Scott J. Montross
Analyst · D.A. Davidson. Please go ahead
Good morning and welcome to Northwest Pipe Company's second quarter 2020 earnings conference call. My name is Scott Montross, and I'm President and CEO of the company. I'm joined today by Aaron Wilkins, our Chief Financial Officer. By now, all of you should have access to our earnings press release, which was issued yesterday, August 4, 2020 at approximately 4 P.M. Eastern Time. This call is being webcast, and it is available for a replay. As we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that statements made on this call regarding our expectations for the future are forward-looking statements, and actual results could differ materially. Please refer to our most recent Form 10-K for year-ended December 31, 2019 and in our SEC filing for a discussion of such risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. Thank you for joining our call today to discuss our results. I'll begin with a review of our second quarter 2020 performance. Bidding activity has remained strong, which has resulted in an improved second quarter backlog versus first quarter and a strong precast order book. As of June 30th, our backlog including confirmed orders for the Northwest Pipe Legacy business, was 246 million compared to 224 million at the end of the first quarter of 2020 and 276 million at the end of the second quarter of 2019. The current 246 million represents our eighth consecutive quarter of up 200 million and remains very high by historic standards. In addition, our order book for the concrete Pipe and Precast business remains elevated as we progress through the busy time of the year. Second quarter net sales of 70 million benefited from 12.4 million contribution from our acquisition of Geneva Pipe and Precast assets in the late January. Improved legacy pricing and positive contributions from Geneva helped drive a 57.7% year-over-year increase in our gross profit dollars to 13 million. Legacy business in the second quarter of 2020 was negatively impacted by shifts in job timing as well as the shutdown of our SLRC Mexico facility. Strong performance by Geneva Precast business helped elevate revenue and gross profit in the quarter that saw the legacy business more affected by COVID-19-related factors. The ability to offset temporary periods of choppiness in the legacy steel pressure pipe business is the very reason why we chose to enter the precast concrete water space as part of our growth strategy, a business that is significantly more transactional in nature. Backlog after declining at the end of the first quarter of 2020 grew through the end of the second quarter as the bidding schedule remained strong. The structure of our business remains very solid as we move into the second half of 2020. As we anticipated, our revenue and gross profit were negatively impacted by the government-mandated shutdown of our water infrastructure manufacturing facility in San Lui Rio Colorado, Mexico, or SLRC for short in the early April time frame due to COVID-19 related shelter in place orders. Thankfully, we were able to shift some of the jobs from SLRC over to our U.S. plants given that we have more than enough capacity at those facilities, which helped partially offset some of the volume decline. While the SLRC facility remained idle for the majority of the second quarter, we were authorized to resume partial operations at 30% staffing on June 1st, and have since been able to steadily ramp up our operations back to pre-COVID-19 production levels as of July 31st. We are very pleased to be able to bring all of our affected employees back to work as safely as possible. While COVID-19 impacted the timing of some bidding activity and delayed some jobs, we have not experienced any major business interruptions at our plants in the U.S. due to the essential nature of our operations and producing critical water infrastructure products. In addition to the designation as an essential business, we believe we've been able to successfully navigate through this challenging and complex environment due to the proactive measures we took in March to help protect the health, safety, and well-being of our employees. This remains our number one priority. In addition to improving sanitary measures throughout our facilities, we have continued to promote social distancing, encourage working from home when possible, or otherwise maintain staggered shift schedules and continue to offer additional hours of paid sick leave to help support those employees impacted by COVID-19. I'd now like to turn to a discussion of our two-pronged growth strategy, which remains a key area of focus. First and foremost we are maximizing our core steel pressure pipe water transmission business through ongoing cost reductions and lean manufacturing as well as pursuing limited but known growth opportunities. As many of you are aware, given we currently have 50% of the market share in steel pressure pipe market, expansion and acquisition opportunities are fairly limited in this space. As such, the second component of our growth strategy is to grow in an adjacent water space. As demonstrated by our recent acquisition of the Geneva Pipe and Precast on January 31, 2020, we chose the precast concrete space which we estimate is roughly a $3.5 billion to $4 billion market in the U.S. We would characterize this market as having strong growth prospects with higher product margin opportunities and a quicker cash conversion cycle relative to our legacy business. Demand in the precast concrete space has held up well in this environment as demonstrated by our strong precast revenue order book. Despite the challenges the current environment presents from a broader macroeconomic perspective, we are continuing to evaluate various potential M&A opportunities, but we remain highly disciplined in our approach. Our criteria is centered on organic growth potential, strong margin characteristics, solid asset efficiency, and a positive cash flow profile. Since working through the 100-day integration plan for Geneva, we've made significant progress in creating cost efficiencies, lean manufacturing, and inventory management. From a product perspective at Geneva, we see strong potential for future organic growth opportunities through our expanded addressable market. We're