American Vanguard Corp (AVD) 2024 Q3 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon and welcome to American Vanguard's third quarter, 2024 earnings call. Our prepared remarks will be led by Tim Donnelly, acting Chief Executive Officer; David Johnson, Chief Financial Officer; and Mark Bassett, Board Member and Architect of our Business Transformation; Mason Bennett, Vice President, North America Crop; is also available to answer agricultural related questions.

下午好，歡迎參加美國先鋒集團 2024 年第三季財報電話會議。我們準備好的演講將由代理首席執行官蒂姆·唐納利 (Tim Donnelly) 主持；大衛‧約翰遜，財務長；以及我們業務轉型的董事會成員兼架構師 Mark Ba​​nkett； Mason Bennett，北美作物副總裁；還可以回答農業相關問題。

We have prepared presentation slides which we'll reference during the call. These slides are posted on the investor relations section of the American Vanguard website. Let's begin this call with our forward-looking cautionary reminder during this call, we may discuss forward-looking information. All forward-looking statements are estimates by the company's management and are subject to various risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ.

我們準備了簡報幻燈片，我們將在通話期間參考。這些幻燈片發佈在美國先鋒網站的投資者關係部分。讓我們以前瞻性的警告開始這次電話會議，在這次電話會議期間，我們可能會討論前瞻性資訊。所有前瞻性陳述均為公司管理階層的估計，並受到各種風險和不確定性的影響，可能導致實際結果有所不同。

Such factors include weather conditions, changes in regulatory policy and other risks. As detailed in the company's SEC reports and filings, all forward-looking statements represent the company's judgment as of the date of this release and such information will not necessarily be updated by the company.

這些因素包括天氣狀況、監管政策的變化和其他風險。正如該公司向 SEC 報告和文件中詳述的那樣，所有前瞻性陳述均代表該公司截至本新聞稿發布之日的判斷，該等資訊不一定會由該公司更新。

It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to acting CEO, Tim Donnelly.

現在我很高興將電話轉給代理執行長 Tim Donnelly。

Thanks Anthony. Hello, everyone and welcome today. We want to cover three things first, our full year 2024 adjusted as a target which remains unchanged. Second, our Q3 financial performance, which while below our expectations should be trending upward in light of improving market conditions. And third, our business transformation, which we expect to generate an even higher benefit than we had previously targeted before we delve into our substantive comments.

謝謝安東尼。大家好，歡迎今天。我們首先要討論三件事，我們調整後的 2024 年全年目標保持不變。其次，我們第三季的財務業績雖然低於我們的預期，但鑑於市場狀況的改善，該業績應該會呈現上升趨勢。第三，我們的業務轉型，在我們深入研究實質評論之前，我們預期業務轉型將產生比我們先前設定的目標更高的效益。

And in light of the recent election, we would like to thank EPA administrator Michael Reagan and his team with whom we have worked closely over the past four years. We look forward to working with President elect Trump's transition team and the newly appointed administrator when they are approved by the US Senate. While the EPA is our primary regulator, we also view the agency as a trusted partner.

鑑於最近的選舉，我們要感謝美國環保局長邁克爾·雷根和他的團隊，我們在過去四年中與他們密切合作。我們期待在美國參議院批准當選總統川普的過渡團隊和新任命的行政長官後與其合作。雖然美國環保署是我們的主要監管機構，但我們也將該機構視為值得信賴的合作夥伴。

American Vanguard has worked well with the EPA through numerous administrations and we look forward to continuing this relationship. Now, turning to our financial results and our business outlook. I'd like to start by stating that we are reiterating our 2024 adjusted EBITDA target of $40 million to $50 million and our sales target of $565 million to $580 million excluding product recall charges.

美國先鋒集團在多次行政管理中與 EPA 合作良好，我們期待繼續維持這種關係。現在，談談我們的財務業績和業務前景。首先，我想重申，我們重申 2024 年調整後 EBITDA 目標為 4,000 萬至 5,000 萬美元，銷售目標為 5.65 億至 5.8 億美元（不含產品召回費用）。

We remain focused on transforming our company into an efficient, reliable and profitable supplier to the AG industry. Our mission as always begins with putting our customers first and focusing every day on how best to serve them.

我們仍然致力於將我們的公司轉變為 AG 行業高效、可靠和盈利的供應商。我們的使命一如既往地始於將客戶放在第一位，並每天專注於如何最好地為他們服務。

The important initiatives we are driving across this company start with the customer at the center of each effort and are designed to improve our internal capabilities, raise productivity and efficiency and drive higher returns across our business. All of which will position this company for future growth. Mark Bassett will provide further details on our business transformation later in the call.

我們在整個公司推行的重要舉措都是以客戶為中心，旨在提高我們的內部能力，提高生產力和效率，並在整個業務中推動更高的回報。所有這些都將為該公司未來的發展奠定基礎。馬克·巴塞特 (Mark Ba​​ssett) 將在稍後的電話會議中提供有關我們業務轉型的更多詳細資訊。

Let's take a moment to discuss the broader farm economy. The downturn in the agricultural economy over the past 18 months was driven by weaker commodity prices and the reverberations that this caused in commercial behavior across the ag sector.

讓我們花點時間討論更廣泛的農業經濟。過去 18 個月農業經濟的低迷是由大宗商品價格疲軟及其對整個農業產業商業行為的影響造成的。

More recently, we have begun to see greater market normalization with some emerging pockets of strength or green shoots beginning to emerge. This gives us a sense of optimism for the future. While the industry seems to have moved past the destocking phase which impacted the previous 12 to 18 months.

最近，我們開始看到市場更加正常化，一些新興力量或新芽開始出現。這讓我們對未來充滿樂觀。儘管該行業似乎已經度過了影響前 12 至 18 個月的去庫存階段。

Some distribution partners continue to be conservative in accumulating inventory preferring to make purchases closer to the planting time. We expect this cautious attitude to be in place as we move into 2025. Additionally, pressure from generics particularly in connection with our cotton defoliate and within our Latin and Brazil markets continues to exert downward pressure on the market.

一些分銷合作夥伴在累積庫存方面仍然持保守態度，更願意在接近種植時間時進行採購。我們預計，隨著 2025 年的到來，這種謹慎的態度將會持續存在。此外，來自仿製藥的壓力，特別是與我們的棉花落葉劑以及我們的拉丁和巴西市場有關的壓力，繼續對市場施加下行壓力。

The industry will also need to work through existing channel inventories of agricultural commodities. This effort will be aided however, by a strong harvest season, despite an uneven market overall, the fourth quarter is typically a seasonally strong period for American vanguard and the broader crop protection industry, which we expect to be the case again this year.

該產業還需要利用現有的農產品通路庫存。然而，儘管整體市場不平衡，但強勁的收穫季節將有助於這一努力，第四季度通常是美國先鋒和更廣泛的作物保護行業的季節性強勁時期，我們預計今年將再次出現這種情況。

Our products that are used earlier in the planting season typically see a heightened level of demand during this period. As these buying patterns are less sensitive to cyclical or even commodity price driven factors, but are instead driven by the seasonal crop cycle each year of planting and harvesting periods.

我們在種植季節早期使用的產品通常在此期間的需求量會增加。由於這些購買模式對週期性甚至大宗商品價格驅動因素不太敏感，而是受到每年種植和收穫期的季節性作物週期的驅動。

Products such as our granular soil insecticides index, insecticide and impact herbicide should benefit from this normal non-cyclical behavior in the fourth quarter.

我們的顆粒土壤殺蟲劑指數、殺蟲劑和除草劑等產品應受益於第四季度這種正常的非週期性行為。

Turning to a top level view of our financial performance. During the third quarter of 2024 the company generated adjusted EBITDA of $2 million compared to $11 million in the year ago period on sales of $130.7 million excluding non-recurring charges compared to $149.5 million in the year ago period.

轉向我們財務業績的頂層視圖。2024 年第三季度，該公司調整後 EBITDA 為 200 萬美元，而去年同期為 1,100 萬美元，不包括非經常性費用的銷售額為 1.307 億美元，而去年同期為 1.495 億美元。

All of the year over year decline in sales can be attributed to tech a Granular Soil Insecticide and Folex, a cotton defoliate in the US. More specifically, over 90% of the year over year decline in total adjusted revenue was due to lower Aztec sales as the year ago period saw a typical buying activity for this product in the quarter following a period of supply interruption.

銷售額的逐年下降可歸因於粒狀土壤殺蟲劑和美國的棉花落葉劑 Folex。更具體地說，調整後總收入年減的 90% 以上是由於 Aztec 銷售下降，因為去年同期，在供應中斷一段時間後，該產品在本季度出現了典型的購買活動。

David will provide more detail on this comparison in a moment. But I think it's worth noting that when looking at year over year revenue excluding Aztec revenue was essentially flat year over year. Finally, I would like to address our CEO search. The board of directors has been actively interviewing candidates and is focused on getting a new CEO up and running to build on the momentum created by our interim office of the CEO.

大衛稍後將提供有關此比較的更多詳細資訊。但我認為值得注意的是，從年比收入來看，不包括阿茲特克收入，比去年同期基本持平。最後，我想談談我們的執行長搜尋問題。董事會一直在積極面試候選人，並專注於新任執行長的任命和運作，以鞏固我們臨時執行長辦公室所創造的勢頭。

And with that, I will turn the call over to David.

這樣，我會將電話轉給大衛。

Thanks Tim. Overall revenue for the quarter adjusted for non-recurring charges associated with the company's voluntary cancellation and recall of our ductable product line from all our global markets was $130.7 million down 13% or $18.8 million versus the third quarter of 2023.

謝謝蒂姆。在扣除與公司自願取消和從全球所有市場召回我們的導管產品線相關的非經常性費用後，本季的總收入為 1.307 億美元，較 2023 年第三季下降 13%，即 1,880 萬美元。

I use crop business faces the challenges Tim previously mentioned and sales in this area were down 30% or $20 million as compared to the third quarter of 2023. The drop in revenue was driven by significant declines in Aztec and Folex sales. These declines were partially offset by increased revenues in fumigants, insecticides and herbicides.

我認為農作物業務面臨蒂姆之前提到的挑戰，該領域的銷售額與 2023 年第三季相比下降了 30%，即 2000 萬美元。營收下降的原因是 Aztec 和 Folex 銷量大幅下降。這些下降被燻蒸劑、殺蟲劑和除草劑收入的增加部分抵消。

In the second half of 2023 customers bought essentially 18 months worth of our Aztec product to meet their customer needs as well as to rebuild safety stocks. This was driven by a previous extended supply shortage which started in the second half of 2022 and extended into the first half of 2023. As a result, we had very few sales of Aztec in this quarter. We expect demand to return to a more normal pattern starting in 2025.

2023 年下半年，客戶購買了約 18 個月的 Aztec 產品，以滿足他們的客戶需求並重建安全庫存。這是由於先前從 2022 年下半年開始並持續到 2023 年上半年的長期供應短缺所造成的。因此，本季我們 Aztec 的銷量非常少。我們預計需求將從 2025 年開始恢復到更正常的模式。

And as Tim indicated, adjusting for the unusual restocking activity in the third quarter of 2023 for our Aztec product revenue was basically flat year over year on a like for like basis. While we are not content or celebrating a flat year over year performance in sales, we are working aggressively across our commercial organization to drive growth.

正如 Tim 指出的那樣，對 2023 年第三季不尋常的補貨活動進行調整後，我們的 Aztec 產品收入基本上同比持平。雖然我們並不滿足於或慶祝銷售業績同比持平，但我們正在整個商業組織中積極努力，以推動成長。

While the hurricane did affect Folex sales, the major impact was driven by a generic entrant that took both market share and depressed margins. We are working to retain volume and regain some of those lost earnings as we move forward. As we previously mentioned, our US non-crop business was an area of strength where sales were up 17% compared to last year.

雖然颶風確實影響了 Folex 的銷售，但主要影響是由仿製藥進入者造成的，該進入者既奪走了市場份額，又降低了利潤率。隨著我們的前進，我們正在努力保持銷售並恢復一些損失的收入。正如我們之前提到的，我們的美國非農作物業務是我們的優勢領域，銷售額比去年增長了 17%。

This growth was led by our op distribution business. OHP sales were up 45% as compared to this time last year and we are pleased with the increased market share. The business has achieved the growth here was driven by a new distribution agreement allowing op to expand the portfolio of products offered to its key greenhouse and nursery markets including some new biologicals that are gaining traction.

這一增長是由我們的營運分銷業務所帶動的。與去年同期相比，OHP 銷售額成長了 45%，我們對市佔率的增加感到高興。該業務在這裡實現的成長是由一項新的分銷協議推動的，該協議允許op擴大向其主要溫室和苗圃市場提供的產品組合，其中包括一些正在受到關注的新生物製品。

As a result, we expect continued growth in OHP and our overall non profit business as we look forward another bright spot in our quarterly and year-to-date performance from a revenue standpoint sales from our green solution product portfolio including OHP increased by 18% during the third quarter and have grown 20% year-to-date growth in our Green Solutions products spans through our crop, non-crop and international businesses and is experiencing pronounced strength in [latin] where growth is up 39% year over year.

因此，我們預計OHP 和我們的整體非營利業務將持續成長，因為從收入角度來看，我們的季度和年初至今的業績將出現另一個亮點，包括OHP 在內的綠色解決方案產品組合的銷售額將成長18%第三季度，我們的綠色解決方案產品今年迄今成長了 20%，涵蓋作物、非作物和國際業務，並且[拉丁]業務表現強勁，同比增長 39%。

This portfolio of products is positioned to grow faster than the overall agricultural economy for many years to come. And we look forward to continuing our investment in this growth opportunity. Our international businesses saw sales decline by 3% excluding non-recurring charges compared to the prior year.

該產品組合在未來許多年的成長速度將快於整體農業經濟的成長。我們期待繼續投資這一成長機會。與前一年相比，不計非經常性費用，我們的國際業務銷售額下降了 3%。

Generic pressure has broadly had a negative impact. And in addition, the [agave] market in Mexico was down and finally, there have been drought conditions in Australia. These factors have been partially offset by the strong business in Ecuador that we acquired late last year.

一般壓力產生了廣泛的負面影響。此外，墨西哥的[龍舌蘭]市場下滑，最後，澳洲出現乾旱。這些因素已被我們去年年底收購的厄瓜多爾強勁業務所部分抵銷。

This business benefited from a strong banana season and a broadening of the product portfolio, turning to margins, product mix was the reason our gross profit margin declined to 26% excluding non-recurring items as compared to 29% in the prior year, significantly decreased Aztec sales accounted for approximately two thirds of the decline in gross profit market.

該業務受益於強勁的香蕉季節和產品組合的擴大，轉向利潤率，產品組合是我們的毛利率下降至26%（不包括非經常性項目）的原因，而上一年為29%，顯著下降阿茲特克銷售額約佔市場毛利下降的三分之二。

In addition, the team made the decision to accelerate sales of slower moving inventory. That decision along with the generic impact on Folex accounted for the remaining third of the decline. Another area that management took action on was in cost control through these measures we were able on a like for like basis to reduce operating costs by $3.5 million as compared to the prior year.

此外，團隊還決定加速銷售滯銷庫存。這項決定以及對 Folex 的普遍影響導致了剩餘三分之一的下降。管理層採取行動的另一個領域是成本控制，透過這些措施，我們能夠在同等基礎上比前一年減少 350 萬美元的營運成本。

Looking at our balance sheet, I am pleased to report that we decreased our long term debt by $32.5 million as compared to the second quarter of 2024. As we highlighted in our last call. Improving our liquidity is a key consideration in our business transformation and we are pleased with our improvement in this area.

看看我們的資產負債表，我很高興地報告，與 2024 年第二季相比，我們的長期債務減少了 3,250 萬美元。正如我們在上次電話會議中所強調的那樣。提高流動性是我們業務轉型的關鍵考慮因素，我們對我們在這方面的進步感到高興。

Inventory reduction also remains an area that we are focused on. We were able to decrease our inventory to 43% of sales as compared to 44% of sales. This time last year, we expect our seasonally strong fourth quarter sales to have a meaningful impact on our effort to decrease our inventory towards our goal of 34% of net sales by the end of the year, which would be approximately $25 million improvement.

減少庫存也仍然是我們關注的領域。我們能夠將庫存比例從銷售額的 44% 減少到 43%。去年這個時候，我們預計第四季季節性強勁的銷售將對我們減少庫存的努力產生有意義的影響，以實現年底前佔淨銷售額34% 的目標，這將帶來約2500 萬美元的改善。

In comparison to last year end, I would like to take a moment to address the onetime charges we have taken this quarter first, we had a $16.2 million charge associated with the company's current estimate of the costs to account for the voluntary recall and disposal of all the products.

與去年年底相比，我想先花點時間談談我們本季收取的一次性費用，我們收取了 1,620 萬美元的費用，該費用與公司目前對自願召回和處置的成本估計相關。

Additionally, we had a charge of approximately $8.1 million primarily associated with continued support from our consultants as we work on various aspects of our transformation efforts including our digital and business transformation projects. In closing the task of transforming this business is ongoing and we are pleased with the progress that we have been able to make over the last three months.

此外，我們還收取了約 810 萬美元的費用，主要與我們的顧問在我們致力於轉型工作的各個方面（包括數位和業務轉型項目）時的持續支持有關。最後，該業務的轉型任務仍在繼續，我們對過去三個月的進展感到滿意。

This is exhibited by our improved liquidity and our ability to maintain our adjusted EBITDA target of $40 million to $50 million in 2024. Finally, I would like to emphasize that we believe American Bank Guard should be able to achieve a 15% adjusted EBITDA margin across the ag cycle. When our business transformation is complete with that, I will turn the call over to mark.

