Earnings Labs

Polaris Inc. (PII)

Q2 2011 Earnings Call· Tue, Jul 19, 2011

$66.72

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good morning, my name is Melissa, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Polaris Second Quarter Earnings Results Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Thank you. Mr. Richard Edwards, Director of Investor Relations, you may begin your conference.

Richard Edwards

Analyst · B

Thank you, Melissa, and good morning, and thank you for joining us for our second quarter 2011 earnings conference call. A slide presentation is accessible at our website at www.polarisindustries.com/irhome, which has additional information for this morning's call. The speakers today are Scott Wine, our Chief Executive Officer; Bennett Morgan, our President and Chief Operating Officer; and Mike Malone, our Chief Financial Officer. During the call today, we will be discussing certain topics, including product demand and shipments, sales and margin trends, income and profitability levels and other matters, including more specific guidance on our expectations for the remainder of 2011, which should be considered forward-looking for the purposes of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results could differ materially from those projections in the forward-looking statements. Additional information concerning these factors can be found in Polaris' 2010 annual report and Form 10-K, which are on file with the SEC. Now I'll turn it over to Scott. Scott?

Scott Wine

Analyst · Sidoti & Company

Good morning. Thank you for joining us and for your interest in Polaris. We've been talking for some time now about our commitment to make growth happen and as we post our third straight quarter of record results for sales and net income, it should be clear that the Polaris team is dedicated to meeting that growth challenge. This morning, we'll review how the strong momentum in our Off-Road Vehicles business is being augmented by accelerating growth from Victory, our International markets and our adjacency initiatives. As the strength of our earnings indicates, we remain laser focused on margin expansion as a key aspect of our long-term plan for profitable growth. Despite weak economic conditions and heightened competition, we were encouraged by the strong retail demand for Polaris products during the important spring selling season. Throughout the quarter, we saw continued share gains in our Side-by-Side business as the performance of the new RZR 900 XP solidified its place among the market-leading RANGER portfolio. ATVs and motorcycles also increased market share, driving strong overall dealer demand for Polaris products. With our factories and supply chain operating with improving efficiency and our Monterrey expansion coming on line with additional capacity, we again outpaced our aggressive growth targets. Sales for the second quarter increased 41% to a record $607.9 million, marking only the second time in our history where quarterly sales surpassed $600 million. Polaris delivered net income of $48.7 million and earnings per share of $1.37 in the second quarter representing increases of 90% and 83%, respectively from the prior year period. Both numbers are record second quarter results for the company and demonstrate the earnings power we have when industry-leading innovation matches the 10% productivity gains we delivered in the quarter. Gross margins expanded 300 basis points to 29.2% as…

Michael Malone

Analyst · Ed from RBC Capital Markets

Thanks, Scott. Polaris operational momentum accelerated in the second quarter and we are hitting on all cylinders. North American retail sales were up 19% on rising consumer demand for Polaris products across all Polaris businesses. Dealer inventory remained essentially flat year-over-year with Side-By-Side inventory up to meet increased demand, offset by declines in Snow and ATV. Both Polaris and our dealers continue to improve on execution and add capability to our MVP go-to-market business model. Furthermore, we are seeing increasing acceleration in our businesses not measured by North American retail, PG&A, International and our emerging adjacencies, Bobcat and Military. Moving on to business unit performance. Let's start with Off-Road Vehicles. The Polaris ORV business had another outstanding quarter and continued to exceed our expectations. Second quarter sales were up 41% driven by across-the-board sales increases in Side-by-Side, ATVs, International, Bobcat and Military. Year-to-date, Off-Road Vehicles sales were up 47%. Polaris retail sales again significantly outperformed the industry with the North American second quarter ATV retail sales up mid-single digits and Side-by-Side sales up well over 20%. In comparison, second quarter North American core ATV industry sales remained sluggish, down mid-teens percent while the Side-By-Side industry sales appeared to grow nicely, around 10%. We continue to gain a significant amount of market share in both ATVs and Side-by-Sides driven by strength across the entire Polaris product lineup, in particular, led by strong RZR, RANGER and Sportsman sales. In its first 6 months, the new RZR XP 900 is turning faster than any previous ORV product in our history. To support these sales trends, ORV inventory is up slightly and while nearly optimal, remains a bit too tight on a few key products. We are looking forward to our upcoming Dealer Show in Nashville next week where we will unveil our latest…

