Earnings Labs

Methode Electronics, Inc. (MEI)

Q1 2011 Earnings Call· Thu, Sep 2, 2010

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Greetings and welcome to the Methode Electronics fiscal 2011 first quarter earnings presentation. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. This conference call does contain certain forward-looking statements, which reflects management’s expectations regarding future events and operating performance and speak only as of the date hereof. These forward-looking statements are subject to the Safe Harbor protection provided under the securities laws. Methode undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statements to conform the statement to actual results or changes in Methode’s expectations on a quarterly basis or otherwise. The forward-looking statements in this conference call involve the number of risks and uncertainties. The factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations are detailed in Methode’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, such as our annual and quarterly reports. Such factors may include, without limitations, the following, dependence on a small number of large customers, including two large automotive customers, dependence on the automotive appliance, computer and communications industries, seasonal and cyclical nature of some of our businesses, ability to compete effectively, customary risks related to conducting global operations, ability to keep pace with rapid technological changes, ability to avoid design or manufacturing defects, ability to protect our intellectual property, dependence on the availability and price of raw materials, ability to successfully benefit from acquisitions, currency fluctuations, unfavorable tax loss, the future trading price of our stock and the risks of owning real property. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Don Duda, President and Chief Executive Officer for Methode Electronics. Mr. Duda, you may begin.

Don Duda

President

Thank you, Edward and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for our fiscal 2011 first quarter financial results conference call. I’m joined today by Doug Koman, Chief Financial Officer and Ron Tsoumas, Methode’s Controller. Both Doug and I have comments today and afterwards, we will be pleased to take your questions. This morning, we released our first quarter financial results for fiscal 2011. I’m pleased to report that net sales and our earnings in the first quarter improved year-over-year from the first quarter of last year. In fiscal 2009 and 2010, we’ve restructured our operations, which lowered our breakeven point and refocused all our business segments on solution selling. Thus far in the fiscal 2011, we are seeing evidence of the business structure we put in place, is starting to show positive results. Total sales in the first quarter were up over 9% from the first quarter of last year, despite the loss of the Delphi business, which represented $7.5 million in sales in the first quarter of last year. Additionally, total sales were up 3% sequentially versus the fourth quarter of fiscal 2010. The momentum from the fourth quarter continued into the first quarter with market demand, particularly in our European and Asian Automotive Businesses at the high end of our expectations. Earnings for the first quarter of fiscal 2011 were $0.11 per share, compared to breakeven for the same period of last year as a result of various factors, including the absence of restructuring expenses and other items in the current period, which Doug will expand upon in his discussion. Consolidated gross margins were down, both year-over-year and sequentially for a few reasons, versus I mentioned earlier, there was an absence of sales to Delphi, which was a higher margin business volume for us. Secondly,…

Doug Koman

Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Don. Good morning, everyone. Don mentioned earlier that we reported $0.11 of EPS for the quarter compared to breakeven last year that was $4.1 million net income. Just to give you a little color on that primarily, this is due to the fact that we – last year’s number included $3.6 million of restructuring charges. This year we had none. This quarter, we did benefit from a gain on – of $1.2 million on life insurance policies related to a deferred compensation plan. We also saw a slight benefit in selling and administrative on a consolidated basis. Offsetting these items, we had lower design fees in our European operations. And we saw consolidated higher tax expense of about $300,000. So those are the – those are the big items that make up the $4.1 million of net income in the quarter. I’d like to give you a little color now on the segments to obviously, those items I just went over are the – are the large items, but there are a lot of ins and outs, pluses and minuses, so. In Automotive, we had first quarter sales of $49.3 million that’s down about 4%, compared to $51.2 million last year. Obviously, as Don mentioned, last year, we had $7.5 million of Delphi business and partially, offsetting this Delphi business, we saw a stronger sales in Europe and Asia. Additionally, currency translation decreased foreign sales by $1.7 million in the quarter. Looking at gross margins for Automotive that was at $10.1 million compared to $11.5 million last year, as a percentage of sales gross margins decreased to 20.5% this quarter, compared to 22.5 last year. Gross margins were negatively impacted by the loss of the Delphi business, lower design fees and increased cost related to new product development.…

Don Duda

President

Thanks, Doug. Edward, we’re ready to take questions.

