Greg Trepp
Analyst · Baird
Thank you Lou Anne. Good morning everyone and thanks for joining the call. Following the closure of Kitchen Collection's retail operations at the end of 2019, we entered 2020 focused on Hamilton Beach Brands and our strategic priorities of revenue growth, margin expansion and strong cash flow generation. As many of you know, last October we announced, the difficult, but necessary decision to wind down the Kitchen Collection business, the closure of all KC stores by the end of 2019 occurred as planned and Kitchen Collection's results are now reported as discontinued operations.Michelle is going to discuss the details of the wind down, which marks an important turning point. Kitchen Collection's net losses and negative cash flow had been a hindrance to our overall business and we look forward to the benefit of the wind down becoming evident in our market value over time.I'll now review our fourth quarter 2019 results from continuing operations, which included the second highest revenue and operating profit for any fourth quarter in our history and net income was the highest on record and by a significant amount. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2018, we delivered 4% revenue growth, driven by increased U.S. consumer and international consumer sales, partially offset by a modest decrease in global commercial sales.Operating profit grew 46% and net income from continuing operations increased 53%. We were pleased to deliver a strong bottom line even with a top line that was not as robust as expected.As we indicated going into the fourth quarter, our placements and promotions were strong. The main issue impacting customer order patterns in the third quarter was the ongoing adverse impact of tariffs. In the fourth quarter, while we did benefit from that shift in order patterns, the generally soft holiday season most retailers experienced impacted our top line.The late Thanksgiving shortened the holiday shopping season and diminished store traffic. Strong retailer investments in preseason promotions were not enough to get people to shop earlier. As a result, for the industry and our company, peak sales were delayed by several weeks and the reorders that we had anticipated did not fully materialize.As a reminder, tariffs are still in effect despite the trade deal that the U.S. signed with China earlier this year. As part of that agreement, the 15% tariff on List 4A was reduced to 7.5%. However, we are not fully benefiting from that cut. List 4B, which had been scheduled to go into effect on December 15 was canceled entirely certainly a relief. However, the remaining tariffs still impact 25% of our business.And since 4B was not canceled to sort of right before the implementation date, we still experienced a major resource drain, distraction and market disruption all through the second half of 2019, because we had to implement mitigation plans. We continue to pursue exclusions for List 4A, which includes coffeemakers, the largest category in our business.Despite some challenges in the fourth quarter, we were pleased with many positive results. We experienced a strong sell-through of our top promotions. We generated record e-commerce sales. Our revenue growth outpaced the industry. U.S. small kitchen appliance industry, dollar sales grew 2.8%. The mass segment in which the Hamilton Beach and Proctor Silex Brands compete declined 4%. The smaller premium segment in which our only-the-best brands compete increased 12.6%.Looking to the future, Hamilton Beach brands has a lot of great things going on. The key message I'd like you to take away today is that we're a very strong company. We're a leader in our industry, with a strong portfolio of iconic brands ranging from value to luxury and covering more than 50 categories.Let me provide some highlights that illustrate our strengths and momentum based on our performance in 2019. We introduced 80 new product platforms last year. Our products held a top three market share in more than 30 categories and we gained share in 25. New products included a number of air fryers and pressure cookers making us well represented in brands and sizes.Our new Hamilton Beach Sure-Crisp Air Fryer Toaster Oven is being particularly well received. We also introduced new products in traditional categories, such as, blenders, food processors, single-serve coffee, mixers, slow cookers, juice extractors and indoor grills. We plan a similar lineup of new products for 2020.At the consumer electronics show in January, we showcased a Wi-Fi connected coffee maker and slow cooker. In 2020, we're introducing a number of new products in multiple categories across all of our brands and these new items will be launched in time for this year's holiday selling season.We're excited about new items, such as an expansion to our popular FlexBrew single-serve coffee maker line and an egg bites maker both of which enable consumers to create popular coffee shop items at home. I'll discuss more new products in a moment.Innovation is one of our key strengths and one that is deeply ingrained in our culture. Our process for new product development has been decades in the making. We foster deep collaboration across our consumer research, marketing, engineering and quality teams. In fact, our whole approach to innovation relies on cross functional teams working together to bring research-driven consumer needs to market.We value continuous improvement and we are refining our well-honed innovation process that we can be even more competitive with new entrants in our space and some of the disruptive innovation that has occurred in recent years, including a strengthened ability to fast follow.We continue to make progress with our six strategic initiatives. They're working well and are contributing to our strength. Many of you have asked us to provide more specifics about the growth of the individual initiatives and what percent of total revenue each represents. Today we're providing that information for you and we'll update it annually.We performed very well in the e-commerce channel in 2019. Our global e-commerce sales grew 27% and accounted for 25% of total revenue. These amounts were even higher in the more developed U.S. market. The digital space is a strength for us as we focused on this channel early and invested in the infrastructure needed to facilitate online sales and growth.In 2019, Hamilton Beach continued to be the number one brand based on units sold in the e-commerce channel. Our products continued to earn favorable reviews and ratings of four stars and above, and we increased the star rating for every brand in 2019.Our Only-the-Best brands grew 7.4% in 2019 and accounted for 9% of our total revenue. The growth was driven by our Wolf Gourmet and Hamilton Beach Professional brands as well as by the new Bartesian premium cocktail delivery system that we began selling through -- last year through an exclusive multiyear agreement.We were delighted that the Bartesian product and our Wolf Gourmet Precision Griddle were selected as one of Oprah's favorite things for the holiday selling season giving them high-profile visibility with consumers. We expect significant upside in the Only-the-Best business and plan to add new products and potentially more brands.The Wolf Gourmet, we're rounding out our full line of countertop appliances with a stand mixer that we launched last year and a kettle that we are introducing later this year. We also continue to round out our line of Hamilton Beach professional products. The hand mixers that we introduced last year are selling very well.Last year, we launched the Hamilton Beach Professional juicer mixer grinder in India, and this year we'll offer that product in the U.S. for consumers who enjoy preparing Indian cuisine at home. We're also bringing out a new immersion blender, a food processor with a spiralizer and new Sure-Crisp digital oven, all under the Hamilton Beach Professional brand.Our CHI Touchscreen iron that we introduced last year is selling well and this year we're introducing a CHI Handheld Garment Steamer. For Weston, we have a great new sous vide immersion circulator, vacuum sealer dehydrator and smoke infuser.Turning to our global commercial products. After several years of averaging more than 5% revenue growth, we experienced a modest decrease in 2019 mostly due to the unfavorable impact of tariffs on the U.S. business.Commercial products accounted for 8% of our total revenue. We continue to be very optimistic about the potential for this business and expect it to return to growth in 2020. About half of our commercial sales are in the U.S. and the other half in markets across the globe.Our international food service business grew in 2019. Globally, we secured some very nice wins last year with Dairy Queen, Burger King and more recently with the Luckin Coffee chain in China.In 2020, we will be introducing a brand-new line of immersion blenders, which are a very important tool for chefs. We're pleased with the many partnerships we have developed around the world. We have good momentum for new opportunities.Our international markets, in which we have a long-standing presence in Canada and Mexico and Central America and more recent presence in emerging markets in Asia and Latin America, have generated a compound annual growth rate of more than 5% in the past five years.In 2019, virtually all international markets were soft and our revenue declined modestly. Revenue generated in international markets accounted for 24% of total revenue in 2019. We expect to return to growth in 2020.We continue to expand selectively outside of the traditional small kitchen appliance market and some new categories, where we have identified opportunities to leverage our branding, sourcing, distribution and e-commerce expertise. The e-commerce channel enables us to introduce new products quickly and relatively inexpensively and to react on a timely basis to consumer responses to new offerings.In 2019, we established a new brand for personal care products called Brightline and launched our first oral care product a sonic rechargeable toothbrush. We plan to add more personal care products under the Brightline name, including hair dryers and a facial cleaning brush that we developed through our innovation process. We also have a new Hamilton Beach countertop icemaker among other new products.While our new category initiative is in its early stage, we believe it can deliver significant long-term growth. Our sixth initiative is strategic acquisitions we continue to pursue bolt-on and tuck-in opportunities in both the consumer and commercial space that would add revenue in the range of $50 million to $100 million, always considering the right fit at the right valuation.We recently filled a new position that reports to me, the Vice President Corporate Development and Strategy to intensify our focus on acquisitions. In all of our initiatives, the momentum underway gives us the confidence that they have strong potential to drive long-term growth and thereby increase shareholder value.I'll now turn the call over to Michelle.