FutureFuel Corp. FF

Competitive advantage analysis · basic-materials

Corporate Default
Overall moat score
23/100
Weak

About FutureFuel Corp.

FutureFuel Corp., together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and sells diversified chemical, bio-based fuel, and bio-based specialty chemical products in the United States. It operates through two segments: Chemicals and Biofuels. The Chemicals segment provides various custom chemicals that are used in the coatings, chemical intermediates, industrial and consumer cleaning, oil and gas, and specialty polymers industries; and performance chemicals, such … Full FF analysis →

Competitive advantage assessment

Key strengths

  • Strong Liquidity Buffer Liquidity position is strong (score 0.89), providing operational cushion.

Key risks

  • Commodity Pressure / Weak Differentiation Gross margin at 3.6th percentile with high volatility suggests weak pricing power or commoditized products.
  • ROIC Below WACC or Peers ROIC at 10.7th percentile suggests inefficient capital deployment.

The dashed ring is the peer median. Defense scores are percentile ranks against peers, so 50 is roughly the typical company in this group.

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Pricing Power

Weak
7

Where FF ranks in Specialty Chemicals

FutureFuel Corp. ranks #50 of 56 scored companies in Specialty Chemicals by moat score — the top 89%. The widest moat in the group is WD-40 Company (WDFC) at 81/100.

Moat scores for companies ranked near FF in Specialty Chemicals
# Company Moat score Rating
46 Loop Industries, Inc. LOOP 26/100 Developing
47 Trinseo PLC TSE 25/100 Weak
48 Bon Natural Life Limited BON 25/100 Weak
49 SenesTech, Inc. SNES 25/100 Weak
50 FutureFuel Corp. FF 23/100 Weak
51 Lightwave Logic, Inc. LWLG 22/100 Weak
52 BioNexus Gene Lab Corp BGLC 19/100 Weak
53 5E Advanced Materials, Inc. FEAM 17/100 Weak
54 Danimer Scientific, Inc. DNMR 13/100 Weak

See every General Corporate company ranked by moat score →

How FF scores on the Corporate Default defenses

Pricing Power

Score 7 · 20% of the moat score

Pricing power is the ability to raise prices without losing volume.

Cost Advantage

Score 43 · 15% of the moat score

A cost advantage means delivering the same product for structurally less — better purchasing, denser distribution, a more automated process.

Customer Stickiness

Score 13 · 15% of the moat score

Stickiness is what makes revenue repeat without being re-won every year.

Capital Efficiency

Score 15 · 18% of the moat score

Capital efficiency asks what the company earns on the money tied up in the business.

Resilience

Score 55 · 17% of the moat score

Resilience is the capacity to get through a bad year on its own terms — enough liquidity, enough interest cover, and enough cash generation to avoid a rescue financing or a forced sale.

Scale & Market Position

Score 7 · 15% of the moat score

Scale matters only when it converts into economics.

How each Corporate Default defense is measured, in full →

Understanding FF's moat

What is FutureFuel Corp.'s moat score?

FutureFuel Corp. (FF) scores 23 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as weak. It ranks #50 of 56 scored companies in Specialty Chemicals, the top 89%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 56 companies in Specialty Chemicals. Its strongest defense is Resilience (55/100) and its weakest is Pricing Power (7/100).

How does FutureFuel Corp. compare with other Specialty Chemicals companies?

FutureFuel Corp. ranks #50 of 56 scored companies in Specialty Chemicals by moat score. The widest moat in Specialty Chemicals is WD-40 Company (WDFC) at 81/100. The companies ranked closest are SenesTech, Inc. (SNES) at 24 just above it and Lightwave Logic, Inc. (LWLG) at 22 just below it.

How is the moat score calculated?

Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Corporate Default in this case, chosen because the defenses that matter to a bank are not the ones that matter to a software company. Every defense combines several financial signals, and each signal is measured as a percentile against a peer group of 56 companies in Specialty Chemicals. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.

Why is FutureFuel Corp. scored with the Corporate Default template?

Most public companies sell a product or a service at a margin, so the moat question is whether that margin survives contact with competitors. The Corporate template scores the six defenses that show up in a general operating company's financial signature: whether it can hold price, produce more cheaply than rivals, keep its customers, earn a return above its cost of capital, withstand a downturn, and turn size into economics.

Which competitive defenses are measured for FutureFuel Corp.?

The Corporate Default template measures 6 defenses, and FF scores: Pricing Power (7), Cost Advantage (43), Customer Stickiness (13), Capital Efficiency (15), Resilience (55), Scale & Market Position (7). Each is scored independently as a percentile against peers, so a company can be strong on one and weak on another — the overall score reflects how those defenses are weighted for this industry.

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