Twin Vee PowerCats - Q4 2023

Transcript

Operator (participant)

Welcome to Twin Vee PowerCats Co. year-end 2023 investor call. As a reminder, this call is being recorded and all participants are in a listen-only mode. Your speaker for today's program is Joseph Visconti, President and CEO of Twin Vee PowerCats Co. Before I turn the call over to Joseph, please remember that certain statements made during this investor call are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements on this call, other than statements of historical fact, including statements regarding the company's future operation and financial position, business strategy, and plans, objectives of management for future operations, are forward-looking statements. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terminologies such as believes, may, estimates, continue, anticipates, intends, should, plan, expects, predict, potential, or negative of these terms or other similar expressions.

The company has based these forward-looking statements largely on its current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends it believes may affect its financial condition, results of operations, business strategy, and financial needs. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties and assumptions described, including those set forth in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available on its website at ir.twinvee.com. You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. We cannot assure you that events and circumstances reflected in forward-looking statements will be achieved or occur. Finally, this conference call is being webcast, and the webcast will be available in the investor relations section of the company's website at ir.twinvee.com for at least 90 days. Audio quality is subject to your equipment, available broadband, bandwidth, and internet traffic.

If you experience unsatisfactory audio quality, please use the telephone dial-in option. A question-and-answer session will follow the presentation. Please note that only those that have dialed in via telephone may ask a question. Those listening via webcast will be unable to submit questions. If you would like to ask a question, you may signal by pressing star 1 on your telephone keypad. I will now turn the call over to Joseph Visconti.

Joseph Visconti (CEO)

Good afternoon to everyone on the call today. Thank you for joining me and taking the time to participate in our 2023 year-end financial results. My name is Joseph Visconti. I'm the CEO and President of Twin Vee PowerCats. Today, I would like to discuss the status of the industry as a whole, an update on our operations and performance, and the progress that we have made this year as we move forward in 2024. Let's begin by providing an overview of the current economic conditions in the recreational sports market, encompassing marine, RVs, and other big-ticket recreational products. Our industry has been facing challenges since the highs seen during and after the pandemic. Elevated interest rates continue to exert downward pressure on demand across our industry.

While these headwinds have presented challenges for Twin Vee, our team remains committed to pushing through with innovation, new designs, and multiple new stylish products for both our iconic brands, Twin Vee and Aquasport Boats. As we experience the slowing of our industry demand, we have been proactive in right-sizing our business to align with the reduction of this demand. As of today, Twin Vee employs approximately 85 people, and we are currently manufacturing between 10 and 14 boats per month, depending on the model mix under our flagship brands, Twin Vee and Aquasport. In terms of sales, we remained ahead of the curve in 2023. According to what's called SSI data, statistical survey data which tracks all boat registrations, the saltwater outboard market, which is our category, experienced a decline of almost 19% in 2023 compared to 2022.

Comparatively, Twin Vee experienced an increase of 4% in sales for 2023 compared to 2022. While we experienced a slowdown in orders in early 2024, our team has undertaken measures to foster future sales growth throughout our product offerings while we optimize our operations and enhance cost efficiencies. Turning our attention to product development, we are excited to highlight our efforts to expand our product portfolio. Throughout 2023 and 2024, we have introduced or are in the process of developing many new products under the Twin Vee and Aquasport brands. I would like to highlight two of our new products, the all-new Aquasport 280 Superboat and the Twin Vee 280 Dual Console. Let me start by talking about the 280 Superboat. The new Aquasport 28-foot Superboat will be the first recreational fully autonomous production dayboat.

We have partnered with Avikus, a marine company specializing in autonomous navigation that was established by HD Hyundai, the world's largest shipbuilder. Our all-new 280 Superboat has been designed and tooled from the ground up for full autonomous integration, and the components such as the sensors, cameras,LiDAR, and the black brain box all built right into the boat. This is an amazing project. This was not a strap-on, add-on, optional upgrade system. Our new Aquasport 280 Superboat is truly a superboat, and this spectacular vessel should be ready for customer orders sometime around October 2024. Autonomous boat technology offers consumers a new level of safety and convenience. The boat will provide advanced route planning, smart autopilot navigation that identifies objects to avoid potential collisions, and self-docking capability.

We anticipate the superboat will attract a new wave of buyers, tech enthusiasts, to the market while still appealing to existing boaters looking for help with navigation and docking. We've also debuted the versatile Twin Vee 280 Dual Console catamaran. Twin Vee has been recognized for its dual console boats. In January 2022, Boat Trader, one of America's largest online boating marketplaces, said our 24-foot dual console GFX was one of the year's seven best power catamarans. In March 2022, Motor Boat and Yachting magazine named Twin Vee's 280 Center Console the best power boat center console under 30 feet. Innovation, new designs, and next-level products drive most industries, and Twin Vee is no different. Our team of engineers, designers, and boat builders are working on the next generation of our popular GFX boats.

Our next generation GFX line will be named GFX 2, and we will be starting with the Twin Vee 260 GFX 2, which will be in production next month. The Gen 2 products will include as standards an all-digital switching backbone. Our new tech-forward digital switching enables touchscreen controls but also results in a cleaner layout and design of our overall electronic system. The center console of our GFX 2 has been completely redesigned to resemble what some would say a spaceship. You got to see this. The new GFX 2 console has improved styling, all-new ergonomics, and a huge single 24-inch multifunction display. We've updated color options, upholstery, styling, and streamlined the console framing so there's no aluminum hitting the floor. It's all integrated into the console. Our goal with the GFX Gen 2 was to make these boats stand out in the water, marinas, or any dealer lot.

The real excitement comes from the ability to configure your GFX 2 straight from the factory with the latest innovations in navigation, fishing, and water sports using our online build-and-price. For example, we will be offering base-level autopilot packages that include cameras, optional night vision. We believe the future of boating involves automating navigation, and we like to think and we believe that we are on the forefront of integrating these important technologies into our boats for the safety and convenience of our customers. We will be showcasing these new boats at our dealer meeting May 20th in West Palm Beach. There, representatives from Twin Vee's and Aquasport dealer network throughout the country will learn all about our new 2025 boats, have the opportunity to sea trial our latest products, and discuss sales strategies, marketing initiatives, and production updates.

In support of the growth and development of our product line and the introduction of Aquasport as our latest brand, I'm excited to announce that we are beginning construction in the next couple of weeks on our 25,000 sq ft addition here in Fort Pierce, Florida. When construction is completed in the next 6-9 months, our new factory will encompass nearly 100,000 sq ft of linear manufacturing for both Twin Vee and Aquasport. Additionally, we recently placed an order for the state-of-the-art CNC machine, a 5-axis router, scheduled to arrive in October. This latest addition to our production arsenal will enable Twin Vee to bring the tooling from our brand-new boat models all in-house. This means that we'll be able to streamline our manufacturing process, save on costs associated without outsourcing, and enhance the quality of the boat molds as we use to build our products.

Turning to our dealer network, Twin Vee has been working hard to supplement our dealer network with motivated partners who are just as passionate about our brands as we are. We're aiming to enhance our marketplace too. For example, we recently announced that we brought on a new dealer in Dubai, the first time in Twin Vee's nearly 30-year history that our products will be sold in the Middle East. Now, let's look at our financial performance for 2023. While we are showing substantial losses on our financials, much of these losses are attributed to our consolidation of the Forza Electric Boat losses, our sister company under the symbol of FRZA. If you remove or pull out the Forza losses from the Twin Vee financials, Twin Vee's adjusted losses are $1.6 million in cash losses, and our cash still remains over $8 million as of December 31st, 2023.

Looking ahead, we believe that we are setting up for solid growth with new products, technology, forward product expansion, and an acquisition of the 5-axis router, again enabling us in-house to reduce expenses as we create these new products. We will be ready with two incredible new storied, scalable brands, Twin Vee and Aquasport, and we will continue to offer new product development and a variety of new innovative products. In conclusion, Twin Vee remains committed to navigating the challenges posed by the current market while simultaneously setting ourselves up for success once conditions become more favorable. With our established brands, Twin Vee and Aquasport, a pipeline of innovative products stemming from our strategic infrastructure investments, and a growing dealer network, we are positioned to capitalize on emerging opportunities and come out from under this stronger on the other side.

So I want to thank our investors, our stakeholders, our employees for their continued support, and at this time, I'd like to open it up for questions.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two 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. We will pause for a brief moment to poll for questions. Okay. Our first question is from Richard Jackson with Jackson Investments. Please proceed.

Richard Jackson (Analyst)

Yes. Good afternoon. Would you please comment on the resignation of the CFO of Twin Vee as well as the resignation of the CEO of Forza?

Joseph Visconti (CEO)

Sure. So I spoke to them. We had our previous call at 10:00 A.M. on Forza. So Jim Leffew did tender his resignation. Jim, when I asked him to join us as we were launching Forza to go public, Jim sold his previous company. He wasn't the owner, kind of number two guy, and he went into retirement. I asked him to join us. And Jim and the team of engineers at Forza did an amazing job over the past couple of years. We raised over $25 million. We designed, built, and was producing electric products. But over the past year and a half, we've all seen the EV market dramatically shift both on the automotive side and on the marine side.

So small-cap, micro-cap companies have limited capital, and my job is to make sure that we get to the other side and that we do not run out of cash. And we pulled in the reins and started to slow down some of the R&D on the Forza, kind of timing the development of our products and getting them to market. And I think I don't want to put words in Jim's mouth, but I think he felt like he was just hired to kind of see this thing through. And as we kind of pulled in the reins, he decided to pursue other opportunities. So everyone left on good terms. We still speak. There's no problems.

