WEST

Image source: The Motley Fool. Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026 at 4:30 p.m. ET Vice President of Investor Relations - Jauan Arnold Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer - Scott Ford Chief Financial Officer - Chris Pledger Operator: Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Westrock Coffee Company Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your first speaker today, Jauan Arnold, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead. Jauan Arnold: Thank you, and welcome to Westrock Coffee Company's Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. Today's call is being recorded. With us are Mr. Scott Ford, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer; and Mr. Chris Pledger, Chief Financial Officer. By now, everyone should have access to the company's second quarter earnings release issued earlier today. This information is available on the Investor Relations section of Westrock Coffee Company's website at investors.westrockcoffee.com. Certain comments made on this call include forward-looking statements, which are subject to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and beliefs concerning future events and are subject to several risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in these forward-looking statements. Please refer to today's press release and other filings with the SEC for a more detailed discussion of the risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements made today. Also, discussions during this call will use some non-GAAP financial measures as we describe business performance. The SEC filings as well as the earnings press release provide reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures. With that, it is my pleasure to turn the call over to Scott Ford, our Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer. Scott Ford: Thank you, Jauan. Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for joining us. I'm pleased to report that the second quarter of '26 was another strong quarter across every part of our business. It was our fifth consecutive quarter of year-over-year consolidated adjusted EBITDA growth. We turned free cash flow positive ahead of our anticipated schedule, and we ended the first half of the year almost 10% ahead of our internal EBITDA plan. The platform we spent the last 3 years building no longer requires capital. Rather, it is a generator of cash. Second quarter consolidated adjusted EBITDA was $21.3 million, a second quarter record and up nearly 39% year-over-year. Through the first 6 months, consolidated adjusted EBITDA of $47.3 million was more than twice the first half of '25. Our credit agreement secured net leverage ratio improved to 3.36x, our fifth consecutive quarter of sequential deleveraging. And significantly, we were free cash flow positive both for the quarter and on a year-to-date basis. Commercially, our momentum continues to build. Second quarter Beverage Solutions net sales grew nearly 17% year-over-year, led by the continued volume growth of our RTD can, glass and multi-serve bottle formats in Conway and driven by increasing volumes from both existing and new brand partners across the portfolio from packaged coffee and single-serve cups to coffee RTD beverages. We have a pipeline of new products in queue from refreshers, energy and high-protein drinks to functional and nutraceutical single-serve cups. Our customer and sales pipeline has never been more robust and the fact that our recently expanded manufacturing capacity is now fully operational, continues to shorten our sales cycle with brand partners. Further, our recent market wins enable us to forecast revenue and profit growth that builds materially over the next several quarters without the need for additional CapEx or new sales wins, prime examples of which are recent incremental can format volume wins from both historic and new customers in our Conway facility. This facility will be an increasingly meaningful contributor to segment profitability through the balance of this year and into next. Turning to single-serve cups. Our volumes were up over 9% year-over-year, excluding the volumes lost to a customer that departed us through industry acquisition and consolidation. New customer inbound interest remains strong. We continue to expect new volumes to begin arriving in late '26 with full replacement targeted by the end of '27. Our work with Palantir is increasingly showing up in how we run the business day-to-day. Foundries AI is now driving real-time analysis across our manufacturing, logistics and planning systems, giving our teams live visibility into performance as it happens rather than after the fact. This is structural, not cosmetic. We are not bolting AI onto a beverage company. Instead, we are running this platform on an AI native operating core and the operating leverage it creates is only beginning to show up in our results. With the first half behind us, we are reaffirming our 2026 consolidated adjusted EBITDA outlook of $90 million to $100 million, while acknowledging that both of our first 2 quarters came in ahead of our internal plan, and we feel quite optimistic about the back half of the year. Our sales and operational momentum is continuing to build. Our story this quarter is a simple one. We have become a cash-generating platform, executing at pace with a strong team again delivering record results. We are growing sales, expanding EBITDA, deleveraging the balance sheet and now generating free cash flow. That is the business model working exactly as promised. I want to thank our entire team from the folks on the plant floors in North Carolina, Arkansas and Malaysia to our sourcing and logistics offices around the world to our systems and corporate teams, and to our shareholders whose conviction and steadfast partnership through our expansive build-out phase made this quarter's milestone earnings and free cash flow generation possible. With that, I'll turn it over to Chris Pledger, our CFO, for the financial details. Chris? Thomas Pledger: Thank you, Scott, and good afternoon, everyone. Our second quarter results reflect continued momentum across our platform. Consolidated net sales were approximately $306 million, up 8.8% versus second quarter of 2025, led by Beverage Solutions, where net sales grew nearly 17% versus the same period. Through 6 months, consolidated net sales were approximately $614 million, up 24% versus the first half of last year. Consolidated gross profit was $37.7 million in the second quarter, down $3.6 million compared to the prior year. This was due to $4.1 million of incremental depreciation and amortization expense associated with placing assets into service at the Conway facility and a $2 million negative impact year-over-year from noncash mark-to-market adjustments in our SS&T segment. Through the first half of 2026, consolidated gross profit was $83.5 million, up 19% over the first half of 2025. Our operating loss for the quarter narrowed to $1.4 million from $15 million a year ago. And through the first half of 2026, we are operating income positive compared to a $28 million operating loss in the first half of 2025. As with last quarter, our reported net loss of $13.7 million narrowed significantly from the $21.6 million net loss incurred in the second quarter of 2025. Consolidated adjusted EBITDA was $21.3 million, which reflects a record second quarter result for Westrock, increasing almost 40% compared to the consolidated adjusted EBITDA generated in the second quarter of 2025. In Beverage Solutions, second quarter segment adjusted EBITDA was $22.2 million, up 13% versus the same period of 2025. Growth was driven by the continued ramp of our RTD canned glass and multi-serve bottle formats in Conway, new customer wins in our flavors, extracts and ingredients business, including the launch of a Lemonade refreshers program and improved fixed cost absorption across our manufacturing footprint. And once you exclude volumes from the customer that departed following an industry acquisition, single-serve cup volumes grew 9% across both existing and new brand partners, consistent with the recovery trajectory we outlined earlier this year. Our SS&T segment delivered segment adjusted EBITDA of $2 million in the second quarter compared to $3.3 million in the second quarter of 2025. However, on a year-to-date basis, SS&T segment adjusted EBITDA was $8.4 million, up more than 60% versus the $5.2 million generated in the first half of 2025. The variance between quarters is simply a function of shipment timing. SS&T continues to be a strategic capability for the platform. Capital expenditures for the quarter were approximately $6.5 million compared to over $20.5 million in the second quarter of 2025, and we're on pace for estimated capital expenditures in 2026 of approximately $30 million, down from the $160 million in 2024 and $89 million in 2025, which again represents a structural shift in the capital profile of this company. As previously announced on June 30, we extended the maturity of the vast majority of our Beverage Solutions credit facility to November 2028 and elected to terminate our covenant relief period ahead of schedule, which lowers our borrowing cost. That extension reflects the underlying momentum of the platform and gives us meaningful financial flexibility now that Conway is fully commercialized. At quarter end, we had approximately $73 million of unrestricted cash and revolver availability under our Beverage Solutions credit facility, and we remain fully in compliance with our credit agreement. We ended the second quarter with Beverage Solutions credit agreement secured net leverage of 3.36x, deleveraging slightly from the first quarter. And finally, in the second quarter, Westrock Coffee generated $20.2 million in free cash flow and is now free cash flow positive for the first half of the year. We told you to expect this inflection in the second half of 2026, but we got there a quarter early. Our second quarter results again demonstrate the earnings power of a platform that is not just built but performing. 5 consecutive quarters of year-over-year consolidated adjusted EBITDA growth, 5 consecutive quarters of sequential deleveraging and now turning free cash flow positive a quarter ahead of schedule. With the heavy investment phase behind us, our focus remains squarely on 3 priorities: selling the remaining installed capacity we built, managing the customer mix to maximize margins and driving operational excellence across all of our plants. The first half of 2026 shows what that focus delivers, and it keeps us firmly on track for our reaffirmed full year 2026 consolidated adjusted EBITDA outlook of $90 million to $100 million. With that, we'd be happy to open the line for questions. Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our first question will come from Eric Des Lauriers of Craig-Hallum Capital Group. Eric Des Lauriers: Congrats on getting free cash flow very significantly ahead of expectations. It's really great to see. Congrats on all the progress here. My first question, just kind of on the pipeline. So on the one hand, you have this state-of-the-art, one-of-a-kind facility in Conway that's creating this demand pull. On the other hand, this disruptive M&A in the industry is also kind of causing somewhat of a push. Customers looking for alternative manufacturing options. Bit of an impossible question here, but how much of your pipeline strength do you kind of attribute to each of those? And I suppose kind of bottom line of my question, do you feel like you're taking share on a net basis? Do you feel like there's this kind of activity of overall changing of manufacturers right now, and just how do you view your sort of competitive dynamics within that? Scott Ford: Sure, Eric, this is Scott. It's a great question. It is -- I think it's probably the most important question in terms of what is the trajectory of the business, not just the mechanical readout of the data, but what's going on at a strategic level. I think it's right on target. As you know, this is a reasonably small industry. Most of us know what other people in the industry are doing, what their capabilities are. Most of us have figured out about where they price things. Most of us have figured out what their -- we can kind of all guesstimate where each other's costs are, et cetera, et cetera. It's the nature of any industry. We are across the board winning share in every single category that we play in. We have won material share, some of it is in our run rate now and some of it is coming in over the next 12 months in the roast and ground space. We have won material new share, and we alluded to this in some of our prepared comments, in the canning format. We have won -- we continue where we are, what's 4x the growth rate of the overall single-serve cup industry taken as a whole. So, I think if you just -- if you go product by product, we are winning share. We are winning share because we are bringing in customers that want to see and want to