Local Bounti (LOCL) 2026年第二季度业绩电话会议：营收增长14%，EBITDA亏损收窄

核心要点

• 得益于德克萨斯州、佐治亚州和华盛顿州设施产量及销售额的提升，2026财年第二季度营收同比增长14%，环比增长约4%，达到1390万美元。
• 调整后EBITDA亏损同比收窄17%至580万美元。管理层预计，随着生产网络的日趋成熟以及与零售客户合作规模的扩大，下半年业绩将持续改善。
• 调整后毛利率从上年同期的30%以及2026财年第一季度的约29%降至27%。公司将这一压力归因于佐治亚州设施在渠道多元化过程中出现的临时包装效率低下问题。
• Local Bounti将于今年秋天在大西洋中部地区的约400家门店试点推出重新设计的单人份沙拉套餐。其他近期推出的零售项目已覆盖超过580家门店。
• 季度末现金、现金等价物及受限资金总额为1010万美元，低于第一季度的1880万美元，主要由于经营性现金消耗所致。季度结束后，一位现有战略投资者追加提供了1250万美元资金。
• 升级后的佐治亚州、德克萨斯州和华盛顿州设施的产能比升级前水平高出约10%。对加利福尼亚州一处设施的初步投资使总产量同比增长约10%。

主要财务业绩

业务与运营表现

Local Bounti正在通过与一家大型零售商合作，于今年秋天在大西洋中部地区的约400家门店试点重新推出单人份沙拉套餐系列。在Harris Teeter超过250家门店推出的6个SKU产品，以及在一家拥有160家门店的区域零售商处的独立上线项目均已全面运营，且表现符合公司预期。

该公司还在7月份向美中南部约66家门店推出了5个SKU，并在8月初向落基山脉地区约110家门店推出了4个SKU。公司还延长了与几家全国性零售客户的供应协议，涵盖嫩叶莴苣和有机奶油生菜等产品。

罗马凯撒沙拉套餐（Caesar Romano salad kit）于5月增加了一个配送中心，其销售增速与去年录得的强劲势头保持一致。管理层还认为芝麻菜是一个机遇，因为传统供应链一直难以满足相关需求。

在运营方面，去年在佐治亚州、德克萨斯州和华盛顿州完成的垂直种植塔升级支持了约10%的产能提升。管理层表示，随着项目的推进，加利福尼亚州的效率投资可能会将产量提高多达20%。加州一处设施的初步改造已使总产量较上年同期提升约10%。

更高效的播种方式使种子成本同比下降了约20%。公司还在采购、维护、劳动力效率和货运管理方面寻求成本节约。

管理层展望

管理层预计近几个季度展现出的改善势头将得以延续，营收增长和成本约束将成为实现调整后EBITDA转正的主要抓手。公司预计，随着其生产网络日趋成熟以及与零售客户合作规模的扩大，下半年的调整后EBITDA亏损将有所改善。

管理层还预计，随着时间推移，更深度的零售渗透率和更低的投入成本将助力毛利率提升。公司未提供具体的营收、毛利率或调整后EBITDA目标。

风险与关注领域

• 由于佐治亚州设施的渠道结构变化和临时的包装效率低下，调整后毛利率出现同比和环比下滑。公司表示，相关流程此后已得到改进并加以实施。
• Local Bounti持续产生运营亏损，并在第二季度消耗了经营性现金。公司尚未达成其既定的调整后EBITDA转正的目标。
• 季度末现金余额环比减少870万美元，不过随后获得的1250万美元战略投资未计入该余额中。
• 认股权证负债公允价值的变动可能会导致GAAP净利润出现大幅波动。该项目从第一季度的520万美元收益转为第二季度的140万美元亏损。
• 管理层强调了受控环境农业在食品安全方面的优势，但同时也提醒称“没有任何系统能够100%消除风险”。

业绩电话会议完整文字记录

完整财报电话会议逐字稿

管理层陈述

Operator

Good morning. and welcome to Local Bounti's Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call.

[Operator Instructions]

Please also note today's event is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference call over to Jeff Sonnek, Investor Relations at ICR. Jeff, please go ahead.

Jeff Sonnek

Thank you, and good morning. Today's presentation will be hosted by Local Bounti's President and Chief Executive Officer, Kathleen Valiasek and Interim Chief Financial Officer and Chief Accounting Officer, Tony Hughes.

Comments made during today's call contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical facts are considered forward-looking statements. These statements are based on management's current expectations and beliefs as well as a number of assumptions concerning future events. Such forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. Some of these risks and uncertainties are identified and discussed in the company's filings with the SEC.

We'll also refer to certain non-GAAP financial measures today. Please refer to the press release, which can be found on our Investor Relations website investors.localbounti.com for reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP measures. And with that, I'd now like to turn the call over to Kathy.

Kathleen Valiasek

Thank you, Jeff. And good morning, everyone. I want to start by recognizing the work our team put in to achieve the results for sharing today. The second quarter continued the trajectory we've been building with disciplined execution across every part of the organization, and I want to walk you through that today. Revenue grew 14% year-over-year to $13.9 million and grew again sequentially from the first quarter. Adjusted EBITDA loss improved 17% year-over-year to $5.8 million, and adjusted G&A came down 17% year-over-year as well, all supporting our primary goal of achieving positive adjusted EBITDA.

We've talked for a while now about our ongoing strategic partnership discussions across the retail landscape. But I'd say in light of recent events in our industry, those conversations have never felt more relevant than they do right now. Food safety has become a genuinely mainstream conversation for consumers over the last several weeks, and that's translating directly into how retailers think about where and how they source their produce. Conversations that use to center on cost and availability now also focus on traceability water sourcing, food safety and environmental control. All questions that our CEA model was specifically built to solve for. We're seeing that shift show up almost daily across our retail network, including with prospects who aren't even our customers yet. Retailers want to understand how our water is sourced, treated and monitored in a closed loop, and while growing in doors under controlled conditions is structurally safer than open field agriculture, which is exposed to unpredictable outside conditions like runoff, wildlife and weather.

Our model also collapses much of the traditional supply chain. We take a plant from seed to finished package in a captive environment, which is a meaningful advantage when a retailer needs to understand and trace the product's journey quickly. To be clear, no system eliminates risk 100% but growing indoors remove several of the specific pathways like contaminated irrigation water, and wildlife exposure that drives these outbreaks in the first place. Conventional produce supply chains built around open fields and exposed to uncontrollable environmental impacts have a hard time addressing those difficult conversations with confidence. That shift doesn't create demand overnight, but we expect it to be a significant driver of long-term growth as retailers and ultimately, consumers increasingly choose product based on where and how it has grown and the brand behind it. The strategic conversations we've been having across our network for a while now carry more weight and move with more urgency than they did even a quarter ago.

So turning to the commercial side. Following discussions with a major retailer, we are relaunching our single-serve salad kit line and agreed with that retailer to a pilot launch throughout the Mid-Atlantic region in approximately 400 stores this fall. It's an encouraging step in building this product line that our commercial team is genuinely excited about and we expect can be a driver of continued growth for this product line in the future. We'll have more to share as that develops. So the rest of our commercial base continued to perform well across our approximately 13,000 doors and continues to build on our base of blue-chip retail relationships. The 2 accounts we discussed last quarter, a 6 SKU rollout covering more than 250 Harris Teeter stores and a large regional retailer operating 160 stores are both now fully launched and tracking in line with expectations. In July, we also launched a new retail partner in the Mid-South region featuring 5 SKUs across approximately 66 stores and in early August, launched a new retail partner in the Rocky Mountain region, featuring 4 SKUs across approximately 110 stores.

Between the first and second quarter, we were also awarded bids extending supply agreements with multiple national retail accounts. These relationships span key product lines, including baby leaf lettuce, and organic butter lettuce. These wins are a good measure of how our existing retail partners actually view us. Our Caesar Romano salad kit also continues to perform well. The additional distribution center we picked up in the first quarter, launched in May and is tracking in line with the strong velocity we saw last year. And we continue to see real opportunity in Arugula where the conventional supply chain has struggled to keep up with demand. Our greenhouse grown approach is a natural fit there, and it's a conversation more actively continuing with the retail partners. Selectively, these wins reflect the strength of our relationships with blue-chip retailers and their continued confidence in us to deliver consistent, high-quality products over the long term.

