BK Technologies - Earnings Call - Q4 2024
March 27, 2025
Executive Summary
- Q4 2024 delivered revenue of $17.93M (+9.9% YoY) and gross margin of 41.2%, continuing sequential margin expansion; GAAP diluted EPS was $0.93 (including a $0.37 one-time tax benefit), and non-GAAP diluted EPS was $0.61.
- Versus S&P Global consensus, revenue modestly beat ($17.93M vs $16.80M*) and EPS was a significant beat ($0.93 vs $0.26*), even excluding the tax benefit normalized EPS beat ($0.93 vs $0.35*).
- Management issued FY2025 guidance targeting single-digit revenue growth, gross margin ≥42%, GAAP diluted EPS >$2.40, and non-GAAP diluted EPS >$2.80, with 5–10% price increases effective April 1, 2025 and tariff mitigation plans; tax rate normalizes to 21–26% going forward.
- Catalysts: BKR 9000 multiband adoption in state/local markets, backlog of $21.8M at year-end 2024, and margin trajectory supported by EastWest outsourcing; risks include tariff volatility and timing lag for price increases to flow through backlog.
What Went Well and What Went Wrong
What Went Well
- Continued margin expansion: Q4 gross margin reached 41.2% (up from 35.1% YoY and 38.8% in Q3), driven by product mix shift to BKR 9000 and outsourcing to EastWest.
- Profitability inflection: Q4 operating income of $2.21M (vs $0.40M last year) and non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA of $2.82M (vs $1.30M) as SG&A held steady and production costs fell.
- BKR 9000 demand momentum: CEO highlighted strong adoption in state/local agencies at accessible price points; backlog at year-end was $21.8M (vs $16.0M FY2023). “We achieved exceptional execution in the fourth quarter… order activity for the BKR 9000 saw momentum throughout the year…” — CEO John Suzuki.
What Went Wrong
- Tariff uncertainty: Management cautioned a potential 25% tariff could compress gross margins below 42% in Q2 before price hikes offset in H2; mitigation options include shifting production lines globally with EastWest, but moves take 6–9 months.
- Federal demand timing: Continuing resolution timing delayed Q1 federal orders; management expects funding to flow in Q2, affecting seasonality/order timing.
- SaaS profitability: InteropONE remains a marketing tool rather than standalone profit center; BK ONE aims to broaden offerings, but contribution remains “small” near term.
Transcript
Speaker 3
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the BK Technologies Corporation conference call for the fourth quarter and full year 2024. This call is being recorded, and all participants have been placed on a listen-only mode. Following management's remarks, the call will be open for questions. There is a slide presentation that accompanies today's remarks, which can be accessed via the webcast. At this time, it is my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host for today, Mr. John Nesbett of IMS Investor Relations. Sir, please go ahead.
Speaker 5
Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to our conference call to discuss BK Technologies' results for the fourth quarter and full year 2024. On the call today are John Suzuki, Chief Executive Officer, and Scott Malmanger, Chief Financial Officer. I'll take a moment to read the Safe Harbor Statement. Statements made during this conference call and presented in the presentation are not based on historical facts or forward-looking statements. Such statements include, but are not limited to, projections or statements of future goals and targets regarding the company's revenue and profits. These statements are subject to known and unknown factors and risks.
The company's actual results, performance, or achievements may differ materially from those expressed or implied by those forward-looking statements, and some of the factors and risks that could cause or contribute to such material differences have been described in the morning's press release and in BK's filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. These statements are based on information and understandings that are believed to be accurate as of today and do not undertake any duty to update such forward-looking statements. Okay, I will now turn the call over to John Suzuki, CEO of BK Technologies. Please go ahead, John.
Speaker 6
Thank you, John. Thank you, everyone, for joining today. I'll start by reviewing some of the highlights of our operations and financial results during the quarter and the full year. I will turn it over to our Chief Financial Officer, Scott Malmanger, for a deeper dive into our financial results. We will conclude by opening up the call for a brief Q&A. We closed 2024 with a strong fourth quarter, one that exceeded our expectation and was characterized by exceptional execution across the organization. Revenue increased 9.9% to $17.9 million, and gross margin continued its upward trend to 41.2%. Fully diluted GAAP EPS increased significantly to $0.93, which was the result of strong execution in the quarter, and also included $0.37 related to a one-time non-cash benefit from deferred tax asset provisions.