get priced on a super competitive, very large-scale, very automated platform. And as they come in and start to work with us on one part of our business, we try to show them everything else that we do. And when we show them that, and we can start to take over issues for them across their book, like their risk management, like some of their green coffee and other supplies, price fixations, and things of that nature so that they get a more predictable pull-through in their own financials. That's just been a winning combination. And frankly, Will Ford, our COO; and Kyle Newkirk, our Chief Commercial Officer, have lived on the road and lived in the plants with the sales team and with the operational support team, and they have driven momentum unlike -- I mean, I'm not going to take you through the data, but we did take our Board through it. It is the fastest-growing business win set of relationships that I have personally ever seen in my professional career. And it is a tribute to those folks in the sales and operations team who've been delivering for big customers and are getting bigger and bigger customers that are coming in the door behind them. It's -- I'm super proud of them. So thank you for asking the question. Eric Des Lauriers: I mean that's highly encouraging to say the least, very exciting to see what else is to come here. You touched on the expanded product portfolio sort of playing a factor in your ability to take share here. You've obviously expanded your own product capabilities quite significantly recently, protein and energy drinks to name 2. Where do you see your overall product capabilities now compared to, say, where you'd like them to be in a year or so? Do you feel like you've sort of completed or rounded out your product offerings? Are there more sort of white space or more opportunities to come here? Scott Ford: So I think that there are incremental opportunities and there are incremental product sets, maybe even as fragmented as down to different types of SKUs that some of our customers would like to see us put in a format line for. We're going to continue to work through that. We've got several that are on the drawing board. We've got several that are in our current plan that we're adding. I think there's 4 new format lines that we're adding this year already in part of our run rate. We've got several others that we're looking at. Essentially, what we're doing is we're saying, look, if somebody wants us to edge out into something new, we will do it, but we need to get an anchor tenant that underwrites the expense of it and underwrites that for our banks because everybody knows we just spent $400 million building the world's largest roast-to-RTD plant. And if we're going to add format factors, we need to have them sold out before we add them. And normally, that has a fairly chilling effect on the market, but we -- literally, we have 8 products right now that are going through that process that I think you'll see us launch in the next 24 months. And our product development team has 2x the number of products under development that we've ever had as a business in our history at its other highest point. Eric Des Lauriers: Again, very highly encouraging. Congrats on all the progress. I know it's been a long time coming. Great to see you. Congrats again. Operator: Our next question comes from Matt Smith of Stifel. Matthew Smith: Scott, you mentioned in your prepared remarks that the strong results are ahead of even your internal expectations. Maybe you can flesh that out a little more in terms of what's driving the upside? Is it faster execution? Is it more business wins? And maybe more importantly, as we look ahead and we think about running ahead of your projections, what does that imply for EBITDA generation as we get into 2027? Is it incremental EBITDA? Is it faster realization? Scott Ford: Yes. Super question, one that we spend a lot of time on every day. I think at the core, we are slightly ahead of plan, both in the first and second quarter, largely because the uptake of products that we are selling both to traditional customers and to new customers have surprised us a little bit. We have had customers that have moved product and are moving product into us ahead of schedule because I think they're having a good experience. They're getting good product. They're getting great service. They've got a great price. And they tell us they're going to move x and they end up moving x plus 20%. And we can never know that, but we're always glad to have it. So I think that's been one part. We have some new customers that have been wildly successful in some of the market spaces that we serve where we have signed on with them to do what were originally small projects that grew into medium-sized projects that are turning into very large ones. A lot of that has been coming through, but most of that is still scheduled to come in the back part of the year. So we're trying to figure out exactly where that will land. We're very -- I'll skip over where it's going to settle in the back half of this year because it's both too soon to know and it's too live real time right now. As we guesstimate where we're going to land in '27, we'll do some kind of formal number guidance for you on our next quarter call, but we are more optimistic about where we're going to land than we are fearful. We're also -- we also want to be on the side of being ahead of any of the numbers that we ever give people that finance us ever again. So you've seen us -- we beat in the first half of the year. I've called that out. We're not raising our guidance. We don't have raised guidance in our credit models that we're sharing with our creditors. And frankly, we intend to crush that, but we'll give you numbers as we get later in the year. Matthew Smith: I certainly appreciate that, Scott. And maybe as a follow-up, you already touched on it, but with leverage now, call it, in the low 3 range on the Beverage Solutions business and you've achieved the inflection to cash flow positive. Can you talk about the cash priorities as you look ahead? You mentioned some opportunities for incremental investment. Does that benefit from leveraging the existing Conway infrastructure and how you think about the margin structure going forward, if you continue to add capabilities, does that benefit from some of the fixed costs you already have in place at Conway? Scott Ford: Yes. So we actually have started working with our Board on what we actually think at a high level, the free cash flow and the cash available from the business will be over the next 3 or 4 years. And in our Board meeting when we took them through it, about half of them had to sit back in their chair and say, I had no idea. Now that's how dramatic getting a huge factory up and running and full can be. When you can shock your Board of Directors with the free cash flow generation over the next 3 to 5 years. I think it will be good for our shareholders. When we look at what to do with that cash, of course, it's not something that Westrock has in its history. We have been a growth business in an investment phase since we've -- obviously, since we've been public, but for 15 years before we were public, we were in the same cycle. We've got every opportunity that every other business that goes through this kind of transition has, and we're going to be thoughtful about it. There are our CapEx projects that return fabulous incremental returns to us because the infrastructure is in place. We can put new format lines in and the incremental lift of the contribution margin at the line profitability level that comes all the way down through EBITDA. And so these next set of lines, the next 3 to 10 lines that we put in any of the plants that we've got because they're all cash generating. They're all profitable. So everything we do from here is materially helpful all the way down to the EBITDA line and then how we wrestle through that with the balance sheet. We're working through that, frankly, now with theoretical cap structures that we might move to over the next 12 to 18 months, which are super exciting if you're a shareholder. But again, we have to deliver this month and we have to deliver this month, we have to deliver these 4 weeks, and we're going to keep the team focused there. It is the product portfolio of we can solve multiple needs and we can solve your pricing and a lot of your commodity price variance. We can do all of that for you. And that's unique in this market, and it's just a compelling pitch. And then, hey, there's no better way to grow your business than have happy customers that got what you promised them at the price point and the time frame that you promised them because word gets out and good that gets good on that front. Matthew Smith: Appreciate that. Just one quick follow-up, and I'll pass it on. Chris, if you took a snapshot of the business today before you consider new -- the opportunity for new lines, you talked about $30 million of CapEx this year that likely includes some residual spending in Conway. If you look ahead, do you have an estimate for what you think the maintenance capital is for the business as we move out a year before we consider any expansion? Thomas Pledger: We kind of think of CapEx, I think that -- yes, I've got it. The $30 million that we've got forecast for this year is sort of -- is the total CapEx for the business. And we think about it in terms of keeping that as kind of a go-forward run rate. And probably half of that is going to be maintenance CapEx. It will be a little less than half in the early years because you've got new assets that have been deployed, but that will creep up to be half of that $30 million going forward. Operator: Our next question comes from Sarang Vora of TAG. Sarang Vora: Great. And congrats on a good quarter as well as free cash flow generation, pretty big turn in the business. Just thinking about the product portfolio. As you sign up these new customers, just curious, does it make any difference from a profitability standpoint if it's a protein product versus a soda product? Just curious if you can like share now that you have expanded the portfolio, any color on like how these contracts are structured or any margin profile between categories as you think out? Scott Ford: Yes, sure. We look at it holistically at the customer level, Sarang, as I think -- we then double check ourselves by running all of the math through each -- not only the plant level, but through that distribution line, through the full cost of delivery through that plant. And we are doing some things, frankly, with large customers that have had some interesting wrinkles that have been fun to work on and I think have been good solutions for them. So we have 1 or 2 customers, for instance, we were looking at and we said, well, we just don't do that product at that margin traditionally. And traditionally, we would say, do we want to take line capacity for that market growth? We say, well, what's the overall relationship with them? We do this for them as well. We do this for them as well. We cover the account with 3 really good people that, okay, we can leverage that team to cover more products that although we might run them through on an incremental basis in one of the factories at a smaller margin in the aggregate, the account is going up in profitability and the account is actually dragging up the margin of the overall business on a combined basis. And then that gets into, what does it cost us to support the account team and what kind of systems and IT systems do we have to support those people and how much of their time can we get them out of running numbers down to see if they've got the right data and giving them the right data directly out of the foundry system. And looking at that holistically and then looking at the book that we manage for them on the risk management side, we are working with customers to solve their issues. And we're doing some things that traditionally, if we had just looked at I have a plant and I have a margin and I have a product set and I have a margin and I have a volume that I want to make, we might not have done, but the aggregate profile is actually trending up, which you would be fearful that your aggregate profile would trend down. Ours is actually going up on a margin basis. Sarang Vora: Well, that's great. And just on the SG&A, I just wanted to mention, I see like you guys have done a tremendous job in managing expenses like in the last few quarters. I would have expected SG&A going up as you ramp up this facility, but it's been very well managed. So can you talk to us about like how we should think about that line item as we think of EBITDA as well? I know gross margins improve as the mix improves, but also on the expenses side, like does it stay stable? Like I know you guys have been talking about the software that you use has been really helpful in managing the cost foundry. But just any color on like how we should think about expenses in general as you ramp up more production? Scott Ford: Well, I was just going to