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I would now like to hand the conference over to Kenny Herring, Vice President of Finance. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Haley, good afternoon, everyone. Before we continue, I would like to remind all participants that the discussion today may contain certain forward-looking statements pursuant to the Safe Harbor provisions of the Federal Securities Laws. These statements are based on information currently available to us and are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Ascent advises all of those listening to this call to review the latest 10-Q and 10-K posted on its website for a summary of these risks and uncertainties. Ascent does not undertake the responsibility to update any forward-looking statements. The discussion today may include non-GAAP measures. In accordance with Regulation G, the company has reconciled these amounts back to the closest GAAP-based measurement.

The reconciliations can be found in the earnings press release issued earlier today and posted on the investor section of the company's website at ascentco.com. Please note that this call is available for replay via webcast link that is also posted on the investor section of the company's website. With that, I'll turn the call over to Bryan.

Great. Thanks, Kenny, and good afternoon, everyone. We've got a lot to cover today, so let's jump in. In the first quarter, we saw a meaningful number of projects won in 2025 convert into real measurable revenue, and that conversion is now showing up in the numbers. We delivered net sales of $19.4 million, nearly double-digit growth versus the prior year, and 3.5% increase sequentially. In a market that remains flat to uneven, this is not a market-driven outcome. It reflects the conversion of prior wins into revenue and continued execution across the business. That momentum throughout the quarter and culminated into March, where we delivered our strongest monthly sales performance since March of 2023. A clear signal that what we are building is working and accelerating.

During the quarter, we converted 31 projects across 27 customers with conversion rates improving to 22% and an average sales cycle of approximately three and a half months. These are not early-stage opportunities. These are committed programs backed by purchase orders received, shipped, and invoiced in Q1. Already in production and generating revenue, representing approximately $7.6 million of annualized revenue. This is not pipeline becoming potential. This is pipeline becoming revenue. This is exactly how the model is designed to work. We build pipeline, we convert it with speed, and we scale it across the platform. We've done this before. What's different now is the scale, and we're seeing that scale translate directly into revenue.

From a mix standpoint, 58% of our pipeline wins came from product sales and 42% from custom manufacturing, reflecting how the team is intentionally shaping new business towards our core technologies and highly customized performance-driven solutions. The broader pipeline continues to build. Our pipeline in Q1 increased 34% as compared to the end of 2025. We're delivering growth today through committed programs already in execution, while simultaneously building a larger pipeline that positions us for continued acceleration. We're not lowering our standards to grow. We are scaling the right work. This is high-quality, margin-accretive growth that we expect to convert into earnings as it is optimized across our platform. As we translate that growth into earnings, it's important to understand how we are choosing to win and how that shows up in the margin profile in the quarter.

In the first quarter, gross margin was down approximately 270 basis points versus the prior year. Let me be clear on what that is and what that is not. This is not structural change in the business, and it's not a breakdown in operating discipline. It does not reflect the underlying earnings power of the platform. Material margins improved by approximately 200 basis points versus our 2025 average and 300 basis points sequentially. We have not seen a structural change in our labor and overhead cost base. What you're seeing is a result of how we've chosen to use the flexibility of our multi-asset platform to move quickly. Winning and onboarding new business across our platform and then optimizing how that work is sourced, routed, and produced. That sequencing matters.

In many cases, we're not initially running that work in its optimal state. We're prioritizing speed to secure the business, leveraging available capacity and subscale production where necessary, knowing we will optimize from there. The result is exactly what you see in the numbers. Under optimized sourcing, subscale production runs and variability in cost absorption, which shows up in gross margin in the near term. Importantly, the path forward is clear and already in motion. We've executed this playbook before, and we've proven a track record of improving sourcing, simplifying operations, and expanding margins over time. What you're seeing in this quarter, it's not a change in the model. It's the early stage of that same model being applied to a much larger and faster-growing base of business. We have visibility into where the inefficiencies exist and the flexibility to fix them across our asset base.

We're actively realigning the sourcing and scaling of production and matching the right work to the right assets across our network. That work's already underway, and we expect margin improvements to begin flowing through as we move throughout the year. As we look forward, we're focused on both winning volume and maximizing value, driving growth while improving how that growth translates to earnings. This is not a standalone initiative. It's embedded into how we operate. We are systematically optimizing how work flows through our network, aligning volumes and sourcing and production to drive better outcomes. At the same time, we're maintaining a relentless focus on cost control, driving accountability across sourcing and production and overhead to ensure that as we scale, more of that growth converts to earnings.

Because we've identified where these efficiencies exist and how to fix them, we have a very clear and actionable path to more than $3 million-$5 million of incremental run rate gross profit improvement, with the majority of that expected to be realized by the fourth quarter of 2026. This isn't a target. It is the output of specific actions already underway. Importantly, this is where our confidence comes from. We're not relying on external conditions or assumptions. We're executing a set of actions that we have implemented successfully across the business over the past 2 years. We know how this plays out. This will require targeted time-bound investment in the near term. We expect returns in excess of 100% of invested capital, reflecting the fact that these investments are focused on optimizing existing volume and infrastructure, not building from scratch.

When you improve how the business run, how you run the business you already have, the incremental returns are significant. The outcome is straightforward: stronger margins, more consistent performance, and more durable earnings profile. Alongside of that growth, we've maintained discipline on pricing. We've demonstrated the ability to pass through raw material inflation, particularly important given that approximately 65% of our inputs are petroleum-based. We acted early and with intent. While not always the first to move, we were a disciplined fast follower, acting quickly with the benefit of real market visibility. Our objective is clear: fully recover cost input pressure while ensuring continuity of supply. This is about reliability and trust and delivering in the moments that matter for our customers. Finally, subsequent to the quarter end, we announced the acquisition of Midwest Graphic Sales and Sigma Coatings.

