Company to host webcast today, December 1, 2025, at 4:30 p.m. Eastern time
NORTH PLAINS, Ore., Dec. 01, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Jewett-Cameron Trading Company Ltd. (the "Company"; Nasdaq: JCTC), a company committed to innovative products that enrich outdoor spaces, today announced operational and financial results for the fiscal 2025 full year and fourth quarter for the period ended August 31, 2025. The Company has begun implementation of its strategic realignment to promote growth and profitability following a challenging second half of fiscal 2025, which was marked by significant volatility primarily due to the uncertain tariff and global economic situation over the past several months.
Management Discussion
The Company began fiscal 2025 with a positive outlook and a focus on continuing to increase sales, improve margins, lower costs, introduce innovative products and monetize surplus assets. Throughout the first two quarters of the fiscal year, many of management's key objectives were achieved, including first half 2025 revenue growth compared to the first half of 2024, which was driven by the continued success of the Company's LTP and Adjust-A-Gate$(R)$ products, expanded in-store displayer placements, meaningful retail point-of-sale growth and the launch of innovative new offerings, including Adjust-A-Gate Unlimited, the low profile, sag-free complete gate kit and the new and improved Lucky Dog chain link kennel. The Company believed it was well positioned entering the third quarter of 2025 with new multi-source, multi-country suppliers developed over the previous two years to compete with those dependent on China manufacturing which had the highest tariff impacts at the time. However, the rapidly escalating and unpredictable across-the-board tariffs, initially announced in February 2025 on sourced goods, created unprecedented market turmoil, curbed retailer purchases, strained logistics and drove higher costs. These events, combined with constraints related to existing customer agreements and market pressures, particularly in the lumber business, contributed to the challenges reflected in the Company's second-half results.
"Over the past few months, we have engaged new resources and started putting plans in place to more aggressively mitigate the severe short-term financial impact of unpredictable tariffs," commented Chad Summers, CEO of Jewett-Cameron. "This included accelerating our operational efficiency initiatives, resulting in a 27% year-over-year reduction in overall headcount. We have also reformulated our strategic objectives in the longer term to focus rigorously on areas that represent our core strengths and where we can deliver the highest level of market differentiation. Our largest and most successful product category continues to be metal fencing which maintained it's growth post-pandemic. This category will continue to be the primary focus of our operations as we expand our in-store presence and introduce innovative, margin-accretive products. We are actively expanding our retail footprint and market penetration, which includes thousands of display units already deployed. Our recently launched Lifetime Steel Post(R) program is currently live in 422 stores, demonstrating strong retail acceptance. We view this presence as merely a small fraction of its potential, indicating significant opportunities for growth through broader retail placement, new channels, and continued product enhancement."
"As global trade conditions stabilize, a significant opportunity remains to grow and sustainably rebuild margins by deepening key partnerships, improving purchasing discipline, and bringing our core fencing products to more customers than ever before. Furthermore, we are working with our customers to better align our costs with the prices we charge for our products. This structural alignment is critical to ensuring our long-term profitability and insulating the business against future volatility," concluded Summers.
Continual Strategic Review
Management and the Board have evaluated, and continue to evaluate, a variety of strategic options for the Company, as well as its individual operating segments and assets, that prioritize the Company's overall value. This comprehensive strategy includes concentrating on the Company's core metal fencing products, its largest and most successful product category, significantly improving operational efficiencies and cost structures, and actively monetizing non-core assets. The Company will pursue opportunities to sell excess inventory, and explore collaborative alliances and business partnerships to best monetize non-core assets and business lines which may include the Company's industrial lumber subsidiary, selective pet assets, its wood fencing business, and sale of certain real estate assets. Further, the Company is commited to continuing to reduce operating expenses by an additional $1 million to $3 million annually. It is the Company's intent to exit fiscal 2026 with a business model that is sustainable in the long term, leveraging the current value of non-core assets to fund its core growth strategy and deliver enhanced value to shareholders. Strategic options under consideration may include mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures and other business collaborations and partnerships that would potentially involve specific assets or business lines of the Company. The Company engages in preliminary discussions with third parties from time to time regarding a variety of potential transactions. There can be no assurance that these discussions will result in definitive agreements or the completion of any transaction. The Company does not intend to provide further updates on these discussions unless and until a definitive agreement is reached.
Recent Key Activities
-- Overhead & Administrative Expense Reductions: The Company is executing on
a plan to further reduce operating expenses by approximately $1 to $3
million annually through warehouse optimization and administrative
expense cuts.
