Earnings Labs

Gibraltar Industries, Inc. (ROCK)

Q3 2021 Earnings Call· Wed, Oct 27, 2021

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

00:03 Greetings, and welcome to the Gibraltar Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Carolyn Capaccio of LHA Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Carolyn Capaccio

Analyst

00:34 Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. With me on the call are Bill Bosway, Gibraltar Industries’ President and Chief Executive Officer; and Tim Murphy, Gibraltar’s Chief Financial Officer. 0:47 The earnings press release that was issued this morning, as well as the slide presentation that management will use during the call are both available in the Investor Info section of the company’s website, gibraltar1.com. 00:59 Please note that Gibraltar has classified the Industrial business, which was divested on February 23, 2021, as a discontinued operation with fourth quarter twenty twenty results. Results of TerraSmart, which was acquired at the end of December twenty twenty, are included in year-to-date twenty twenty-one results. 01:18 Gibraltar’s earnings press release and remarks contain non-GAAP financial measures. Tables of reconciliation of GAAP to adjusted financial measures can be found in the earnings press release that was issued today. 1:29 Also as noted on slide two of the presentation, the earnings press release and slide presentation contain forward-looking statements with respect to future financial results. These statements are not guarantee of the future performance and the company’s actual results may differ materially from the anticipated events, performance or results expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Gibraltar advises you to read the risk factors detailed in its SEC filings, which can also be accessed through the company’s website. 01:55 Now, I will turn the call over to Bill Bosway. Bill?

William Bosway

Analyst

02:00 Hey, good morning, everybody, and thank you for joining todays call. Let’s start this morning with an overview of the third quarter results, and then we’ll spend a few minutes discussing the ongoing market environment. We continue to manage through and Tim is going to provide a financial review of the quarter, and then I’ll give you an update on our twenty twenty-one priorities and our guidance revision for the year. Then we’ll open up the call for your questions. 2:21 So with that, lets turn to slide three, titled Q3 results. Consistent with our experience in both the first and second quarter and with our expectations going into the third quarter, revenue remained healthy and grew twenty four point five percent, three point nine percent of which was organic and twenty point six percent from acquisitions. Growth was driven by additional price increases, participation gains and steady end market demand as the momentum from the first half of the year carry into the third quarter. Customer backlog at quarter end, driven by new order activity reached three hundred and eighty five million dollars increasing ten percent on a pro forma basis. Our backlog represents a record level for the third quarter and supports a robust demand trend as we enter the fourth quarter. 3:08 Adjusted net income decreased two point one million dollars or six-point five percent to thirty-point two million dollars or zero point nine one dollars per share as inflation across material transportation and labor further accelerated above our expectations in the quarter. Sequentially, adjusted net income per share improved thirteen-point eight percent or zero point one one dollars per share driven by strong focus on material productivity, execution of additional price actions and implementing more eighty twenty and lean quote to cash initiatives. 3:36 Now…

Tim Murphy

Analyst

07:39 Thanks, Bill, and good morning, everyone. I'll take you through our consolidated and segment results starting on slide five. And as a reminder, my discussion will cover results from continuing operations. Consolidated revenue increased twenty four point five percent to three hundred and sixty-nine point four million dollars. Organic revenue growth of three-point nine percent was driven by pricing and market demand in the renewable and infrastructure segments and participation gains primarily in residential. 08:10 We generated twenty-point six percent growth from the twenty-twenty acquisitions of TerraSmart in architectural mailboxes. Total backlog quarter had approximately three eighty-five million dollars up over ten percent from the third quarter twenty twenty on a pro forma basis. Driven by continued end market demand across our businesses. 08:29 Adjusted operating income decreased two-point six percent in the third quarter, with adjusted EPS down seven-point one percent. The decrease related to materials, transportation and labor inflation curve steepening more sharply and the supply chain becoming more difficult during the quarter across the businesses. This was partially offset by price increases at the revenue line, continued execution across the business segments, the TerraSmart acquisition, margin expansion in the legacy renewables business and 80/20 productivity initiatives. We continue to work with suppliers to manage materials and transportation procurement and with customers to manage pricing and expect margins to recover as inflation moderates. 09:13 Now let's read segments starting with Slide six, the renewable segment. Segment revenue increased eighty-five-point five percent driven by the TerraSmart acquisition. On a pro forma basis, including a TerraSmart transaction, revenues grew nineteen percent with growth in both the legacy and TerraSmart businesses. Demand in the quarter reflected order strength across all product lines, fixed tilt, Tracker, canopy, and eBos. 09:39 The strength offset intensified market headwinds from steel and transportation inflation…

