Earnings Call Transcript - MYE Q1 2022

Operator, Operator

Hello, and welcome to today's Myers Industries First Quarter 2022 Earnings Call. My name is Bailey, and I will be your moderator for today's call. I would now like to pass the conference over to Monica Vinay. Monica, please go ahead.

Monica Vinay, Vice President of Investor Relations

Thank you. Good morning. Thank you for joining us. I'm Monica Vinay, Vice President of Investor Relations and Treasurer at Myers Industries. Joining me today are Mike McGaugh, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Sonal Robinson, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Earlier this morning, we issued a news release outlining the financial results for the first quarter of 2022. We have also posted a PowerPoint presentation to accompany today's prepared remarks. If you have not yet received a copy of either the release or the PowerPoint, you can access them on our website at www.myersindustries.com under the Investor Relations tab. This call is also being webcast on our website and will be archived along with the transcript of the call shortly after this event. Before I turn the call over to Mike, I would like to remind you that we may make some forward-looking statements during this call. These comments are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are based on management's current expectations and involve risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. Also, please be advised that certain non-GAAP financial measures, such as adjusted gross margin, adjusted operating income, adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EPS, may be discussed on this call. Further information concerning these risks, uncertainties and other factors is set forth in the company's periodic SEC filings and may be found in the company's 10-K and 10-Q filings. Please turn to Slide 3 of our presentation, and I'm now pleased to turn the call over to Mike McGaugh.

Mike McGaugh, President and CEO

Thank you, Monica. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our first quarter 2022 earnings call. I'm pleased to share that the first quarter of 2022 was a record earnings quarter for Myers. Our strategic vision and One Myers approach have fundamentally changed the way we do business and how we operate our company. This vision has been our North Star, helping us align and row together. Our teams are beginning to look more like collegiate rowing teams on the Charles River in Boston, rowing together as a single unit in synchronization with less effort, producing more speed. The proof is in our first quarter results. Myers delivered record EPS for the quarter and our sixth consecutive quarter of double-digit revenue growth. During the quarter, we realized the benefits of pricing actions we've taken to counter inflationary pressures, and we increased our production to meet heightened demand from our customers. These actions drove a 29% increase in net sales for the first quarter. This momentum continued through the income statement with a 127% year-over-year improvement in adjusted EPS and an 82% increase in adjusted EBITDA. Our strong results in the first quarter gave us confidence to raise both our net sales and adjusted EPS expectations for the full year. Sonal will discuss our revised guidance in her remarks. Please turn to Slide 4, which has a more detailed financial summary of the quarter's results. We had sales of $225 million, up 29% compared with the first quarter of 2021, which, in part, was due to stronger-than-expected seed demand, healthy demand in most of our end markets, and incremental revenues from the acquisition of Trilogy Plastics. Throughout the quarter, we were able to realize the benefits of the pricing action taken by our commercial teams in 2021. These actions successfully countered cost headwinds stemming from strong raw material supplies and ongoing inflationary pressures in raw materials, freight, and labor. We also continue our efforts to be a highly reliable and value-added partner to our customers. We are true to our four corporate values with specific emphasis on being customer-focused. As a result of this focus, our continued reliability in supplying our customers, we generated the second consecutive quarter of operating margin expansion while also growing sales. Before I turn the call over to Sonal for an update on our financials, I want to reiterate how gratified we are with Myers' first quarter performance. This performance is one more proof point that demonstrates the opportunity and the potential that exist in Myers. Our team has done a lot of work over the last two years in the area of self-help, improving our plants, our capacity, and our capability. The changes we've made to this company are deep and will be long-lasting. Recently, a potential investor paused after listening to the changes I've described that were underway at Myers. She cleverly remarked, 'You're taking a large-cap capabilities and bolting them to a small-cap body.' I think that's a great way to describe what we're doing, attaching large-cap capabilities to a small-cap body. I think we've uncovered an approach that will generate superior returns and long-term shareholder value creation. We are a diversified industrial company that has the number one or two position in most of our niche markets. We believe that much of our business is resilient to potential macroeconomic headwinds. It's compelling. As I say on every call, I like the progress I see. We are transforming the company. However, we are still just getting started, and we are in the early innings of what's possible for Myers Industries. Now I'll turn the call over to Sonal to review the first quarter financial results and provide our updated 2022 outlook. I will then spend a few minutes discussing our progress to date and current goals for our three-Horizon strategy. Sonal?