This is not just another transaction. It's a clear signal of how we intend to build this business moving forward. We said we would be disciplined. We said we would focus on high-value, formulation-driven product lines, and we said that we would allocate capital where we have a clear right to win, and this transaction delivers on all three. Midwest is a specialty formulator built on highly customized application-specific coatings, serving packaging, food service, and other consumer applications, markets where performance, durability, and high switching costs. What makes this compelling is not just what the business is today, but what it becomes inside of Ascent. On day one, we're acquiring a durable embedded earnings stream supported by long-standing customer relationships and a strong margin profile. Importantly, we're unlocking a platform for acceleration.

We expand our formulation capabilities, we deepen our position in key markets, and we gain access to new customer base, creating a clean cross-selling opportunity across more than 60 active customers. We are not buying capacity. We're buying demand that can be integrated into our capacity. Demand that's customized, embedded, and scalable across our asset base. As we integrate the business, we expect to transition production into our network over time. Importantly, the product mix aligns squarely within our existing capabilities, enabling us to insource this work with little to no incremental capital investment. This is a critical advantage of our platform. It allows us to capture the benefits of scale of sourcing and asset utilization without the need for meaningful new infrastructure, enhancing returns and accelerating the realization of synergies.

We will apply our proven playbook, one that's already delivered measurable improvements across our platform, giving us the confidence in our ability to enhance margins and accelerate growth in this business. We know how to do this. Importantly, this transaction is supported by the existing earnings quality with upside driven by execution, not required to justify the investment. We didn't buy potential. We bought a business that's already performing. Before I turn it over to Ryan, let me leave you with this. We are not waiting for the market to improve. We're executing. We're winning the right business. We're onboarding it with speed and optimizing it with discipline. We're unlocking margin with clear line of sight to improvement that is well within our control. At the same time, we're taking share.

We're converting pipeline into real revenue and allocating capital to increase the quality and durability of our earnings. We're doing that while maintaining a relentless focus on cost control, ensuring that as we scale, more of that growth translates into earnings. This is not a new model. We're scaling a system that we've already built, tested, and proven. As we continue to scale and optimize and deploy capital with discipline, that will translate to stronger margins, more consistent performance, and a more durable earnings profile. That's exactly what we're building. With that, I'll turn it over to Ryan to walk through the financials and capital allocation in more detail. Ryan, over to you.

Thanks, Brian, and good afternoon, everyone. I'll build on Brian's comments by focusing on four areas: revenue quality, gross margin, cash usage in the quarter, and capital allocation. Starting with the top line, net sales were $19.4 million in the first quarter, up 8.9% versus the prior year. That growth was supported by both volume and price, with tons shipped up 7.6% and average selling prices up 5.2%. In a soft and uncertain industry environment, that is an important signal. Our growth is not market dependent. It is execution-led. We are winning business, expanding customer relationships, and converting pipeline into revenue. That is the most important first step. In this environment, winning and holding the right business comes first. Optimization follows, and as Brian said, we have a high degree of confidence in our team's ability to do that.

That said, the key question in the quarter is not revenue growth. It is gross margin. Before getting there, I'll briefly walk through the rest of the P&L. SG&A was $5 million in the quarter, up approximately $300,000 year-over-year, but lower as a percentage of sales at 26.4% compared to 27.3% last year. The increase was primarily driven by salaries, wages, and benefits, rent expense, and stock comp, partially offset by lower incentive bonus expense. Importantly, we view part of the spend as investments in the commercial and technical capability required to support the type of business we are winning. These are not transactional sales cycles. They require responsiveness, formulation knowledge, regulatory awareness, production coordination, and a willingness to work alongside customers to solve complex problems, not simply ship product.

That is why we continue to build the technical bench and customer support model needed to pursue higher value opportunities and deepen long-term partnerships. We also recognize that our current SG&A structure is heavy relative to the size of the business today. That is intentional, it has to translate into growth and earnings leverage. We have built the organization to support a materially larger specialty chemicals platform, roughly 50%-60%, 5% revenue growth from the 25 baseline, without requiring the same level of incremental overhead as the business scales. Our objectives are clear as we invest in this area. Support growth with best-in-class service and technical execution while ensuring that each dollar of revenue growth carries more efficiently through to earnings over time. Further down the P&L, other income was favorable in the quarter, driven primarily by interest income from our cash balance and sublease income.

We had no debt outstanding on the revolver at quarter-end, so the balance sheet continued to contribute positively below the operating line rather than creating a financing drag. Net loss from continuing operations was $2 million, and adjusted EBITDA was a loss of approximately $1 million. Those results are not where we expect the business to be over time, but they also reflect a quarter where re-reported earnings lagged the commercial progress and operational work already underway. Turning to gross profit and margin. Gross profit was $2.8 million or 14.5% of sales, compared to $3.1 million or 17.2% of sales in the prior-year quarter. In dollar terms, gross profit declined by approximately $257,000 year-over-year despite the higher revenue base.

That is not the margin profile we expect from this business, and we are treating it with the level of focus it deserves. As Brian said, the margin compression in Q1 was not driven by a loss of pricing discipline or its deterioration in the customer book. In fact, the clearest evidence is in material economics. Standard material cost was approximately $0.61 per pound in Q1, compared to approximately $0.71 per pound in Q4 and approximately $0.66 per pound for full year 2025. The material side of the business was not the source of the compression. Sourcing actions and cost discipline help protect contribution dollars even as volumes increased. The pressure was concentrated in non-material COGS.