William Bosway

Analyst

16:33 Yes, sorry, everybody. Let's turn to slide eleven. I want to talk about our three strategic pillars, our business system, portfolio management, and organization development. All three remain foundational in supporting ongoing transformation of the business and really the four four priorities of our business in twenty twenty-one continue to move forward. And I want to talk about each of those. So let's start with number one, scale the renewables and Agtech businesses. The renewable legacy business delivered year-over-year improvement in both revenue and margin in the quarter, further advancing its leadership position in the industry. The business continues to deliver good results and be a positive outlier in the solar racking market. The TerraSmart business, as I discussed earlier, is making good progress in its organization integration, the building and the scaling of its processes and systems, and revenue and margin performance have improved sequentially since the start of twenty twenty-one. The Agtech business is demonstrating the sequential improvement we anticipated, and we expect both revenue growth and margin to improve further in the fourth quarter. 17:38 Secondly, improving execution across Gibraltar through improved health and safety, our eighty twenty productivity quote-to-cash lead initiatives and new product development. Safety performance continues to improve, and we are managing through the ongoing pandemic well with active cases currently less than one ten to one percent of our total workforce. The renewables Agtech and residential businesses have all been very active with eighty twenty quote-to-cash lean initiatives, as well as executing identified supply chain and manage manufacturing synergies. 18:09 Third, managing accelerated inflation and supply chain challenges. In a relatively short period of time, this environment evolved from mainly a steel price issue in October of twenty twenty to becoming a much more broad-based material labor, transportation inflation and availability issue,…

Operator

Operator

22:35 Thank you. At this time, we will be conducting a question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] 22:55 Our first question is from Ken Zener with KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Ken Zener

Analyst

23:02 Good morning, everybody.

Tim Murphy

Analyst

23:04 Good morning, Ken.

William Bosway

Analyst

23:05 Good morning, Ken.

Ken Zener

Analyst

23:08 Well, a lot of moving parts, I guess it doesn't seem to be a top line issue here. So, as it relates to steel, I know certainly on the renewable side, we had talked about how you position your price contracts on a more limited term basis backward reintegrated to your suppliers, which was giving you very strong performance in the first half of the year. It seems most of your quote revision occurred based on the third quarter mix miss and the fourth quarter is tightening up a lot. So, could you maybe walk us through those different components because you said a first it was steel, and now it's just a whole bunch of different things. But like in renewable, clearing investors are going to be most focused on as your ability to kind of say when these margins right, will be in other categories, people are talking about cost neutral. So, do you see cost neutrality, happening by the beginning of the year. And obviously with your Analyst Day coming up, you have a lot more venue to expand on this, but or is that too simple because glasses is sitting somewhere in Long Beach?

