Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to Northern Technologies International Corporation Third Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call and Webcast. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one one on your telephone. You will then hear an automatic message advising your hand is raised. Please note that today's conference is being recorded. As part of the discussion today, the representative from NTIC will be making certain forward-looking statements regarding NTIC's future financial and operating results, as well as their business plans, objectives, and expectations. Please be advised that these forward-looking statements are covered under the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, that NTIC desires to avail itself of the protections of the safe harbor of these statements. Please also be advised that actual results could differ materially from those stated or implied by the forward-looking statements due to certain risks and uncertainties, including those described in NTIC's most recent annual report on Form 10-K, subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and recent press releases. Please read these reports and other future filings that NTIC will make with the SEC. NTIC disclaims any duty to update or revise its forward-looking statement. I will now hand the conference over to your speaker host for today, Mr. Patrick Lynch, Executive Officer. Please go ahead, sir. Good morning. I'm Patrick Lynch, NTIC's CEO, and I'm here with Matt Wolsfeld, NTIC's CFO. Please note that a press release regarding our third quarter fiscal 2023 financial results was issued earlier this morning and is available at ntic.com. During today's call, we will review various key aspects of our fiscal 2023 third quarter financial results, provide a brief business update, and then conclude with a question-and-answer session. Record top-line sales for our Zerust Industrial, Zerust Oil & Gas, and Natur-Tec segments in turn, pushed total sales for the third quarter to a new quarterly record as well. It would appear, therefore, that our strong third quarter performance not only revalidates the efficacy of our long-term growth strategies, but also the value that our corrosion inhibiting products and services and bioplastic solutions provide to our growing customer base. I am proud of these results as they show that our team members and joint venture partners have been working hard to support the complex needs of our global customers while also navigating extremely dynamic currents. As planned, we also made considerable progress rebuilding our gross margins and controlling operating expenses this period. Our third quarter gross margin of 36.7% marks a significant improvement on both a sequential and year-over-year basis. This primarily reflects the positive impact of the countermeasures we put in place against supply chain issues, significant raw material cost increases, and challenges across our European and Asian markets. As we look to the fourth quarter and beyond, momentum in our business remains positive. We believe NTIC China sales will improve in the fourth quarter and into fiscal 2024, now that the Chinese economy finally has the opportunity to start rebounding from its exceptionally long self-imposed pandemic freeze. Zerust Oil & Gas and Natur-Tec are both expected to continue to benefit from new customer relationships and incremental orders from existing customers. Therefore, we believe we are well-positioned for a strong finish to fiscal 2023 and believe fiscal 2024 will also enjoy good growth and higher profitability. With this overview, let's examine the drivers for the third quarter in more detail. For the third quarter, ended 31 May 2023, our total consolidated net sales increased 10.6% to a quarterly record of $21 million as compared to the third quarter, ended 31 May 2022. Broken down by business units, this included a 32.7% increase in Zerust Oil & Gas net sales, a 9% increase in Zerust Industrial net sales, a 7.8% increase in Natur-Tec net sales. Total net sales for the fiscal 2023 third quarter by our joint ventures, which we do not consolidate in our financial statements, decreased year-over-year by 1.1% to $26.3 million, but were up 3.3% on a sequential basis. A slight year-over-year decline was due primarily to softer demand across the territories serviced by our global joint ventures and currency exchange rate fluctuations. Fiscal 2023, third quarter net sales by our wholly-owned NTIC China subsidiary decreased by 8.4% to $3.3 million due to weaker economic conditions on a year-over-year basis. On a sequential basis, NTIC China sales were up 15.6%, which we believe reflects stabilizing demand trends, we continue to expect demand to improve throughout the remainder of this fiscal year. We remain committed to the Chinese market and the long-term opportunities it represents for NTIC. We continue to take steps to enhance and protect our Chinese operations, we continue to believe China will likely become our largest geographic market in the future. Moving on to Zerust Oil & Gas. The fiscal 2023 third quarter was the strongest quarter we have ever had for Zerust Oil & Gas, as sales increased 32.7% to a record $2 million. The third quarter of fiscal 2023 is also the fifth consecutive quarter of Zerust Oil & Gas sales over $1.5 million, and on a trailing