Michael Malone

Analyst · Ed from RBC Capital Markets

Thanks, Bennett, and good morning to everyone. I will begin with a more detailed discussion of our increased full year guidance for 2011 and some summary comments about the anticipated results for the second half of the year. Total company sales are now expected to increase 25% to 28% for the full year 2011, up from prior guidance of up 17% to 20%, with the individual businesses contributing as follows: Sales of Off-Road Vehicles are now expected to increase in the mid-20s percent range, with retail sales of Side-by-Side Vehicles and ATVs continuing to outpace the overall market, particularly in North America. Snowmobile sales are now expected to increase above 40% over last year, as we have finalized our dealer and Snow Check orders for Model Year 2012. For On-Road Vehicles, we now expect sales to be up 60% to 65% in 2011 due to the reasons Bennett discussed earlier. Additionally, the GEM company sales will be reported with our On-Road business for the remainder of the year. We now expect PG&A sales to increase in the mid-teens percent range, from the level we achieved last year. International sales are expected to increase 20% to 25% on the strength of each of our product lines and each global region. For operating expenses, we expect a slight decrease in the operating expenses as a percentage of sales for the full year 2011, as we begin to achieve some leverage from the sales increase this year. In dollar terms, we expect operating expenses to increase, primarily due to the continued infrastructure investments being made in International and adjacent markets as we continue to invest prudently in future growth opportunities. We also anticipate incremental integration costs related to the Indian and GEM acquisitions and increased incentive compensation plan expenses due to the higher…

Scott Wine

Analyst · Sidoti & Company

Thanks, Mike. As we have discussed this morning, the Polaris team and businesses delivered a stellar first half performance. However, we are not a group to rest on our laurels. So the hard work ahead in the second half and beyond is now our sole focus. Coming off a very strong second quarter retail demand and correspondingly low dealer inventories, we are confident that our positive momentum will continue throughout the second half. We take nothing for granted and will continue to work hard to gain market share and grow. Look for Victory to push especially hard for growth in the second half. Maintaining our momentum requires that we ramp up assembly operations to meet increasing demand. And to this end, I cannot speak highly enough of the broad Polaris team that worked with discipline and speed to create a new manufacturing facility in Monterrey in less than 12 months. We are in production for certain RANGER and RZR models and will continue to add products and capability in the months ahead. One of the long-term benefits of being in Monterrey is that we'll be able to transition certain sourcing activities from overseas to Mexico. As currencies fluctuate and commodity prices rise more quickly than expected, we must maintain flexible and diligent to limit the impact. We believe that through sourcing, hedging and pricing actions, and additional countermeasure as necessary, we will effectively deal with commodity price pressures. I spoke earlier about our adjacency progress, and I'm confident that both organically and through acquisitions, we are building important new growth opportunities for Polaris. International expansion is another key growth initiative and our investments outside of North America will continue. There is certainly no assurance that we'll be able to navigate Polaris away from all stormy seas in the second half of 2011, and we are prepared to lower our shoulders and push through the challenges that come our way. We expect to win the competitive battle and will strive to deliver winning performance in the third quarter and beyond. With that, I'll turn it over to Melissa to open the line for questions.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Scott from Sidoti & Company. Scott Stember - Sidoti & Company, LLC: Could you maybe talk about the Military opportunity again? It says there, in your presentation, about the contract that you just got with Israeli Defense. Just talk about some of the international opportunities you have with the military and just how big this eventually could be.

Scott Wine

Analyst · Sidoti & Company

Yes, I mean, internationally, we've got -- actually where most of our sales ultimately end up into the Afghanistan and Iraq. So if you think about international markets in general, that's where most of the products are currently going. But we see opportunities in Australia. NATO presents a good opportunity for us. And as we expand our product portfolio both with technology and new vehicles, we think long term, this is a $200 million to $300 million business for us. And I think we've got the team in place now to get us there. Scott Stember - Sidoti & Company, LLC: Where are sales running on an annualized basis now in military?

Scott Wine

Analyst · Sidoti & Company

They're growing. Scott Stember - Sidoti & Company, LLC: Okay got you. And can you just talk about Bobcat? You talked about how they're starting to sell your product internationally. Could you talk about some of the markets and just some of the opportunities there as well?

Bennett Morgan

Analyst · Sidoti & Company

Scott, this is Bennett. We're very pleased with how the retail rate has increased within the Bobcat dealerships. Obviously, we don't deal directly with the Bobcat dealerships. It's their relationship. But they continue to increase their forecast year-over-year and they continue to have record sales months. So they're building momentum. And as we've alluded now, they are starting to penetrate international markets, which is new this year. And both companies continue to work on this codeveloped projects, and we continue to get closer to bringing that to market. So we're very excited about the success that we're having in market and the future for Bobcat. Scott Stember - Sidoti & Company, LLC: And just moving over to Monterrey. Just how much -- obviously, this facility is just up and running right now, but I imagine with the growth rates that you have, you could perceive filling that up pretty quickly. Where would your capacity utilization be, let's say, once you're up fully running down in Monterrey?

Scott Wine

Analyst · Sidoti & Company

Scott, I think it's important to recognize -- our whole focus in this initiative has been around quality and scheduled discipline. So we're nowhere near capacity and in fact we haven't planned on running more than the single ship for quite some time. So there's tons of capacity in Monterrey but our focus with that factory is going to maintain on quality and schedule fidelity and not really to chase more cost upside. I mean, that's -- we've been very successful with that philosophy so far and we're going to stick to that in the months and years ahead.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Scott from KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Scott Hamann - KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc.

Analyst · Scott from KeyBanc Capital Markets

Just talk about some of the sequential weakness that you saw in the Off-Road segment internationally. I mean was it -- what segments was that in, what regions? And was it really more of a macro thing or was it competitively driven?

Bennett Morgan

Analyst · Scott from KeyBanc Capital Markets

I think, Scott, this is Bennett. What you're referring to as sequential weakness is maybe some weakness in the industry that we saw in the second quarter for Europe. Frankly, we didn't see any slowdown from our business at all. And in all honesty, Europe has kind of outperformed our expectations year-to-date based on what we’ve seen from the economy there. So we're not overly concerned with low single-digit quarter-over-quarter increases in ORV. It's frankly a little bit better than we expected, and we continue to be number one, and the broader EMEA team is feeling quite positive about their outlook for the balance of the year. So this isn't something that we're overly concerned about. Europe's reasonably tough sledding, and we continue to be able to push through and grow year-over-year from a Polaris standpoint and continue to be a leader in market share. So we're okay there.

Scott Hamann - KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc.

Analyst · Scott from KeyBanc Capital Markets

Okay. That's fair enough. Just I want to take a kind of high-level question on the On-Road business, and this is one that's clearly gone from a turnaround story to a growth story in my opinion. And I'm just curious about -- you've added some net dealers in Victory over the last several quarters and I'm curious about your plan for Victory dealerships, kind of where you are now, what the plan is. And then just wrapping up these 2 acquisitions with Victory, I mean, where do you see this business over the next couple years in terms of sales? And then, it seems like profitability is kind of close to breakeven now, where do you think you could be taking this out several years?

Scott Wine

Analyst · Scott from KeyBanc Capital Markets

Scott, I mean, we're obviously excited about the great work the team has done with Victory in getting that turned around. I mean the fundamentals with dealer inventory low, lots of potential there. And being able to add Indian to the portfolio, we're real excited about what that gives us for additional market share opportunities. We're very – see on a dealership perspective, we're still very underrepresented in the key MSAs, and so I think what you'll see as we move forward, it will be a very focused effort to add dealerships in the top motorcycle markets in the country rather than just add any dealer that we can get. Longer term, this is a 300, 500 maybe more, very big business for us. And we like the potential both here in North America and internationally. And as you know, we're pretty good at innovation. So I wouldn't think that we're done with the products that are coming out of the motorcycle portfolio any time soon. And then the electric vehicle, small electric vehicle space, it's a $1.6 billion overall market. GEM is a market leader, and we think we can really add our – Polaris’ capability of innovation and engineering and cost out and distribution has really helped that business expand so really good growth opportunity. I mean, the On-Road business is real and has big potential for us.

Scott Hamann - KeyBanc Capital Markets Inc.

