Balchem (BCPC) Q1 2026 Earnings Transcript

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Date

Thursday, April 30, 2026 at 11 a.m. ET

Call participants

• Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer — Ted Harris
• Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer — Martin Bengtsson

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Risks

• Management stated they are "likely to experience some modest margin compression resulting from the timing lag that occurs between input cost inflation and pricing adjustments, particularly within our Animal Nutrition and Health segment."
• Ongoing conflict in the Middle East and resulting raw material and freight cost inflation were cited as factors that "will need to be offset or passed on to our customers" and "have an impact to the European end markets."
• The effective tax rate rose to 23.3%, with Martin Bengtsson noting it "will be higher in Q2 as well versus that 23%" and only moderating in the second half of the year.

Takeaways

• Consolidated revenue -- $271 million, an increase of 8.1%, with a 2% positive impact from foreign currency exchange driven by a stronger euro.
• Gross margin -- $101 million, up 14.6%, representing 37.3% of sales, an expansion of 210 basis points, primarily due to sales growth and manufacturing efficiencies, partially offset by raw material inflation.
• GAAP earnings from operations -- $56 million, up 9%.
• Adjusted EBITDA -- $74 million, up 12.1%, with an adjusted EBITDA margin rate of 27.4%.
• Net income -- $40 million, an increase of 8.7%.
• GAAP diluted EPS -- $1.25, up 10.6%.
• Adjusted net earnings -- $43 million, up 7.4%, or $1.33 per diluted share, a 9% increase.
• Cash flow -- Cash flows from operations totaled $40 million; free cash flow totaled $34 million; cash balance was $73 million at quarter-end.
• Net debt -- $96 million, with an overall leverage ratio on a net debt basis of 0.3.
• Effective tax rate -- 23.3%, up from 22.7%, attributed mainly to increased state taxes and discrete items.
• Operating expenses -- $45 million, up from $37 million, driven by higher compensation-related costs and increased professional services.
• Human Nutrition and Health (H&H) revenue -- $172 million, up 8.3%, with double-digit growth in minerals and nutrients, and lower- to mid-single-digit growth in food ingredients and solutions.
• H&H earnings from operations -- $40 million, up 5.4%; adjusted earnings from operations were $43 million, up 6%.
• Branded ingredients in H&H -- Accounting for approximately 40%-50% of revenue in that segment, with this portion growing faster than the rest.
• Animal Nutrition and Health (ANH) revenue -- $62 million, up 8.6%, led by higher sales in both monogastric and ruminant businesses.
• ANH earnings from operations -- $6 million, up 8.7%; adjusted earnings from operations were $6 million, up 8.2%.
• ANH European monogastric volume -- Delivered double-digit volume improvement in the quarter, attributed to recovery after EU antidumping measures and improved pricing.
• Specialty Products revenue -- $35 million, an increase of 4.4%, primarily from strong Performance Gases demand in both the U.S. and Europe.
• Specialty Products earnings from operations -- $12 million, up 24.5%; adjusted earnings from operations were $13 million, up 21.2%.
• Sustainability progress -- Reduced scope one and two greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 31% from 2020 baseline, surpassing the 2030 goal of 25%; water withdrawal reduced by 16% from the 2020 baseline.
• Vidacholine study results -- A published peer-reviewed study found "Vidacholine intake significantly enhanced functional connectivity within the working memory network, improving brain efficiency within three hours of consumption" in postmenopausal women.

Summary

Balchem (NASDAQ:BCPC) reported record results in revenue, EBITDA, net income, and earnings per share, with growth achieved across all business segments and notable margin expansion for the quarter. Management emphasized increased momentum in geographic expansion, with particularly strong growth rates in international regions compared to the U.S. The Human Nutrition and Health segment delivered double-digit growth in minerals and nutrients, driven by consumer health trends and successful branded ingredient strategies. Specialty Products' performance benefited primarily from strong demand in Performance Gases across both domestic and European markets. Strategic investments, including marketing and R&D around Vidacholine, aim to build on new scientific evidence broadening its addressable market beyond prenatal applications. Sustainability achievements included exceeding 2030 greenhouse gas reduction targets and significant advances in water conservation initiatives.

