Reed’s, Inc. (OTC:REED) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Reed’s, Inc. (OTC:REED) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript March 25, 2026

Operator: Good morning, and welcome to Reed’s Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Earnings Conference Call for the 3 and 12 months ended December 31, 2025. My name is Joelle, and I will be your conference call operator for today. We will have prepared remarks from Neal Cohane, Reed’s Interim Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer; and Doug McCurdy, Reed’s Chief Financial Officer. Following their remarks, we will take your questions. Before we begin, please take note of the company’s cautionary statements. Today’s call will include forward-looking statements, including statements about Reed’s business plans. Forward-looking statements inherently involve risks and uncertainties and only reflect management’s view as of today, March 25, 2026, and the company is under no obligation to update them.

When discussing results, the presenters may refer to non-GAAP measures, which exclude certain items from reported results. Please refer to Reed’s fourth quarter and full year 2025 earnings release on Reed’s investor website at investor.reedsinc.com and its annual report on Form 10-K for the 2025 fiscal year for the period ended December 31, 2025, expected to be available on the website soon for definitions and reconciliations of non-GAAP measures and additional information regarding results, including a discussion of factors that could cause actual results to materially differ from forward-looking statements. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Cohane.

Neal Cohane: Thank you, Joelle, and appreciate everybody joining us today for the call, the fourth quarter and full year 2025 results. Before diving in to our results, I’d like to briefly address the leadership transition. As announced in our earnings press release, Cyril Wallace has stepped down as CEO. I will assume the additional role of Interim CEO while continuing as Chief Executive Officer — as Chief Operating Officer, and I will also join Reed’s Board of Directors. On behalf of the entire Reed’s team, I want to thank Cyril for his contribution and wish him all the best in his future endeavors. I’m honored to step into this role at an important time for the company. Reed’s is a strong brand with long heritage, a loyal consumer base and robust operational foundation.

Having spent many years with the business and recently returning as COO, I have a clear understanding of both the opportunities ahead and the work required to improve execution and performance. The Board has initiated a search for a permanent CEO. And in the interim, I am focused on advancing the operational priorities necessary to support profitable growth. Let’s turn to our results. We made important strides during the fourth quarter to stabilize the business and reinforce the operational framework needed to support sustainable growth. We also saw sequential improvements in net sales, gross margin and net loss, which we view as early indicators that the actions we have taken are starting to gain traction. We saw encouraging sequential sales improvements across several channels, including natural specialty, grocery, mass and e-commerce.

This was driven by a combination of increased sales velocity and seasonal product launches during the quarter. A couple of the retailers helping to drive this growth with Sprouts, Costco, Walmart and our Amazon and Shopify business. While we’re still early in the process, these results reflect meaningful progress in improving execution. We are rebuilding and expanding distribution relationships, strengthening our presence on the shelf and driving greater efficiency across our supply chain and product portfolio to support more consistent performance over time. From a production and supply chain standpoint, we’re making meaningful progress in driving efficiencies and reducing costs across the business. This includes optimizing our manufacturing network, improving plant productivity and implementing tighter operational controls to better align production with demand.

We’re also enhancing our sourcing strategy by leveraging scale, renegotiating key supplier relationships and improving procurement discipline. At the same time, we are actively identifying additional opportunities to lower our per unit cost structure, including packaging optimization, freight and logistics efficiencies and SKU rationalization. As we continue to streamline the supply chain and improve throughput, we expect these initiatives to expand margins, improve service levels with our retail partners and position the business for more scalable and consistent performance over time. Looking ahead in 2026, we are focused on expanding our presence in under-penetrated channels, particularly food service and convenience, which represent meaningful white space opportunities for the Reed’s brand.

These channels are highly complementary to our core retail business, enabling us to reach consumers in new consumption occasions and drive incremental trial and brand awareness. I’d like to share a few updates on our product portfolio. First, we are launching the Reed’s — new Reed’s Ginger Ale Cranberry and Blackberry in Q2 2026 as a line extension to our #1 selling SKU, which is the Reed’s Ginger Ale. The core item, the Reed’s Ginger Ale, remains the #1 premium ginger ale in total U.S. and continues to grow and is plus 13.7% in dollar sales over the past 52 weeks. Second, we are expanding into high-growth adjacent categories with the launch of nonalcoholic mixers in early Q3 2026, providing incremental sales opportunities in the back half of the year.

