ImmuCell (NASDAQ:ICCC) executives used the company’s fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 earnings call to highlight a year of operational change, improved margins, and a strategic pivot toward expanding its First Defense calf scours prevention franchise while stepping away from investment in its Re-Tain subclinical mastitis program.
2025 results: sales growth and margin expansion
Chief Financial Officer Timothy Fiori said fourth-quarter 2025 product sales were approximately $7.6 million, down 1.6% from the prior-year quarter. He noted the modest decline was significant because the fourth quarter of 2024 benefited from increased demand and “catching up from a prior backorder situation,” a dynamic management said it had previously flagged as affecting comparisons in the second half of 2025 and into the first half of 2026.
For the full year, Fiori reported total product sales of $27.6 million, an increase of 4.3% compared with 2024. The company again cited domestic growth paired with a decline in international sales influenced by Canadian distributor order timing. He also said product mix continued shifting toward Tri-Shield, reflecting new customer acquisition and some customer migration from lower-priced Dual-Force products.
Gross margin improved in 2025, with fourth-quarter gross margin rising to 38% of product sales from 37% a year earlier. Fiori said fourth-quarter margin was “suppressed by non-cash inventory write-downs,” while the full-year picture showed a larger step-up: gross margin of 41% in 2025 compared with 30% in 2024. He attributed the improvement to higher manufacturing volumes and efficiencies and product price increases, partially offset by non-cash inventory write-downs.
Write-downs, expenses, and profitability metrics
During a review of fixed assets and inventories, management recorded a non-cash write-down across the third and fourth quarters of 2025 totaling about $650,000, “mainly consisting of work in process colostrum inventory,” according to Fiori. He quantified that as about 5.9% of fourth-quarter 2025 revenue and about 2.4% of full-year 2025 revenue, and said the company would continue monitoring assets and inventory as part of a “rigorous and disciplined capital allocation process.”
Operating expenses were higher year over year. Fiori said operating expenses rose to $3.0 million in the fourth quarter of 2025 from $2.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2024, and to $9.8 million for full-year 2025 from $9.6 million in 2024. He attributed the increases primarily to higher general and administrative expenses, partially offset by lower product development expenses related to Re-Tain.
Other expense increased sharply due to the company’s shift away from Re-Tain. Fiori reported other expense of $2.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2025 compared with about $100,000 a year earlier, and $2.7 million for full-year 2025 compared with $500,000 in 2024. The main driver, he said, was a non-cash impairment charge recorded in December of approximately $2.7 million tied to certain Re-Tain-related property, plant, and equipment. Fiori added the impairment charge was about $200,000 less than he discussed on the company’s January conference call because of a “slight increase” in the estimated future salvage value.
Fiori also noted a one-time income item: $427,000 of insurance proceeds recorded in the first quarter of 2025, which partially offset the Re-Tain write-down on a full-year basis.
Despite the impairments, Fiori said the company’s net loss improved year over year. ImmuCell posted a net loss of about $1.0 million for 2025, an improvement of $1.1 million versus 2024, driven by higher sales and gross margin expansion. Basic net loss per share was approximately $0.12 in 2025 compared with a net loss of $0.26 per share the year before. He also highlighted operating income of $1.6 million in 2025 versus an operating loss of $1.6 million in 2024, a year-over-year improvement of $3.3 million.
On the balance sheet, Fiori said ImmuCell ended 2025 with $3.8 million in cash and working capital of $13.0 million, up from $10.6 million at the end of 2024. He said the increase was driven by higher finished goods inventory, noting the company ended 2024 with “near zero” finished goods.
Strategy shift: doubling down on First Defense
President and CEO Olivier te Boekhorst described 2025 as a “very successful year,” citing a new management team, expanded manufacturing capacity to address customer demand and a multi-year backorder, and a strategic focus on “maximizing shareholder value” from the First Defense franchise. He said the company competes in a “large and growing” market for calf health solutions and has chosen to “double down” on First Defense based on its performance and market opportunity.
Te Boekhorst characterized First Defense as a preventative for calf scours, which he said affects 14% to 15% of pre-weaning calves—about 5 million calves annually in the U.S.—and is the leading cause of death in that group. He estimated scours represents up to $1 billion in U.S. economic burden from treatment costs, performance losses, and mortality, and said U.S. farmers spend about $90 million to $100 million per year on scours prevention products.
He said First Defense products protect against three common scours pathogens—bovine coronavirus, E. coli, and rotavirus—and described them as colostrum-derived and the “only USDA-approved solutions for scours that aren’t a vaccine.” He also said First Defense delivers three to six times as many neutralizing antibodies as a primary vaccine competitor and is priced at about 2.5 times competitive alternatives.
Te Boekhorst said ImmuCell’s share of treated calves in the U.S. increased from 10% to 15% over the past eight years and that the company captures about 29% of spending in the category. He added that U.S. producers spent approximately $93 million in the calf scours category in 2025—up 14% from 2024—with 10% of that increase coming from a higher number of calves using scours preventatives and the remainder from price and product mix. He said about 55% of calves still receive no scours treatment, estimating the total addressable market at more than $200 million in the U.S. and at least five times larger internationally.
Manufacturing capacity and commercial build-out
Management repeatedly emphasized manufacturing as a core focus following several years of supply constraints. Te Boekhorst said manufacturing capacity increased from about 3 million units in 2023 to 4.1 million units in 2024 and 4.6 million units in 2025. He said an analysis led by outside experts and internal leadership identified “over a dozen opportunities” to lift capacity to 5 million to 6 million units per year without major investment, through steps such as improved work planning, maintenance, and “small additions” to existing equipment.
He said the company would no longer communicate capacity in terms of revenue, citing the impact of different and changing product price points. He also said the team recently implemented demand and supply planning and believes it can meet demand in 2026 and 2027 via yield improvements while working on a larger capacity expansion, including repurposing assets previously used for the subclinical mastitis program to support First Defense manufacturing.
On the commercial side, te Boekhorst said the company has begun expanding sales capacity after a period when commercial efforts were heavily focused on managing allocations during the backorder. He said ImmuCell has:
- Hired a senior international market development leader
- Added a new U.S. sales manager
- Started recruiting for a third commercial position
He added that additional territory hiring will be based on assessments including calf population density, adoption of calf-level scours prevention solutions, and regional price acceptance. Te Boekhorst also said the company recently held a sales meeting where it implemented a new standardized sales approach intended to improve scalability.
Q&A: outlook considerations and Re-Tain write-downs
In response to questions, te Boekhorst said the two main challenges for 2026 and beyond are increasing yield and capacity and “stepping up” commercial activities to drive top-line growth. Fiori said the company does not anticipate “any large write-downs” related to assets formerly associated with Re-Tain, noting the company is evaluating how to use the former Re-Tain plant and most of the related assets for a medium-term capacity expansion project. He said the company has booked a modest salvage value of $200,000 for written-down assets, while acknowledging specific equipment values could be reevaluated over time.
Asked about recurring revenue, te Boekhorst said the company cannot currently calculate churn precisely due to disruptions during the backorder period—citing customer purchasing across multiple distributors as one complicating factor—but said management believes there is “a high degree of loyalty” and customer satisfaction based on sales team feedback and recent customer visits.
About ImmuCell (NASDAQ:ICCC)
ImmuCell Corporation (NASDAQ: ICCC) is a biotechnology company that develops, manufactures, and markets immunological products and diagnostic assays designed to enhance animal health in dairy and beef cattle. Headquartered in Portland, Maine, the company focuses on supporting herd health management through its portfolio of passive immunology solutions and veterinary diagnostics.
The company’s flagship offering, CalfGuard natural colostrum supplement, is formulated to promote the passive transfer of antibodies in newborn calves and reduce the incidence of neonatal diseases.
