer ], Yellowstone, [ Rebel ] and also, obviously, Penelope. We've got a great NASCAR activation program for the races this year with our [indiscernible]. So looking forward to that, but that's what we'll be spending our dollars.

The next question will come from Ben Klieve with Benchmark [indiscernible]

First question on the expectation of rationalizations in the Branded Spirits segment. I'm wondering, Julie, if you can, first of all, characterize the degree to which those rationalizations are kind of proactively built into your 2026 guidance that you laid out? Or if there's going to be potential downside to the Branded Spirits outlook when those [indiscernible] come? And then second, the degree to which you think those are going to be monetizable versus just written off?

Yes. No, good question. Number one, I would say, broadly speaking, there's not going to be an impact on our 2026 guidance that reflected in that. So the 20%, again, it's important. I use the word -- it's our long tail. And by that, it's probably our heritage Luxco brands that are in the value space in some categories and segments that -- in states that are unique. So no real -- it should be no effect on 2026 guidance that is accounted for.

And then moving forward, we do have our next wave of that. And certainly, as you get -- as you optimize SKUs, there's a few different things we can do. We do think there's a handful of them that will divest. And we think recovering at least our packaging and inventory costs is the minimal amount that we'll get for those. We're also going to be prudent and efficient and effective on how we draw those down. Whether it's a write-up or obviously, there's several different places or states that we could go to that it may make sense. So -- and those will come forward as they're expected in the 2026.

And as we move forward to our next 20%, that's when we'll move into some other stronger volume plays that we think streamline them does provide us with the ability to replace some of these some of these SKUs and their shelf presence with some more higher velocity SKUs. So that's our road map for portfolio management, and it's -- it's in progress, it's accounted for. And most importantly, it's not an episodic event.

Okay. And then my follow-up question, moving to the ingredient segment. Great to see your -- kind of emerging outlook here for that business here in '26. I'm wondering if you can break down or quantify the impact of the mechanical challenges and the elevated cost of the waste stream within '25? Wondering how much of a profit headwind those 2 buckets were?

And then second, if you can kind of characterize the degree to which those headwinds are going to persist in '26. Especially on the waste stream, I thought that that's going to be effectively zero with the emergence of the biofuel facility. But clearly, those are going to persist a bit. So help me understand those dynamics.

Yes. I'm going to take your questions kind of together, and then Brandon can clean up any of the impacts that you see. So let's talk [indiscernible] solutions.

First and foremost, significant consumer talents. High fiber, high protein, on point right now. And our ability to have co-creation events with large customers. Many of these products are well known and certainly very strong. And so our ability to partner with them on these -- and we have consistent demand. We've been able to now, most importantly, in the -- since late November, we've gotten out the production pounds and have had stronger operational reliability than we had in the last 4 months. So you're going to see segment sales up north -- well north of double digits in 2026.

That being said, the [indiscernible] part, and yes, and I think I was pretty transparent in our remarks. That has been a little bit more complex. It's been more costly. Obviously, that plant was stood up in sometime in Q2 of 2025. There's multiple waste streams, one of which this biofuel cannot digest. And so we do have to send that out to a municipality. That municipality was offline since early December. We expect them to go back online sometime in the spring of 2026. So that certainly will help mitigate some costs.

And then we do have work underway, and this work is months, not weeks on how to eliminate that final work stream or [indiscernible] stream that we can't mitigate right now. But I will tell you very bullish on the commercial side of the business. Very good operational reliability. We're getting up the talent and the influence certainly is the last kind of stool on this leg here that we have to get better at. And I would expect sequential improvement across gross margins and [indiscernible] stream across each quarter in the back half of the year. And then 2027 we do expect this to be in the [ 20s ] gross margin. It will take us to that time to get there, but we certainly think those are comfortable ranges that we can get to.

Brandon?

Yes. No, well said. And I think, yes, it really depends on the month of the quarter, Ben. But largely speaking, if you just look at Q4 in terms of what was the driver to [indiscernible] headwinds in this segment. Year-over-year, the segment was down $5.7 million gross profit. A little more than half of that was due to that key equipment outage and then the other half or less was due to [indiscernible] disposal. So as we get into Q1 of this year, that [indiscernible] disposal is expected to be more of the cost driver in headwind because as Julie said, a lot of the netted throughput and reliability issues are being dissolved.

So if you look at it in [indiscernible] areas, the demand side is still intact and very constructive. The throughput and reliability is improving every day. So we're feeling really good about those, which is really allowing us now to circle around the last item, which is the [indiscernible] and that's what we're going to do.

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Julie Francis for any closing remarks.

Thank you. In closing, thank you for your time and engagement with MGP Ingredients. We look forward to talking again soon and after our next quarterly announcement. Thank you.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

Good morning, and welcome to the MGP Ingredients Third Quarter of 2025 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please also note that this event is being recorded today.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Amit Sharma, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to MGP's Third Quarter Earnings Conference Call. I'm Amit Sharma, Vice President of Investor Relations. And this morning, I'm joined on the call by Julie Francis, our Chief Executive Officer; and Brandon Gall, our Chief Financial Officer. We will begin the call with management's prepared remarks and then open to your questions.

Before we begin, this call may involve certain forward-looking statements. The company's actual results could differ materially from any forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including the risk factors described in the company's annual report filed with the SEC. The company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements made during the call, except as required by law.

Additionally, this call will contain references to certain non-GAAP measures, which we believe are useful in evaluating the company's performance. A reconciliation of these measures to the most comparable GAAP measures is included in today's earnings release, which was issued this morning before the markets opened and is available on our website, www.mgpingredients.com.

At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Julie for her opening remarks.

Thank you, Amit. Good morning, everyone. As we review our third quarter results, I want to begin by sharing reflections from my time in the business and how it's shaping our priorities and actions. I will then provide an update of our 5 key initiatives before handing it over to Brandon for a deeper review of our third quarter results and updated guidance.

These first few months truly have been a whirlwind as I've traveled around the country to visit our distilleries, bottling facilities, manufacturing plants, as well as to meet with our distribution partners and retailers in the market. Most importantly, I've had honest and candid conversations with a broad cross-section of our organization, hosting more than 60 one-on-ones and several town hall meetings. I'm also appreciative of the feedback and conversations I've had with investors and analysts as well.

MGP is a company with a proud heritage, strong brands and amazing people who are passionate about our business. What I've seen is inspiring and the opportunity now is to harness that passion with greater focus, performance and accountability to drive meaningful progress. While we fully recognize the challenges facing our industry and our company, we are committed to improving our strategic clarity, taking decisive actions, controlling the controllables and emerging stronger. This will not be an overnight fix. Some initiatives will bear fruit quickly, while others will take a bit longer, but the work is already underway.

While it's too early to get into specifics, let me share a few highlights. First, we are conducting an exhaustive strategic review of our business and using a thorough approach that takes the time to ask these hard questions. What capabilities will differentiate us in the future? How do we allocate resources that ensure both growth and discipline? Where can we create the most value? This is not just a planning exercise. It's about execution and a data-driven approach to ensure that we are making the right choices, establishing clear priorities and setting ambitious targets and ensuring accountability for results.

Another key component of the strategic work is a more active portfolio management of our spirits brands. While having a branded portfolio spanning across all price points and categories is an undeniable strength, we believe that the opportunity ahead lies in being more precise and focused, prioritizing the brands with the greatest potential, distinctive positioning and scalable growth while trimming persistent underperformers. The goal is clear: a streamlined, more balanced portfolio that drives sustainable growth and delivers higher margins.

As part of these plans this morning, we announced the appointment of Matias Bentel as our Chief Marketing Officer; and Chris Wiseman as Senior Vice President of Operations. I am confident that Matias' strong expertise and deep experiences in building and growing brands at Brown-Forman and other leading alcoholic beverage companies will be instrumental in accelerating our branded growth agenda.

Strengthening operational execution is another key component of our strategic agenda. Chris' appointment to lead our operations underscores our commitment to and deliberate focus on strengthening operational reliability, agility and efficiency across the enterprise. To fuel growth, we are focusing on unlocking additional cost savings. MGP has always been an efficient operator and our current initiatives are delivering excellent results. As we look ahead, we are developing scalable and repeatable processes that promote a continuous improvement mindset, foster cross-functional collaboration and build a robust pipeline of projects designed to unlock additional productivity and savings.

I am encouraged and energized by the enthusiasm and alignment I see across the organization and look forward to sharing the strategic road map for the next phase of our growth with you early next year.

Now turning to our third quarter results. We delivered another strong quarter and are seeing early signs of progress across many parts of our business. The environment remains challenging, but our results continue to reflect the strength of our brands, the resilience of our businesses and the focus of our team. We are leveraging MGP's unique capabilities to navigate the near-term while positioning the company for better results ahead. There's more work to be done, but the foundation we are building is solid and gives us confidence in MGP's long-term potential.

For the third quarter, consolidated sales declined 19% as the continued growth in our premium plus portfolio and higher specialty ingredient sales were offset by the expected declines in brown goods and mid- to value brands. Adjusted EBITDA declined to $32 million, while adjusted basic earnings per share reached $0.85, both above our expectations, reflecting favorable mix improvements, pricing discipline and productivity initiatives. Our solid cash flows continue to be a key highlight with year-to-date operating cash flows up 26% for the same period last year to $93 million.

With another quarter of solid delivery, we are confident in finishing the year ahead of our previous expectations. Brandon will provide greater detail on our updated guidance shortly, but we are raising our full year 2025 adjusted EBITDA and adjusted earnings per share guidance to the range of $110 million to $115 million and $2.60 to $2.75 of EPS, respectively, while tightening our sales guidance to a range of $525 million to $535 million.

This has been a period of transition for our company, our customers and the broader alcoholic industry. Despite these challenges, our team continue to advance our 5 key initiatives for 2025, which are: sharpen our commercial focus; strengthen key customer relationships; improve operation execution; fortify our balance sheet; and drive greater productivity.

Let me provide brief highlights of our progress on each of these initiatives. Beginning with our focus initiative, Branded Spirits, which we believe is the main engine of growth and value creation for MGP. Our decision to focus our A&P investments behind the most attractive growth opportunities continues to deliver results as our premium plus portfolio once again outperformed the overall category. The most tangible example of this focused approach is Penelope Bourbon as it continues to exceed expectations. According to Nielsen dollar sales data for the past 52 weeks, Penelope now ranks among the top 30 premium plus American whiskey brands in the country. Even more impressively, it has been the second fastest-growing brand in this group over the last 52 weeks and the fastest-growing over the past 13 to 26 weeks. Our team's relentless focus has fueled Penelope's remarkable growth since acquisition. We are applying that same discipline to elevate other brands in our portfolio, new tools, including brand health dashboards and advanced analytics are enabling smarter A&P decisions, sharper insights and stronger brand equity across the portfolio.

Innovation is central to our growth agenda as it enables us to meet consumers where they are in terms of quality, price points, occasions and convenience. Our exciting new product launches in the fast-growing ready-to-pour cocktail segment demonstrates how we are applying our deeper understanding of consumer insights and category trends. The Penelope Black Walnut Old Fashioned launched during the third quarter is off to a strong start, building on the success of Penelope Peach Old Fashioned that launched earlier this year. We also introduced 3 new cocktails under the Yellowstone brand to further expand our presence in this fast-growing segment. With their beautiful presentation, approachable price point and desirable alcohol proof, these new products are directly addressing consumer need for high-quality, affordable and convenient crafted cocktails, making them an especially attractive entry point for females and new to whiskey drinkers.

The year-to-date results in our distilling business show that our second initiative to strengthen partnership with key customers is working. Though sales and profits declined during the quarter, they came in ahead of our expectations, reflecting disciplined pricing, operational efficiencies and better aged whiskey sales. Throughout the year, we have maintained a close engagement with our key distilling customers to align on their production needs. While some customers have paused their near-term whiskey purchases as they rebalance their inventories, most have expressed their commitment to a continued long-term strategic partnership with MGP. Our commercial teams are working closely with them to develop innovative solutions that leverage our unrivaled scale and aged whiskey inventories as well as our high-quality and flexible production capabilities to offer premium gin, white spirits, specialty grain distillates in addition to brown goods. Importantly, our customers recognize our differentiated value proposition. And last month, Diageo North America named MGP as one of its distinguished suppliers, a meaningful acknowledgment of our strong partnership and contribution to the success of their brands.

I'm also pleased to see that the broader domestic whiskey industry continues to recalibrate to the current environment. According to TTB data through June of 2025, total U.S. whiskey production is down 19% over the prior 12 months, down 28% over the prior 6 months and down 32% over the prior 3 months. While inventories remain high, this trend is encouraging signal that the market is working through its imbalance. We believe this rational behavior by the broader industry, combined with our strong partnership with strategic customers, will position MGP to emerge stronger once brown goods supply and demand dynamics normalize.

Turning to our Ingredient Solutions segment. We are pleased with the ongoing top line momentum in this business. However, operational execution fell short of our expectations and pressured segment margins. This resulted from an unanticipated equipment outage and lower operational reliability, elevated waste starch disposal costs and higher start-up costs in our textured protein business. This critical equipment outage pressured our third quarter performance and is expected to remain a headwind in the fourth quarter, which is reflected in our revised full year outlook. We are taking decisive actions to strengthen operational reliability. We've increased plant staffing, raised maintenance capital and engaged an external engineering firm to partner with our operations team for a comprehensive review of plant performance.

Together, we are addressing critical process dependency, restructuring key workflows and implementing predictive analytics and enhanced preventative maintenance protocols to identify and resolve potential issues before they impact production. I am confident that the addition of Chris Wiseman to lead our operations team will further strengthen and accelerate these initiatives, enabling us to return to our targeted level of performance in the coming quarters. While the newly operational biofuel plant is expected to mitigate our waste starch disposal costs, these costs were higher than expected during the quarter due to operational challenges during start-up. Learnings from that start-up are already helping us refine our processes. And as production ramps up, we expect the biofuel plant to provide greater relief on waste starch disposal costs over time.

And lastly, our extrusion protein business is gaining traction as we expand our portfolio beyond wheat to soybean and pea-based proteins to compete more effectively across the full extrusion segment. During the quarter, we secured a large new customer, underscoring the potential of this expanded platform. While start-up costs associated with this commercialization effort temporarily pressured margins, we expect these costs to moderate as volumes ramp up and the businesses scale.

Even as we make steady progress on these operational challenges in the Ingredient Solutions segment, commercially, we continue to have a clear right to win in this segment. Consumer demand for high fiber and high-protein foods continues to accelerate, and we are well positioned to capture this growth. The specialty starch and protein categories are expected to post mid- to high single-digit growth over the next 5 years according to industry reports.

Our flagship Fibersym and Arise brands are already category leaders, and our R&D teams are partnering with a growing number of leading food manufacturers to incorporate our specialty ingredients into their new existing products. We also continue to collaborate with leading university and research institutions to expand the functionality and application of these ingredients. With these commercial strengths and ongoing progress towards restoring operational excellence, we believe that we're well positioned to deliver solid top line and margin growth in our Ingredient Solutions business over the next several years.

Our last 2 initiatives to fortify our balance sheet and drive productivity savings remain firmly on track. Brandon will provide additional details on these 2 key initiatives, but I'm pleased with our financial strength and our team's efforts to drive efficiencies throughout the enterprise.

Let me close by saying that we are doing what we said we will do, controlling the controllables and being transparent about what's working and what's not working. This balance between accountability and opportunity guides how we view our businesses and how we communicate about them. While the path ahead is unlikely to be linear, it's increasingly becoming well defined. As we look ahead, we are continuing to build on the strength of our differentiated customer value propositions across each of our businesses. I see greater alignment, stronger commercial execution, a clear view of where we can win and a growing sense of confidence and optimism across the organization.

With that, let me hand it over to Brandon for a review of our quarter and updated guidance.

Thank you, Julie. For the third quarter of 2025, consolidated sales decreased 19% to $131 million compared to the year-ago period. Within our segments, third quarter sales for the Branded Spirits segment decreased by 3%. Our premium plus sales posted a third consecutive quarter of positive growth, driven by the continued momentum of the Penelope Bourbon brand. However, premium plus performance was more than offset by the expected softness in the rest of this segment, including a 7% collective decline in the mid and value brands.

Distilling Solutions segment sales declined by 43% compared to the prior year period. Although our brown goods sales decreased by 50%, our year-to-date sales and margin are trending above our initial outlook, reflecting higher aged whiskey sales and the success of our proactive partnership approach with key customers. Given that, we now expect 2025 Distilling Solutions sales and gross profit to be down 46% and 55%, respectively, from prior year relative to our previous outlook of down 50% and 65%.

Ingredient Solutions sales increased by 9% compared to the prior year quarter, primarily due to higher specialty and commodity wheat protein sales. Third quarter gross profit, however, declined by 36% due to equipment outage and other operational reliability issues that Julie mentioned earlier. While we have a good line of sight to resolving these issues, they'll remain a headwind in the fourth quarter. As a result, we now expect Ingredient Solutions segment sales and gross profit to be down mid- to high single digits and approximately 40% for the full year, respectively.

Consolidated gross profit decreased 25% to $49 million, primarily due to lower gross profits in the Distilling Solutions and Ingredient Solutions operating segments. Gross margin declined by 300 basis points to 37.8%.

Third quarter SG&A expenses increased by 10%. But on an adjusted basis, this increase was reduced to 4%. It's important to note also that when removing the impact from the reinstatement of the incentive accrual in 2025, adjusted SG&A was down 9% due primarily to our productivity initiatives.

Advertising and promotion expenses declined 31% as we continue to realign our spending behind our most attractive growth opportunities.

For the full year, we continue to expect Branded Spirits A&P to be approximately 12% of Branded Spirits segment sales, largely in line with the year-to-date trends.

Adjusted EBITDA decreased 29% to $32 million, primarily due to lower gross profit.

Net income declined to $15 million, primarily due to lower operating results. On an adjusted basis, net income decreased 36% to $18 million.

Basic earnings per common share decreased to $0.71 per share, while adjusted basic earnings per share decreased 34% to $0.85 per share.

Year-to-date cash flows from operations increased 26% to $93 million as we continue to prioritize strong cash generation by managing our working capital, including barrel inventory putaway. Our year-to-date barrel putaway reduced to $16 million, and we continue to expect the full year net putaway to be in the $16 million to $20 million range relative to $33 million in 2024.

Capital expenditures were $7 million during the quarter and $25 million year-to-date. We continue to expect full year 2025 CapEx of $32.5 million, a reduction of more than 50% from last year as we continue to streamline capital expenditures in the current environment.

Our balance sheet remains healthy. We remain well capitalized to support the Penelope contingent consideration payment, and we'll be prudent in our support of ongoing operations, long-term growth investments and future capital structure considerations. We ended the quarter with total debt of $269 million and net debt leverage ratio of 1.8x.

Given the encouraging year-to-date results, we are raising our full year adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EPS guidance while tightening the guidance range for sales. We now expect 2025 sales to be in the $525 million to $535 million range, adjusted EBITDA to be in the $110 million to $115 million range and adjusted basic earnings per share to be in the $2.60 to $2.75 range. For the full year, we continue to expect average shares outstanding of approximately 21.4 million and an effective tax rate of approximately 25%.

For the final quarter of the year, our focus remains on staying close to our customers, keeping tight control of costs, maintaining financial discipline and allocating capital carefully to the areas that we believe create the greatest value. I'm proud of how our teams are navigating this period and confident that the foundation we are building today under Julie's leadership will support durable, profitable growth in the years ahead.

With that, let me now hand it over to Julie before opening for your questions.

Thank you, Brandon. As we look ahead, our focus remains on delivering results with the confidence and credibility. We're working to create a more resilient business model, one that can weather industry cycles and still deliver sustained growth. That means making the tough decisions, prioritizing the highest return opportunities, driving operational excellence and supporting our businesses with the right level of investment. There is still work ahead. But what encourages me most is how aligned our team has become around the company's direction and purpose. That alignment, combined with our strong balance sheet, differentiated capabilities and growing brand momentum gives me confidence that MGP is on a stronger, steadier path towards creating lasting value for our shareholders, customers and organization. Thank you.

Brandon and I will now take your questions.

[Operator Instructions] And our first question for today will come from Sean McGowan with ROTH Capital.

First question is, I guess, a broad one on industry trends. You talked about the reduction in production, but what are you seeing? What are you hearing from your customers regarding channel inventory and how much further work needs to be done?

Yes. Thanks for the question, Sean. What we're hearing from our customers is really the need and the willingness to stay close. There's a lot of changes going on in the industry. There's still elevated inventory. There's obviously reduced production, as you mentioned. There's also distilleries that are closing their doors or furloughing employees. And the general response that we're seeing from our customers is increasingly wanting to communicate and have open dialogue. But what we're also seeing, Sean, is a lot of our historically indirect customers that usually purchase from third parties, our product want to deal directly with MGP. They want to have that relationship. They want to be close to us because they know that we're committed to the space and going to be there over the long term.

Okay. Maybe that ties into a follow-up. A lot of the numbers in the quarter were a little better than I had thought. So congrats on that. But the gross margin in distilling was especially strong. Is that kind of related to what you just mentioned of staying close to the customer? Or can you talk generally about how you were able to hold up those margins?

Yes. The margins definitely came in even better than our expectations in the quarter. And there's really 2 reasons for that. A larger volume of aged sales than we had anticipated. Again, it's the customers working very closely with the team. And we're seeing orders from customers who predominantly historically have only purchased new distillate. But like everyone else in the space, they're looking for ways to innovate and to differentiate further on the shelf. And we're getting calls from customers like those that want to buy aged for the first time. They want to put out a new limited time-only product on the shelf, maybe at a different price point from their core portfolio. And we're really well set up for that, as you know, due to the breadth and scale of our aged offerings and our ability to help them innovate, whether that's through blending, through picking out the right match fill or the right age profile. So it's things like these that are really improving our aged performance over our initial expectations.

The second thing, Sean, is the team operationally is doing a tremendous job in managing the cost structure of the facility. That's a top 4, 5 volume-producing bourbon facility in the United States. So while ramping up is difficult, like we've had to do in previous years, ramping down is even more complex. And the team has done a really nice job from a productivity initiative point of view in executing the cost side.

And our next question will come from Robert Moskow with TD Cowen.

This is Seamus Cassidy on for Rob Moskow. Julie, you mentioned in your prepared remarks sort of more active portfolio management around the Branded Spirits portfolio. Since the Luxco acquisition, MGPI has focused its ad spend and acquisitions on more premium brands. And you've said you're comfortable letting mid and value decline as a result of this. So I guess my question is, could you walk us through some of the pros and cons between sort of trimming some of these lower-performing brands? Because while they may be slower growing, I imagine they still add scale to your portfolio and provide positive cash flow.

Yes. Thanks for that question. I appreciate it. Listen, Branded Spirits certainly is our true north on our strategic growth platform. We're certainly pleased with the premium plus performance, focusing on those core 3 Penelope, El Mayor and Rebel certainly have been paying off. We're up 4% on the premium plus versus a category that's not showing the same results. And then Penelope is certainly growing very fast.

But I think your point is interesting because the mid- to value, certainly, we are heavily weighted still in that area. So I would tell you, and I think as I've talked to analysts throughout the first few months that I do think there's an opportunity for us to be -- take some of the core focus that we've had in the premium plus and be precise in the mid- to value because there are some brands, as you know, that have some pretty good density, and there are some regional and channel opportunities that we certainly could bed out a little bit more with some flavor innovations with some regional brands that may make sense. So I'd tell you that we are reevaluating that because I do see some strong brands in there that we could certainly provide a little bit of ignition to and to help us offset some of that mid- to value decline. But again, if you look at it, we're certainly focused on mid first, and I think you're seeing some progress there and value we should start looking at very shortly into 2026.

Our next question will come from Marc Torrente with Wells Fargo.

I guess first on billings, with the larger customers that have paused their purchases you've referenced this call in the past, have there been any incremental pauses or maybe even restarts out of those customers? And then how is planning progressing with those customers? Any, I guess, additional commentary on your visibility into 2026?

Marc, it's Julie. Thanks for the question. A couple of things. I think we've said in the past, and we still feel this way that our large multinationals certainly have communicated with us that they're paused. We do expect to hear more about 2026 near spring of next year. But we're staying close. And I think you saw -- you heard in the prepared comments that we were acknowledged by Diageo as they -- one of their more distinguished suppliers. So I think you're seeing our customers and our team's ability to engage and stay close. We've been really accommodating to the crafts. They're certainly going from kind of like just-in-case to just-in-time buying, where cash really is and availability of cash really is playing in a role into how they're purchasing and when they're purchasing. But we've also seen, as Brandon said, it's been interesting to see some craft customers that have only been in new distillate come to us for aged whiskey because that certainly is where the demand is. And we're known for our unique mash builds, our variety, our master distillery. So that certainly has been an area that we were pleasantly surprised with.

And it goes back to the approach the team took probably 6 months ago where we went to really engaging with our customers, being accommodating, showing agility and most importantly, the larger folks certainly know we're here to stay. The Distilling segment is extraordinarily part -- important part of our business. You probably recall that Penelope started in that area, right? They're a customer of our Ross & Squibb distillery. We noticed that they were putting out some good juice, choosing some good juice and they're very innovative and coming together and acquiring Penelope in 2023, certainly, we're very pleased with those results. But we do expect the headwinds into the first half of 2026 with hopefully some moderation in the back half.

Okay. Great. Appreciate that. And then on the ingredients side, it sounds like there's a combination of headwinds in the quarter, sales perhaps a bit lighter versus expectations, but then also some execution issues. Maybe just some more color on the recovery timing here. It sounds like would be ongoing impact into Q4. Will this all be contained in 2025? And you also started to report some biofuel sales. Maybe any other detail on the expected ramp there and cost offsets?

Yes. Thanks, Marc. First, obviously, we're not satisfied with the results we saw in Ingredient Solutions, both from a year-to-date and then in particular, in Q3. I tell you, first, it's important to note that it's not a commercial demand issue. These are platforms that are in high demand, and we've ramped up our R&D department, which really is paying off dividends. We've got some large customers that have come on board that are expanding their products. So the demand is there.

And where we fell short, we're in a few different areas. One, there was an equipment outage, and I'll take full responsibility for that. As I've got in the business, Marc, it became clear that one of our more important dryers had had significant operational reliability issues, downtime, yield, waste. And in my experience, it was best for us to take that equipment offline, rebuild it. It did come offline a couple of months ago, and it will be online by the end of this month and we will see better performance. So that is a discrete event, but I did want to make sure that people understood that our expectation is for it to have headwinds into Q4. But after that, we certainly will be on a better path to full productivity coming out of that dryer. But we have had continuous operational reliability across the plant as we closed down that Atchison distillery.

And we've taken a few discrete decisive actions. One, I did bring in a project engineering team, boots in the plant, I'd like to say. They're well-known for working alongside management and leadership to bring a plant back to performance. We've invested 15% more in adding staffing. We're increasing maintenance CapEx. And also, we're bringing back predictive analytics and some of the enhanced preventive maintenance that we are known for. And then certainly bringing in a leader that has extensive operational turnaround experience that's led manufacturing, production, engineering and also some of the other key safety and quality metrics, bringing Chris on board is an important part. So we do believe and expect to see continuous improvement heading into next year. And the teams are working really hard.

So I'm going to turn it over to Brandon on biofuel. But I do want to say one area we're pleased to see is our ProTerra line in extrusion. We did get online our larger customer that we've been talking about. A little bit higher start-up costs, which could be expected with all the different R&D and test runs that you do. But that is starting up mid-November with salable product. And so, we're pleased to get that online. And now I'll turn it over to Brandon for biofuel.

Yes. Before I get into biofuel, all these actions, Marc, that Julie just listed, and there's a lot of very positive actions that she and the team are taking. We do not expect it to be fully contained. Maybe the dryer will be that specific discrete issue. But when you're hiring new people, when you're investing capital, when you're building in new processes, that does take a bit of time. So we do expect to return to our historical high level of performance, but probably not until the first part of next year or the first half of next year. So more to come on that, Marc.

But yes, to your question around biofuel. So that project was commissioned in the quarter. Proud to say that the team shipped out their first tanker biofuel in September. You saw some of that in the numbers. But these things do take time. And so, whether it's getting it efficiently started up, whether it's hitting customer spec, rebuilding the customer network for this type of facility and a couple of other things, they do take time. But over time, we do expect this to offset a large part of the disposal costs we're currently incurring in addition to some of the other initiatives we have going to dispose of some of the other byproduct.

So while Julie said very well, we're not pleased with the performance to date. We do believe that we're doing the right things to correct that going forward.

And our next question will come from Ben Klieve with Lake Street Capital Markets.

First, I want to see if you guys can double down a bit on the success of Penelope of late. I mean, it seems quite impressive that, that growth is accelerating even as that business has really, I think, developed some scale. I'm wondering if you can kind of isolate any of the variables behind this growth. I mean, is it -- are you guys seeing any accelerated growth from greater velocity, increased household penetration, distribution gains? Anything to specifically call out behind the growth numbers over the last 6 months or so?

Ben, it's Julie. I appreciate the call. Yes, Penelope certainly is performing quite nicely. We're pleased to say we're the second fastest-growing brand out there in the last 52 weeks. So we're pleased on that. But I would tell you this, if you think about Penelope and the positioning, it's kind of like an [ unbourbon bourbon ]. So it's attracting a broader range of folks across the spectrum. It's a brand that's built on innovation. So we're very purposeful on sending out innovation. It's also very tight on the releases. I was out in the market the last couple of weeks and talking to retailers and how the excitement that they generally have around Penelope, and they definitely said that our approach to limiting the number of cases with each launch. One guy was saying that he's got 60 people on his bourbon list and a lot of the releases are sold out and don't even come on to shelf. So we think that's a key part of it.

And then knowing our consumers. We just launched the Penelope Old Fashioned line. We started with Peach, which was highly successful. We're just out with Black Walnut. And some of the brand insights that we saw there was that we had an opportunity to engage with females. Females who were curious about bourbon and entering into this category, and they were looking for a lower proof, attractive price point. And also, they're about image and visual appeal. So if you've ever seen that bottle, it's a beautiful bottle. So we think that that hit on bringing in new consumers.

And then certainly, from a distribution standpoint, our independents certainly are doing a great job of launching Penelope and having a significant number of average items. Our opportunity still does lie with a national footprint across on-premise and national accounts. So we do feel bullish that there's some upside on getting more distribution across the nation, in particular, in some of those national accounts.

Great. That's all very helpful. And then for my follow-up, I'm curious, Julie, about one of the comments you made about the dynamic where your Distilling Solutions customers are shifting from just-in-case to just-in-time. In that context, how are you guys -- how was that context contemplated within your updated full year guidance? I mean, are you banking on some just-in-time orders still here to come in, in the next month or 2 that you have real visibility of? Or is this something that you're kind of looking for given historic conversations with customers that don't really have locked in yet?

No. I would just say in Q4, you've heard us talk about our guidance. And so, we certainly are confident on what we reaffirmed and where we took some of the levels. And listen, the biggest thing we did was in the past 8 months is go out there and truly engage the customers, right? And we're only a phone call away, and we're very accommodating. And so, as they have money availability, we're willing to take any order that they're willing to give us. So I think that's important.

But our -- we've been pretty tight to hitting our forecast the past few quarters. So we believe that the planning and the forecast that we have out there represents the demand. And certainly, if there's these intermittent customers coming to us, that's just a slight net positive upside. But understand these are craft customers where the number of barrels that they're taking are on the lower end.

Yes. And what I'd add to that, Ben, is this is -- we're now approaching 1,000 customers that have bought whiskey from us over the years. And the just-in-time versus just-in-case, what that means is, they're not willing to necessarily contract out. So it does limit visibility to a specific customer necessarily. But because of the breadth and size of our book of customers, what we do see, especially at the craft level is the market effect, which is, we can see the overall trend that they're moving toward -- more toward this. And we are seeing greater demand for aged, which is obviously a positive. So while it's hard to really visibly measure when a certain craft is going to purchase, the breadth and size of the number that we serve gives us that added confidence that as a collective, these trends are taking place, and we expect to continue.

Very good. I appreciate that from both of you. Congratulations on a good quarter here and a healthy outlook for the rest of the year.

And our next question will come from Mitch Pinheiro with Sturdivant.

So when you look at the data, both for Branded Spirits and even the TTB data, we see inventory, both barrels and also in the retail side and the distributor level kind of full, still full. But pricing data is still much better than I would have expected, holding up. You might expect to see more discounting and pricing actions, but we're not. And I'm just curious as your view on this. Is it saying something larger about the category? Is it saying anything about consumer preferences and/or consumer value?

Mitch, Julie, thanks for the question. First and foremost, we certainly believe strongly as most folks, American whiskey and tequila, our really strong long-term outlook is really healthy. And as we talk about the pricing environment, yes, it's largely remained rational across all core categories. And certainly, there are pockets, regional pockets of greater competitive intensity. And we're certainly seeing in the nonpremium end some investment and some pricing in the value brands in particular, but nothing that causes us concern. And as you called out, it's been pretty rational. So I think that to me, it shows that people are bullish on the strength of the categories and the health of the categories for long-term value, and they don't want to do anything rash to destroy any of the value that they can capture.

And I guess then just sort of a follow-up. So you've always talked about your revenue in the Distillery Solutions business being 1/3, the multinationals, 1/3, your larger regionals or nationals and then 1/3 craft. Is that still there? Or with the sort of decline, it seems like there's a greater decline in craft. Is that now a smaller portion of your business? And yes, let's leave it at that.

And Mitch, you were breaking up in the middle. Can you repeat that, please?

I was just curious about your Distillery Solutions sort of revenue breakdown. It was typically 1/3, 1/3, 1/3, multinational, but your larger regionals or nationals and then your craft. And I'm curious if that's changed.

Yes. I'd say, Mitch, I'll start on that one. We are seeing, generally speaking, a larger proportion of aged sales relative to new distillate than we had expected coming into the year. And so, broadly speaking, like you said, it's typically 1/3, 1/3, 1/3. Age customers tend to skew much more towards the craft. So -- and that is where we're seeing the incremental demand, and that is where we're seeing the improved performance as the year has gone on. So a lot of those larger national, multinational customers that typically buy new distillate, a lot of them still are, but some of them have paused, and we've talked about that. And so, because of that pause the proportionality of our sales mix has moved in that direction.

And our next question is a follow-up from Sean McGowan with ROTH Capital Partners.

A quick question first. What is your expectation for the margin profile on the biofuel? And then more broadly, again, I'm a little surprised with this deep into the call and the word tariff hasn't come up. So could you give us your latest thoughts on that?

Yes. I'll start on the biofuel. Margin -- gross margin profile, we're going to maybe get a little further along until we share our expectations there. But generally speaking, we believe that the biofuel facility, once it's fully ramped up, once it's efficient and selling at the prices that we think it will hit and get all the tax accreditations that are going to come with it over time. We expect that to offset a large part of the disposal costs we're currently incurring. And -- but let us get a little bit further in, let us see what the market pricing is, where the expectations are for next year, and we'd be happy to share more.

And on the tariff front, yes, we are seeing some tariff pressure, not to the extent of probably some of our peers. That's the benefit of being mostly domestic. So a lot of the tariffs we're seeing are mostly on dry goods, some of the product and other materials that we're bringing in. But what's harder to quantify, Sean, is the impact it's having on some of our customers that do have more of an international business. We can see the export data. It's been very volatile this year, especially in terms of American whiskey specifically going out of the country. And so, we do think that it is causing some near-in volatility in patterns as it relates to that.

And it's included in our guidance.

Yes. Great point. And the incremental tariff exposure that we are experiencing is contemplated in our full year guide.

And with that, we will conclude our question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the conference back over to Julie Francis for any closing remarks.

Thank you, Joe. I'd like to thank everyone for joining us today on our quarterly earnings call. I look forward to engaging with all of you in the very near future and playing a much more active role in the next earnings call. So good luck, everyone, and we'll talk soon. Cheers.

The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect your lines.