Turning to operations. The tower upgrades we completed across Georgia, Texas and Washington last year continue to deliver, running at roughly 10% higher yield capacity than before those upgrades, and our yields remain at the highest levels in the company's history. Looking at our California facilities, the selective investments we've talked about before are on track, aimed at improving efficiency in those legacy assets and strengthening our position in living butter head lettuce, and we still believe they can improve yield by as much as 20% as those projects progress through the year. In fact, our initial investments at one of our California facilities is already driving an approximate 10% increase in total production versus the prior year period. It isn't limited to California either. Across all of our facilities, we continue to make tangible progress on the cost side of the business. For example, more efficient seating practices have lowered our seed costs by approximately 20% year-over-year, and we expect to continue garnering cost savings across procurement, maintenance, labor efficiency and freight management across the network. With that, I'll turn it over to Tony for the financial review.

Anthony Hughes

Thank you, Kathy, and good morning, everyone. Turning to our results. Second quarter revenue grew 14% to $13.9 million compared to $12.1 million in the second quarter of last year, and grew approximately 4% sequentially from $13.3 million in the first quarter. The increase was driven by increased production and growth in sales from our Texas, Georgia and Washington facilities. Adjusted gross margin for the second quarter was 27%, excluding depreciation, stock-based compensation and other noncore items, compared to 30% in the prior year period and approximately 29% in the first quarter. The sequential and year-over-year decline is a function of our strategy to diversify our channel mix at our Georgia facility and resulted in temporary packing inefficiencies, which have since been refined and implemented.

As we look longer term, we expect that our increased penetration of the retail channel in combination with our broader efforts to lower input costs will support enhanced margins over time. Adjusted G&A expense for the second quarter was $4.1 million, down from $5 million in the second quarter of last year, a reduction of approximately 17% year-over-year, and essentially in line with the $4.1 million we reported in the first quarter. GAAP net loss for the second quarter was $19.8 million compared to $21.6 million in the second quarter of last year, and $12.7 million in the first quarter of 2026. The year-over-year improvement was primarily driven by a $1.5 million improvement in loss from operations reflecting lower operating expenses, along with a modest reduction in net interest expense. The sequential increase in GAAP net loss for the first quarter was almost entirely explained by noncash items. The change in fair value of our warrant liabilities swung from a $5.2 million gain in the first quarter to a $1.4 million loss in the second quarter, driven by changes in our stock price during the period.

Adjusted EBITDA loss for the second quarter was $5.8 million compared to a loss of $7.1 million in the second quarter of last year, a 17% year-over-year improvement. Relative to the first quarter, the loss was stable, and we still expect the pattern of continued improvement to hold in the second half as our network continues to mature and scale alongside our retail customers. Looking at our trending for the first half of the year, revenue is up 15% to $27.2 million, and adjusted EBITDA loss has improved approximately 24% to $11.5 million compared to $15.3 million in the first half of last year. These results reinforce that we are on the right path. With respect to the balance sheet, we ended the quarter with cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash of $10.1 million, down from $18.8 million at the end of the first quarter reflecting cash used in operations during the quarter. Subsequent to quarter end, and prior to today's call, we received an additional $12.5 million investment from an existing strategic investor which is not reflected in that $10.1 million balance.

Combined with the $15 million investment we received in March and the transactions we executed in 2025, these commitments continue to give us the financial flexibility to be strategic about growth and partnership decisions as we advance towards profitability. In terms of our outlook, we expect the trajectory of improvement we've demonstrated over the past several quarters to continue. Revenue growth and continued cost discipline remain the 2 biggest levers we have towards our goal of positive adjusted EBITDA. With that, I'll turn it back to Kathy for closing remarks.

Kathleen Valiasek

Thank you, Tony. To close, I'd say this was a quarter that moved us forward on every front that matters. The commercial pipeline turning into real placements, our operational discipline continuing to compound, and our strategic investor who knows the business well, choosing to back it with more capital. And all of it against a backdrop where the case for how we grow food has generally never been more relevant.

There is more work ahead of us before we get to positive adjusted EBITDA, but every quarter like this one narrows that gap. I'm grateful to the entire Local Bounti team for the execution and to our investors and partners for their continued confidence. That concludes our prepared remarks. Thank you again for joining us today and for your continued interest in Local Bounti.

Operator

Thank you. That does conclude today's teleconference and webcast. You may disconnect your line at this time, and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation today.