Timing, absorption, routing, labor efficiency, overhead recovery, utilities, freight, and other plant-level costs that show up when new or growing programs move through the system before sourcing, production cadence, inventory positioning, and plant loading are fully optimized. Utilities were a real example of that pressure in the quarter. January and February utility costs ran materially above the Q4 monthly run rate, creating roughly a 150-175 basis point headwind to Q1 gross margin before considering any offsetting action. The larger point is that these pressures were concentrated in controllable conversion costs, not in raw material economics or broad pricing deterioration. Deferred manufacturing variance was also a meaningful timing headwind. As Q1 shipments increased and inventory declined, manufacturing costs previously embedded in inventory flowed through cost of sale.

That effect alone represented approximately $600,000 or roughly 290 basis points of Q1 sales. The sequential swing versus Q4 was approximately $900,000-$1 million. That is exactly why we view the quarter as a timing and absorption issue. The cost was created as programs were being ramped and inventory was being built, then recognized as that inventory converted to revenue. The key distinction is that pressure is operational, not structural. We want attractive business quickly, and now the work is to optimize that volume through better sourcing, routing, campaign planning, inventory positioning, production loading, and absorption. In this market, winning and holding the right business comes first. Optimization follows once the volume is inside the platform. That creates near-term margin noise, but it also gives us control over the levers that drive durable improvement.

We are not satisfied with Q1 margin, but we do not view it as the new baseline. The business is winning, material economics remain intact, and corrective actions are underway. As they take hold, we expect captured volume to become more efficient, repeatable, and profitable. Turning to cash, we ended the quarter with $47.8 million of cash and no debt outstanding under our credit facility. That compares to $57.6 million of cash at year-end. The cash balance declined by approximately $9.8 million during the quarter. That movement deserves a direct explanation. The largest use of cash was capital allocation. We repurchased approximately 296,000 shares during the quarter for $3.9 million at an average price of $12.92 per share.

While we do not evaluate buybacks based on short-term stock movements, the discipline of that deployment is already evident. Compared to the May 5th closing price of $14.94, those repurchases were made at an approximately 16% discount, representing roughly $600,000 of implied value creation in less than 2 months. More importantly, we believe those shares were repurchased at prices well below our view of long-term intrinsic value and not at the expense of operational flexibility as we ended the quarter with nearly $48 million of cash, no revolver debt, and $14.2 million of remaining availability under our credit facility. Looking beyond the quarter, since January 1, 2025, we have repurchased approximately 1.18 million shares for roughly $14.9 million at a weighted average price of approximately $12.61 per share.

That represents roughly 11%-12% of the beginning 2025 share base repurchased on a gross basis. While we are rebuilding the operating platform, we have also been materially reducing the share count at prices we believe are attractive relative to the long-term value of the business. The second major use of cash was investment in the business and our people. We paid approximately $2.2 million of incentive compensation during the quarter, reflecting the work completed in 2025 to reposition Ascent into a pure-play specialty chemicals platform. We fully understand that compensation will be scrutinized in a quarter with negative adjusted EBITDA and margin pressure. We do as well.

We also believe retaining, aligning, and rewarding the team that executed the divestitures, simplified the company, stabilized the platform, and are now driving the commercial and operational reset is a rational investment in the durability of the business. The third major use of cash is working capital. Net working capital consumed approximately $3.2 million of cash in the quarter. That was driven primarily by higher receivables as revenue increased, timing of customer collections and vendor payments, and the normalization of accruals after year-end. Inventory was actually a source of cash in the quarter, improving by approximately $1.3 million, which is an important point. We are not simply building inventory without discipline. We are funding the working capital required to support new and growing programs, while continuing to manage inventory tightly.

When you look at the roughly $10 million decline in cash, we would frame it this way. Approximately $3.9 million went to repurchasing shares at what we believe were attractive prices. Approximately $2.2 million went to incentive compensation tied to the transformational work completed last year. Approximately $3.2 million went to net working capital, much of it connected to supporting the revenue growth and timing dynamics of the quarter, and approximately $400,000 went to capital expenditures. This is not a recurring operating cash burn profile we are comfortable with or expect to normalize.

It is a quarter in which cash was used to support three deliberate priorities: return capital when the valuation is compelling, invest in the team responsible for execution, and fund the working capital needed to convert pipeline into revenue and optimize the business we have already won. This also ties directly to our acquisition strategy. The Midwest acquisition is consistent with the same capital allocation framework. This is a relationship-driven transaction developed through the kind of industry knowledge, technical familiarity, and long-term commercial connectivity that we believe are critical in disciplined small cap industrial acquisitions. We are not pursuing scale for the sake of scale. We are not buying capacity to fill plants. We are prioritizing higher quality product revenue, customer intimacy, technical application know-how, and opportunities where Ascent's platform can improve sourcing, commercial reach, and operating support. The underwriting reflects that discipline.

We are acquiring a business with existing earnings quality, a purchase price supported by current cash flow rather than speculative pipeline assumptions, and a pre-synergy gross margin profile of roughly 25%, even before purchase accounting adjustments and the benefit of Ascent-led sourcing, cost, and commercial initiatives. This is not a transaction that requires us to manufacture the thesis after closing. The business already has the margin structure, customer relationships, and product orientation we want more of in the portfolio. Importantly, we expect Midwest to be immediately accretive to annual adjusted EBITDA, with upside as we execute on identified cost, sourcing, and commercial opportunities. That expected contribution is not dependent on aggressive market recovery assumptions. It is supported by existing earnings quality and the ability to bring a more complete operating platform around a high-quality product business.