William Bosway

Analyst

24:20 Yes. Now, it's a good question, Ken. I think it's still a relatively complex environment out there across supply chain. So what accelerated in Q3 obviously as you hit on which much more than just steel, steel itself as you see for the numbers accelerate significantly. But if you look at steel, aluminium, polypropylene. Those are the three big buys for us. Those were all – those all accelerated thirty percentage points or greater from a market perspective and then some of the things that we import as you referenced like glass those container rates are now up four and twenty percent and they accelerate another one hundred and eighty-five percentage points in the quarter. So, yeah, it's pretty broad-based. I would say the labor piece of this is we got our arms around that in a much better way than in Q2, but I'd say the broad inflation raw materials continues to be a challenge. 25:18 But as it relates to specifically to renewables, our core business, the legacy business, really delivered on top and bottom line. We improved year-over-year in this environment. So I think what the team has done and how they continue to operate is very effective in this pretty interesting environment. And where you see a little bit of the drag came from TerraSmart, which although improved sequentially, the big challenge with TerraSmart in the third quarter really is related to a lot of the supply chain disruptions. Our customers are having, particularly as it relates to panel supply and a few other things. And the reason that's more relevant for TerraSmart is because of the field operations approach we deploy, we're moving people around in a pretty interesting way to try to keep up with these changes where projects are moving day in, day out. And that's been amplified, I think, in the last ninety days by some of the supply chain issues that you read about every day. We'll overcome that. But again, even in that environment, they improved sequentially over Q2. So I did think the renewables business is operating very well given the environment, and I think we'll continue to do so going forward. But in terms of the overall environment, I think it's still -- we're anticipating it to remain very challenging as we go into Q4, as I mentioned. We are seeing some of the materials, particularly steel, stabilized over the last two or three weeks. That's maybe an initial indication of some things kind of starting to get less inflationary, but steel is the only one right now that has demonstrated that in the near term.

Ken Zener

Analyst

27:02 I appreciate those comments. For my follow-up, I guess I'll drill into the renewable, where you quote talked about project management and field operational efficiencies. Would you say most of the margin pressure then in renewable? While steel is there, you had your contracts, but it's really the project management, field operations side. So it's your equipment, it's your labor. It's not necessarily the steel that was the predominant margin pressure?

William Bosway

Analyst

27:32 Correct. Yes, I think that's a fair assessment. We did, I think, a very good job managing through the additional increase in steel. The challenge has been more around, again, moving crews across different projects as they're getting disrupted from supply chain issues with things that we don't buy or control, but we end up having to modify schedules around the specific projects. That -- we deal with that on an ongoing basis. My only point to everybody is that got amplified further as specific to the renewables industry, I think if you've seen this, there's a couple of different issues going on with panels and that created a challenge in the quarter for field ops, just kind of navigating around those projects as customers had to change schedules themselves. And so when they act, we have to do that.

Ken Zener

Analyst

28:27 Thank you.

William Bosway

Analyst

28:28 Yes.

Operator

Operator

28:35 Our next question is from Daniel Moore with the CJS Securities, Inc. Please proceed with your question.

Daniel Moore

Analyst

28:44 Thank you and good morning. Maybe I'll piggyback you back a bit on Ken's question. And walk through the other three segments and talk about the margin pressure by segment, how much is related to raw materials and more timing versus really supply chain logistics and things which appear to be perhaps a little bit more open-ended terms of when they'll be resolved?

William Bosway

Analyst

29:13 Sure. So where would like to start Dan, in the particular segment on jump on or just…

Daniel Moore

Analyst

29:17 I mean, you can go go resi and then down to Agtech and infrastructure spot. Any order is great.

William Bosway

Analyst

29:25 Got you. Okay. So resi, if you think about our resi business, it's steel aluminum and resin, in particular, those all saw increases in the quarter again, and we -- there subsequently implemented more pricing associated with those increases. So that lag that we talked about on the material inflationary side with our pricing, cost alignment. It's just the chase continued in Q4. And that's the bulk of the pressure on the margins in the quarter was associated with that. Ability to get material into our facilities. I think we have our arms around our ability to manage through the labor piece of this is getting better than it was in Q2, but the material inflation challenges that happened during the quarter were just greater than we expected. And so we're reacting appropriately, but there is a process that, as we've talked in the past, that we follow to drive those price increases. So I think that's mainly the residential segment. 30:32 If you look at the infrastructure segment, the big thing that hit us in the quarter was our supply of Neoprene, in particular, our rubber based products for nonfabricated business really got impacted by Hurricane IDA. And that really comes down to a facility there, which has been shut down for an extended period of time since and coming online now. Coming back online has really forced us to scramble to get offset that from other locations around the world, and that just took some time. So that kind of threw us off on the margin side during the quarter. I think that's more temporary in nature and that will correct itself. And the good news is that business has continued to have a strong top line. So as we get that piece squared away, I think…

Daniel Moore

Analyst

33:30 Very helpful. Appreciate that and there was multiple parts, but if I'll sneak one more just in cannabis strategy equipment. The market evolving quickly, obviously, very dynamic to talk about your positioning of your products and solutions relative to alternative extraction methods, are you where you want to be, and you anticipate additional M&A to build out those capabilities? Thanks.