• Harris confirmed that branded consumer power brands, such as Vidacholine, now comprise "about, I would say, 40% to 50% of our Human Nutrition and Health business today," with these growing faster than the rest of the portfolio.
• Bengtsson attributed margin expansion to higher growth in the highest-margin businesses, careful price/inflation management, and effective manufacturing operations, but warned that "we may see a little bit of a margin rate compression as a result of the environment."
• Sales growth in Animal Nutrition and Health reflected both higher business volumes and improved European pricing following antidumping recovery, but faces ongoing headwinds from rising input and freight costs.
• Management described ongoing investment in international sales and marketing personnel as contributing to higher operating expenses, but driving better-than-U.S. growth rates in most international markets.
• The net debt leverage position remains low at 0.3, with $73 million cash on hand, supporting strategic flexibility.
• Management stated, "we believe we are well positioned to continue executing our strategy and to deliver continued growth through the rest of 2026," citing successful past performance in volatile environments.

Industry glossary

• EnCaPPS: Balchem's encapsulated rumen-protected nutrient technology for improving nutrient delivery in dairy cattle.
• Monogastric: Refers to animals with a single-chambered stomach, such as pigs and poultry, targeted by certain animal nutrition products.
• Ruminant: Refers to animals with multi-chambered stomachs (e.g., cows), relevant for rumen-protected feed ingredients.
• Vidacholine: Balchem's branded choline nutrient product marketed for cognitive and prenatal health benefits.
• Performance Gases: Segment within Specialty Products, including medical and sterilization gases such as ethylene oxide.

Full Conference Call Transcript

Ted Harris: Thanks, Martin. Good morning, and welcome to our conference call. We were extremely pleased with the financial results for the quarter and the overall performance of our company as we kicked off the new year with positive momentum from the strong performance throughout 2025. Our healthy growth continues to be fueled by ongoing market penetration of our unique portfolio of specialty nutrients and delivery systems, and the favorable “better for you” trends within the food and nutrition markets that are well aligned with our food ingredient formulation systems and capabilities. We delivered record first quarter consolidated sales, adjusted EBITDA, adjusted net earnings, and adjusted EPS, as well as strong cash flows.

We also delivered year-over-year sales and earnings growth in all three of our reporting segments. The first quarter of 2026 was the twenty-seventh consecutive quarter of quarterly year-over-year growth in adjusted EBITDA for Balchem Corporation. We are very proud of this accomplishment, particularly in light of the market environment within which we have operated over the last twenty-seven quarters. Before we get into more detail on the quarter, I would like to make a few comments about the overall market environment, including the evolving geopolitical and macroeconomic situation, as well as some of the progress we have made on several important strategic initiatives. We continue to see healthy demand across the vast majority of our end markets.

Our Human Nutrition and Health segment continues to perform very well, driven by healthy demand for both our unique portfolio of minerals, nutrients, and vitamins and our food ingredients and solutions, which are benefiting from trends toward nutrient-dense high-protein, high-fiber, and low-sugar or “better for you” foods where our nutrient portfolio and our formulations expertise bring considerable value to our customers. In the Animal Nutrition and Health segment, we delivered another quarter of year-over-year growth on improved demand in both our monogastric and ruminant businesses as a result of further market penetration of our rumen-protected precision release encapsulated nutrient portfolio and the ongoing improvement of market conditions in the European monogastric market.

And we remain encouraged by the overall performance of our Animal Nutrition and Health product portfolio. Within our Specialty Products segment, both our performance gases and our plant nutrition businesses are performing well, driven primarily by higher demand within performance gases as a result of healthier market conditions and successful margin management and geographic expansion growth within plant nutrition. As we have shown over the years, we have been able to deliver strong historical performance while facing significant market volatility. We believe we remain well positioned to effectively manage through this current geopolitical and macroeconomic environment as well.

We are once again entering a period of significant inflation, largely petrochemical-based and primarily impacting our Animal Nutrition and Health segment, as well as potential supply chain disruptions due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. We will once again leverage our robust global supply chain, our procurement expertise, and our strong market positions to raise prices where necessary to help manage through this dynamic market environment. While we are likely to experience some modest margin compression resulting from the timing lag that occurs between input cost inflation and pricing adjustments, particularly within our Animal Nutrition and Health segment, we do expect to deliver continued quarterly year-over-year growth on a consolidated basis over the coming quarters.

