Earnings Labs

MillerKnoll, Inc. (MLKN)

Q4 2017 Earnings Call· Thu, Jul 6, 2017

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to this Herman Miller Incorporated Fourth Quarter Fiscal Year 2017 Earnings Results Conference Call. This call is being recorded. This presentation will include forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include those risk factors discussed in the Company's reports on Form 10-K and 10-Q and other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Today's presentation will be hosted by Mr. Brian Walker, President and CEO; Mr. Jeff Stutz, Executive Vice President and CFO; and Mr. Kevin Veltman, Vice President, Investor Relations and Treasurer. Mr. Walker will open the call with brief remarks, followed by a more detailed presentation of the financials by Mr. Stutz and Mr. Veltman. We will then open the call to your questions. We will limit today's call to 60 minutes and ask that callers to limit their questions to allow time for all to participate. At this time, I would like to begin the presentation by turning the call over to Mr. Walker. Please go ahead.

Brian Walker

Management

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. I'll begin the call today with a brief overview of our results for the quarter and full year. After that I’ll provide a review of our five key priorities for the business including accomplishments from last year [Indiscernible] the work that is ahead of us. I’ll close with an overview of the current economic backdrop before I turn the call over to Jeff and Kevin to cover the quarter in more detail. Our results for the quarter reflect progress across a range of initiatives in the business, the net of which helped us deliver year-over-year improvement in adjusted operating margins in each of our business segments. Throughout this year – throughout this past year, we placed a heavy emphasis on positioning our Consumer business on a path toward profitable growth and we are very pleased with the further steps our team made this quarter delivering meaningful improvements in net sales and operating margins. More broadly, we began seeing the early benefit of our enterprise-wide focus on cost reductions while at the same time advancing our innovation agenda with a number of important product launches at the NeoCon Show in June. Net sales for the quarter were within the range we committed to back in March and we delivered a very strong finish to the year on the bottom-line as adjusted earnings per share of $0.64 exceeded our expectations through a combination of better than expected gross margins and well managed operating expenses across the organization. In total, organic orders in the fourth quarter were essentially flat with last year and reflected a generally mix demand environment across our group of businesses. Relative strength in the Consumer segment was offset by flat year-on-year activity in North America and lower overall demand in…

Jeffrey Stutz

Management

Thank you, Brian. Good morning, everyone. Consolidated net sales in the fourth quarter of $577 million were 1% below the same quarter last year. On an organic basis, which excludes the impact of foreign currency translation and dealer divestitures, sales were 3% higher than last year’s level. Orders in the period of $568 million were 6% lower than the same quarter a year ago. As we outlined last quarter, we believe the timing of our most recent price increase had an impact on order pacing between our third and fourth quarters. At the beginning of February, we increased our general list prices by an average of 2%. As a result, we estimate orders totaling approximately $21 million were pulled ahead into the third quarter that would have otherwise entered during the fourth quarter. On an organic basis, which includes adjusting for this pull ahead impact, orders were flat compared to the fourth quarter of last year. Our backlog last year included approximately $9 million in orders related to a dealer that was subsequently divested during the fiscal year. Excluding the impacts from that dealer divestiture, the ending backlog in May was 2.5% higher than last year’s level. Within our North America segment, sales were $338 million in the fourth quarter representing an increase of 1.5% from the same quarter last year. New orders in this segment were $329 million in the quarter reflecting a decrease of 8% from last year. Organically, we posted year-over-year revenue growth of 4% while orders were flat compared to a year ago. Consistent with what we experienced throughout much of the fiscal year, orders in Q4 from project sizes below $1 million were higher compared to last year while we saw comparatively fewer projects above the $1 million size level. Sector results in the quarter…

