Earnings Call Transcript - MYE Q2 2023

Operator, Operator

Hello and welcome to today's Myers Industries, Inc. Q2 2023 Earnings Call. My name is Jordan and I'll be coordinating your call today. I'm now going to hand over to Grant Fitz, Chief Financial Officer at Myers Industries to begin. Grant, please go ahead.

Grant Fitz, CFO

Thank you, Jordan. Good morning and thank you for joining us. I'm Grant Fitz, Chief Financial Officer at Myers Industries. Joining me today is Mike McGaugh, our President and Chief Executive Officer. Earlier this morning, we issued a press release outlining the financial results for the second quarter of 2023. We've also posted a presentation to accompany today's prepared remarks. If you've 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. Please turn to Slide 2 of the PowerPoint for our Safe-Harbor disclosures. I would like to remind you that we 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 profit, adjusted operating income, adjusted EBITDA, and adjusted EPS may be discussed on this call and are reconciled to the nearest GAAP metric in the exhibits to today's press release and to our presentation. For 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; I'm now pleased to turn the call over to Mike McGaugh.

Michael McGaugh, CEO

Thank you, Grant. Good morning, everyone and welcome to our second quarter 2023 earnings call. Before we discuss our quarterly performance, I want to take a moment to say how delighted we are to welcome our new CFO, Grant Fitz to our organization. Grant has considerable experience across the industrial, automotive and technology sectors. His financial acumen, experience and leadership will deliver meaningful contributions to Myers Industries and help us execute our 3 Horizon strategy. Welcome, Grant. We're glad you're here. As I prepared my remarks for this quarter, many of my comments directionally echo the past few quarters. We continue to face demand headwinds in certain end-markets, primarily in recreational vehicles, in marine tanks and in high-dollar consumer discretionary items such as gas cans, decorative planners and home goods. Just as in past quarters, we continue to offset the impact of these demand headwinds through our operational excellence and commercial excellence initiatives, what we call our self-help initiatives to drive performance improvements at Myers. We still have a long, multi-year runway of profit-improvement opportunities due to our self-help initiatives. These improvements are largely within our control, and we will continue to execute them through this year and beyond. One concrete example on the operational excellence side is the gains we've made in productivity, allowing us to streamline our asset footprint and reduce costs. By running our plants in a more optimal fashion, we continue to benefit from our new capacity, what we call the hidden factory. This enhanced productivity and newfound capacity have allowed us to optimize our footprint and reduce costs. An example of this is our recent move to consolidate two rotational molding facilities in Northern Indiana into a single facility. This move improves our efficiency and saves costs. Across-the-board, we're using our operational excellence focus to drive a more variable cost structure, reducing costs when demand is soft but ensuring we are well-positioned to meet demand when markets recover. While we are serious about cutting costs, we're also serious about investing in building critical capabilities that we need to improve our profit margins in Horizon 1 and execute our growth plans in Horizon 2 and 3. One example, we are investing to standardize and institutionalize our best practices by building out the Myers business system which will allow the company to scale faster, with fewer pinch points. In another example, we invested over $1 million this past quarter towards building out our best-in-class M&A frameworks, tools and capabilities to help us acquire and integrate larger and more complicated companies. Both of these new capabilities, the business system and M&A will serve us well as we pursue meaningful acquisition opportunities. We are focused and disciplined in our approach to acquisitions; we have a world-class team, a strong balance sheet, and are ready to act decisively on the right target. As we've said before, we won't get deal fever; we won't overpay; we are, and we will continue to be disciplined in our M&A approach. Now, let's get to our results. The second quarter of 2023 was challenging, given the softness of some end-markets, but this quarter also demonstrated the resilience in our earnings and cash generation capabilities, driven in part by our focus on our self-help actions and our disciplined execution in general, and the consistent pursuit of our 3 Horizon strategy. Fourth quarter, we had 8% growth in our Distribution segment, largely driven by the Mohawk acquisition. In our Material Handling segment, we experienced softening demand across multiple end-markets, partially countered by the strategic actions we took, allowing us to expand our adjusted gross margin for the quarter by 90 basis points to 32.9%. While many of the end-markets in our Material Handling segment experienced lower demand due to the current macro-environment, we continue to see many meaningful bright spots for the future. One example is our focus on the agriculture market; the demand for our seed boxes continues to be strong and profitable. A second opportunity is our effort to develop what we believe will be a large and lasting opportunity for our Scepter cases in military lightweighting projects around the world. A third example is our investment and focus to grow our e-commerce channel. We are investing in building this capability and anticipate the gross sales-through this channel will approach $40 million in 2023, roughly doubling our e-commerce sales revenue from just three years ago. In our Distribution segment, we made a change in leadership, naming Jim Gurnee, our Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Commercial Excellence to also lead this segment. Over the past three years, Jim has done an excellent job advancing Myers' commercial capabilities. Jim's expertise, leadership, and ability to deliver demonstrated results are precisely what's needed to take our Distribution segment performance to a higher level. Our recent EBITDA margins in distribution have been below my expectations, and I'm confident that under Jim's leadership we will improve and expand our EBITDA margins in the near-term. Just as with Material Handling, we also have bright spots for the future of the Distribution segment. We have a bullish long-term view due to expected growth for the tire industry, in part driven by the growth of electric vehicles. I'm also bullish on the future of the Distribution segment due to the new leadership and the resulting impact on our reinvigorated, aligned and strong management team. Now, I'll pass the call to Grant to walk through our financial results for the quarter and expectations for full-year.

