Acme United Q3电话会：销售+18%、EPS 0.80美元，管理层称Q4将强劲，但盘中股价已涨4.6%创52周新高

Acme United (AMEX:ACU) reported third-quarter financial results on Tuesday. The transcript from the company’s third-quarter earnings call has been provided below.
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Summary
Acme United Corporation reported a strong third quarter with net sales of $58 million, an 18% increase from the prior year, and net income of $3.4 million, up 80%.
The company benefited from a $6 million tariff refund, contributing to a higher gross margin of 45.3%, compared to 39.1% in the previous year.
Notable strategic initiatives include the closure of the DMT facility in Marlborough, Massachusetts, and the full operational status of the Spill Magic plant in Tennessee, which increased capacity by 34%.
Acme United plans to launch a new Smart Compliance First Aid Kit with RFID technology in January 2027 and expects a strong fourth quarter, particularly in the First Aid and Westcott segments.
Management highlighted the positive performance of international operations, with European sales up 7% and Canadian sales up 12%, and emphasized ongoing efforts in evaluating acquisition opportunities.
Full Transcript
OPERATOR
Good day and welcome to the Acme United Third Quarter 2026 Financial Results conference call. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Walter Johnsen, Chairman and CEO. Please go ahead, sir.
Walter Johnsen (Chairman and CEO)
Good morning. Welcome to the third quarter 2026 earnings conference call for Acme United Corporation. I’m Walter C. Johnsen, Chairman and CEO. With me is Paul Driscoll, our Chief Financial Officer, who will first read a safe harbor statement. Paul.
Paul Driscoll (Chief Financial Officer)
Forward-looking statements in this conference call, including, without limitation, statements related to the company’s plans, strategy, objectives, expectations, intentions, and adequacy of capital and other resources, are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including, among others, those arising as a result of a challenging global macroeconomic environment characterized by continued high inflation, high interest rates, and the imposition of new tariffs or changes in existing tariff rates.
In addition, we have experienced supply chain disruptions, and we may experience these disruptions in the future. We are also subject to additional risks and uncertainties as described in our periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and in our current earnings release.
Walter Johnsen (Chairman and CEO)
Thank you, Paul. Acme United had an excellent third quarter of 2026. Net sales were $58 million compared to $49.1 million in the third quarter of 2025, an increase of 18%. Net income was $3.4 million compared to $1.9 million in 2025, an increase of 80%. Earnings per share were $0.80 compared to $0.46, an increase of 74%. We received a tariff refund of $6 million, of which $4 million was brought into income, offset by reserves for closure of our small DMT facility and variable compensation. The net impact was $1.2 million in pre-tax income and approximately $1 million in after-tax income. Excluding the $1 million, net income—I’m sorry, excluding the $1 million, net income was $2.4 million compared to $1.9 million, an increase of 24%, and earnings per share were $0.55 compared to $0.46, an increase of 20%.
Our net sales in the United States increased 20% with strong sales in both the First Aid and Westcott cutting tool segments. Our back-to-school sales were excellent, reflecting new promotional activity and strong sell-through in the mass market channel. The Mimedic acquisition performed as planned with net sales of $4 million in the quarter. The operating cash flow contribution was positive. The fourth quarter is expected to be seasonally strong in both sales and earnings.
Our new business efforts in retail and industrial distribution are beginning to generate additional sales, and we are building the momentum for 2027. The company introduced the latest Smart Compliance First Aid Kit in September at the National Safety Conference. This product includes integrated RFID technology and generates automatic replenishment orders for refills. Customer feedback has been encouraging, and we plan to begin shipping in January 2027.
At the beginning of 2026, we reviewed our sites, their potential for expansion, and where to allocate capital. We concluded that our DMT plant in Marlborough, Massachusetts did not have sufficient scale or capacity to be a long-term asset. Most of our production of DMT sharpeners had been outsourced to China in previous years, and production at the Marlborough site was not cost effective. We will close the plant during the fourth quarter and have reserved $1 million.
Savings are expected to be over $1 million annually beginning in January 2027. The Spill Magic plant in Mount Pleasant, Tennessee, that we opened in March 2026 is now fully operational. It provides increased capacity that has resulted in growth of approximately 34% this year. We also installed highly automated production and filling equipment. It took about six months to complete the installation, and we now have a very efficient plant that we believe is poised for future growth.