also in the process of commercializing new innovative concrete products for use in corrosive sewer applications in the second half of this year and look forward to sharing them with you in the following weeks and months ahead. I will now turn to a look at current and upcoming Water Transmission projects. In the Texas market, the SWIFT program has funded over 8 billion in projects over the last six years. SWIFT is expected to continue funding major regional programs like the continuation of the Surface Water Supply program in Houston metropolitan area to ensure sustainable long-term water supplies for Texas. The ongoing multiyear multiagency Houston Surface Water program is expected to bid multiple segments in 2020, representing 32,000 tons of pipe for West and North Harris County regional water authorities. We anticipate both authorities having additional bids in 2021, representing 33,000 tons of pipe. The next new reservoir to be built in Texas is the Lake Ralph Hall for the Upper Trinity Regional Water District. This is another major program currently in design that includes a new dam and pipeline to move water into the Dallas-Fort Worth region. The project represents 17,000 tons of pipe. Construction procurement is expected to begin in spring of 2021. The Alliance Regional Water Authority program in Central Texas is another multiagency regional water program. The program includes a large pipeline, pump stations, and treatment facilities and represents 15,000 tons of pipe. Construction is expected to begin in 2021. In the western market, California's Prop 1 $7.5 billion bond for water infrastructure has created the much-needed funding for projects within the state. According to the California Natural Resources Agency, 95% of the funds have been appropriated for various projects as of the 2020-2021 fiscal year. We expect requirements for these projects to stretch out over the next several years. Water reuse programs have generated new opportunities in the California market on which we expect to see bidding activity continue for the next year. The MWD is heading up a regional reuse pilot project in conjunction with LA Sanitation District. This reuse program will treat and recycle water from one of the largest reclamation facilities in Southern California and involves 60-plus miles of large diameter pipe. The current demonstration facility has been operating for six months in construction of the full-scale treatment and conveyance facilities could begin as early as 2025. The PCCP rehabilitation programs will result in about 10,000 tons annually over the next two to three years. Currently, some of the owners undertaking rehabilitation programs have slowed their schedules. These are not cancellation of projects but simply work shifting to later this year. The City of Phoenix has begun procurement and construction activities on their zones 3D and 4A improvement program. This program safeguards the city's water supply against curtailments in Colorado River water allocations. The projects identified represent over 8,000 tons of new pipelines, pump stations, and treatment facilities. The site's reservoir is a water storage project that has received funding from Prop 1. It will involve over 30 miles of 144-inch pipe. The project is forecast to begin in 2024-2025. Southern Nevada Water Authority has begun moving forward in earnest with an expansion of the southern part of their water delivery system. This program, which has recently started preliminary design activity will include approximately 25 miles of 17 [ph] inch steel pipe with construction tentatively scheduled for 2024. In North Dakota, progress has slowed on the 140 mile, 87,000 ton Red River Valley Water Supply Project. A 2 mile demonstration project has been forecasted to bid in the third quarter of 2020, with the bulk of the project being dependent upon a 2021 legislative session to commit to full funding plans. In Colorado, we are tracking a late 2020 final record of decision by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the Northern Integrated Supply project. If favorable, construction of up to 150 miles of pipeline is expected to start in 2023. The project is located 60 miles north of Denver in the Fort Collins area. We continue to believe our business is very well positioned to operate through the pandemic due to the essential nature of our operations to provide critical water infrastructure systems in the U.S. Our backlog, which remains very high by historic standards in the bidding activity for 2020 is projected to remain strong. Further, we have a strong balance sheet and ample liquidity position to execute our strategic growth priorities. Over the last two years alone, we've completed over $88 million worth of acquisitions, primarily funded by our balance sheet and have continued to generate positive cash flow. In addition, while we are cautiously optimistic our backlog will continue to grow, the variable nature of our cost structure provides us with the flexibility to be in a position to quickly react to changing market conditions should we need to do so in the future. Before I conclude, I'd like to also welcome Amanda Kulesa, who was elected to our Board of Directors as an independent director on July 9th. Amanda's experience in organizational development and working with Global 500 organizations to help maximize leadership effectiveness and value creation will be essential as we continue on our path of growing the company. In summary, while the challenges the pandemic has created for the broader economy in our business might have caused a few issues in the short run, our bidding volume has only continued to improve. Accordingly, we continue to estimate a current market size of roughly 209,000 tons and a job count of 240 for fiscal 2020 versus 242 in fiscal 2019. As we move forward, we will remain focused on; one, taking every precaution to keep our employees safe during the COVID-19 pandemic; two, the ongoing integration of the Geneva assets; three, a persistent focus on margin over volume; four, continuing to implement cost reductions and efficiencies at all levels of the company; and lastly five, identifying strategic opportunities to grow the company. I will now turn the call over to Aaron, who will walk through our second quarter financial results in greater detail.