-- Sale of Excess Lumber Inventory: Recently, the Company's primarily lumber
customer gave notice of its intention to transition away from our
consignment arrangement in calendar year 2026. Although this consignment
arrangement provided Jewett-Cameron with meaningful revenue, it was a
low-margin, low-profitability business. We currently have approximately
$5 million in excess lumber inventory acquired in direct support of this
consignment program. The Company is currently in discussions with this
customer and other third parties regarding the purchase of excess lumber
inventory.
-- Sale of Excess Pet Inventory: Demand for some of the Company's pet
products remains slow amid overall weakness in the pet market. As a
result, Jewett-Cameron continues to have excess pet inventory at its
warehouse. The Company is working with third-party liquidators to sell
this high-quality, slow-moving inventory, which will generate cash and
reduce warehousing costs for these products. Since we expect to sell this
inventory at lower prices, we have increased our allowance for obsolete
inventory by $650,000 in fiscal 2025 over our allowance in fiscal 2024.
-- Potential Transaction Involving Greenwood: The Company is reviewing
potential transactions that could enhance the overall value of Greenwood,
our wholesale distributor of a variety of specialty wood products focused
on the transportation industry. These transactions may involve a sale,
joint venture, merger or other collaborative arrangement.
-- MyEcoWorld: The imposition of the new tariffs beginning in February 2025
made the Company's products less price competitive, making growth in the
grocery segment much more challenging. Going forward, Jewett-Cameron will
be focusing on expanding upon its successful introductions into big box
stores where the Company has existing strong supplier relationships. An
additional consideration would be foreign markets that are unburdened by
the new U.S. tariffs making these products more competitive.
-- Sale of Seed Processing and Storage Facility: The current sluggish
economic conditions in both cities near the Company's former seed
cleaning property and in greater Portland have reduced the previously
perceived need to quickly expand the urban growth boundary, including
extending it toward the area containing the Company's seed property.
Therefore, any inclusion of this property in expanded urban growth
boundaries or a reclassification of the property from its limited rural
industrial classification now appears unlikely in the short term, given
the prevailing economic and political environment in the surrounding
area. Accordingly, the Company has relisted the property at a price of
$7.223 million. The property currently has a book value of $566,022 and
is unencumbered.
-- Sale of the Innovation Studio Property: The Company has also listed for
sale its innovation studio property in North Plains, Oregon, at a listing
price of $795,000.
-- Line of Credit: As of August 31, 2025, Jewett-Cameron had borrowed $2.1
million against its credit line with Northrim Funding Services
("Northrim"). Under the current terms of the agreement, Northrim provides
short-term operating capital by either purchasing the Company's accounts
receivable or issuing a loan against a portion of the Company's inventory
position. The maximum the Company may borrow against the line is
currently $6 million. As of November 28, 2025, borrowings under this line
were $4,304,853. Jewett-Cameron is currently in discussions with Northrim
to adjust the credit line to increase the maximum borrowing computation,
thereby providing the Company with additional financial flexibility and
increasing the maximum amount available to it.
Financial Results
Fiscal 2025 sales totaled $41.3 million compared to sales of $47.1 million in fiscal 2024, a decrease of 12%. The Company's sales during the first two quarters of fiscal 2025 were up slightly compared to the same quarters of fiscal 2024. Announced in February 2025, the implementation of new import tariffs, particularly on steel and aluminum products, disrupted the markets and caused both consumers and retailers to pause or suspend their purchases of affected products. While many companies rapidly increased their prices to reflect their higher product costs, existing customer agreements prevented Jewett-Cameron from immediately passing these costs on to customers. Our customer relationships are such that any of our price increases must be consented to by the customer. The customer may not agree to any increases or negotiate lower price increases, and any changes may only be accepted after 30 to 90 days, or longer, if at all. Ultimately, many of our customers did not immediately accept higher prices for our products which we adjusted in response to the increased costs associated with the tariffs and global trade disruption. The frequent changes to tariff rates since February also caused some of the price changes we instituted in response to become obsolete before we could pass them on to our customers. This forced us to spend time to recalculate the new prices and begin the process of presenting them to, and negotiating with, our customers again, which further affected our ability to recapture our higher costs through increasing our sale prices.
The tariff-driven increases in the Company's product costs and lower sales volumes, compounded by customers' initial reluctance to accept price increases, resulted in a decline in gross margins, which fell overall to 15.1% in fiscal 2025 from 18.8% in fiscal 2024. The Company's 2025 margins were also negatively affected by an increase in an obsolete inventory reserve of $650,000, to $1.2 million, up from $550,000 in fiscal 2024.
Operating expenses in fiscal 2025 were reduced to $10.0 million from $10.7 million in fiscal 2024. Selling, general and administrative expenses were relatively flat at $3.9 million. Wages and employee benefits fell to $5.8 million from $6.4 million as the Company reduced headcount in fiscal 2025 to better align its workforce with the Company's strategic direction. Depreciation and amortization totaled $323,000 compared to $353,000. Loss from operations was $(3.8) million compared to a loss of $(1.8) million for fiscal 2024.
For fiscal 2025, other income was $(135,000), which is primarily due to interest paid for borrowing against the Company's line of credit. For fiscal 2024, other income of $2.6 million was primarily related to the successfully settled arbitration case against a former distributor. Other items for fiscal 2024 included a gain on sale of assets and interest income.
Including other items, the net loss before income taxes for fiscal 2025 was $(3.9) million compared to income before income taxes of $804,000 in fiscal 2024. Income tax expense for fiscal 2025 was $(244,000) compared to income tax expense of $(82,000) in fiscal 2024. The Company calculates income tax expense based on the combined federal and state rates that are currently in effect.
Net loss in fiscal 2025 was $(4.1) million, or ($1.18) per share, compared to net income of $722,000, or $0.21 per share, for fiscal 2024. The weighted number of shares outstanding was 3,512,975 in fiscal 2025 and 3,503,221 in fiscal 2024.
Conference Call Details
Date and Time: Monday, December 1, 2025, at 4:30 p.m. Eastern time
Webcast Information: The webcast will be accessible live and will be archived at https://app.webinar.net/exAo7L2KdDQ and accessible on the Investors section of the Company's website at https://jewettcameron.com/pages/investor-relations. To submit questions, please send them to JCTC@lythampartners.com.
About Jewett-Cameron Trading Company Ltd. (JCTC)
Jewett-Cameron Trading Company Ltd. is a trusted provider of innovative, high-quality products that enrich outdoor spaces. Jewett-Cameron Company's business consists of the manufacturing and distribution of patented and patent-pending specialty metal and sustainable bag products and the wholesale distribution of wood products. The Company's brands include Lucky Dog(R) for pet products; Jewett Cameron Fence for brands such as Adjust-A-Gate(R), Fit-Right(R), Perimeter Patrol(R), Euro Fence, Lifetime Steel Post(R), and Jewett Cameron Lumber for gates and fencing; MyEcoWorld(R) for sustainable bag products; and Early Start, Spring Gardner, Greenline(R) and Weatherguard for greenhouses. Additional information about the Company and its products can be found on the Company's website at www.jewettcameron.com.
Forward-looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements, within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of words like "plans", "expects", "aims", "believes", "projects", "anticipates", "intends", "estimates", "will", "should", "could" and similar expressions in connection with any discussion, expectation, or projection of future operating or financial performance, events or trends. Forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and assumptions, which are inherently subject to uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict, including but not limited to the fact that our business is highly competitive, we are continually seeking ways to expand our business, we may seek additional financing or other ways to expand operations and improve margins, the uncertainties of the Company's new product introductions, the risks of increased competition and technological change, customer concentration risk, supply chain delays, governmental and regulatory risks, and uncertain tariff and transport rates, as well as the other risk factors that are set forth in more detail in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and other documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Actual outcomes and results may differ materially from these expectations and assumptions due to changes in global political, economic, business, competitive, market, regulatory and other factors. We may not actually achieve the goals or plans described in our forward-looking statements, and investors should not place undue reliance on these statements. Any forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made, and we undertake no obligation to publicly update or review any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as required by law.
