Operator
Good afternoon, and welcome to the MustGrow Biologics Q1 2026 earnings call with CEO Corey Giasson and COO Colin Bletsky. The financial statements and management discussion and analysis are available on SEDAR+.
After management's opening remarks, we will open the call for questions. Participants may submit questions in the question and answer window.
Please note that today's remarks may contain forward-looking statements. These statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties.
Please refer to MustGrow's filings on SEDAR+ for more information. Welcome, gentlemen, and please begin your presentation.
Corey Giasson
Thank you, Martin, and good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to our Q1 2026 earnings presentation and question-and-answer session. As Martin mentioned, here's our disclaimer.
There is forward-looking statements that are in this presentation and then also in the question-and-answer session at the end that we will be making. Some of those may or may not come to fruition, and I encourage you to read our disclaimer in full detail on our website at mustgrow.ca.
The first quarter of 2026 sales results are in the books. What you would have noticed in our income statement is that we've split out the discontinued operations, the shutdown of the NexusBioAg division from our proprietary business, and that being right now the sales of TerraThrive, which is going into the U.S.
market. Q1 2026 seen TerraThrive sales up about $980,000.
Again, this is going into the U.S. market, and this is up from $0 that we would have generated in Q1 of 2025.
On those sales, we recognized a gross profit of about $23,000, and our gross margin was 23.6%, which is up from 19.5% from our sales in 2025. Our expenses, again without NexusBioAg, was about $900,000, and this is down about 27% from the first quarter of 2025.
If we include the discontinued operations, our net loss was $1.3 million, and as of March 31st of 2026, our cash position was about $420,000 and a working capital position of about a million and a half dollars. Some comments on the sales from first quarter of 2026.
TerraThrive sales, they did not meet our expectations. What we've witnessed over the last several months is our manufacturers have gone from the batch production to continuous production, in some cases.
Now, with that, there can be delays in when the facilities get up and running for the continuous production. In one case where the facility is up and running, we've had some hiccups, I guess, in commissioning of that facility to be able to produced at nameplate capacities.
What we're seeing, though, is that demand is picking up in the U.S., and it's all about us manufacturing product on time and delivering it. It's a manufacturing logistics issue for us to make sure that we have product into the market on a timely basis.
The planting seasons in the U.S., for the strawberries that we're focusing in on here right now and we've seen repeat demand in California, or the potatoes in the Northwest, those spring plantings happen in the second quarter, in March and April of a particular year. In addition, Q3, which would be the fall plantings, is generally when you see the largest demand for product that would go into the U.S.
based on the markets that we're focusing in on here right now. On a positive note, our margins have improved, and we expect that to continue as we move forward.
NexusBioAg, as we announced at the end of March, we've shut that business down effective April 15th, and in Q2 and Q3, we're now in the process of divesting of those assets. We believe without Nexus, our overhead will continue to improve as we move forward.
Our focus for the remainder of the year is to continue to drive TerraThrive sales. Colin will talk about what he's seen down in California.
Demand continues to pick up. We seen strong growth last year, an increase in sales of about 377%.
Much of that was repeat demand. Our purchase orders were about 500 to 600% increase with the same customers that we have been dealing with, and we continue to see that.
It's all about us executing on product production and logistics. We expect the first half of the year to be slower as we work through our manufacturing and logistics issues as these contract manufacturers move from batch production to continuous production and to get their facilities up to the nameplate capacity, and we're working our way through that.
We are also assessing opportunities to supplement production here in Canada so that we can meet this increased demand that we're seeing. We anticipate the second half of the year to be stronger, and now I'll turn it over to Colin about what he's seen down in his trips to California and the reason why we've gone after additional states for registrations.
Colin Bletsky
Thanks, Corey. As Corey was mentioning, Q1 is typically the summer plant for strawberries.
Q3 is when the fall plant goes in. The fall plant is typically when the heavy amount investment and more of the products like ours are being used.
When you look at the opportunity in those fall plant, what we're seeing, as Corey mentioned, is that repeat customer, repeat growth, and repeat demand. This is stemming from the technology, TerraThrive, having a very good effect in the field, not only in the soil, not only in the soil microbiome, but in ultimately the end-use yield.
Essentially I was down in California for two weeks this past month working with customers in field, working with customers in meetings, and consistently hearing from different PCAs, major agronomists from organizations who are multibillion-dollar organizations, talking about the performance of the product. We are seeing a significant yield increase, and they are seeing it, and communicating a significant yield increase on TerraThrive-treated acres, whether that be organic or conventional, versus conventional systems.