We will continue to monitor the developments closely and adjust accordingly as we have done effectively in the past. Additionally, I would like to share some significant progress we have made on several important strategic initiatives that will further support our future growth. A newly published peer-reviewed research study using functional magnetic resonance imaging, a noninvasive safe neuroimaging procedure that measures brain activity by detecting changes in blood flow and oxygenation, was published in the peer-reviewed journal Nutrients. This important study examined the effects of Balchem’s Vidacholine nutrient on working memory-related brain activation and functional connectivity in postmenopausal women.

The results showed that Vidacholine intake significantly enhanced functional connectivity within the working memory network, improving brain efficiency within three hours of consumption. This study helps highlight the benefits of Vidacholine across different life stages, with previous research showing that Vidacholine supports fetal brain development during pregnancy and lactation with lasting effects beyond birth. It also suggests that Vidacholine may help enhance cognitive health in older adults. We are excited about these results, and we will continue to invest in both research and marketing around Vidacholine to raise awareness and drive market penetration of this important essential nutrient. Additionally, on April 22, Earth Day, we released our 2025 sustainability report highlighting our sustainability initiatives and accomplishments.

Guided by our core values and our vision of making the world a healthier place, our sustainability report demonstrates our commitment to bringing innovative solutions for global health and nutrition needs and to operate with excellence as strong stewards of our employees, customers, shareholders, and communities. We are very proud of the progress made on our 2030 sustainability goals to reduce both greenhouse gas emissions and water usage by 25% compared to our 2020 baseline. In 2025, we successfully reduced scope one and two greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 31%, surpassing our 2030 goal, and we reduced water withdrawal by approximately 16%, showing substantial progress toward our water usage reduction objective. Now regarding the first quarter financial results.

This morning, we reported record quarterly consolidated revenue of $271 million, which was 8.1% higher than the prior-year quarter. We delivered record quarterly GAAP earnings from operations of $56 million, an increase of 9% versus the prior year. Consolidated net income closed the quarter at $40 million, an increase of 8.7%. This quarterly net income translated to diluted net earnings per share of $1.25 on a GAAP basis, up 10.6%. On an adjusted basis, we delivered record quarterly adjusted EBITDA of $74 million, an increase of 12.1%. Our quarterly adjusted net earnings were $43 million, an increase of 7.4%, which translated to $1.33 per diluted share, up 9%.

Overall, it was an excellent quarter for Balchem Corporation, marked by strong financial results and meaningful progress made on our strategic priorities. With that, I am now going to turn the call back over to Martin to go through the first quarter financial results in more detail and the results for each of our business segments.

Martin Bengtsson: Thank you, Ted. The first quarter was a strong start to 2026. Our record first quarter net sales of $271 million were 8.1% higher than the prior year, driven by strength across all three segments: Human Nutrition and Health, Animal Nutrition and Health, and Specialty Products. The impact from foreign currency exchange, driven primarily by the stronger euro, had a favorable impact to our sales growth of approximately 2% in the first quarter. Our gross margin dollars were $101 million, up 14.6%, and our gross margin percent expanded to 37.3% of sales, up 210 basis points. The gross margin performance was driven primarily by the sales growth and manufacturing efficiencies, partially offset by raw material inflation.

Consolidated operating expenses for the first quarter were $45 million as compared to $37 million in the prior year. The increase was primarily due to higher compensation-related costs and an increase in professional services. GAAP earnings from operations for the first quarter were a record $56 million, an increase of 9%. On an adjusted basis, as detailed in our earnings release this morning, record non-GAAP earnings from operations of $61 million were up 9.5%. Adjusted EBITDA was a record $74 million, an increase of 12.1%, with an adjusted EBITDA margin rate of 27.4%. Net interest expense for the first quarter was $2 million, a decrease of $1 million, primarily driven by lower outstanding borrowings and lower interest rates.

Our net debt was $96 million with an overall leverage ratio on a net debt basis of 0.3. The effective tax rates for 2026 and 2025 were 23.3% and 22.7%, respectively. The increase in the effective tax rate on the prior year was primarily due to an increase in certain state taxes. Consolidated net income closed the quarter at $40 million, up 8.7%. This quarterly net income translated into diluted net earnings per share of $1.25, a 10.6% increase. On an adjusted basis, our first quarter adjusted net earnings were $43 million, an increase of 7.4%, which translated to $1.33 per diluted share.

Cash flows from operations were $40 million with free cash flow of $34 million, and we closed out the quarter with $73 million of cash on the balance sheet. As we look at the first quarter from a segment perspective, our Human Nutrition and Health segment saw sales of $172 million, up 8.3%, driven by growth in both our nutrients business and our food ingredients and solutions businesses. Earnings from operations were $40 million, up 5.4%, driven by the higher sales and a favorable mix, partially offset by certain higher manufacturing input costs and higher operating expenses. First quarter adjusted earnings from operations for this segment were $43 million, up 6%.

We were encouraged by the continued momentum in Human Nutrition and Health, where our differentiated ingredients and solutions align with a consumer shift toward “better for you” nutrition. We believe this positions us well to further leverage our formulation expertise and portfolio of differentiated branded ingredients to drive sustained growth. Our Animal Nutrition and Health segment delivered sales of $62 million, up 8.6%. The increase was driven by higher sales in both the monogastric and ruminant businesses. Animal Nutrition and Health delivered earnings from operations of $6 million, up 8.7%, driven by the higher sales, partially offset by certain higher manufacturing input costs and higher operating expenses.

First quarter adjusted earnings from operations for this segment were $6 million, up 8.2%. We delivered another quarter of improved performance in our Animal Nutrition and Health segment. We continue to drive adoption of our EnCaPPS encapsulated rumen-protected nutrients in the dairy market. Our U.S. monogastric business remains steady, and our European monogastric business continued to improve following the EU antidumping duties. Looking ahead, we are paying careful attention to the conflict in the Middle East and the potential impacts it may have on the animal nutrition markets. We are seeing increases in raw material input costs along with increased freight costs, which will need to be offset or passed on to our customers.

We feel good about the momentum we have built within our Animal Nutrition and Health segment, and while we are likely to experience some modest margin compression resulting from the timing lag that occurs between input cost inflation and pricing adjustments, we remain confident in our ability to continue to drive growth in this segment over time. Our Specialty Products segment delivered quarterly sales of $35 million, up 4.4%, driven by healthy growth in Performance Gases. Specialty Products delivered a record quarterly earnings from operations of $12 million, up 24.5%, driven primarily by higher sales and a favorable mix. First quarter adjusted earnings from operations for this segment were a record $13 million, up 21.2%.

We were very pleased with the performance of Specialty Products, delivering yet another quarter of solid growth, and we believe Specialty Products is well positioned to continue to deliver consistent profitable growth as we look forward. Overall, the first quarter was another strong quarter for Balchem Corporation, and we are really pleased with the results. While the global geopolitical and macroeconomic environment remains dynamic and includes areas of uncertainty, we believe we are well positioned to continue executing our strategy and to deliver continued growth through the rest of 2026. I am now going to turn the call back over to Ted for some closing remarks.

Ted Harris: Thanks, Martin. We were very pleased with the financial results reported earlier today. We executed well within a dynamic and evolving macroeconomic and geopolitical backdrop, delivering another strong quarter of solid growth while at the same time advancing our strategic initiatives. Looking ahead, we remain excited about 2026 and confident in our ability to deliver continued top and bottom line growth while further advancing our long-term growth platforms. I will now hand the call back over to Martin, who will open up the call for questions.

Martin Bengtsson: Thank you, Ted. This now concludes the formal portion of the conference. We will now open the call for questions.

Operator: Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, simply press star 1 again. Your first question comes from the line of Robert James Labick from CJS Securities. Your line is open.

Robert James Labick: Good morning. Congratulations on another record quarter.

Martin Bengtsson: Thank you, Bob. Thanks, Bob.

Robert James Labick: Thanks. One of the keys to your growth and success has been the branded ingredients. And, Ted, you spoke a little about Vidacholine already. I know you are early-ish on a branding strategy so far, but what percent of sales are branded out of what is applicable now, and what could that look like in five or ten years?

Ted Harris: Yeah. Again, Bob, thanks for your comments. Our branded ingredients—and let us just talk about Human Nutrition and Health—make up about, I would say, 40% to 50% of our Human Nutrition and Health business today. That does not mean to say on the other 50% to 60% we do not have brands, but they are more B2B brands. The power brands, we refer to them, like Vidacholine that you talked about, K2 Vital and K2 Vital Delta, Opti MSM, Albion Minerals, for example, are brands that obviously we are selling to supplement and nutritional beverage manufacturers but are recognized by the consumer. Those are the ones that we are really investing in.

So let us say 40% to 50% of H&H today, and that part of the business is obviously growing faster than the other parts of the portfolio. So over time, it will clearly become a bigger and bigger part of our portfolio.

Robert James Labick: Okay. Great. And we have talked on previous calls about the Jets partnership and the new customers that have come, notably in Vidacholine and, I think, energy drinks in particular. Are there other areas of expansion still to come from this? Are there opportunities for just more general sports drinks versus energy drinks? Or how do you take the company down that path if possible?

Ted Harris: Yeah. So, you know, obviously, historically, supplements have been our primary targeted market, but as you mentioned, we have had pretty significant success more recently relative to sports beverages, energy drinks, and the like. As you can imagine, it is a great application for our products, partly because you do not have the capacity or volume limitation that you can have in a supplement or a multivitamin, and we have found it to be an excellent application for our products. Trends are leading to significant growth in those areas.

So I do think that will continue to grow and, you know, kind of that word “energy drink” versus “nutritional beverage,” I do think many of these products started to be more in the energy drink category, and now those drinks are expanding much more broadly to more of a nutritional beverage focus, meal replacement focus, a much healthier product—or “better for you” product—to use those words, than the historical energy drinks. We really believe that the nutritional beverage market is a significant opportunity for us and will grow rapidly over time. So I think that is really where the predominance of our opportunity lies in the near to midterm.

Relative to investing marketing dollars in the brands, it does expand far beyond partnering with an NFL team. We are already partnering with a women’s professional soccer team in Europe, the Bayern Munich women’s team. We are investing in other influencer areas, digital media areas, and so forth. We do continue to expand that effort in other areas. I think we talked about on calls many quarters ago that the investment in the Jets was a pilot to some extent. We certainly look back on that as being a pilot and one that we want to now expand through other consumer marketing awareness campaigns, some of which I just mentioned.

Robert James Labick: Okay. Super. And one last one for me. I will jump back in queue. Looking at the P&L, the gross margins—the 37.3%—surprised on the upside. It was really strong, in fact. So maybe just give us a little more detail on what drove that. And I know with raw material cost pressures coming, how should we think about gross margins going forward?

Martin Bengtsson: Yeah, Bob, strong performance on the gross margin, as you point out, and as you are familiar, we have talked about in the past that we do have a favorable tailwind in our portfolio from the fact that our higher-margin businesses are the ones growing the fastest—so minerals and nutrients in H&H being an example of that. Similarly, on the Animal Nutrition side, ruminant being higher margin and generally growing faster than monogastric. Just from a portfolio perspective, we have that tailwind that supports expansion of the margins.

On top of that, we have been fairly effective more recently at managing the balance between price and inflation and driving some benefits that way as well, along with having effective manufacturing operations here supporting the P&L. So everything has just been working fairly well from a gross margin perspective, and you are seeing that come through. The reference we made to seeing inflation is true and real. We do see inflation coming, and we see that accelerating a bit with what is happening in the Middle East.

As you know from the past, when we went through this with COVID, we have been quite effective historically at managing that both through our supply chain and our procurement, but also in terms of pricing that through to our customers where needed. But it tends to have a little bit of a dilutive impact—if your costs go up a dollar and you price through a dollar, mathematically, your margin rate goes down. I think we will see a little bit of that to a modest extent as we go forward in this inflationary environment.

So while we continue to grow our margin dollars, we may see a little bit of a margin rate compression as a result of the environment.

Robert James Labick: Okay. Got it. Thank you, and congrats again. I will get back in queue.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Ram Selvaraju from H.C. Wainwright. Your line is open.

Ram Selvaraju: Thanks so much for taking our questions. First, I was wondering if you could comment on the ongoing evolution of your thinking regarding the positioning of Vidacholine, and in particular, how you are thinking about optimizing the value of this franchise, especially given the most recent data that you cited published in the peer-reviewed journal Nutrients, and how this might evolve going forward when you think about, historically, the work that has already been done demonstrating that choline is an essential prenatal nutrient. Now you have data showing that it has applicability to enhance potentially cognitive health in older adults.

Just give us a sense of how you are thinking about the evolution of that brand and how best to position it, particularly from the perspective of promotional and marketing strategies that you may not necessarily have employed in the past. Secondly, I think it would be helpful if you could give us a sense, particularly in light of the most recent geopolitical developments, how this might affect the industrial side of Balchem Corporation’s business, especially when we think about potentially increased U.S. stateside-based oil and petroleum production that may include enhanced fracking activity. And then lastly, Martin, I was wondering if you could just comment on the effective tax rate.