Sonal Robinson, Executive Vice President and CFO

Thank you, Mike, and good morning, everyone. Let me begin by reiterating that we are extremely pleased with our performance in the first quarter. As you can see on Slide 4, sales were up $51 million or 29% with healthy underlying demand across most of our key end markets. Adjusted gross profit increased 44% or $21.9 million, primarily driven by higher prices in our Trilogy Plastics acquisition. Our pricing and sales teams executed pricing exceptionally well last year, which allowed us to realize our second quarter of a positive price-to-cost relationship. In addition to higher raw material costs, other inflationary pressures, particularly in our labor and manufacturing costs, continued to impact our results and partially offset some of our gross profit growth. Despite this, gross margin increased 320 basis points for the quarter from 28.9% in the prior year to 32.1% this year. Adjusted operating income was $25.8 million, an increase of $14 million. Increased gross profit was partially offset by higher SG&A expenses related to higher salaries and incentive compensation costs, along with increased variable selling expenses. However, as a percentage of sales, adjusted SG&A expenses decreased to 20.9% in the first quarter compared to 22.1% in the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA was $31 million, an increase of $14 million or 82% compared to the prior year. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 13.8% for the first quarter compared with 9.8% in the prior year. Lastly, adjusted EPS was $0.50, an increase of $0.28, more than doubling last year's first quarter EPS. Please turn to Slide 5 for an overview of our segment performance for the quarter. Beginning with Material Handling, net sales increased $47 million or 36%, including the Trilogy acquisition, which occurred at the end of July 2021. On an organic basis, Material Handling net sales increased approximately 28%, driven by favorable pricing of 24%, with a strong volume mix contributing another 4%. Notably, organic net sales increased in the vehicle, industrial, food and beverage, and consumer end markets. Material Handling's adjusted operating income increased $15 million or 88% to $31.9 million. As Mike mentioned, we did see better-than-expected seed sales during the quarter, which tends to be a fourth and first quarter event for us. Additionally, our pricing actions more than offset the higher raw material input costs in the quarter. Inflationary pressures related to labor and other manufacturing costs partially offset these benefits. SG&A expenses were higher, primarily due to the Trilogy Plastics acquisition; higher compensation costs; increased variable selling expenses; and higher facilities costs. In the Distribution Segment, sales increased approximately $4 million or 10%. The increase was driven by our previously noted pricing actions. Distribution's adjusted operating income increased $1.3 million or 68% to $3.3 million. A favorable price-to-cost relationship more than offset the higher SG&A expenses. Turning to Slide 6. Free cash flow was $2.2 million compared to $1.4 million for the first quarter of 2021. Cash from operations increased in the quarter driven by income growth, partially offset by an increase in cash used for working capital, primarily accounts receivable and inventory. Capital expenditures were $5.1 million for the quarter, and cash on hand at quarter end was $17.6 million. Overall, our balance sheet remains strong with leverage at 1.2x, and our capital structure continues to provide the flexibility needed to execute on our long-term growth strategy. On Slide 7, turning now to our updated outlook for fiscal year 2022. Given the strength of our results in the first quarter, along with the additional pricing actions we've taken, we now anticipate our net sales to increase in the low to mid-double-digit range versus our previous outlook of a high single to low double-digit range. Approximately one-fourth of the sales increase is attributed to the incremental seven months of sales related to the Trilogy acquisition. Significant pricing actions taken throughout 2021, combined with healthy underlying demand across most of our end markets, are expected to drive growth in 2022. We are also raising our full-year adjusted EPS outlook from a range of $1.20 to $1.40 per share to a range of $1.30 to $1.50 per share. At the midpoint of our range, this reflects more than a 40% increase over our 2021 adjusted EPS. Once again, keep in mind that the first quarter was a record earnings quarter for the company. While resin costs had somewhat moderated in the first quarter, we are beginning to see signals of upward movement in the near term and have continued to take additional pricing actions in response. We expect that the pricing actions we've taken to date, along with our ability to continue to take future pricing to offset inflation, should drive over 200 basis points of gross margin expansion for the full year. Recall that adjusted gross margin for fiscal year 2021 was 27.9%. SG&A expenses are still expected to approximate 22% of net sales, primarily reflecting investments we are making in our people, processes, and operational efficiencies. Other key modeling assumptions include depreciation and amortization expenses of approximately $23 million, CapEx in the range of $25 million to $28 million, interest expense of $5.5 million, and an effective tax rate of approximately 26%. Despite increased CapEx, we expect higher earnings to translate to increased cash flow in 2022. Before I turn the call back to Mike, I want to extend my gratitude to the Myers team for their tireless efforts in delivering an outstanding quarter. I'm confident in our ability to foster long-term growth and execute on our strategic plans in 2022 and beyond. With that, I'll turn the call back over to Mike to provide an update on our strategy.

Mike McGaugh, President and CEO

Thank you, Sonal, and great work. Well done. Let's turn to Slide 8. I'm now in my third year as CEO of Myers, and we've been running our three-year Horizon strategy for about two full years. We are seeing meaningful and lasting results which continue to give me confidence in delivering our Horizon 1 goal of a run rate of $1 billion in annual revenue and a 15% EBITDA margin by the end of 2023. Although we are technically in Horizon 1, we are starting our planning and preparation for Horizon 2. The future is exciting and will be here soon. All that excitement aside, our key to meaningfully growing Myers in sales and profitability is executing against our core tenets of Horizon 1. Self-help, which provides the oxygen and funding for the next two elements, which are organic growth and bolt-on M&A. In the area of self-help, our internal pricing excellence group has helped our commercial teams analyze and better understand data, better understand the value our products bring, and we are seeing the results in gaining traction in value-based pricing. In addition to pricing excellence, we focused on making sales and operational planning (S&OP) a core competence as well. Over the past few quarters, we piloted a robust sales and operational planning process in one of our plastics businesses. The results were very good, allowing us to improve production and profitability records. We've since rolled out this pilot to a few of our other businesses and plan to continue to roll this out to all businesses in Myers, completing work over the next 12 to 24 months. The enhanced S&OP increases output and ensures that we can reliably supply our customers. This reliability of supply puts us in good stead with our customers, often putting us in a preferential position to grow with them. In the area of organic growth, I'm proud to say that this is our sixth consecutive quarter of double-digit sales growth, and customer demand has continued. Our sales training and market planning processes that I've spoken about before have been a breakthrough. The new sales and market planning processes have provided alignment across our commercial and operations teams. We are rowing together. Going back to my Charles River analogy, we're one of those 8-person boats that are smooth and in balance, not flailing, not struggling. We have alignment. We're on plan, and we're moving faster with more harmony across the water. Just like watching those oars cut across the water when we hit stride at Myers and we're rowing in unison, it's a beautiful thing. We're having more of those moments with each passing month in the quarter. Yes, we still have our moments of struggles when we fall out of sequence. Those moments are becoming less and less frequent. Regarding bolt-on M&A, Elkhart and Trilogy acquisitions continue to increase their contributions to our financial results. Elkhart and Trilogy are proof that we will have discipline in our acquisitions. We will buy companies with an easy-to-see and easy-to-understand competitive moat. We will buy talented leadership teams, and we'll pay a fair price. In Q1, we received numerous inbounds and have passed on many. We're not going to get starry-eyed. We will have discipline in our acquisitions in which ones we pursue. This discipline is important. We treat the opportunity to shepherd our shareholders' capital as an honor, not a right, and we'll make decisions accordingly. From a pipeline standpoint, we are always evaluating potential M&A opportunities within both our Material Handling and Distribution Segments, and we continue to be pleased with our prospects. Slide 9 outlines the strategic pillars of Horizon 1 of our strategy. This one slide is a simple, clear playbook for our true north: our strategic objective. We will execute and deliver the strategic objective by driving the four pillars: organic growth, strategic M&A, operational excellence and by having a high-performing culture. We will have success in execution because we have clearly defined the areas of focus for each of these four pillars. These areas