Our international businesses performed well in the third quarter. In Europe, net sales increased 7% in local currency with strong earnings. Sales in Canada grew 12% in local currency, and we are projecting a solid fourth quarter of 2026. As we look into 2027, we have already booked new business in First Aid and are seeing continued strength in our cutting tool business. There have been increases in shipping costs, freight expenses, and inflation, which we are offsetting with improved efficiency from automation and new equipment.
We’ve had strong cash generation in 2026, and our liquidity is excellent. We continue to review new acquisition opportunities. I’ll now turn the call to Paul.
Paul Driscoll (Chief Financial Officer)
Acme’s net sales for the third quarter were $58 million compared to $49.1 million in 2025, an increase of 18%. Excluding Mimedic, sales increased 10%. Sales for the nine months ended September 30, 2026 were $173 million compared to $149 million in the same period in 2025, an increase of 16%. Excluding Mimedic, sales increased 8%. Net sales in the U.S. increased 20% in the quarter; excluding Mimedic, sales increased 10%. Sales increased 17% for the nine months ended September 30; excluding Mimedic, sales increased 7%. The increases for both periods were driven by higher sales across all product lines.
Net sales in local currency in Europe increased 7% in the third quarter and 15% for the nine months of 2026. The increases for both periods were partly due to the new line of cutting and sharpening tools. Also, Westcott and First Aid had solid performances. Net sales in local currency for Canada increased 12% in the quarter and 8% for the year to date, mainly due to higher sales of First Aid products. We received $6 million in IIPA tariff refunds, and in the third quarter of 2026 recognized $4 million of the refund as a reduction of cost of goods sold. The remaining $2 million was recorded as an accrued liability on the balance sheet in the third quarter. We also recorded $1 million of variable compensation expense related to the refund, included in SG&A. Additionally, in the third quarter of 2026, cost of goods sold included $1.8 million of costs accrued related to closing our DMT sharpening facility.
Net income for the three and nine months ended September 30 also benefited from approximately $400,000 of tax benefits resulting from stock option exercises. The gross margin was 45.3% in the third quarter of 2026 compared to 39.1%. The gross margins for the third quarter included the benefit of approximately 690 basis points from the tariff refund, partially offset by approximately 310 basis points related to the DMT closure costs. Gross margin was 42.6% for the first nine months of 2026 compared to 39.8% in 2025. Gross margin for the first nine months of 2026 included the benefit of approximately 230 basis points from the tariff refund, partially offset by approximately 105 basis points related to the DMT closure costs.
Excluding the impact from tariff refunds and the DMT closure, the gross margin as a percentage of sales increased for both periods, mostly due to the favorable mix from higher-margin direct-to-consumer Mimedic products. SG&A expenses for the third quarter of 2026 were $21.8 million, or 37.6% of sales, compared with $16.2 million, or 32% of sales, for the same period of 2025. SG&A for the first nine months of 2026 were $60.7 million, or 35% of sales, compared with $47.5 million, or 32% of sales, in 2025. The higher SG&A was primarily due to the addition of the Mimedic business. The higher percentage of sales was due to the higher amount of advertising needed for the direct-to-consumer Mimedic business.
The third quarter also included $1 million of variable compensation related to the tariff refund. Net income for the third quarter of 2026 was $3.4 million, or $0.80 per diluted share, compared to net income of $1.9 million, or $0.46 per diluted share, in 2025, an increase of 80% in net income and 74% in earnings per share. Net income for the first nine months of 2026 was $9.5 million, or $2.29 per diluted share, compared to $8.3 million, or $2.03 per diluted share, in the comparable period last year, increases of 14% and 13%.
Now to the balance sheet. Net debt increased from $23.1 million at September 30, 2025 to $29.7 million as of September 30, 2026. During the 12-month period ended September 30, we paid $14.5 million for the acquisition of the assets of Mimedic, distributed approximately $2.4 million in dividends, and purchased the cutting and sharpening line of products in Germany for $1.6 million. Additionally, we generated approximately $13 million in free cash flow, including $15 in tariff refunds.
Walter Johnsen (Chairman and CEO)
Thank you, Paul. I’ll now open the call to questions.
OPERATOR
Thank you. We’ll now be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you’d like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up the handset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please, while we poll for questions. Thank you.
Our first question is from Jim Moroney with Singular Research.
