Miller Industries Inc /Tn/ Q2 FY2021 Earnings Call

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Miller Industries' Second Quarter 2021 Results Conference Call. Please note, this event is being recorded. And now at this time, I would like to turn the call over to Brendan Dunlap at FTI Consulting. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. I would like to welcome you to the Miller Industries' Conference Call. We are here to discuss the company's 2021 second quarter results, which were released after the close of market yesterday. With us from the management team today are Bill Miller, Chairman of the Board; Will Miller, President and Co-CEO; Jeff Badgley, Co-CEO; Debbie Whitmire, Executive Vice President and CFO; and Frank Madonia, Executive Vice President, Secretary and General Counsel. Today's call will begin with formal remarks from management, followed by a question-and-answer period. Please note, in this morning's conference call, management may make forward-looking statements in accordance with the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. I'd like to call your attention to the risks related to these statements, which are more fully described in the company's annual report filed on Form 10-K and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Jeff. Please go ahead, Jeff.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Our second quarter results are a testament to the underlying strength of our business, healthy industry demand and our steadfast commitment to operational excellence. We are pleased to report that our business continues to trend towards pre-pandemic levels and overall industry dynamics continue to improve. More specifically, our second quarter sales increased 40.9% year-over-year to $181.2 million driven by strong customer demand. Gross profit for the second quarter increased 16.2% from the prior year period to $20.6 million, largely due to the rebound in top line sales growth. Gross margin in the second quarter decreased approximately 240 basis points, largely due to increased raw material prices caused by escalating inflation and a shift in product mix. Of note, we recently announced another price increase to offset some of these inflationary pressures. However, we honor pricing on existing orders in our backlog which results in some margin pressure in the near term. We have also experienced substantial increases in employee turnover and difficulties in hiring new workers for our skilled workforce which has caused increased recruiting, training and retention costs. Supply chain disruptions have also impacted the timing of the arrival of certain raw materials and purchase component parts, including chassis, which negatively impacts our ability to complete the production of finished goods and timely ship our product at a pace necessary to match current demand levels. Such supply chain challenges and other inflationary pressures continue to influence our domestic markets, but we are leveraging all available resources to actively mitigate them. In our international business, demand trends continue to improve and our order rates and backlog remain healthy. However, constraints on global shipping routes are negatively impacting the timing of our export shipments. Our operations are beginning to see the benefits of our enterprise software upgrades completed in the first quarter, and we do not anticipate any significant disruptions to our business operations as we work to implement further system improvements across our network. Now I'll turn the call over to Debbie, who will review the second quarter financial results, then I will provide some commentary about the current market environment and some closing remarks.

Thanks, Jeff, and good morning, everyone. Net sales for the second quarter 2021 were $181.2 million versus $128.5 million for the second quarter of 2020, a 40.9% year-over-year increase, driven by strong demand across all markets and recovery from the 2020 pandemic pressures. Cost of operations increased 44.9% to $160.6 million for the second quarter of 2021 compared to $110.8 million for the second quarter 2020 due to sharp rebound in the top line growth in the quarter. Cost of operations as a percentage of net sales increased approximately 240 basis points to 88.6% from the prior year period. Gross profit of $20.6 million, gross profit was $20.6 million or 11.4% of net sales for the second quarter 2021 compared to $17.7 million or 13.8% of net sales for the second quarter 2020, largely driven by significant pricing headwinds across our supply chain and shipping and transportation networks. SG&A expenses were $12 million for the second quarter 2021 compared to $10.1 million for the second quarter 2020, resulting from employee travel and trade show-related expenses as well as increased software-related expenses. As a percentage of sales, SG&A decreased approximately 120 basis points to 6.6% from 7.8% in the prior year period. Interest expense net for the second quarter 2021 was $340,000, down from $429,000 in the second quarter 2020 due to decreased customer floor plan financing costs and the elimination of our long-term debt obligations in the third quarter of 2020. Other income expense for the second quarter 2021 was a net gain of $48,000 compared to a net gain of $275,000 for the second quarter 2020 due to currency exchange rate fluctuations. Net income for the second quarter 2021 was $6.5 million or $0.57 per share. Net income for the second quarter 2020 was $5.8 million or $0.51 per share. Now let me briefly review our results for the 6 months ended June 30, 2021. Net sales for the first 6 months of 2021 were $351.1 million compared to $304.6 million in the prior year period, an increase of 15.3%. Gross profit for the 6 months ended June 30, 2021, was $36.4 million or 10.4% of sales compared to $36.3 million or 11.9% of sales for the first 6 months of 2020. Net income for the first 6 months of 2021 was $9.7 million or $0.85 per share, a decrease of 13.9% compared to net income for the first 6 months of 2020 of $11.3 million or $0.99 per share. Now turning to the balance sheet. Cash and temporary investments as of June 30, 2021, were $53.9 million compared to $56.2 million as of March 31, 2021, and $57.5 million as of December 31, 2020. Accounts receivable at June 30, 2021, totaled $161.8 million compared to $167.7 million as of March 31, 2021, and $141.6 million as of December 31, 2020. Inventories were $92 million as of June 30, 2021, compared to $84.9 million as of March 31, 2021, and $83.9 million as of December 2020. Accounts payable at June 30, 2021, were $108.1 million compared to $113.4 million as of March 31, 2021, and $85.5 million as of December 31, 2020. While faced with supply chain challenges and continuing concerns related to the COVID pandemic, our diligent capital allocation priorities and strong balance sheet provide us with the financial flexibility to continue investing in our business and capitalize on strong industry demand trends. Lastly, the company also announced that its Board of Directors approved our quarterly cash dividend of $0.18 per share, payable September 13, 2021, to shareholders of record at the close of business on September 3, 2021. Now I'll turn the call back to Jeff for further remarks.

Thank you, Debbie. While economic conditions continue to normalize and customer demand trends continue to strengthen, we are confident that we will continue to deliver for our customers. Despite significant constraints across global supply chains and transportation networks, our unwavering commitment to operational excellence and best-in-class customer service positions us favorably to continue to meet the needs of our customers. Further, our financial position remains strong, and we maintain the financial flexibility to service the surge in customer demand, continue investing in our business and return capital to shareholders. Looking ahead into the second half of the year, we anticipate further supply chain and transportation headwinds, but we are confident that the overall strength of our business and improving industry trends position us favorably to capitalize on all growth opportunities and generate shareholder value. In closing, Will and I would like to thank our employees, our customers, suppliers, and shareholders for their ongoing support of Miller Industries. Thank you again for joining us this morning. Operator, please open the line for questions.

We will now take our first question from Arnie Usina from Usina Family Office.

I only want to try to focus and drill down a little bit more on the incremental costs that you're incurring to manufacturing. You mentioned the 240 basis point increase in your costs. By the way, I can applaud you for doing a great job on controlling SG&A. But can you spend a little bit more time talking about your component availability, especially chassis? Any steps you're taking there? It sounds like the costs of buying materials have gone up quite dramatically, your labor challenges. And maybe talk about actions or steps you plan to take to improve your gross margin on a go-forward basis.

We'll circle back and talk about chassis in a minute. But talking about raw materials and component costs increase, Debbie, I think we calculated that over the first half of the year to be somewhere in the range of 7% to 9% increase.

Correct.

Going forward, we are expanding our supplier base and seeking further protections against potential cost increases. However, many of our suppliers are willing to accept purchase orders but are not agreeing to lock in prices. This is particularly true with steel, where they will accept your order but the cost will be determined at the time of shipping, not when you order. This situation can yield both positive and negative outcomes. Additionally, we have implemented price increases to help offset these rising costs, with one occurring at the beginning of the year.

Every year.

We recently processed all the outstanding orders that were placed before the price increase during the last two weeks of Q2. As a result, we did not benefit from that price increase. During the quarter, we announced another price increase and decided to protect our backlog to support our distributors, which we believe is important for the long-term stability of our company. Additionally, we informed our distributors that there might be a significant surcharge in January unless we experience some reduction in our cost pressures. Vince, could you provide some insight on chassis supply?

Yes. I mean, obviously, the chassis manufacturers are struggling with our shortages as well. We're doing our best to mitigate it, and we're getting fairly successful at it. Runways of a material surcharge from one of our big suppliers that could be implemented in the next couple of weeks. We're, obviously, not getting all of the chassis that we order monthly, but making sure our strategic partners understand that we need as many as we can get. And so we're doing our best to mitigate the chassis supply.

Okay. I understand you don't provide formal backlog numbers, but could you review the orders placed in the last few weeks of the quarter? I was estimating that the backlog for most of the quarter was likely around 4 to 7 months. Can you share insights on the current orders and when you expect to ship them? I'm also curious why there’s a delay until January for a surcharge if your costs are increasing so quickly right now.

We implemented a surcharge along with an immediate price increase on new orders just in the second quarter. Not only did customers experience a price increase on new orders, but we also informed them that this price increase might not cover the rising costs, which continue to escalate. They will incur a surcharge in addition to the price increase in the products business. While we do not disclose our backlog numbers, I can say that we currently have work levels of backlog due to demand trends. In the second quarter, we don’t provide specific figures, only the length of time, which is 4 to 5 months.

So you're saying it's returning to historic, was it abnormally high for most of the first part of the year?

In terms of order intake?

In terms of backlog...

Yes.

Okay. Can you just remind, I'm a new investor, a relatively new investor to your store, remind me of the seasonality of your business, please?

We are so broad-based that there's very little seasonality.

And you have a fantastic balance sheet. You spent quite a bit of money expanding capacity earlier in the year. You put in a new software system. You've made massive investments. You've also built up some inventory in terms of dollars. Can you comment on your future priorities for free cash flow, please?

That really becomes a decision for the Board. They will consider future investments in efficiency and production levels, as well as various initiatives. So I can't provide a specific answer; it ultimately falls to the Board to decide.

Got it. Finally...

Jeff, we also look at the return to our shareholders as well.

Yes. Absolutely. And final question, with the rising Delta, how is the state of Tennessee handling it? And are you hopeful it will not impact your operations in the balance of Q3?

Yes. We are very hopeful that it won't impact our operations, and not only our operations, but our suppliers' operations. The State of Tennessee does not have mass mandates. We live by CDC guidelines in our facilities. But keep in mind that we're not only in the state of Tennessee, we're also in the State of Pennsylvania. We're in the country of England and the country of France. So we try very hard to encourage our employees to be safe.

And we continue the mitigation steps that we implemented last year by going to a 4-on-4 off work schedule, really separating the number of employees that are in our facilities at any given time, cutting that nearly in half from pre-pandemic levels as well as giving us a little bit of extra security. If we do have a major issue on one of our teams on a 4-day shift, the factories aren't shut down, but they can go to 50% levels, let one shift return home for a full 12 days off and then come back to work. During all of last year, we only had that occur during the pandemic at one factory for one shift. So the mitigation steps that we've put in from a hygiene, cleanliness as well as headcount in our factories at any given time seem to work very well last year, and we've continued that on into 2021.

There appears to be no further questions at this time. I would like to turn the call back to management for any additional or closing remarks.

Thank you again for joining us on the call today, and we look forward to speaking with you again on our third quarter results conference call. Thanks.

And with that, ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's conference call. We'd like to thank you again for your participation. You may now disconnect.