Our capital allocation priorities remain straightforward: protect the balance sheet, fund the operating improvements required to expand gross margin, invest behind high return organic growth, pursue disciplined acquisitions where the underwriting is supported by existing earnings quality, and repurchase shares when the risk-adjusted return is compelling relative to other uses of capital. Q1 was not a clean quarter from a margin standpoint, but it was a quarter in which the business grew. The balance sheet remained strong, and capital was deployed towards assets we understand. Our shares, our people, our working capital engine, and a higher quality product portfolio. With that, I'll turn it back to the operator for questions. Thank you.

Thank you. At this time, we will conduct the question and answer session. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. Our first question comes from the line of Howard Root from Fairhope Capital. Your line is now open.

Good afternoon, Bryan and Ryan. Thanks for taking my question. Can you give us some details on the Midwest acquisition? I mean, the only thing I see is this $14 million in cash. What can you tell us about the revenue that you're acquiring, the assets, and what you expect going forward from that business?

Sure, Howard. Thanks for the question. Let's just start off from a revenue perspective. On an unaudited basis, 2025 revenue was roughly $10.8 million. Adjusted EBITDA came in just north of $2 million. Adjusted EBITDA margin's in that 19%-20% range.

That's, you know, like 7 times EBITDA is kind of in the middle of your acquisition kind of parameters going forward?

It depends on the quality of the business.

Yeah. Okay. Do you believe that'll be immediately accretive to you? Will that revenue hit kind of quarterly starting in the second quarter?

Yes.

Okay. On margins, you know, I get kind of what you're saying here. The kind of surprised me because I think in the last call, we were looking at maybe 20%. Given where your business is, small numbers can make a big difference on the percentages. What do you look going forward from that 14.5%? Will we bounce back toward 20% in Q2 and up from there toward that 30% goal, or is it gonna take a quarter or two to get on that trajectory?

I think it's gonna take a quarter or 2. I mean, as we progress through the year, we expect to be back into those low 20s. Again, the focus was on winning business quickly. In some cases that's not optimized right out of the gate as we learn kind of how to officially make the products, where to officially make those products. We expect that the margins to normalize throughout the year. As a full year basis, expect those to be in that low 20s again.

Is there any change on your goal of this being a 30% gross margin business overall?

Not at all.

Okay. The pipeline conversion, you know, last quarter it was 31 projects. You know, I guess this one is 31 projects, $7.6 million annualized revenue. Last quarter, Q4 was a little bit more, 38 projects, $9.4 million. Is there a seasonality to your project conversion in Q4 being a little higher than Q1, or is there any seasonality in that pipeline?

Yeah. No, it was just how the, how the projects came in inside of Q1. We saw a healthy influx, right? From a project count perspective, it was a little bit different, but the overall value of the pipeline increased exponentially, close to $24 million-$25 million from last quarter to this quarter. We continue to be really pleased with how that pipeline continues to take shape. I would say we're also pleased with the quality of projects that continue to come into the pipeline.

Great. Q4, you said the margins on that pipeline was around 40% coming in. I don't think you said anything about that here for Q1. What do you have on the margins of the business you brought in in Q1?

I think these were some larger scale wins, Howard. I believe they were in that 25-ish% range, Ryan, correct me if I'm wrong.

Yep.

Okay. Well, great. Well, you know, congrats on the continued progress. I know this has been a tough slog going forward, but it seems like you're really getting things in place, and look forward to a good kind of 2026 for you. Thanks a lot.

No, I appreciate that, Howard. I mean, it's really good to see the momentum take shape and not just feel it, right, based on commitments, but to begin to see it roll through the income statement. Now, yes, we're getting this top line, but we've got to work on improving that margin profile. I assure you, the team is rallied around that working to, as Ryan was talking about earlier, you know, optimize the production scheduling and the sequencing and how we're allocating that out across our three manufacturing assets.

Great. Thanks. I'll jump back in queue. Thanks.

Okay.

Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. Our next question comes from the line of David Siegfried. Your line is now open.

Hey, guys. Congratulations on the revenue and pipeline growth.

Thanks, David.

Yeah. A question. You spent $13 million on the Midwest acquisition, $47 million in cash. End of Q1, subtract out that Midwest acquisition. Weren't you supposed to get a release of, like, $5.5 million from escrow and from past investors? When is that gonna be released?

In July. In July.

You said in July?

Correct.

Okay. All right, good. Now you've been with the company for-

David, there's actually two tranches of that. The larger portion, about $5 million, will release in July, and then a separate tranche will be released in October.

Okay. Good. Yeah. You know, you've been in with the company now for a while, 2 years. You've streamlined the business. You have a very good handle on what's happening. Do you think at some point soon you'll be able to give us, like, revenue targets, profitability targets for the business?

Not inside of 2026, David. You know, there's still so many moving parts as you've heard on the call today. You know, as we're out growing and building new platforms and winning new business and seeing how that phasing works, there's still quite a bit of lumpiness. What we don't wanna do is get into a habit of providing unrealistic, or incorrectly phased, assumptions to our shareholders. We'll work this year on continuing to stabilize the business, continue to build that momentum, minimize some of the lumpiness we've historically seen, right, from a quarter-on-quarter basis. You know, reevaluate as we get towards the tail end of this year.

Yep. Okay. Do you think you'll be in line for any tariff refunds?

No. No. Nothing material, right? The vast majority of our raw material inputs, David, are sourced domestically.

Got it. You picked up 60 customers with the Midwest purchase.

Yeah.

As capacity is filled in Midwest, if there's a need for more product, that can just be put into our existing footprint, correct?