Jim Moroney (Analyst)
Good afternoon, gentlemen. Thank you for taking my call. I have multiple questions, all kind of related with one another, and I’ll begin with regards to the tariff refund. If you could kind of just share some insight on how it goes about being calculated, I would greatly appreciate that. And to go along with the tariff refund, I’m just trying to get a sense of your rationale for the decisions on closing the Marlborough plant and transferring that operation overseas.
This seems like the U.S. segment has outperformed both Canada and Europe, and it kind of goes against the grain with what other companies are doing by reinvesting in the U.S. in light of the tariffs. And so it just seems kind of against the grain of what other companies are doing. So I look forward to hearing your answers to that.
Walter Johnsen (Chairman and CEO)
Okay, Jim, those are good questions, and we appreciate them. The first is the tariff refund. How is it calculated? Well, the tariffs that we paid, we went back—because we were the importer of record—we went back to invoices and payments through customs, and you total all those up and you come up with a number, and then you submit it to IIPA refunds, and then it happens. The difficulty in that, of course, is that you’ve got to get your books really audited to figure it out, and there’s a lot of variables, but in simple terms, you count up the amount that you paid.
Now, the rationale for closing Marlborough—that was a very difficult decision. It was the place where DMT started. It had modern equipment. But honestly, although there’s a lot of push to buy American and we support that, when the price of a product is just more expensive by a lot than in China to produce, sometimes the economics just drive you to do that. This was a small facility and it had less than 20 people. And the bulk of the production had already been shifted to China because the customers were demanding, for example, our new electronic pencil sharpeners—electronic sharpeners for tools—and it was getting good reception in the market.
It was Chinese-made. Other items that required expensive tooling in the United States could be done more cost effectively in China, so we produced it there. The net is, it was a small plant. And when you look at where you’re going to put your resources, you put them where you have big value, not little. And so we closed it. Now, having said that, the rationale for production in the United States is a good one. As you may recall, we bought a plant in Mount Pleasant, Tennessee to produce our Spill Magic production there. It was a 12-acre facility, 78,000 square feet, room to double, modern, air conditioned. We bought it at a very, very good price of $6 million. We invested about a million and a half dollars in equipment, brought that to be fully automated, and went live this quarter.
And incidentally, the Spill Magic product line increased 34% year to date because we now have the capacity to make it and we have the capacity to grow. So when you compare two plants, you see why one was struggling—it made sense to use the best resources you can in China. The other is reinvest in the U.S. where you had real leverage. And that’s what we did.
Jim Moroney (Analyst)
Very good insight. Thank you for that. And so, speaking of growth, where is the focus going forward then? Is it going to continue to be organic growth, or will there be a little more focus on acquisitions like you have in the past? So where do you see your attention?
Walter Johnsen (Chairman and CEO)
Well, it’s a combination. We’ve looked at a lot of deals this year, and we’re continuing to evaluate them. You want them to be strategic, you want them to make a difference, and you want them to have a high likelihood of being successful. So being a little choosy and taking some time makes sense. In the meantime, we are building that balance sheet, and that means we’re not highly leveraging our company. The organic growth has been good. We’re looking forward to, as I mentioned in the call, a solid fourth quarter, and we’re already booking business for 2027.
So it’s really a combination of both. And I would expect sometime in the next 12 months there’ll probably be another deal, because every year we wind up doing at least one. But we’re being careful.
Jim Moroney (Analyst)
Okay, if you’re looking at growth and, you know, whether it’s a deal or organically, is it more on the First Aid side or on the cutting tool side where you think your focus will be?
Walter Johnsen (Chairman and CEO)
Well, both segments are very important to us. And if there’s a good deal in the Westcott side, of course we’ll buy it. And in the case of our German business, last year we bought a direct-to-consumer business in the sharpening and cutting area, and we’ll continue to look at those for sure. The First Aid business lends itself to consolidation. We are the consolidator, and we’re the natural buyer for many of our competitors and some of those that are a half step away.
And I would expect that there’ll be other opportunities in that segment. And if you look long term, I think the First Aid business has greater organic growth opportunities. And I think that given that it’s 70% of our business, chances are it will continue to become increasingly important in the overall company.
Jim Moroney (Analyst)
Excellent insight. Thank you so much for that, Walter.
OPERATOR
Our next question is from Georgi Vashchenko with Freedom Brokers.