William Bosway

Analyst

33:54 Yes. We have a pretty broad offering today. There's really 3 approaches deployed in the marketplace today. We have two of those technologies on hand. So you might say that there's a third leg of the stool as it relates to the technology options required because as everyone -- as we talked in the past, what's required, the technology used to extract has a lot to do with what end product you're looking to actually create. And so we have two of those three, I think, that are mainstream, and there's a third that is out there. And frankly, there's a force that we're working on, which I think might be interesting down the road as well. So you'll see us continue to broaden our technology capability in that area in general.

Daniel Moore

Analyst

34:41 Very good. Appreciate the color. I'll jump back in the queue if any follow ups. Thanks.

William Bosway

Analyst

34:46 Thanks, Dan.

Operator

Operator

34:48 Our next question is with Walter Liptak with Seaport Global. Please proceed with your question.

Walter Liptak

Analyst

34:55 Hi, thanks. Good morning guys. With all the moving parts I thought I try one around the guidance, and just to ask about there's always a range, I guess this time, it's a little bit different because it sounds like it's not a demand. Issue that would impact the range, but maybe you could talk a little bit about the difference between the low end and the high end of the revenue guidance, and it looks like there's four hundred thousand in sales. What would you have to see happen to hit the high end what would keep you from doing that?

William Bosway

Analyst

35:35 Yes. Well, I think the team is, I would say, feels better about the upper end of the guidance as we roll up today is versus the lower end, which is a good thing, but as we get into this quarter, what are the things that could throw us more in one direction or the other. If we have -- and we feel pretty good about it right now. But if we have some additional supply chain disruptions that our customers deal with in our project-based businesses, could that delay a project a week or two or move it from Q4 to Q1. We always deal with that, as I mentioned earlier, just trying to lock that down and work it as closely coupled with our customers day in, day out as we finish up the year. And so we're laser-focused on that. But that's always a challenge that we deal with, but it's probably a little bit more amplified now in this environment, as I talked earlier, and that would be one thing. I think the other thing that I mentioned in the in my remarks is we have these -- we have the updated COVID mandates that are heading our way. And so as we think about how to execute that, we built that into, but we're not exactly sure where that's going to land. So we've built some of that into the plan. And the reason we don't know exactly where that's going to land as we have a date that's out there, but we don't have clarity in terms of the requirements of what we have to do as it relates to testing. And we don't have enough time today to take you through all that. We'll do that in some follow-up calls. But we are -- we have been working on that for the last couple of months, and I think that's going to be an interesting set of variables that we'll deal with. And that will then roll into, obviously, next year, depending on what the mandate ends up finally being. So those are just two examples of some things that are in play during the quarter. But fundamentally, outside of that, I think the businesses feel good about the demand profile, and we have access to the materials we need. It's just a matter of executing as well as we can during the quarter.

Walter Liptak

Analyst

37:53 Okay, fair enough. And I guess for my follow-up on TerraSmart, you mentioned that improved sequentially. How much extra costs ran through? Like where wouldn't have profits been if you didn't have to, I guess move these crews around because of supply delays?

William Bosway

Analyst

38:17 Yes. Well, we would have made -- and I think, operationally, the team actually when you're in this kind of business, you have change orders that occur all the time and the flow of when those -- for projects that you're working on or that have been completed. And sometimes those changeovers don't actually flow through until the following quarter. But if you look at the ones associated with Q3 that will pick up in Q4, the team really actually performed better than what we're showing. 38:43 But I think inherently, we would have crossed into the double-digit margin level as we had expected going into the quarter. And as we talked earlier in the year, TerraSmart margin accelerates in the second half of the year because that's the busiest time of the year, and that's -- we're working seven days a week right now. So that's an important piece of the business as we flow into the second half of the year. And we expected our margins to cross into double-digit as historically has been the case. So we were a little short on that because of timing of some of these change orders, but dealing with the whipsaw effect of some of the supply chain issues. The team responded very well, but I think you would have seen us more in double-digit in Q3, and that obviously would continue into Q4. So that's always been our plan this year. And I do think we'll continue to make progress. So it's not where we thought we'd be, but we continue to make positive steps forward sequentially and just a little bit less than we would have liked in this environment.