Yeah. I mean, look, ultimately our plan is to transition from their current manufacturing facility into our manufacturing facility. What I would say is there's plenty of headspace to tack on, you know, large new pieces of business, based on our underutilized processing centers that we have. Again, the good thing is it's not just one plant. We have similar capabilities across the network. We're super excited about the acquisition. It's everything that we set out for, right? It's, we're not buying an asset that's gonna compound our problem statement that we've historically had from a utilization standpoint. We're buying a product line that we can then integrate into our assets. Equally as important, I mean, really sticky, customized products that are developed for customer-specific problems.

Exactly the types of sales that you've heard us talk about and get excited about over the past year with our solutions that we've developed in the oil and gas space, just as an example.

Yeah. Excellent use of capital with the buyback and the investment into the team, the management team. I think that's money well spent. You know, who knows where the stock goes from here. You know, at some point when you start showing a bottom-line profit, you know, it's gonna be materially higher. Are you going to change your metrics as far as how much shares can be bought at these levels, even though it's higher than what you bought in Q1, but still cheap compared to where it's gonna be in a year?

Yeah, I mean, we're gonna continue to leave that optionality open. I think where the stock moved in early Q1 gave us a great opportunity compared to where we believe the intrinsic value of the stock really should be. We'll continue to monitor it. If the stock stays compressed and below where we believe it should be, we'll be opportunistic in buying it back. Again, we like the optionality we have with our balance sheet right now, and we'll protect it first. We'll invest in the business to grow as kind of a first priority. We'll always leave that last piece available to us to go out and then repurchase shares where we can.

Yeah. Okay. One last question. I think in December you rolled out the digital-first market strategies. How was the follow-through in that in Q1 with website traffic and any leads that got generated and that type of thing?

J. Bryan Kitchen, I believe you're on mute.

Oh, yeah. Sorry about that. No, I was gonna say, David Siegfried, I can respond directly to that. Somehow I got tagged onto all of the inquiries that come in through our website, which is very, very interesting. It doesn't do my inbox any favors. We're seeing an enormous amount of traffic come in, and what's really encouraging is not just the volume of traffic but the quality of earnings. In some cases, it's net new customers that we've never worked with that are asking for samples, that they want to try a defoamer in one of their paint formulations, as an example. In other instances, there are customers out there looking for a new surfactant supplier. We're very encouraged.

You know, I would say that there's just been continued tailwinds from Q4 when we've launched that into Q1 and now Q2.

All right. Excellent. Well, thank you for the good work. Thanks for the time. Appreciate it.

All right. Thanks, David.

At this time, I'm showing no further questions in the queue. I would now like to hand it back over for Bryan for closing remarks.

Okay. Great. Thank you, Hailey. We'd like to thank everyone for listening to today's call, and we look forward to speaking with you again when we report our second quarter 2026 results.

Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect.

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Ascent Industries Co.'s Fourth Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Bryan Kitchen.

Thanks, Josh, and good afternoon, everyone. Before we continue, I would like to remind all participants that the discussion today may contain certain forward-looking statements pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the federal securities laws. These statements are based on information currently available to us and are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Ascent advises all those listening to this call to review the latest 10-Q and 10-K posted on its website for a summary of these risks and uncertainties. Ascent does not undertake the responsibility to update any forward-looking statements. Further, the discussion today may include non-GAAP measures. In accordance with Regulation G, the company has reconciled these amounts back to the closest GAAP-based measurement. The reconciliations can be found in the earnings press release issued earlier today and posted on the Investors section of the company's website at www.ascentco.com. Please note that this call is available for replay via our webcast link that is also posted on the Investors section of the company's website. Now with that, let's talk about the business. We exited 2025 as a pure-play specialty chemical company and a structurally stronger business. Gross margin expanded nearly 1,000 basis points. Gross profit increased 61%. Adjusted EBITDA improved by more than $4 million year-over-year despite operating on approximately 7% lower revenue. And we delivered these results while fully exiting our legacy Tubular segment that is not cyclical recovery that is structural improvement. The business we are building has a higher earnings power and we are still in the early stages of unlocking it. Fourth quarter results reflected continued end market softness and unfavorable mix, which pressured absorption and led to sequential moderation in margin and adjusted EBITDA. While the quarter did not extend the momentum of Q2 and Q3, it does not alter the trajectory of our business. Importantly, we did not chase volume to protect OpEx. We protected margin integrity. We are reshaping our book of business towards higher margin, lower volatility revenue. That transition can create short-term variability, but the earnings foundation today is materially stronger and more durable than what it was 12 months ago. Against that backdrop, the fourth quarter was defined by several tangible advances that reinforce our structural progress. We permanently exited Munhall, eliminating a legacy drag that will contribute approximately $2.1 million of run rate improvement in 2026. We secured a significant new commercial program expected to generate more than $10 million of incremental annualized revenue that will improve operating leverage across 2 of our manufacturing sites. Our pipeline conversion reached 25% in Q4. We won 38 projects across 23 customers with an average sales cycle of 2.9 months. These wins generated commitments of $9.4 million of annualized revenue. Approximately $7.1 million came from new customer program and $2.3 million came from additional wins, carrying margins in excess of 40%. The majority of these wins came from existing customers, reinforcing strong runway with share of wallet expansion. Product sales represented 47% of the wins with custom manufacturing contributing the balance. In the fourth quarter, we added a record $43.4 million of new selling projects and sunsetted $40.8 million. Of the projects that we removed, some reflected continued demand softness while others were opportunities we chose not to pursue because they did not meet our return thresholds. Finally, in December, we modernized the demand engine. Website traffic increased 218% and contact submissions rose 122% within the weeks of repositioning our digital strategy. These advances were achieved while removing more than $5 million of labor, overhead and other costs as compared to 2024, more than offsetting targeted reinvestment. We are strengthening the business while lowering the structural cost base. What underpins this progress and gives the durability is a deliberate upgrade of our operating platform across marketing, sales, R&D and operations. These are not defensive moves. They were intentional investments in people, processes, tools and capabilities designed to improve coordination, discipline and earnings quality. In marketing, we built a scaled measurable demand engine that did not exist 2 years ago. This function is tightly integrated with both sales and R&D, generating qualified opportunities and strengthening our authority in priority chemistries and markets. In 2025, marketing delivered a return on investment well in excess of 100% across trade shows, digital demand and inside sales campaigns and that engine is translating into commercial momentum. In sales, resources are directed towards customers and programs that meet defined return thresholds and generate durable earnings. We are not managing for pipeline optics. We are managing for margin, cash generation and long-term retention. Through structured account planning and executive engagement, we are embedding our solutions into customer formulations and validated workflows, increasing defensibility as integration deepens. R&D has become a growth catalyst. Approximately 95% of our fourth quarter wins were driven by or enabled by R&D efforts, including formulation development, process optimization, scale-up support and that depth is elevating conversion quality, strengthening our margins and shortening our sales cycle times. In operations, we prioritize leverage over expansion. Rather than adding fixed costs, we revitalized existing assets and debottleneck capacity. Guided by a disciplined return on investment mindset, we deployed approximately $435,000 to bring idle equipment back online, capability that would have required more than $3.7 million of new investment. This improves asset utilization and expands capability without increasing structural overhead. What gives us confidence in this next phase is the operating discipline now embedded across the organization. Quality, service reliability across our asset base have never been stronger. Teams are increasing uptime, driving out waste and executing with appropriate urgency. And that execution is the backbone of our margin expansion story. It enables us to grow efficiently, protect profitability and deliver for customers in any environment. Every investment we make in people, processes or technology is deliberate and return-driven, and we are doing this from a position of financial strength. We ended the year with significant liquidity, no debt and a clean balance sheet, and that's after buying back approximately 7% of our outstanding shares. Our strong balance sheet gives us resilience in soft demand environment and flexibility to continue investing in high-return opportunities. Stepping back, as I reflect on 2025, I'm proud of what the team has delivered. We improved margins and earnings in a difficult market, while reshaping the portfolio and reinforcing the foundation of the business. And that doesn't happen by accident. It reflects ownership, accountability and disciplined execution across the organization. As we look ahead, our priorities are clear: keeping customer partnerships through innovation, reliability and speed; fill available capacity with high-margin organic growth; and preserve balance sheet strength and allocate capital with discipline. We are not waiting on the market to recover. The market didn't do it to us and the market is not going to fix it for us. We are building a stronger company regardless of the cycle and positioning it to compound. Our company looks very different today than when we began this journey 2 short years ago. It is stronger, more disciplined and built for durability. To the entire Ascent team, thank you. You are our unfair advantage. And with that, I'll turn it over to Ryan to walk through the financials in more detail. Ryan?

Thanks, Bryan, and good afternoon, everyone. Starting with net revenue. The key takeaway for the quarter is that we delivered year-over-year growth despite an uneven demand environment. Net sales increased 4%, supported by a 6% lift in shipments as several higher throughput programs ramped. As expected, that benefit came with a mix shift. Incremental pounds skewed toward lower priced, lower margin wins, which compressed spreads on a consolidated basis. Turning to the full year, net sales declined 7.2% and as a 17.7% contraction in demand more than offset 10.9% in pricing action. In that context, we remain disciplined on value and continue to sharpen mix and execution, positioning the book to participate as volumes normalize. From a profitability standpoint in the quarter, while mix in the broader cycle remained uneven, gross profit was essentially flat year-over-year, down less than $50,000, and gross margin declined by approximately 90 basis points. Holding margin movement to that level, given the spread compression and demand variability is a solid outcome. And it reinforces that we're scaling throughput without compromising the earnings profile we're building. Stepping back to the full year, gross profit increased by $6.5 million and gross margin expanded by nearly 1,000 basis points driven by a 2.5% improvement in material profit as our sourcing initiatives, product line management, and operating execution took hold across the portfolio. Moving to SG&A. Expenses were $6.5 million compared to $5.4 million in the prior year period. The year-over-year comparison is influenced by merit accrual reversals in the fourth quarter of 2024, along with an unfavorable impact from litigation settlement expenses in the current period. On a full year basis, SG&A was up $3.2 million, largely driven by $2.1 million related to legacy Munhall and Palmer activity that was reclassed SG&A in the second quarter as well as stock compensation and incentive payouts, partially offset by reductions in professional fees. Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter was a loss of $1.1 million, a decrease of roughly $600,000 year-over-year. Full year EBITDA was a loss of $570,000, an improvement of $4.1 million year-over-year. Turning to the balance sheet. We ended the quarter with $57.6 million of cash, no debt and $11.4 million of incremental availability under our revolver. We finished the year with significant liquidity and a clean balance sheet, which gives us flexibility and staying power as we move through this part of the cycle. And with the cash conversion cycle down to 61 days, we're demonstrating tighter working capital discipline, building confidence that the business is getting more resilient even as demand softens. With that, I'll turn it back to the operator for questions.

[Operator Instructions] And our first question comes from Adam Waldo with Managing Member, Lismore Partners, LLC.

Bryan and Ryan, I hope you can hear me okay?

Yes.

We can.

Okay. So I wanted to dig in a little bit more on the cadence of the quarter by month as you released your third quarter results, were you starting to see some of the softness or did that develop really late in the quarter? And how is the macro environment as we sit here 2 months into the first quarter? Obviously, some geopolitical developments the last few days. But before that, were you seeing an improving macro environment?

