Leslie Garber: Okay, so we have two questions related. One is from John , and then the second one is from Robert Smith. So I’m going to just read them sort of together and have a joint answer. What is your outlook for Amlan sales growth that is driven from the combination of both, from repeat orders, from early adopters of products versus new potential customers? And then secondly, are you able to reaffirm your $40 million revenue budget target for Amlan in this fiscal year?
Daniel Jaffee: Great. And I’ll field this Wade because you’ve covered a lot of it in your presentation, but we’re in a very dynamic state with Amlan because it’s truly a startup. We are in tests with major customers, and as Wade said, if any one of them begins to roll out and we have every confidence that they will, it will have a dramatic impact on the overall not just the division, but the whole business. So, we do — we have communicated that our plan for the year is $40 million. We did $5.5 million in the first quarter, which only annualizes to 22. But it was a 52% increase over the prior year. But we’re still not — we’re still in trials with these companies that could flip the needle pretty dramatically. So if you put a gun to my head, would I say we’re going to do $40 million this year?
I’d probably take the under, but the momentum is in the right direction. So let’s say we hope at the very least we’ll have a run rate of $40 million in the fourth quarter. But I’d like to actually make it, I just, it’s so dynamic that, I’m not willing to bet my life on it, but we’re still very, very, very bullish on the short, medium, and long-term future of Amlan.
Leslie Garber: Okay, great. The next question comes from Ethan Starr. Congratulations on a nice quarter. Dan. You mentioned last quarter that Amlan products are in numerous trials. What’s the average length of a trial before a decision is made to buy or not buy Amlan’s products? What percentage of companies that try Amlan’s product end up purchasing them?
Daniel Jaffee: Yes. And Wade, I’ll turn this over to you. And it’s very subjective because this is all new, but I would like to tap in your experience here and have you answer that question?
Wade Robey: Yes, thank you, Dan. And thank you for the question. And it’ll depend a lot by world area, but let me kind of give you a general sense. And this really plays off what Dan mentioned a moment ago. The runway or the time necessary to trial the products and to convince customers of the efficacy and the value really takes a number of months. We’ve generally worked through a presentation of information and data and R&D to moving to field trials with customers and then gradual adoption in their various complexes as they roll it out across an operation. So, understandably, that can take a number of months to achieve. I can report to you that we’re well into that process in North America and certainly around the world, both with existing products and the new products that we have launched, we’ve consistently seen excellent performance and not only re-trialing, but beginning of commercial use by these large customers.
So, as Dan said, we’re very bullish on the year. We believe the volume will come in large tranches as customers adopt and be begin utilizing across their commercial operations. And we hope by year end, it’ll be at a run rate that is consistent with our targets.
Daniel Jaffee: Great. Thank you, Wade.
Leslie Garberf: Thank you. The next two questions that are related come from John Bear and Ethan Starr, fluids purification sales growth. Is this a result of higher domestic demand, or is there much of this attributable to international sales? If mostly domestic what are your opportunities internationally? And then the second related question it says, Dan in your annual sorry, in your letter to stakeholders in the 2022 annual report, you noted that several renewable diesel plants are scheduled to begin operating in 2023. How many plants, do you expect to begin operating and what’s the size of the opportunity for Oil-Dri?
Daniel Jaffee: Yes, and I’m going to turn this over to Bruce Patsey, our Vice President of Fluids purification Division, with the one caveat, he’s not in the room with us here. So Bruce, just stay general. We don’t give specifics on absolute numbers of plants or absolute dollars, but your general comments would be appreciated.
Bruce Patsey: Sure. Thanks Dan. Basically we had growth mostly in our domestic, in North America and Latin America is where we saw our growth this year or the first quarter, I should say. And we do have opportunities internationally going forward. I think both in the fats and oils business and the renewable diesel business will have opportunities, as we look out in 2023 and 2024. With regard to the second question, there’s going to be, there’s not going to be a million plants coming on. These are very large facilities, so there’ll be several plants in the next two years that will be built and be up and operating. Of course, Oil-Dri will be going after as much business as we possibly can in this marketplace. If I would take a guess that we might have a chance to get 15% to 30% growth in terms of production of our bleaching clay products in this market space. But we’ll see, we’ll be working hard to get earn that business.
Daniel Jaffee: Fantastic. And for those of you who are, I guess, new to the Oil-Dri investment, in many of our businesses, it’s very much like the game of risk. If you played that when you were growing up, meaning you can only attack contiguous properties. So our plant is in Georgia, and so we have a unique competitive advantage in North America against our competitors who are in Malaysia or Singapore, or even in Europe. Conversely, they have a big advantage to us in those markets. And so that — it’s not a coincidence that a lot of our growth comes in U.S., in particular North America in general, and then South America in the bleaching of the business because we are closer to those markets than many, many of our competitors. But then the opposite is also true as you cross our moats of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. So, thank you, Bruce.
Leslie Garber: Okay, next question. Are you seeing any meaningful improvement in your logistics bottlenecks? What are the biggest pressure points, meaning trucking rail, maritime shipping so on?
Daniel Jaffee: Great, and I’ll call on J.T. Harrison, our Vice President of Logistics and Procurement. And if you’re on mute, JT?
J.T. Harrison: Good question, folks. And can you hear me, Dan?
Daniel Jaffee: Yes, we do. Thank you.
