Rick Mills - Chief Executive Officer John Walpuck - Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer.

Analysts:.

Good morning folks. This is Rick Mills. Welcome to the Creative Realities Conference Call for Q1 of 2017. So, first and foremost, like to welcome everybody to the call. Thanks for coming. Really, our comments are going to be brief today. We are going to build upon really the last update we gave which was only 45 days ago.

But, you all – I know a number of folks have seen the press release that we issued yesterday. Frankly, it was another record quarter. Just an outstanding performance for the team spread across the US. Record in terms of top-line revenue, total gross margin. So, we are very pleased with that.

Our gross margin percentage trended down, just a bit, but that was really due to just the large amount of transactional business moving through transactional orders moving through the business in Q1. Our revenue continues to be lumpy quarter-to-quarter and that’s really the nature of our business.

So, we are pleased to be half way through Q2 and headed to a strong year. We are reiterating our guidance for the year of $26 million in revenue and we feel very pleased about that. So with that, I am going to ask John Walpuck, our CFO to go through the numbers. .

Very good. Thank you, Rick. So, once again, good morning and welcome to the call. All participants will be in listen-only mode during this call. A brief question and answer session will follow the discussion. Please note there is no presentation on the screen if you are logged into the webcast via computer.

Questions can be submitted during the call via email to the email address ir@cri.com. Joining me in the room today, we have Rick Mills, CEO and myself, John Walpuck, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer. Joining us remotely, we have Alan Levy, Vice President and Corporate Controller.

Before we begin with those comments, please again be advised that certain matters discussed on this call will include forward-looking statements regarding among other things future operating results. Such statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties.

Actual results in the future could differ materially and adversely from those described in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. Such factors have been set forth in the Company's reports on Form 10-K and 10-Q filed with the SEC. In accordance with Regulation S-T, this call is being made available to the public.

A webcast, replay, and transcript will be available on the Company's website at cri.com later today, and will remain available for approximately the next 30 days. Let me now summarize our 1Q 2017 highlights.

Regarding 1Q 2017, we note that the MD&A section of our Form 10-Q provides unaudited 2017 and 2016 quarterly financial information derived from the Company’s financial statements. We have also provided a reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP quarterly EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA for 1Q 2017 and 2016.

So, with that, comparing 1Q 2017 to 1Q 2016, as Rick indicated, 1Q 2017 was another record quarter for CRI on multiple levels. 1Q 2017 revenues increased approximately 165% to $6.4 million growing by $4 million. Gross profit increased approximately 150% to $2.8 million growing by $1.7 million.

As Rick mentioned, gross margin declined slightly from approximately 47% to approximately 44% of revenue primarily due to a more transactional activity and a less favorable mix among certain non-recurring projects delivered in 1Q. While revenue increased 165%, total operating expenses were essentially flat declining by 1%.

The two most material components of our OpEx are sales and marketing expense and G&A expense. Sales and marketing expense increased by approximately 75% year-over-year for the first quarter, primarily as a result of the ongoing expansion of our sales force and related sales activities. G&A expense increased by 2%.

CRI generated an operating profit of approximately $0.1 million versus an operating loss of $1.6 million in 1Q 2016. CRI generated net income of approximately $0.4 million versus an operating loss of $1.8 million. Regarding our balance sheet, cash and receivables increased 275% to approximately $5.5 million growing by approximately $4 million.

Further regarding our balance sheet, additional settlements with historical creditors and the May 2016 dissolution of the subsidiary resulted in GAAP accounting gains and cash savings of $0.9 million.

We generated positive EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA of $1.4 million and $0.5 million respectively, compared to negative EBITDA and negative adjusted EBITDA of approximately $0.8 million and $1.1 million. At this point, I am going to turn the call back over to Rick. .

John, thanks. Appreciate you going through the numbers. Well, folks, we – our pipeline continues to be very strong and as we head into Q3, we expect more revenue diversification among more customers. As a matter of fact, in Q3, we expect to have three customers who we will build over seven figures each.

So, that continues to show positive results at the bottom-line. We are continuing to expand the sales team and also, adding more scale in the service and support function. As a matter of fact, this month, at the end of the month in May, we are holding our first ever Company Service Summit.

So all of our service assets – folks, people, from across the country will be gathered at our Windsor office for four days of intense training as we rollout new service initiatives. People could ask why. Why are you doing these things? It’s real simple.

We are preparing for consolidation in this industry and we expect to be a go to destination for those companies who are looking or will be ultimately consolidated. One can – you can simplify the market for digital signage really into three layers. There is the enterprise layer, there is the SMB, and there is everything else.

We clearly expect to play in the enterprise and SMB space. Enterprise level networks requires scale of technology, requires scale of service and support an organization. These are the deals that represent the highest value and therefore the greatest risk.

Stability, staying power and executive retention are highly valued to these clients who are in the enterprise space. The resources required to win and maintain such deals are significant. Five to ten years ago, the systems – the digital system that we were deploying were relatively small networks and they were nice to have.

Today, these networks are really must have for organizations. As you continue to see the ongoing turmoil in the retail and from some of the great retail organizations across America, they are looking and evaluating how can I rollout large-scale production systems.

And so, they will be rolling out 30,000 node networks, 20,000 node networks and by nodes, we mean displays. And so, as a enterprise level organization, you will put much greater emphasis on who is my partner. The small standalone organization that has done great work in the past will no longer be able to play in the enterprise space.

We believe Creative Realities will, that is our goal and that will continue to drive our business. So, with that, like to open it up for any questions anybody might have.

John, do we have any questions come in?.

Yes, we have a couple. First one.

Great quarter, can you provide some color about the growing sales team, their experience, performance, your expectations, that type of stuff?.

Sure, okay. So, when we did this consolidation of the two companies 18 months ago, 19 months ago, the sales organization was really non-existent and we really had to expand it dramatically. Today, we have a number of sales assets. We have 12 across the company. We expect that number to exceed 20 by year end.

We are bringing in really the best and brightest from other organizations. We will all see the success of Creative Realities and the inbound information or the inbound resonates we are getting are growing tremendously.

Our expectation is each of those folks those sales assets will generate about $2 million a year in revenue and it’s why we believe ultimately we lead a sales force greater than 20 and so we are continuing to add it. .

Got it. Another one, congrats.

About how many heads do we have today compared to when you took over?.

Great question. It’s almost identical today. Throughout the organization, we have approximately 85 people. So, 83 full-time and I think we have two contractors on right now. We expect that number to continue to grow organically, number one, in sales and support functions such as project management, help desk and servicing support.

While we are gaining efficiencies in the other parts of our business, due to all the new systems we’ve implemented. So we do not expect headcount to grow in non-revenue areas. The headcount growth will be focused on revenue areas which are service, support and sales. .

Okay, one more solid quarter, nice job.

What good color are you comfortable sharing about your sales pipeline today?.

Our pipeline is very robust. We have many, many, many pending opportunities with customers. But as most folks on this call know, this pipeline takes years in the making to create. But some of these transactions take two or three years from beginning to ultimate fruition. So, pipeline is growing. Revenue diversification is growing.

With three customers going to build seven figures each as we head into Q3. So we are excited. .

Okay..

Okay. With that folks, I appreciate everybody’s time and look forward to more communication as we continue to grow the business. Everybody have a great day. Thanks. .

Operator:.