Kevin Veltman

Management

Thanks, Jeff. Good morning, everyone. We ended the quarter with total cash and cash equivalents of $96 million, which reflected an increase of $11 million from last year. Cash flows from operations in the period were $80 million, compared to $85 million in the fourth quarter of last year primarily due to changes in working capital balances. For the full fiscal year, cash flows from operations were $202 million, compared to $210 million in the prior fiscal year. Capital expenditures were $70 million in the quarter and $87 million for the full year. Cash dividends paid in the quarter were $10 million and $39 million for the full year. The dividend increase we announced yesterday increases are expected annual payout levels to approximately $43 million. We also repurchased approximately $7 million of shares during the quarter and $27 million for the full year. As we mentioned last quarter, our target for cash returns to investors, a measure which we measure by interest expense, dividend payments and share repurchases as a percentage of trailing three year EBITDA targets 30% to 35% of EBITDA. While investing in our business remains our number one priority, based on our strong cash flow generation and consistent with our goal of delivering shareholder value, we expect to achieve this target on an annual runrate basis next year through a combination of the higher dividend level and additional share repurchase activity. We remain in compliance with all that covenants and as of quarter end our gross debt-to-EBITDA ratio was approximately 0.8 to 1. The available capacity in our bank credit facility stood at $392 million at the end of the quarter, which includes $150 million set aside to repay the private placement notes that are due in January 2018. As a reminder, we also entered into a ten year forward starting interest rate swap in September of 2016 with a notional amount of $150 million that will be effective in January of 2018. It will fix our interest rate on this tranche of debt at 2.8%. Shortly after the end of this quarter, we entered into an additional ten year forward starting interest rate swap with a notional amount of $75 million at a fixed rate of approximately 3.2% that will also be effective in January of 2018. This transaction enables us to put financing in place for general corporate purposes that takes further advantage of the current low interest rate environment. Given our current cash balance ongoing cash flows from operations and our total borrowing capacity, we believe we continue to be well positioned to meet the financing needs of the business moving forward. With that, I’ll now turn the call back over to Jeff to cover our sales and earnings guidance for the first quarter of fiscal 2018.

Jeffrey Stutz

Management

All right, thanks, Kevin. With respect to the forecast, we anticipate sales in the first quarter’s range between $570 million and $590 million. We estimate that year-over-year unfavorable impact of foreign exchange on sales for the quarter to be approximately $2 million. So on an organic basis, adjusted for dealer divestitures and the impact of foreign exchange, this forecast implies a revenue increase of 5% compared to the same quarter last year at the midpoint of the range. Consolidated gross margin in the first quarter is expected to range between 37.5% and 38.5% and operating expenses in the first quarter are expected to range between $166 million and 170 million. We anticipate earnings per share to be between $0.55 and $0.59 for the period and this assumes that effective tax rate of between 30.5% and 32.5%. With that brief overview, I’ll now turn the call back over to the operator and we will take your questions.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Matt McCall with Seaport Global Securities. You may begin.

Reuben Garner

Analyst

Thank you, good morning, for taking my questions. This is actually Reuben on for Matt.

Brian Walker

Management

Hey, Reuben.

Reuben Garner

Analyst

Hey. So, we keep hearing about the choppy environment in the corporate office space. Can you maybe give us an update on what your market growth expectations are in North America over your fiscal 2018?

Jeffrey Stutz

Management

Hey, Reuben, this is Jeff. Yes, so, there is no doubt our fiscal year we’ve seen what you’ve heard from many others in our industry is this choppy environment. As a general rule, and we’ve tended to talk about this as a longer trend, we think that the North American contract business is a 1% to 3% growth rate industry now. That assumes – and so, I would tell you that generally, our expectation is in that range as we move forward. Now that would assume and this is an important factor that we don’t get any kind of an uplift from changes in tax policy that are being contemplated in Washington. If we see some movement there and some progress, we may well see some boost from that, but absent that, I think 1% to 3% probably toward the upper end of that range, I think if you look at the BIFMA forecast that’s out there is higher than that. But based on our recent experience, we are a little more tempered in our outlook.

Reuben Garner

Analyst

Okay, thank you. And then, in your guidance for the fourth quarter, I think you guys on the last quarter’s call talked about $1 million to $1.5 million in price from the February announcement. Can you talk to us about where it came in and maybe what’s in the guidance or I guess, what’s your outlook for – from a price cost standpoint going forward?

