MESA LABORATORIES INC /CO/ - Quarter Report: 2017 December (Form 10-Q)

Part I. Financial Information

Item 1. Financial Statements

Mesa Laboratories, Inc.

Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets

(In thousands, except share amounts)

See accompanying notes to condensed consolidated financial statements.

Mesa Laboratories, Inc.

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations

(Unaudited)

(In thousands except per share data)

See accompanying notes to condensed consolidated financial statements.

Mesa Laboratories, Inc.

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive (Loss) Income

(Unaudited)

(In thousands)

See accompanying notes to condensed consolidated financial statements.

Mesa Laboratories, Inc.

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows

(Unaudited)

(In thousands)

See accompanying notes to condensed consolidated financial statements.

Mesa Laboratories, Inc.

Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements

Item 2. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

Forward Looking Statements

This report contains information that may constitute "forward-looking statements.” Generally, the words "believe," “estimate,” "expect," "project," "anticipate," "intend," "will" and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements, which generally are not historical in nature. However, the absence of these words or similar expressions does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. All statements that address operating performance, events or developments that we expect or anticipate will occur in the future — including statements relating to revenues growth and statements expressing general views about future operating results — are forward-looking statements. Management believes that these forward-looking statements are reasonable as and when made. However, caution should be taken not to place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements because such statements speak only as of the date when made. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. In addition, forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our historical experience and our present expectations or projections. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to those described in Part II, "Item 1A. Risk Factors" and elsewhere in this report and in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended March 31, 2017, and those described from time to time in our subsequent reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

General Discussion

We pursue a strategy of focusing primarily on quality control products and services, which are sold into niche markets that are driven by regulatory requirements. We prefer markets where we can establish a strong presence and achieve high gross margins. We are organized into four divisions across ten physical locations. Our Instruments Division designs, manufactures and markets quality control instruments and disposable products utilized in the healthcare, pharmaceutical, food and beverage, medical device, industrial hygiene and environmental air sampling industries. Our Sterilization and Disinfection Control Division (formerly named the Biological Indicators Division) provides testing services, along with the manufacturing and marketing of both biological and cleaning indicators, and the marketing of chemical indicators used to assess the effectiveness of sterilization and disinfection processes in the hospital, dental, medical device and pharmaceutical industries. Our Cold Chain Monitoring Division designs, develops and markets systems which are used to monitor various environmental parameters such as temperature, humidity and differential pressure to ensure that critical storage and processing conditions are maintained in hospitals, pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers, blood banks, pharmacies and other laboratory and industrial environments. Our Cold Chain Packaging Division provides packaging development consulting services and thermal packaging products such as coolers, boxes, insulation materials and phase-change products to control temperature during transport.

Our revenues come from two main sources – product sales and services. Product sales are dependent on several factors, including general economic conditions, both domestic and international, customer capital spending trends, competition, introduction of new products and acquisitions. Sterilization and Disinfection Control products and many of the packaging products of our Cold Chain Packaging Division are disposable and are used on a routine basis, thus product sales are less sensitive to general economic conditions. Instrument products and cold chain monitoring systems and products have a longer life, and their purchase by our customers is somewhat discretionary, so sales are more sensitive to general economic conditions. Service demand is driven by our customers’ quality control and regulatory environments, which require periodic repair and recalibration or certification of our instrument products and cold chain monitoring systems. We typically evaluate costs and pricing annually. Our policy is to price our products competitively and, where possible, we pass along cost increases in order to maintain our margins.

Gross profit is affected by our product mix, manufacturing efficiencies and price competition. Historically, as we have integrated our acquisitions and taken advantage of manufacturing efficiencies, our gross margin percentages for some products have improved. There are, however, differences in gross margin percentages between product lines, and ultimately the mix of sales will continue to impact our overall gross margin.

Selling expense is driven primarily by labor costs, including salaries and commissions. Accordingly, it may vary with sales levels. Labor costs and amortization of intangible assets drive the substantial majority of general and administrative expense. Research and development expense is predominantly comprised of labor costs and third-party consultants.

Year Ending March 31, 2018 Acquisitions

During the year ending March 31, 2018, we completed the following three acquisitions (the “2018 Acquisitions”):

In November 2017, we completed a business combination (the “BAG Acquisition”) whereby we acquired substantially all of the assets and certain liabilities of BAG Health Care GmbH’s (“BAG”) Hygiene Monitoring business which is comprised of the distribution of biological, chemical and cleaning indicator products;

In October 2017, we completed a business combination (the “Simicon Acquisition”) whereby we acquired the common stock of SIMICON GmbH (“Simicon”), a company whose business manufactures both biological and cleaning indicators; and

In May 2017, we completed a business combination (the “Hucker Acquisition”) whereby we acquired substantially all of the assets (other than cash and accounts receivable) and certain liabilities of Hucker & Hucker GmbH’s (“Hucker”) business segment associated with the distribution of our biological indicator products.