In this case, that's a significant amount of opportunity for these growers. We're able to extend, based on their comments, the harvest timeline of the strawberries, which is a significant revenue driver for them.
Looking at the current orders in hand, looking at the forecast, I'm very positive on how we see the product moving, how we see the growth. As we mentioned last year, seeing that strong demand curve moving up and proving to these customers over year-over-year, multi-years, seeing that growth, and seeing that increase into the yield and the positivity in the soil is going to be a key driver.
This is what's driving us to get additional states. These were requests.
These are opportunities for us. Just to go through them, Georgia may seem like a small area, but it's a key area for us.
When we look at the Florida strawberry market, there's a lot of customers that farm not only in the Florida area, but also into that Georgia area as well. Utah, Montana, these seem like areas that are really out of scope for us, but this was coming at the request of one of our key retails in that Pacific Northwest that they have some key customers in those areas that they believe TerraThrive would have a tremendous fit for.
Then Texas, with the size of the almond crop in Texas and other high-value crops, and then the proximity to Mexico, it was another key state for us to go after. These are some of the open or early states that we're addressing.
There's other states that we hope to get registration in coming forward. This is all stemming based on the performance of the product, how we're seeing the yields come in, and the consistent yield advantages with TerraThrive.
The comments coming from the customers have been very positive, which is now leading into those orders, I would say the demand and the need for us to really execute on that production increase.
Corey Giasson
Great. Thanks, Colin.
The potential milestones and catalysts for the remainder of 2026 and then into 2027, again, our focus is driving TerraThrive sales in the U.S. We have existing POs.
We've got some visibility on future demand here growing significantly as we move forward. We need to be able to manufacture product in a timely manner to get it into that market.
I believe we're going to be able to do that. I'm still excited about the opportunity to see significant growth in TerraThrive sales for 2026 versus what we did in 2025.
That opportunity is there. We just need to execute, and I believe we will be doing that, and I look forward to the challenge.
For the rest of the world, we've talked about this last month during the call, we think TerraThrive has a great fit in several countries around the world, the Netherlands, Brazil, Australia, for instance. What we're doing there in these countries right now, as mentioned, is we're testing that product in these countries, and with positive results, we'll look at seeking fast-track registration for the product within these countries.
Once we have the registration, it'll be very similar to where we were in the U.S. in 2024 and early 2025, where at the farm gate, we're going to want to show the farmers, show the retailers how the product works really before we start to see sales ramp up.
With positive farm trials, we believe that in 2027 is when we can start to see the ramp up of TerraThrive sales entering other countries around the world. On the biocontrol side, TerraMG, for our registrations that we're working on in Canada, the U.S., nothing that I can update on that front at this time.
Then with Bayer, we continue to work with Bayer on a weekly basis. We are expecting a milestone payment from them this year sometime, and when we do receive that, we will be making that announcement.
They continue to do great work. Our product continues to work for them, and we're excited about what they're doing in geographies that we wouldn't be able to go and get those registrations in Europe, Middle East, and Africa.
Our capital structure continues to remain tight. We announced a capital raise at the beginning of the year, closed on about $1.8 million.
We've just announced another LIFE offering of $2 million. These are small offerings for working capital and then also building up TerraThrive inventories.
We don't have to go and build a $30 million plant to go and get production. We've got contract manufacturers that have made investments for these facilities to really ramp up the scale of what they can produce, and we look forward to them being able to do that in the very near future so that we can meet this growing demand that we're seeing for TerraThrive.
With that, it's going to generate sales, hopefully at higher margins than what we've witnessed in the past. I'm still hopeful that, in 2027, MustGrow will be generating enough sales to be cash flow positive.
That's my goal. It's not a guarantee, but it's our goal, and that's what we're working our way towards, and I believe we can get there.
With that, Martin, I'd like to open it up to question and answers.
Operator
Thank you very much. Attendees, please submit questions in the question and answer window.
Did the current sales results meet management's expectation? Was it due to demand issues or supply chain issues?
Corey Giasson
As I mentioned, it was due to manufacturing and logistics issues. Our manufacturers are moving from batch production to continuous production.
Do those facilities come on in a timely manner? Then once they're on, are they able to commission them so that they're able to produce at the capacities that we were expecting?
There has been some hiccups in that area. We're confident that we can work through those to meet the second half of the year's demand.