Operator

Operator

Thank you, sir. (Operator Instructions) Our first question today comes from the line of David Leiker with Robert W. Baird. Please, proceed with your question.

David Leiker

Analyst · Robert W. Baird. Please, proceed with your question

Can you hear me?

Don Duda

President

Yeah.

David Leiker

Analyst · Robert W. Baird. Please, proceed with your question

Okay. And as we have, Don, I think you said that the new business, you had $20.9 million annually. Did I hear that correctly?

Don Duda

President

That’s correct.

David Leiker

Analyst · Robert W. Baird. Please, proceed with your question

Do you happen to have, I mean, we can go through other costs, but do you happen to have what are cumulative numbers of that, since you guys have started and talking about that kind of that number. Get us those through cumulative net off?

Don Duda

President

I’m not sure I understand the question cumulative of...

David Leiker

Analyst · Robert W. Baird. Please, proceed with your question

Yeah. You know, previous calls, you’ve talked about your new business somewhere as in the annual revenue, do you have that cumulated across to all those announcements that you’ve made or what the annual incremental revenue as from the new business?

Don Duda

President

We will have that, yes.

Doug Koman

Chief Financial Officer

Yeah. We don’t have it with us, but...

Don Duda

President

Yeah.

David Leiker

Analyst · Robert W. Baird. Please, proceed with your question

Okay.

Don Duda

President

We don’t track that.

David Leiker

Analyst · Robert W. Baird. Please, proceed with your question

Yeah. It’s okay. I was just wondering if you had it handy and then we can go back to other calls and to have that number. And then, from what I understand you have quite something about $3 or $4 million with Delphi revenue, that was in last year’s numbers yet. Is that’s correct?

Don Duda

President

$7.5 – $7.5 million was in the last year’s Q1?

David Leiker

Analyst · Robert W. Baird. Please, proceed with your question

Going forward in Q2, there is 3 or 4 million less than last year’s comps in Q2?

Don Duda

President

Yeah. That about, yeah, above that level.

David Leiker

Analyst · Robert W. Baird. Please, proceed with your question

And then on the Ford legacy business running off, which, I mean it, and we clearly have that mix model. But I think the magnitude of that much larger than what we’ve thought. Is there some context you can give us of what kind of an impact that’s we had on the numbers?

Don Duda

President

In first quarter of 2010, there were some Ford in there but we’ll have to get you that number, and I don’t know that your model is of there, I just think that you’re anticipating a higher revenue rate from Ford than we are, on current business.

David Leiker

Analyst · Robert W. Baird. Please, proceed with your question

But if we take a look at and I just, if we exclude Delphi in that China transfer business you’re saying your North American volumes are down 50% year-over-year right?

Doug Koman

Chief Financial Officer

That’s right.

Don Duda

President

That’s probably correct.

David Leiker

Analyst · Robert W. Baird. Please, proceed with your question

The production in North America was up 70% and it seems to me and we don’t have MyFord Touch really rolling to that number in Q1....

Don Duda

President

Right.

David Leiker

Analyst · Robert W. Baird. Please, proceed with your question

And so trying to reconcile there is such a big difference between your declined in revenue versus a pretty significant increase in production? And the variable that seems it standout process of run out from the Ford Legacy business and that’s we’re missing something?

Don Duda

President

We can study that. But I know we shift 100% on time everything our customer want us in the first quarter. And those are – that’s Ford and others, so and the quarter came in pretty much, so we anticipated it was. After thinking a K last year, we said that – we thought that the first quarter would be, but first of all, the first quarter would not merely the fourth quarter and we thought that automotive revenues would be down. So from our projections were pretty much where we, not where we are going to be and little disappointed in power margin, but I understand there is more mix. So I’m – we’ll go back and study the Ford transition, but I’m still struggling with whether disconnect is there between our models.

David Leiker

Analyst · Robert W. Baird. Please, proceed with your question

Well, I’m not great in talking about our model. You’re saying that your revenue tax, Delphi in China transfer is down 60% in North America and I’m saying North American production was up 70%. So you’ve pretty significantly underperformed in the North American automotive markets and I’m just trying to reconcile that?

Doug Koman

Chief Financial Officer

We’re going to have to try to model that result, I’m not sure I agree with you there.

David Leiker

Analyst · Robert W. Baird. Please, proceed with your question

So last year, we built 1.7 million vehicles in North America, this year we built almost 3 million.

Don Duda

President

No. I’m not going to argue with you on that. What I’m saying is that the business performed what we expected it to perform based on the business booked and our own internal forecasting.

David Leiker

Analyst · Robert W. Baird. Please, proceed with your question

I understand that’s – names on the something else. How much of the vehicle that have MyFord Touch in it? What portion of, what percentage of those you think you’re going to have content. As I saw, what are the comments out of Ford is that the Explorer, which is launching now. That they expect that 80% of Explorer’s with MyFord Touch in it? And I don’t know that you’re expecting to have 80% of the Explorer is having your touch points in it?

Don Duda

President

No. We are not. Definitely I can, I know we’ve given you the vehicles in the past, but separately we can give you that again, the only number I have is, what we’ve said in the prepared comments is 12 million for this fiscal.

David Leiker

Analyst · Robert W. Baird. Please, proceed with your question

Right.

Don Duda

President

We can backtrack and give you the specific platforms.

David Leiker

Analyst · Robert W. Baird. Please, proceed with your question

Right. We – the investors can’t assume that just because MyFord is in the vehicle that you have said, you have content on that vehicle, correct?

Don Duda

President

Okay. MyFord Touch is a topology or network on the vehicle. Some of them employ TouchSensor, some of them employ traditional switches. So My – the fact that MyFord Touch is on a vehicle does not automatically equate that any type of touch product is on the vehicle.

David Leiker

Analyst · Robert W. Baird. Please, proceed with your question

Okay. And I just wanted to verify that because I think there is – but thank you. That’s all I have. Thanks.

Don Duda

President

Okay. And that’s why we stressed and on previous calls, that it is around $12 million and at least in this fiscal year $40 million in total.

David Leiker

Analyst · Robert W. Baird. Please, proceed with your question

Yeah. And I just sense towards I’ll drive out that number. I just wanted to make sure people are aware you are not on 80% of the exports?

Don Duda

President

Right, right.

David Leiker

Analyst · Robert W. Baird. Please, proceed with your question

Thank you. That is all I have. Thanks

Don Duda

President

All right. Thank you, David. I will get you the other information.

Operator

Operator

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. (Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from the line of Jeremy Hellman with Divine Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Jeremy Hellman

Analyst · Jeremy Hellman with Divine Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question

Hi. Good morning.

Don Duda

President

Good morning, Jeremy.

Jeremy Hellman

Analyst · Jeremy Hellman with Divine Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question

So what I want to do and you guys have kind of touched it on little bit with David’s question there. Because I fold out your commentary from last quarter, earlier and you see I haven’t in my notes that you’ve said Q1 will be down sequentially due to seasonality, the July model changeover auto and also just on a global economic conditions. So you basically came in better than you would advertise, which from where we stand was good. So wondering was it mainly just Europe and Asia in auto that led you to come up with the results better than you had thought or was there something else?

Don Duda

President

No. That’s right. Europe was up a little higher than we expected. We and depending how you view the automotive market in Europe, we were expecting it to start to trend down a bit. I think we’re still cautious going forward that remained actually fairly robust through the summer, through the July third month of our quarter. But then Asian sales were particularly in lead frame business was up and that’s mainly because of the transmission that goes into as a more the six-speed transmission more fuel-efficient being rolled out across more platforms. So we’ve benefited from that. I guess my caution going forward is we still anticipate a bit of a slowdown and we’re still indicating that we think our total auto business will be down for the year mainly because of Delphi.

Jeremy Hellman

Analyst · Jeremy Hellman with Divine Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question

Right.

Don Duda

President

If the vehicle builds remain a little bit higher then we’ll track with that. As I said to David, we shift to 100% of everything as customers want it. So as from auto we’re clearly at the mercy of the market. We can’t do anything tomorrow, that’s going to affect auto revenues other than the ship product is required.

