Senestech - Earnings Call - Q1 2025

Executive Summary

• Q1 2025 delivered 17% revenue growth to $0.485M with record gross margin of 64.5%, as mix continued to shift toward Evolve; net loss narrowed modestly Y/Y and gross profit more than doubled, underscoring improving unit economics.
• Mix and channel strength drove the upside: Evolve represented 79% of revenue and e‑commerce reached 61% of sales; municipal deployments began in NYC and expanded in Chicago, with additional cities initiating pilots, setting up multi‑channel growth into 2H25.
• Management reiterated cost discipline, citing ~$2M annualized expense reductions and a lower cash flow breakeven revenue threshold from ~$12M to ~$7M (~$1.5M/quarter), a key milestone that could accelerate operating leverage as larger municipal and international orders land.
• Street consensus was not available for Q1 2025 (S&P Global showed no active EPS or revenue consensus), so no formal beat/miss can be determined; coverage remains limited for this micro‑cap [Values retrieved from S&P Global].

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

• What Went Well

  • Gross profit and margin inflected: gross profit rose to $313K (+132% Y/Y) and gross margin hit a record 64.5%, driven by higher Evolve mix and better manufacturing efficiencies.
  • Mix shift to Evolve and e‑commerce: Evolve was 79% of revenue (+40% Y/Y), and e‑commerce reached 61% of sales (+107% Y/Y), supporting scaling at attractive unit economics.
  • Municipal momentum: Initial rollouts in NYC and Chicago (Wicker Park/Bucktown) with additional orders from Baltimore, Los Angeles County, Boston area, and Waukesha suggest an emerging municipal demand curve and future order depth.

• What Went Wrong

  • Brick‑and‑mortar remains slow: Gaining shelf space takes time; management noted retailers want online proof points before committing to in‑store placement, with only modest early progress (e.g., Ace regional service centers).
  • International revenue paused in Q1: No international revenue recognized in the quarter as teams await reorders and pending regulatory approvals; Q4 2024 included >$50K of international shipments, highlighting quarterly lumpiness.
  • Profitability still ahead: Despite better margins, Q1 operating loss was $(1.663)M with net loss $(1.665)M; breakeven depends on scaling to ~$1.5M quarterly revenue and landing larger municipal/international orders.

Transcript

Operator (participant)

After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Robert Blum with Lytham Partners. Please go ahead.

Robert Blum (Managing Investor Relations)

All right. Thanks so much, and thank you all for joining us today to discuss SenesTech's First Quarter 2025 Financial Results for the period ended March 31, 2025. With us on the call today are Joel Fruendt, the company's Chief Executive Officer, and Tom Chesterman, the company's Chief Financial Officer. As the operator indicated at the conclusion of today's remarks, we will open the call for a question-and-answer session. If you dial into the conference call through the traditional teleconference line, you can press star, then one to ask a question. If you are listening through the webcast portal and would like to ask a question, you can submit your question through the Ask a Question feature in the webcast player, and if you're not able to get to your question today, we'll do our best to respond at a later date.

Before we begin with prepared remarks, we submit for the record the following statement. Statements made by the management team of SenesTech during the course of this conference call may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 as amended, and such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements describe future expectations, plans, results, or strategies, and are generally preceded by words such as may, future, plan or planned, will or should, expected, anticipates, draft, eventually, or projected.

Listeners are cautioned that such statements are subject to a multitude of risks and uncertainties that could cause future circumstances, events, or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements, including the risks that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors and other risks identified in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All forward-looking statements contained during this conference call speak only as of the date in which they were made and are based on management's assumptions and estimates as of such date. The company does not undertake any obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements, whether as the result of the receipt of new information, the occurrence of future events, or otherwise. All right. With that said, let me turn the call over to Joel Fruendt, Chief Executive Officer. Joel, please proceed.

Joel Fruendt (CEO)

Thank you, Robert, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you all for joining us today for our First Quarter 2025 Conference Call. As you all can see from the Press Release, we continue to make remarkable strides transitioning and expanding customers towards our high-margin Evolve product line, including both our rat and mouse products. During the quarter, Evolve revenue grew 40% compared to the year-ago period, driven by success in our e-commerce platforms, improved adoption by Pest Management Professionals, and deployments in major U.S. cities. Perhaps more important, though, is that gross margins increased to nearly 65% during Q1 compared to just 33% last year, resulting in gross profit dollars increasing by an impressive 132%. Evolve continues to change the game for SenesTech, and Evolve is changing the game in major U.S. cities as we see deployments ramping significantly across the United States.