Grant Fitz, CFO

Thank you, Mike. I want to take a moment to say how excited I am to be part of Myers Industries. Mike and his team have done a tremendous job positioning this business to reach new heights through the Myers business system. We have a strong platform here at Myers that is poised for growth across new end-markets, products and geographies over the coming years, and I am honored to be part of that trajectory. Please turn to Slide 4 for a summary of our second quarter results. Our second quarter net sales were down $24.7 million or 10.6% compared to the second quarter of 2022, primarily from lower sales in the Material Handling segment, largely due to reduced demand for RV and marine products, as well as softening in the consumer end-markets and the timing of seed box sales in Q2, which impacted the food and beverage end-market. However, this decline was partially offset by incremental sales of $9.3 million from the Mohawk Rubber acquisition in our Distribution segment. On an organic basis, contributions from higher pricing in the Distribution segment were more than offset by lower volumes in both Distribution and Material Handling segments. Our quarterly adjusted profit decreased $6.1 million or 8.2% as contributions from lower raw-material costs and the Mohawk Rubber acquisition were not enough to offset lower sales volumes. Adjusted gross profit margin for the quarter increased 90 basis points to 32.9% compared with 32% in the second quarter of 2022. Second quarter adjusted operating income decreased $4.6 million or 19.4% compared to the prior year, as a result of lower gross profit. After removing adjusting items, SG&A expenses were down $1.7 million year-over-year as a percentage of sales, improving to 23.8% compared with 22% in the same period last year. Included in the Q2 SG&A expense is $1.3 million of M&A consulting to strengthen Myers acquisition capabilities, as we move into larger potential acquisitions in Horizon 2. Adjusted EBITDA was $24.7 million in the second quarter, a decrease of $4.2 million or 14.4% compared to the prior period. Adjusted EBITDA margin decreased 50 basis points to 11.9% for the second quarter compared with 12.4% in the same period last year. Lastly, adjusted EPS was $0.35 compared to $0.45 in the same period last year. EBITDA adjustments include environmental charges for remediation, investigation, acquisition integration costs and other restructuring cost actions. Next, please turn to Slide 5 for an overview of our segment performance for the second quarter. For the Material Handling segment, net sales decreased $29.8 million or 17.2% compared to the prior year. This decrease was the result of lower sales in the consumer vehicle and industrial end-markets and timing of the food and beverage end-market sales. Declines in the RV and marine markets significantly impacted the Material Handling segment revenue, as well as overall softening of consumer spending in our markets and timing of agricultural orders. Material Handling adjusted EBITDA decreased $2.7 million or 8.2% to $29.9 million. Lower sales volume and unfavorable pricing more than offset lower raw-material costs and favorable sales mix. Net sales for the Distribution segment increased $5.1 million or 8.5% year-over-year. Excluding the incremental $9.3 million of net sales from the Mohawk Rubber acquisition, organic net sales decreased 6.9%. Distribution's adjusted EBITDA decreased $0.2 million or 3.7% to $4.7 million, primarily due to an increase in product costs and higher SG&A expenses year-over-year. SG&A expenses were higher year-over-year, primarily as a result of the Mohawk Rubber acquisition. The Distribution segment continues to integrate Mohawk Rubber and we are implementing new cost initiatives and further strategic pricing actions to counter cost inflation and drive margin expansion. Turning to Slide 6, free cash flow for the second quarter of 2023 was $16.7 million compared to $21.1 million for the second quarter of 2022. The decrease in cash flow versus the prior year was primarily the result of lower earnings. Working capital as a percentage of net sales decreased 70 basis points compared to the same period last year due to a continued focus by the team on working capital improvements. On a sequential basis, working capital as a percent of net sales were flat. Capital expenditures for the second quarter of 2023 were $6.1 million, and cash on hand at quarter end totaled $30.7 million. Our balance sheet remained strong and continues to support our growth runway with a debt-to-adjusted EBITDA of 0.9 times. Now please turn to Slide 7 for an update on our outlook for the fiscal year 2023. Given the macro challenges that we've seen across our various end-markets, we elected to lower our top-line guidance to a decline in the mid-single digit range. However, with a proven ability to mitigate the impact of unfavorable market conditions, our profitability guidance for the year of net income per diluted share is in the range of $1.41 to $1.73, and we are reiterating our adjusted earnings per diluted share in the range of $1.55 to $1.85. If current market conditions continue, it's more likely that we will be closer to the lower end of the adjusted EPS range. We continue to retain a strong balance sheet which is supported by consistent free cash generation. For the full-year, we expect capital expenditures to be in the range of $25 million to $30 million and an effective tax rate of approximately 25%. Before I turn the call over to Mike for an update on our strategy, I'd like to extend my gratitude to the entire Myers team for their warm welcome and continued hard work during the quarter. I am very excited about where Myers is headed, and I am pleased to be part of the effort to transform this company into a world-class organization.

Michael McGaugh, CEO

Thank you, Grant. Please turn to Slide 8. We have consistency in our direction and in our purpose. I outlined our long-term vision 3 years ago. This multi-year roadmap is simple, clear and consistent, and we continue to execute against it. I have confidence in our direction, in our company and in the shareholder value that this strategy delivers. Through Horizon 1, we have built a solid foundation of talent, operational capability and commercial excellence, and in Horizon 2, we will build on that foundation as we transform Myers. Please turn to Slide 9 which outlines the four strategic pillars that provide the framework of our strategy. We use these four pillars to guide the tactics and work plans that drive the transformation of our company. I'll spend a few minutes walking through our progress on each pillar on Slide 10. First, organic growth remains a crucial element in Myers' transformation into a high-performing, high-growth company. We continue to make investments to further strengthen our commercial capabilities, preparing Myers for an accelerated return to strong organic growth as end-market demand recovers. Specific investments include continued third-party assessments and training for our sales team, as well as training and education on target account planning, market planning and value-based pricing for our commercial and marketing teams. We can sustain our investment in these critical capabilities due to the fact that our end markets and products are relatively diversified, providing us consistent cash flow and an ability to invest in ourselves. As I mentioned earlier, we're capitalizing on favorable trends in both our Material Handling and Distribution segments that we believe will stimulate future organic growth. As an example, in our Material Handling segment, we are pursuing innovative growth projects like our lightweighting efforts for the military. We also expect positive impact in our distribution segment as a result of electric vehicle mandates because heavier electric vehicles wear down tires at an accelerated pace compared to traditional internal combustion vehicles. We expect both of these trends to be meaningful medium to longer-term tailwinds for Myers. Before I leave organic growth, I do want to highlight that we're celebrating our recent significant target account win in the distribution segment, landing a new nationwide customer that will bring significant revenue to the segment. Now moving on to the strategic M&A pillar. In the second quarter, we worked with outside advisers to strengthen Myers' processes and capabilities in target assessment, due diligence, and integration planning. We spent significant time and effort building and organizing our capabilities so that as we identify and pursue larger acquisition opportunities, we're well positioned to capture those opportunities and deliver meaningful cost and growth synergies. Our M&A playbook has transitioned from previous Horizon 1 bolt-on deals, and we're now well prepared to tackle larger Horizon 2 and 3 acquisitions. One word on M&A: we've seen strong deal flow over the past several months, and many opportunities have been well aligned with our strategic screens. We've been disciplined in our assessment of potential synergies and valuation. In general, we see that financial performance of many businesses has been impacted by the recent economic environment. However, sellers' projections of future performance are still quite optimistic, creating a disconnect in valuation expectations. We feel we're in a good position as it relates to M&A; we have a strong balance sheet, a clear and consistent strategy and screening criteria, and we are prepared to act decisively once we are confident that a transaction will create significant value for Myers shareholders. Now, moving on to the operational excellence pillar. We continue to focus on deploying better processes in purchasing, supply chain, and in product and asset management. I've spoken to the improvements we are realizing through a more centralized structured approach to purchasing. On the supply chain and asset management side, I've spoken about the hidden factory of new and uncovered capacity that we are realizing by better operating and scheduling our plants. All of these efforts are lowering our costs. The recent streamlining of our asset footprint that I highlighted earlier in this call is an example of obtaining lower costs through operational excellence. In spite of inconsistent end-market demand, we're confident that we continue to have a significant multi-year runway to deliver earnings per share gains through productivity and operational excellence. What's exciting is that these gains are largely within our control and will continue to provide EBITDA improvements year-over-year. As I mentioned in the past two quarterly earnings calls, we continue to use the years 2023 and 2024 to institutionalize the progress we've made at Myers. We're doing this by creating a business system. The Myers business system is driving standard work and standard processes to ensure that our gains over the past three years are lasting and a part of Myers' DNA. In the second quarter, we've invested time and financial resources to further build the Myers Business System. We believe the Myers Business System is critical to transforming our company and ensuring that the improvements we have made in Horizon 1 are sustainable and scalable in Horizon 2 and 3. Turning to the fourth pillar, our high-performing culture. In the second quarter, we strengthened our executive team with the hiring of Grant, as well as the decision to have Jim Gurnee lead the Distribution segment. With these two moves, I'm convinced we now have the strongest and most streamlined leadership team in my tenure at Myers. With this team, we are very well prepared to create significant shareholder value as we drive Myers into the future. Our strategy of targeting and recruiting large-cap talent from strong industrial firms continues to be in place. This model has been a key ingredient of Myers' transformation and progress so far, and we plan to stick with it. While our ability to recruit talent to our company is a key strength, it's also important to note that we are building our bench strength by developing our next generation of leaders internally through new assignments, stretch assignments, and new roles. This type and level of talent development we are doing at Myers is more akin to the programs found in much larger companies. Yes, there's a cost to this investment, and we're making it because the development of our bench is critical in order for us to deliver our growth aspirations over the next 5 to 6 years. To conclude, I'm excited for Myers and our future. I'm proud of the results of our self-help initiatives and the progress on our long-term strategy. I'm confident in the structure and capabilities we are building both in M&A and in the Myers Business System. I remain committed to the disciplined approach in which we are investigating, vetting, and evaluating prospective acquisitions. I continue to believe that for our team, being a part of Myers is the opportunity of a lifetime, and I continue to believe this opportunity will translate into attractive shareholder returns. Thank you for your continued interest and support in Myers Industries. With that, I'll turn the call over to the operator for questions.

Operator, Operator

Our first question comes from Jonnathan Navarrete of Cowen.

Jonnathan Navarrete, Analyst

Jonnathan on for Lance. My first question is, it's very exciting. Can you discuss the opportunity in electric vehicles? And are there any big contracts for us to be aware of and see the benefits in, let's say, the second half of '23 or would this be more of a 2024 story?

Grant Fitz, CFO

This is Grant. Just let me walk through this a little bit. So first of all, I spent a fair amount of my career in the automotive industry. I also served on a public company Board for an electric charging company. I spent a bit of time in this space. What we see overall is that the tire industry right now is expected to grow anywhere from 3% to 4% to 5%, depending on which outlook you look at. Embedded within that is the electric vehicle growth. As Mike mentioned, electric vehicles tend to wear out tires much faster, essentially wearing out about 20% faster than conventional internal combustion engine vehicles. This is driven by two factors: one is the heavier weight of the vehicles which causes more wear, and additionally, there tends to be more torque that electric vehicles have, particularly front-end torque which can also accelerate tire wear. So we view this as a significant tailwind as electric vehicles continue to expand in the overall vehicle market. I would say that this bodes very well for our distribution business because as vehicles wear out, there will certainly be more focus on what can be done to repair, replace and replenish tires in the industry. As for additional opportunities, we really see it as an overall trend for the entire market that we will be able to benefit from. Therefore, we feel optimistic about our distribution segment and just where it's going from a market perspective, especially considering the additional discipline that Jim Gurnee has brought in as the new leader for our operations.

Jonnathan Navarrete, Analyst

Moving on just to the end markets. Obviously, the second quarter, there were some softness in some key areas and I'm wondering, as of what you've seen so far in a month in the third quarter, have you seen operating conditions improve in any particular end market? And do you see a trend where some of the soft markets in the second quarter are likely to pick up perhaps sometimes during the middle of the third quarter or into the fourth quarter?

Michael McGaugh, CEO

This is Mike. It's a bit of a mixed bag. We see some weakness on the wholesale side of RVs and that was a nice market for our company. We do see continued strong sales in the back half of the year for the seed boxes in the food and beverage end market. The industrial end market is still going to be soft. Currently, we are tracking a bit behind on the sale of some of our consumer products, most notably fuel containers or gas cans. It's our expectation that we'll have an average year for hurricanes. There may be some upside there, given some recent forecasts we may end up with an above-average hurricane season from an activity standpoint. But overall, for the next six months, you can expect to see continued softer demand for the storage handling products that we make in Material Handling on average.

Grant Fitz, CFO

I would just add as well, too, Jonnathan, that we do see, as Mike mentioned, we do have a larger industrial customer for our distribution business that we've been able to secure that contract. This will provide some upside revenue for the distribution business that we've also reflected in our range. Overall, the momentum we continue to grow with the e-commerce business is very positive for us. Additionally, the military projects we've discussed in the past provide some good opportunities, though how quickly that will ramp is still to be determined. We certainly see some upside opportunities there as well.

Jonnathan Navarrete, Analyst

My last question pertains to the revenue guidance, which is now a little bit lower than before, but you still have the ability to maintain some key profitability metrics. I'm curious to know, should the need arise, what other key cost levers does the company have that it can pull to maintain this type of profitability guidance?

Michael McGaugh, CEO

Yes, there are some opportunities to continue to drive procurement savings as we've standardized that department and we’ve seen some gains there. On the raw material side, we expect to continue to have some runway. We also expect to rationalize SG&A and focused cost initiatives to right-size the structure given the demand that we face in the short to medium term. As for production facilities, we have a fairly extensive grid of production locations, and we brought in a lot of training capability on sales and operations planning. We are optimizing and running our plants better. What we are seeing is that the hidden factory is creating additional capacity and while we want to be responsive to market demand, we are also sensitive about not overreacting. We believe that these markets will turn, and we want to be ready to capitalize when that happens.

Grant Fitz, CFO

I think you've covered it well. One thing I would just add is that one of the things that really attracted me to Myers is the Myers Business System, which embeds a culture of continuous improvement and waste reduction within the organization. This resonates well with my strong execution background on initiatives. So I see us continually refining these processes with new initiatives and ongoing opportunities as part of the organization’s DNA.

Operator, Operator

Our next question comes from Steve Barger of KeyCorp.

Christian Dylan, Analyst

This is actually Christian Dylan on for Steve Barger. Can you just talk about the contribution from volume and price in the quarter? I know you've had a couple of price increases this year and last year. With the raw materials coming down a bit despite labor and other costs staying elevated, do you see more price increases in the near future?

Michael McGaugh, CEO

On the distribution side, our product costs rose. We captured some of that with price in select markets and products. We probably need to go after and implement more price increases on the distribution side. For some of our niche products, where we have the ability to price our products for the value they create or the high service levels we provide, that’s definitely an area of focus moving forward. So yes, the increases are on the table, and we're trying to strike a balance while managing volume.

Christian Dylan, Analyst

Last quarter, you mentioned new business wins. Can you elaborate on those plans? What part of the business were those in? Are these predominantly new customers or larger shares from existing customers?

Michael McGaugh, CEO

Yes, I'll address this from my perspective and would also like Grant to provide his insight. On the distribution side, that's compelling. We are the largest in our space by a factor of three or four, and our ability to serve is strong given our warehouse footprint post the Mohawk acquisition. We're finding that as the customer base for tire service centers consolidates, many independents are being acquired by nationwide chains. These nationwide chains want a supplier who can meet their needs from a supply standpoint. We just received confirmation that we won one of the largest tire supply store's nationwide business due to our supply capabilities. This is going to ramp through the balance of this year due to its complexity. Additionally, we have continued line extensions for our various containers and boxes, which are geared toward customer needs and requests. While we do not see those reflected in the volume now, they are helping to offset some weakness in RV, marine, and consumer segments. Finally, on the military front, we've been active in selling to governments outside the U.S. for many years, but the rearmament driven by the Ukrainian conflict has generated significant need, especially for our artillery shell casing which has been approved and qualified for the U.S. market. We believe that this will provide a substantial and exciting tailwind for us for many years. It is vital for us to remain ready to capitalize on these opportunities.

Grant Fitz, CFO

Yes, I don’t have anything quantitative to add but what has struck me is that customers in the distribution segment are returning to us because they’ve tried to do some of the work themselves and have acknowledged that they just can't achieve the same level of quality and service that we provide. This bodes well for future opportunities in the distribution segment. We've also been gaining momentum in e-commerce, which continues to show positive traction. I've had a chance to spend some time with that team and am impressed with their strategy and approach, which should yield future opportunities for us.

Christian Dylan, Analyst

Very exciting business wins out there. Switching gears a little bit, if I calculate your first half sales and annualize that for the year, I get about $850 million, which seems to match your updated guidance. If I connect that to your Horizon 1 and upcoming Horizon 2 plans, how should we think about that $1 billion Horizon 1 sales target that you laid out? I know that excludes M&A, but do you think that target is achievable in '24 or is that more of a '25 or somewhere down the line?

Michael McGaugh, CEO

Yes, I think we're basically, let’s say, a year behind. That’s a fair question. I laid out those targets in the summer of 2020 in the midst of COVID, and they were directional but I felt like they were correct. I still feel that way. We've faced downturns, specifically with the RV and marine tank markets, which have meaningfully impacted revenue, along with softness in consumer products. We are, however, backfilling this with military contracts, growth in e-commerce, and distribution improvements. I would say it's reasonable to think we are a year behind schedule due to recessionary conditions in the end markets in which we participate. However, the EBITDA percentage and quality targets remain obtainable. If volume decreases, bridging that gap at our scale becomes more challenging, but directionally, we can still reach those quality numbers, perhaps with a delay of a year.

Grant Fitz, CFO

Looking at this right now, I've been in companies that have set revenue targets which became an ultimatum to hit those numbers. Here at Myers, the team is very disciplined and they will not compromise earning capability or cash generation ability within the business. I believe the foundations are there. We’ve strengthened our M&A process significantly with the work carried out in the second quarter, preparing for Horizon 2. My background in M&A allows me to appreciate the strength of the team’s position. This may cause a slight delay, but I do not see that as a bad situation; it reflects Myers’ discipline. The pathways are built to continue driving growth for the business.

Michael McGaugh, CEO

Yes, it’s indeed a tough environment for M&A right now. We’re seeing targets that we like, but the value expectations are too high compared to what we think the asset should bear. We will build our capability, refine our strategies, and prepare our team to act when the right time arises, but we will not rush into any decisions. Ultimately, I believe that careful consideration will lead to the right long-term decisions for the shareholders.

Christian Dylan, Analyst

Just on supply chain, can you discuss the current supply chain landscape and if and where you see ongoing pressures? I know you’ve been active in really contributing to self-help initiatives in optimizing that supply chain and production, but what areas are you focusing on to continue driving some efficiencies?

Michael McGaugh, CEO

Yes, that's great. We use a model I call SALT: standardized, aggregate, leverage, and titrate. It’s been a consistent and relentless focus for our procurement teams. We ensure to standardize the grades of products, aggregate the buy into a single contract, and qualify as many suppliers as we can. Typically, we dramatically increase the number of available suppliers; sometime we double it. We then leverage this base to get additional savings. We see some relaxing in the polyethylene market with new North American capacity coming online. Given our SALT model, we are anticipating good value from this. Regarding other procurement items, we don’t see any severe restrictions currently in supply. In fact, we're working down inventory from the Mohawk and MTS combination, releasing working capital.

Christian Dylan, Analyst

Last question for me. I know you focus more on the aftermarket tire segment, but one of the significant tire OEMs recently reported a notable commercial and replacement tire volume drop. They indicated that the inventory destocking appears to be complete. Can you connect your comments to those reported volumes and your updated optimism on tire market dynamics?

Grant Fitz, CFO

Yes, again, from my perspective, you have to differentiate between short-term inventory adjustments and long-term growth trajectories. Looking quarter-over-quarter, there could be some fluctuations within the tire industry. Given the entire auto industry's focus on building up vehicle inventory, I suspect that the tire industry has also stocked up on inventory to manage through supply chain pressures. However, I do not believe this impacts my overall outlook for the long-term growth of the tire market. I think the projections for growth for tires on both a national and global basis remain strong, particularly as electric vehicles will eventually drive more usage into our tires, producing higher volume.

Operator, Operator

With that, we have no further questions on the line. So I'll hand it back to the team for any closing remarks.

Grant Fitz, CFO

Thank you, everyone. It's been very good to meet all of you, and I look forward to many future calls. With that, we can conclude our Q2 earnings call for Myers Industries.

Operator, Operator

This concludes today's call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.