Jeremy Hellman

Analyst · Jeremy Hellman with Divine Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question

Right. So, if I’m kind of looking in terms of that the remaining three quarters of the year segment-by-segment kind of the seasonality pattern is my and if it’s okay for you guys, I just kind of run down how I see things and if there is an adverse and that just let me know, I mean, it sounds like auto should be flat plus or minus with some legal room back half of the years when you see the $12 million from MyFord Touch start coming in Q3, Q4 is that a fair enough way of looking at things?

Don Duda

President

Yeah.

Doug Koman

Chief Financial Officer

Yeah.

Don Duda

President

Yeah. I mean, the only other comment I would make is, I mean, we keep talking about Delphi, what I found particularly exciting about the first quarter here is that, we have successfully replaced that revenue and under the greater profits and that’s not insignificant in the whole scheme of things.

Jeremy Hellman

Analyst · Jeremy Hellman with Divine Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question

Yeah. Absolutely. Then just moving down to Interconnect, you made some comments there, you said, we flatted maybe some down-ish variance there, I still trying to keep up with you guys as you went through your comments. Power products, I don’t think you made a comment in terms of directionality there. Did I miss that or did you not comment on that?

Doug Koman

Chief Financial Officer

Tom, I don’t think we commented on it. That it’s likely to be flat quarter-over-quarter. We have less visibility in that business, if we get a Millard order business, we’re shipping in the quarter, that will certainly affect the numbers and we only when have made there as we had more Telecom business at lower margin than Millard were at higher margin. So less visibility there, probably flat to plus or minus a little bit sequentially. Most of the business we have booked in the last six, 12 months we’ll launch in – in the next fiscal year throughout the year. And that’s mainly Millard, so those margins should improve.

Jeremy Hellman

Analyst · Jeremy Hellman with Divine Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question

Okay. In fiscal ‘12, okay. And so, if I look again, speaking a margin then auto margins back half of the year given what you know currently we’ll seem to have an upward bias as with power products, correct?

Don Duda

President

I would on auto, yes, as we...

Jeremy Hellman

Analyst · Jeremy Hellman with Divine Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question

You know, where I’m looking at is that, you got pre-production cost here and production is going to start coming in, so you...

Don Duda

President

Yeah, yeah, yeah, and you’re right. As we get in the full launch on MyFord Touch that – that’s correct.

Jeremy Hellman

Analyst · Jeremy Hellman with Divine Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question

Okay.

Don Duda

President

And then power, that really is just a mix, I don’t think it’s pretty hard to predict.

Jeremy Hellman

Analyst · Jeremy Hellman with Divine Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question

Okay. And then one last thing on Power and then I’ll jump back out is, how significant if at all are your sales to the Renewable Energy markets and particular, wind or solar?

Don Duda

President

Quarter-to-quarter, they can’t be a factor. There was not a lot of sales in the first quarter. I will say, we are tracking a number of opportunities in that area. It’s primary focus for us and then, the opportunities depending on how you view the market can be sizable. But in the next couple of months, I don’t, that’s not going to influence results that much it can over a period of the next 12 to 18 months have an effect, I mean, that’s a clearly a focus for us.

Jeremy Hellman

Analyst · Jeremy Hellman with Divine Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question

Right.

Don Duda

President

I think it’s one of the reasons. I’m sorry, I interrupt you, but one of the reasons we invested in Eetrex to give us access to additional technology.

Jeremy Hellman

Analyst · Jeremy Hellman with Divine Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question

Right. Well, maybe more broad question and I was kind of looking at this as a multi-year question, is your strategy or target customer in that space going to be the Chinese OEMs, the Europeans or North American manufacturers?

Don Duda

President

I don’t...

Jeremy Hellman

Analyst · Jeremy Hellman with Divine Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question

Maybe above.

Don Duda

President

… just look knowing what opportunity we’re pursuing, we would definitely be the European and the U.S. OEMs and then also due to greater stationary market for that type of products. The large OEs are going to do a quite a bit on their own and we have the opportunity to sell them subsystems. But when you look at the stationary markets just data centers and wind power and so on. There is also a fair amount of business there to be had. And then probably a slightly higher margins than you might see from OEs.

Jeremy Hellman

Analyst · Jeremy Hellman with Divine Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question

Okay. One last one from me sorry. MDI and I think that you know correct, you said that production starts second half of 2014?

Don Duda

President

Yes. That’s correct.