Year Ended March 31, 2017 Acquisitions

During the year ended March 31, 2017, we completed the following six acquisitions (the “2017 Acquisitions”):

In November 2016, we completed a business combination (the “Mydent Acquisition”) whereby we acquired substantially all of the assets (other than cash and accounts receivable) and certain liabilities of Mydent International Corp’s business segment associated with biological indicator mail-in testing services to the dental market in the United States;

In November 2016, we completed a business combination (the “FreshLoc Acquisition”) whereby we acquired substantially all of the assets (other than cash and accounts receivable) and certain liabilities of the cold chain monitoring business of FreshLoc Technologies, Inc.;

In August 2016, we completed a business combination (the “Rapid Aid Acquisition”) whereby we acquired certain assets (consisting primarily of fixed assets) and certain liabilities of Rapid Aid Corp’s (“Rapid Aid”) business segment associated with the manufacture and sale of cold chain packaging gel products;

In July 2016, we completed a business combination (the “HANSAmed Acquisition”) whereby we acquired substantially all of the assets (other than cash and accounts receivable) and certain liabilities of HANSAmed Limited’s (“HANSAmed”) business segment associated with the distribution of our biological indicator products and mail-in testing services to the dental market in Canada;

In April 2016, we completed a business combination (the “ATS Acquisition”) whereby we acquired substantially all the assets (other than cash and certain inventories and fixed assets) and certain liabilities of Autoclave Testing Services, Inc. and Autoclave Testing Supplies, Inc., (collectively, “ATS”). ATS was in the business of supplying products and services for dental sterilizer testing in both the U.S. and Canada; and

In April 2016, we completed a business combination (the “Pulse Acquisition”) whereby we acquired substantially all of the assets (other than cash and accounts receivable) and certain liabilities of Pulse Scientific, Inc.’s (“Pulse”) business segment associated with the distribution of our biological indicator products.

General Trends and Outlook

Our strategic objectives include growth both organically and through further acquisitions. During the year ending March 31, 2018, we continue to build our infrastructure to prepare for future growth, including the relocation of our Omaha, Traverse City and old Bozeman manufacturing facilities into the new Bozeman building, the addition of key personnel to our operations, sales and marketing, and research and development teams and the rollout of phase three of our ERP implementation project (European operations).

The markets for sterilization and disinfection control products remain strong, as the disposable nature of these products makes them less sensitive to general economic conditions. The worldwide market for sterilization and disinfection control products is growing as more countries focus on verifying the effectiveness of sterilization and disinfection processes.

In general, our instruments products and cold chain services and monitoring systems are more impacted by general economic conditions than our sterilization and disinfection control and cold chain packaging products. As a result, uncertainty about global economic conditions may cause businesses to postpone spending in response to tighter credit, unemployment, negative financial news and/or declines in income or asset values. Worldwide and regional economic conditions could also reduce the demand for our products and services, as our customers reduce or delay capital equipment and other types of purchases. However, demand for our instruments products, and cold chain services and monitoring systems remains solid and we strive to continue to grow revenues going forward.

We are working on several research and development projects that, if completed, may result in new products for both existing customers and new markets. We are hopeful that we will have new products available for sale in the coming year.

Overall revenues declined one percent, while organic revenues declined four percent, for the three months ended December 31, 2017, resulting from organic decreases of nine and 36 percent from the Instruments and Cold Chain Packaging Divisions, respectively, partially offset by increases of seven and three percent for the Sterilization and Disinfection Control and Cold Chain Monitoring Divisions, respectively. Overall revenues were flat, while organic revenues declined two percent, for the nine months ended December 31, 2017 resulting from organic decreases of four, four and 36 percent from the Instruments, Cold Chain Monitoring and Cold Chain Packaging Divisions, respectively, partially offset by an increase of nine percent for the Sterilization and Disinfection Control Division.