Investor Contact:
Robert Blum
Lytham Partners
Phone: (602) 889-9700
JCTC@lythampartners.com
JEWETT-CAMERON TRADING COMPANY LTD. AND SUBSIDIARIES
CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS
(Expressed in U.S. Dollars)
AS OF AUGUST 31
2025 2024
======================================= =========== ===========
ASSETS
Current assets
Cash and cash equivalents $ 226,213 $ 4,853,367
Accounts receivable, net of
allowance of $0 (August 31, 2024 -
$0) 3,863,678 3,668,815
Inventory, net of allowance of
$1,200,000 (August 31, 2024 -
$550,000) 15,885,589 13,157,243
Asset held for sale 566,022 566,022
Prepaid expenses 1,000,439 891,690
Prepaid income taxes 180,151 50,326
---------- ----------
Total current assets 21,722,092 23,187,463
Property, plant and equipment, net 3,643,114 3,849,800
Intangible assets, net 111,389 112,222
Deferred tax assets 3 341,029
---------- ----------
Total assets $25,476,598 $27,490,514
======================================== ========== ==========
LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY
Current liabilities
Accounts payable $ 1,510,173 $ 1,237,988
Bank indebtedness 2,101,835 --
Accrued liabilities 1,083,612 1,401,382
---------- ----------
Total liabilities 4,695,620 2,639,370
---------- ----------
Stockholders' equity
Capital stock Authorized 21,567,564
common shares, no par value 10,000,000
preferred shares, no par value Issued
3,518,119 common shares (August 31,
2024 -- 3,504,802) 830,003 826,861
Additional paid-in capital 852,510 795,726
Retained earnings 19,098,465 23,228,557
---------- ----------
Total stockholders' equity 20,780,978 24,851,144
---------- ----------
Total liabilities and stockholders'
equity $25,476,598 $27,490,514
======================================== ========== ==========
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.
JEWETT-CAMERON TRADING COMPANY LTD. AND SUBSIDIARIES
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS
(Expressed in U.S. Dollars)
YEARS ENDED AUGUST 31
2025 2024
===================================== =========== ===========
SALES $41,298,140 $47,145,176
COST OF SALES 35,046,144 38,261,532
---------- ----------
GROSS PROFIT 6,251,996 8,883,644
---------- ----------
OPERATING EXPENSES
Selling, general and
administrative 3,856,829 3,887,769
Depreciation and amortization 322,531 352,866
Wages and employee benefits 5,823,262 6,413,419
---------- ----------
10,002,622 10,654,054
---------- ----------
(Loss) income from operations (3,750,626) (1,770,410)
---------- ----------
OTHER ITEMS
Other income 306 2,450,000
Gain on sale of property, plant
and equipment 800 90,787
Interest (expense) income (136,504) 33,446
---------- ----------
(135,398) 2,574,233
(Loss) income before income taxes (3,886,024) 803,823
Income taxes
Current (244,068) (103,224)
Deferred recovery - 21,154
---------- ----------
Net income (loss) for the year $(4,130,092) $ 721,753
-------------------------------------- ---------- ----------
Basic earnings (loss) per common share $ (1.18) $ 0.21
Diluted earnings (loss) per common
share $ (1.18) $ 0.21
Weighted average number of common
shares outstanding:
Basic 3,512,975 3,503,221
Diluted 3,512,975 3,503,221
====================================== ========== ==========
The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.
JEWETT-CAMERON TRADING COMPANY LTD. AND SUBSIDIARIES
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS
(Expressed in U.S. Dollars)
YEARS ENDED AUGUST 31
2025 2024
===================================== ============ ==============
CASH FLOWS FROM OPERATING ACTIVITIES
Net (loss) income for the year $(4,130,092) $ 721,753
Items not affecting cash:
Depreciation and amortization 322,531 352,866
Stock-based compensation expense 59,926 32,064
Gain on sale of property, plant
and equipment (800) (90,787)
Deferred income taxes 341,026 (21,154)
Changes in non-cash working
capital items:
(Increase) decrease in accounts
receivable (194,863) 1,966,109
(Increase) decrease in inventory (2,728,346) 5,181,805
(Increase) in prepaid expenses (108,749) (260,902)
(Increase) in prepaid income
taxes (129,825) (50,326)
(Decrease) in accounts payable
and accrued liabilities (45,585) (1,655,018)
(Decrease) in income taxes
payable - (147,629)
---------- ----------
Net cash and cash equivalents
(used in) provided by operating
activities (6,614,777) 6,028,781
---------- ----------
CASH FLOWS FROM INVESTING ACTIVITIES
Proceeds on sale of property,
plant and equipment 800 110,689
Purchase of property, plant and
equipment (115,012) (110,540)
---------- ----------
Net cash and cash equivalents
provided by (used in) investing
activities (114,212) 149
---------- ----------
CASH FLOWS FROM FINANCING ACTIVITIES
Proceed from (repayment of) bank
indebtedness 2,101,835 (1,259,259)
---------- ----------
Net cash and cash equivalents
used in financing activities 2,101,835 (1,259,259)
---------- ----------
Net (decrease) increase in cash and
cash equivalents (4,627,154) 4,769,671
Cash and cash equivalents, beginning
of year 4,853,367 83,696
---------- ----------
Cash and cash equivalents, end of year $ 226,213 $ 4,853,367
====================================== ========== ==========
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 01, 2025 16:05 ET (21:05 GMT)