After the quarter closed, we announced deployment of Evolve Rat in the Wicker Park Bucktown Special Service area of Chicago. The new deployment in Wicker Park has crews installing bait boxes with Evolve Rat in alleys behind several major thoroughfares in the Chicago neighborhoods. As many of you have seen, the deployment has garnered extensive media coverage, and we actually have a dedicated informational website for the residents and business owners to see where deployments have occurred. Visit our website at www.evolve-birthcontrol.com/wickerpark to see our interactive map. Also, in April, we began deployment in New York City following the approval in September of last year by the city council to launch a rat contraceptive pilot program. Our team was in New York two weeks ago supporting the initial deployment, and it is going very well.

Beyond New York City and Chicago, we have also received orders from the city of Baltimore, Los Angeles County, many in the Boston area, and Waukesha, Wisconsin. Expanded deployments in these municipalities should be key contributors to growth for us going forward. Finally, a major development: our pest control partner, Pest Tech, just started a large deployment in San Francisco. Our team was out there recently to help with the deployment, and it is a substantial opportunity. We are just now turning the corner on these large municipal opportunities, and it's very exciting news for us. Beyond the municipal deployments, we also continue to gain significant traction through our e-commerce platforms. In just the past 12 months, we have expanded our e-commerce presence from selling exclusively on our SenesTech family of websites to offering Evolve on Amazon.com, Walmart.com, and Tractor Supply.com.

During Q1, e-commerce-driven sales have increased by more than 107% due to these added locations, enhanced website functionality on our own websites, as well as targeted marketing strategies. Evolve's improved form factor, economical price point, proven efficacy, and lengthy shelf life have allowed for this to be much more conducive to e-commerce compared to our historical ContraPest product line. As our presence continues to expand, we will see e-commerce continue to substantially grow moving forward. With strong growth in municipal deployments, our e-commerce and International Markets during Q1, which we expect to continue in the future, another key driver we expect to contribute to growth later this year is our International Operations. We believe we're tracking for a strong second half of the year with shipments planned for a number of new countries.

To date, we have signed agreements for distribution of Evolve in 12 separate countries and territories, having just signed exclusive agreements in Indonesia and the Philippines. Approval and commercial product shipments have occurred in Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, the Maldives, and the Netherlands. We expect reorders for these in the coming quarters as well. Additionally, we have deployments expected for later this year in key markets, including Australia and New Zealand, following expected regulatory approvals there. Again, international has regulatory processes that need to be worked through, but when orders are placed, they are typically for larger container-sized orders that can significantly drive our growth. While strong progress has been made in municipal e-commerce and internationally, one area where we're not gaining as much progress as quickly as I hoped is brick-and-mortar retail.

The process is lengthy to achieve shelf space, and often, such as the case with Walmart, they want to see how your product performs online before committing to placing it in the store. Growth in e-commerce can actually be the proof point for brick-and-mortar retails in some ways. Progress is being made, though. With ACE Hardware, we began selling to individual stores. Recently, though, we have been getting orders from their regional service centers, also known as Distribution Centers, intended for sale in an ACE network. We are also getting orders from retailers' warehouses for use in the warehouses themselves. Let me come back to the topic of gross margins and gross profit dollars. As I mentioned at the beginning, our business has been truly transformed by Evolve.

Evolve inherently carries gross margins higher than ContraPest, which has dramatically increased our blended margins to a new record of 65% during the current quarter. With a focus on achieving profitability, this is a key component. Beyond the gross margin and profit improvements, we continue to improve our overall operational efficiencies. As we announced in March, we have implemented additional initiatives designed to further reduce expenses by $2 million on an annualized basis. As the initiatives were implemented in late March, the financial improvements should be more evident during the quarters to come. These new savings, coupled with the higher gross margins from Evolve, are anticipated to reduce the revenue threshold for cash flow break-even to $7 million annually compared to $12 million historically. Put differently, we need revenue of just over $1.5 million quarterly to reach break-even.

A few large municipal or international orders, coupled with the continued growth we have seen in e-commerce, certainly puts that within our sight. With that, let me turn the call over to Tom to expand on the financials in more detail. I will then wrap up with a few comments before turning it over to questions. Tom?

Tom Chesterman (CFO)

Thank you, Joel. Let me take a moment to expand on the numbers in the Press Release and a few of the points Joel mentioned in his earlier remarks. On the revenue line, total revenue for the first quarter was $485,000, which was an increase of 17% from Q1 of last year. Breaking it down further, Evolve revenue increased 40% and accounted for 79% of our first quarter sales. ContraPest, which we have de-emphasized in recent quarters as we focus on our higher margin Evolve product, decreased approximately 40% and accounted for 21% of our Q1 sales. By the way, we do not expect ContraPest to go away. There are still a number of loyal ContraPest customers, and there are still a couple of states where Evolve is not yet approved.

Looking at it from a vertical breakdown, e-commerce is clearly our largest contributor, coming in at 61% of our overall Q1 sales. Overall e-commerce was up 107% compared to Q1 of last year. Amazon is going well and is the predominant e-commerce channel right now. Municipal sales, while still a relatively small percentage of total sales, saw a seven-fold increase from the year-ago quarter. As Joel touched on, with new deployments in Chicago and New York City and others in Q2, we think we can continue to grow this market vertical. We did not recognize any international sales during Q1 as we await follow-on orders from a few markets which ordered at the end of last year. As a reference point, we had more than $50,000 in international shipments in Q4.