Jeremy Hellman

Analyst · Jeremy Hellman with Divine Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question

Okay. And will that – at that point is obviously thinking a few is down the road. Are you going to take that other segment and it’s just, I know it’s more important, but it’s actually put a better name on it in other, at that point?

Doug Koman

Chief Financial Officer

Yeah. Right. At some point we have to look at where the MDI technology is being deployed, if it’s in Auto, we’ll roll it up into Auto at some point but....

Don Duda

President

Jeremy, a good example is the lead frame that we’ve talked about. That’s started in the Interconnect segment, but the application is on a transmission. So now that is reported by...

Doug Koman

Chief Financial Officer

Right.

Don Duda

President

Through automotive. So again that’s, that’s the customer we are selling since....

Doug Koman

Chief Financial Officer

And TouchSensor, we want to implement it appliances so on it’s an Interconnect and if it’s in Auto as the case in MyFord Touch since reported in Auto.

Jeremy Hellman

Analyst · Jeremy Hellman with Divine Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question

All right.

Doug Koman

Chief Financial Officer

More than likely, we – other would become the stage two Auto, it will come in into the three Auto business.

Jeremy Hellman

Analyst · Jeremy Hellman with Divine Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question

Right. That’s what I was asking. Okay. Great. Thanks.

Doug Koman

Chief Financial Officer

To better name than other.

Jeremy Hellman

Analyst · Jeremy Hellman with Divine Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question

Yeah. I know and just wanted to say nice quarter guys. It’s, stock guys have responded too well but hopefully the Street will get handle on thing.

Don Duda

President

Yeah. We appreciate that. Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. (Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from the line of Gregory Macosko with Lord Abbett. Please proceed with your question.

Gregory Macosko

Analyst · Gregory Macosko with Lord Abbett. Please proceed with your question

Yes. Thank you. Just follow up on the Ford – MyFord Touch in the – in MyFord penetration. I believe in the last call you talked about 80% of all Ford’s by 24.15 [ph] should have that program involved. Did I give that right last quarter, is that the idea?

Don Duda

President

Ford set that.

Gregory Macosko

Analyst · Gregory Macosko with Lord Abbett. Please proceed with your question

Okay. Ford set that. Got you. Okay. That’s fine and I understand.

Don Duda

President

And we are just as if I look at further, Methode is on the center console of MyFord Touch.

Gregory Macosko

Analyst · Gregory Macosko with Lord Abbett. Please proceed with your question

All right.

Don Duda

President

But MyFord Touch also includes the steering wheel, switches as well as the some of the instrumentation that can be modified. So there’s more to MyFord Touch than what Methode is providing. It’s quite a bit more actually.

Gregory Macosko

Analyst · Gregory Macosko with Lord Abbett. Please proceed with your question

Right. And just a follow-up on David’s question. Does that mean that, the idea of sensors versus switches, is the idea that by 2014 or 2015 there will be – it will all be sensor as opposed to switch or is connect, I mean, as far as you understand?

Don Duda

President

That is a design issue and probably a consumer issue. There certainly will be a mix, I think by our sight, in foreseeable future, it’s still going to be predominantly what I’ll call conventional switches and a migration of the TouchSensors will be – I know really as the consumer embraces it, the early returns on TouchSensor on the Ford vehicles were very, very good. But the deals we are just launching now, so let’s see what consumer, how they view that as the vehicle get in the fields.

Gregory Macosko

Analyst · Gregory Macosko with Lord Abbett. Please proceed with your question

So as people see what they are doing et cetera, the idea the whole I guess would be that, we would see more sensors on in the MyFord Touch as opposed to switch.

Don Duda

President

Right. And field effect switches on the vehicle, but in the certain areas that they are very appropriate for overhead console is a good area for truck releases is a keyless entry they’re much more robust take up less space, so there are some very logical places for them up to go, whether they go onto – we replaced conventional wheel switches or semi-console switches. I think that that remains to be seen, but there is – it’s early it will be a force within the vehicle.

Gregory Macosko

Analyst · Gregory Macosko with Lord Abbett. Please proceed with your question

So that overtime there will be more applications for that TouchSensor to be applied to as the vehicles stage, or get more sophisticated, or they get more comfortable with it?

Don Duda

President

All right. And I think it’s going to be designer preference. Well, an Aston Martin have a TouchSensor on it, so it’s the old argument over analog gauges versus digital gauges when the product came out with digital, or yeah digital gauges allow the long time prevent them or upset. So and one of my first one in switch or hey this is hi-tech. I want a slighter volume control that’s on of course the MyFord Touch I think, that really that might depend on age.

Gregory Macosko

Analyst · Gregory Macosko with Lord Abbett. Please proceed with your question

Okay. And then with regard to Ford, the 12 million you expect in the second half of this fiscal year. Is the idea given similar volume that we would – it’s a 24 million run rate is that fair to say, or is there some seasonality in that?

Don Duda

President

Well, there is always seasonality to Auto although, as although July was particularly, a more robust this year than in the past. But I think we’ve said at full launch, it’s about 40 million but on an annual basis.

Gregory Macosko

Analyst · Gregory Macosko with Lord Abbett. Please proceed with your question

Okay.

Don Duda

President

And I think, if you go back in some of our calls, we usually say that’s the summer month of July since that quarter tends to be a little bit less in the third quarter, which includes Christmas tends to be a little bit less for Auto. And then we – the 40 million comes from us looking at J.D. Power’s data and then applying some of our own logic to it. So if we don’t strictly rely on that data.

Doug Koman

Chief Financial Officer

Yeah. There is some platform lashes there about a year from now. It’s right.

Don Duda

President

Right.

Gregory Macosko

Analyst · Gregory Macosko with Lord Abbett. Please proceed with your question

But again, that that is four, just four.

Don Duda

President

Correct.

Gregory Macosko

Analyst · Gregory Macosko with Lord Abbett. Please proceed with your question

Okay. All right, just want to be sure on that but still I understand. And then with regard to the North American Auto growth, if we back out and just leave Delphi out of it on a year-over-year basis, I thought you said, you talked about that, the Auto growth ex-Delphi…

Don Duda

President

Yes.

Gregory Macosko

Analyst · Gregory Macosko with Lord Abbett. Please proceed with your question

What was that?

Don Duda

President

If you...

Gregory Macosko

Analyst · Gregory Macosko with Lord Abbett. Please proceed with your question

Back out Delphi...

Don Duda

President

Back out Delphi...

Gregory Macosko

Analyst · Gregory Macosko with Lord Abbett. Please proceed with your question

Both years, both quarters, last year and this quarter.

Don Duda

President

And our model actually grew, let me give you the exact number here, I believe it’s – I think it was 5 million.

Gregory Macosko

Analyst · Gregory Macosko with Lord Abbett. Please proceed with your question

5 million on...

Don Duda

President

That’s right.

Gregory Macosko

Analyst · Gregory Macosko with Lord Abbett. Please proceed with your question

On what base?

Don Duda

President

On last year’s quarter, first quarter to this year’s first quarter.

Gregory Macosko

Analyst · Gregory Macosko with Lord Abbett. Please proceed with your question

Yeah, but adjusted last year’s first quarter?

Doug Koman

Chief Financial Officer

Yeah, so. Yes, so we had 51.2 in back out, 7.5 approx from that growth.

Gregory Macosko

Analyst · Gregory Macosko with Lord Abbett. Please proceed with your question

Okay. And that’s for the – that’s worldwide.

Don Duda

President

That’s yeah. That’s total automotive.

Doug Koman

Chief Financial Officer

Right. It is for, yeah.

Don Duda

President

Yes.

Gregory Macosko

Analyst · Gregory Macosko with Lord Abbett. Please proceed with your question

That’s total automotive, okay.

Don Duda

President

And in comparison, just a little difficult, because last year we did a – when we launched the lead frame, we launched in the U.S. as the customer's request and then transferred it to China. So you got some domestic number in this too and that will be a hard comparison to do, because the business ramped, it also ramp between now and then.

Gregory Macosko

Analyst · Gregory Macosko with Lord Abbett. Please proceed with your question

Okay. In the Power business, you mentioned that, clearly mix was up and then you had an impact on the profit margins. But are you suggesting that that business mix will return to something we’d seen like last year, was this onetime-ish whether Telecom was a bigger portion in Military back off? Or is that something you expect to return to some normal run rate?

Don Duda

President

That’s a good question. I think it’s much harder to predict that business.