of focus have specific action items for the year 2022 and are paired with a single executive team member who is accountable for delivering results. This drives alignment and clarity. It's the coxswain that helps us keep tempo and rowing together. Now I'd like to walk through our progress against those pillars quickly on Slide 10. With the first pillar, we have seen encouraging and consistent organic growth in both top and bottom line, which has allowed us to hire new excellent people with world-class global multinational training and experience. With respect to our sales efforts, our teams are better trained. Our training continues. Our teams are focused and incentivized on profitable growth, on cross-selling and on pricing our products for the value they deliver. Now on to strategic M&A, which has been an integral part in helping the company get scale. Over the past two years, through the deals we've consummated and the opportunities we've evaluated, we've learned valuable lessons and approaches that have been incorporated into a proven integration playbook, which is helping us better identify, negotiate and integrate newly acquired businesses. Moving on to operational excellence, this is an area where we are truly transforming Myers and an area where we have added the greatest concentration of world-class talent and capability. As I mentioned earlier, we continue to implement S&OP across our businesses. These improvements are helping us better schedule, plan and operate our plants. By doing this, we are identifying a hidden factor. We are identifying and unleashing additional capacity. Finally, we've seen meaningful improvements in our high-performing culture. We have and will continue to transform Myers' mindset into a culture of winning. We are now doing company-wide employee development planning and succession planning. We've instilled robust, world-class frameworks and processes to ensure that we are developing our associates and leaders with an eye to their aspirations and needs over the next five years and the company's aspirations and needs over the next five years. We want our employees to have the career they seek here at Myers. We run a low-ego, servant-leader model. Servant leadership inspires all of us to serve our people. Servant leadership requires a 'roll up the sleeves and get the job done' mindset. All of us take the hill together. The servant leadership approach is resonating very well, especially with the post-COVID mindset, where our employees are interested in not only delivering great products reliably to our customers and making a great return for our shareholders, they're also interested in doing good for society and doing good for each other. We've now completed four waves in servant-leadership training covering over 100 leaders. I've participated in all the sessions. I often hear from seasoned veterans that this is the best training I've ever been through. It's remarkable. Something special is happening at Myers in terms of culture. I'll close today by thanking our current investors for their confidence. We delivered solid results last quarter, and I continue to believe that our performance will continue to build in the future. We can't forecast precisely how every quarter will shake out in the near term. However, with all the great things occurring at Myers, with our transformation underway, I'm confident that over the long term, we are moving the company up and to the right. The company is on a remarkable journey, and I encourage you to join us on that journey. With that, we'll turn the call over for questions.

Operator, Operator

The first question today comes from Steve Barger from KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Steve Barger, Analyst

Great to see operating leverage come back on strong revenue growth. So I'll start with the guidance. Seems like Q1 will be the peak revenue and EPS quarter. Demand still seems solid. You're getting traction on the pillars. You've been aggressive on price. What will cause the operating margin to step back to more single digits for the rest of the year?

Mike McGaugh, President and CEO

Yes, Steve. This is Mike. I'll address this and then ask Sonal to follow up. We are still experiencing some pressure on raw materials, though it's uncertain how significant that will be. We're monitoring some variability, particularly in our consumer segment with fuel containers. This spring has been colder than usual, resulting in a lag in sales for those products. I expect lawn and garden to remain among the top-selling segments. Additionally, we are facing uncertainty due to inflation, macroeconomic factors, the war, and product availability. Sonal, would you like to add anything?

Sonal Robinson, Executive Vice President and CFO

Sure. Steve, I would just reiterate that Q1 was a very strong quarter for us. We had extremely strong seed box sales. We realized the accumulated benefits of pricing actions that we took in 2021, as you recall, a lot of that really benefited us last year in Q3 and Q4. So from a lapping standpoint, we'll get a greater benefit in Q1 and Q2 of this year. That will start to moderate then as we go throughout the back of the year. And then as we mentioned, in Q1, we did see resin costs starting to moderate. So sequentially, it was down but still up year-over-year. And as Mike mentioned, we are seeing some inflationary kind of pressures on that in the short term there.

Steve Barger, Analyst

Understood. And Mike, you made the comment that much of the business is resilient to macro headwinds. And I know you list consumer as 15%, but what percentage of products would you consider more consumer discretionary, stuff that goes into recreational activities, like RVs, boats, coolers?

Mike McGaugh, President and CEO

Let's see. Well, I may have to get back to you on that one, Steve. I would say the lion's share of our products, if you look at how diversified we are from being a smaller company and then the traction and uptake of those particular products, the end markets, we're still seeing strong demand. We're still seeing strong demand. And again, like I said, I think our product mix is relatively resistant, even if we have some difficult headwinds in the back half of the year from an inflationary environment and some cooling in the economy. And I think our products are going to be quite resilient. I think our product mix is going to be quite resilient. On the specific breakout there, I may have to come back to you on that.

Steve Barger, Analyst

Okay. Longer-term question. Working through the guidance, it seems like you expect EBITDA margin in the mid-11% range this year, maybe 12%. So you'd need 300 to 350 basis points of expansion in 2023. Will that be mix or price or volume? Just can you talk about what the margin expansion roadmap is from here to the end of Horizon 1?

Mike McGaugh, President and CEO

Yes, absolutely. Part of it involves our S&OP efforts to reduce costs, another part is maintaining price stability as raw material costs decrease, and then we also benefit from volume and operational efficiency throughout the company. I would break it down as one-third for each of these factors. Regarding the margin targets we've discussed, I am confident in the run rate for 2023. I can clearly see the potential within the company.

Steve Barger, Analyst

Great. I have more, but I will get back in line and see if anybody else has questions.

Operator, Operator

The next question today comes from Jonnathan Navarrete from Cowen.

Jonnathan Navarrete, Analyst

Congratulations on the quarter. I'd like to start by discussing pricing. The team has performed exceptionally well, as you noted, in 2021. Given the inflationary pressures that the country and the world are experiencing, how quickly can Myers adjust to the rising costs? How promptly can you pass on those costs to implement price changes? Additionally, what is the typical delay between pricing adjustments and cost changes?

Mike McGaugh, President and CEO

Yes, Jonnathan, typically, as we have discussed before, it's about a quarter or two, depending on the product line. This has been a significant focus for us over the last 24 months, particularly regarding our pricing strategy, which is not based on our costs but rather on the value we provide to our customers as a reliable supplier. In these times, being able to deliver the right products at the right time has been extremely important to our customers. This focus has given us an advantage in building partnerships and preference among them. While pricing is important, it has often been a secondary concern; availability is what our customers prioritize more. We do price according to the value we create, which requires a different mindset. We have brought in several people to help us shift that mindset. To address your original question, there is typically a lag of about a quarter to two, but I believe this will be sustainable in a way that hasn't been the case for Myers in the past.

Jonnathan Navarrete, Analyst

Great. It seems that since the company is pricing based on value, regardless of whether costs increase or decrease in the future, the value can only increase, right? So perhaps the pricing will remain stable and won't decrease along with the costs, correct?

Mike McGaugh, President and CEO

Yes. We can't hold our position indefinitely if we face a significant recession in the U.S. or globally. However, we will continue to widen the gap between our costs and sales prices. We have strong products and reputable brands with quality offerings. Typically, we possess a competitive advantage due to the nature of our large, bulky products. Competition from overseas is minimal. There's a revival of U.S.-based manufacturing and a growing preference for 'Made in America,' which I believe will benefit us for many years. We've also brought in numerous world-class talents to optimize our plants, resulting in some of our best operational rates ever. All these factors are converging positively, and I'm very optimistic about the company's outlook. Despite the persistent discussions about uncertainty, inflation, interest rates, and conflicts in the news, we must approach our future outlook cautiously. Nevertheless, I see a positive trend for us, which is why I feel excited and bullish about what lies ahead.

Jonnathan Navarrete, Analyst

Right. And for my final question, you indicated that one of the most crucial aspects for your customers is availability, which is a consistent theme across our entire coverage universe. Given the strong demand currently, is the company facing or anticipating any challenges in meeting that demand, especially in the latter part of the year? Or, considering the existing inventory buildup, is the company positioned well enough to meet demand, even if it were to increase?

Mike McGaugh, President and CEO

Yes, yes. We can, to answer your question. So how we're doing that is we've put a lot of focus on employee recruitment, on contingent staffing, on how we schedule and run our plants, the shift schedules so that they allow us to get the most product out the door in a way that creates an environment that is good for our employees and allows us to retain them. That's more the factory on the shop floor. I feel good about that.

Jonnathan Navarrete, Analyst

Okay. Got it. Congrats again.

Operator, Operator

Next up, we have a follow-up question from Steve Barger from KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Steve Barger, Analyst

Mike, can you give some more tangible examples around what you're finding with the hidden factory comment? How is that working and manifesting?

Mike McGaugh, President and CEO

Yes. So Steve, I'll give you an example. We have around 80 to 100 machines on our plastics side. We've discovered that some of the businesses we've acquired, along with team members we've brought in, possess strong expertise in running sales and operations planning, improving supply planning, enhancing demand planning, and optimizing shift schedules. For instance, in our roto business, we've implemented a shift schedule called 3/5/8, which consists of three shifts a day, five days a week, for eight hours each day. This structured approach has revealed more capacity than we initially expected. Looking at specific plants like Middlebury, Indiana, and Bristol, Indiana, we believed we were operating at full capacity. However, we brought in a specialized team to help us optimize scheduling for these plants and our machines, ensuring that the right products are matched with the right machines to achieve longer production runs, which reduces changeover time and downtime. The outcomes have been impressive, with some locations showing 20% to 30% more capacity than we thought possible. The best part is that this additional capacity comes without additional costs, allowing us to be a more reliable supplier while reducing the strain on our employees. This newfound capacity empowers us to aggressively pursue sales opportunities that we believed were out of reach a year ago.

Steve Barger, Analyst

That's great to hear, very positive. Shifting to M&A, the macro world is obviously changing. Can you just update us on how you're thinking about the multiple that you're willing to pay, time requirements for a deal to show accretion or hitting corporate ROIC or just how your thinking has changed around M&A, if at all?

Mike McGaugh, President and CEO

Yes, it happens frequently. Our goal is to acquire privately owned businesses that have strong foundations but require operational improvements. We believe we can enhance their operations. By acquiring these businesses, we often pay a lower multiple. Many of these business owners prefer not to sell to financial buyers and might accept a lower multiple to join forces with a company like Myers, known for taking care of employees and fostering growth. This consideration is often significant for the owners, allowing us to purchase these businesses at attractive prices. Then, through cost and growth synergies, they become even more valuable. The returns on invested capital and internal rate of return for the deals we're considering are exceptionally promising. We are noticing an increase in inbound opportunities. While valuation expectations are still relatively high, I anticipate they may begin to relax, which could favor us given our strong balance sheet and experience from having completed multiple deals. This gives me a sense of optimism.

