Selwyn Joffe
Analyst · ROTH Capital Partners. Your line is open
Thank you, Gary. I appreciate you joining us today. We are excited about our results for the first quarter. So we achieve record profitability for the quarter on a GAAP and adjusted basis. GAAP sales was slightly down at $85.4 million for the first quarter, however we had record adjusted net sales of $93.8 million for the first quarter. GAAP sales were reduced by customer allowances for new business. These allowances are investments to support our future growth, and our ability to gain market share and enhance shareholder value. I should note that the first two months of the fiscal first quarter were impacted by the mild winter, which should result in some deferred sales opportunities. As I've said before, all of our products which is non-discretionary fail more frequently in a harsher weather environment, whether colder or hotter. Nonetheless, we did see strength across all of our product lines later in the quarter, though we would've expected stronger performance with harsher weather. Based on current trends, we expect sales momentum to continue to be strong in the current quarter. As we announced yesterday, we've expanded our product offerings with the introduction of Brake Power Boosters, which will begin shipping later this month. By way of a brief introduction, both vacuum and hydraulic Brake Power Boosters provide additional stopping power by generating increased braking force. Every vehicle that has power assist brakes has a brake power booster. Currently almost all vehicles have brake power boosters. Generally, every passenger vehicle and light-duty truck on the road should have at least one replacement during its lifetime. Industry sources estimate the size of this market to be approximately $350 million at the end-user level in the United States. We see excellent opportunities for us to leverage our footprints and our value-added customer services to gain market share. This new category as well as our other non-discretionary parts is expected to grow as the car population ages. Recently there have been reports that new car sales have slowed, which may in fact be a positive for us. While there are various factors that may influence replacement rates on a short-term basis, ultimately all of the 250 million vehicles on the road, other than those scrapped, will require replacement parts, and our expanding product line will benefit as these vehicles age. We're also excited about the opportunities that we expect from our acquisition of ZOR industries, which positions us in the rapidly emerging replacement market for turbochargers in the United States. By way of a brief overview, turbocharger systems utilize the exhaust waste stream to power the turbo. This results in an increase of airflow into the combustion chamber, thereby enhancing engine power and decreasing fuel consumption. In short, turbochargers offer improved power and fuel economy, as well as a reduction in emissions. We are entering this market with an experienced management team and a developed knowledge base at a time that we see as the beginning of a high-growth stage. Based on the industry reports, the turbocharger aftermarket size at the end-user level in the United States is estimated to be more than $500 million, which today is dominated by heavy-duty applications. It's anticipated to a fast growth category for light-duty passenger vehicle applications as well as others. Turbochargers became Mainstream in Europe more than 10 years ago. The Europe turbocharger market, including original equipment is estimated to be over $5 billion. This bodes well for the future opportunity in the U.S. market. In the U.S. turbochargers are an emerging technology, and utilized in both diesel and gas applications. Today, in the U.S. approximately 8% of new passenger vehicles have turbochargers, with expectations that by 2020 more than 25% of new vehicles will include turbochargers. In addition, turbochargers are being used in a number of heavy-duty industrial, agricultural, and power sports applications. This represents a significant opportunity for aftermarket replacement. In short, we're excited about the ramp up and future opportunities for this product line. For those of you who are new to Motorcar Part of America, I should mention that a number of factors continue to provide tailwinds to the aftermarket hard parts business. Miles driven has increased for a variety of reasons, including reduced unemployment and lower fuel prices. In addition, despite the growth of new car sales, the average age of vehicles in operation continues to grow, now exceeding 11.5 years and hopefully will continue to grow. As vehicles get older the need for replacement parts grows to support their maintenance. Additionally, whether there are strong new car sales or not, current indications are that people will continue to keep their cars longer, which will contribute to the ageing of the car population, resulting in accelerated growth for replacement parts. All these factors bode well for our current and future business. As the number of cars in the 12-plus-year-old category continues to grow the failure rates for parts in these vehicles increase significantly, resulting in increased parts replacement. Also, the 12-plus-year category includes later model vehicles with more sophisticated and higher priced parts than the earlier models. We anticipate continued positive contributions as we move forward through the ageing cycle. To put our overall potential in perspective, industry sources estimate the market size in the USA and Canada for our current products to be approximately $4.7 billion at the consumer level. The remaining potential in these markets for hard parts is estimated to be $106 billion-plus, which should provide us with a lot of opportunity to introduce new parts, and grow our business organically with the growth of existing and new product lines, and through appropriate acquisitions. We are proud that our service and quality levels continue to exceed expectations, and we believe this in part has allowed us to gain further market share in all of our product categories. Today, we supply more than 25,000 stores, and our customers continue to gain share in both the DIY and the professional installer markets. We expect continued growth in both segments, as we further leverage our award-winning customer service and product quality, coupled with a growing offering of non-discretionary products. In summary, the company's growth prospects continue to be positive. While our industry is very competitive, and pricing pressures continue, we believe the fundamentals of our business are strong, and we expect our solid growth to continue. I'll now turn the call over the David to review the results for the fiscal first quarter in more detail. And then I'll end with an update on the numerous initiatives and progress the company has made. We will then open the call for questions. And so David will now discuss our financials.