Georgi Vashchenko (Analyst)
Good afternoon, and thank you for taking my question. You noted that the back-to-school season was strong in the quarter. Could you elaborate on performance on the Westcott brand, particularly compared with the strong growth you saw in the second quarter? Thank you.
Walter Johnsen (Chairman and CEO)
Yes. Well, the Westcott business—we have to be a little bit careful here, because last year, with the tariffs, the promotional business—that is, the products that would be normally added as extras to a shelf or a planogram—all that promotional business was pretty much delayed or stopped by our customers because of the uncertainty of pricing that happened in April 2025. So the comparisons this year have the full effect of promotional activity. The buyers were able to use all the tools that they have in their toolkit. The merchants were doing a really good job, and we had product that was selling through. So we had a combination of easy comparisons, to be frank. But second, we truly did a good job with our innovation, and it worked.
Georgi Vashchenko (Analyst)
Thank you.
Walter Johnsen (Chairman and CEO)
You’re welcome.
OPERATOR
Our next question is from Tim Call with Capital Management Corporation.
Tim Call (Analyst)
Congratulations on an excellent quarter.
Walter Johnsen (Chairman and CEO)
Thank you, Tim.
Tim Call (Analyst)
Looking at the accounts receivable up around 20% in the last 12 months and inventories up around 15% over the last 12 months, despite being adjusted lower, do you think you’ll be able to manage those lower? If they were cut by 10%, you could lower your variable-rate debt by 37%. So there’s a lot of potential there. I know you’ve added inventory to take advantage of some smart buys, but how do you see those balances over the next 12 months absent acquisitions?
Walter Johnsen (Chairman and CEO)
Go on, Paul.
Paul Driscoll (Chief Financial Officer)
The accounts receivable is a function of the sales increase. So the sales increased 18%, and that’s why the receivables are up—I think you said 20%.
Walter Johnsen (Chairman and CEO)
Okay. On the inventory, when the war with Iran started, as you may recall, we thought it was not going to be short term. We thought that it might cause product shortages, that there might be shipping cost increases, and we thought it might be wise to product now and hold it. And we consciously increased our inventory by about 8 to 10 million U.S. dollars. And it was all the items that you would have in the A and B top-selling products without any issues with obsolescence or would they sell—of course they would sell.
These are the best items we had. Well, in retrospect, we were smart, because there have been shortages, there have been price increases, the freight costs from China have tripled, there have been times when you simply can’t get product. But we have it, so it’s been a very good insurance policy. On the other hand, as you point out, Tim, we’re paying variable—the top, the marginal interest rate’s about 6% for us. So there’s a cost to that. It’s been—so far it’s been a good investment, and we have the ability to work it down. I’m optimistic that we’ll find some clarity in both Iran and the Ukraine in the next year. And I am also optimistic that we’ll be able to convert some of that inventory back into cash. But we’re being cautious right now, because we could be wrong; it could get worse. But I think—I personally think—that we will bring it into cash during 2027, as I see it now.
Tim Call (Analyst)
Over the last five years, there have been a lot of disruptions with back-to-school seasons, and you’re having a great one this year. Do you think that seasonality and that those sales and promotions have come back to a normalized state that should continue long term?
Walter Johnsen (Chairman and CEO)
The Westcott business is particularly sensitive to retail. And if things stay as they are right now, which is a reasonable, non-changing tariff environment—and I think the worst is over—then we would expect that we’d have normal promotions next year as well. And we’re certainly having plenty of discussions right now about new business opportunities in the mass market. We’re certainly getting our share of promotions for back to school for next year.
And so, yeah, I think it would be a pretty normal business. There’s one caveat, and that’s that, although we haven’t seen it yet—or maybe we won’t see it—the consumer is being stressed. And heating oil, gasoline, so many products, interest rates, mortgages, all these things impact the disposable income. And there is a sensitivity to that. But I think if that stays the same, then we’re looking at a very good 2027 with the Westcott business as well as First Aid.
Tim Call (Analyst)
Great. Thank you for all your hard work. Good job.
Walter Johnsen (Chairman and CEO)
Thank you, Tim. Thank you for your support.
OPERATOR
As a reminder, if you’d like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I’d like to hand the floor back over to Walter Johnsen for any closing remarks.
Walter Johnsen (Chairman and CEO)
If there are no further questions, this call is complete. I would truly thank you for joining us. Have a good day. Goodbye.
OPERATOR
This concludes today’s conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you again for your participation.
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