這體現在我們流動性的改善以及我們維持 2024 年 4000 萬至 5000 萬美元調整後 EBITDA 目標的能力。最後，我想強調的是，我們相信美國銀行警衛隊應該能夠在整個農業週期中實現 15% 的調整後 EBITDA 利潤率。當我們的業務轉型完成後，我會將電話轉交給馬克。

Thanks David. As we progress through this journey of transformation, we continue to uncover further opportunities to improve the potential earnings power and returns of this business to that end. We are increasing the target goal for annual EBITDA benefit from our ongoing transformation efforts to $20 million from our previous estimate of $15 million we provided last quarter.

謝謝大衛。隨著我們在轉型之旅中取得進展，我們將繼續發現更多機會來提高該業務的潛在盈利能力和回報。我們將持續轉型努力帶來的年度 EBITDA 效益目標從上季提供的 1,500 萬美元提高到 2,000 萬美元。

While it will take time to achieve these savings, it is clear to me that we can meaningfully improve the earnings power of this company. As we continue on this journey, we expect to continue to uncover additional earnings opportunities.

雖然實現這些節省需要時間，但我很清楚，我們可以有意義地提高這家公司的獲利能力。隨著我們繼續這趟旅程，我們預計將繼續發現更多獲利機會。

I would like to take this opportunity to highlight an example of where we have taken additional costs out of the business in the area of raw material and logistics procurement. We are signing agreements and have begun to see those benefits. We had previously estimated that the company should save $3 million annually. It now looks likely that savings could reach $6 million annually.

我想藉此機會強調一個例子，說明我們在原料和物流採購領域降低了業務的額外成本。我們正在簽署協議，並已開始看到這些好處。我們之前預計該公司每年應節省 300 萬美元。現在看來，每年可省 600 萬美元。

In order to accomplish these savings, we worked with Carney to upgrade and modernize our vendor management and bid process structure with the implementation of this new process and the addition of key roles in the organization which will be referenced later, we are in a position to continue to maintain and broaden savings in this area. Both pricing and customer centric strategies in the international improvement initiatives are now entering the implementation phase and we will continue to update you on these programs.

為了實現這些節省，我們與卡尼合作，透過實施此新流程以及在組織中增加關鍵角色（稍後將提到）來升級和現代化我們的供應商管理和投標流程結構，我們能夠繼續維持並擴大該領域的節約。國際改善計畫中的定價和以客戶為中心的策略現已進入實施階段，我們將繼續向您通報這些計畫的最新情況。

Our teams are very confident that this will yield if not exceed the benefits. We have previously announced at the core of these initiatives is a more strategic and efficient use of our commercial resources. But more importantly, the development of strategies by which we can create value for our customers thereby helping us grow. These initiatives are not cost savings initiatives. These are growth initiatives.

我們的團隊非常有信心，即使不超過收益，也會產生收益。我們先前曾宣布這些措施的核心是更具策略性和更有效地利用我們的商業資源。但更重要的是，我們可以製定策略，為客戶創造價值，從而幫助我們成長。這些措施不是節省成本的措施。這些都是成長舉措。

Lastly, as mentioned, last time, we're putting in place a more streamlined customer centric structure across the company which is organized around our global crop and global non-crop businesses reporting lines and responsibilities as well as flexibility, efficiency and decision making will be cleaner, clearer and strengthened as a result, decision making will be pushed down across the organization, but accountability will be significantly tightened as well as incentivized.

最後，正如上次提到的，我們在整個公司建立了一個更精簡的以客戶為中心的結構，該結構圍繞著我們的全球作物和全球非作物業務報告線和職責以及靈活性、效率和決策進行組織。

We believe this will allow us to have a more consistent and measurable strategy around the world, enabling us to more effectively deploy our resources to drive growth and improve profitability. This work is nearly complete and the organization will be rolled out early next year.

我們相信，這將使我們能夠在全球範圍內制定更一致和可衡量的策略，使我們能夠更有效地部署資源來推動成長並提高獲利能力。這項工作已接近完成，該組織將於明年初推出。

We believe the EBITDA impact will be larger than we've previously announced while also strengthening numerous functions by adding critical strategic roles which did not previously exist as well as providing clear accountability and driving decisions down the organization.

我們相信 EBITDA 的影響將比我們先前宣布的更大，同時也將透過增加以前不存在的關鍵策略角色以及提供明確的責任和推動組織決策來加強眾多職能。

I'm very proud of the progress that we have made as a team during a very tumultuous time in our company's history. Our team is excited about the future of the company and are fully committed to transforming our company into an aligned, efficient, reliable and profitable supplier to the AG industry.

我對我們作為一個團隊在公司歷史上非常動蕩的時期所取得的進步感到非常自豪。我們的團隊對公司的未來感到興奮，並完全致力於將我們的公司轉變為 AG 行業一致、高效、可靠和盈利的供應商。

By doing so, we believe we'll be able to achieve a 15% adjusted EBITDA margin across the AG cycle and then begin our next transformation which is to drive profitable future growth in closing. We are pleased to be able to maintain our full year adjusted EBITDA and adjusted revenue guidance.

透過這樣做，我們相信我們將能夠在整個 AG 週期內實現 15% 的調整後 EBITDA 利潤率，然後開始我們的下一個轉型，即推動未來獲利成長。我們很高興能夠維持全年調整後 EBITDA 和調整後收入指引。

We believe this is a testament to the hard work that our employees are performing while the third quarter was a challenging market environment. We are beginning to see what we believe to be a cyclical recovery which should bode well for the future performance.

我們相信，這證明了我們的員工在第三季充滿挑戰的市場環境中所做的辛勤工作。我們開始看到我們認為的周期性復甦，這對未來的表現來說是個好兆頭。

Finally, our business transformation continues to progress and we look forward to turning American Vanguard into a customer focused company that can be consistently profitable and generate free cash flow through the cycle.

最後，我們的業務轉型繼續取得進展，我們期待將美國先鋒集團轉變為以客戶為中心的公司，能夠持續盈利並在整個週期中產生自由現金流。

Let's now open up the call for questions. Operator?

現在讓我們開始提問。操作員？

Thank you. At this time, we will be conducting a question and answer session. (Operator Instructions)

謝謝。此時，我們將進行問答環節。（操作員說明）

Before we take the first question. I just want to acknowledge that today is Veterans Day and want to thank any Veterans that we have on the phone. We appreciate your service or if you've had family members that are Veterans, we appreciate their service as well. Yeah -- go ahead and take the first question?

在我們回答第一個問題之前。我只想承認今天是退伍軍人節，並感謝我們電話中的所有退伍軍人。我們感謝您的服務，或者如果您的家庭成員是退伍軍人，我們也感謝他們的服務。是的－請繼續回答第一個問題？

Ben Klieve, Lake Street Capital Markets.

Ben Klieve，湖街資本市場。

Alright, thanks for taking my questions. First one is around the full year guidance reiteration especially on the EBITDA line for this year, you know, in the context of, of the last couple quarters being you know, unusually low, a $50 million top line, excuse me, $50 million top end of the EBITDA guide would apply a record fourth quarter by a wide margin in in recent history. Can you, walk us through kind of what levers you think are out there to such that a $50 million full year EBITDA number is a realistic number at this point.

好的，謝謝你回答我的問題。第一個是關於全年指引的重申，特別是今年的EBITDA 線，你知道，在過去幾季的背景下，你知道，異常低，5000 萬美元的頂線，對不起，5000 萬美元的頂線EBITDA 指南結束後，第四季將大幅創歷史新高。您能否向我們介紹一下您認為有哪些槓桿可以使 5000 萬美元的全年 EBITDA 數字在這一點上成為一個現實的數字。

Well, again, I would start with our guidance is [40 to 50]. We believe we, we're going to hit that guidance. I think again, the fourth quarter is typically seasonally a stronger quarter. I think a number of things, I think number one, you know, we're coming out of a deep destocking phase and we believe that the demand will improve as we move, go, move, going forward and we begin, we believe we'll begin to get some of the benefits of our transformation as well. And so those are, I think the key fundamental drivers of that improvement.

好吧，再說一次，我將從我們的指導開始[40 至 50]。我們相信我們將達到該指導方針。我再次認為，第四季通常是季節性強勁的季度。我認為有很多事情，我認為第一，我們正在走出深度去庫存階段，我們相信，隨著我們繼續前進，需求將會改善，我們相信我們也將開始獲得轉型帶來的一些好處。我認為這些是這種改進的關鍵基本驅動力。

Mason, I don't know you, you're on the -- in the trenches in North America. You've got any additional thoughts on that.

梅森，我不認識你，你在北美的戰壕裡。您對此還有什麼其他想法。

Yes. Can you hear me? Okay?

是的。你聽得到我嗎？好的？

Yes.

是的。

Yeah. Hey, so thank you for the question. A as you've heard from Mark here, he's exactly right. Q4 is historically a strong quarter for American Vanguard. And, and what you'll see is, as we've gone through some of the destocking in the market at retail and really at the distribution level, what we see is our customers planning and, and prepping getting ready for a strong crop year next year.

是的。嘿，謝謝你的提問。正如您從馬克那裡聽到的那樣，他是完全正確的。從歷史上看，第四季是美國先鋒集團表現強勁的季度。而且，您將看到的是，正如我們在零售市場和分銷層面上進行了一些去庫存一樣，我們看到的是我們的客戶正在計劃和準備，為豐收年做好準備明年。

A lot of our portfolio lends itself to the early seasonality of crop planting. So a lot of our strengths and say corn and cotton peanuts, a lot of those crops lend itself to our portfolio. So we feel confident that our product fit will be strong. We seem to be stocking that we talked about and I feel like, you know, we're well positioned to take advantage of the market coming.

我們的許多投資組合都適合農作物種植的早期季節性。因此，我們的許多優勢，例如玉米和棉花花生，其中許多作物都適合我們的投資組合。因此，我們相信我們的產品將具有很強的適應性。我們似乎正在備貨，我們談過，我覺得，你知道，我們已經做好了充分利用即將到來的市場的準備。

Okay. Very good. Thank you for that. Wondering about the pressure from generics. Can you comment on the, you know, maybe the level of full X specifically or maybe just more broadly products that you have that are uniquely pressured by generics here today that are embedded within your kind of full year revenue expectation for the full year. Just, curious how much of that pressure kind of the degree to which your revenue base here has these kind of unique generic pressures that.

好的。非常好。謝謝你。想知道來自仿製藥的壓力。您能否評論一下，您知道，也許是完整 X 的具體水平，或者也許只是更廣泛的產品，您今天在這裡受到仿製藥的獨特壓力，這些產品嵌入您對全年的全年收入預期中。只是，我好奇這種壓力有多大，您的收入基礎在多大程度上具有這些獨特的通用壓力。

You're Yeah, well, I'll start at a high level, Mason, I'll turn it over to you on full X which has probably been the biggest single impact we've had as a company. You know, at a high level, you know, we've been especially impacted internationally in the Brazil and latam regions, which is not a atypical from all of our competitors.

你是的，好吧，我將從高水平開始，梅森，我會將整個 X 的工作交給你，這可能是我們作為一家公司所產生的最大的單一影響。你知道，在高水準上，我們在巴西和拉丁美洲地區受到的國際影響尤其嚴重，這對我們所有的競爭對手來說並不罕見。

But you know, as I said earlier, our biggest impact as a company has been on Folex, we're a generic player who's kind of in and out of the market every periodically is reentered this year and then taking a chunk of the market in the short term. But Mason can provide you a lot more detail about that specific case.

但你知道，正如我之前所說，我們作為一家公司最大的影響力是 Folex，我們是一家普通的參與者，每年都會定期進出市場，今年會重新進入，然後在 2019 年佔據市場份額。 。但梅森可以為您提供有關該具體案例的更多詳細資訊。

Yeah, then, so what, what I'll just say about, you know, really, it's a cyclical nature of generics, right? So you see a pattern of growers and the farm economy being down, you tend to see maybe generics come into the market a little bit. And that's one thing we saw specifically with the cotton product that came in this year. Really caught us off guard and we made some decisions not to challenge some places there just because the devaluation that they brought in and we were looking long term with Folex and our product that, you know, we plan to sell and support moving next year.

是的，那麼，那又怎樣，我要說的是，你知道，這確實是仿製藥的周期性，對嗎？因此，您會看到種植者的模式和農業經濟的下滑，您往往會看到仿製藥可能會稍微進入市場。這是我們今年推出的棉花產品中特別看到的一件事。確實讓我們措手不及，我們做出了一些決定，不挑戰那裡的一些地方，只是因為它們帶來的貶值，我們對Folex 和我們的產品進行長期投資，你知道，我們計劃明年出售和支持搬遷。

So they, they tend to be a very unreliable supplier that came into the market. And that's really the only competitor we've seen in that space. Then just what I'll, comment and from a US perspective, commercial strategy, our sales teams, we approach this, that yes, there's going to be generics coming into the marketplace, but we pride ourselves in about 3 areas to 4 areas. It's, it's about offering service support and then providing a superior formulation to what generics may come in just because it's a product in the AI doesn't mean it has the same level of superior formulation that the customer would experience.