It was a little bit ahead of what we had originally projected, so I was wondering if we should use that as the serviceable tax rate assumption going forward, or if you anticipate the effective tax rate to modulate a little bit over the course of the remainder of this year. Thank you.

Ted Harris: Thanks, Ram, for your questions. Maybe I will take the first two and Martin can answer the last one. I will start with your second one around industrial. As everybody knows, we no longer report out industrial separately. But that business has continued for a number of years at a very low level, I would say, but that business is clearly up. It is still not a measurable contributor to our overall results, but regardless of that, the results are up, sales are up, demand is up, which is what you would expect given the current situation with increased activity in that part of the economy. So we are seeing new business from that.

Again, it is not to a material nature, and we strongly believe it will never return to what it once was, but it is nice to see higher demand in that area based on the increased activity. Relative to the ongoing Vidacholine positioning, we are really excited about the results of this most recent study, specifically for servicing postmenopausal women in that community and that targeted market, but it does suggest that older adults can benefit from Vidacholine intake more broadly. That is a huge market compared to the prenatal market that you mentioned. Historically, choline was a product that was sold into infant formula and really did not even appear that much in prenatal vitamins.

I think we can look back and say we were very, very successful in doing the science and having the studies to support the prenatal market, and today it really is broadly part of a prenatal vitamin regimen. It is incredibly rare for me to ask a pregnant woman what her vitamin regimen is and it not to include choline. I think we have been very successful there. The reality is that is a relatively small market. So this could be an absolute breakthrough from a Vidacholine perspective and really open up that, as I used the word earlier, huge adult cognition market. I think it is an early study.

It is a study that has definitive results for postmenopausal women. We need more studies for sure to show effectiveness across a wider segment of the population in that age group, but this is a good first start, and we always expected this to be the start. So we are investing in some more studies. And then, as we have also learned, we need to support that science and those studies with marketing. Obviously, marketing to aging adults that either are experiencing cognitive issues or are concerned about cognitive issues is a very different marketing campaign to positioning Vidacholine as a nutrient that athletes should take, as we were doing for the New York Jets.

So we will have to reposition our marketing efforts—or newly position our marketing efforts—to support the emerging science in this area and to build awareness in the aging population and ultimately to drive market penetration of Vidacholine in that category. That is exactly what we are going to do. With that, I will hand it over to Martin to talk about tax.

Martin Bengtsson: Yes, Ram. As we spoke about in the past, we tend to use a 23% effective tax rate as the planning rate, and I think when we spoke last time, I thought we would probably err on the side of doing better than that. In Q1, we had 23.3%, so a bit above that just based on timing of various items and some changes in state tax laws that impacted that negatively, and also various discrete items that hit the quarters differently.

As we look forward here, I think the rate will be higher in Q2 as well versus that 23%, and then I think it will be lower in the back half of the year as we work our way towards that 23%. I think it is still a good planning rate to use—the 23%—as you model things for the full year.

Ram Selvaraju: Thank you so much, and congrats again on a very solid quarter.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Daniel Harriman from Sidoti. Your line is open.

Daniel Harriman: Ted, Martin, good morning. Thank you so much for taking my questions, and again, congratulations on continued execution and great performance. I have two questions this morning. I will start with one for Ted. Last quarter, I touched on—or asked you about—international growth, and I was just wondering if you might be able to provide us an update or if there is anything going on that we should pay attention to there across the three businesses.

And then, Martin, on the European monogastric side of things, I was just curious if you could give a little bit more color about where we are in the recovery there and if there is more room for you in terms of both volume and pricing. Really appreciate it. Thank you.

Ted Harris: Yeah. On the geographic expansion and international growth, that continues to be a primary strategic focus area for our company, and one that we feel really good about the progress we are making. Part of that progress involves hiring people in the various international regions around the world. We are doing that, and we are hiring really good people. I would say when you look at our OpEx this quarter, Martin talked a little bit about it being higher than normal, and part of that, at least, is driven by some one-time items, but part of it is also driven by an investment in sales and marketing around the globe as we do invest in geographic expansion.