Our non-GAAP adjusted earnings per share in the quarter was $0.61 per diluted share, a significant increase compared to non-GAAP diluted adjusted EPS of $0.20 in the fourth quarter of last year. Q4 represents our sixth consecutive quarter of profitability for the business. The quarter caps off what was a pivotal year for the company. In 2024, we exceeded our financial and operational targets, delivering revenue of $76.6 million and gross margin of 37.9%. We had initially expected full-year revenue consistent with the $74 million we reported in 2023, and we targeted full-year gross margin of 35%. We are pleased to have surpassed both of these benchmarks. Also, you remember that on the third quarter call, we upwardly revised our target full-year non-GAAP adjusted EPS to $1.92 per diluted share.
I am pleased to report that we significantly surpassed our revised target, coming in at $2.30 per adjusted diluted share. Key contributors to the overachievement were the additional upside revenue, higher-than-expected gross margin, and a lower actual taxation rate. All of these items positively impacted net income. On the new order activity side, we saw the BKR 9000 momentum building from agencies looking for a multi-band option at a price point within their budget. We expect this momentum to continue to build in 2025 as we ramp production and deliver more BKR 9000s to the market. We closed the year with a backlog of $21.8 million at December 31, 2024, $5.8 million higher than the backlog at December 31, 2023. We believe that this higher backlog helps set the stage for further growth in 2025.
Slide five is an illustration of the progress we've made with our gross margin performance, much of which can be attributed to our operational execution, the shift in our product mix to the BKR 9000, and our cost reduction strategy, such as transitioning our manufacturing operations to East West Manufacturing. Fourth quarter gross margin reached 41.2%, and full-year gross margin was 37.9%. I do want to take a minute to address the uncertain macroeconomic environment. In terms of tariffs, we, like many other companies, are monitoring the situation closely, and we have gamed out several different scenarios and mitigation plans. Earlier this year, we announced price increases in the range of 5-10% on our radio products and certain radio accessories. This new price list was recently accepted by the federal government and becomes effective April 1, 2025, for our reseller network.
Initial customer feedback has been supportive as they understand why we are increasing our prices. To date, we have seen no demand change or pushback from the market due to the higher prices. The BK supply chain, like that of all our competitors, is global, with parts manufactured and assembled in numerous countries around the world. An increase in tariffs will increase our product costs, but it will also increase the product costs for all our competitors. We are not in a position to predict the reach and trajectory of the tariff situation. Our business priority remains on delivering quality radios to the frontline first responders while also delivering profitability to our shareholders.
In terms of Dodge, while the federal government remains an important customer, out of the product mix shift to the BKR 9000, we estimate that only 35% of our 2025 revenue will come from the federal government, down from 49% in 2023. The BKR 9000 is driving this change as more local and state governments are adopting the multi-band BKR 9000 radio. Nonetheless, there have been recent changes at the federal level. For example, some of our contacts have changed given the recent layoffs, early retirements, and incentives to terminate. That said, the BK brand and reputation is very strong within our key federal customers. Regardless of leadership changes, we remain confident that the BK brand will remain the brand of preferred choice.
Turning to slide six, you can see how our focus on margin improvement has resulted in adjusted net income growth dating back to the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023. You can really see from this chart how the revenue shift, outsourcing of our manufacturing, and cost reduction efforts have driven exponential improvement in our profitability of our business. We expect to see profitability continue to improve over the long term. Here, we provide a longer-term vision view of the transformation of BK's business. On an annual basis, we have steadily grown revenue with a CAGR of 19% to 76.6% in 2024. Annual non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA and adjusted net income have dramatically improved as well, with a breakthrough into profitability in full year 2023. We built on that progress in 2024 with full-year non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA of $10.4 million and non-GAAP full-year adjusted net income of $8.5 million.
In sum, 2024 was a strong year for us, and we believe that we are just getting started. With that, I will now turn the call over to Scott Malmanger, CFO, to take a deeper dive into our fourth quarter and full-year financial results. Scott?
