Core Molding Technologies Reports Fiscal 2025 First Quarter Results

Focused Operational Execution Delivered Margin Improvements, Profitability, and Positive Free Cash Flow

COLUMBUS, Ohio, May 08, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Core Molding Technologies, Inc. (NYSE American: CMT) (“Core Molding”, “Core” or the “Company”), a leading engineered materials company specializing in molded structural products, principally in building products, industrial and utilities, medium and heavy-duty truck and powersports industries across the United States, Canada and Mexico, today reported financial and operating results for the three months ended March 31, 2025.

First Quarter 2025 Highlights

• Total net sales of $61.4 million decreased 21.4% compared to the prior year first quarter.

• Gross margin of $11.8 million, or 19.2% of net sales, increased from 17.0% of net sales compared to the prior year first quarter. Sequentially, gross margin improved 340 basis points from 15.8% in the prior year fourth quarter.

• Selling, general, and administrative expenses of $8.9 million, or 14.6% of net sales, compared to $8.6 million, or 11.0% for the prior year first quarter.

• Operating income of $2.8 million, or 4.6% of net sales, compared to operating income of $4.7 million, or 6.1% of net sales for the prior year first quarter.

• Net income of $2.2 million, or $0.25 per diluted share, compared to net income of $3.8 million, or $0.43 per diluted share for the prior year first quarter. Adjusted net income¹ of $2.6 million, or $0.29 per diluted share.

• Adjusted EBITDA¹ of $7.2 million, or 11.7% of net sales, compared to $8.7 million, or 11.2% for the prior year first quarter. Sequentially, Adjusted EBITDA as a percent of net sales improved to 11.7% compared to 9.2% in the prior year fourth quarter.

• For the first three months of fiscal 2025, 63,377 shares were repurchased under the share repurchase authorization at an average price of $14.50.

^{¹ Adjusted Net Income and Adjusted EBITDA are non-GAAP financial measure as defined and reconciled below.}

David Duvall, the Company’s President and Chief Executive Officer, said, “We delivered strong gross margin expansion, solid profitability, and positive free cash flow¹ this quarter, despite the anticipated revenue decline previously communicated. Our disciplined execution of Core’s “Invest for Growth” strategy drove $15 million in new business wins—$10 million of which came from new customer agreements for formulated sheet molding compound (SMC) materials. SMC wins are especially valuable, offering faster quote-to-cash cycles than our longer-lead technical solutions.

While macroeconomic and political uncertainties continue to impact visibility across industries, we’re actively assessing potential implications for our end markets. The trucking sector, for example, is facing a rare range of 2025 demand scenarios, according to ACT Research. As expected, we entered the year projecting a softer first half with recovery in the second half, driven by pre-buy activity in trucking and new program launches tied to our 2024 wins. We will update our full year sales outlook as customer demand becomes more clear.

Alex Panda, the Company’s VP, Corporate Controller and incoming Chief Financial Officer, commented, “As expected, sales declines resulted mainly due to the phase-out of one truck program, coupled with consumer demand weakness for powersports products during the first quarter. As a result of our $45 million of new revenue wins in 2024, our sales mix will be meaningfully impacted for the rest of 2025 by higher Tooling sales, which have a lower gross margin than Product sales. Notwithstanding this projected mix shift, we expect our full-year gross margin to remain in the 17% to 19% range.

“Our almost $45 million of cash reserves at the end of the quarter continue to provide flexibility for the Company to fund capital allocation priorities, which include organic and inorganic strategic growth initiatives. In addition, we are opportunistically repurchasing CMT’s stock on the open market, investing approximately $2 million in stock buybacks in 2025 so far, approximately $1 million of which occurred in the first quarter.”

2025 Capital Expenditures

The Company’s capital expenditures for first quarter 2025 were $1.8 million. The Company anticipates spending approximately $10 to $12 million during 2025 on property, plant and equipment purchases for all of the Company's operations. The Company generated a Return on Capital Employed¹ of 8.7% for the trailing twelve months and 11.7% excluding cash.

Financial Position at March 31, 2025

The Company’s total liquidity at the end of the first fiscal quarter 2025 was $94.5 million, with $44.5 million in cash, $25.0 million of undrawn capacity under the Company’s revolving credit facility and $25.0 million of undrawn capacity under the Company's capex credit facility. The Company’s term debt was $21.1 million at March 31, 2025. The term debt-to-trailing twelve months Adjusted EBITDA¹ was less than one times Adjusted EBITDA¹ at the end of the fiscal first quarter.

^{¹ Adjusted EBITDA, term debt-to-trailing twelve months Adjusted EBITDA and return on capital employed are non-GAAP financial measures as defined and reconciled below.}

Conference Call

The Company will conduct a conference call today at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time to discuss financial and operating results for the quarter ended March 31, 2025. To access the call live by phone, dial (888) 506-0062 and ask for the Core Molding Technologies call at least 10 minutes prior to the start time. A telephonic replay will be available through May 22, 2025, by calling (877) 481-4010 and using passcode ID: 52363#. A webcast of the call will also be available live and for later replay on the Company’s Investor Relations website at www.coremt.com/investor-relations/events-presentations/.

