Ryan McMonagle
Analyst · Oppenheimer. Please go ahead
Thanks, Fred and good afternoon everyone. First, I want to echo Fred's comments regarding the tremendous efforts of our employees over the last quarter. The milestones achieved related to the Custom Truck and Nesco integration, while delivering such a fantastic quarter of financial results is truly remarkable. I want to spend a few minutes providing additional color on some of the key aspects of our performance. On Slide 4, we highlight the four primary end markets that we focus on, transmission and distribution or T&D; telecom; rail and infrastructure. We intentionally focus on these markets because, they provide strong long-term growth opportunities and are far less cyclical than other truck-related end markets such as freight. T&D accounted for 50% of our combined revenues year-to-date and 78% of our rental revenues. And the underlying fundamentals couldn't be stronger. First, demand for new renewable energy is spurring the development of new transmission lines. In addition, the advanced age of the transmission and distribution grids require significant investment to replace existing lines and poles. Next, the increasing impact of severe weather is driving grid hardening across the country. And finally, the electrification of everything will accelerate and amplify the magnitude of the required upgrades. T&D capital spend has been on the rise for several years and we do not see signs of slowing as evidenced by the growing backlogs of T&D contractors, which are a key customer base for us. Telecom and specifically 5G has been a hot topic for several years. The opportunity is significant and we have finally started to see some real movement over the last 12 to 18 months. While this market only accounts for about 6% of our revenue year-to-date, many of our existing T&D-related contractor customers are the ones who are expected to deliver the rollout and our existing equipment portfolio, aligns well with the needs of this market. Rail investment, both in the freight and commuter markets remain strong. Similar to T&D, the existing rail infrastructure is quite aged and in need of constant maintenance. Such required maintenance work is not heavily correlated to fluctuations in freight or commuter volume, making it very predictable and consistent. Finally, infrastructure, which we generally defined as road, bridge and waste and refuse, accounts for 26% of our combined year-to-date revenue and has been strong for several years. We've all experienced driving through a major city and sitting in traffic caused by major road and bridge maintenance work. Several airports are in various stages of significant expansion or rebuild. Waste and refuse also continues to be a very steady performer, regardless of how the economy is performing. As Fred noted, the underlying fundamentals for these end markets are incredibly strong today and that is without considering the potential benefit from the $1 trillion infrastructure bill, approved by the Senate. In that bill, more than $400 billion would directly impact the core end markets we serve. Because project backlogs are already quite substantial, our view is the benefit from any bill will take some time to materialize. Assuming the bill is passed, the eventual benefit to us would be an extension of our already positive multi-year outlook and further strengthening of our business fundamentals. Slide five highlights meaningful opportunities to grow market share and expand rental penetration, beyond the growth in the underlying end markets. We believe we are the largest independent distributor of vocational trucks in the US, but we still only have roughly 4.5% market share. Our revenue growth in Q2 clearly indicates that we are growing that share, but we are still in the early stages. We also believe, the continued shift towards rental is real. Increased rental penetration is being driven by two key factors. First, T&D and telecom work is being performed increasingly by contractors, rather than the utilities themselves. The contractors have a different capital allocation model, which leans more heavily on rental than IOUs. As that outsourcing trend continues, we believe more and more T&D equipment will be rented. Second, more companies are implementing flexible asset-light models that reduce permanent outlays of capital. Rental is clearly the natural evolution. Turning to slide six. Our one-stop shop business model is designed to maximize our unit economics and share of customer wallet. Our integrated production capability is one of the key drivers of our superior unit economics. We are the final-stage assembler for more than 90% of the units we sell or add to the rental fleet. That process includes us taking a chassis and attaching a body and/or some other attachment like a bucket or a crane. By doing this work in-house, we eliminate the markup that would be applied by a third-party and instead capture that incremental profit ourself. In addition, we are more efficient in the assembly or upfitting process than the OEMs of the attachment. That efficiency, plus the cost advantage we have from purchasing at volume allows us to produce units at a cost well below that of our competition and deliver best-in-class returns for both rental and sales. Our revenue model is based on providing equipment to a customer, regardless of whether they want to rent or buy. Very few of our customers operate a rental-only or purchase-only model. In addition, their preference of rent versus own fluctuates over time. We believe this mixed revenue model provides more stability across rent and buy cycles, enhances our stickiness with customers, provides greater opportunity to deliver aftermarket parts and service and maximizes our ability to buy in bulk. The goal really is to be the one-stop shop solution for our customers' fleet over their entire life cycle, whether it's a fleet of several hundred utility trucks or five boom trucks. Another important component of our business model is the coast-to-coast branch network. We rent and sell units across the US and Canada. So our ability to quickly respond to customer service needs is vital, to maintain fleet utilization and customer satisfaction. We currently have 35 branches, most of which have full service and parts capabilities. In addition, we have more than 80 mobile techs, who can be deployed to address in-field service needs. Those service capabilities are supported by a best-in-class 24/7 call center staffed by certified technicians. The call center allows us to respond immediately to the customers' problems, whether it be deploying one of our technicians, a third-party provider or addressing the issue right over the phone. As you can see from the map on slide seven, there are regions of the country where we could expand our market presence, including the Pacific Northwest, Northern California New York and New Jersey Metro, the Carolinas and the Southwest. While we currently have assets in those regions, establishing a permanent physical presence will significantly increase our growth and market share potential. We expect to add several new locations through a combination of both acquisitions and greenfield sites over the next three years. The existing footprint and planned investments will provide an excellent foundation from which to expand our aftermarket parts and service platform. Turning to slide eight. The integration of Custom Truck and Nesco is progressing well and is ahead of plan. The teams have worked tirelessly to integrate and make it as seamless as possible for our customers. I am very proud of what we have accomplished in our first quarter as one company and we are proving that we truly are better together. Prior to the closing, we communicated a $50 million annual synergy target to be accomplished over a 24-month time period. I am happy to say that, we have now identified more than $55 million in annual cost synergies. Additionally, we communicated that we anticipated $25 million of annual run rate synergies in the first 12 months. We believe now that that number will be closer to $40 million. So the integration is ahead of plan. We have identified more cost synergies than originally forecasted, and we are realizing these synergies more quickly than we had originally anticipated. Please turn to slide 9. Starting this corner, CTOS will report the business under three segments: Equipment Rental Solutions or ERS; Truck and Equipment Sales or TES; and Aftermarket Parts and Service or APS. We developed these segments based on how we manage our operations, our go-to-market strategies and how we allocate capital. The reported results of our ERS business will include core rental revenue, the sale of rental assets, and the ancillary revenues related to those activities such as freight. The key metrics for ERS will be consistent with those included in our recent filings, which are utilization, OEC on rent and on-rent yields or ORY. The TES business will focus on new and used non-rental sales and related activities. We will be presenting our new sales backlog on a quarterly basis as well. We define that as future sales supported with a fully executed retail buyers order, or similar formal documentation. Our final segment APS will capture most of the legacy Nesco Parts Tools and Accessories business and the legacy Custom Truck parts and service activities. Slide 10 presents the revenue and gross profit results from the ERS business for Q2 2021 and on a combined basis for Q2 2020, and their respective year-to-date periods. Rental revenue excluding asset sales was up 3% versus Q2 2020 or 10% when you exclude the impact bad debt charges that are now mapped to revenue versus SG&A historically. Revenue growth was driven by strong improvement in utilization. Gross profit excluding depreciation grew 4% or 12% when you exclude the bad debt charges. Margins continue to be impacted by the deferred maintenance on the legacy Nesco fleet. Those costs and the challenged condition of the legacy Nesco fleet was greater than we initially expected. While we have a much clearer line of sight on the issue, it will continue to impact our ability to meaningfully improve margins over the balance of the year. We have also experienced higher freight costs, most of which we have been able to pass-through to our customers. But these cost increases have had a negative impact on margin. Utilization was 81% for the quarter up 10 percentage points compared to last year. OEC on rent was also up $128 million over the same period. The limited growth in OEC on rent relative to the improvement in utilization is a function of the overall fleet size. Demand for additional rental equipment remains strong, as evidenced by the fact that we added $115 million to the fleet year-to-date, but that has largely been offset by the sale of $114 million in OEC during the same period, most of which occurred in Q1. The sale of rental assets is primarily driven by customer-requested buyouts, the demand for which was high in Q1 and reflects the positive outlook they have for their own. Additionally, we have seen the most supply chain disruption in product categories primarily focused on rental. We are working closely with our suppliers to ensure sufficient supply to allow us to meet more customer demand for rental equipment. On-rent yield was 38% for the quarter flat compared to last year. This is an area where we see real opportunity for growth. During Q2, we implemented a new tiered pricing strategy which has already started to yield positive results. Between late May and early July, the rental rates on new contracts were up double digits compared to the existing average rate. It will take time for all our contracts to turn over, but we are excited about the long-term opportunities with the strategy. Slide 11 summarizes our TES performance, which has been strong. Revenues were up 56% in the quarter, while still growing backlog 169% versus last year, and 89% relative to Q2 2019 a good pre-COVID comparison. Growth was very broad-based across our entire product portfolio. We believe our growth reflects growing demand for equipment as well as strong market share gains. In addition to revenue growth, we were able to expand margin as a result of strong pricing discipline. We haven't yet felt any material effects from rising supply chain costs, but we do expect some pressure in the back half of the year. We believe any cost increases will be partially offset by expected production efficiency initiatives put in place during Q2 and that any net cost increases can be passed through to our customers. Overall, we couldn't be happier with the performance of the TES business. Turning to Slide 12. Our APS business posted revenue of $32.3 million compared to $34.6 million last year. APS growth has been lower than the other segments for two reasons: First, the technician supporting the legacy CTOS service business also support the rental fleet. As we noted, we have seen an increase in repair and maintenance activity and as a result, we have fewer hours available for external service. Second, the legacy Nesco PTA business has not performed up to our expectations. As Fred noted earlier, we have spent the month since the transaction closed diving deep into the legacy Nesco businesses in identifying some areas that need additional attention. PTA is one of those areas. We know the market opportunity is attractive and we see customer demand for the products and services. In order to realize the potential, we have reset the go-to-market strategy and are actively working on the supply chain and resources necessary to execute a strong profitable business plan. We have made good progress on this initiative, but it will take time. We will provide more color on the overall APS strategy and outlook over the coming quarters. In summary we are very proud of the results we have delivered in our first quarter as an integrated company. The tailwinds we are experiencing in our end markets are positive. Customer demand for our equipment remains very strong. We are seeing the benefits of our integrated one-stop shop business model and we are ahead of our integration timing with additional synergy upside. We know we wouldn't be able to deliver these results were it not for the effort of all of our employees who are working tirelessly together to take care of our customers. And I'd like to extend the sincere thank you. I will now turn it over to Brad.