Speaker 4
Thanks, John. Sales for the fourth quarter totaled $17.9 million, an increase of 9.9% compared to the $16.3 million for the same quarter last year. Full-year revenue increased to $76.6 million from $74.1 million in 2023. Gross profit margin in the fourth quarter was 41.2% compared to 35.1% in the fourth quarter of 2023, and improved sequentially from 38.8% in the third quarter of 2024. Gross margin for the full year was 37.9% compared to 30% in 2023, exceeding our full-year margin target of 35%. Selling, general and administrative expenses, or SG&A, for the fourth quarter totaled approximately $5.2 million compared with $5.3 million for the same quarter last year. Full-year SG&A decreased to $21.2 million compared with $23.0 million in 2023. Operating income totaled $2.2 million compared with operating income of $400,000 in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Full-year 2024 operating income was $7.8 million compared with an operating loss of $777,000 in the previous year. We recorded net income of $3.7 million, or GAAP EPS of $1.03 per basic and $0.93 per diluted share in the fourth quarter of 2024, compared with a net income of $290,000, or $0.08 per basic and diluted share in the prior year period. For the full year, net income was $8.4 million, or GAAP EPS of $2.35 per basic and $2.25 per diluted share, compared with a net loss of $2.2 million, or $0.65 per basic and diluted share in fiscal 2023. As John mentioned in his prepared remarks, included in GAAP EPS for the fourth quarter and fiscal year of 2024 was a one-time non-cash income tax benefit related to deferred tax assets that added $0.37 and $0.27 per share, respectively.
The deferred tax provision was due to the release of a $3.6 million valuation reserve allowance on net operating loss carry forwards. Non-GAAP adjusted earnings, which adds back net realized non-realized gain or loss on investments, stock-based compensation expenses, severance expenses, and excludes the one-time non-cash income tax benefit related to deferred tax asset provisions, was $2.4 million, or non-GAAP adjusted EPS of $0.67 per basic share and $0.61 per diluted share in the fourth quarter of 2024. This is compared with non-GAAP adjusted earnings of $704,000, or $0.20 per basic and diluted share in the fourth quarter of 2023. For the full year, non-GAAP adjusted earnings totaled $8.5 million, or $2.40 per basic and $2.30 per diluted share, compared with adjusted earnings of approximately $3,000, or break-even non-GAAP adjusted EPS in 2023.
We reported non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA of $2.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2024, compared with non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA of $1.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2023. Non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA for the full year 2024 was $10.4 million, compared with non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA of $1.5 million for the full year 2023. Based on the analysis of all available evidence, both positive and negative, the company has concluded that it currently does have the ability to generate sufficient taxable income in the necessary periods to utilize the benefits for the NOL deferred tax assets. Given our improvement in profitability, that NOL carry forward has been recognized as of December 31, 2024. Going forward, we expect to be realizing a more standard tax rate range of 21%-26%. Our balance sheet improved considerably in 2024 and puts us in a strong position to support our growth initiatives.
As of December 31, 2024, we have approximately $7.1 million of cash and cash equivalents and no debt. Working capital improved to approximately $23 million at the end of December 31, 2024, compared with $16.8 million at December 31, 2023. Shareholders' equity increased to $29.8 million compared with $21.3 million at December 31, 2023. I will now turn the call back over to John.
Speaker 6
Thanks, Scott. As we begin to move through 2025, we have identified certain operational and financial goals in keeping with our growth strategy. With our visibility today from a financial performance perspective, we're targeting 2025 revenue to reflect single-digit growth with a gross margin of at least 42%. We are targeting 2025 full-year GAAP diluted EPS in excess of $2.40 and 2025 full-year non-GAAP diluted adjusted EPS in excess of $2.80. In line with our strategy to grow brand recognition and our exposure to additional market verticals, we plan to increase our investments in sales and marketing to further accelerate the BKR 9000 adoption rate. Likewise, we expect to increase our investment in R&D and build up our engineering capabilities to strengthen our software expertise and offerings.
As I mentioned on previous calls, we are ramping development of our new multi-band BKR 9500 mobile radio, which will be designed for installation in first responder vehicles and will be marketed as a companion radio to our BKR 9000 multi-band portable radio. We expect to begin recognizing revenue from the BKR 9500 in 2027. Turning to our final slide, earlier this month, we announced the rebranding and expansion of our SaaS business unit to be known going forward as BK One Solutions. Interoperability between communication devices and platforms has long been a challenge for the public safety market. The mission for BK One is to provide rapidly deployable solutions, which significantly increase the effectiveness of the public safety response and maximize first responder safety. Solutions will be comprised of SaaS, software applications, and certain hardware applications that help solve the interoperability problem.
The BK One family of offerings include: Interop One, our push-to-talk over broadband service, enabling on-demand creation of ad hoc user groups that can include anyone with an active smartphone. Locate One, an on-premise solution providing real-time tracking of personnel and assets via GPS functionality. Relay One, a rapidly deployable portable repeater kit designed to extend range and facilitate interoperability between different types of public safety and military radios. We have additional offerings in various stages of development that we're excited to add to the BK One brand. We believe that our solutions will improve public safety interoperability, attracting both new and existing customers as we drive sales for BK One, as well as our BKR series radios. In closing, BK executed exceptionally well in 2024, and we made excellent progress establishing solid operational and financial foundations.
We're confident that BK Technologies is well positioned to continue its growth trajectory and drive enhanced results and value for our shareholders through 2025 and beyond. With that, we can open up the call for questions. Ali?
Speaker 3
Thank you. At this time, we will be conducting our question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press Star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press Star 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please, while we pull for questions. Thank you. Our first question is coming from Jaeson Schmidt with Lake Street Capital. Your line is live.
Speaker 1
Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my questions, and congrats on some really strong results here. John, just curious if you could discuss how order activity has been year to date, and then just given the macro backdrop, if you're seeing any sales cycles start to lengthen.
Speaker 6
In terms of our first quarter order volume, I would say it's in line with expectations. Typically, our order cycles are seasonal, with Q2 and Q3 being our larger order intakes, and then Q4 and Q1 being lighter. In terms of this year, I would say it's in line with expectations. The second question really deals more so with the federal government than with state and local. The federal government budget was just the continuing resolution that just passed, which is good news because that means our federal customers have funding through the balance of the year. This year, it's actually happened a little bit later than it has in previous years. Where we probably would have seen some earlier orders on the federal side in the first quarter, funds were not really available.
We are expecting those funds to start flowing in the second quarter and so on. The funds are there. They have been released, but with a slight delay.
Speaker 1
Okay. That's really helpful. If you could just update us on kind of where you're seeing the most interest for the 9000.
Speaker 6
Yeah. It's in the state and local market, for sure. The thing with the state and local market is they do operate in multiple bands. Typically, the primary communication system for the city or the county or the state operates at the 800 megahertz frequency band. If you compare that to, say, Wildland Fire, which operates in a completely different band at the 150 megahertz. You have customers that are, especially our Wildland Fire customers, who, when they're on mission for Wildland Fire, need to operate at the 150 band. When they go home and they start doing their day job, they need a radio that can operate at the 800 band. Having a multi-band radio where you have one radio that basically fits both missions is very attractive to them.
The fact that our price point is within their budget is what's helping us drive sales.
Speaker 1
Gotcha. Just the last one for me, I'll jump back into queue. Looking at the solutions business and kind of incorporating the SaaS and software applications, how should we think about the timeline before the software initiative becomes a bigger part of the P&L?
Speaker 6
Yeah, that's a good question, Jason. I think we're still putting our foot in the water just to kind of take a temperature. We've learned a lot over the last couple of years since we introduced Interop One, and we continue to learn about solutions. I'll give you a short example. One of the Wildland customers that we had, he was telling us about how he was looking at Interop One to coordinate communications during a Wildland Fire fire. He is responsible for some logistics, and he has contractors that come in. He's not quite sure who they'll be, but when he forms his team, he'll use Interop One as a way to communicate to them. He's also looking at using Locate One so that he can actually identify on a map where these water trucks are at any point in time.
