Amyris, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMRS) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

John Melo: I really couldn’t talk about a number of brands and where we end up, Korinne. So I would say it’s more about clear market spaces and our strategy for winning in those spaces, right? So it’s more about the categories we like and it’s more about the consumer audiences we can target in those categories. And then in those categories, we’re really focused on brands that consume or have formulations that consume a lot of our ingredients. So that strategy and the ability to build off of that will continue. We’re resetting ourselves to five or six for now just based on where we are with our balance sheet and the maturity and opportunity we see around those brands. So said differently, investing in 12 versus six, I think we can get more out of the five or six versus spreading the investment over all of them.

But I wouldn’t conclude that to determine a final number. We’re not operating in that way, which we’re more looking at focus on what we have, make sure it performs at the level that we expect it to perform and then add as makes sense based on, again, a strategy, a clear strategy that we want to stay consistent with for what operates in the portfolio.

Korinne Wolfmeyer: Very helpful. Thank you. And then can you just talk a little bit about the phasing of margin expansion, both from the gross margin line and EBITDA that we should expect over the course of the year? Like will it be more of a gradual ramp quarter-to-quarter, would be more back half weighted versus front half? Just any color on the phasing of some of these Fit-to-Win benefits coming through would be helpful? Thank you.

Han Kieftenbeld: Yes, I will take that, John.

John Melo: I’ll pass that to maybe Eduardo talking about the activity he’s doing and then Han framing how that falls through to the financials. Does that make sense, guys?

Eduardo Alvarez: Sure. Let me €“ Korinne, let me start with the improvements we have already done. I think we have already talked about the logistics side those were improvements that were already done in Q4, Q1 around the inbound logistics and optimizing our costs there. I think we have mentioned that John mentioned in his remarks that we expect 60% of our consumer production to be done at our lower cost facility by the third quarter. So, the cost of goods sold improvements, both at Barra Bonita will be spread out in kind of in the throughout the year as we continue to ramp, but the costs for the consumer production will be 80% to 90% would be towards the second half of the year for the consumer. So, I hope that gives you a little bit of a sense. The logistics are already pretty much well captured and the production ones will be facing as we discussed.

Han Kieftenbeld: Yes. Two comments I would make is activities will continue to be deployed and improvements to the cost base, whether its cost of goods sold, or operating expense, will continue as the year progresses. So, to your question, Korinne, I will expect, and what we anticipated right now, in our model is really a progression on a quarter-by-quarter basis. The other way, I would say, as Eduardo pointed out, some of these actions have taken effect. However, of course, we are also holding inventory. And before they actually find their way to the P&L, while through inventory into the P&L will also be a bit of a time lapse. So, those two things, but for whatever reason as the year progresses, you should continue to see margin improvement.

Korinne Wolfmeyer: Very helpful. Thank you for the color.

Operator: The next question comes from Steven Mah of Cowen and Co. Please go ahead.

Steven Mah: Great. Thanks for the questions. Question on the HSR review, I am not a lawyer, but I thought that HSR, could proceed with memorandum of understanding or letter of intent, which I believe was in late December. Has regulators been pushing back and requesting additional information and is that what resetting the clock to another 30 days to 45 days?