Philip Horlock
Analyst · Argand Capital
Well, thanks, Jeff. Well, good morning, and thank you all for joining us today for our first quarter earnings call. We are approaching our one-year anniversary as a publicly traded company and I can tell you it's has been a busy and exciting 12 months of Blue Bird.
We welcome this opportunity to share our fiscal 2016 first quarter results with you, so let's get started with an overview of our financial performance on Slide 4.
As we previously explained, the school bus industry is extremely seasonal, and we achieved a solid results in the softest quarter of the year. Now what do we mean by the softest quarter of the year? Well, the first quarter covers a 3 months' immediately following the start of the new school year and consequently, it's the slowest quarter of the year for new bus sales, basically every district wants their buses ready for new school start.
Net sales for the quarter were $131 million, which is $35 million below the same period a year ago. Now this decline was in line with our expectations and we mentioned this at our December earnings call as we saw a number of specific customers shifting their new bus purchases from the first quarter to later in the year. These type of shifts happen often from year-to-year and are particularly noticeable in the first quarter.
Gross margins up 14.3% for the quarter were almost 3 points above a year ago. 2 factors drove this significant increase: First, a substantially higher mix of propane bus sales; and second, select customers requiring higher spec school buses with more options at higher prices.
Our adjusted EBITDA of $5 million was down about $2 million from last year, but represents the third consecutive year in which we've achieved positive EBITDA in the lowest volume quarter of the year. This was a solid result and consistent with our full-year plan.
Let me now review the first quarter highlights on Slide 5. First, let me cover our production. We built 1,600 buses in the first quarter. Now, as a reminder, we don't build buses to retain in Blue Bird's inventory to satisfy all this late in the year, every unit we build is for a firm order.
First quarter production is only 8% below a year ago, when there were 5 more production days. Now we're forecasting significant increase demand in the second half of the year and recently launched a second shift to ensure capacity is in place.
We sold just over 1,400 buses in the second quarter, which is down about 23% from last year. As I mentioned earlier, we knew that some customers were delaying their purchases to later in the year and this reduction is fully accounted for by lower bus deliveries to 3 dealers.
We continued to be the undisputed leader in propane-powered bus sales and achieved an exceptionally strong mix at 20% of total bus unit sales, with many more customers moving to propane.
Our unit volume was up a very high 72% from last year. And finally, we are seeing almost double the volume of quote activity through our dealer channel compared with last year. And this activity provides the basis for our strong pipeline of projected future orders in the coming quarters.
With seasonality being such a key aspect of our business, let's go to Slide 6 for a closer look. The new bus registration that's provided by our approach illustrates the seasonality, as shown by the chart on the right. Now the seasonality is driven by the buying pattern of school districts, which traditionally emphasizes delivery and preparation of new buses for the start of the new school year and by release of municipal budgets, typically in the May through July period. This leads to much higher demand in the second half of our fiscal year of April through September, causing 2/3 of annual vehicle registrations to occur in the second half.
Now, we have taken a step to add capacity in the second half of the year to better accommodate the delivery needs of our customers, and we are well positioned to handle the anticipated surge in orders.
So let's now look at how we see our sales outlook for the year, turning to Slide 7. As shown on the left hand section of the slide, consistent with our plan and guidance, we are projecting Blue Bird unit sales in fiscal '16 to be up between 4% to 6%, representing 10,800 to 11,000 buses in fiscal '16.
As we saw earlier, first quarter unit sales were down about 23% from last year, though we expect much of this decline to be recovered in the next quarter as our customers reenter the market. And we're forecasting first half sales to be about 4% to 6% lower than a year ago.
Now with extra production capacity available in fiscal year '16 from the addition of a second shift, we are projecting strong second half volume in the peak ordering season, up by 10% to 13% from fiscal 2015.
The results of the first and second half conversation of Blue Bird's unit sales more closely mirrors the timing of when customers really want their school buses delivered.
Turning to Slide 8, let's take a look at our propane bus sales performance. Blue Bird's propane-powered Vision bus continues to be our #1 product differentiator in the market, with 6x more propane buses registered than all of our competitors combined. Our propane Vision bus also registers the highest owner loyalty in the industry.