Jeffrey Stutz

Management

In terms of the price increase, so it was about – we had about a $3 million impact that rolled in year-on-year in the fourth quarter. I think, Kevin, our guide implies on a little more than that, it tends to layer itself in over time probably between $3 million and $5 million for the first quarter when you net it all out. Again, that was a targeted price increase, but it affected many different product lines. So it wasn’t heavily weighted toward any one. If it was weighted anywhere, it would have been toward product that had a fairly – a relatively high component of steel, because that’s where a lot of the inflationary pressures we face all year has been. But it was across the board and in those product categories.

Reuben Garner

Analyst

Okay, and then, on the cost front, what’s your outlook for inflation?

Jeffrey Stutz

Management

Steel prices – so, we will – our expectation in our guidance is predicated on this idea that we are still comping against, because our supply contracts lag the market price of steel. We are actually right now, if you look at the cold rolled index we are about where we were a year ago in the total market price, but because our contract put us on a three month lag as a rule, we still have one more quarter of comping against relatively low prices a year ago. So we expect some steel inflationary pressure still in the first quarter that’s reflected in our guide and as we get towards the back half of the first quarter and as we roll into Q2, assuming no further inflation in the market price we should start to comp those and hopefully see some relief.

Kevin Veltman

Management

So Jeff increase year-over-year, but inflation quarter-to-quarter we look to be pretty flat, right, we are not looking for, we don’t see a lot of inflationary pressure going in Q4 to Q1?

Jeffrey Stutz

Management

Correct.

Reuben Garner

Analyst

Got it. And then last one for me, strong growth in the Consumer segment in the quarter. Can you help us with kind of the buckets of growth going forward? I know there is a lot of pieces with added square footage and the catalog and ecommerce, can you just kind of help us understand how maybe that 10% number that you saw this year, I guess, what the buckets were within the 10% and then what your expectation would be for 2018 and then thanks for taking all the questions.

Jeffrey Stutz

Management

Sure, yes, Reuben. So, we had – as we mentioned in our prepared remarks, we had pretty good growth across all consumer segments. As you look at kind of underneath that across the components, obviously we had – we put a lot more square footage in place. So we saw a nice uptake in studio growth at or around that kind of average for the total business. E-commerce was up north of 10%. We had nice growth in our contract business, on the order of 10% to 12% and I am going from memory, these are very close. And you had the virtual studio, our catalogue program. That was probably the one area where we saw, and Brian alluded to this in his remarks, where we saw a remarkable turnaround from the year ago levels and it varied as we moved throughout the year, but that was up nice solid double-digits north of the average for the business.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Budd Bugatch with Raymond James. You may begin.

Budd Bugatch

Analyst · Raymond James. You may begin.

Good morning and thank you for taking my questions. Hope everyone that’s there is well.

Jeffrey Stutz

Management

Good morning, Budd.

Budd Bugatch

Analyst · Raymond James. You may begin.

Help us on the cost program. Now you’ve got putting some more meat on that bone. Can you help us now just how to bucket that? How to think about the $20 million to $25 million over the next couple of years of the sources, maybe which segments and how to model it going forward?

Jeffrey Stutz

Management

Hey, Budd, this is Jeff. Let me start and I’ll let these guys fill in any color that they think is appropriate. So, the way we talked about this is that’s really it comes down to essentially three categories, Budd, the $25 million to $35 million. What I would tell you is it does not come from any one business unit or segment within the business. We tasked every area of the business to contribute to this at one level or another and it would be more weighted by size of business segment than it would be outside of that kind of normal size weighting. But the three categories, one of them I would describe is business unit synergies. By this we mean, and Brian talked about this a little bit in his remarks. Some of the structural and organizational changes we put in place or Brian put in place in the third quarter had been very much aimed at pushing more decision-making autonomy to the commercial business unit leads for making decisions around the level of resources needed to support that business and that has freed up these business leaders to independent decisions and to drive cost out of their business whereas they see fit. And we are already seeing that as an enabler to cost savings. We think that’s going to pay dividends going forward. That is included by the way some targeted workforce reduction, very targeted reductions around things like travel and entertainment and just a range of activities across the business. So that’s the first one. Facilities and logistics – so facilities consolidation and logistics optimization one of which we’ve just recently announced in the UK is another example of it. There are others we are being very cautious not to talk specifics here yet until…

Brian Walker

Management

Budd, I’d add one thing to Jeff’s description that I mentioned in my notes. We are looking very specifically at the Consumer business to build a longer-term plan around the profitability in that segment. We are talking to several potential outside partners to help us come in and take a look at that. We are making really good progress on the top-line. We feel much, much better today than we did a year ago with teams’ ability to get catalogue to be productive, get new products out as well as getting studios opened. But none of us are satisfied with our ability to convert top-line to bottom-line as fast as we would like. So we are out engaging some folks to help us with that. We hope that we are going to have an early look at that work by the time we get out of the second quarter if not, at the beginning of the second quarter so that we got a better plan as to the additional things we need to do in that business to get to our ultimate objective. So, I think that some of the work we could see already in that business around logistics which Jeff mentioned to in his – he knows that there is work around everything from how do we move products from vendors to DWR to the ultimate consumer. We know there is a fair amount of opportunity there for optimization, which we are implementing step-by-step, but at the same time, we want to take a deeper look at how do we get towards the ultimate objective to get around operating profit in that business and I think we will have a better idea that as we cross through Q1 but probably more solid as we get into the end of Q2.

Budd Bugatch

Analyst · Raymond James. You may begin.

Okay. Thank you for that explanation. So I got the geography in terms of timing of the $8 million, $15 million, $25 million to $30 million in gross cost savings over the next couple of years, I got that. I don’t understand how it flows between the business unit synergies, the facility optimization and the cost rationalization. What is your starting on putting numbers to those three buckets over those three years as well? What is – is it a third, a third, a third or is it different?

Jeffrey Stutz

Management

Budd, I think that’s one that as we get further into this year, we can get more definitive because some of the detailed plans are coming in and this is where I guess a little – the teams – we know we got objectives, of course as you know, you take objectives bigger than the 25 to 35 to go find the 25 to 35. The individual details and w are watching those roll out one-by-one. We announced one this quarter with a consolidation in the UK that will affect obviously mostly the International business. There are other things in international that we are contemplating to look at as we both build that footprint and that business and ask how to most – how to best optimize it. I just mentioned you there is a fair amount of it going to happen in the Consumer side for sure. And we are looking at the core business and what things we can do with the question right now with how much of that will show up in the administrative side if you will in OpEx versus cost of goods sold. I think as we get through the first half of this year, we will be able to give you much more definition about buckets and exact timing. Right now, we are very confident that the $8 million looks like it’s rolling and that’s mostly shown up in operating expenses. I think the 15 will largely show up in operating expenses and we will see that roll in this quarter. A big chunk I think of the first 15 is going to come really between the North American contract businesses meaning the core business in healthcare. I think the next place will be international because we have already made some of those changes. I think it will – this first 15 will look very much weighted towards those two, no surprise of the two biggest segments. I think Consumer will be the third as we get to the other side. I don’t expect there is much on the Specialty segment to be frank. I think there we got some other objectives around how we get – as we move Nemschoff over there, how we get Nemschoff to the level of profitability that we need. But it’s not as much cost work in that segment as it is in the other three. That helps.

Budd Bugatch

Analyst · Raymond James. You may begin.

Okay. That’s how to take up too much more time. There are a couple things that confused me in the release. I wanted to maybe get your commentary on that. With the higher penetration of mix particularly in Consumer which I – we think we have a higher gross margin than others, I was curious as to why gross margin actually tended down more on a percentage basis with the mix of business being quiet higher, Consumer at higher gross margin. And I was also curious as to the sales per square footage. It’s just a fact that we’ve added that much more square footage in Consumer that the productivity looks lower and it should rise back to the level it was a year ago or is that – is that’s not an expectation with the larger studios?