That's for sure.
Operator
In the quarter, could you estimate how much larger sales could have been with sufficient inventory?
Corey Giasson
I don't have that on the top of my head, but we have existing POs that we need to fill and all that. Exciting for the first quarter that we are able to generate revenues that we never did in 2025.
I can't really give guidance of the size of sales that we can be looking at here this year as well, so.
Operator
All right. Does the company currently have confirmed sales orders or visibility into meaningful revenue generation for the back half of 2026?
Corey Giasson
Yes, we do. Yes, we have both.
Operator
How much additional capital does management expect the company will require through the remainder of 2026?
Corey Giasson
If we're able to close on the $2 million LIFE offering that we've just announced this past week and we're able to manufacture product and get sales into the market, I believe that we won't be looking to do another capital raise in 2026.
Operator
What TerraThrive sales growth are you planning for in the U.S.?
Corey Giasson
Again, we've seen significant sales growth last year from the previous year. I can't really give guidance of what we're expecting, but I'm hoping that we're going to see significant sales growth of what we've seen last year.
As we continue to grow this company and grow the sales, then I can start providing guidance based on historic performances and what we're seeing in the market. We're at the very early stages here still of this commercialization process and that, so.
Operator
Global fertilizer prices are skyrocketing and food inflation is rising. Does this help TerraThrive?
Corey Giasson
In terms of TerraThrive, it's not a replacement for global fertilizer, NPK. It's a supplement, and what we've seen, Colin has been down to the U.S., and he can comment on the results that he's seeing from farmers, actual in-field application of our product, increase in soil microbiome, higher yields, not only in potatoes, but also in strawberries.
With that, I believe it's a good opportunity for farmers to be applying our product as their margins get squeezed because of higher input costs. It will make their land more productive.
Operator
Of the recently announced $2 million LIFE offering and the prior financing, what are the use of proceeds from that? Are they being directed specifically towards TerraThrive inventory or are they being directed towards operating expenses?
Corey Giasson
The previous LIFE offering at the beginning of 2026, it would have been for TerraThrive inventory, NexusBioAg inventories, and then also our working capital for operations. For this LIFE offering, it's for TerraThrive inventory and also our working capital.
General purposes. Yeah.
50% on inventory.
Operator
Can you comment on current TerraThrive margins and expected margins as you scale up? I'll add to this: are you initially discounting the price to gain market share?
Corey Giasson
In terms of margins, we've seen an improvement on our margins. I believe we're going to continue to see an improvement on our margins as we scale up.
Colin, maybe you want to talk about the second half of that. Yeah.
Colin Bletsky
Martin, we are definitely not discounting our product to get product into market. When you're at the early stages of the growth cycle, you definitely don't discount, and you hold prices steady.
You don't do major increases. You don't need to do major decreases.
Now, there are large growth incentives to drive volume and drive those, but those are more towards getting more product and more marketing as well as I would say co-promotional marketing dollars with the key retails. At this time, definitely we are not going in at discount to get market share.
This is a product that is going on at a I would say a very competitive pricing to other products in the market.
Operator
Can you comment on the amount of orders from new customers versus that of repeat orders?
Colin Bletsky
I can comment on that. For right now, the bulk of the orders are to fill the demand growth for the existing customer base, and that is something that's key.
Looking at the forecasting and some of the future growth going into Q3, that would be with some newer customers as well. For the most part, we are dealing with very large multibillion-dollar companies who have been utilizing our product for the last 2 and a half years since we've launched, seeing that opportunity, seeing that actual benefits, seeing the yield benefit, and now gaining that traction.
First it's about really satisfying their needs and then moving forward, driving into new customers, I would say new regions, new crops, and really looking at the expansion at that stage later on in the year.
Operator
What is the current lead time of product from manufacturers, and how do you expect that to improve over time?
Corey Giasson
The current lead time for manufacturers to get product into the U.S., I estimate would be about three months. A month of production, a month for international shipping, and I guess about two to three months and that.
International shipping could take 30 to 45 days. Yeah.
Now, how do we get ahead of that so that we can plan? It's all about planning.
Right now we're looking at getting product into the market for the second half of the year, but we're also planning for next year, 2027, and also looking into 2028 to make sure that there's enough feedstock in place so that these manufacturers can produce at the capacities that they're able to.
Operator
How much an acre does a grower pay to use TerraThrive?
Colin Bletsky
This depends on the crop based on the dose rate, Martin. A grower will pay at their level essentially $16.50 US per pound.
That's what they're paying. That's the suggested retail price.
The dose rate is between roughly 5 to 50 lb per acre. In strawberries, they are paying $825 per acre at the grower level.
Operator
I think you've addressed this, but there's a question: can you manufacture product on time now?
Corey Giasson
I believe we can. We're getting there.
We've had some production hiccups given the new expansions. We're working our way through those.
I believe we'll be able to produce not only from our Asian manufacturers, but we're assessing other areas to produce as well. Just in our Asian manufacturers, we're going to be able to produce a significant volume on a monthly basis to be able to meet the demand that we forecast in the future here.
Operator
Thank you very much. There are no further questions.
Do you have any final comments before concluding this call?
Corey Giasson
Nothing on my end. Colin?
Colin Bletsky
Nope. I would just say I'm really excited about to go-forward and I would say so are our customers, and I'm leaving again to the U.S.
next week, and I'm really excited to continue working with the guys on the farms. It's great to see our product working.
Manufacturing is always hiccups, no matter where you are. There's always challenges.
When you have a product that works, that's a great problem to have, and I think we're getting around it, and it's good to see that demand and the product working in the field.
Corey Giasson
Maybe I'll add to that. Sorry, Martin.
Is that, with the manufacturing hiccups, I think once we can get over those hiccups, it'll be like riding a bike. We've produced product in numerous places around the world in Saskatoon here, numerous facilities.
I think once they get over some of the production challenges that they've had, I believe it'll become second nature, and we'll be able to produce significant amount of product on a monthly basis to be able to get into the market.
Operator
Thank you very much. This concludes today's call.
Thank you all for joining us today.
Colin Bletsky
Thanks, Martin.
Operator
Oh, gentlemen. I just realized there are several questions that popped up when we were talking here.
If we can keep going, sorry about that. What changed in the year when management did its due diligence on the NexusBioAg to when management decided to close the division?
What steps have been implemented to avoid similar decisions in the future?
Corey Giasson
I think when we go back and take a look at our investment decision to go after Nexus Bio or acquire NexusBioAg at the beginning of 2025, that investment thesis at the time made perfect sense. It was an accretive asset.
They were selling third-party regenerative agriculture products in the Canadian market. They've been working with our product, TerraMG, to test with farmers, some of their clients.
It provided us access to third-party products and then a distribution team that could go and sell the product. The issue was is that that sales division needed to generate $15 to $20 million based on historic sales.
That's what they've done in the past. Unfortunately, last year, they only generated about $8 million worth of sales, a fraction of that.
We were looking at potentially selling that division off at the end of the year. We weren't able to do that.
Again, there was geopolitical issues at the time, the war in Iran, I believe, drove some potential participants away. We had to make a business decision to unfortunately shut down a sales division that was not generating break-even or even positive cash flows for a company as a whole.
Essentially, we had to stop the bleeding and focus in on TerraThrive, which, fortunate enough, has seen significant increase in demand. It's a higher-margin product.
It is our proprietary product line, and we're now in a position really to start driving those sales. It's all about us executing on manufacturing and logistics.
Operator
Are the Nexus assets you are divesting from field inputs that did not sell, or is it more like physical assets like buildings?
Corey Giasson
There is no physical assets like buildings. There was inventories and some equipment.
Operator
Will you be able to announce larger purchase orders as they come in, or will we wait for quarterly and annual results to see those amounts?
Corey Giasson
We're assessing that. If we're able to deliver on a large purchase order, I'd hate to have to wait three months before we announce.
I think it'd be good to send that to market and let them know exactly ramp up is happening, and we won't have to wait till August or November of this year, we'll be assessing that to see how we can go about doing it.
Operator
Can you expand upon what kind of production you expect the manufacturers are going to be capable of?
Corey Giasson
Based on nameplate capacities, you're looking at about 2,400 to 2,600 bags of TerraThrive on a monthly basis.
Operator
Any update on the lawsuit in Pennsylvania?
Corey Giasson
There's no comments that we can make on that at this time.
Operator
Is management participating in the current LIFE offering?
Corey Giasson
We're assessing it. I will say that we've participated in numerous raises over the last year, I guess it would have been September of last year.
We'll have to assess and see what's available.
Operator
How many pounds are in a bag?
Corey Giasson
50 lb.
Operator
All right. Now, there are no further questions and this concludes today's call.
Thank you very much for joining us.
Corey Giasson
Thank you, Martin.
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