So we are making good progress in hiring people, building out the infrastructure that we need to drive geographic expansion, and the results are showing. We are seeing higher growth rates in most international locations versus the U.S. We are still driving really good growth in the U.S., but the international growth rates have been better for us because of the low base that we are starting from. We are focused on it. It is a primary strategic objective for us, and we are making really good progress relative to that strategic initiative.

Martin Bengtsson: Yeah. On Animal Nutrition in Europe and the recovery of the monogastric business there, we are clearly seeing an uptick following the antidumping. In Q1, we did see a double-digit volume improvement, so it is definitely there, combined with improved pricing. There is clearly an upwards trend in that business that I think has the potential to continue to strengthen further. The impacts that we are keeping an eye on right now are really stemming from the Middle East conflict and whether or not that will have an impact to the European end markets, given the higher input costs that they will be facing going forward.

But in terms of the EU antidumping, we are clearly seeing benefits from that at the moment.

Daniel Harriman: That is really helpful. Thank you again, guys.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Artem Chubara from Rothschild Redburn. Your line is open.

Artem Chubara: Thank you. Hello, Ted and Martin. Congrats on a good quarter. I would like to ask two questions. The first one, H&H—any color on how nutrients or food ingredients business performed in the quarter would be helpful just to understand the magnitude of growth and whether you expect these to persist. And the second question is on Specialty Products. Obviously, you have reported quite exceptional improvement in profitability, so it would be helpful to understand where it came from—perhaps whether it was price or volume—and how that developed by region, whether it was Europe or the U.S. Thank you.

Ted Harris: Sure. Maybe I will take a stab at this and Martin can chime in as needed. We were really pleased with the overall performance of H&H, really as we have been for many quarters. The story, I would say, in Q1 was very similar to the story that has played out over previous quarters, so not much changing. The minerals and nutrients portfolio is growing very strongly—I would say double-digit growth—fueled particularly by growth in our minerals business, which is performing outstandingly broadly speaking, but all of the nutrients are growing nicely.

That business is performing well and is really fueled by, yes, to some extent the “better for you” trends, but also the adoption of supplementation and the inclusion of nutrients in beverages, as we talked about earlier. So a little bit more of the same, which I view as positive. The food ingredient and solutions business grew, I would say, lower- to mid-single digits. Again, it continues to grow at what I would say are nice rates for that business.

That growth truly is being fueled by the “better for you” trends—whether it is meat sticks that we have talked about before where some of our ingredients are included, or high-protein bars, high-fiber beverages, organic high-fiber cereals—those kinds of products are really all performing very well for us and really driving the vast majority of growth within H&H. Again, I would say that story has been true for quite a number of quarters. Overall, we are very pleased with the performance of H&H, and we continue to believe that story will continue for some time to come. We think it is quite sustainable. Relative to Specialty Products, it is a little bit of a different story.

The favorable growth really is driven primarily from the Performance Gases part of Specialty Products. Again, very pleased with the overall performance of Specialty Products, but this quarter it was primarily driven by Performance Gases, where we are seeing healthy demand both in the U.S. and in Europe. It seems odd a number of years later to still be talking about the pandemic, but those were markets that were pretty severely impacted by the pandemic and it had a long played-out impact, I would say, on those markets. We would say those markets today are back to where they were—very healthy—and our business is doing very well, both in the U.S. and Europe, just on healthy demand.

The growth, as we talked about, in Plant Nutrition has been primarily driven by geographic expansion over time. We did not deliver growth in Q1, but we are bullish about the performance of Plant Nutrition over the course of the year. We had significant margin improvement in that business in Q1, delivered healthy geographic expansion growth, and generally speaking, it is a healthy planting environment right now. Again, we feel good about our ability to deliver growth in that business this year. So really pleased with the performance of Specialty Products as well, and we believe that this performance that we have been delivering in that segment over the last number of quarters and in Q1 is sustainable.

Hopefully that answers your questions.

Artem Chubara: It does indeed. Thank you very much.

Operator: That concludes our question and answer session. I will now turn the call back over to Ted Harris for closing remarks.

Ted Harris: Yes, thank you very much. Once again, thank you all for joining our call today. We are very pleased with how we have started 2026, and we really appreciate your support and your time today. We look forward to reporting out our Q2 2026 results in late July. In the meantime, we will be participating in the Wells Fargo Industrials and Materials Conference in Chicago on June 10, and the CJS Summer Investor Conference in White Plains, New York on July 9. We certainly hope to see some of you there. Thanks again.

Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

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