twelve-month basis, we have reported nearly $7 million of oil and gas sales. We believe these positive trends reflect accelerating momentum within our oil and gas business. Interest continues to grow from new and existing customers for our Zerust Oil & Gas solutions, which include applications to protect above-ground oil storage tanks and pipeline casings from corrosion. The expanding adoption of our Zerust Oil & Gas solutions within the oil and gas industry is supporting bigger opportunities for our Zerust Oil & Gas products and technologies. We believe that fiscal 2023 will be a transformative year for Zerust Oil & Gas, as we expect this business to scale and continue to contribute to profitability. Turning to our Natur-Tec Bioplastics business. Natur-Tec sales growth re-accelerated in the third quarter after seasonality and the timing of both shipments and orders impacted Natur-Tec sales in our second quarter. Fiscal 2023, third quarter Natur-Tec sales were a record $4.9 million, a 7.8% increase over the prior fiscal year period. We expect Natur-Tec sales growth will remain strong in the fourth quarter, supported by favorable demand in North America and India, and significant new customer wins and orders in these geographies. Globally, we continue to see growing market demand for new applications of certified compostable plastic products and resin compounds, as well as increased interest in commercial and municipal programs that use certified compostable plastics as alternatives to conventional plastics. As a result, we believe we are well positioned for long-term, sustainable growth within our Natur-Tec Bioplastics business. As you can see, our third quarter performance reflects the progress we are making to profitably grow our business and create significant value for our shareholders. This is a testament to the leading solutions we have created, the valuable services we provide, and the strength of our team members and joint ventures. With this overview, let me now turn the call over to Matt Wolsfeld to summarize our financial results for the fiscal 2023 third quarter. Thanks, Patrick. Compared to the prior fiscal year period, NTIC's consolidated net sales increased 10.6% in the fiscal 2023 third quarter to a quarterly record. This growth was driven by the positive trends Patrick reviewed in his prepared remarks. Actions to improve gross margins successfully offset a 1.1% decrease in third quarter sales across our joint ventures to drive a one-half percent increase in third quarter joint venture operating income compared to the prior fiscal year period. Total operating expenses for fiscal 2023 third quarter were $8 million, a 12.8% increase over the prior fiscal year period, which was primarily due to increased personnel expenses and expenses incurred during the current fiscal year period in connection with the startup of a new indirect majority-owned subsidiary, formed to assume the operations of a former joint venture in Taiwan. Operating expenses as a percentage of net sales were 38.3%, compared to 37.5% for the prior fiscal year period. Gross profit as a percentage of net sales increased 36.7% during the three months ended 31 May 2023, compared to 32.9% during the same period last fiscal year. The 380 basis point improvement was primarily a result of successful actions taken by the company to address inflationary pressures and the increased sales of higher gross margin Zerust Oil & Gas solutions. NTIC's reported net income increased 52.5% to $1.5 million, or $0.16 per diluted share for the fiscal 2023 third quarter, compared to $1 million or $0.11 per diluted share for the fiscal 2022 third quarter. NTIC's non-GAAP net income, adjusted for amortization expense, was $1.6 million or $0.17 per diluted share, compared to $1.1 million or $0.12 per diluted share for the fiscal 2022 third quarter. A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures is available in our third quarter earnings press release that was issued this morning. As of May 31, 2023, working capital is $23.7 million, including $6.2 million in cash and cash equivalents, compared to $23.2 million, including $5.3 million in cash and cash equivalents as of August 31, 2022. As of May 31, 2023, we had outstanding debt of $8 million. This included $5.2 million in borrowings under our existing revolving line of credit, compared to $7.1 million as of 28 February 2023. During the fiscal 2023 third quarter, the company's wholly-owned subsidiary in China, NTIC China, entered into two term loan agreements. Both loan agreements have an annual interest rate of 3.5%, the total outstanding balance was $12.8 million as of 31 May 2023. The proceeds of these term loans were used to pay off intercompany loans that NTIC China had with NTIC. We generated $3.5 million in operating cash flows for the nine months ended 31 May 2023, including $1.3 million in the third quarter, which was driven primarily by stronger profitability and waning inventory levels. On 31 May 2023, the company had $22.9 million of investments in joint ventures, of which approximately 53.2% or $12.1 million, was in cash, with the remaining balance primarily invested in other working capital. During the fiscal 2023 third quarter, NTIC's board of directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.07 per common share that was payable on 17 May 2023, to stockholders of record on 3 May 2023. To conclude, our third quarter and year-to-date financial results demonstrate the continued progress we have made to increase sales across our diverse end markets and geographies, and the success of our near-term initiatives to improve profitability. I'm encouraged by the direction we're headed. While the economic environment remains extremely fluid, we continue to believe fiscal 2023 will be another good year of sales and profitability at NTIC. With this overview, Patrick and I are happy to take your questions. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, if you'd like to ask a question, you will need to press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. Once again, to ask a question, please press star one one. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. I'd also like to mention that Vineet Dalal is joining us this morning. If you have any questions regarding Natur-Tec. One moment for our first question. First question coming from the line of Timothy Clarkson with Van Clemens. Your line is open. Hey, I've got a few questions here. On a big picture basis, what's the impact of this trend towards electric cars? Does it change the need for rust corrosion products, is an electric car versus a gas car? It will, because there's simply, fewer parts in an electric vehicle than there are in an, in an ICE engine. Okay. We have not seen it yet, and actually, our sales are growing into the EV market as we speak. We do ultimately expect that there will be some transition as the industry moves more towards EV vehicles. Okay. I want to ask about on the compostable end. Again, what would you say is, as long as we got the expert there, what would you say is the differentiating factors on Natur-Tec's compostable products versus the competitors? I think we just make products that are easier to process on conventional plastics equipment, cheaper and, you know, better properties. We, you know, we are kind of unique in the fact that we are base material agnostic, so we work with PLAs, PHAs, PBATs. We work with the brand to understand their packaging requirements, and then based on those packaging requirements, we actually engineer a solution that meets the requirements at a affordable price. Okay. At what point does, you know, the typical McDonald's or you know, the typical fast food restaurants start to be using these kinds of products? I know they use them in the airports, but at what point does it become kind of a standard? I think it's a function of regulation. Obviously, a lot of the QSRs are price conscious, so widespread adoption is still further out. In those areas where, by law, they're required to use compostable products, we are seeing adoption happening. What would be the typical extra expense on a compostable packaging versus conventional packaging? It depends on the type of product. It could be anywhere from, let's say, a 10%-20% premium to maybe 2x or 3x. Okay. All right. Okay. Then just another question here on the oil business. I mean, how big is that market versus, you know, the legacy market? We think that the oil and gas market has more potential than everything we've done in Zerust so far. Okay. Uh-huh. Now, those products, you know, I always tell my customers that, you know, for essentially about 1%... cost that you can extend the life of these tanks, you know, from 10 years to 30 years. Are those kinds of payoffs actually occurring in the field? Yes, we've seen the evidence in the in the installations we've done, where we've proven it to our customers that the solutions work in that manner, yes. Right. Right. It's not just replacing the tank, it's all the problems with leaking oil and EPA and production problems that are associated with that, if the tanks start leaking, obviously. There's a huge incentive by the tank farm owners to implement a solution like we're offering. Right. I, you know, you guys haven't talked anything about Brazil. Is there anything new going on in Brazil? Nothing worth mentioning that, on this phone call today. Okay. All right, well, that's my questions. Great quarter. Good to see the profitability come back. Thanks. Thanks, Tim. Thank you. Our next question coming from the line of Gus Richard with Northland Capital Markets. The The line is open. Yes, thanks for taking my question. I was just wondering if you could add a little color. You mentioned sort of new customers in Natur-Tec, both North America and India. I was wondering if you could, you know, is that for garment bags in India or compostable for consumer products? You know, just any color on that, on that pipeline, what's going on in North America as well? Sure, Gus. In North America, we've expanded our distribution network, and we are starting to see some market share pickup. Hopefully, over the next few quarters, we'll be able to, that should add to the sales of the finished products that we sell in North America. Our traditional, kind of resin sales for food service, their demand is consistent, we expect some additional, pickup sales in Asia. We are seeing some new customers in the garment space in Asia, in South Asia, for example, where we have had some good wins. I think overall, we are starting to see, new customers come in. Some of the, we've got a good pipeline of opportunities and, especially as things kind of calm down and the supply chain challenges, ebb, we're seeing some of these, customers starting to adopt our solutions. Got it. Then sort of a similar question for oil and gas. you know, just wondering, you know, you've got a lot of work in Caspian Sea. You know, you talk about, you know, sort of additional orders from existing customers and new customers coming in. Can you give a little bit of color on that pipeline as well? We are getting repeat orders from existing customers and bringing in new customers on a regular basis. As we speak, our market continues to grow. Pretty much everywhere we. Okay. Okay, got it. Just switching over to the cost side. You know, energy prices have been fluctuating. I would expect, given the heat waves and whatnot, that natural gas prices could increase. You know, sort of how are you positioned on, you know, cost escalators? You know, how are the commodities impacting, you know, sort of the gross margin line currently? Or is it, you know, just a mix issue that's going to drive upside going forward? If you kind of, Gus, this is Matt. If you kind of take a look back over the past nine months, obviously, you know, before we started this year, we were at really high commodity prices for a lot of our base materials. Over the past nine months, you know, we have seen that come down to a much more, you know, reasonable level, and that's one of the things that's fueled the rebound in the gross margin, is kind of back to meeting what our typical gross margins were before we saw the spiking of the raw material pricing. You know, I would say even right now, from a natural gas standpoint, you know, in the derivative resin pricing, we're still seeing relatively low levels. We're not seeing, at least at this point in time, or have an expectation that the raw materials or, you know, specifically the resins, are going to be increasing anytime soon. You know, right now, we're continuing to see that rebound in gross margin as we see it flow through all of our existing inventory and, you know, the pricing that we're giving to our customers. Got it. In sort of your long-term contracts, am I correct in assuming that there's, you know, sort of escalators if there is a spike in raw material? I mean, there are, obviously, you know, in most situations, we're doing spot pricing. You know, in about 70% of our business, we're doing spot pricing based on the price of raw material at that time. The other 30%, some of it is just, you know, purchasing of our stock inventory, which we can control, but it takes longer for us to adjust that pricing and then have that flow through the inventory we have on hand. You know, a small portion of our total business are blanket orders for, you know, a full year or for a longer period of time. That tends to be the situation where we, you know, potentially could get caught with, you know, either negative or positive, you know, impacts on margins. You know, we think we have a much better handle on where we are right now from a pricing standpoint, and I think we are positioning ourselves now to act quicker than we did, you know, 12 to 15 months ago when we saw some of the, you know, some of the volatility that we've talked about over the past five quarters. Got it. Got it. Then just flipping over. You know, China, there's been a lot of commentary in the press about, you know, the strength and duration of the recovery. You know, just any comments on kind of what you've been seeing over the last quarter in terms of, you know, the trajectory? Is it just stabilized? Is it improving, you know, is it moving on beyond auto? You know, any help there? It's difficult, it's difficult kind of for us to say exactly where it's hitting and what's going on, you know, from a sales standpoint in China. You know, it's existing customers that are ordering that are ordering less, is what we're seeing. There's just kind of a general slowdown compared to when I look at, like, the revenues that we achieved, you know, in all of our fiscal 2021 and, you know, the first half of our fiscal 2022. We're simply at lower lower sales level and not seeing the recovery and the rebound that we expected to see. You know, we did have better sales in Q3 than Q2, but, you know, we're still a half million dollars to $1 million off on a quarterly basis where we were through the majority of our fiscal 2021. What we're looking is to see, you know, kind of that recovery take place, to get back to that level, and then ultimately grow, you know, grow the markets in China beyond that. It still is a large, you know, a very large potential market for us. You know, obviously, it's a bit of a headwind given that, you know, we are basically hovering right at a break-even point on that subsidiary. Got it. Last one for me. You mentioned, sort of FX impact on the JVs. You know, is that a dollar-euro impact, you know, or any color on that one? That's it for me. The majority of it, you know, there's two key, well, really, three key exchange rates that we deal with. Obviously, the EUR from a JV standpoint, which has been relatively stable between, you know, 1.07 and 1.1, for the past few quarters. Part of the secondary impact would be in India, and that appears to be, you know, a kind of a consistent, you know, increase in the exchange rate, you know, which has had some issues from the standpoint of if they're paying us for resins, if they're paying us for their receivables, you know, that's just a little bit of a headwind, and it's gonna be a push on, you know, on overall revenue. Thirdly, and obviously, this bounces around a little bit more, is in China. You know, one of the things that we've done in China to kind of mitigate some of the exchange fluctuation was to move the debt that we had at NTIC China from a loan to NTIC in North America to be localized in China. You know, our Chinese entity took out a little over $2 million or right around $2 million in term loans, and then repaid that amount to NTIC in North America. That helps a little bit with the currency, the currency volatility there. You know, you still have fluctuation with the currency in China, given the sales and given the overall profitability that they have. Got it. Got it. very helpful. Appreciate it. That's it for me. Great. Thanks, Gus. Thank you. Our next question coming from the line of Richard Hillman, Private Investor. Your line is open. Yeah, good morning, gentlemen. Yeah, I had two questions. First thing was about, I guess the sales cycle in oil and gas, what it was before and what it is now, you know, to sign up a new customer. You know, and also, how did you get to the inflection point you're at right now? Was there some sort of industry accreditation for those products, or can you talk about that a little bit, please? I think what we're seeing is. You know, we've talked before about some of the difficulties in oil and gas being the volatility and not having kind of a baseline level of sales. What we're finally starting to see is more of a consistent amount of ordering coming in so that we can kind of have a base level of sales, you know, that we can kind of count on a quarterly basis. You know, if I look back at the past five quarters, it's been, you know, nice growth from the standpoint of, you know, if I go back to, like, Q3 last year, $1.5 million to $1.6 million, to a little over $1.6 million, to $1.8 million, and now up to $2 million, we're seeing a nice level of growth. You know, the one thing that you do have with oil and gas is, it is a much longer sales cycle. It takes much longer to become integrated with the customers, for them to test out the product, for them to understand, you know, the return that it will give them and the benefits it'll have to the overall infrastructure. Just historically, the oil and gas market is a slower market to adopt new technology. What we're happy with is that the sales that we have now and that we've seen over the past, as I said, 4 or 5 quarters, are coming from a wide number of customers in a lot of different applications, meaning that the opportunity inside of each of those customers are significantly bigger. You're not talking about selling one tank or selling one casing to a customer, and then that customer goes away. You're talking about selling one or two tanks to a customer when they potentially have, you know, tens or hundreds of, you know, of sales opportunities or infrastructure issues. That's one of the reasons why we are excited about the oil and gas space, is just because as you get integrated with these customers and you show the potential return, the opportunity is, you know, huge multiples compared to a situation where you would just have a one-off sale, and then you move on. Okay. Matt, also, I wanted to ask you about, you know, R&D across the company. Basically, where do you consider yourself to be a specialty chemical company? Also, what are you doing to improve your R&D effort on the divisional level, you know, for your companies, you know, your joint ventures, and also with universities or outside partners? Sure. What I think what I'll do is, I mean, I can touch a little bit on R&D from a, from the Zerust standpoint, then I'll let Vineet touch on the R&D aspect from the Natur-Tec standpoint. you know, from a Zerust standpoint, you can obviously see what we're doing, you know, as I just kind of explained in oil and gas, as far as how we've transitioned a lot of the work over the past, really, the past decade, from being research to more development, to be more, you know, integrated with, you know, and building sales, we've really seen that transition happen. We don't partner as much from a industrial standpoint with universities. The development that we do is typically in our R&D facility here or in our R&D facility that we have with EXCOR in Germany. Typically, a lot of that development has to do with tweaking existing products, coming up with, you know, new formulations to potentially sell, you know, or new products to sell to existing customers, and potentially new markets. That's how we've gotten into some of the new markets over the past. You know, if I look over the past five or 10 years, some of the new markets that we've got into have dealt with a lot of new products that were, that we did develop internally and are selling. You know, the R&D capability from a Zerust standpoint is much more internally focused and, you know, geared towards selling and providing products to the existing markets that we're currently serving. Yeah, from a Natur-Tec perspective, we do have a good, strong core R&D group here in Minnesota. We also have R&D labs in India and some R&D going on in China. On the Natur-Tec side, we also partner very heavily with Michigan State University, which is probably one of the leading biomaterials program in the world. We do have some arrangements with Clemson University for usage of testing capabilities and some specific advanced development capabilities. We do work with the universities also in India to kind of develop specific aspects of new product development that we are engaged in those areas. In general, a lot of that strategic direction in terms of R&D is driven out of, the U.S. here. Okay. Okay. In terms of, you know, Natur-Tec, what other areas are you going into besides just compostable materials? I mean, the Natur-Tec business is focused more on compostables than biomaterials. We are looking at bio-based products. We're looking at multilayer structures for packaging, consumer packaging, food packaging, on the longer term, we are also looking at fibers, especially for textiles. Compostable fibers? Yeah, bio-based compostable fibers. Yeah. Okay. Okay, thanks very much. Thank you. Our next question coming from the line of Gregory Weaver with Invicta Capital Management. Your line is open. Yeah. Hi, good morning, gentlemen. Thanks for taking my questions here, and glad to have Vineet on the call. I guess I'll start with Vineet. Has there been any go-to-market changes for Natur-Tec here over the, you know, recent timeframe in terms of, you know, some of this traction you're seeing? Nothing significant. I think we're just executing to kind of our strategic plan and, you know, just, I think getting over the supply chain challenges of last year was critical because that meant, you know, raw material was widely available. We are also executing better on some of the opportunities that we had in our pipeline. How's it going with bulk resin sales? We don't sell bulk resins. We sell our compounds, and those are growing very nicely. Okay. I thought there was some opportunity. Maybe I'm mistaken. Years back in Europe when they were passing some of those bag laws for what I was characterized, I thought it was bulk resin, but I guess I'm mistaken. I guess just Patrick, I've known you since day one here at the head in the company, and I've never heard you this bulled up, so, I mean, people have pressed you on some of this oil and gas stuff, but I'm super happy to see it, and I guess kinda I'll try to get a little more color again here. Is it just that the phone's ringing now, as opposed to you out there, you know, beating the pavement? Is part of your excitement? Yes. I mean, we're getting. The phone is ringing repeatedly from the same sources. We're also finding new applications and expanding into new market segments, so geographically. Things are really humming on all across the board. In terms of the base level of sales that Matt was talking about, I mean, that doesn't really have much Petrobras these days in it? This is just onesie, twosies from a lot of guys, and I don't know if that big BP job has started to roll in yet or not, but. We are delivering on the BP job. We are still selling to Petrobras, we have not been working with Petrobras. We're still working with Petrobras. They have not bought any of the tank bottom solutions from us yet. That certainly is a technology that they're currently looking at. Okay. All right. Well, super, excited to hear the enthusiasm here on oil and gas, 'cause, yeah, given the margin structure there, it seems like it could do, wonders for the overall business. Keep up the good work, and, thank you. Appreciate it. Thanks. Thank you. I am showing we have a follow-up question from Gus Richard with Northland Capital. Your line is open. Yes, thanks for taking the additional question. Just based on some of your comments, I'm wondering, are you guys starting to work on, you know, recyclable products for Tetra Pak? Gus, we're not, we're not working on recycling, but we are looking at compostable versions of those multilayer structures. There's an increasing demand from brands for fully compostable versions of those solutions, but there are some specific barrier requirements, so it's still in development form. Okay. I'm assuming that given the inability to recycle that, those products, that there's an increasing desire to do so... Yes, absolutely. You, and you're working on the development of that, and that, could be an incremental market for you down the road. Yes, potentially. Got it. Got it. Thank you. Thank you. Our next question coming from the line of Don Holly. Your line is open. hello. Was that me? I'm not sure. Don Holly, your line is open. Just one question: do you have an inclination to buy out, to get 100% ownership in some of your joint ventures? Are there opportunities to do so? Is that possibility going forward, and is it desirable? I'm not. As you saw, we bought out India a little bit over a year ago. Yes. We are looking at buying out joint ventures as, if and as they become available, and if that's the right decision to make at that time. It's nothing right now on our radar to buy any more. If an opportunity presents itself and it makes sense to us, we will look and be looking into acquiring them. All right. Thank you. Thank you. I see no further questions in the Q&A queue at this time. I will now turn the call back over to Mr. Patrick Lynch for any closing remarks. Just wanted to thank everybody for their interest in NTIC this morning, and wish you all a good day. Ladies and gentlemen, that does end our conference for today. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect. Good day.