Jeffrey Stutz

Management

Yes, Budd, let me start with your question on gross margin. So, it’s a little of both and for sure, relative to our expectations coming to the quarter, we had a better mix of the Consumer business and so that drove that along with the product mix favorability drove a bit better gross margins than our guide had provided with one of the contributors. That said though, Budd, if you look at – and I was assuming you are looking at year-on-year gross margin comparison, remember, we are feeling the effects all year along of steel price inflation and despite the fact that we did our February price increase, still net pricing or net discounting has been deeper this year than last and it’s plagued us all year along. I am sorry, Budd, say again.

Budd Bugatch

Analyst · Raymond James. You may begin.

Would you quantify that?

Jeffrey Stutz

Management

Certainly, yes, net – net discounting year-on-year, this is net of the price increase, we estimate between $4 million and $6 million and steel pricing at about $2.5 million year-over-year. So those two areas of pressure were really what drove the day in terms of the year-on-year margin comparison. But relative to this is always a point of what you are comparing against relative to the expectations that we set for our guide back in March, the Consumer mix, the product mix favorability and frankly a little better pricing impact – price increase impact than what we were anticipating that actually helped our gross margins relative to expectations. And then, Brian, do you want to take the second one?

Brian Walker

Management

Yes, first let me add one thing on the margin, Budd, the one thing I would tell you, we actually would expect that Consumer margins longer-term should be a little bit better even on a gross side than they were this quarter. We had a few things that – to be frank, we saw a much heavier mix on a couple of product lines that we need to do a better job or make some changes on the pricing level and/or as we get up to speed. So let me give you the specifics. One of the things we got still happening within the Aeron business, Aeron chair business is, we are still running old and new Aeron. And the new Aeron has a slightly lower margin at this point in its ramp if you will and we are carrying overhead to run two production lines. If you follow what I mean. One of the things that happened in the Consumer business is we have a 100% shift to the new product whereas in the contract business it’s running a spread between the two and once we get fully converted over to new Aeron, we think the margins will be equal or slightly better than older, but we are still in the conversion. So I would say, that was a bit of a drag on the Consumer business this quarter. We knew that Aeron is growing really well at Consumer and the margins are still very healthy. But we’ve got a little bit of work to do on that side. We also saw a big move within the Consumer business towards Aims XL, the larger version of the lounge chair. That has had a little bit lower margin, in fact considerably lower margins with a particular level of covering. We got to make some changes there that we hadn’t seen a big mix in that chair and we saw a big mix shift. So I think couple of those things will actually help us as we get into the second half of the year where actually Consumer margins should get a little better with some work we are doing there. So I just give you that as an added little – I would almost agree with you a little bit. We would have thought it would be a little bit stronger given the mix. But we had a couple things that pulled us back on the Consumer side more than we would have liked, if that helps a little bit for your understanding.

Budd Bugatch

Analyst · Raymond James. You may begin.

Thank you very much.

Jeffrey Stutz

Management

On the store front side, if you look, I think Kevin has probably got the exact detail. But if you look at stores that are opened more than three years, whether they are we know that we are hitting our metrics for both sales per square foot and we are hitting our metrics for occupancy cost as a percentage of sales. What’s bringing down the overall metric is so many new stores. I mean, something like 25% or 30% of our revenue for the year came from stores opened in the last 18 months. If you look at the back, you actually drive the occupancy cost per sale, above our target and you drive revenue per square foot obviously down. We think based on the trajectory that as those new stores get fully up to speed, over the next year or so, we will begin to see that metric turnaround. Now, again, next year we will layer in some additional new stores that are going to come at the same problem of – they are going to be in early in their phase. After we get through next year, we don’t think the store openings will be as great as a lever if you will, a negative lever on sales per square foot. But our underneath data, when we separate out mature stores from non-mature stores, the data looks much better and much more comparable and in the right direction. Kevin, I don’t know if you got a detail there.

Brian Walker

Management

Yes, yes, Budd, to give you the – if you take the non-comparable studios out, the sales per square foot is about $750. So about 6% higher year-on-year.

Budd Bugatch

Analyst · Raymond James. You may begin.

Interesting. Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Kathryn Thompson with Thompson Research. You may begin.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · Thompson Research. You may begin.

Good morning guys. This is Steven on for Kathryn. In the Consumer segment, it’s been strong all four quarters of this year and less volatile relative to the other segments both orders and sales. Two questions there in Consumer orders, number one, how much of the growth in Consumer this year would you say was based on ERP issues and catalogue issues being fixed? And secondly, just kind of stepping back, I am surprised that this segment is so order driven given the more retail and residential nature of the units. So could you help me understand that as well?

Jeffrey Stutz

Management

Could you sound on your question and then I want to make sure I follow what you are asking Steven when you say more order driven. What are you suggesting or asking?

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · Thompson Research. You may begin.

Well, I guess, just since it’s more residential in nature in the end-market. I guess, I am just surprised that orders are kind of a big driver in that segment. So just kind of helping understand why orders are a big part of Consumer?

Jeffrey Stutz

Management

Well, I mean, I get, in both cases, essentially, I think it’s because you are wondering about – is there – you are thinking of it like a more of a retail – like a fashioned retailer where you walk in and you buy your clothing and you take it. So, you don’t really see a difference between orders and sales. Is that what you are asking?

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · Thompson Research. You may begin.

Right, right.

Jeffrey Stutz

Management

Okay, well, I think there is two things. One, remember we are playing in the premium segment. So there is a fair amount of stuff that people actually special order the fabric, the leather or whatever they want that match their interior décor. So you got to remember that, a fair amount of that business is not going to be cash and carry. In fact, it’s very, very small on the cash and carry side and even often ecommerce sales start with a person who has been in the studio, look at the stuff in the studio and then ordered online. Okay, so, I think you have to think about this much more as being a little bit longer cycle than what you would see in, I would call a fashion retail if you want to think about it that way or even the lower segment of home furnishing. The other thing to keep in mind, if you look at the Consumer business for us, about 20% of that business is to the trade. So, meaning we are selling to a professional designed person who is helping someone design their home or condo. Okay, so, that looks almost more like a contract sale one level in that. They are coming in, we are building an entire portfolio for them and then shipping it to them when their home is being completed. About 10% of that business – if I remember right, is going to be contract-related meaning, it’s actually being sold either could be to a Herman Miller dealer partner, could be to a hotel producer or somebody in the other part of the hospitality segment. Okay. You really get 70% of the business that I would call is traditional retail if you will, but even that often the person that’s coming in, they may be working with a designer or for sure they are working with one of our in-house designer. So the cycle ends up being a little bit longer than you might expect from order to shipment. If that makes sense.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · Thompson Research. You may begin.

That does. Thank you. And then on Consumer, just thinking….

Brian Walker

Management

The lead times in that business though are much shorter than what you would see in our traditional contract business. Often we think of that business having a couple of week lead time. It may be as long as three or four weeks when it’s something that’s a special order. I think like it’s something like a leather sofa coming from Italy if they pick out a special leather, that could take some time although increasingly it is things that are in stock, but the customer is actually picking the portfolio they want and picking the timing for when they want those things delivered. Okay?

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · Thompson Research. You may begin.

Excellent. Thank you, and then on just thinking year-over-year on the positive trends on orders and sales, can you kind of help us even think about don’t even have to be quantify how much of that was the ERP and catalogue issues being fixed versus just kind of natural growth in the business?