Yes, Adam, I really appreciate the question. So related to the demand build inside of 2025, what we're dealing with is still some inherent seasonality challenges with the legacy book of business, really strong Q2, really strong Q3, and a little bit of softness in Q4 and Q1. So as I mentioned in the script, one of the things that we're working on is building a more stable, ratable book of business throughout the year, so we can minimize the impact of some of the seasonality volatility that we have. Related to the most recent conflict that emerged over the weekend, what I'd say is, look, with the cost of petroleum input raw material costs will go up, well, will likely go up. And if and when, when they do, we already have demonstrated the ability to pass along those raw material increases to customers. So we're pretty well protected on that.

That's very helpful. Now as we're sort of building up our outlook for 2026, just directionally, I know you don't give specific forward guidance. But you issued a press release on December 1 about the sizable new win, client win of over $10 million in annualized revenue, which portended mid-teens or better revenue growth in 2026 if the existing same client revenues would be flattish year-over-year in '26 relative to '25. Are you still comfortable that the company, based on that win and the existing new business pipeline and backlog can deliver double-digit revenue growth for 2026?

That's certainly the plan. Yes, that piece of new business that we won has started. It's beginning to scale. And I think we're on track for getting that to full run rate early Q2.

Okay. And last question, are we feeling pretty good about the ability to deliver a consolidated gross margin that's sort of above the -- at or above the low 30s or better level to which Ryan had set the company kind of on a steady-state basis is aspiring on a consolidated basis. Now pro forma for the Tubular divestitures and having moved the Munhall facility off the books?

Yes, I'll start, and Ryan you can jump in. I mean, certainly, that's what we're running on guiding towards what we said from day 1 is we were targeting margins in that 30% to 35% range that flow through to SG&A at 15%. Obviously, we need to grow into that SG&A and then flow through all the way down to 15% EBITDA margins. That wasn't an immediate target. That was, hey, we're going to fulfill that this month or this quarter or even this year, that was more of a long-term target. But you could do a quick look back and look at our performance in Q2 and Q3, and what we delivered was squarely in the upper 20s to lower 30s range.

Okay. And the new business you're bringing on more recently is at higher gross margins. So is it reasonably conservative, but plausible to expect to consolidate gross margin for 2026 in at least that high 20s to low 30s range that you articulated, Bryan?

Yes, I think so. I mean, look, it's really -- there's always going to be puts and takes along the way. We'll see how the year shapes. But certainly, the mid-20s to lower 30s is still our target.

Our next question comes from Gregory Kitt with Pinnacle.

First, congratulations on a good year in which you had to accomplish a lot with divestitures in managing the portfolio. And through that, you were still continuing to win new business. I've read your comment that you're exiting with a clean and focused platform, focused on -- capable of delivering higher quality earnings and operating leverage. If I could kind of break it down into revenue margins and operating leverage kind of piggyback on some of Adam's questions, on revenue, just to make sure that I understood, did you say that you won $9.4 million of business in the quarter? And then how do I reconcile that with the December 1 announcement of that $10 million plus that you announced? I was a little confused.

Yes, that's right. So what we flashed was $9.4 million of wins in the fourth quarter, of which I believe it was $7.1 million of that was attributed to that new customer program. $2.3 million or the balance of that came from additional new customer wins outside of the programmatic win that we announced.

Okay. And so that $7.1 million, there was an opportunity -- there's an opportunity for that to continue to grow to reach that $10 million potential?

Absolutely. Yes.

Okay. Okay. Great. And so is there some way to think about you had talked about somewhere in the range of a combined $30 million of wins, a little north of $30 million of wins over the course of '25? Is there any way to think about how much, if any, of that contributed to results last year?

It's a good question. Let me take an action, and I'll follow up with you on that on our follow-up call. I don't want to spitball a number. But I did want to go back, Gregg, to your prior question around the $7.1 million versus the $10 million trying to reconcile that. Of the $9.4 million that we referenced, that is predicated on us actually receiving firm purchase order for a shipment. So part of that $10 million, we've shipped out a number of SKUs, but we haven't shipped out all of them. And because of that, there's going to be some bleed over into the first quarter.

Okay. Okay. That's great. Yes. I think the big thing for me is not to say that you were distracted, but you did have other operational focuses with the divestitures that you don't have anymore. And so I think I look at the platform and say, hey, you can just focus on winning business and something that you said in your prepared remarks it was interesting was that you invested some amount of dollars to effectively expand your capacity, and you did that in a cost-effective manner rather than having to buy new equipment. What are you looking at? Or maybe walk us through that decision because you've talked about how your assets are relatively underutilized just that decision-making process in investing to effectively expand your capacity now, what's giving you that confidence to do that?

Yes. So just to be clear, what I said was to expand our capability, not our capacity. So this isn't a function, Gregg, of adding additional reactors to the mix because as you know, we have a fair amount already that are grossly underutilized. So what this really refers to is putting old storage tanks back into commission to support new business that we have won. Another example is in Virginia, we had rail capability going inbound into our multipurpose plant that at some point in time, had been paved over with asphalt. Well, the team in Virginia found a really creative way in partnership with the local railroads to get that back in service for nominally $20,000, right? So that's just another example. But these are not material adds where we're going out and adding net new capacity, it's all about capabilities to support existing and new business.

Okay. Great. On the gross margin side, I would guess that was the only piece where I said, I can't wait to learn more because I think you'd had great linear progress in Q2 and Q3 of last year. And this is a -- it's going to be revenue-based, you're absorbing fixed overhead. And so I expected margins to be down this quarter. Can you give us any sort of way to think about gross margins going forward? Did anything this quarter make you -- I heard what you said to Adam, but did anything you saw in the fourth quarter make you revisit your margin targets and say, hey, this might take a little bit longer than we thought or might be more challenging than we thought?