Third, we are amplifying visibility at the digital shelf. In March 2026, we went live across Instacart, walmart.com and albertsons.com, reaching over 4 million targeted shoppers monthly through sponsored search, sponsored product and banner advertising. Finally, we launched a social media strategy in Q1 2026, targeting over 100,000 viewers per month. We partner with recognizable talent, including a retired NFL player, Hayden Hurst, alongside a network of high-reach influencers. This approach is designed to authentically integrate Reed’s into our culture, driving awareness, engagement and trial in a scalable, cost-efficient manner. Overall, these initiatives reflect a deliberate multipronged growth strategy, building on our core and expanding into high potential agencies and fully supporting the brand through digital and cultural relevance.

Now let me take you through a couple of the fourth quarter operational highlights. During the quarter, we continued our efforts to evaluate and manage finished goods inventory, including actions to address slower moving and obsolete product as part of our effort to simplify the portfolio and focus on higher-performing items. On the logistics and supply chain front, we continued executing our rebalancing initiatives to optimize inventory placement across regions and improve overall delivery efficiency. These efforts are focused on reducing freight distances, enhancing service levels and minimizing out of stocks in key markets. We are beginning to see the tangible benefits from these actions with delivery and handling expenses declining 35% year-over-year in the fourth quarter.

While still early in the process — while still early, the process reinforces that we are moving in the right direction, and we remain focused on further refining our logistics network to drive continued efficiency gains and cost reductions over time. We continue expansion into the Asian market and we’ll be exhibiting at the sugar and wine trade show in Chengdu, China, one of the biggest food and beverage trade events in the world. We will be launching our latest take on new modern energy drink called [ U Oxygen ], Reed’s U Oxygen. U Oxygen will be making its debut for the first time, introducing innovative flavors to key industry retailers and distributors. Reed’s U Oxygen builds on Reed’s natural ginger base and innovatively integrates the classic eastern herbs of astragalus and ginseng to deliver clean, balanced energy for today’s health-conscious consumer.

During the fourth quarter, we completed a $10 million underwritten public offering and uplisted our shares to the New York Stock Exchange American, marking a significant milestone in the evolution of Reed’s. This transaction strengthens our balance sheet and enhances our financial flexibility providing additional capital to support key growth initiatives across the business, including distribution expansion, brand investment and continued operational improvements. Additionally, uplisting to the New York Stock Exchange American meaningfully elevates our visibility within the investment community and broadens access to institutional investors while improving overall trading liquidity for our shareholders. As we continue to execute against our strategic priorities, we believe this enhanced capital markets platform, combined with our stronger financial foundation, provides Reed’s to accelerate growth and drive long-term value creation.

Looking ahead, our priorities remain centered on improving overall operating performance and driving more consistent, profitable growth. We see a clear path to margin expansion through a combination of more disciplined trade spend, improved pricing and promotional effectiveness and continued operational efficiency gains across our supply chain and organization. We’re also continuing to invest in our international expansion in Asia, where we see a significant long-term opportunity to extend the reach of Reed’s brand and capture incremental growth. We believe the combination of these initiatives will enable us to execute our growth and profitability objectives ahead. Before wrapping up with closing remarks, our CFO, Doug, will cover financial highlights and fourth quarter and full year in more detail.

Doug?

Douglas McCurdy: Thank you, Neal. Turning to our results. All variance commentary is on a year-over-year basis, unless otherwise noted. Net sales for the fourth quarter of ’25 were $7.5 million compared to $9.7 million in the year ago quarter. The decrease was primarily driven by lower volumes with recurring national customers and higher promotional and other allowances. Gross profit for the fourth quarter of 2025 was $1.5 million compared to $2.9 million in the year ago quarter. Gross margin was 20% compared to 30% in the year ago quarter. The decrease in gross margin was primarily driven by inventory write-offs and higher cost of goods sold. Delivery and handling costs were reduced by 35% to $1.1 million during the fourth quarter of 2025 compared to $1.7 million in the year ago quarter.

As a percentage of net sales, delivery and handling costs were 14% or $2.46 per case in Q4 2025 compared to 17% or $3 per case in the year ago quarter. Selling, general and administrative expenses were reduced by 19% to $4.0 million compared to $4.9 million in the year ago quarter. The decrease was primarily driven by lower contract proceedings and asset impairments. Net loss during the fourth quarter of 2025 improved to $3.8 million or negative $0.44 per share compared to $4.1 million or negative $1.33 per share in the year ago quarter. EBITDA was negative $3.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2025 compared to negative $3.1 million in the year ago quarter. For the fourth quarter of 2025, we used $3.8 million of cash from operating activities compared to cash used of $3.9 million in the year ago quarter.

As of December 31, 2025, we had approximately $10.4 million of cash and $9.3 million of total debt, net of capitalized financing fees. This compares to $10.4 million of cash and $9.6 million of total debt, net of capitalized financing fees at December 31, 2024. I will now turn the call back to Neal for closing remarks.

Neal Cohane: Thanks, Doug. Our fourth quarter reflects important strides in stabilizing the business and reinforcing the operational foundation needed to support sustainable growth. While there is still work to do, we are encouraged by the sequential improvement in several key financial metrics and remain focused on executing against our priorities to drive profitable growth for our shareholders. With that, Joelle, we’re ready to open the line for any questions.

Q&A Session

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Aaron Grey with Alliance Global Partners.

Unknown Analyst: This is [ John ] on for Aaron. So how best is it to think about the cadence of distribution gains in 2026 and whether the spring resets have presented any opportunities?

Neal Cohane: John, thanks for the question. I think we have some work to do when it comes to getting placements right now. We’re working on it as we speak. We have the sales team aligned. We’re bringing on people to help and support, picking up and gaining more placements, and we’re also working on velocities, to improve velocities at store level. So we’re going to be completely focused in 2026 on the customer and on our distributors. And it’s going to be all about velocities and increasing shelf placement.

Unknown Analyst: Okay. Great. And how should we think about the path to profitability and some of the margin initiatives you have in place starting to flow through the P&L?

Neal Cohane: The path to profitability is — Doug and I have been meeting extensively on this. And we’re looking at a couple of things here. It’s one, we’re looking to reduce expenses, which we are doing year-over-year, quarter-over-quarter, we’re reducing expenses. But at the same time, we’re driving — we’re going to be driving growth this year. So I think what you see today is going to look a lot different than in, say, Q4 of this year. But it’s going to be a combination, like I said, of reducing expenses and driving volume at store level.

Unknown Analyst: Okay. Great. And then just lastly, is there any additional detail you can provide on the timing of the Smarter Soda (sic) [ SodaSmarter ] launch or color on learnings from the past launch to improve the product, flavor, packaging or otherwise?

Neal Cohane: On which launch, I’m sorry?

Unknown Analyst: The SodaSmarter.

Neal Cohane: Yes. The SodaSmarter launch right now is — that is one of the first things that I spoke with our flavor house that helps us with launches as I want to improve flavors. But at the same time, we’re launching our new mixer line. And our new mixer line, which I think is going to be a great addition to what we’re all about as a Reed’s brand, we’re working on that line and that launch at this moment. And then we’re coming back to the SodaSmarter, and we’re going to be looking at improving flavors, improving formulas, and then we’re going to improve execution on that at the same time.

Operator: There are no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Cohane for closing remarks.

Neal Cohane: Well, thank you, everybody. I appreciate everybody joining today. We appreciate your continued interest in Reed’s. We look forward to updating you on our progress, and we’ll do that on further calls. We have a lot of work to do, and we’re getting it done. But thanks for everybody and their time today.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the conference call for today. We thank you for participating and ask that you please disconnect your lines.