Walter Liptak

Analyst

39:52 Okay. Does TerraSmart have a better line of sight to supply chain for the fourth quarter? Is there still variability in that where if you get supply chain and disruptions?

William Bosway

Analyst

40:04 Yes. Good question. For us, the way that we to manage that as every active project, which we're doing, we have about three hundred plus projects that are always in flight, it's really getting down to understanding every day every week with each project, how that project and the folks that are driving their supply chain to support their project are dealing with some of these issues. So it takes a lot of time and effort to make sure that their panels are coming in and other key components are coming in. So the overall project doesn't have to move. 40:37 And so that's our line of side is based on our ability to go talk to them, which I think is pretty good. And our plan in the fourth quarter is based on what we know as of today and our customers feel about that. So a lot of customers know what they have on hand and it’s coming in and they feel pretty good about that and there's always a bucket that has a little less in today's environment. They could be a little less confident because oftentimes they don't learn until the day before or even a week before what's actually going to happen with some of the supplies. So, it's just being ridiculous and diligent with everyone's these projects and that's the mode the team has been in frankly from the second quarter onward. 41:27 And as I mentioned earlier, it's a really incredibly busy environment for overall renewables team. The fundamental demand is up twenty percent on a proforma basis which is pretty different growth in this environment. So, that's the line of sight that we have right now that we're working towards.

Walter Liptak

Analyst

41:53 Okay, great. Thanks. I'll get back in the queue.

Operator

Operator

42:05 [Operator Instructions] Our next question is from Julio Romero with Sidoti & Company. Please proceed with your question.

Julio Romero

Analyst

42:14 Hey, good morning, Bill. Good morning, Tim.

William Bosway

Analyst

42:16 Good morning, Julio.

Tim Murphy

Analyst

42:17 Good morning, Julio.

Julio Romero

Analyst

42:19 So on the Agtech business, I wanted to dig a little more into the Thermal business integration, what are the challenges that you're seeing specific to Thermo, and did you see sequential volume growth in thermo in the quarter?

William Bosway

Analyst

42:36 Yes. So from a challenge perspective, I think we've made a lot of progress on our integration. We've talked a lot about that in the past. We are finally allowed to step foot into Canada. So that's been helpful. But I think the team has done a pretty good job, feels really good about where we are relative to that aspect of things that we're working on. We're starting to see the produce business accelerate from a growth perspective. Backlog is continuing to build. And there's a lot of activity ongoing right now in the pipeline, rather large opportunities, both in Canada and the U.S. So, yes, we feel pretty good about how that's coming together. I would say the same is true for our legacy business in Agtech, which for those that -- as a reminder, that's everything from horticulture to the botanical gardens to retail a lot of interesting things going on there. That's performed quite well. It is performing well and delivering. And there's a lot of interesting things that will carry us into twenty twenty two that are materializing or have materialized into the backlog as well. So net-net, I think outside of some pretty big disruptions on executing some projects for each of those businesses. The outlook is -- continue to come together quite well as expected. And I think you'll see us improve again in Q4 sequentially, as we've been talking about. We're still targeting to reach double-digit margins in the quarter. And if we can avoid some of the big supply chain issues that we absorbed in Q3, then I think we have a really good shot at making that a reality. So we've not lost focus on what the with the prices in Q4 for that business. So you'll see us make another step forward in improvement.

Julio Romero

Analyst

44:36 Got it. Just to clarify, you did see the sequential volume growth for thermo in 3Q?

William Bosway

Analyst

44:45 Yes.

Tim Murphy

Analyst

44:46 Let me Actually, we were off a little bit into the right.

William Bosway

Analyst

44:50 I'm sorry that, yes sorry, sorry, backlog or growth?

Julio Romero

Analyst

44:57 Just on revenue growth?

