Selim Bassoul
Analyst · ROTH Capital Partners. Your line is open
So I am going to make some closing remarks please, Amanda. So on the commercial side literally we look -- restaurants are looking at growing same-store sales by expanding menu items and extending the hours of operation. Starting from breakfast to late night day parts, what is the impact of this for Middleby? More equipment to accommodate, new items that differ from just lunch and dinner. The second impact in the commercial food service is to lower labor cost. With more chains open longer hours cost of labor is higher. In addition the impact of raising minimum wage will force operator to look for automation such as kitchen of the future, such as conveyers, such as reduction of equipment that allows less cleaning, less training. Number three, cost of energy continues to be a big impact and we are the leader in energy efficiency, water savings our waterless steamer, our dry equipment our combi that use less water than our competitor reduce all volume. We continue to look at the cost of ownership. The lifetime cost of ownership reducing that lifetime cost of ownership I think we've done a great job going back and looking at feedback that are less than two years. What's happening to the future capital spending on commercial appliances, it looks very good. According to a survey by the National Restaurant Association 62% of restaurant operators plan to make a capital expenditure for equipment expansion or remodeling in the next nine months. Nearly two third of restaurant operator reported that their same-store sales grows above a year ago levels. Most important restaurant operators are increasingly optimistic about continued sales gain in the months ahead a sentiment that is also showing up in their capital expenditure. Looking at Viking, despite some headwind such as economy improving slower than expected and home sales struggling to keep up with last year's pace, remodeling spending is expected to still be significant which is a big important factor for Viking because Viking is the longest established brand in that high-end and we benefit from remodeling more than our competitors. International will add gross to Viking in 2015 and 2016. We are launching in the fourth quarter of 2014 cooking appliances specifically designed for city dwellers and high risers, a product basically needed in the international market and in urban cities in China and Brazil and India in Dubai in Malaysia and in cities in Europe. We have started shipping our best range ever the 7 series. This range has the fastest boil time and the fastest pre-heat oven time. In addition the first cloud-based home range that allows you to monitor your oven using a tablet, a smartphone away from the appliance. It's a true smart appliance but also easy to use, easy to program it also sinks very easily. We don't have to be an IT expert to figure out how to sync this with the largest cooking surface and the ability to heat up quickly. We will be launching our new energy efficient refrigeration with our patented Plasmacluster in September and the most easy to clean refrigerator and in the same space it will hold the most cubic feet than our competitor and our previous model. Most important we have been spending our R&D on beating up the quality of construction of our appliances across the board by taking product and features and parts from our commercial use which are being beaten up by our customers who are open and use those appliances almost 20 hours a day which integrated many of our feature and our part into our residential appliance whether its combustion fan from Blodgett, whether its our burners, Range burner, whether its our door hinges everything is being beefed up and the fit and finish is getting much, much better. That will affect down the road our warranty rates and the consumer confidence in our equipment. Let's talk a little bit about builder confidence. The builder confidence has been in a holding pattern past three months. Looking ahead, I predict 2015 to be a strong builder year for home above $800,000. As home below that price will have difficulty why because builder will have hard time finding well-priced lots for that price range. The competition for lots and lot sizes have increased and they are becoming a lot more difficult for houses that are in the $200,000 price range which bodes well for Viking because people are buying above or building above $800,000 home are bringing the high-end appliances the stainless steel appliance in those homes. We are very excited about what's happening in our dealer and distribution strategy. The early sign of the commitment of over 250 dealers to us has been fantastic. They like what's happening, we started basically shipping the new products and the reception of those new products have been very well received. To that extent we are very optimistic about our segments and the next three years of how we build, continue building our innovation and getting closer to our customers most in food processing and commercial and now with Viking. This is the end of my comments. Thank you for joining us. I would like to leave you with the following notice. We have an Investor Day being held on Viking on November 18 and 19 and I urge all of you to come and visit us. So Darcy Bretz will be issuing a specific notice but if you put on your calendar November 18 and November 19 will be our Investor Day, it will be held at the Viking in Greenwood, Mississippi. Thank you and have a beautiful day. Bye-bye.