Brian Walker

Management

I would tell you, first of all, the ERP is hardest to quantify at one level. But there certainly was a negative impact last year from the ERP system and one of those that takes a while to work through, because you have the initial problem of the delayed things, shipping or delays, getting orders into the system. The bigger problem is, you get a distracted sales force. It wouldn’t be hard for me to imagine if I think back of the impact of that year-over-year, it primarily impacted the second half of the year. I am just kind of ballpark it. I don’t have any real data. So I am just going to give you my gut feel, probably a couple points of growth. 1% to 2% last year wouldn’t surprise me as we look at the back half of the year. If that makes sense. I would say the catalogue was one of the biggest turnaround we had year-over-year. And it’s a real driver and it’s not just – the biggest thing there is we are finding prospects. People who have not been a customer or at least haven’t been a customer in a long time that we are trying to spur the activity to get them to come to a studio or go online. I would tell you that’s probably turnaround the catalogue and again, I am sort of spitball on it here, I’d say, that wouldn’t be surprising if that’s not a 5% or 6% movement from the turnaround in the catalogue. Now, that’s an ongoing thing, right. So that has continued to generate significant sales. So don’t think that is the total, because we got back to ground zero and then grew from where we were before. And then, there certainly was a big chunk…

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · Thompson Research. You may begin.

Great. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Greg Burns with Sidoti & Company. You may begin.

Greg Burns

Analyst · Sidoti & Company. You may begin.

Good afternoon. In terms of the product introductions around live OS, what is currently in market and what is coming, I am thinking in relation to maybe the facility management capabilities as opposed to some of the integrations you are doing with technology into the furniture like adjustable desking and things like that?

Brian Walker

Management

Yes, the first thing that goes to market, Greg, is the desk. Greg you are at NeoCon correct?

Greg Burns

Analyst · Sidoti & Company. You may begin.

Yes.

Brian Walker

Management

Or no.

Greg Burns

Analyst · Sidoti & Company. You may begin.

Yes, I was.

Brian Walker

Management

At NeoCon we demonstrated both the ability to pair to the desk and to be able to control the desk with your smart device and a chair that also paired with the desk so that you got a level of concordancy – in my opinion it was the magic of the user experience where they begin to work together and know you. The chair will not, the chair component will not be out until the first of calendar year. So in January of 2018 and when the chair will actually get released. The desk is going to be orderable, I believe starting in August. So desk in August. Chair, we get to January. Remember by the way, the desk element is actually retrofitable to – so for folks who already own a Herman Miller height adjustable table will be able to retrofit that capability into their existing table. So it’s not like we have to go out and just sell new tables. The other element that we demonstrated was the connectivity with Robin around room scheduling. That I think is already - you can do today in – as you implement the desk, but not fully. As we get into the second half of the year, we will have that fully up I believe where we can start to pull the data between the two.

Greg Burns

Analyst · Sidoti & Company. You may begin.

Okay. In terms of the desk, is that like a CapEx sale or is that a subscription sale? What’s the economics of that and I guess, what’s the incremental ASP that you will get from something like that?

Brian Walker

Management

It’s largely a subscription sale. Although there is a little bit for the device itself. There is an up charge right, Kevin.

Kevin Veltman

Management

Yes. There is – for the furnishing there is an up charge to the smart version that comes with the sensors required to send data to the cloud and then there is an ongoing subscription element that goes along with it.

Greg Burns

Analyst · Sidoti & Company. You may begin.

Okay. I guess, would you be willing to – I guess, give a ballpark on like kind of what an average subscription might look like per desk or per office?

Brian Walker

Management

Yes, the up charge for the smart device is probably around 10% and then subscription-wise, there is different incentives for volume and contract terms, but per device you can get a smart device for $50 to $60 a year for the subscription.

Greg Burns

Analyst · Sidoti & Company. You may begin.

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. This concludes the Q&A session. I now like to turn the call back over to Brian Walker for closing remarks.

Brian Walker

Management

Thanks for joining us on the call today. We wish you all a great remainder of your 4th of July holiday. We recognize many of you are off today. We appreciate your continued interest in Herman Miller and look forward to updating you next quarter. Have a great day.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today’s conference. Thanks for your participation. Have a wonderful day.