William Bosway

Analyst

44:58 Revenue, sorry, Go ahead, Tim.

Tim Murphy

Analyst

45:01 Yes. We were off a little bit on revenue not because of demand, but because of the ability to actually move projects forward. Because of supply chain disruptions. So the demand is there, but if we can't get product, we can't do the build and glass of delays create a lag in revenue there?

William Bosway

Analyst

45:25 Yeah. Julio, I'm sorry, I apologize. The port issue that we dealt with was specific to produce, the demand there, the projects there, backlogs there, but it just pushed us into this quarter, but the momentum produce business, yes, the momentum remains positive and continues to pick up. So we're excited about that in produce.

Julio Romero

Analyst

45:54 Okay. And I guess just for my follow-up on the guidance, I guess the change to your free cash flow guidance to now four percent of sales for the year. So the sales guidance doesn’t change so I guess implication that the decrease for the free cash flow guide is just a function of lower net income or is thermo – is any changes related to thermo integration playing role in the free cash flow as well?

Tim Murphy

Analyst

46:21 Yes. So in general, we're going to make less money, right? That's not Thermo specific. It's a little bit across the businesses from our original plan. And so that impacts it. And then really, when you look at where we've increased our investment in working capital, it's really in the residential and the renewables business. We expect to claw some of that back in the fourth quarter. I don't think there was anything -- any significant investment in Agtech or infrastructure. It was really in resi and renewables. And I expect those to get -- that will reduce the investment in the quarter, but I don't think we'll get back to the days that we had at the beginning of the year quite yet. And then part of that is just dollars because of inventory cost being so much higher and the effect that has on revenue, just the amount of dollars sitting in inventory and AR is higher.

Julio Romero

Analyst

47:30 Got. Thanks for taking the questions and look forward to your investor day in a few weeks.

Tim Murphy

Analyst

47:35 Thank you.

William Bosway

Analyst

47:36 Thanks.

Operator

Operator

47:39 Our next question is from Ken Zener with KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Ken Zener

Analyst

47:46 Hello again, Could you talk about residential in terms of the lagged or comp effect versus last year when you guys kept your operations functioning, I think, more than your competitors, which led to market share gains based upon your being there. Can you talk about how that's kind of settled out now that we're comping some of those supply benefits you had last year? How are those relationships expanding? Because that was obviously one of the big segments that benefited from your – the 80/20 initiatives, the whole duration of those in terms of distribution customers, how has that kind of played out in terms of regional market share within the supply companies that you're serving? Thank you.

William Bosway

Analyst

48:37 Yes. It's actually played out quite well. We saw again in Q3. As everyone continue to deal with supply chain issues or availability of material, we were able to respond and pick up some additional business during the quarter in a couple of different regions. I mentioned hurricane Ida. That was -- our ability to respond to that is very helpful, but it's also because we're well positioned in that part of the country, but we've also been able to expand in some other regions, particularly the West Coast, where we were able to respond to demand and deliver and where others could not either get access to material or just couldn't respond. So I think -- I would suggest we've become a better partner through demonstrating some abilities over the last year or so in the residential business, and I think it continues to pay off for us. So I mentioned earlier, we -- being able to respond to this environment is an advantage. So having access to material is one aspect of that. And then being flexible with some of the unique things that have been ongoing for a lot of our customers. We've just been in a better position to be able to respond accordingly. So I feel good about the position we're in and the expansion we've made in total as well as in some of the unique geographies that historically we were not in as well as we needed to be.

Ken Zener

Analyst

50:06 Thank you.

Operator

Operator

50:12 It appears that there are no further questions at this time. So I would like to turn the floor back over to Mr. Bosway for closing remarks.

William Bosway

Analyst

50:21 Again, thanks everybody for joining us today. We look forward to seeing all of you in person or virtually at our Investor Day in New York here on November seventeen and we will also be attending investor conferences in both December and January. I want to wish everyone stay and happy rest of twenty twenty-one and look forward to reporting our progress in the fourth quarter. earnings release. So, thank you, and have a great day.

Operator

Operator

50:46 This concludes today's conference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.