That is a good example where you have two solutions that can be combined together to provide an overall solution for a problem that he is having, right? How do I communicate with my subcontractors, and how do I know where they are? We see a lot of those needs in the marketplace, and I think there are a lot of siloed solutions to deal with one or two parts of that solution. The intent of BK One is to bring under a single umbrella these different solutions, but give the customer the look and feel and the user interface that he is really dealing with one solution that has different aspects. All of that is going to take us time to get traction in the marketplace.
My hope is, as we finish 2025 and set our vision for 2030, we'll provide some clarity in terms of how big we think the solutions business could be for BK.
Speaker 1
Okay. That's helpful. Thanks a lot, guys.
Speaker 6
Thanks, Jason.
Speaker 3
Thank you. Once again, ladies and gentlemen, if you do have any questions or comments, please press Star 1 on your telephone keypad. Our next question is coming from Samir Patel with Askeladden Capital. Your line is live.
Speaker 0
Hey, congrats on a great finish to the year. Sounds like a good start to 2025. I'll start with one for Scott. Hey, would you be able to walk back from your adjusted EPS guidance to adjusted EBITDA? Any important kind of inputs into that, particularly? I think you mentioned tax rate. I wasn't sure if that applied to this year's guidance or more generally.
Speaker 6
Yeah. It was basically for the fourth quarter. We had the valuation reserve allowance that was basically a non-book entry. We were able to recognize that, and that kind of flowed through. That was the significant adjustment there to get from a GAAP to a non-GAAP basis. If you look at the chart of the non-GAAP reconciliation, you can see the detail there. It is the standard stuff that is going to be recurring: the stock-based comp, non-cash stock-based comp, and then basically the depreciation, amortization, the standard type adjustment.
Speaker 0
Okay. Just to be clear, that $2.80 figure implies something in that 21-26% tax range?
Speaker 6
Correct. That is correct.
Speaker 0
Okay. I just wanted to make sure there's no—so that's a fully taxed EPS number.
Speaker 6
Yes. You're correct.
Speaker 0
Okay. Okay. Perfect. That's fine. Second one, I guess for both of y'all, look, I mean, your guidance seems fairly conservative. Obviously, last year, you beat it by a pretty wide margin. And then just looking at this year, I mean, you're trailing bookings around $85 million. You talked about a 5%-10% price increase going through. Should we expect that guidance is sort of subject to revision as you go through the year and get more tangible data points on how things are progressing?
Speaker 6
Hey, Samir. It's John Suzuki. Yeah, we're actually in some very uncertain times, right? I think that if the tariffs hold off, that would be a reasonable expectation that we'd be raising guidance throughout the year. I can't tell you today, right, what's going to happen on April 2nd or May 3rd and so on, right? We need to be prepared. We started that by the price increases, but as you know, it takes a while for price increases to affect your backlog. We expect to see those price increases impacting our financials more in the third quarter than the second quarter because most of our backlog—most backlog does not include those price increases. It's impossible for us to predict, right, what's going to happen this year. What we've done is put a benchmark out there. We've made our best assumptions.
As the situation on the ground changes, we will continue to update the market.
Speaker 0
Okay. Perfect. I think in response to Jason's question, did I hear you say that at the end of 2025, you're kind of going to put out a new set of multi-year targets looking out to 2030?
Speaker 6
Yes. When I first started with the company in 2021, we set out what we call Vision 2025. That was revenue, gross margin, and EBITDA targets. At the end of this year, when we review the full year, I will compare it against that Vision 2025 number and then set what we would call 2030 vision. At that point, I think we will provide some more clarity between what I would say our core business, our core radio business, versus what the potential is for our solutions business.
Speaker 0
Okay. That makes sense. Yeah, I mean, you're going to fall a little short of that 2025 target, but considering all the macro headwinds you faced, I think you've done a really admirable job. Maybe one final one just on that press release you put out about the Interop One order from a state forestry agency. If you could just provide maybe some more color on the background, kind of scope of that order. I'm sure you're limited in kind of what you can say specifically, but just any color would be helpful just as we think about the SaaS business growing.
