Andy Nemeth
Analyst · CL King
Thank you, Todd. As noted, the second quarter and first half of the year has been marred by adverse weather conditions impacting all four of our primary markets. However, overall solid macroeconomic trends and fundamentals signal a continued positive long-term outlook. Additionally, we are optimistic about secular trends in each of our markets, which have the potential to align in our future cyclicality. Our diversified market presence and strategy has proven effective in offsetting volatility, and our organic growth opportunities and synergies continue to blossom from the strategic acquisitions that we have completed over the past two years. On the RV side of our business, as Todd noted, our second quarter 2019 financial performance reflects the impact of continued aggressive rebalancing of retail inventories with disciplined reduced wholesale production levels against a backdrop of fundamentally solid retail demand. Our RV revenues were down $54 million or 13%, including the impact of commodity pricing concessions given in partnership with our customers against wholesale shipments that were down by an estimated 14%. The gap widened between wholesale production and retail shipments in the second quarter with retail shipments down an estimated mid-single digits and wholesale shipments down mid-double digits. On a unit basis, this equates to an estimated 45,000 to 50,000 units pulled from inventory in the second quarter alone on top of approximately 36,000 units that had already been pulled out of inventory over the prior 12 months as of the end of the first quarter. Based on our touch points, dealers have been working through excess inventory and have been depleting inventory levels in the field in anticipation of the upcoming RV dealer open houses and the new 2020 model year. The RVIA's latest published expectations for 2019 project wholesale unit shipments to range from approximately 396,000 units on the low end to 431,000 units on the high end, representing low to high double-digit declines from 2018. We are currently assuming existing wholesale production run rates to continue through the third quarter as OEMs maintain their disciplined production cadence and anticipate the channel inventories will continue to normalize even further through the third quarter and second half of 2019. We currently expect a mid-single-digit decrease in 2019 retail shipment growth with potential upside based on subsiding headwinds related to interest rates, commodity price declines and the potential for the end of the trade war including tariff relief, all of which benefit the end consumer. Based on these estimates, an additional 35,000 to 40,000 units should be pulled from the channel in the third quarter of 2019, making a total of approximately 80,000 to 90,000 units pulled out of inventory in the second and third quarters, which we estimate would result in dealer inventories being at their lowest levels that we have on record dating back the last five years and positioning the 2020 model season for a solid start. We continue to believe that the future retail demand trajectory remains positive based on current demographic indicators including new younger buyers and the emergence of incremental repeat buyers from the channel, increased participation by millennials and ethnically diverse families with continued shift to smaller travel trailers and overall economic conditions. RV sales will continue to benefit from the aging baby boomers and millennials as the number of consumers between the ages of 55 and 74 will total 79 million by 2025, 15% higher than in 2015; and the number of consumers between the ages of 30 and 45 will total 72 million by 2025, a 13% increase compared to 2015. Our marine business performance was strong in the second quarter and helped offset the inventory rebalancing volatility in the RV space. Our marine portfolio of companies is comprised of a high-quality gross operating and EBITDA margin-accretive strategic brand and product platform that is generating significant organic growth synergies. Our marine revenues were up $25 million or 39% and represents 14% of our consolidated sales in the quarter, up from 11% in the same quarter last year. We have several product and geographic expansions in process and tremendous talent and team members with the energy, capacity, relationships, leadership skills and deep marine experience to drive results. Estimated marine powerboat retail shipments decreased 6% on an unrevised basis in the second quarter of 2019 and based on data from roughly 1/2 of the states reporting. Second quarter shipments generally represent approximately 40% to 45% of full year shipments. Adverse weather and flooding in certain regions of the country have impacted first half 2019 marine retail shipments, particularly in the pontoon and aluminum fish categories, which were down 6% and 16% in the first quarter, respectively, and down 4% and 13%, respectively, in the second quarter. Channel inventories in these models, in particular, were slightly elevated as of the end of the quarter as a result and we believe will be depleted over the back half of the year in alignment with the summer selling season finally engaging in alignment with OEM production rationalization, which has already been proactively started. Ski and wake categories led the growth marine shipments, up over 1% in the quarter and 2% year-to-date and generally represent higher ASP units. Confidence remains high for marine in the long term, and OEMs are continuing to offer more value-added content on boats as we head into the 2020 marine model season, which consumers continue to desire. Our content per unit increased 93% in the quarter as a result of both strategic and organic growth. All indicators currently point towards a mid-single-digit decline in marine's retail units and related wholesale production from fiscal year 2019 as the OEMs position themselves for the expected strong 2020 model season. Long-term fundamental demand, aging boats in the water and the related replacement cycle of an estimated 1 million units over the next four years point towards a continued strong growth opportunities in the marine sector. Turning to the housing and industrial side of our business. Our manufactured housing sales represent 18% of our total revenues in the second quarter and increased $40 million or 56% over the second quarter of 2018. This compares to 12% of our revenues from the second quarter of 2018 and reflects an estimated 3% decrease in wholesale unit shipments. Our content per unit is up an estimated 54% in the MH market. And while weather again impacted these markets due to flooding in the Southeast in the fourth and first quarters of 2018 and 2019, respectively, causing the inability to set homes, the demographics trends consistent with our leisure lifestyle markets indicate strong expected demand patterns as we are seeing both growth in population of first-time buyers and the older generation looking to downsize into multifamily housing from rural to more urban areas. After a slow start due to the factors described, we are currently anticipating low to mid-single-digit growth in MH wholesale shipments for fiscal 2019. Revenues in our industrial business, which represented 12% of our overall sales mix in the second quarter, is primarily focused on residential housing while we participate in both new construction and remodel and in the hospitality, high rise, commercial construction and institutional furniture markets decreased 2 million or 3% in the quarter. Based on U.S. Census Bureau reporting, combining housing starts were down slightly during the quarter after rebounding in June. Our products are generally the last to go into a new unit and generally trail new housing starts by 4 to 6 months. Single-family housing starts declined 6% in the quarter while multifamily housing starts rose 16% with most of the growth in multifamily coming from the south and northeast regions at 38% and 43%, respectively. We continue to have significant runway in our housing and industrial sectors for organic and strategic growth, and in particular in the high-rise and hospitality sectors where we have several projects already spec-ed in. Our products also have the capability to flex up and down the value chain, and we have tremendous organic potential to leverage our full suite of complementary kitchen, bath and shower product offerings. Fundamental housing demand is strong and currently limited by affordability and capacity. Headwinds related to commodity costs, interest rates and tariffs have impacted these markets, and as noted, are dissipating. We are currently anticipating low single-digit growth in new housing starts for fiscal 2019 after first half starts were down approximately 4%. Overall, we're excited about the summer selling season finally taking hold in all of our markets as well as the upcoming RV open houses in the September time frame, especially based on the rebounding inventory levels. We have digested and integrated our nine acquisitions completed last year and 16 total in the last two years and continue to have a full pipeline of acquisition candidates as conditions and secular market factors improve. The 2020 model season in each of our markets are positioning well. And while we may see some second half volatility, appropriately calibrating with strong potential to drive off anticipating headwinds. We remain disciplined in the deployment of our strong cash flows during the first half of the year due to the dynamic market conditions and maintaining our flexibility to prioritize capital allocation initiatives. We generated approximately $94 million in operating cash in the first half of 2019, up from $91 million in the first half of 2018 and over $7 of free cash flow on a TTM basis despite all four of our market sectors being down in the same period. We are nimble and poised to continue to opportunistically execute on our capital-allocation strategy to drive incremental results and return value to our shareholders. I'll now turn the call over to Josh who'll provide some additional comments on our financial performance.