Carrie Gunnerson, our CFO, who is still here and committed to be here for the next month and a half and help with a smooth transition, it was a completely unrelated but oddly timed resignation. Carrie also chose to pursue other opportunities. I work 24/7. I'm very driven and motivated and competitive, and I probably tire a lot of people out. Again, I don't want to put words in anyone's mouth, but it's all good. I mean, change creates opportunity, and we continue to have great relationships with both Jim and Carrie. We are interviewing right now for a CFO, and we feel confident that we'll be announcing a new CFO here shortly.

Richard Jackson (Analyst)

Okay. Well, obviously, not great optics. So yeah, you mentioned raising $25 million in cash. So you talked on the Forza call about reducing the cash burn. Presumably, you're doing the same thing with Twin Vee. And you mentioned that if you take the Forza cash loss out of there, it doesn't look as bad on Twin Vee. But if I'm looking at the tables correctly, you still went on the gas-powered boats from a loss from operations of about $2.4 million to a loss this last year of $5.4 million on gas boats. So that's not great.

Joseph Visconti (CEO)

If you pull Forza out, the loss on operations, cash loss, EBITDA cash loss on Twin Vee plus-

Richard Jackson (Analyst)

Well, hold on. I'm not looking at EBITDA losses. I'm looking at your table, and I'm taking out the electric boat and development. I'm removing that from the equation as you have. So just the gas-powered boats, the loss from operations, according to your table, it's $5.4 million versus $2.4 million.

Joseph Visconti (CEO)

I don't have the CFO on the phone right now, but I can talk to you about this offline. We have an operational loss on Twin Vee after you remove depreciation, amortization, and Forza of about $1.6 million. If you want to call me after, I can get into the details on it, but that's what I have in front of me. I don't know what you're looking at.

Richard Jackson (Analyst)

Well, I'm looking at the table on your press release. It's right there. It says tables below, and it says that it breaks it all out by gas-powered versus electric boat and development for understandable reasons, but it's right there.

Joseph Visconti (CEO)

Carrie, are you on the call? I think she might be on mute, but maybe Carrie can jump in here.

Richard Jackson (Analyst)

Yeah. So in any case, you've talked in the past, in prior years even, about reducing the cash loss, and you have plenty of money and don't need to raise money, and then you raise money, and here we are burning through a lot of cash and tough environment and all that. What are investors supposed to think at this point given that you continue to raise money and dilute the stock of both companies, and yet things are not looking too rosy out there? So where are we supposed to gather hope here that there won't be more dilution? And the cash has declined quite a bit versus the prior year. It's still a strong balance sheet, but it's concerning.

Joseph Visconti (CEO)

So we've come out of 3 of the most tumultuous business years that I've ever been in in my 37 years of being CEOs of companies. And you went from the pandemic, and then you couldn't get parts, and then orders went through the roof, and labor rates, the $20 guy went to the $40 guy. Resin was being rationed. I mean, I can go through the history of the ups and downs challenges of managing this business, and we continue to create new product. We never stopped innovating. We continue to kind of I understand that we've spent some money. I don't think it's as bad as you are articulating, but.

Richard Jackson (Analyst)

It's not a question of me articulating. I'm reading from your tables. It's right there in the financials. I mean, it's a question of fact. I don't have any.

Joseph Visconti (CEO)

Let me finish. And we continue to we grew 100% two years ago. We all know what happened with these interest rates. They were 3%, as high as 8%, even higher sometimes when you're purchasing a recreational vehicle, an RV or a boat. The family, the plumber, the electrician that was buying a $100,000 boat, that payment that was $500 a month is now $1,000 a month. That buyer essentially went away. It's then the shifting of the economics over the past three years has been dramatic and aggressive in both ways. Now we're targeting larger cash buyers. We're our 40-foot is leading the way. So our million-dollar boat, our 34-foot is selling. So I understand. We were at 250 employees a year and a half ago. We're down to like 85 people. I mean, I feel good that we've continued to come out with new product.

The losses are not as great as you're. I'd like to talk to you about it with the CFO online. I have different numbers in front of me. If you take out the Forza losses, the actual cash losses of Twin Vee are not that bad comparatively to what we've experienced over the past year.

Richard Jackson (Analyst)

Okay. Well, again, that's not what it shows in your tables. But in any case, I'll let other people ask the questions. I think you're going to have a little bit of a hard time getting investors excited when you're basically saying that the CFO's resigned, the CEO of Forza has resigned, business is difficult, we're burning through more cash, we have less cash. So good luck. If you can sell that, but that's a tough sell. But I'll let other people chime in.

Operator (participant)

As a reminder, just star one on your telephone keypad if you would like to ask a question, and we'll just pause for a brief moment to see if there's any final questions. With no further questions in the queue, I would like to turn the conference back over to Joseph for closing remarks.

Joseph Visconti (CEO)

Thank you, everyone. I want to thank you for spending your time with us today and your confidence as shareholders, employees, stakeholders, and have a great day. Thank you. If you have any other questions, please email us at [email protected], g-l-e-n-n at twinvee.com, and we'll get back to you right away. Thank you so much, everybody.

Operator (participant)

Thank you. This will conclude today's conference. You may now disconnect your lines, and thank you for your participation.