No, I'll let Ryan jump in on that, Ryan?

Yes. I mean nothing in the quarter. I mean we have some inventory adjustments and accruals and things like that. So there was a handful of one-time items, some building of stock, some customers there, wherein we control the raw material spend. So you see raw material costs come up, the margins are effectively the same. But those types of things came through in the fourth quarter. Nothing that we saw, in my opinion, is structural. It's more just timing and predominantly just mix. Some of our newer customers, we've gone out and win we were aware that there was a volume aspect that we were willing to trade for margin. We won't always do that, but in the scenarios where our plants are still grossly underutilized, these are deals that come few and far between in this kind of macro environment where you can go out and find large chunks of volume we are willing to kind of move, so we took those -- we took on that business, and we did see some of that mix effects, which did compress margins in the quarter, but nothing that happened in this quarter, would make me think that our targets of plus 30% are unachievable. We'll still continue to march that way. But sometimes the quarters will get choppy and the mix will throw that off and, kind of, take away that kind of linear progression you saw where we were kind of ramping up margins every quarter. So we should get back to that mid-20s, low 20s here for the first half and hopefully start to ramp back up as capacity increases and utilization increases or capacity -- utilization increases.

Two more for me, quick ones. On SG&A, is there any way to think about that litigation settlement, how material that could have been in the quarter?

It's about $200,000, a little over $200,000. So that was a legacy issue we've been working on. We finally got it wrapped up. It was a -- it's a good win for us in the end of where we thought it could be at. So call it, $200,000, a little over that.

And then you announced -- you and the Board announced that share repurchase authorization back in November. Not a ton of traction in the fourth quarter. Can you help us think about capital allocation? I'm assuming you're still continuing to look at potential acquisitions and how you weigh that versus share repurchases?

Yes. I mean, predominantly the first thing we focused on is reinvestments in the assets. As Bryan mentioned, some of that can be capacity -- capability enhancements, process improvements, first-time inspect, things like that, we're able to streamline and be more efficient. So we'll always allocate dollars to that first. When we looked at share buybacks, the stock was trading sub-15, we thought there was a really good opportunity from where we felt we could be in a few years and then the stock did run a little bit up. So it kind of came out of our buy box for a little bit. So we'll still have that in our quiver, but it was much more attractive in the places where we were quite a bit more active. So we'll continue to look at that, be opportunistic where we can in buybacks. We've positioned ourselves to do that. And then M&A is always there. Right now, there is so much capacity not only within our own assets, but within the broader industry as a whole and specifically in North America. So we haven't seen anything attractive to this point. We're continuing to be open and looking, but again, our first, second and third focus is filling up our own assets. We're hesitant and we'll be cautious when we see assets come along that looks similar in utilization to our own. We don't need that added problem. So we'll continue to kind of look at things that way and in that priority order, invest in our assets and people first, opportunistically buy shares where we can and where the price looks right. And then if an attractive asset comes along or a product portfolio comes along, we're in a position to make that move quickly if we need to.

[Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from [ Howard Ruth with Fairhope Capital. ]

A little follow-up on the gross profit. I mean, I was kind of surprised going from 29% in Q3 down to 18% in Q4. Is that -- was any of that related to new contracts you took on? Or is it -- you just talked about onetime, if it wasn't for the one-time expenses you had, would that have been closer to the 23% you had for the year? Or how much of that can we look at as onetime, 1 quarter? Or how much of that might be continuing into 2026?

I'd say about, call it, a little over $0.5 million was kind of what I would consider onetime. Are they normal course of business things like inventory accruals and things like that? Yes, but they were things that were headwinds and normally they aren't. When we look at comps year-over-year, there were some tailwinds in '24 that we didn't get in '25. So I think if you stripped all that out, we would probably have spent somewhere in that low 20% margin. So definitely a compression compared to Q3. And again, some of that's just mix-driven, right, where we have these kind of higher volume, lower mix customers, that mix just shifted a little bit for us in Q4. You compound that with some of the things we did to clean up the inventory and things like that, and that's what pulled things back. So again, these aren't structural margin compression we're seeing. These are more just timing and mix related. So we should get back into that 20% going forward and then start to get to get back on that ramp closer to 30% is where we hope to be long term.

Okay. Great. And then just a general question on the M&A environment. What are you seeing out there in terms of the size of targets and valuation and kind of also your appetite for it as you're another quarter in. Do you see that it's something you want to do this year, you would do for the exact right thing or are things getting into the right price range for you to do something now?

Yes. Look, I would say that we're always in the hunt, but it's got to be the right opportunities. So as Ryan mentioned, the last thing that we want to do is go out and buy another, let's say, a distressed asset that has relatively low utilization when all that would do is effectively compound our existing problem statement. So what we really like is, a product line or product lines that we could acquire and then integrate into our manufacturing base to get that utilization up, and get that dual bump. We haven't found that right opportunity just yet. We're not running away from M&A, but we certainly don't have any dollars burning a hole in our pocket, [ Howard. ]

Great. All right. And thanks, again, for all the hard work last year getting this set on the right path forward. So I look forward to a great 2026 for you guys.

Thank you. I would now like to turn the call back over to Bryan Kitchen for any closing remarks.

Okay. Josh, we'd like to thank everyone for listening to today's call, and we look forward to speaking with you all again when we report our first quarter 2026 results. Thanks very much, and have a great day.

Thank you. This concludes the conference. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.