As Joel mentioned, we have a few potential significant orders pending regulatory approval, which we expect will be key drivers for us later this year. Other contributors during Q1 were in the areas of agribusiness, commercial, Pest Management Professionals, zoos and sanctuaries, and a small amount from brick-and-mortar retail locations so far. Turning to gross margins and gross profits as a whole, for the first quarter, gross margins were 64.5% compared to 32.5% in Q1 of last year. Looking at it sequentially, gross margins also improved compared to 60.9% in Q1 of last year. You can see we are continually improving our gross margins. Looking at it from a gross profit dollar perspective, gross profit was $313,000 compared to $135,000 in last year's Q1, up 132%. It also was up sequentially. The driver here is Evolve, which has higher margins than ContraPest.

As I mentioned last quarter, we're also increasing production capacity to meet future demand. We have now officially moved into our newer, larger facility in the Phoenix area that will allow us to meet the next five years of increasing demand without dramatically increasing our facility costs. On the OpEx line, operating expenses were basically flat from a year-ago quarter, but up slightly from Q4. As we announced in March, we implemented a new series of optimization initiatives to further reduce expenses, which included severance costs for those individuals whose positions were eliminated.

These initiatives included the pausing of new product development to focus exclusively on the commercialization and growth of Evolve Rat and Evolve Mouse, bringing marketing, regulatory, and intellectual property functions in-house to reduce reliance on external consultants, and optimizing our direct sales efforts, shifting to a focus on high-value customer acquisition in key customer segments and commission-only models. The benefit of these initiatives should be evident in the quarters to come on the operating expense line. All told, these savings, coupled with the higher gross margins and operating efficiencies gained on the manufacturing, are expected to move our cash flow break-even level to a little over $1.5 million per quarter. As we continue to move closer to that inflection point that many companies and investors are looking for, there is still execution work to be done, but the pathway is clear.

On the balance sheet, we completed a strategic financing during Q1 for a warrant repricing at the market that raised $1 million. The warrant inducement also included the issuance of $4 million of short-term warrants. We have had great success with warrants historically, raising capital with less dilution than fully marketed public offerings. To some extent, this transaction can be seen as an alternative to a $5 million fully marketed public offering, priced at the money instead of at a discount. We also were able to bring in approximately $1 million through the use of our ATM. We continue to have capacity under the ATM, and we just filed a renewal S-3 last week to cover it as it is required periodically.

With the true financial results coupled with the short-term warrants as a potential source of cash, along with the additional capacity on our ATM, we believe we will not have to go back to the markets with a larger underwritten public offering in the near future. Let me turn the call back over to Joel. Joel?

Joel Fruendt (CEO)

Thanks, Tom. Just a couple of closing comments. We have now completed nine consecutive full quarters of year-over-year revenue growth since I took over as CEO in 2022. The launch of Evolve has changed the game for us, not only from a revenue perspective but also from a gross profit perspective, as you can see. The gross profit during the first quarter was the highest in the company's history, which, when coupled with operating optimization initiatives we touched on, puts us on a pathway to achieve our goal of profitability. Beyond the numbers, as I take a step back, I see more clearly today than at any point since I took over the opportunity we have to revolutionize the way the pest control industry has dealt with rodents. Municipalities are increasingly understanding the need, as you can see from deployments in some of the largest cities in the country.

To be clear, these are very small areas being deployed at the moment. With potential expansion of these across entire cities, this could lead to millions of dollars in opportunity for SenesTech going forward. Importantly, less rodents that are damaging infrastructure and transmitting disease to humans. The opportunity does not stop in municipal applications. Agriculture is a huge opportunity, both domestic and international. Zoos and other animal sanctuaries where you cannot easily deploy poisons are a huge opportunity for us. Residential applications, especially in large apartment complexes, are a huge opportunity for us. Commercial buildings and warehouses are also a huge opportunity for us, and we are just beginning to penetrate these areas. I believe we will gain significant traction in each of these areas shortly. To get to the long term, we need to execute in the near term, and that is our focus: be effective yet efficient.

I'm pleased with the recent financial results and activities accomplished to expand adoption moving forward. As always, I thank you all for your interest in SenesTech, and with that, I am happy to open the call to questions. Operator?

Operator (participant)

We will now begin the question-and-answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then one on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Showing no questions, this concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Joel Fruendt for any closing remarks.

Joel Fruendt (CEO)

Thank you, and thank you all for being here. We appreciate your support. We are in an exciting time as our company is now moving into marketplaces that are substantially large, that are showing a great acceptance for our Evolve product line, and we look forward to success in the near term and the long term. Thank you.

Operator (participant)

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