Hawkins Inc FY 2026 Earnings Call

Good morning, welcome to the Hawkins Incorporated Fiscal 2026 annual meeting. I would now like to introduce the main presenter, Patrick Hawkins.

Thank you, good morning, thank you for joining us for the Hawkins Incorporated virtual annual meeting of shareholders. The meeting is now called to order. Today, I'm joined by Jeff Oldenkamp, Chief Financial Officer, Dan Louismet, General Counsel. Dan Louismet is acting as Secretary of this meeting, I'm presiding as its Chair. All of our eight director nominees nominated for election at this meeting are also in attendance. Jim Faulconbridge, Mary Schumacher, Jeff Spethmann, Dan Stauber, Faith Tang, Jim Thompson, Jeff Wright, and me. Jan Castillo of Broadridge Financial Solutions Incorporated has been engaged to act as the Inspector of Election with respect to all matters to be voted upon at this meeting or any adjournment thereof and has taken and signed an oath as Inspector of Election, that document will be filed with the minutes of this meeting.

The Inspector of Election has informed us they are represented at this meeting, either in person or by proxy, holders of at least a majority of the outstanding shares of common stock as of the close of business on June 5th, 2026, the record date for this meeting. Accordingly, a quorum is present, we will proceed with the business of the meeting. Please remember that the polls remain open, shareholders may vote their shares online at any time during this meeting until the polls are closed. We'll now take up the business of the meeting, which consists of three proposals. The first proposal is to elect the eight director nominees I identified earlier. The second proposal is to ratify the appointment of Deloitte & Touche LLP as our independent registered public accounting firm.

The third proposal is an advisory, non-binding vote to approve the compensation of our executive officers as disclosed in the proxy statement for this meeting. Under our bylaws, no other business may properly come before this meeting. If you have previously voted by proxy do not wish to change your vote, your vote will be cast as you previously instructed, no further action is needed. If you wish to change your vote, if you did not send in a proxy wish to cast your new vote now, if you did not already cast your vote using the electronic voting system, you may vote by electronic ballot now until the polls are closed, which will occur shortly. While I give you a little time to vote, I wanted to recap our Fiscal 2026 results.

I need to note that some of our comments and responses to your questions may include forward-looking statements that are based on certain assumptions and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. The risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that could affect these forward-looking statements include risks that are described in Hawkins' SEC reports, including our Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 29th, 2026. Fiscal 2026 was yet another excellent year at Hawkins. Our strong operating results delivered record operating cash flow that allowed us to fund $167 million in acquisitions, invest $58 million in capital needs, and pay $16 million in dividends to our shareholders. I'm happy to say that our financial condition remains very strong.

We moved nearly two and a half billion pounds of products in Fiscal 2026, the chemicals we sold, among other uses by our customers, treated an estimated seven trillion gallons of water. To meet this demand while maintaining a high standard of service to our customers across 48 states, Hawkins now has 66 physical locations in 28 states and over 400 delivery trucks. Our nearly 1,200 employees across the country are the key to our success. I continue to be incredibly proud of how our team has worked to ensure that we continue to provide great products and service to our customers, all while meeting our high standards. I'm also honored that once again, we received Fortune's designation for best workplaces for manufacturing and production.

As we look ahead, we remain firmly committed to being a responsible and high-quality supplier, producing and distributing products that help keep the environment clean, investing in our communities, and treating our employees fairly and ethically. One thing that still remains the same is our long-term focus. While we will be prudent in our capital expenditures and investments, we expect to continue to invest in new Water Treatment Group branches and to make capital investments to drive higher-margin business. I believe we have some of the best employees and management and team members in the business and look forward to the future. We will now go through the voting results. Please complete your electronic ballot as the polls are about to close. You must ensure that you submit your electronic ballot in order for your votes to be counted.

The Inspector of Election will not accept votes submitted after the closing of the polls. Please note that any votes by electronic ballot submitted today will be subject to final verification by the Inspector of Election. I hereby declare that the polls are now closed for the voting on the items of business. All electronic ballots and proxies are now in the custody of Inspector of Election. The preliminary report of the Inspector of Election indicates that each of the eight director nominees received the affirmative vote of a plurality of the outstanding shares present at this meeting and entitled to vote. Accordingly, each has been elected to serve until the next annual meeting of shareholders or until a successor is duly elected.

In addition, the proposal to ratify the appointment of Deloitte & Touche as our auditor and the advisory vote to approve our executive compensation both received more votes for than against. There being no further business to conduct, I declare the business portion of this meeting can be adjourned. It appears there are no questions that have been submitted. On behalf of the entire management team and board, we sincerely appreciate your ongoing support of Hawkins. Please have a great rest of the day. Thank you very much. The meeting has concluded.

Thank you for attending. You may now disconnect.