Speaker 6
Yeah. I think it was a great example of—so we were working with the client, doing a pilot, and then Hurricane Helene hit. They were, I guess, surprised by the amount of damage that took place, but they were thrilled, right, because we had the pilot communication system up, Interop One, how effective it was during that whole crisis and how they were able to get everyone on a common channel, in essence, right? Whether they had a smartphone or they had an LMR radio, just the ability to assess damage and to communicate action plans was very effective. The customer had commented that he had trialed a number of similar systems in the past, and he felt that Interop One was the one solution that met their needs. Subsequently, they placed an order for it.
To me, it tells me again, there's nothing better than doing field trials. If there's an incident that occurs during that, that really drives home the point.
Speaker 0
Do you have—can you share anything about the number of users or just roughly the size of that order?
Speaker 6
Yeah. I would prefer not because we went to a customer. Yeah. Initially, they said they would, but then as it gets up higher in the organizations, they tend not to do those things. I promised that I wouldn't do it.
Speaker 0
Understood. Appreciate the time. I'll turn it over for other questions. Thank you so much.
Speaker 6
Thanks, Samir.
Speaker 3
Thank you. Our next question is coming from Orin Hirschman with AIGH. Your line is live.
Speaker 2
Hi. Congratulations on all the progress. Keeping in mind that a lot of the backlog today does not—or a lot of the backlog today does not include the price increase, can you continue to show margin improvement even in advance of the price increase beginning to hit the numbers? Is there still more to go with the existing plan versus any tariff-related backlash based on where we are today in the world?
Speaker 6
Yeah. Good question, Orrin. Let me try and characterize the year as we see it, right? Our first quarter is basically done, and we are going to experience healthy margins in the first quarter because we did not have any tariffs. We will talk about that in about six weeks. I would say we are pleased with the quarter, and it is in line with what our expectations were. As I go into Q2, if we get a 25% tariff, that is a pretty significant tax that we put on there. Most of the backlog we have does not include the price increases. Therefore, we expect that our gross margin will probably drop below, certainly below what we are seeing in Q1, and probably drop below that 42%.
If you take what we expect in Q1 versus what we would expect under Q2 with the tariffs, we'd probably be in line with that 42% for the first half of the year. As I look in the second half of the year, the price increases will kick in, plus we do have some additional operational cost improvements. Our belief is for the second half of the year, we will be floating around that 42% mark. That's just the simple math. Now, a lot of things can affect that. Product mix, for example, can affect that dramatically. Our assumptions on what's being tariffed could be different. We put a stake in the ground. Like I said, if the situation changes, we will provide updates to the market.
Speaker 2
Okay. In terms of the 9,000, obviously, huge 10 compared to where we've been at before. If I just look at the 9,000 growth under the current conservative base case scenario, if I just look at the 9,000 growth, can we safely assume that the 9,000 is growing significantly faster than the rest of the business, and that's the growth driver?
Speaker 6
Yes.
Speaker 2
In terms of the margins, the gross margins on the 9000 with tariff or without tariff, however you want to put it, how are you seeing those in terms of being premium gross margins, something more specific than you want to be?
Speaker 6
Yeah. I would say historically, what we said is the 9000 was going to be a 60% gross margin product. Now, that's before any tariffs, right? Parts of the 9000, these parts are sourced globally. Depending on what those tariffs, if any, come into play, that will have an impact on our gross margin for that product.
Speaker 2
Now, obviously, being offset partially or math doesn't quite work because of the difference, whether it's your increasing price or it's your gross margin, but part of that would be offset by the higher price once that kicks in.
Speaker 6
Yes.
Speaker 2
Okay. My last question just on the software side of things. Typically, till now, software has just been a driver to try and promote more radio usage to promote the 9000. Are we hearing from you that there's also, especially after signing up, sounds like a real commercial customer, and I know you have a few smaller ones. Is it also a revenue source that we could view it as, keeping in mind it's still small? Obviously, it has a very high gross margin also.
Speaker 6
Yeah. I think the operable word is small. Yes, because we've now added two more products into our portfolio. When you're dealing with a SaaS business, the revenue is very low, but it's just reoccurring. When you're dealing with a product like Locate One, which is an on-premise software solution, the sale is a one-time sale plus support costs, right? Ongoing support costs. That's a much higher revenue number. Relay One is more of a hardware product solution. Again, it's a higher revenue product. You'll start seeing, or we'll start seeing from BK One Solutions much higher revenues in this year than if we had just focused on Interop One.