say, I think from -- on the SG&A part, Chris, I'll turn it over to you in 30 seconds. I think that the one key thing to understand about SG&A before you get into where are we in the maturation of the systems and the deployment of new technology, et cetera, which is part 2. Part 1 is you've got to remember, we were building and operating Conway at the same time. And the only way you can do that, while you've got construction going on and then you've got temporary divider walls and you've got manufacturing going on, the only way you can do that is throw people at it. And when you throw people at a manufacturing floor, you're throwing people at the whole kit and caboodle, you're throwing engineering, you're throwing professional services, you're throwing overtime, you're throwing fixed costs that are not directly attributed to a line in the plant. And we've basically rebuilt the North Carolina coffee plant over the last 3 years, and we've just built this RTD plant. So -- some of it is just winding down all of the construction activity and starting to groom and tend to the garden rather than clearing a forest and trying to plant the garden and it's quieter and quieter is more efficient and cheaper. And so that's a good part. And the rest of it -- what we're seeing with technology so far is if we can improve our insights and we can decrease the period of time that people have to spend looking data up, we have freed the time that they have to go be more productive for our customers. And so kind of worst case, we imagine that our SG&A will kind of stay flat line at a theoretical level. Pledger, I'll turn it over to you and let you say whatever might be more accurate. Thomas Pledger: No, that's exactly right. I wasn't going to say it nearly as eloquently as you did. But no, I think you're going to see SG&A from a worst-case scenario stay flat. And I think there's going to be ample opportunity over the next several quarters and next year to see it come down. Operator: This concludes the question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn it back to the CEO, Scott Ford, for closing remarks. Scott Ford: Thank you very much. I said it in my prepared remarks, you don't build something like this without people that bet on you and stay with you and stay hooked when things get tough. And when we built the world's largest roaster ready-to-drink facility and then we upsized it while we were building it 3x. And then we delayed the opening to help out a customer or two. We put ourselves and we put our shareholders and we put our creditors in a tough spot. And we stayed hitched as a collective team, we worked through it. We are now operating -- every plant we have is generating free cash flow, and we are on the precipice of becoming a very, very different business than the one that we have been. And it is -- we are in no hurry to enter into a great let's-go-build-another-plant phase of our lives until we get the balance sheet cleared up and direct marked dramatic value creation into the shareholders' pockets who bet on us and stayed with us, and we are laser-focused as we have been on getting this built and serving our customers. We are moving into a phase where we are equally laser-focused on generating value for our shareholders. And I think the next couple of years are going to be the most exciting in Westrock's entire history. And it's had some exciting times. Thank you for staying with us. I appreciate it more than you know. And I look forward to reporting out to you at least on our next set of quarterly calls if we don't have some interesting fun things to roll out for you in between some of them. So thanks very much. Have a great day. Operator: Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program, and you may now disconnect. Before you buy stock in Westrock Coffee, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Westrock Coffee wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut are built for long-term growth and could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $400,209!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,375,393!* That performance is why people listen. 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Westrock Coffee (WEST) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript was originally published by The Motley Fool

This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Release Date: August 06, 2026 For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript. Westrock Coffee Co (NASDAQ:WEST) reported its fifth consecutive quarter of year-over-year consolidated adjusted EBITDA growth, with Q2 2026 adjusted EBITDA reaching a record $21.3 million, up nearly 39% year-over-year. The company turned free cash flow positive a quarter ahead of schedule, generating $20.2 million in Q2 2026 and achieving positive free cash flow for the first half of the year. Beverage Solutions net sales grew nearly 17% year-over-year in Q2 2026, driven by strong volume growth in RTD can, glass, and multi-serve bottle formats at the Conway facility. The company is winning market share across all categories, with single-serve cup volumes up over 9% year-over-year (excluding lost volumes from a departed customer) and growing at 4x the industry rate. Westrock Coffee Co (NASDAQ:WEST) successfully extended its Beverage Solutions Credit Facility maturity to November 2028 and terminated its covenant relief period early, lowering borrowing costs and improving financial flexibility. Capital expenditures have significantly decreased to approximately $30 million for 2026, down from $160 million in 2024 and $89 million in 2025, reflecting a structural shift to a cash-generating platform. The company's AI-native operating core with Palantir Foundry is driving real-time operational insights, improving efficiency and contributing to operating leverage. Management reaffirmed its 2026 adjusted EBITDA outlook of $90-$100 million, with both Q1 and Q2 coming in ahead of internal plans, and expressed optimism for the back half of the year. The company has a robust pipeline of new products and customers, including refreshers, energy drinks, high-protein drinks, and functional single-serve cups, with eight new products expected to launch in the next 24 months. Westrock Coffee Co (NASDAQ:WEST) achieved its fifth consecutive quarter of sequential deleveraging, with secured net leverage improving to 3.36 times. Consolidated gross profit in Q2 2026 decreased by $3.6 million year-over-year, primarily due to $4.1 million of incremental depreciation and amortization from the Conway facility and a $2 million negative impact from non-cash mark-to-market adjustments in the SS&T segment. The company still reported a net loss of $13.7 million in Q2 2026, although it narrowed significantly from the $21.6 million loss in Q2 2025. Single-serve cup volumes were negatively impacted by the loss of a customer due to industry acquisition and consolidation, with full replacement not expected until the end of 2027. The SS&T segment's Q2 2026 adjusted EBITDA declined to $2 million from $3.3 million in Q2 2025, due to shipment timing, though year-to-date performance improved. The company's operating loss narrowed but remained at $1.4 million in Q2 2026, indicating ongoing profitability challenges despite EBITDA growth. Management chose not to raise its 2026 EBITDA guidance despite beating internal plans, which may signal caution about sustaining the pace of growth. The company's heavy investment phase has left it with significant debt, and while leverage is improving, it remains at 3.36 times, which could limit financial flexibility. The company's growth is partly dependent on new customer wins and volume ramps, which carry execution risks and may not materialize as quickly as expected. The company's product portfolio expansion requires anchor tenants to underwrite new format lines, which could delay or limit the addition of new capabilities. The company's SG&A expenses, while well-managed, are expected to remain flat at best, with potential for reduction only over the next several quarters, limiting near-term margin expansion. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 5 Warning Signs with WEST. Is WEST fairly valued? Test your thesis with our free DCF calculator. Q: How much of your pipeline strength is due to the demand pull from the Conway facility versus the push from disruptive M&A in the industry, and do you feel you are taking share on a net basis?A: Scott Ford (CEO): We are winning share across the board in every single category we play in, including material new share in the roasting ground space and canning format. We are growing at 4x the rate of the overall single-serve cup industry. We win because we offer a super competitive, large-scale, automated platform and can take over issues for customers across their book, like risk management and price fixations. The business win set is the fastest-growing I have personally ever seen in my professional career. Q: What is driving the upside versus your internal expectations, and what does that imply for EBITDA generation into 2027?A: Scott Ford (CEO): We are slightly ahead of plan in both Q1 and Q2 largely because customers are moving product to us ahead of schedule and often moving X plus 20% of what they initially stated. Some new customers have seen small projects grow into very large ones. Most of this is still scheduled to come in the back half of the year. We are more optimistic than fearful about 2027 and will provide formal guidance on the next quarter call. We are not raising our 2026 guidance of $90-$100 million, but we intend to crush it. Q: With leverage now in the low 3x range and free cash flow positive, what are your cash priorities, and how do incremental investments leverage the existing Conway infrastructure?A: Scott Ford (CEO): We have started working with our board on free cash flow projections over the next 3-4 years, and the numbers shocked half the board. There are CapEx projects that return fabulous incremental returns because the infrastructure is in place. The next 3-10 lines we add to any plant will be materially helpful all the way down to the EBITDA line. We are also working through theoretical capital structures over the next 12-18 months, which could be exciting for shareholders. Q: Does it make a difference from a profitability standpoint if a product is a protein drink versus a soda product, and how are contracts structured across categories?A: Scott Ford (CEO): We look at profitability holistically at the customer level rather than product-by-product. We run the math through each plant and distribution line. For some large customers, we may take on products at a smaller individual margin, but in the aggregate, the account profitability goes up and actually drags up the margin of the overall business. We leverage the same account team and systems across multiple products, and the aggregate margin profile is trending up. Q: How should we think about SG&A as you book more production, and has the Foundry AI system helped manage costs?A: Scott Ford (CEO) & Chris Pledger (CFO): SG&A is benefiting from the quieting down of construction activity as we transition from building to operating. The Foundry AI system has freed up time by improving insights and decreasing the time people spend looking up data, allowing them to be more productive for customers. Worst case, SG&A stays flat, and there is ample opportunity over the next several quarters to see it come down. Q: Where do you see your overall product capabilities now compared to where you'd like them to be in a year, and are there more white space opportunities?A: Scott Ford (CEO): There are incremental opportunities and product sets, including new SKUs customers want. We are adding four new format lines this year already. We require an anchor tenant to underwrite the expense of any new format line before adding it. We currently have eight products going through that process that we expect to launch in the next 24 months, and our product development team has twice the number of products under development than at any other point in our history. Q: What is the estimated maintenance capital for the business as we move out a year, before considering any expansion?A: Chris Pledger (CFO): The $30 million forecast for 2026 CapEx is a good go-forward run rate. Probably half of that is maintenance CapEx. It will be a little less than half in the early years because of newly deployed assets, but it will creep up to be half of that $30 million going forward. Q: Can you elaborate on the strength of the single-serve cup volumes and the timeline for replacing volumes lost to a customer that departed?A: Scott Ford (CEO): Excluding the volumes lost to a customer that departed through industry acquisition and consolidation, single-serve cup volumes were up over 9% year-over-year. New customer inbound interest remains strong. We continue to expect new volumes to begin arriving in late 2026, with full replacement targeted by the end of 2027. For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript.

