Energy Focus Releases 3Q Results

Energy Focus, Inc. (NASDAQ:EFOI), a leader in sustainable and human-centric lighting technologies, today announced financial results for its third quarter ended September 30, 2020.

Third Quarter 2020 and Subsequent Business Highlights:

• Net sales of $6.0 million, up 104.6% compared to the third quarter of 2019 and up 78.8% sequentially from the second quarter of 2020, reflecting increased penetration in the military market and a shift in the timing of the partial shipment of a certain military contract order from the second quarter to the third quarter of 2020;
• Loss from operations of $1.0 million, compared to a loss from operations of $0.8 million in the third quarter of 2019 and sequentially to a loss from operations of $0.9 million in the second quarter of 2020;
• Net loss of $1.2 million, or $(0.35) per basic and diluted share of common stock, compared to a net loss of $0.9 million, or $(0.38) per basic and diluted share of common stock, in the third quarter of 2019. Sequentially, the net loss improved by $3.2 million compared to a net loss of $4.3 million, or $(1.36) per basic and diluted share of common stock, inclusive of a $3.3 million non-cash adjustment in the fair value of outstanding warrants, in the second quarter of 2020;
• Cash of $2.6 million as of September 30, 2020, compared to $0.4 million as of December 31, 2019;
• Expanded available credit lines in August by completing two debt financing arrangements, which substantially increased the Company’s borrowing capacity and reduced its blended interest expense rate;
• Subsequent to the end of the third quarter of 2020, the Company launched a portfolio of germicidal UV-C disinfection (‘UVCD’) products with advanced, patent-pending technologies designed to inactivate over 99.9% of various pathogens such as influenza and coronavirus, including SARS-Cov-2.

“Our Military and Maritime business continues to demonstrate brisk, year-over-year growth with year-to-date net sales up more than 165% over the first nine months of last year,” stated James Tu, Chairman and CEO of Energy Focus, Inc. “Overall demand remained strong and steady, and we secured significant contracts for our new generation Intellitube products. On the other hand, during the quarter, the COVID-19 pandemic continued to significantly impact facility occupancy and retrofit budgets and activities, as well as timing and reliability of supply chain logistics, resulting in our sales coming in towards the lower end of our expected range.”

Mr. Tu continued, “Despite the myriad of short-term challenges brought on by the pandemic, we are more optimistic than ever in our long-term growth prospects, led by both our EnFocus ^TM lighting control platform products, which continued to be well received with initial shipments beginning in the third quarter, as well as our UVCD product lines that we recently introduced in October. With the pandemic still raging across most parts of the world, and elevated and routine disinfection practices expected to become the new normal for buildings and facilities, we believe that our complementary air and surface UVCD products represent some of the most advanced, powerful and affordable disinfection solutions in the market today. We have started to receive positive and enthusiastic feedback from customers, as well as existing and new channel partners, and remain on schedule to start delivering the products in the first quarter of 2021.”

“The UVCD product launches following our EnFocus ^TM launch in the second quarter this year, further bolster our position as a recognized leader in the emerging and rapidly growing human-centric lighting and healthy buildings markets,” continued Mr. Tu. “We continue to aggressively expand our agency and distribution network and we are in discussions with multiple significant channel partners to market and distribute our LED lighting and UVCD products that together, address broader needs for buildings and facilities seeking to improve sustainability as well as occupant health and safety.”

Third Quarter 2020 Financial Results:

Net sales were $6.0 million for the third quarter of 2020, compared to $2.9 million in the third quarter of 2019, an increase of 104.6%. Net sales from commercial products were $1.5 million, or 24.4% of total net sales, for the third quarter of 2020, down from $1.7 million, or 59.5% of total net sales, in the third quarter of 2019, reflecting the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and related customer interruptions and project delays. Net sales from military and maritime products were $4.5 million, or 75.6% of total net sales, for the third quarter of 2020, up from $1.2 million, or 40.5% of total net sales, in the third quarter of 2019. Sequentially, net sales were up 78.8% compared to $3.3 million in the second quarter of 2020, reflecting a shift in the timing of the shipment of a portion of a $3.4 million U.S. Navy order for the Company’s new generation of military Intellitubes. On an aggregate basis, removing the impact related to the timing of this U.S. Navy order, second and third quarter 2020 aggregate revenue was $9.3 million compared to $6.0 million for the second and third quarters of 2019, representing period-over-period growth of 55.1%.

Gross profit was $1.4 million, or 23.1% of net sales, for the third quarter of 2020. This compares with gross profit of $1.0 million, or 35.3% of net sales, in the third quarter of 2019. Sequentially, this compares with gross profit of $1.3 million, or 40.3% of net sales, in the second quarter of 2020. Gross margin for the third quarter of 2020 was positively impacted by favorable price and usage variances for material and labor and changes in inventory reserves. These increases were more than offset by the negative impact from unexpected supply chain challenges related primarily to the Company’s military and maritime products, which negatively impacted gross margin by approximately 4.1% in the third quarter, and resulted in higher outbound freight costs. Adjusted gross margin, as defined under “Non-GAAP Measures” below, was 24.6% for the third quarter of 2020, compared to 23.6% in the third quarter of 2019 and 33.0% in the second quarter of 2020.

Operating loss was $1.0 million for the third quarter of 2020, compared to an operating loss of $0.8 million in the third quarter of 2019. Sequentially, this compares to an operating loss of $0.9 million in the second quarter of 2020. Net loss was $1.2 million, or $(0.35) per basic and diluted share of common stock, for the third quarter of 2020, compared with a net loss of $0.9 million, or $(0.38) per basic and diluted share of common stock, in the third quarter of 2019. Sequentially, this compares with a net loss of $4.3 million or $(1.36) per basic and diluted share of common stock, in the second quarter of 2020, which was inclusive of a $3.3 million non-cash, pre-tax loss resulting from the revaluation of the warrant liability at June 30, 2020.

Adjusted EBITDA, as defined under “Non-GAAP Measures” below, was a loss of $0.9 million for the third quarter of 2020, compared with a loss of $0.8 million in the third quarter of 2019 and a loss of $0.7 million in the second quarter of 2020. The increased EBITDA loss from second quarter of 2020 and third quarter of 2019 was due to a combination of gross margin fluctuation, supply chain challenges and higher operating expenses due to our investment for future growth.

Cash was $2.6 million as of September 30, 2020. This compares with $0.4 million as of December 31, 2019. As of September 30, 2020, the Company had total availability, as defined under “Non-GAAP Measures” below, of $4.9 million, which consisted of $2.6 million of cash and $2.3 million of additional borrowing availability under its credit facilities. This compares to total availability of $1.9 million as of December 31, 2019 and total availability of $3.9 million as of June 30, 2020.

Financings:

On August 11, 2020, the Company entered into two debt financing arrangements. The facilities consist of a two-year inventory financing facility for up to $3 million and a two-year receivables financing facility for up to $2.5 million. These facilities replaced our previous credit facility, substantially increasing the Company’s borrowing capacity and reducing its blended interest expense rate.

Fourth Quarter 2020 Outlook:

While activities for our military and maritime business remain stronger than levels a year ago, and we expect fourth quarter 2020 sales to grow from fourth quarter 2019, we continue to confront significant short-term uncertainties surrounding our commercial business and logistics challenges on select components due to the ongoing pandemic. Therefore, we are suspending our quarterly sales guidance for the time being and will resume outlook forecast as these external factors become more stable and predictable.

Earnings Conference Call:

The Company will host a conference call and webcast today, November 12, 2020, at 11:00 a.m. ET to discuss the third quarter 2020 results, followed by a Q & A session.

You can access the live conference call by dialing the following phone numbers:

• Toll free 1-877-451-6152 or
• International 1-201-389-0879
• Conference ID# 13712403

The conference call will be simultaneously webcast. To listen to the webcast, log onto it at: http://public.viavid.com/index.php?id=142169 . The webcast will be available at this link through November 27, 2020. Financial information presented on the call, including this earnings press release, will be available on the investors section of Energy Focus’ website, investors.energyfocus.com .

About Energy Focus:

Energy Focus is an industry-leading innovator of sustainable LED lighting and lighting control technologies and solutions. As the creator of the first flicker-free LED lamps, Energy Focus develops high quality LED lighting products that provide extensive energy and maintenance savings, as well as aesthetics, safety, health and sustainability benefits over conventional lighting. Our EnFocus ^TM lighting control platform enables existing and new buildings to provide quality, convenient and affordable, dimmable and color-tunable, circadian and human-centric lighting capabilities. Our patent-pending UV-C Disinfection technologies and products, announced in October 2020, aim to provide effective, reliable and affordable UVCD solutions for buildings, facilities and homes. Energy Focus’ customers include U.S. and foreign navies, U.S. federal, state and local governments, healthcare and educational institutions, as well as Fortune 500 companies. Since 2007, Energy Focus has installed approximately 900,000 lighting products across the U.S. Navy fleet, including tubular LEDs, waterline security lights, explosion-proof globes and berth lights, saving more than 5,000,000 gallons of fuel and 300,000 man-hours in lighting maintenance annually. Energy Focus is headquartered in Solon, Ohio. For more information, visit our website at www.energyfocus.com .

Non-GAAP Measures

In addition to the results in this release that are presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (“U.S. GAAP”), we provide certain non-GAAP measures, which present operating results on an adjusted basis. These non-GAAP measures are supplemental measures of performance that are not required by or presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP and, include:

• Total availability, which we define as our ability on the period end date to access additional cash if necessary under our short-term credit facilities, plus the amount of cash on hand on that same date;
• Adjusted EBITDA, which we define as net income (loss) before giving effect to restructuring expenses, financing charges, income taxes, non-cash depreciation and amortization, stock compensation, incentive compensation, and change in fair value of warrant liability; and
• Adjusted gross margins, which we define as our gross profit margins during the period without the impact from excess and obsolete, in-transit and net realizable value inventory reserve movements that do not reflect current period inventory decisions.

We believe that our use of these non-GAAP financial measures permits investors to assess the operating performance of our business relative to our performance based on U.S. GAAP results and relative to other companies within the industry by isolating the effects of items that may vary from period to period without correlation to core operating performance or that vary widely among similar companies, and to assess liquidity, cash flow performance of the operations, and the product margins of our business relative to our U.S. GAAP results and relative to other companies in the industry by isolating the effects of certain items that do not have a current period impact. However, our presentation of these non-GAAP measures should not be construed as an indication that our future results will be unaffected by unusual or infrequent items or that the items for which we have made adjustments are unusual or infrequent or will not recur. Further, there are limitations on the use of these non-GAAP measures to compare our results to other companies within the industry because they are not necessarily standardized or comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies. We believe that the disclosure of these non-GAAP measures is useful to investors as they form part of the basis for how our management team and Board of Directors evaluate our operating performance.

Total availability, adjusted EBITDA and adjusted gross margins do not represent cash generated from operating activities in accordance with U.S. GAAP, are not necessarily indicative of cash available to fund cash needs and are not intended to and should not be considered as alternatives to cash flow, net income and gross profit margins, respectively, computed in accordance with U.S. GAAP as measures of liquidity or operating performance. Reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable financial measures calculated and presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP are provided below.