Speaker 2
Got it. Does Interop One have its merit as its own SaaS business, or it's still really just a driver of 9000 sales?
Speaker 6
Yeah. No, it has its own SaaS business. We monitor that. I just look at the benefit of that still. I mean, it's not making money on its own. It is still a losing proposition, even with the customers we have on there. If you look at it as a marketing tool and our ability for it to drive 9,000 sales, it more than pays for itself.
Speaker 2
Can you see, though, the possibility of how it gets based on your pipeline, how it actually gets to be a break-even or a profit center on its own?
Speaker 6
Yeah. Absolutely. No doubt.
Speaker 2
Okay. Okay. Thanks so much.
Speaker 6
Thank you, Orrin.
Speaker 3
Thank you. We have another question from Samir Patel with Askeladden Capital. Your line is live.
Speaker 0
Hey, I just wanted to follow up on the tariffs piece. I respect and understand that this is a very—calling it a moving target might be an understatement. First of all, just to confirm, based on what you said, your goods would fall into that not compliant with the USMCA category, so they'd be subject to the full tariffs?
Speaker 6
Our products do comply with the USMCA. In the first quarter, we paid zero tariffs.
Speaker 0
Okay. They are in that category. That's good to hear. Then second would be, I mean, you mentioned mitigation strategies. Other than the price increase, I mean, what would you look to do if those became sort of more permanent? I mean, I know you've talked about, for example, being able to do a little bit more assembly in Melbourne.
Speaker 6
Yeah. Certainly, that's an option. The advantage that we have with our partnership with East West is they have a number of different factories around the world. We would have to assess, right, where the administration is applying the tariffs and then overlay that where East West has manufacturing facilities. We've already engaged with them. I mean, we can pick up these lines and move them to another facility. That takes six months, nine months potentially to move a supply chain. If we deem that the tariff coming out of that particular country is more expensive than operating or moving the line to a country with a lower tariff or no tariff, that's just an economic decision. It's one we don't take lightly because it takes six months to nine months to move a supply chain.
The last thing you want to do is move it just to find that the administration has changed their mind on the tariff. It is something that we just have to watch and monitor. There are definite options. Our best case is to continue to get our costs down and then where we have to continue to raise our price. As I mentioned in the script, this is not unique to BK, right? If you listen to our competitor announcements, they are experiencing the same thing. We all have global supply chains, and we will all be impacted by tariffs. I believe that we just need to be monitoring the situation and then taking the appropriate actions to preserve our profitability. Will it be rocky in the interim? It could be because tariffs can be implemented within 48 hours.
Trying to get price increases adopted into the market can take two or three months or longer if it's dealing with the federal government. There is always a lag in that aspect. At the end of the day, we do believe it's going to get settled out, and we want to be in the most optimal position once the trade issues settle down.
Speaker 0
That makes a lot of sense. Yeah.
Speaker 6
Our long-term version.
Speaker 0
Sorry. Go ahead.
Speaker 6
Yeah. Our long-term version remains the same, right? We want to get to 50% gross margins. We think we can do that.
Speaker 0
Yeah. It sounds like, I mean, you're just waiting to see how it plays out, and it sounds like you have a lot of good options. It's more just, again, you don't want to be making a seven-month decision based on something the administration has changed 12 times in the past three days.
Speaker 6
Right.
Speaker 0
Yeah. Perfect. Okay. And then just a final note, did you pull forward any inventory or production in Q1 kind of ahead of the implementation date?
Speaker 6
I would say we tried to. It was certainly on our mind, and we tried to do that. The actual result was not the same. Yeah. Our inventory, as you'll see, went down. I would love our finished goods inventory to skyrocket up to mitigate some of that risk, but we just couldn't pull it off.
Speaker 0
Understood. All right. Thanks for the time.
Speaker 3
Thank you. As we have no further questions on the lines at this time, I would like to hand it back over to management for closing remarks.
Speaker 6
Thank you, Ali. Thank you all for participating in today's call. We look forward to speaking with you again when we report our first quarter results. All the best to all of you, and have a great day.
Speaker 3
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's call. You may disconnect your lines at this time and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation.