Jeff Leonard
Analyst · D.A. Davidson. Please go ahead
Thank you, Richard. I’d like to offer my personal thanks to everyone who’s joined our conference call today. We were certainly pleased with the strong first quarter results we reported today, and I’m exceptionally proud of our teams who made them possible. As we had anticipated, healthy markets and a modest but notable improvement in the performance of our supply chain drove our quarterly sales above the $400 million mark for the first time in company history. Sales were up nicely across both company operating divisions as previously past due supplier parts began to arrive in quantities that allowed us to increase the pace of our shipments with superb support from our key suppliers, manufacturing flow improved in our larger operations, resulting in better efficiencies. We have commented on previous calls about our confidence in the price quality of our backlog, and this was evident in our first quarter results. Gross margin improved 30% or 340 basis points compared to the first quarter of 2022, as improved pricing and supplier performance allowed more and better quality backlog to convert to sales. Concurrently, our teams continue to keep tight control over costs and our expenses expressed as a percentage of sales were down slightly. The combination of higher sales, better pricing, improved efficiency and strict cost discipline drove operating income to 11.9% of sales. We were obviously pleased that operating income is approaching the upgraded target of 12% that we established at the start of 2022 and this was achieved in the company’s normally weaker first quarter. After tax, company first quarter earnings of $33.4 million were slightly more than 80% higher than the first quarter of 2022. The changes to our manufacturing strategy that we initiated in 2021 also contributed to our first quarter results. As we reported earlier, we closed one of our U.S. snow removal facilities in December 2022 after consolidating the work performed there to a larger sister facility, and we began to see the benefits of that this quarter. We continue to focus on facility consolidations to reduce costs and improve capacity utilization. We are also working steadily on transferring production of our flagship products as close to the market as possible to reduce shipping time and cost and improve working capital turnover. Our Vegetation Management division had another outstanding quarter. Compared to the first quarter of 2022, sales were up 16% and operating income improved by over $18 million, an impressive increase of over 99%. Sales in every region and product category increased nicely except for Brazil, where sales were a bit lower as several large contracts were completed. Industrial Equipment division sales were up over 10% compared to the first quarter of 2022. The division sales of excavators, vacuum trucks, sweepers and debris collectors benefited from the improvement in supply chain performance. Although volume allocations remain in effect, first quarter truck chassis receipts were up more than 20% from the first quarter a year ago and were up nearly 50% from the fourth quarter of 2022. This improvement was achieved through close cooperation with our chassis supply partners and supported by our efforts last year to diversify chassis sourcing. With the leverage of higher sales, better pricing and improved capacity utilization, the division’s operating income increased by over 16% compared to the first quarter of 2022. I would now like to offer a few observations about conditions in our major markets in the first quarter and the outlook for the remainder of 2023. As we reported in the press release first quarter order bookings declined 17% compared to the same period of 2022. This decline was confined to Vegetation Management as order bookings in the Industrial Equipment division were up compared to the first quarter of 2022. Orders for Forestry and tree care products were lower year-over-year in the first quarter, however, this was largely due to a challenging comparison period as we have reported exceptionally high order intake in this segment during the first quarter of 2022. We experienced a moderate slowing of orders for tractor-mounted mowers and related tillage equipment in the farm and ranch segment in North America. This decline was not unexpected. The Association of Equipment Manufacturers report for the first quarter showed that shipments of tractors less than 100-horsepower were down nearly 18% compared to the first quarter of 2022. Agricultural equipment dealer inventories are returning to pre-pandemic levels as unit shipments have increased due to better supply chain performance. The pace of both shipments and new orders is returning to a more normal cadence as pandemic-related distortions dissipate. More positively, however, sales of our Vegetation Management equipment to governmental agencies were historically strong and order bookings were up compared to the first quarter of last year. Quoting activity in this sector also remains brisk in both North America and Europe. Finally, although this division’s end of first quarter backlog of almost $518 million is down about 15% year-over-year, it remains significantly elevated by historical standards and the first quarter of ‘22 comparison was exceptional. Industrial Equipment division orders received were higher in the first quarter compared to the first quarter of 2022. The increase was driven mostly by stronger activity in our street sweeper and debris collector products. As I pointed out previously, the Industrial Equipment division has been more significantly impacted by supply chain shortages over the past year. We expect that improving chassis delivery volumes and other supply chain performance gains will see sales growth in this division accelerate for the next several quarters and margins should improve further. As this division’s activities are more heavily weighted toward governmental customers, we expect good market momentum to continue for the remainder of 2023. This division’s end of first quarter order backlog of almost $477 million was 55% higher than the same point in 2022, clearly illustrating the constrained chassis delivery allocations had on its top line growth. We’re also pleased to report that at the recent CONEXPO show in Las Vegas, we unveiled our first fully electric and electric hybrid business of our core products. We were encouraged by the very warm reception of these new, more environmentally friended products received from fleet operators and equipment dealers in attendance. We will release our fourth annual corporate sustainability report in the next few days. In the report, you will see the clear progress we’re making toward the achievement of our ESG targets. We hope you’ll take the time to download and read the report. In summary, we were very pleased with the robust results we have reported today and anticipate that the company will continue to perform at a high level for the next few quarters and for the full year 2023. Our expectations are supported by the sustained strength and quality of our order backlog, improving supply chain performance, rising efficiencies and our commitment to persistent spending discipline. Uncertainty in our operating environment is evident, however, higher and potentially still rising interest rates are concerning and we are therefore somewhat more cautious about the longer term outlook for 2024 and beyond. I would lastly like to thank our employees, our dealers, our suppliers, customers and financial stakeholders for their continued support for the company. This concludes our prepared remarks. We’re now ready to take your questions. Operator, please go ahead.