Gregory Macosko

Analyst · Gregory Macosko with Lord Abbett. Please proceed with your question

Right.

Don Duda

President

We know, there’s much visibility into – to the customers and the (inaudible), I think – they are pretty big hitters so here and they’re not, there is the mercy of what as many instances as the government is doing. Okay. Let me answer the question this way. Telecom is not our focus. We know that that’s it’s a little central product to produce in certain instances. It tends to be more competition. There is Chinese competition in that. And we’ve changed our focus probably 18 months ago, to do more collateral and as Doug said industrial.

Gregory Macosko

Analyst · Gregory Macosko with Lord Abbett. Please proceed with your question

Right.

Don Duda

President

So the business that has been booked. The majority of that is the higher margin industrial (inaudible), that’s generally from the time we do a prototype to the time, we actually are seeing revenues, it’s about an 18-month cycle. I would say we’re six months in to that. So I don’t, if we get an order in next quarter, if it earlier to somebody or that ships that for something and that will possibly impact the quarter. We’re not – we don’t have J.D. Power’s data on that power business. But we do know that the majority of the business that we booked will start to launch next fiscal year. So they may not affect the next quarter, but it should have a positive effect next year.

Gregory Macosko

Analyst · Gregory Macosko with Lord Abbett. Please proceed with your question

So, you don’t see that the wind down in the Middle East is an issue relative to the military side of your business?

Don Duda

President

Yeah, that’s maybe a matter of opinion. But most of the programs that we are on deal with revamping or reusing certain platforms, energy efficiency on ships, that they’re gear to saving money also to protection, armored vehicles and the military is using a lot of products, it will now go across multiple platforms from an expense savings. So you can always see cancellations of programs we’ve seen that in the past.

Gregory Macosko

Analyst · Gregory Macosko with Lord Abbett. Please proceed with your question

But the point is, I think what you’re saying is, you have some programs that have been booked and if while they don’t build the vehicles or they do something different those – that those sales wouldn’t show up. But given kind of expectations and the contract that you have, you’re expecting that mix to get better because there will be less telecom and more military?

Don Duda

President

Yes.

Gregory Macosko

Analyst · Gregory Macosko with Lord Abbett. Please proceed with your question

Okay. And then on the Interconnect business and you said softening with Whirlpool and one other in terms of?

Don Duda

President

With Cisco, which both customers had been fairly, I won’t say robust but the pretty good shipment and we’ve seen some slowdown that might just be a little bit of the summer. But it was worth mentioning because those are pretty big customers for us.

Gregory Macosko

Analyst · Gregory Macosko with Lord Abbett. Please proceed with your question

Okay. And then – are those contracts or are those just as they order?

Don Duda

President

Both I guess your – we have a design wins and then you’re on the drawing and then most instances where either single sourced or I think in the case of Cisco, probably there might be one other personal of those, one other company but that’s says as they, like Auto that if they need it, they order it.

Gregory Macosko

Analyst · Gregory Macosko with Lord Abbett. Please proceed with your question

And then finally on the cash burn with regard to the accounts receivable up 6.9, do you expect that to come down sequentially, I mean you had a strong July, I understand that’s a good news, but some customers and the collections are coming or I mean, you expect the accounts receivable to come more in line sequentially?

Don Duda

President

Yeah, we would expect that to improve.

Gregory Macosko

Analyst · Gregory Macosko with Lord Abbett. Please proceed with your question

All right. Thank you very much.

Don Duda

President

Thanks very much.

Operator

Operator

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Our next question comes from the line of Josh Brown [ph] with (inaudible). Please proceed with your question.

Josh Brown

Analyst

Yeah, hi, guys. Thanks for taking may call.

Don Duda

President

Hi, Josh.

Josh Brown

Analyst

Now, to beat a dead horse here on the MyFord Touch deal, but as I look at the forex [ph] floor available options, they list in MyFord Touch as a singular available option. Are you saying that, if a customer selects the MyFord Touch taking then further select to have TouchSensors and they can take break out your products or have the traditional switches, I guess, I’m just totally lost there, when it comes to where you guys relate to MyFord Touch.

Don Duda

President

Okay. No, the customer, I don’t believe it’s get the choice there.

Josh Brown

Analyst

So if they select MyFord Touch, then you guys will be on that system.

Don Duda

President

I don’t want to say. I don’t have the platform list in front of me. I don’t want to mislead you. We will get back to you and tell you exactly what – on the Explorer.

Josh Brown

Analyst

Okay. I appreciate that.

Don Duda

President

Yeah.

Josh Brown

Analyst

That’s all I have. Thanks.

Don Duda

President

Okay. Let’s finish it after this.

Operator

Operator

Thank you ladies and gentlemen. (Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from the line Jeremy Hellman with Divine Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Jeremy Hellman

Analyst · Divine Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question

Hi. One follow-up on the MDI business wins?

Don Duda

President

Yes.

Jeremy Hellman

Analyst · Divine Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question

Can you give us some sense of how significant this inroad is with the OEM, language and I think your commentary also was supportive to the language that this contract sounds like it can work larger, but can work larger by million or by double in size and also kind of coronary to that. Are you in any active discussions with other OEMs that you think have a reasonable likely hood of closing that would be of some more scope and scale?

Don Duda

President

Okay. The technology could very well much as always we’re seeing with lead frames, because there is a cost savings there and that particular transmission is more fuel-efficient. So as that transmission gets deployed on other platforms, we would expect – as we indicated that, that number should go up and it’s hard to quantify, but it’s not going to be just a million. If you get on a another platform you are going to see a significant increase in that number, does it double that’s hard to say, but it’s not – it wouldn’t be insignificant.

Jeremy Hellman

Analyst · Divine Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question

Is that maybe a better way of asking? Is that OEM or current customer or is this a new customer?

Don Duda

President

No, that is a current customer.

Jeremy Hellman

Analyst · Divine Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question

Okay. And does this customer in the past, in other products that they are sourcing from you guys shown pretty reasonable habit of stepping up purchasing from you like that?

Don Duda

President

If they are successful with their products and then yes, absolutely. That’s the benefit of one of those – of being an Auto platform is that – is that technology or that’s a product takeoff for the customer you go along for the ride that’s a good position to be in. A good way of looking at it is what we saw in 276, 276 was – I’m going from memory, but I want to say it was about a 10 million initial win. We have to go back and get the exact number. But now we’re up to about 40 million and that is also a transmission program. So, in contrast to say like a wheel switch where you are really specific to a particular vehicle transmission’s goal across platform often.

Jeremy Hellman

Analyst · Divine Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question

All right. And similarly, if you’re – you’re proven success with this current OEM and there’s better performance features. Then it’s certainly reasonable to expect at other OEMs would have an inclination, kind want to purchase this as well, right?

Don Duda

President

And that’s correct. That’s one of the reasons we said and this is the first major deployment of MDI on an Automobile and particularly on the Transmission. So if there is much like MyFord Touch is that, if that is successful we’ll see – we have seen and we announced. We have another OEM that’s putting on a small platform as an option, but it’s hard to see it, expand across other automakers of it. So I really do view this MDI win as very significant. And it’s a combination of at least five years of design efforts where we were $2.5 million a year in R&D expenses.

Jeremy Hellman

Analyst · Divine Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question

Is the three year time period from win to production going to be typical, or is that a typical to those on long side?

Don Duda

President

I think it’s a – launching on a transmission is a longer haul than on switches. I mean, it’s much more testing that goes on, I mean it’s a pretty harsh environment, a 350 degrees and an excess of 350 degrees Fahrenheit. So it’s a fair amount of test. In fact, I would say that’s going to be typical, that maybe slightly less but not by years, by months.

Jeremy Hellman

Analyst · Divine Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question

Okay. Thanks.

Operator

Operator

Thank you ladies and gentlemen. We have no further questions at this time. So I would like to turn the floor back to management for any closing comments.

Doug Koman

Chief Financial Officer

Okay. Back to you, Don.

Don Duda

President

Okay. Thank you, Edward. To answer the question on the Ford Explorer, there’s three different options on MyFord Touch and that’s what you really need to look at. I know there is this only option, we’ll provide more detail on that, but there are options that the consumer can choose. So with that, Edward, I’ll thank everyone for listening and wish everyone a very pleasant and safe Labor Day weekend.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today’s teleconference. And you may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.