Our first quarter propane bus unit sales were up a substantial 72%. And year-to-date, 50% of our customers this year are new to propane. Furthermore, 20% of our unit sales in the first quarter were propane buses. These are very significant results that we are very pleased with.
Now, the advantages of propane over other fuels are clearly understood. Our market acceptance is growing as customer testing owners confirm the total cost of ownership and other key benefits.
Let me describe now our notable achievements in the first quarter. Kyrene school district in Arizona bought an additional 73 propane buses, taking the fleet now of propane to 98 buses. Mobile School District in Alabama bought additional 50 propane buses, taking their fleet to 80 buses. However, public schools in Florida and Safeway Transportation of Michigan were new to propane and each purchased 50 and 32 buses, respectively. These are just a few examples of many customers realizing the environmental and cost of ownership benefits from operating Blue Bird's propane buses.
And as a reminder, our proven, modern and efficient propane engine is exclusive to us, developed and supported by our partnership with Ford and ROUSH CleanTech. At Blue Bird, we believe in being first to market the differentiated products that customers want and value and where we can, we strive for exclusivity. Our propane success is a great example of this.
Let's now turn to Slide 9, and look at the other innovative new products we have coming in 2016, that are important to our continued growth. We have 4 exciting and brand-new powertrains coming to the market this year. We are the first and only manufacturer to offer a gasoline-powered bus in the large school bus segment. Mechanics and technicians understand gasoline engines, they're simple to maintain, service costs are lower and they perform exceptionally well in cold climate conditions. Now this bus will utilize the same proven engine and transmission used in our propane-powered bus and is another product from our exclusive partnership with Ford and ROUSH. This bus will be a great choice for customers who want the lowest acquisition price of any fuel type and simpler maintenance for their technicians. And we've had terrific interest from customers since we announced this engine in the coming year.
And next, our all-new Cummins 5-liter V8 diesel is a new lighter weight engine from Cummins, offering a lower acquisition price than other diesel options, while delivering fuel economy. Blue Bird again is the only school bus manufacturer currently offering this all-new modern, efficient and quiet powertrain.
Next, our new -- our all new CNG-powered Blue Bird Vision bus will provide a lower price Type C bus option compared with today's CNG-powered Type B bus option. And once again, this is developed by our exclusive partnership with Ford and ROUSH, deploying Ford's 6.8-liter V10 engine and a fuel system developed uniquely for us by the ROUSH team.
With this engine, along with our propane and gasoline offerings, we will have 3 distinct powertrains using the same Ford engine and transmission architecture. This is great news for the mechanics who work on the engines, and it really simplifies the whole service process.
Last, our new Eaton precision transmission option will be available on most diesel engines this year and is the first dual clutch, 7-speed automatic available on school buses in North America. It provides great acceleration, optimized shift points with improved fuel economy and a host of features that make the bus easier to drive.
As I mentioned earlier, we committed at Blue Bird to providing innovative and differentiated products that customers want and value. And I can tell you that based on feedback to date, our deals on customers are extremely excited about these all new products.
Now let's turn to Slide 10. So how do all these products fit together? Well, each one has a unique price point and its own value proposition for the customer. Starting from the left, we'll have our Type C bus value models, the lowest price point will be our gasoline entry. Alternatively, should diesel be more desirable to the customer, we will have the all-new V8 diesel entry from Cummins to offer, again at the lowest diesel price point.
Continuing up the price ladder, we will have our traditional ISB diesel engine from Cummins, our alternative fuel offerings with Ford-ROUSH propane and CNG models, ending with our highest passenger capacity Type D rear engine model, powered by either a Cummins diesel or CNG engine.
Bottom line, in 2016, Blue Bird will have the broadest array of product offerings in the market, all with differing value propositions and that's great news for our customers and key to our growth plans.
In fact, we already have significant orders in hand for our new gasoline-powered bus that launches later this year. We now like to turn it over to Phil Tighe, who will cover our financial results. Phil?