During the three months ended June 30, 2017, we elected to discontinue for sale certain products in our Instruments, Cold Chain Monitoring and Sterilization and Disinfection Control Divisions due to the recent introduction of new or modified products and the consolidation of other product sets.  As part of this process, we analyzed the remaining inventories associated with these products to determine future usability and reserved against what we believed to be excess or obsolete, resulting in an increase in our inventory reserve of $406,000 (of which $216,000 related to the Cold Chain Monitoring Division).  At this time, we also established a plan to liquidate certain Cold Chain Monitoring raw material components related to the above-mentioned discontinued products.  During both the three months ended September 30, 2017 and December 31, 2017, we subjected additional inventories to our liquidation program due to the discontinuance or winding-down of additional older product sets resulting from the release of our new ViewPoint operating platform.  During the three months ended December 31, 2017, it became evident that our liquidation program was ineffective, and we determined that a significant amount of these inventories was not recoverable as previously planned.  As such, we increased our Cold Chain Monitoring inventory reserve by $1,700,000.  Company-wide gross margin percentage for the three and nine months ended December 31, 2017 was 54 and 56 percent, respectively but would have been 61 and 59 percent, respectively without the impact of these additional inventory reserves.

During the nine months ended December 31, 2017, revenues in our Cold Chain Packaging Division decreased significantly as compared to the same period in the prior year primarily due to a significant decrease in revenues from our largest customer and the loss of the business of one of our larger customers. Due to these two events, we believe that revenues for this segment will now be approximately $2,250,000 to $2,750,000 lower for the year ending March 31, 2018 as compared to the year ended March 31, 2017. During the three months ended December 31, 2017 we completed a detailed review of the cold chain packaging business and concluded that long and difficult sales-cycles associated with this product set, when coupled with higher than previously contemplated costs for operating and expanding the necessary infrastructure to support revenues growth, have resulted in a forecast of lower than expected revenues, gross margin percentages and overall profitability as compared to our original model for this business. Based on these facts, we concluded that we had a triggering event requiring assessment of impairment for certain of our long-lived assets associated with the Cold Chain Packaging Division. As a result, we reviewed the long-lived assets associated with this reporting segment and recorded a $13,819,000 impairment charge related to goodwill, which is included in impairment charge of goodwill on the accompanying condensed consolidated statements of operations for the three and nine months ended December 31, 2017.

We will continue to monitor the operational results of our Cold Chain Packaging Division and if revenues, gross margin percentages and overall profitability fail to meet our revised projections, the remaining long-lived assets (including $1,434,000 of Goodwill and $4,340,000 of intangible assets as of December 31, 2017, respectively) could be subject to further impairment losses.

Results of Operations

The following table sets forth, for the periods indicated, condensed consolidated statements of operations data. The table and the discussion below should be read in conjunction with the accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements and the notes thereto appearing elsewhere in this report (in thousands, except percent data):

Revenues

The following table summarizes our revenues by source (in thousands, except percent data):

Three and nine months ended December 31, 2017 versus December 31, 2016

Sterilization and Disinfection Control revenues for the three and nine months ended December 31, 2017 increased primarily due to the 2018 Acquisitions and organic growth of seven and nine percent, respectively which was achieved through existing customers, expansion into new markets, price increases and the continued strengthening of the Euro.

Instruments revenues for the three and nine months ended December 31, 2017 decreased due to organic decreases of nine and four percent, respectively. The decrease for both the three and nine months ended December 31, 2017 was primarily due to the slower than expected adoption of an updated medical product. We realized a normalization of the adoption rate of this product towards the end of the quarter and as such we ramped up production to meet anticipated future demand.

Cold Chain Monitoring revenues for the three months ended December 31, 2017 increased primarily due to organic growth of three percent and the FreshLoc Acquisition. Cold Chain Monitoring revenues for the nine months ended December 31, 2017 increased primarily due to the FreshLoc Acquisition, partially offset by organic decreases of four percent. Revenues in this division fluctuate quarter over quarter due to the timing of customer acceptance of certain installations and the nature and timing of orders within any given quarter.

Cold Chain Packaging revenues decreased organically by 36 percent for both the three and nine months ended December 31, 2017. The decreases were primarily due to a lower order rate based on timing issues with our largest customer (which accounted for approximately half of division revenues for the year ended March 31, 2017), the loss of a major customer, and longer than expected sales cycles. We anticipate that the order rate from our largest customer will begin to normalize during the three months ending March 31, 2018 and throughout our next fiscal year. See General Trends and Outlook above for additional discussion.

Gross Profit (Loss)

The following summarizes our gross profit (loss) by segment (in thousands, except percent data):

Three and nine months ended December 31, 2017 versus December 31, 2016

Sterilization and Disinfection Control gross profit margin percentage increased for the three and nine months ended December 31, 2017 primarily due to volume based efficiencies associated with increased revenues and the impact of using internally manufactured biological indicators for our dental sterilizer testing business as opposed to the prior year where we were contractually committed to purchase a significant portion of those biological indicators from an outside supplier at a significantly higher price.

Instruments gross margin percentage was flat for the three months ended December 31, 2017 primarily due to product and service mix, partially offset by the loss of certain volume-based efficiencies associated with a decrease in revenues. Instruments gross margin percentage was flat for the nine months ended December 31, 2017 primarily due to product and service mix, partially offset by the loss of certain volume-based efficiencies associated with a decrease in revenues and a $163,000 increase in the related inventory reserve due to the decision to discontinue for sale certain instruments products.

Cold Chain Monitoring gross profit margin percentage decreased for the three months ended December 31, 2017 due to a $1,700,000 increase in the related inventory reserve (see General Trends and Outlook above for additional discussion), partially offset by product and service mix.  Cold Chain Monitoring gross profit margin percentage decreased for the nine months ended December 31, 2017 primarily due to a $1,916,000 increase in the related inventory reserve (see General Trends and Outlook above for additional discussion), partially offset by product and service mix.  Excluding the impact of these additional reserves for inventory, gross profit percentage would have been 51 and 42 percent, respectively for the three and nine months December 31, 2017.  

Cold Chain Packaging gross profit margin percentage for the three months ended December 31, 2017 increased primarily due to customer mix. Cold Chain Packaging gross profit margin percentage for the nine months ended December 31, 2017 decreased primarily due to lower revenues. A certain portion of the cost of revenues are personnel and warehousing costs which are primarily fixed and as a result, fluctuations in revenues significantly impact the gross profit margin percentage for this division. See General Trends and Outlook above for additional discussion.

Operating Expenses

Operating expenses for the three and nine months ended December 31, 2017 increased as compared to the prior year as follows (in thousands):

Selling

Three and nine months ended December 31, 2017 versus December 31, 2016

Selling expense for the three and nine months ended December 31, 2017 decreased primarily due to reductions of selling personnel, trade show activities and outside commissions. As a percentage of revenues, selling expense was eight and 10 percent for the three and nine months ended December 31, 2017, respectively as compared to 10 and 11 percent for the three and nine months ended December 31, 2016.

Historically selling expense approximates 10 percent to 12 percent of revenues.

General and Administrative

Three and nine months ended December 31, 2017 versus December 31, 2016

General and administrative expenses for the three months ended December 31, 2017 increased primarily due to acquisition related and amortization expenses, partially offset by a decrease in personnel expenses.

General and administrative expenses for the nine months ended December 31, 2017 increased primarily due to increased personnel, employee moving, acquisition related and amortization expenses, partially offset by decreases in professional services expenses.

Research and Development

Three and nine months ended December 31, 2017 versus December 31, 2016

Research and development expenses for the three and nine months ended December 31, 2017 decreased due to a streamlining of the necessary engineers and materials and supplies required to support existing businesses during the three and nine months ended December 31, 2017.

Impairment Loss on Goodwill

Three and nine months ended December 31, 2017 versus December 31, 2016

Impairment loss on goodwill for the three and nine months ended December 31, 2017 is associated with our Packaging Division. See General Trends and Outlook above for additional discussion.

Other Expense

Other expense for the three months ended December 31, 2017 is comprised primarily of interest expense associated with our Credit Facility.

Other expense for the nine months ended December 31, 2017 is comprised primarily of interest expense associated with our Credit Facility and $300,000 related to an additional accrual for the PCD earn-out (see Liquidity and Capital Resources for additional discussion), partially offset by a $116,000 gain from the sale of our Omaha facility.

Net Income

Our income tax rate varies based upon many factors (please see Note 12, Item 1. Financial Statements for additional discussion). Net income for the nine months ended December 31, 2017 was also significantly impacted by a $13,819,000 impairment loss on goodwill  (see General Trends and Outlook above for additional discussion), $772,000 of facility relocation costs (see Liquidity and Capital Resources), $300,000 in PCD earn-out accruals, $256,000 of employee moving expenses not related to the Bozeman facility relocation and a $2,106,000 expense related to a reserve for inventory due to operational decisions to end of life certain products and other slow moving inventory. Otherwise, net income for the nine months ended December 31, 2017 varied with the changes in revenues, gross profit and operating expenses (which includes $5,062,000 of non-cash amortization of intangible assets).

Liquidity and Capital Resources

Our sources of liquidity include cash generated from operations, working capital, capacity under our Credit Facility and potential equity and debt offerings. We believe that cash generated from these sources will be sufficient to meet our short-term and long-term needs. Our more significant uses of resources include quarterly dividends to shareholders, payment of debt obligations, long-term capital equipment expenditures and potential acquisitions.

Due to continued organic and acquisition related growth, we outgrew the capacity of our current building in Bozeman, Montana and as a result, we built a new facility in the same general area. Construction began in July 2015 and was completed in September 2017. We spent $17,650,000 on the development of the building and the related land, which is included in property, plant and equipment, net on the accompanying condensed consolidated balance sheets.

In August 2016, we announced that we plan to shut down both our Omaha and Traverse City manufacturing facilities and relocate those operations to the new Bozeman building. The move of these two facilities, along with the current Bozeman operations, began in March 2017 and is estimated to be completed by June 30, 2018. We estimate that the total costs of the relocation will be $2,100,000 (which is comprised primarily of facility moving expenses, retention bonuses for existing personnel and payroll costs for duplicative personnel during the transition period) of which $725,000 was incurred during the year ended March 31, 2017 and $772,000 was incurred during the nine months ended December 31, 2017, which is reflected in cost of revenues in the accompanying condensed consolidated statements of operations (other than $269,000 which is included in general and administrative).

In July 2017, we completed the move from the Omaha facility and subsequently sold that building for $1,116,000 (net of commission costs). After completing the move of the old Bozeman facility, we expect to be able to sell that building for approximately $2,500,000.

Working capital is the amount by which current assets exceed current liabilities. We had working capital of $19,692,000 and $19,218,000 respectively, at December 31, 2017 and March 31, 2017.

On March 1, 2017, we entered into a five-year agreement (the “Credit Facility”) for a $80,000,000 revolving line of credit (“Line of Credit”), a $20,000,000 term loan (“Term Loan”) and up to $2,500,000 of letters of credit with a banking syndicate comprised of four banks. In addition, the Credit Facility provides a post-closing accordion feature which allows the Company to request to increase the Line of Credit or Term Loan up to an additional $100,000,000.

Line of Credit and Term Loan indebtedness bears interest at either: (1) LIBOR, as defined in the agreement, plus an applicable margin ranging from 1.5% to 2.50%; or (2) the alternate base rate (“ABR”), which is the greater of JPMorgan’s prime rate or the federal funds effective rate or the overnight bank funding rate plus 0.5%. We elect the interest rate with each borrowing under the line of credit. In addition, there is an unused line fee of 0.15% to 0.35%. Letter of credit fees are based on the applicable LIBOR rate.

The Term Loan requires 20 quarterly principal payments (the first due date was March 31, 2017) in the amount of $250,000 (increasing by $125,000 each year up to $750,000 in the fifth year). The remaining balance of principal and accrued interest are due on March 1, 2022.

The Credit Facility is secured by all of our assets and requires us to maintain a ratio of funded debt to our trailing four quarters of EBIDTA (the “Leverage Ratio”), as defined in the agreement, of less than 3.0 to 1.0, provided that, we may once during the term of the Credit Facility, in connection with a Permitted Acquisition for which the aggregate consideration paid or to be paid in respect thereof equals or exceeds $20,000,000, elect to increase the maximum Leverage Ratio permitted hereunder to (i) 3.50 to 1.00 for a period of four consecutive fiscal quarters commencing with the fiscal quarter in which such Permitted Acquisition occurs (the “Initial Holiday Period”) and (ii) 3.25 to 1.00 for the period of four consecutive fiscal quarters immediately following the Initial Holiday Period. The Credit Facility also requires us to maintain a minimum fixed charge coverage ratio of less than 1.25 to 1.0.

As of January 31, 2018, we had $53,000,000 in outstanding indebtedness and unused capacity under our Credit Facility of $46,000,000 (subject to covenant restrictions).

In April 2015, the SEC declared effective our Universal Shelf Registration Statement which allows us to sell, in one or more public offerings, common stock or warrants, or any combination of such securities for proceeds in an aggregate amount of up to $130,000,000. The terms of any offering, including the type of securities involved, would be established at the time of sale.

We routinely evaluate opportunities for strategic acquisitions. Future material acquisitions may require that we obtain additional capital, assume third party debt or incur other long-term obligations. We believe that we have the option to utilize both equity and debt instruments as vehicles for the long-term financing of our investment activities and acquisitions.

On November 7, 2005, our Board of Directors authorized a program to repurchase up to 300,000 shares of our outstanding common stock. Under the plan, the shares may be purchased from time to time in the open market at prevailing prices or in negotiated transactions off the market. Shares purchased will be canceled and repurchases will be made with existing cash reserves. We do not maintain a set policy or schedule for our buyback program. We have purchased 162,486 shares of common stock under this program from inception through December 31, 2017.

We have been paying regular quarterly dividends since 2003. Dividends per share paid by quarter were as follows: