•Increases in salaries, wages and benefits of $1.1 million primarily driven by increased personnel costs;

•Increases in bad debt expense of $0.2 million primarily driven by the increase in accounts receivable;

•Increases in travel expense of $0.2 million primarily driven by continued easing of COVID-19 restrictions; and,

•Increases in other expenses of $0.3 million primarily driven by increases in utilities, taxes, licenses and insurance.

The net sales increase for the first quarter of 2022 compared to the first quarter of 2021 is summarized as follows:

SG&A expense for the first quarter of 2022 decreased $0.1 million to $4.1 million, or 4.7% of sales, compared to $4.2 million, or 7.6% of sales in the first quarter of 2021. The changes in SG&A were primarily driven by a decrease in professional fees of $0.1 million.

Operating income increased $12.2 million, or 571.8%, to $14.3 million for the first quarter of 2022 compared to $2.1 million for the first quarter of 2021. The current quarter increase in operating income was primarily driven by average selling price increases due to pass through of raw material cost fluctuations.

SG&A expense for the first quarter of 2022 increased $0.6 million to $1.6 million, or 5.7% of sales, compared to $1.0 million, or 7.0% of sales in the first quarter of 2021. The increase in SG&A expense was driven by the acquisition of DanChem in the fourth quarter of 2021.

Interest expense was $0.4 million for both the first quarter of 2022 and the first quarter of 2021.

Consolidated EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are as follows:

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