Analyst · Scott from KeyBanc Capital Markets

I mean, is it fair to say that this year you're going to be still running pretty close to that break-even level in that segment?

Scott Wine

Analyst · Scott from KeyBanc Capital Markets

We said Victory was going to be profitable and they will be, and there's some work to do as we integrate the new business and take the restructuring cost and whatnot, but overall, there's -- our guidance includes whatever impact that has so there's not much there.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Greg from Citigroup.

Gregory Badishkanian - Citigroup Inc

Analyst · Greg from Citigroup

Just here with the industry being a little bit sluggish, what led to acceleration in your business and the outsized growth versus the industry? Are there 1 or 2 big factors that are leading to that outperformance?

Bennett Morgan

Analyst · Greg from Citigroup

Greg, this is Bennett. I think it's very similar to the story that you've heard from us for the last several quarters. I mean, our success isn't really based on one product or one model. We have built, I think, competitive advantage in innovation across really the entire armada, as Scott likes to call it, of our products. We're seeing strength in RANGER. We're seeing strength across our RZR lineup. Certainly, the RZR XP 900 has helped but it's really just one small part of it. And frankly, Sportsman sales have been strong as well. So that along with a really great dealer network that's really been bolstered by our innovations with MVP over the last couple of years, our ability to remain aggressive around marketing and advertising and we just have a tremendous amount of momentum right now. And people keep looking for it to slow down but frankly, we have not seen any signs of that at this point, and that feels pretty darn good.

Gregory Badishkanian - Citigroup Inc

Analyst · Greg from Citigroup

Yes. And in terms of your competition, what are you seeing from particularly maybe the bigger Japanese competitors in terms of their promotions, availability of supply and inventory at the retail, what are you seeing from those guys?

Bennett Morgan

Analyst · Greg from Citigroup

Yes. From a Japanese standpoint, obviously, with the whole tsunami and the issue there with the quake and so forth, within Powersports particularly, we have not, even as we've tried to monitor it, seen any kind of significant supply shortages. That said, I am sure that some of their factories and their supply base was impacted in Powersports. But again, we haven't seen it necessarily with dealers being out of product. Frankly, the promotional environment in the short term has been a little bit less than we expected, which has been a nice positive turnaround for us. We're not necessarily counting on that going forward. But the last few months, it's been a little bit more muted and maybe that's a reaction from the Japanese on some of the supply chain challenges that they had. But from a competitive standpoint, they seem to be engaged. They are certainly working at it. And we're seeing, I'd say, increased competitive focus as we've kind of signaled in Side-by-Sides over the last couple of years and we're continuing to watch that space very, very carefully. But again, we remain very confident in what we've done from our product innovation and our lead there and expect to build on that lead as we head into Nashville next week.

Gregory Badishkanian - Citigroup Inc

Analyst · Greg from Citigroup

So last year was a great lineup, and it's been a great lineup the last few years. I think that's obviously part of the reason why you've gained share. Should we expect that same level of innovation to really drive sales at this show or is this going to be kind of a little bit more lackluster just because it's hard to keep up that level of innovation every year?

Bennett Morgan

Analyst · Greg from Citigroup

Well, Greg, we never used the word lackluster, but it will be another good year. Again, it does get to be a challenge sometimes with the level of innovation. You have to constantly keep topping yourself, but we'll have a very good solid lineup that we'll introduce here in the next week. And again looking forward, the product pipeline as we go forward out over the next 5 years continues to look rich and robust. So we're feeling good from a product innovation standpoint.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Ed from RBC Capital Markets.

Edward Aaron - RBC Capital Markets, LLC

Analyst · Ed from RBC Capital Markets

I guess, Mike, I wanted to ask you about the incentive comp accrual. It's a really big number this quarter and obviously you're having a great year. I'm just trying to get my head around the magnitude of that change and whether that number is likely to ultimately come down meaningfully as your growth rates normalize?

Michael Malone

Analyst · Ed from RBC Capital Markets

Well, Ed, there's a number of factors going on in those accruals. It's largely related to the stock price. There's a fair amount of the variable compensation incentives that our employees have, our Board of Directors, our management and there's a lot that's dependent on the movement in the stock price. And as we all know, the price has escalated significantly and we need to recognize that in our accruals so that's the major driver. And the other driver is as our profitability increases and we exceed our expectation, then the accruals increase from that as well.

Edward Aaron - RBC Capital Markets, LLC

Analyst · Ed from RBC Capital Markets

Okay. And then on the recent acquisition, the GEM deal, you haven't talked about it much in specifics, and maybe this is something we can get into next week. But having had a chance to go in there and take a look at things now, just at a high level wondering if you've seen any surprises relative to what you expected to see?

Scott Wine

Analyst · Ed from RBC Capital Markets

No, Ed, I think we pretty much knew what we were getting into. I mean, Chrysler has owned the business for about a decade or so and it wasn't a core business for them so we expected to see an opportunity to add some value on the commercial side around not only sales and marketing but around distribution, and that's kind of what we've found. Naturally, Polaris brings a capability around the design and innovation and engineering and sourcing, and those were opportunities we expected to see and they're playing out largely like we expected them to be.

Edward Aaron - RBC Capital Markets, LLC

Analyst · Ed from RBC Capital Markets

Okay. And then one last one if I could, maybe for Bennett. You talked about dealer inventory being, with the exception of a couple of products where you’re maybe like close to optimal. I kind of noticed that, that was very similar language to what you used around this time last year. Your inventories are kind of flat year-over-year while your retail sales are up almost 20%. And I guess I’m trying to kind of square that against guess why you don't need to build some more inventory than what you are right now.

Bennett Morgan

Analyst · Ed from RBC Capital Markets

I think that's a fair question, Ed. Obviously, as you do your surveys and the guys do your surveys, particularly when we're in a growth mode like this, our view of what optimal inventory may be slightly different than what our dealers’ view of optimal inventory. We have a pretty sophisticated system around shipping to retail, and we don't believe we're losing, even with the lower inventory levels, losing anything material from a retail sales standpoint. That said, I think that as you talk to our dealers, there's certainly pressure points on certain models where they'd look for more. As a company, we're generally going to err a little bit on the short side versus a little bit on the long side. That's just how we want to run the railroad, and we also believe with the improvements and the LEAN initiatives that we're doing within our facility on lead times and delivery, that the opportunity is that inventory can continue to get a little bit better over time even as we reached towards optimal levels. So I think that's why you see us continuing to say that even with the growth that we can continue to manage inventory levels. With that said I mean, I think as your guys’ surveys have pointed out we can still do a better job on delivery and most of that miss is not really related to MVP but frankly, it's more in relation to that we continue to significantly outpace our expectations and our dealers' expectations on retail sales based on how much we are outperforming the industry at Polaris. So again, it's an opportunity for improvement, but we feel pretty good about where we are.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Tim from Wells Fargo Securities.

Timothy Conder - Wells Fargo Securities, LLC

Analyst · Tim from Wells Fargo Securities

A couple of things here. The MVP program, Bennett, you were just touching on it a little bit there but the -- basically, you said at the last dealer meeting a year ago that you're rolling out sort of last tranche of that domestically, and then you mentioned that you're continuing to see benefits of that. When do you feel you sort of get the large amount of the full benefits of the MVP program? Will that continue on through the first half of '12, all of '12 I guess? And then also, Harley mentioned as it relates to motorcycles and granted the Japanese really aren't impacting Victory and they're not really impacting Harley, but they cited the statistics that in the second quarter 70% of all Japanese retail sales in the U.S. were noncurrent models. What's your updated view on where the Japanese stand with what's in their inventory and as far as getting that cleared out on motorcycles and maybe on the ORV side?

Bennett Morgan

Analyst · Tim from Wells Fargo Securities

All right. Let me take the second question first, Tim. From a Japanese standpoint on the Off-Road Vehicle products, kind of ATVs and Side-by-Sides, what Harley is reporting is probably a little different than what we see in those categories. I think their mix is more current than it's been in several years. I think their inventories are in control or maybe low. And I think again, when you talk about the promotion environment, I think that's why you see a pretty healthy industry right now. So I would characterize the Japanese in good shape there. Our motorcycles, I mean -- and I'm not going to argue with what Harley is telling you. They probably do have more non-current pressure, and that's a little bit higher than perhaps what we would have saw from our numbers. But our sense is they're healthier on ATVs and Side-by-Sides than they've been in several quarters or years frankly, and that shapes up pretty well. In relation to the MVP question, that was a fairly complex question you asked. But our view is when we release something like an MVP, it's very much like a product plan. I mean, there is levels of innovation and improvements that we continue to make to the program over a period of years, and we've continued to do that with MVP even as we've launched this over the last couple of years. Our view is we're kind of in the early to middle innings on the improvements in that we can do and our dealers can do with this MVP go-to-market business model. In the early stages when you talk about inventory correction and so forth as we brought the full set of the dealers on board in our ORV business, a lot of that benefit does anniversary really almost by the end of this calendar year. But there are additional enhancements we're doing around on retail and going after different share and segments and some other improvements that we do as we continue to drive towards industry-leading customer satisfaction that should drive further profitability improvements for ourselves and our dealers going forward. So we're still pretty excited about the leverage MVP brings to both parties over the next number of years.

Edward Aaron - RBC Capital Markets, LLC

Analyst · Tim from Wells Fargo Securities

Okay. Okay. And Scott, 2 questions here on -- you touched on it in your preamble, Latin America distribution timetable. I think you mentioned last quarter that you guys have an assembly operation set up in Brazil to sort of deal with some of the tariff issues down there and you're building out -- starting to build out your distribution in Latin America, which is already an established predominantly Off-Road market. But you've proven very well that you can take on the Japanese. Give us an update there. And then just maybe a little bit more color, if you can on India, China. So that's the international distribution question. Separately, you have 2 acquisitions under the belt, starting to integrate those. Do you take a little pause here to get that done as well as the continuing ongoing operations? Or could there be some near-term appetite if the right thing came along?

Scott Wine

Analyst · Tim from Wells Fargo Securities

All right. And I'll try to hit these fairly quickly. You asked about Brazil. Right now, our primary focus in Brazil is around building the infrastructure for the business. We hired a great leader for the country and he's putting his team together and getting things set up, and we're preparing for a fairly aggressive launch there. So we're not as aggressively -- we're not actually pushing out distribution yet while we work to build out our launch plans. We got a great, great team and feel very comfortable that that's still a very large potential market for us. China and India, as Bennett alluded to, we're going to be profitable this year in China. We got a nice and several hundred vehicle order from one of the provinces for RANGERs. And we feel like initially selling our core Polaris products made here in the United States, that's a bigger opportunity than we originally planned. India, as Bennett has also mentioned, is going to have a launch in Q3 of their RANGER product and they're building out distribution, and we're learning all along. So what we've done in China, we're starting to take the lessons learned and apply it in India. And really we're building the infrastructure and expect much significantly larger things from those businesses in the years ahead. We cannot get there selling our current portfolio of products so expect a lot more of investment and opportunities for significant growth going forward. The acquisition staff, I mean, the team did a really nice job. I mean, I think, sometimes we underestimate the talent and capability of the Polaris team. We've got Monterrey up and running. We got a couple of acquisitions done. So by no means, are we going to say, okay, gosh, we got to stop and do these. These were small deals. A lot of the heavy-lifting for integration is already completed. And Todd's busy; we see lots of opportunities for niche companies to add profitable growth to our company. And I think that may happen later this year. It may happen next year. But the first 2 won't cause us to take pause.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Mark from Feltl and Company.

Mark Smith - Feltl and Company, Inc.

Analyst · Mark from Feltl and Company

First, can you walk though a little bit of what you're seeing competitively mainly in the Sports Side-by-Side as others come out with new products to compete with the RZR?

Bennett Morgan

Analyst · Mark from Feltl and Company

Yes, Mark, this is Bennett. Frankly, we haven't had any formal announcements for Model Year '12 yet on the Side-by-Sides. You guys have probably seen the news from Arctic Cat around their Wildcat. We don't have a time on that -- timeframe on that yet. And we continue to be very aggressive around our product development around RZRs, creating new segments. And as we head into Nashville, again, we feel very good about what we got going with RZR and continue to grow that category from a Polaris standpoint. So we expect that category to get more crowded and to get more aggressive, and our product plan reflects that. And again, as we get to Nashville, I think you'll like what you'll see.

Mark Smith - Feltl and Company, Inc.

Analyst · Mark from Feltl and Company

Good. And then second, can you just give any update on contracts or hedging on commodities?

Michael Malone

Analyst · Mark from Feltl and Company

Sure. This is Mike. We are -- as we've talked about before, we do hedge certain commodities with financial instruments. We also have relationships with our suppliers where we do price locks and those kinds of things that are more short term for the next quarter or so. So we've got a number of those established in the short term through the second half of this year. We do have -- specifically, we do have aluminum and diesel fuel commodity contracts through -- at certain levels through the balance of this year.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Joe from Raymond James. Joseph Hovorka - Raymond James & Associates, Inc.: Just a couple of question. One, Mike, did you give the wholesale portfolio at the quarter end that you usually give?

Michael Malone

Analyst · Joe from Raymond James

I did not, but I will. Let me look it up. Joseph Hovorka - Raymond James & Associates, Inc.: Okay. And then while you're doing that, can you confirm that both Indian and GEM closed before June 30 in the 2Q?

Michael Malone

Analyst · Joe from Raymond James

Yes. Joseph Hovorka - Raymond James & Associates, Inc.: They did?

Michael Malone

Analyst · Joe from Raymond James

Yes. The wholesale portfolio is $455 million. Joseph Hovorka - Raymond James & Associates, Inc.: Okay. Benn, I think you mentioned that Victory is now #2 in its segment. How did you define that segment?

Bennett Morgan

Analyst · Joe from Raymond James

That segment is -- the segments we compete in which is 1400cc motorcycles in North America and that obviously, encompasses both Cruisers and Touring. Joseph Hovorka - Raymond James & Associates, Inc.: And then last question, how many Bobcat dealers are you now selling through?

Bennett Morgan

Analyst · Joe from Raymond James

Joe, we don't have that number exactly. We're not selling -- obviously, we sell to Bobcat and they have the relationship with the dealers. So their dealer network I think in the U.S. is approaching 600, would be my estimate. That's an estimate. And I would say we're in the majority of those dealers. Joseph Hovorka - Raymond James & Associates, Inc.: And is the -- do you think the dealer footprint there has grown over the last 12 months or is this all kind of comp growth in the same dealers that you're seeing?

Bennett Morgan

Analyst · Joe from Raymond James

I think it's primarily comp growth. Again, we launched this in the second quarter of last year. Started shipping last year in this quarter, and frankly, I think what we've seen over the last couple of quarters is the dealer same-store sale ramp-up is increasing. I mean, we probably penetrated a few additional Bobcat guys as they've picked up on it but I think it's more that they've had the product in there for 6 months to a year now, and they're starting to figure out how to sell it better and customers are aware of the product, and they're having more success with it. Joseph Hovorka - Raymond James & Associates, Inc.: And the $600 million, is that a North American number? Or is that a worldwide number?

Bennett Morgan

Analyst · Joe from Raymond James

I believe that's a North America number and I would be a little bit rue if you quoted me on that. But that's my recollection off the top of my head, Joe. Joseph Hovorka - Raymond James & Associates, Inc.: Okay. But you did -- there was a comment earlier on the call where you said that Bobcat was actually gaining some momentum internationally. Did I hear that right?

Bennett Morgan

Analyst · Joe from Raymond James

Yes, what they had not taken that this product line internationally, and they have started to sell that in the last quarter into a couple of key international markets. So it's very early in their international expansion, but I think that's encouraging development. Joseph Hovorka - Raymond James & Associates, Inc.: You said that started this quarter, 2Q?

Bennett Morgan

Analyst · Joe from Raymond James

That's my belief, yes. Joseph Hovorka - Raymond James & Associates, Inc.: Okay. And then one last Bobcat question. How many SKUs are you selling into Bobcat at this point?

Bennett Morgan

Analyst · Joe from Raymond James

Well, they have close to a dozen different models, which is probably a little too many.

Operator

Operator

Your next question comes from the line of Craig from Robert W. Baird. Craig Kennison - Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated: Scott, I wanted to give you the chance to maybe provide us with some milestones or some benchmarks by which we should judge the success of Indian and GEM whether it’s market share or the number of dealers. What should we look at over the next 12, 18 months that would indicate whether you guys are executing on your strategy?

Scott Wine

Analyst · Craig from Robert W

Yes. I think that's a fair -- I mean, to be clear, every acquisition we ever do, it's going to be about operating income and cash flow as the key measures of their success. And when we can really start to tell if we’ve done what we thought we're going to do is when they start contributing. As I said earlier, in my prepared remarks, we expect GEM to be accretive in 2012. Indian obviously is going to take a little bit more work. And that one, I don't know that we're going to have great milestones to give you. It's really going to be a maintain and support the current product lineup with dealers. We think the bikes -- they're beautiful bikes right now. In fact, I've been riding one all summer and really enjoy it. So we're going to continue to support the current lineup and current dealer network. As I mentioned, we're going to look to expand Victory and Indian dealers into the key MSAs in metropolitan areas where they sell the most bikes where we're currently underrepresented. And that as we start to build that out, it's probably going to be a more 12 to 24 months rather than the next 6 to 10. So expect that to happen over time, but that's the kind of heavy lifting we'll be doing. Over the next couple of years, we're going to relaunch a truly exceptional lineup of Indian Motorcycles. And I think when that happens, that will be the major milestone you should look for. And from that point forward, you'll see a fairly rapid ramp up in sales and profitability. But unfortunately, a lot of it is going to be behind the curtain while we're doing that redesign work for the bikes. Craig Kennison - Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated: And then Bennett, a question for you. We've seen some manufacturers in motorcycles in particular, choose this opportunity to raise price. Do you see any opportunities in any of your products maybe get a little more on price given the supply-demand dynamic you face?

Bennett Morgan

Analyst · Craig from Robert W

Yes. We're watching the competitive price environment closely, Craig, and we've taken a little bit of price mostly to offset the pretty significant commodity pressure we're seeing year-over-year. And so you'll see us take a little price in Model Year '12 and we took a little bit earlier in the year as well. And again it's mostly just to, again, offset the higher input costs that we're seeing, more so than any kind of issue around supply and demand.

Operator

Operator

And your last question comes from the line of Jimmy from B. Riley. Chris Armbruster - B. Riley & Co., LLC: This is Chris Armbruster on the call for Jimmy. Can you guys, maybe in your domestic ORV business, tell me if you're observing any meaningful geographic disparity in the rate of acceleration in retail demand?

Bennett Morgan

Analyst · B

Yes, Chris, this is Bennett. Kind of as you've seen the U.S. economy, the Southwest area has obviously, been a little slower to recover than the balance of the U.S. And if there's any meaningful separation there, it has to do with that. If you look at the mix of our product through that, it traditionally has been a little bit of a younger group and much more of a sport-oriented product, which I think also is contributing to the fact that, that region is performing -- underperforming versus the other regions. Other than that, it's fairly similar or normalized, I would say. Chris Armbruster - B. Riley & Co., LLC: Okay. And then just real quick on the strategy of putting cash to work. Can you talk a little bit about your -- whether or not your acquisition strategy is impacting your appetite for share repurchases? And then should we maybe be looking for a continuation of smaller deals or are there any kind of larger opportunities in the pipeline?

Scott Wine

Analyst · B

I think the way to look at our capital allocation model is very consistent with what we said previously. Our first objective is to invest in opportunities to get above GDP growth opportunities. Sometimes that will come with capital investments in our current business. And sometimes that will come through acquisitions. And we still see a healthy opportunity out there for acquisitions to add to our portfolio. We're not looking to do a huge deal. That's not anywhere in what we're looking at, but certainly I wouldn't look at the size of GEM and Indian and say that's where we're always going to buy. Share buybacks are going to be an important part of what we do. We're not -- we're going to try to get to the point where we're neutral on the impact of share dilution. We got a lot of work to do to get there, but it's really investing in growth be it organic or acquisitions. It's make sure that we pay a -- we're a dividend paying company. So we'll always have a healthy dividend policy, and then we'll look to buy back shares as it makes sense.

Richard Edwards

Analyst · B

Okay. Thanks. And that's all the time we have this morning. We appreciate everybody listening into the call, and we look forward to seeing you next week if you’re coming to the Analyst Meeting in Nashville. Otherwise, we'll talk to you next quarter. Thanks again. Goodbye.

Operator

Operator

And that concludes today's conference call. You may now disconnect.