Balchem Corporation (NASDAQ:BCPC) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

So, we feel like we’ve moved very, very quickly. So overall, we feel really good about the integration of the organization. And I think to your specific point, we are starting to see some of those very early signs of kind of synergies associated with the combination of the organization from both a cost perspective, but maybe more importantly from a sales and growth perspective. We have sales reps now calling on customers, talking about the broad product line, and we’re seeing a lot more call reports coming in that have identified opportunities outside of the portfolio that person historically may have had. So I’m encouraged by the progress that we’ve made relative to the integration of the companies, and we are starting to see some signs of those sales synergies, and we have realized some of the costs that we’re expecting.

So, very pleased with that. Continue to feel very good about the long-term potential of the two products, MSM and K2. We feel like there’s significant market penetration opportunity available to us as we thought going in. So, remain very excited about that. Obviously, the short-term slowing of and destocking that’s going on within the dietary supplement market is impacting those businesses. They’re not immune to that situation. So we are seeing some slower demand than we ideally would like as we are seeing across the nutritional portfolio. But all in all feel really good about the integration and the opportunity ahead.

Mitra Ramgopal: Okay, thanks. And then, just to be clear the customer destocking, you see it as a temporary issue, it seems like inflationary pressures are starting to ease, so at least for the first half it’ll continue to be challenging, but heading into second half and looking out the €˜24, you feel much more comfortable in terms of where things are headed?

Ted Harris: Yes. Absolutely, we’re watching the Nielsen retail data very closely, and so feel like we’ve got a good feel for the brick-and-mortar sales out there. And sales continue despite the negative growth that was seen for the last few months. Sales continue to be higher than pre pandemic levels. So I think that’s very encouraging that certainly some of the bounce that we saw with the pandemic, because of the immunity boosting nature of many of these nutrients. The growth is still there relative to pre pandemic levels, which is great. It’s just not at the peak level that we once saw. So we think that’s encouraging. The anecdotal evidence that we have from all of the discussions that we have with customers suggest that the destocking will start to slow I think really in the earlier part of Q2.

And so your comment was specific around — we should see things at back to a normal type of growth level in the second half. We absolutely believe that based on everything that we’re seeing today, and we feel like Q2 will be that transitional quarter, if you will to the more normalized demand levels that we expect.

Mitra Ramgopal: Okay, thanks. And then, Martin, just a couple of housekeeping questions. How should we think about interest expense going forward and also CapEx for €˜23?

Martin Bengtsson: Yes. On the interest expense side, we’re currently sort of paying an effective rate of around 6% based on where the Fed’s at the moment. So that means, $6 million of interest expense for every a $100 million of debt. And we currently have $440 million. So, if you do that math, you’ll end up somewhere $26 million or so on an annualized basis. Obviously, as we generate cash, we tend to pay down debt and we intend to continue to continue to do so. But that’s sort of the simple back of the napkin math you can do as you forecast out. And the second part of the question around capital, we did see higher capital in 2022 versus what you were used to seeing. We spent $49 million in terms of expanding our capacities and also adding the acquisitions in there.