因此，他們往往是進入市場的非常不可靠的供應商。這確實是我們在該領域見過的唯一競爭對手。然後我要評論的是，從美國的角度、商業策略、我們的銷售團隊來看，我們的做法是，是的，將會有仿製藥進入市場，但我們在大約 3 到 4 個領域感到自豪。它是關於提供服務支持，然後提供比仿製藥更好的配方，僅僅因為它是人工智慧中的產品，並不意味著它具有與客戶體驗相同水平的高級配方。

So those are the three areas. And then lastly, it's just retail support at the farm gate. So you know what if there's, challenges or issues, people overlook this. If there's issues with generics at the farm gate level, there's no service or support, you pay for what you get when they walk away. And many times there's no one there. So there's where, that's where, in fact American vanguard, we pride ourselves in servicing and supporting our growers in the retail with our quality product that we can provide in that space.

這就是三個領域。最後，這只是農場門口的零售支援。所以你知道，如果有挑戰或問題，人們會忽略這一點怎麼辦。如果仿製藥在農場門口出現問題，就沒有服務或支持，當他們走開時，你就需要付出代價。而且很多時候都沒有人在那裡。因此，實際上是美國先鋒，我們為能夠在零售領域提供優質產品為零售種植者提供服務和支援而感到自豪。

Okay. Very helpful one more for me. And I'll get back to you and it's regarding the fourth quarter outlook. I'm wondering, you know, given the, what you flagged here in the third quarter around the year, over year, the difficult year-over-year comp from Aztech, I'm wondering if you want to flag any year-over-year contributors like that that came in the fourth quarter of last year. And also you know, any expectations for additional costs associated with the [dact-all] recall and disposal that you expect to have in the fourth quarter?

好的。對我來說又一個非常有幫助的。我會回覆您，內容涉及第四季的前景。我想知道，你知道，考慮到你在今年第三季度在這裡標記的內容，一年來，Aztech 的困難同比比較，我想知道你是否想標記任何一年來像這樣的年度貢獻者出現在去年第第四季。您還知道，您預計第四季將產生與[dact-all]召回和處置相關的額外成本嗎？

Oh, David, why don't you cover the [dact-all] first if you don't mind.

哦，大衛，如果你不介意的話，為什麼不先覆蓋[dact-all]呢？

We, we've looked as diligently as we can across the markets globally to identify all product and, and the $16 million that we've got, we've taken this year, this quarter is the current best estimate we've got of that. So we think we've covered product out with growers, distribution, retail and our own inventory. But, you know, if something else new comes up, then we would take it at that time.

我們，我們已經盡最大努力在全球市場上尋找所有產品，而我們今年、本季獲得的 1600 萬美元是我們目前得到的最佳估計。因此，我們認為我們已經透過種植者、分銷、零售和我們自己的庫存來覆蓋產品。但是，你知道，如果出現其他新的情況，我們就會在那時採取。

I mean, from a revenue perspective, we still may have a bit of overhang from the Aztec inventory that was built last year, but it shouldn't be nearly as substantial as what was the case in the third quarter or the first nine months of this year?

我的意思是，從收入的角度來看，我們去年建立的阿茲特克庫存可能仍然有一些積壓，但它不應該像第三季或前九個月的情況那麼嚴重。

Okay. Very good. Alright, thanks for taking my questions. I'll get back in queue.

好的。非常好。好的，謝謝你回答我的問題。我會回到隊列中。

(Operator INstructions) Okay. Looks like we have no further questions in queue. I'd like to turn the floor back to management for any closing remarks.

（操作員說明）好的。看來我們沒有其他問題了。我想請管理階層發表結束語。

Well, I just again, for those who have joined, we appreciate you taking your time this afternoon and your interest in the company again. And in closing, I just want to recognize our employees once again. This is obviously a tough ag cycle right now.

好吧，我再說一遍，對於那些已經加入的人，我們感謝您今天下午抽出時間並再次對公司產生興趣。最後，我只想再次認可我們的員工。現在顯然是一個艱難的農業週期。

But later on that, I think the the tremendous amount of change going on in American Vanguard today from leadership changes to trying to drive a transformation of the management team having to make some tough decisions earlier this year, you know, changing the organ leaves a lot of uncertainty.

但後來，我認為今天美國先鋒隊正在發生巨大的變化，從領導層變化到試圖推動管理團隊的轉型，今年早些時候必須做出一些艱難的決定，你知道，改變機構留下了一個很多不確定性。

I just want to applaud our team for staying dedicated and focused and the optimism they have for the future. Thank you very much for your support during these difficult times. Thank you everybody for joining.

我只想讚揚我們的團隊保持專注和專注，以及他們對未來的樂觀態度。非常感謝您在這些困難時期的支持。感謝大家的加入。

This concludes today's conference and you may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.

今天的會議到此結束，您現在可以掛斷電話了。感謝您的參與。