Interested in Westrock Coffee Company? Here are five stocks we like better. Record profitability and cash flow: Second-quarter adjusted EBITDA rose nearly 39% year over year to a record $21.3 million, while free cash flow reached $20.2 million and turned positive for the first half of 2026 earlier than expected. Beverage Solutions drove growth: Consolidated sales increased 8.8% to approximately $306 million, led by a nearly 17% increase in Beverage Solutions sales and higher ready-to-drink and other beverage volumes. Lower spending supports deleveraging: Capital expenditures fell sharply to about $6.5 million, and Westrock reaffirmed its 2026 adjusted EBITDA outlook of $90 million to $100 million while prioritizing existing capacity and balance-sheet improvement over major new facilities. MarketBeat Week in Review: 12/11 - 12/15 Westrock Coffee (NASDAQ:WEST) reported second-quarter results that included record quarterly adjusted EBITDA, year-over-year sales growth and free cash flow generation ahead of its prior expectations, as the company said its recently expanded manufacturing platform is becoming a cash-generating operation. Chief Executive Officer Scott Ford said the company recorded its fifth consecutive quarter of year-over-year consolidated adjusted EBITDA growth and its fifth straight quarter of sequential deleveraging. Westrock ended the first half of 2026 nearly 10% ahead of its internal EBITDA plan, according to Ford. → Meta’s Earnings Drop Shows Wall Street Wants More Than Ad Growth Small cap coffee stock Westrock goes north as SBUX slides “The platform we spent the last three years building no longer requires capital,” Ford said. “Rather, it is a generator of cash.” Consolidated net sales totaled approximately $306 million in the second quarter, up 8.8% from the second quarter of 2025, Chief Financial Officer Chris Pledger said. For the first six months of 2026, net sales were approximately $614 million, a 24% increase from the prior-year period. → 4 Oil and Gas ETF Plays as Prices Stay Sky-High Beverage Solutions was the primary growth driver, with segment net sales rising nearly 17% year over year. Ford attributed the performance to continued volume growth in ready-to-drink canned, glass and multi-serve bottle formats at the company’s Conway facility, as well as increased volumes from existing and new brand partners. Pledger said Beverage Solutions adjusted EBITDA was $22.2 million in the quarter, up 13% from a year earlier. The company cited the ramp-up of Conway’s RTD formats, new flavors, extracts and ingredients customer wins, including a lemonade refreshers program, and better fixed-cost absorption across its manufacturing network. → Sandisk Just Delivered a Blowout Quarter—Here's Why the Stock Is Falling Single-serve cup volume increased more than 9% year over year when excluding business lost after a customer departed following industry acquisition and consolidation, management said. Westrock expects new single-serve volumes to begin arriving late in 2026 and has targeted full replacement of the lost volume by the end of 2027. Ford said Westrock is adding product capabilities in areas including refreshers, energy drinks, high-protein beverages, functional products and nutraceutical single-serve cups. He said the company has eight products moving through its process for potential launches during the next 24 months, with new format investments requiring an “anchor tenant” customer to support the expense before capacity is added. Second-quarter consolidated adjusted EBITDA was $21.3 million, up nearly 39% year over year and a company record for a second quarter. For the first six months of 2026, consolidated adjusted EBITDA was $47.3 million, more than double the first-half 2025 result. Consolidated gross profit was $37.7 million, down $3.6 million from a year ago. Pledger said the decline reflected $4.1 million of additional depreciation and amortization expense associated with assets placed into service at Conway, along with a $2 million unfavorable year-over-year impact from non-cash mark-to-market adjustments in the SS&T segment. The company’s operating loss narrowed to $1.4 million from $15 million in the prior-year quarter. Westrock reported operating income for the first half of 2026, compared with a $28 million operating loss in the first half of 2025. Its net loss narrowed to $13.7 million in the second quarter from $21.6 million a year earlier. The SS&T segment generated adjusted EBITDA of $2 million in the second quarter, compared with $3.3 million in the prior-year period. Pledger said the quarterly difference was driven by shipment timing. Year-to-date SS&T adjusted EBITDA was $8.4 million, up more than 60% from $5.2 million in the first half of 2025. Westrock generated $20.2 million in free cash flow during the quarter and became free-cash-flow positive for the first half of the year. Management had previously expected that inflection to occur in the second half of 2026. Capital expenditures were approximately $6.5 million in the quarter, down from more than $20.5 million in the second quarter of 2025. Westrock expects total 2026 capital expenditures of about $30 million, compared with $160 million in 2024 and $89 million in 2025. Pledger said the company views roughly half of the expected $30 million annual run rate as maintenance capital expenditures over time, though that proportion could be lower initially because of the company’s newer assets. At quarter-end, Westrock had approximately $73 million of unrestricted cash and revolver availability under its Beverage Solutions credit facility. Its secured net leverage ratio under that facility was 3.36 times, slightly lower than in the first quarter. On June 30, the company extended the maturity of most of its Beverage Solutions credit facility to November 2028 and ended its covenant relief period early, a move Pledger said reduced borrowing costs. The company said it remained in compliance with its credit agreement. Westrock reaffirmed its full-year 2026 consolidated adjusted EBITDA outlook of $90 million to $100 million. Ford said the company’s first two quarters exceeded its internal plan, aided by customers moving product volumes ahead of schedule and newer customer projects expanding beyond their original scale. Management did not raise guidance, with Ford saying the company intends to provide formal 2027 guidance on its next quarterly call. He said Westrock is focused on selling remaining installed capacity, optimizing customer mix and margins, and improving operational execution across its plants. Ford also said the company does not plan to rush into building another major facility. Instead, it intends to prioritize balance-sheet improvement and shareholder value creation while selectively considering additional format lines that can leverage existing infrastructure and produce attractive incremental returns. Westrock Coffee Company is a global integrated coffee roaster and manufacturer that delivers end-to-end solutions across the coffee and tea supply chain. The company sources, roasts, blends, packages and distributes a diverse range of products, including hot and cold brew coffee, single-serve pods, instant and soluble coffee, tea, and specialty coffee extracts. Serving retail, convenience, foodservice and industrial customers, Westrock Coffee offers both private-label and co-packed branded products to meet the needs of supermarkets, quick-service restaurants, office coffee services and other channels. Since its founding in 2008, Westrock Coffee has grown through a combination of organic expansion and strategic acquisitions to establish manufacturing facilities across North America, Latin America and Europe. This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to [email protected]. The article "Westrock Coffee Q2 Earnings Call Highlights" was originally published by MarketBeat. View MarketBeat's top stocks for August 2026.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark., Aug. 06, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Westrock Coffee Company (Nasdaq: WEST) (“Westrock Coffee” or the “Company”) today reported financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2026. Second Quarter Highlights1 Consolidated Results Segment Results Commenting on our results, Scott T. Ford, CEO and Co-founder stated, "The second quarter was another strong quarter for Westrock Coffee. It was the fifth consecutive quarter of year-over-year Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA growth, and we turned free cash flow positive ahead of our anticipated schedule. With a robust customer and sales pipeline, de-leveraged balance sheet, and a platform that no longer requires capital but is generating cash, our momentum continues to build.” Financial Outlook The Company is reaffirming its 2026 guidance for Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA of $90.0 million to $100.0 million, which was provided in its earnings release dated March 10, 2026. _________________1 Unless otherwise indicated, all comparisons are to the prior year period.2 Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP financial measure. The definition of Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA is included under the section titled “Non-GAAP Financial Measures” and a reconciliation of Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA to the most directly comparable GAAP measure is provided in the tables that accompany this release.3 Segment Adjusted EBITDA is a segment performance measure, which is required by U.S. GAAP to be disclosed in accordance with FASB Accounting Standards Codification 280, Segment Reporting. Segment Adjusted EBITDA is defined consistently with Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA, except that it excludes scale-up costs related to our Conway Facility. Conference Call Details Westrock Coffee will host a conference call and webcast at 4:30 p.m. ET today to discuss this release. To participate in the live earnings call and question and answer session, please register HERE and dial-in information will be provided directly to you. The live audio webcast will be accessible in the “Events and Presentations” section of the Company’s Investor Relations website at https://investors.westrockcoffee.com. An archived replay of the webcast will be available shortly after the live event has concluded and will be available for a minimum of 14 days. About Westrock Coffee Westrock Coffee is an integrated beverage solutions platform serving the world's largest brands across packaged coffee, tea, ready-to-drink coffee, energy, and functional beverage categories. With our global manufacturing and sourcing footprint, the Company formulates, manufactures, and packages beverages in cans, glass, multi-serve bottles, single-serve capsules, bulk extract, and concentrates, backed by a digitally traceable supply chain. With operations spanning 10 countries, Westrock partners with brands across retail, foodservice, convenience, CPG, and hospitality to bring beverage programs to market at scale. Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended from time to time. Forward-looking statements generally are accompanied by words such as "believe," "may," "will," "estimate," "continue," "anticipate," "intend," "expect," "should," "would," "plan," "predict," "potential," "seem," "seek," "future," "outlook," and similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, our 2026 financial outlook, the plans, objectives, expectations, and intentions of Westrock Coffee, and other statements that are not historical facts. These statements are based on information available to Westrock Coffee as of the date hereof and Westrock Coffee is not under any duty to update any of the forward-looking statements after the date of this communication to conform these statements to actual results. These statements are based on various assumptions, whether or not identified in this communication, and on the current expectations of the management of Westrock Coffee as of the date hereof and are not predictions of actual performance. These forward-looking statements are provided for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to serve as and should not be relied on by an investor, or others, as a guarantee, an assurance, a prediction, or a definitive statement of fact or probability. Actual events and circumstances are difficult or impossible to predict and will differ from assumptions. Many actual events and circumstances are beyond the control of Westrock Coffee. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, changes in domestic and foreign business, market, financial, political, and legal conditions; our inability to secure an adequate supply of key raw materials, including green coffee and tea, or a disruption in our supply chain, including from tariffs or trade restrictions or global conflicts (including the ongoing conflicts in Europe, the Middle East and Latin America); risks relating to the uncertainty of the projected financial information with respect to Westrock Coffee; risks related to the rollout of Westrock Coffee's business and the timing of expected business milestones; our inability to successfully commercialize customers at our Conway, Arkansas facility, and generate positive operating cash flows within the anticipated time frame; the effects of competition and industry consolidation on Westrock Coffee's business; the ability of Westrock Coffee to issue equity or equity-linked securities or obtain debt financing in the future; Westrock Coffee’s future level of indebtedness, which may reduce funds available for other business purposes and reduce the Company’s operational flexibility; Westrock Coffee’s inability to comply with the financial covenants in our credit agreement; the risk that Westrock Coffee fails to attract, motivate or retain qualified personnel; the risk that Westrock Coffee fails to fully realize the potential benefits of acquisitions or joint ventures or has difficulty successfully integrating acquired companies; the loss of significant customers or delays in bringing their products to market; litigation or legal disputes, which could lead us to incur significant liabilities and costs or harm our reputation; the risk of incurring additional costs if Westrock Coffee no longer qualifies as an emerging growth company (as defined in the JOBS Act); and those factors discussed in Westrock Coffee’s Annual Report on Form 10-K, which was filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on March 10, 2026, in Part I, Item 1A “Risk Factors” and other documents Westrock Coffee has filed, or will file, with the SEC. If any of these risks materialize or our assumptions prove incorrect, actual results could differ materially from the results implied by these forward-looking statements. There may be additional risks that Westrock Coffee does not presently know, or that Westrock Coffee currently believes are immaterial, that could also cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. In addition, the forward-looking statements reflect Westrock Coffee's expectations, plans, or forecasts of future events and views as of the date of this communication. Westrock Coffee anticipates that subsequent events and developments will cause Westrock Coffee's assessments to change. However, while Westrock Coffee may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, Westrock Coffee specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as a representation of Westrock Coffee's assessments as of any date subsequent to the date of this communication. Accordingly, undue reliance should not be placed upon the forward-looking statements. Contacts Media: [email protected] Investor Contact: [email protected] The total cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash at June 30, 2026 and 2025 is as follows: _________________ 1 - Segment Adjusted EBITDA is a segment performance measure, which is required by U.S. GAAP to be disclosed in accordance with FASB Accounting Standards Codification 280, Segment Reporting. Segment Adjusted EBITDA is defined consistently with Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA, except that it excludes scale-up costs related to our Conway Facility. Refer to the Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements included in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for additional information regarding our segments and a reconciliation of Segment Adjusted EBITDA to loss before income taxes and equity in earnings from unconsolidated entities.2 - Net of intersegment revenues. _________________ 1 – Consists primarily of pro forma run-rate impact of cost savings initiatives, as permitted by the Credit Agreement. The Company is required to maintain compliance with, among other things, a secured net leverage ratio under the terms of its credit agreement (the “Credit Agreement”) among the Company, Westrock Beverage Solutions, LLC, as the borrower, Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., as administrative agent, collateral agent, and swingline lender, Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, as sustainability structuring agent, and each issuing bank and lender party thereto. The secured net leverage ratio is calculated as secured net debt divided by Adjusted EBITDA for the trailing twelve-month period, each as defined in the Credit Agreement, and is applicable only to our Beverage Solutions segment. Management believes that our secured net leverage ratio provides useful information to investors and other users of our financial data regarding the Company’s compliance with its material financial covenants. Failure to comply with the covenants in the Credit Agreement or make payments when due could result in an event of default, which, if not cured or waived, could accelerate our repayment obligations under the Credit Agreement and could result in a default and acceleration under other agreements containing cross-default provisions. Under these circumstances, we might not have sufficient funds or other resources to satisfy all of our obligations. As of the date of this press release, the Company is in compliance with its financial covenants. Non-GAAP Financial MeasuresWe refer to EBITDA and Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA in our analysis of our results of operations, which are not required by, or presented in accordance with, accounting principles generally accepted in the United States (“GAAP”). While we believe that net (loss) income, as defined by GAAP, is the most appropriate earnings measure, we also believe that EBITDA and Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA are important non-GAAP supplemental measures of operating performance as they contribute to a meaningful evaluation of the Company’s future operating performance and comparisons to the Company’s past operating performance. The Company believes that providing these non-GAAP financial measures helps investors evaluate the Company’s operating performance, profitability and business trends in a way that is consistent with how management evaluates such performance. We define “EBITDA” as net (loss) income, as defined by GAAP, before interest expense, provision for income taxes and depreciation and amortization. We define “Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA” as EBITDA before equity-based compensation expense and the impact, which may be recurring in nature, of transaction, restructuring and integration related costs, impairment charges, non-cash mark-to-market adjustments, certain non-capitalizable costs necessary to place the Conway facility into commercial production, the write off of unamortized deferred financing costs, costs incurred as a result of the early repayment of debt, gains or losses on dispositions, and other similar or infrequent items (although we may not have had such charges in the periods presented). We believe EBITDA and Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA are important supplemental measures to net (loss) income because they provide additional information to evaluate our operating performance on an unleveraged basis. Since EBITDA and Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA are not measures calculated in accordance with GAAP, they should be viewed in addition to, and not be considered as alternatives for, net (loss) income determined in accordance with GAAP. Further, our computations of EBITDA and Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA may not be comparable to that reported by other companies that define EBITDA and Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA differently than we do.

Vita Coco Company, Inc. (COCO) came out with quarterly earnings of $0.82 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.56 per share. This compares to earnings of $0.38 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items. This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of +46.43%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this company would post earnings of $0.34 per share when it actually produced earnings of $0.5, delivering a surprise of +47.06%. Over the last four quarters, the company has surpassed consensus EPS estimates three times. Vita Coco Company, which belongs to the Zacks Beverages - Soft drinks industry, posted revenues of $216.15 million for the quarter ended June 2026, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 1.96%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $168.76 million. The company has topped consensus revenue estimates four times over the last four quarters. The sustainability of the stock's immediate price movement based on the recently-released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's commentary on the earnings call. Vita Coco Company shares have added about 40.4% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's gain of 9.6%. While Vita Coco Company has outperformed the market so far this year, the question that comes to investors' minds is: what's next for the stock? There are no easy answers to this key question, but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company's earnings outlook. Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how these expectations have changed lately. Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions. Ahead of this earnings release, the estimate revisions trend for Vita Coco Company was favorable. While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company's just-released earnings report, the current status translates into a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) for the stock. So, the shares are expected to outperform the market in the near future. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. It will be interesting to see how estimates for the coming quarters and the current fiscal year change in the days ahead. The current consensus EPS estimate is $0.50 on $205.9 million in revenues for the coming quarter and $1.77 on $745.88 million in revenues for the current fiscal year. Investors should be mindful of the fact that the outlook for the industry can have a material impact on the performance of the stock as well. In terms of the Zacks Industry Rank, Beverages - Soft drinks is currently in the top 29% of the 250 plus Zacks industries. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperform the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1. Another stock from the same industry, Westrock Coffee Company (WEST), has yet to report results for the quarter ended June 2026. The results are expected to be released on August 6. This company is expected to post quarterly loss of $0.05 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +58.3%. The consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has remained unchanged over the last 30 days. Westrock Coffee Company's revenues are expected to be $316.1 million, up 12.6% from the year-ago quarter. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Vita Coco Company, Inc. (COCO) : Free Stock Analysis Report Westrock Coffee Company (WEST) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

As of May 13, 2026, two stocks in the consumer staples sector could be flashing a real warning to investors who value momentum as a key criteria in their trading decisions. The RSI is a momentum indicator, which compares a stock’s strength on days when prices go up to its strength on days when prices go down. When compared to a stock’s price action, it can give traders a better sense of how a stock may perform in the short term. An asset is typically considered overbought when the RSI is above 70, according to Benzinga Pro. Here's the latest list of major overbought players in this sector. On May 7, Westrock Coffee reported better-than-expected first-quarter sales results. Scott T. Ford, CEO and Co-founder stated, “I am pleased to report that our first quarter delivered strong results across every dimension of our business, and that this is the fourth consecutive quarter of year-over-year Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA growth. However, the real story of the quarter is that the platform we spent three years building is now attracting the demand we envisioned, with brands coming to us not for a single SKU, but for the full spectrum of beverage partnerships across all categories.” The company's stock gained around 81% over the past month and has a 52-week high of $8.98. RSI Value: 84.3 WEST Price Action: Shares of Westrock Coffee fell 1.1% to close at $8.65 on Tuesday. Edge Stock Ratings: 92.48 Momentum score. On May 5, Archer-Daniels-Midland reported better-than-expected first-quarter financial results and raised its FY26 adjusted EPS guidance with its midpoint above estimates. “Within a dynamic global landscape, ADM delivered robust operating performance in the first quarter, with our crushing and ethanol businesses capitalizing on a constructive biofuels environment and our Nutrition business benefiting from higher Flavors sales, the ongoing Decatur East plant recovery, and continued improvements in Animal Nutrition. With U.S. biofuels policy clarity now providing a stable regulatory framework, combined with our team’s solid execution, we are raising our earnings expectations for 2026,” said Juan Luciano, Chair of the Board and CEO. The company's stock gained around 16% over the past month and has a 52-week high of $81.87. RSI Value: 73.1 ADM Price Action: Shares of Archer-Daniels-Midland gained 1.1% to close at $80.73 on Tuesday. Learn more about BZ Edge Rankings—click to see scores for other stocks in the sector and see how they compare. Photo via Shutterstock Up Next: Transform your trading with Benzinga Edge's one-of-a-kind market trade ideas and tools. Click now to access unique insights that can set you ahead in today's competitive market. Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga: ARCHER-DANIELS-MIDLAND (ADM): Free Stock Analysis Report WESTROCK COFFEE (WEST): Free Stock Analysis Report This article Top 2 Risk Off Stocks That May Implode This Quarter originally appeared on Benzinga.com © 2026 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

A week ago, Westrock Coffee Company (NASDAQ:WEST) came out with a strong set of first-quarter numbers that could potentially lead to a re-rate of the stock. Revenues and losses per share were both better than expected, with revenues of US$309m leading estimates by 8.3%. Statutory losses were smaller than the analystsexpected, coming in at US$0.09 per share. Following the result, the analysts have updated their earnings model, and it would be good to know whether they think there's been a strong change in the company's prospects, or if it's business as usual. Readers will be glad to know we've aggregated the latest statutory forecasts to see whether the analysts have changed their mind on Westrock Coffee after the latest results. AI is about to change healthcare. These 20 stocks are working on everything from early diagnostics to drug discovery. The best part - they are all under $10bn in marketcap - there is still time to get in early. Following the latest results, Westrock Coffee's four analysts are now forecasting revenues of US$1.31b in 2026. This would be a reasonable 2.3% improvement in revenue compared to the last 12 months. The loss per share is expected to greatly reduce in the near future, narrowing 23% to US$0.56. Before this latest report, the consensus had been expecting revenues of US$1.30b and US$0.21 per share in losses. So it's pretty clear the analysts have mixed opinions on Westrock Coffee even after this update; although they reconfirmed their revenue numbers, it came at the cost of a considerable increase to per-share losses. See our latest analysis for Westrock Coffee The consensus price target held steady at US$8.38, seemingly implying that the higher forecast losses are not expected to have a long term impact on the company's valuation. That's not the only conclusion we can draw from this data however, as some investors also like to consider the spread in estimates when evaluating analyst price targets. The most optimistic Westrock Coffee analyst has a price target of US$9.00 per share, while the most pessimistic values it at US$8.00. The narrow spread of estimates could suggest that the business' future is relatively easy to value, or thatthe analysts have a strong view on its prospects. Looking at the bigger picture now, one of the ways we can make sense of these forecasts is to see how they measure up against both past performance and industry growth estimates. We would highlight that Westrock Coffee's revenue growth is expected to slow, with the forecast 3.1% annualised growth rate until the end of 2026 being well below the historical 12% p.a. growth over the last three years. Juxtapose this against the other companies in the industry with analyst coverage, which are forecast to grow their revenues (in aggregate) 2.5% per year. Even after the forecast slowdown in growth, it seems obvious that Westrock Coffee is also expected to grow faster than the wider industry. The most important thing to take away is that the analysts increased their loss per share estimates for next year. Fortunately, they also reconfirmed their revenue numbers, suggesting that it's tracking in line with expectations. Additionally, our data suggests that revenue is expected to grow faster than the wider industry. The consensus price target held steady at US$8.38, with the latest estimates not enough to have an impact on their price targets. With that in mind, we wouldn't be too quick to come to a conclusion on Westrock Coffee. Long-term earnings power is much more important than next year's profits. We have forecasts for Westrock Coffee going out to 2027, and you can see them free on our platform here. Even so, be aware that Westrock Coffee is showing 3 warning signs in our investment analysis , you should know about... Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

Image source: The Motley Fool. Thursday, May 7, 2026 at 4:30 p.m. ET Chief Executive Officer — Scott Ford Chief Financial Officer — Thomas Pledger Scott Ford: Thank you, Jauan. Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for joining us. I am pleased to report that our first quarter of '26 delivered strong results across every dimension of our business, marking our fourth consecutive quarter of year-over-year consolidated adjusted EBITDA growth and what I believe is the most important inflection point in Westrock Coffee's history. For the first time, we are reporting results as a fully operational integrated beverage platform with construction behind us, all lines running and the full enterprise now generating operating income. On the numbers, Q1 consolidated adjusted EBITDA was $26 million, more than tripling year-over-year. Net sales were $308.8 million, up 44%. We went from a $13 million operating loss in Q1 of last year to a $3.2 million operating profit this quarter, and our secured net leverage ratio improved to 3.45x, down 40 basis points from year-end. Chris will take you through the details, but the trajectory speaks for itself. The real story this quarter is what's happening commercially. The platform we spent 3 years building is now attracting exactly the kind of demand we envisioned. Brands coming to us not for a single SKU, but for a full spectrum beverage partnership across multiple categories. At Conway, all 5 production lines are fully operational, cans, glass, multi-serve bottles, and bulk extract. With capital expenditure projects now complete, Conway has swung to operating cash flow positive. As volumes continue to build through the balance of this year and next, we expect the facility to become an increasingly meaningful contributor to segment profitability. Commercially, we are continuing to make progress with current and new potential brand partners across the product portfolio from tea and lemonade-based refreshers to coffee RTD beverages to packaged coffee to single-serve cups, with energy drinks, high-protein drinks, and seltzers in various stages of product development and commercialization. In single-serve specifically, you'll recall the departure of a large customer in Q4 of '25 due to industry consolidation. That disruption is now fully behind us. We are seeing strong inbound interest from multiple customers, and we expect some of this volume to begin arriving in late '26 with full replacement targeted by the end of '27. On Palantir, our partnership continues to deepen, and I am convinced this relationship remains underappreciated by the market. Their foundry operating system is empowering completely new ways of work. From improving efficiencies in our manufacturing, logistics, planning, procurement to the automation of workflows throughout the company, we continue to believe that the upside to this body of work is well beyond anything approaching historical normality from traditional system upgrade efforts. We are reaffirming our '26 consolidated adjusted EBITDA outlook of $90 million to $100 million. Q1's 2026 beat plan and posted strong year-over-year growth. The pipeline is the healthiest by far that it's ever been and momentum is building. To close, the prior 3 years were about building the platform. This year is about leveraging it. We're generating operating income. We're deleveraging our balance sheet. Conway is contributing, and we have a deep pipeline of customers who want to produce with us across an expanding array of categories. This is the business model working. I want to thank our entire team from the plant floors in Concord, Conway, Collins, and Clark, to our sourcing offices around the world to our systems and corporate teams. These results are theirs. I also want to thank our shareholders who had the vision to invest in what we were building and the conviction to hold their shares through 3 years of heavy investment to get here. We appreciate your patience, and we intend to keep rewarding it. We are one of the very few platforms in North America that can formulate, fill, and ship across cans, glass, bottles and single-serve formats from a single integrated footprint and brand owners are increasingly coming to us precisely because of that. With that, I'll turn it over to Chris Pledger, our CFO, for the financial details. Chris? Thomas Pledger: Thank you, Scott, and good afternoon, everyone. As Scott noted, we just completed the first quarter in which our Conway extract and RTD facility is fully operational and contributing at scale, and the results speak for themselves. Consolidated net sales increased 44% to approximately $309 million. Our reported net loss of $8.5 million narrowed significantly from the $27.2 million net loss incurred in the first quarter of 2025, and we went from an operating loss of $13.1 million in the first quarter of last year to a $3.2 million operating profit this quarter. This improvement reflects operating leverage now visible in every line of the P&L as Conway start-up costs diminish and volume scales. And finally, consolidated adjusted EBITDA was $26 million, which reflects another record quarter for Westrock, increasing over 3x compared to consolidated adjusted EBITDA generated in the first quarter of 2025. In Beverage Solutions, first quarter segment adjusted EBITDA was $23.3 million, up 143% versus 2025. This result includes a one-time gain of approximately $4.6 million, which represents the final payment we received under the single-serve cup contract with a customer who was acquired by a competitor earlier this year. But even excluding this item, Beverage Solutions adjusted EBITDA was approximately $18.6 million, which is up 95% versus the first quarter of 2025. Growth in Beverage Solutions was driven by the continued ramp of our RTD can, glass and multi-serve bottle production lines in Conway, a 31% increase in single-serve cup volumes across both existing and new brand partners, 4% growth in our packaged coffee business and improved fixed cost absorption across the manufacturing footprint. Our SS&T segment delivered segment adjusted EBITDA of $6.5 million in the first quarter compared to $1.9 million in the first quarter of 2025. SS&T continues to be a strategic capability for the platform, enabling us to offer brand owners verified traceable supply at the scale modern beverage platforms require. Capital expenditures for the quarter were approximately $7 million compared to over $41 million of CapEx for the first quarter of 2025. As I mentioned on our last call, we expect a downward trajectory in the capital intensity of the business now that Conway is fully commercialized. That trajectory from $160 million in 2024 to $89 million in 2025 to an expected $30 million in 2026 represents a structural shift in the capital profile of the company. Maintenance capital is now our baseline as our investment phase is behind us. At quarter end, we had approximately $63 million of unrestricted cash and revolver availability under our Beverage Solutions credit facility, and we remain in full compliance with our credit agreement. We ended the first quarter with Beverage Solutions net secured leverage of 3.45x, down from 3.85x at year-end, which is in line with our expectations and meaningfully ahead of our covenant requirements. And importantly, we remain on track to be free cash flow positive in the second half of this year. Our first quarter results demonstrate the earnings power of the platform as we continue to grow into the capacity we've built. We continue to convert our commercial pipeline at pace and the fact that capacity is now installed, and operating has materially shortened our sales cycle with new brand partners. Our focus is squarely on commercializing the installed capacity we've built and converting our pipeline into long-term partnerships. With that, we'd be happy to open the line for questions. Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Eric Des Lauriers of Craig-Hallum Group. Eric Des Lauriers: Congrats on the amazing execution over the past several years and the progress, especially seen in Q1 here, a great job. So, my first question here, it seems like, I mean, pretty much everything is going in the right direction for you guys. All the comments are positive in terms of all the lines being produced. You have more volumes coming online throughout the year. So, my real question here is just kind of on the potential variability around timing of the ramp in those volumes. Is there much, if any, variability in that? Or is that all pretty much squared away and sort of spoken for at this point? Just kind of wondering the ability for things to ramp either faster or slower this year than currently anticipated. Scott Ford: First of all, thank you for your very gracious comment. I think -- Eric, this is Scott. I think that the forecast that we've given for '26 and then the plans that we're working on '27 are for the most part at this juncture contracted in. So that doesn't mean everything will land right when we think it will land. But our confidence that we'll be able to make it at the margin that we expect is very high now that we've been running the plant and running several of these lines for 12 to 18 months. We've got our per unit economics right. We run those at scale. We know where those land. So, we're actually pretty comfortable with the trajectory that we've got. And then we've got -- we do have one interesting thing beyond just the contracts that are in and the conversations that we're having. We are seeing on the potential upside, which is -- I'm not trying to sell you on that it will happen. But we are seeing a number of brands coming around and taking a look at multiple products, and we are seeing engagement to close and commitment for production in 4- to 6-month windows as opposed to 2- to 4-year windows since Conway turned on and people could actually come walk through it, have us make a sample of their product, have us tweak it, et cetera, et cetera. And then it's something about the fact they can walk through it and see it has changed the pace at which brands are closing with us. So, I would say we've got some upside to that. And I think you see more of that in '27, certainly at this point than '26. Chris, what else would you... Thomas Pledger: No, I think that's exactly right. I think that in terms of what we have locked in for '26, I think there's some potential upside to that, but it's largely contracted and pulling through the system as we expect. '27, there's the best sales pipeline that we've had. So, I expect to continue to be able to grow through the year, and we'll see that in our '27 numbers. Eric Des Lauriers: Awesome. That's very helpful. I appreciate that. And no real surprises there but certainly encouraging on the expedited pace of brands closing. It's nice to hear. On to the Palantir commentary, I would say this is like this, at least from my perspective, is a bit more of like a qualitative thing for me. Certainly, nice to hear, and we'll sort of like await more results there. It's tough for me to sort of predict that. So, I'm wondering if you can help us understand, as we look out to '28, '29, et cetera, where might we see the impact of this Palantir relationship progressing? Would this be on -- you mentioned procurement and operations. I mean I'm kind of just imagining improved margins overall. But is there anything else that we should sort of be on the lookout for over the next couple of years as this Palantir relationship potentially has increasing impact? Scott Ford: Super question. Let me take a run at it this way. And I was not the first person to the party on Palantir and what they could mean for our business. That came out of another group of people here in the business that did the research on it, started working on it 3 years ago, and I have been a follower, not a leader on this. But I have -- there's nothing like a convert or spreading the word. And as a bit of a somewhat reluctant convert, if you will, the more that we dig into this, the more I realize that the -- what I read and what we see talked about in the AI world and what Palantir's operating system actually is, I can barely recognize the reality of what they're doing on the ground with the talk that goes on around AI. I don't know any -- so you're talking to a guy who's not on social media, doesn't know anything about it, doesn't care to know anything about it. I was full-grown when that came out. I skipped all of that. I thought AI and the chatbot and having conversations with an AI system was of the same ilk. When I see though, is the reality that Palantir creates a walled garden, if you will, where every piece of data in our network across all the systems and all of the handoffs and all of the spreadsheets and all of the memos and the hundreds of hours a week that we spend as individuals trying to explain and connect information from one system to another to another to then even be able to guess what our profitability is, let alone audit it. Palantir's Foundry system contains all of that information and drains the need for all of those systems and all of that activity. We're talking tens of millions of dollars of benefit over the next 3 to 5 years annually in a business our size at only $1.3 billion run rate. I don't think the world is even writing about the impact of -- it's a little bit like when Microsoft came out. You all are probably too young. I remember when it came out. I remember an operating system that brought about a cohesive desktop experience where you could get to a financial analysis and you could get to a word document and you could get to e-mail. That was unheard of. Well, it rebuilt the office in the enterprise -- rebuilt office work across the world. I'm not so sure that the Foundry system isn't going to rebuild in the same fashion, the commercial systems of corporations around the world over the next 10 to 15 years. And we, I was a doubter, and I may be the biggest believer walking at this juncture. Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Sarang Vora at Telsey Advisory Group. Sarang Vora: Congratulations on a great quarter. My question is on the plant utilization, capacity utilization. I mean the demand is just very, very strong. The '26 pipeline seems full. '27, you're already taking orders. I'm curious if you can share color on where the plant or capacity utilization is today and how it ramps up in like '27? And is there room for '28? I'm just curious to know like number of shifts. Any color you can share on how the plant or the capacity is being utilized? Scott Ford: Yes. At a high level, Sarang, as we said last quarter, we are not going to break that kind of detail out. Our competitors don't break it out. And I don't think it behooves -- it's not going to change the story for a Westrock investor to know the percentage utilization of a specific line versus quarter-over-quarter. So, we broke that out during the construction phase so people can see where we are. I will say this: We have well in excess of an additional $100 million of EBITDA for sale in lines that we have capacity to sell against right now. So, whether that takes us 6 months, 12 months, or 18 months, then we could expand it from there with small incremental CapEx additions within the footprint that we've built and that we have rebuilt in the plants that we've got running today. Sarang Vora: No, that's great. That's exactly what I was trying to ask because we do get asked about like what is the long-term potential coming out of Conway. And one way or the other, I feel like you answered the potential of that business. So that was good to hear. The second question we get a lot is on the coffee prices. And I understand the dynamics that you do end up passing the increases as well as the decreases to the customer. But can you walk us through how the lower coffee prices over '26 and maybe '27 kind of reflects on part of your businesses? Thomas Pledger: Yes. Sarang, this is Chris. I think from -- in '25, I mean, '25 was sort of, I guess, we experienced in the coffee business, historically high C price throughout '25. That coffee still continues to flow through our P&L, although as prices have come down towards the back part of last year and into the first part of this year, we're starting to get lower cost coffee that comes through. And that's a passthrough for us, as we've talked about on prior calls. And what that ends up doing is that it will end up -- your net sales will be higher because you've got a higher cost of coffee flowing through your