Steve Barger, Analyst

I believe you mentioned that you had walked away from a few deals. Was that because of price, culture, or product fit? What were the reasons for the opportunities you decided to pass on?

Mike McGaugh, President and CEO

Yes. What we're finding is that the cultural aspect is very important. We identify businesses that we believe hold a strong position in a niche market segment and that we can assist in improving, while they can also contribute to us. However, we will conduct thorough diligence, and if after two to three months, despite investing some resources, we determine it's not a good fit, we will move on. We can't be overly optimistic and pursue opportunities indiscriminately. If we encounter concerns, we will have to make the tough decision to walk away, and we have done so in the past.

Steve Barger, Analyst

Got it. I have gotten a couple of questions from investors around your automotive exposure, just given volatile production schedules. I know you sell more to the factory floor, but has that affected you at all?

Mike McGaugh, President and CEO

No. At this point, it hasn't. In fact, that piece of business, our Dutch business, because of all the model changeover, should have a pretty good run rate for the balance of the year.

Steve Barger, Analyst

Yes. Okay. And then last one for Sonal. Just from a near-term modeling perspective, do you expect revenue will be up sequentially, coming off what was obviously a record quarter?

Sonal Robinson, Executive Vice President and CFO

Yes. Steve, the way I would answer that is from a top line standpoint, Distribution, you saw some nice top line growth there in Q1. I would expect that to be in a similar type of range. As you think about Material Handling, you saw very nice growth in Q1. Clearly, we'll start lapping some of the pricing benefit that we saw in Q1 in Q2. And then also, given the strength of the seed box sales season in Q1, we would expect not to probably see as large of a growth there but still a very nice sizable growth organically, double digit.

Steve Barger, Analyst

Understood. I have one more question. With rising fuel prices, does a change in miles driven impact Distribution? It seems like it should. How are you anticipating the outlook for that, considering gas prices are over $4?

Mike McGaugh, President and CEO

Yes, Steve, you raised an important point. I was with the roto-molding team yesterday during one of their operational reviews. On the MTS side, we haven't seen significant changes, and the same goes for Distribution. We are monitoring the situation but aren't certain if what we're observing is a trend or merely a single data point. We did experience a cold, wet spring, which likely slowed down fuel can sales, as is typical for this season. We're also keeping an eye on our customers, like Polaris and Thor, who maintain optimistic views on recreational toys and products. However, we are uncertain if rising inflation will discourage people from camping, riding ATVs, or using their boats, and what the impact might be. Currently, it seems the effect will be minimal, if at all. Still, we may need to adjust our outlook slightly because of the uncertainty regarding inflation. I visited Walmart last week and noticed that it appears we've witnessed six to seven years of inflation compressed into just four to five months. The extent to which this will influence consumer demand remains unclear, and this uncertainty is prompting us to take a more cautious approach in our outlook.

Steve Barger, Analyst

Yes, I should have been more clear in my earlier response. That was really the motivation for the consumer exposure question. It seems there has to be some impact at some level regarding this recreational aspect.

Mike McGaugh, President and CEO

You would think. You would think. Again, the order book still seems strong. The reports from those customers are still bullish, but we're watching it, Steve. Things look okay for us. Like I said, I don't want to belabor it, but we did have a little bit of a slower start in that piece in the second quarter. But it remains to be seen. And that's why I said there's just uncertainty. That's the reason we're not coming out with a bigger swing on some of our outlooks because just 2022, there's going to be uncertainty.

Operator, Operator

There are no additional questions waiting at this time, so that concludes the Myers Industries First Quarter 2022 Earnings Call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines.