Twist Bioscience Corporation (NASDAQ:TWST) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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James Thorburn: Yes, good question. As we continue to scale, you can imagine, we’ve adjusted the cost structure. We’re going to digest that, continue to grow, launch fast genes, so that 36% is starting off point for next year. And as we continue to scale, we’re going to see incremental improvements in gross margin. I mean, our focus is get to adjusted EBITDA breakeven for the core business by Q4 next year. We want to leverage Factory of the Future. We want to drive in the new products fast genes, we want to drive the new products in NGS and we are very well positioned to see gross margins improve next year.

Operator: Thank you. And our next question coming from the line of Matt Sykes with Goldman Sachs. Your line is now open.

Unidentified Analyst: Hi, this is Eve on for Matt. Are you feeling any weakness from the biotech funding environment. And then what is your exposure as a percentage of revenue look like for that?

James Thorburn: So in terms of the biotech funding environment. I mean clearly is having an impact on the overall industry. I mean we see as an opportunity in terms of where we’re at with Abveris and the Biopharma integration. We’re going to be launching our integrated offering. We’ve taken adjustments in terms of the organization and we’re very focused on streamlining the business. We anticipate getting to adjusted EBITDA breakeven at 40% for Biopharma and at the same time there is a huge open market, there’s huge market for us. As you saw last quarter, the number of customers dealing with us is solid. We continue to see strong — strong growth in terms of the number of projects and the number of projects and the outlook with the offering, we’re feeling good about that outlook. So I think overall it maybe – there is issues. However ,our issues have been internal. And sorry I missed the second question you asked.

Unidentified Analyst: Just what was the like percent exposure as a percentage of overall revenue to the biotech environment?

James Thorburn: We haven’t disclosed that overall our healthcare revenue is about 50% odd of our overall business and that’s been growing year-over-year. So, I mean it gets back to the strength of our product offering NGS, we provide customers just sequencing cost fast time from sequencer SynBio we made to scale into biotech. And with the Biopharma business will have an integrated offering. So we see ourselves moving into the large pharma customers that continues to be good trend for us. So overall, if you look at our orders, our orders are up year-over-year, revenue is up year-over-year. So this is, I mean we focused on execution, we believe that due to the platform, we can provide significant value to customer base.

Unidentified Analyst: Okay, great. That’s helpful. Thank you. And then, where is the cost reduction, mostly weighted towards. Is it like towards one specific segment or is it pretty equal across the board?

James Thorburn: Cost reductions are across the board. We’re managing our data storage investments where we’ve adjusted the Biopharma cost structure and for the core business. We’ve migrated our gene business to Factory of the Future. So, we’re leveraging the Factory of the Future investment made there and taking advantage of the fast turnaround time. So this is across segments, the outcome is for core business i.e. NGS and SynBio and Biopharma the goal is to get to adjusted EBITDA breakeven by Q4 next year, exit next year with a strong cash position.

Unidentified Analyst: Great. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. And our next question coming from the line of Matt Larew with William Blair. Your line is open.

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