P&L and your gross profit -- dollar gross profit will stay the same on an apples-to-apples basis. And so, while your margins might compress, your absolute dollar growth happens on a dollar basis. And so, when we -- that's when we talk about look at the year-over-year growth in gross profit, look at the year-over-year growth in adjusted EBITDA on a dollar basis to really see the earnings power of the business. If you look at this year, gross profit in the first quarter of this year was $46 million. That's a 57% increase year-over-year. That's the value of the platform that we've created, cutting out the noise of a C price movement year-over-year. Sarang Vora: That's great. And my final question is on the outlook. Can you share any puts and takes we should be mindful of? Very strong first quarter, you didn't raise the annual. But I'm just curious to know anything that we should be mindful that you're watching in terms of guidance, like higher gas prices. I know historically, they have impacted your business or the consumer, the lower end or the gas station consumer. So just curious to know like anything we should be mindful or watchful as we look out at the guidance for the year? Thomas Pledger: You kind of answered your own question. I will say the first quarter was exceptionally strong, and it held up strong through all of our different -- our customer segments. As you have continued high gas prices, that's going to affect things like C-store channels and travel center customers. But the way we're built now where we've grown our retail packaging, we've grown our at-home consumption or products targeted towards at-home consumption. We are much better positioned to withstand volatility that results from a C-store channel because of high gas prices than we were when we kind of went through this 2 to 3 years ago. And so that's certainly something that we watch. Obviously, $6 gas is nobody's friend when it comes to selling products, whether it's coffee or anything else you might find in an away-from-home environment. But we'll continue to watch that, but we like where we are and how we've diversified risks around the business, and we expect to continue to be able to deliver as we have. Operator: [Operator Instructions] I'm showing no further questions at this time. I would now like to turn the call back to Scott Ford for closing remarks. Scott Ford: All right. Well, fellas, thanks for hopping on. We appreciate it. Super proud of the team's effort. I'm really appreciative of the shareholder base that has stayed with us. About 70% of the shares are held by people that believed in the story of what we were doing, who were willing to put the money up to see construction go into this industry. We are excited about the fact that the construction phase is complete. I'm really appreciative of the shareholders who stayed with us. We've got about 30% of the float outstanding that's short. I know that not everybody is with us on this, but that's okay. Life works its way through. But we are looking forward to a good remaining portion of the year. And then we think '27 is looking actually terrific because the volumes we're booking now are starting to be placed in '27. And we kind of outkicked our coverage in terms of what we expected. We're going to do some work through the back part of this year to make sure we get a good number on it. But things are going really well as we come out of construction and into filling the plants. And I just want to say thank you to everybody who has stayed with us through the thick and the thin of construction phase. And all have a great evening. Thanks so much. Operator: Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Before you buy stock in Westrock Coffee, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Westrock Coffee wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. 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As with all our articles, The Motley Fool does not assume any responsibility for your use of this content, and we strongly encourage you to do your own research, including listening to the call yourself and reading the company's SEC filings. Please see our Terms and Conditions for additional details, including our Obligatory Capitalized Disclaimers of Liability. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Westrock Coffee (WEST) Q1 2026 Earnings Transcript was originally published by The Motley Fool

Interested in Westrock Coffee Company? Here are five stocks we like better. Westrock Coffee posted a strong Q1 2026 turnaround, with net sales rising 44% to $308.8 million and adjusted EBITDA more than tripling to $26 million. The company also swung to a $3.2 million operating profit from a $13.1 million operating loss a year earlier. The Conway facility is now fully operational and driving growth, with all five production lines running and the site becoming cash-flow positive. Management said the business has moved past its heavy investment phase, and capital spending is expected to drop sharply in 2026. Management reaffirmed full-year outlook and sees a strong pipeline, keeping 2026 adjusted EBITDA guidance at $90 million to $100 million. Executives also said the company expects to be free cash flow positive in the second half of the year and sees 2027 as especially promising. MarketBeat Week in Review: 12/11 - 12/15 Westrock Coffee (NASDAQ:WEST) reported sharply higher first-quarter 2026 results, with management saying the company has moved beyond a multiyear investment phase and is now operating as an integrated beverage platform. Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Scott Ford said the quarter marked “the most important inflection point in Westrock Coffee’s history,” citing the completion of construction projects, full operation of all production lines and a shift to operating income. → Insider Sales: Top AST SpaceMobile Insider Cuts Postion Over 30% Small cap coffee stock Westrock goes north as SBUX slides For the quarter, Westrock Coffee reported net sales of $308.8 million, up 44% from the prior year. Consolidated adjusted EBITDA was $26 million, more than tripling year over year and marking the company’s fourth consecutive quarter of year-over-year consolidated adjusted EBITDA growth. The company also moved from a $13.1 million operating loss in the first quarter of 2025 to a $3.2 million operating profit in the latest quarter. The company’s reported net loss narrowed to $8.5 million from $27.2 million in the first quarter of 2025, according to Chief Financial Officer Chris Pledger. He said the improvement reflected operating leverage across the profit and loss statement as startup costs at the company’s Conway facility diminished and volumes scaled. → Light Speed Returns: Corning Cashes In on NVIDIA Growth Ford said all five production lines at the Conway facility are now fully operational, spanning cans, glass, multi-serve bottles and bulk extract. With capital expenditure projects complete, he said Conway has become operating cash flow positive and is expected to become a larger contributor to segment profitability as volumes build through the rest of 2026 and into 2027. “The prior three years were about building the platform. This year is about leveraging it,” Ford said. → Years in the Making, AMD’s Upside Movement Has Just Begun Pledger said the Beverage Solutions segment generated first-quarter adjusted EBITDA of $23.3 million, up 143% from the prior year. That figure included a one-time gain of about $4.6 million from a final payment under a single-serve cup contract with a customer that had been acquired by a competitor. Excluding that item, Beverage Solutions adjusted EBITDA was approximately $18.6 million, up 95% year over year. Growth in the segment was driven by the ramp of ready-to-drink can, glass and multi-serve bottle production lines in Conway, a 31% increase in single-serve cup volumes across existing and new brand partners, 4% growth in packaged coffee and improved fixed-cost absorption across the manufacturing footprint, Pledger said. Westrock Coffee’s capital expenditures were approximately $7 million in the quarter, compared with more than $41 million in the first quarter of 2025. Pledger said the company expects capital intensity to decline now that Conway is fully commercialized. He described the capital spending trajectory as moving from $160 million in 2024 to $89 million in 2025, with an expected $30 million in 2026. “Maintenance capital is now our baseline as our investment phase is behind us,” Pledger said. At quarter-end, Westrock Coffee had approximately $63 million of unrestricted cash and revolver availability under its Beverage Solutions credit facility. The company said it remained in full compliance with its credit agreement. Beverage Solutions net secured leverage was 3.45 times, down from 3.85 times at year-end and ahead of covenant requirements. Pledger said the company remains on track to be free cash flow positive in the second half of the year. Westrock Coffee reaffirmed its 2026 consolidated adjusted EBITDA outlook of $90 million to $100 million. Ford said the company’s commercial pipeline is “the healthiest by far that it’s ever been,” with brands engaging across tea and lemonade-based refreshers, ready-to-drink coffee beverages, packaged coffee, single-serve cups, energy drinks, high-protein drinks and seltzers. During the question-and-answer session, Craig-Hallum analyst Eric Des Lauriers asked about the timing of volume ramps. Ford said the company’s 2026 forecast and 2027 planning are “for the most part at this juncture, contracted in,” while acknowledging that volumes may not land exactly when expected. Ford said Westrock Coffee is seeing some brands move faster now that they can visit the Conway facility and see products produced. He said some engagement is moving toward production commitments in four- to six-month windows, rather than the two- to four-year timelines seen earlier. Executives also addressed the replacement of single-serve volume tied to the departure of a large customer in the fourth quarter of 2025 due to industry consolidation. Ford said that disruption is “fully behind us,” with some replacement volume expected to arrive in late 2026 and full replacement targeted by the end of 2027. Ford also spent part of the call discussing Westrock Coffee’s partnership with Palantir, saying he believes the relationship remains underappreciated by the market. He said Palantir’s Foundry operating system is being used to improve manufacturing, logistics, planning, procurement and workflow automation. In response to a question about the potential financial impact of the relationship, Ford said the system could create “tens of millions of dollars of benefit over the next three to five years annually” for a business of Westrock Coffee’s size. He described the technology as a way to connect data across systems, spreadsheets and internal processes, reducing the need for manual work to understand profitability and operations. Telsey Advisory Group analyst Sarang Vora asked about plant utilization and long-term capacity. Ford declined to provide line-by-line utilization details, saying competitors do not disclose that information. However, he said Westrock Coffee has “well in excess of an additional $100 million of EBITDA for sale” on lines where the company currently has capacity available. On coffee prices, Pledger said high coffee costs from 2025 are still flowing through the company’s profit and loss statement, though lower-cost coffee has begun to move through as prices declined late last year and early this year. He said coffee price changes are largely passed through to customers, which can lift net sales while leaving dollar gross profit comparable on an apples-to-apples basis. Pledger said first-quarter gross profit was $46 million, up 57% year over year, and said that figure better reflects the earnings power of the platform than percentage margins affected by coffee price movements. Asked about risks to the company’s outlook, executives said high gas prices could pressure convenience store and travel center channels. They said Westrock Coffee is now better positioned than in prior periods because it has expanded retail packaging and products targeted toward at-home consumption. In closing remarks, Ford said the company is “looking forward to a good remaining portion of the year” and said 2027 is “looking actually terrific” as volumes being booked now begin to be placed into that year. Westrock Coffee Company is a global integrated coffee roaster and manufacturer that delivers end-to-end solutions across the coffee and tea supply chain. The company sources, roasts, blends, packages and distributes a diverse range of products, including hot and cold brew coffee, single-serve pods, instant and soluble coffee, tea, and specialty coffee extracts. Serving retail, convenience, foodservice and industrial customers, Westrock Coffee offers both private-label and co-packed branded products to meet the needs of supermarkets, quick-service restaurants, office coffee services and other channels. Since its founding in 2008, Westrock Coffee has grown through a combination of organic expansion and strategic acquisitions to establish manufacturing facilities across North America, Latin America and Europe. The article "Westrock Coffee Q1 Earnings Call Highlights" was originally published by MarketBeat. View MarketBeat's top stocks for May 2026.