About Core Molding Technologies, Inc.

Core Molding Technologies is a leading engineered materials company specializing in molded structural products, principally in building products, utilities, transportation and powersports industries across North America. The Company operates in one operating segment as a molder of thermoplastic and thermoset structural products. The Company’s operating segment consists of one reporting unit, Core Molding Technologies. The Company offers customers a wide range of manufacturing processes to fit various program volume and investment requirements. These thermoset processes include compression molding of sheet molding compound (“SMC”), resin transfer molding (“RTM”), liquid molding of dicyclopentadiene (“DCPD”), spray-up and hand-lay-up. The thermoplastic processes include direct long-fiber thermoplastics (“DLFT”) and structural foam and structural web injection molding. Core Molding Technologies serves a wide variety of markets, including the medium and heavy-duty truck, marine, automotive, agriculture, construction, and other commercial products. The demand for Core Molding Technologies’ products is affected by economic conditions in the United States, Mexico, and Canada. Core Molding Technologies’ operations may change proportionately more than revenues from operations.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws that are subject to risks and uncertainties. These statements often include words such as “believe”, “anticipate”, “plan”, “expect”, “intend”, “will”, “should”, “could”, “would”, “project”, “continue”, “likely”, and similar expressions. In particular, this press release may contain forward-looking statements about the Company’s expectations for future periods with respect to its plans to improve financial results, the future of the Company’s end markets. Factors that could cause actual results to differ from those reflected in forward-looking statements relating to our operations and business include: dependence on certain major customers, and potential loss of any major customer due to completion of existing production programs or otherwise; general macroeconomic, social, regulatory (including foreign trade policy) and political conditions; volatility in financial markets; changes in the plastics, transportation, marine and commercial product industries (including changes in demand for production); efforts of the Company to expand its customer base and develop new products to diversify markets, materials and processes and increase operational enhancements; the imposition of new or increased tariffs and the resulting consequences; Company initiatives to quote and execute manufacturing processes for new business, acquire raw materials, address inflationary pressures; regulatory matters and labor relations; changes in the Company’s financial position; and other risks and uncertainties described in the Company’s filings with the SEC. These statements are based on certain assumptions that the Company has made in light of its experience as well as its perspective on historical trends, current conditions, expected future developments and other factors it believes are appropriate under the circumstances. Actual results may differ materially from the anticipated results because of certain risks and uncertainties, including those included in the Company’s filings with the SEC. There can be no assurance that statements made in this press release relating to future events will be achieved. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect changed assumptions, the occurrence of unanticipated events or changes to future operating results over time. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on behalf of the Company are expressly qualified in their entirety by such cautionary statements.

Company Contact:
Core Molding Technologies, Inc.
Alex Panda
Vice President, Corporate Controller, and incoming CFO
apanda@coremt.com

John Zimmer
Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
jzimmer@coremt.com

Investor Relations Contact:
Three Part Advisors, LLC
Sandy Martin or Steven Hooser
smartin@threepa.com, shooser@threepa.com
214-616-2207

- Financial Statements Follow –

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

This press release contains financial information determined by methods other than in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America ("GAAP"). Core Molding management uses non-GAAP measures in its analysis of the Company's performance. Investors are encouraged to review the reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to the comparable GAAP results available in the accompanying tables.

Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

Adjusted EBITDA represents net income before, as applicable from time to time, (i) interest expense, net, (ii) provision (benefit) for income taxes, (iii) depreciation and amortization of long-lived assets, (iv) share based compensation expense, (v) plant closure costs, and (vi) nonrecurring legal settlement costs and associated legal expenses unrelated to the Company's core operations. Debt-to-trailing twelve months adjusted EBITDA represents total outstanding debt divided by trailing twelve months Adjusted EBITDA. Free Cash Flow represents net cash (used in) provided by operating activities less purchase of property, plant and equipment. Trailing twelve months return on capital employed represents the trailing twelve months earnings before (i) interest expense, net and (ii) provision (benefit) for income taxes divided by (i) stockholders' equity and (ii) current and long-term debt. Adjusted Net Income represents net income before severance cost.

We present Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA as a percent of net sales, debt-to-trailing twelve months adjusted EBITDA, Free Cash Flow and trailing twelve months Return on Capital Employed because management uses these measures as key performance indicators, and we believe that securities analysts, investors and others use these measures to evaluate companies in our industry. These measures have limitations as analytical tools and should not be considered in isolation or as an alternative to performance measure derived in accordance with GAAP as an indicator of our operating performance. Our calculation of these measures may not be comparable to similarly named measures reported by other companies. The following tables present reconciliations of net income to Adjusted EBITDA, and Cash Flow from Operating Activities to Free Cash Flow, the most directly comparable GAAP measures, and Debt to trailing twelve months adjusted EBITDA and trailing twelve months Return on Capital Employed, for the periods presented: