Earnings Labs

UFP Industries, Inc. (UFPI)

Q3 2013 Earnings Call· Thu, Oct 17, 2013

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Q3 2013 Universal Forest Products and Earnings Conference Call. My name is Charoll, and I'll be your operator for today. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this call is being recorded for replay purposes. And I'd like to turn over to Lynn Afendoulis, Director of Corporate Communications. Please proceed.

Lynn Afendoulis

Analyst

Thank you. Welcome to the Universal Forest Products Third Quarter 2013 Conference Call. Hosting the call today are CEO, Matt Missad; and CFO, Mike Cole. Matt and Mike will offer prepared remarks, and then we'll open up the call for questions. This conference call is available simultaneously and in its entirety to all interested investors and news media through a webcast at www.ufpi.com. A replay will also be available at that website through November 15, 2013. Before I turn the call over to Matt Missad, let me remind you that today's press conference and presentations and yesterday's release made by our executives include forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations and projections. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those factors identified in the press release and in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. At this time, I would like to turn the call over to Matt Missad.

Matthew J. Missad

Analyst

Thanks, Lynn, and good morning to everyone on the call. Thank you for joining us this morning. I know you have a busy schedule, and we appreciate you taking the time to spend with us. I've been scratching my head the last several days trying to come up with an eloquent or clever superlative to describe how proud and impressed I am with our Universal team. I revisited our past references to Batman movies, voyages to the Moon and beyond, as well as all-star sports references. However, these all occurred when the economy was booming. This time, it's different. And, in many ways, I think it's better. The economy has improved, but it's hardly robust. Housing starts are still below 1 million annually, yet our employees posted the best third quarter results since 2006. Many of you who are familiar with the movie, The Princess Bride, may think our performance is inconceivable. I, however, believe the performance is the logical result of the efforts of our team and our diversified business model. So first and foremost, I'd like to thank and congratulate our team. They worked incredibly hard and smart, and the results prove it. While we are very encouraged by the results, we also know we still have plenty of room for improvement. As we look at the results for the quarter, we see double-digit sales growth in each of our markets. While we had some help from the lumber market in increasing sales dollars, we're also encouraged by the unit growth we were able to achieve. A quick review by market shows that retail building materials sales increased 21.6% to $247 million. The company is seeing the results of its strategy to grow sales with both independent and big box retailers by diversifying product mix and providing enhanced…

Michael R. Cole

Analyst

Thanks, Matt. I'll start with our income statement for the quarter. Our overall sales increased 22% due to a 9% increase in prices and a 13% increase in unit sales. To review by market. Our sales for the retail market increased 22%, which was comprised of a 10% increase in prices and a 12% increase in units. Our unit increase was due to a combination of stronger same-store sales growth with our customers and share gains we reported to you at the beginning of the year. Our sales in the manufactured housing market increased 12% due to a 3% increase in prices and a 9% increase in units. Our unit increase was primarily tied to an 8.5% increase in industry production. Our sales to the residential construction market increased 29% due to a 17% increase in prices and a 12% increase in units due to the continued increase in housing starts again this quarter. By comparison, national housing starts experienced a year-over-year increase of 15% from June through August. We're also pleased to report that our plants that primarily serve this market had a substantial increase in operating profit again this quarter. Finally, our sales to the industrial market increased 21% comprised of a 9% increase in pricing and a 12% increase in unit sales. Moving down the income statement, our third quarter gross profit as a percentage of sales increased by 160 basis points, and our gross profit dollars increased 42% this quarter, comparing favorably to a 13% increase in unit sales. The increase in our profitability and profit per unit this quarter was primarily due to strong unit sales and the operating leverage we have on labor and overhead costs in our plants. Selling, general and administrative expenses increased by $7.8 million or 17% this quarter. This increase…

Matthew J. Missad

Analyst

Thanks very much, Mike. Now I'd like to open it up for any questions you may have.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] First question comes from Kelly, Robert from Sidoti. Robert J. Kelly - Sidoti & Company, LLC: Just a -- would you just repeat the price and units data for the retail building materials segment? I missed that.

Michael R. Cole

Analyst

Sure. Yes, no problem. Retail was up 22% overall. 10% of it was prices and 12% increase was in units. Robert J. Kelly - Sidoti & Company, LLC: Okay, great. And so, I mean, can you just talk about the unit performance throughout the quarter? Was that fairly consistent? Did you see any ill effects from the noise surrounding the government shutdown and the recent spike in interest rates? Just how that flowed throughout the quarter?

Matthew J. Missad

Analyst

I think overall, the quarter was fairly level. We didn't see a whole lot of decline. There was a -- manufactured housing tailed off just a little bit. But I think, by and large, it was pretty consistent throughout the quarter.

Michael R. Cole

Analyst

Yes, and retail itself, too, was consistent. Robert J. Kelly - Sidoti & Company, LLC: That's good to hear. The performance at the gross margin line was real solid and kind of more in line with what you've done historically. Can you just talk to the drivers of the year-over-year improvement and the sequential improvement, how much it had to do with the volumes being strong or just the fact that lumber didn't do a roller coaster on you?

Matthew J. Missad

Analyst

Yes, I think the lumber market consistency certainly helps, but I also think you're seeing the results of some of the operating leverages. We're able to increase the production levels at the individual facilities. I think the other helpful driver for us is that our people have done a great job improving performance in some areas that struggled. So you're seeing a blend of all those things really helped drive the improvement. Robert J. Kelly - Sidoti & Company, LLC: Sure, sure. And you called out in the release some operational improvements. I remember 1 year ago you had some productivity issues that were a $2 million drag. Are those now behind you? And where -- what part of the overall business were those issues tied to?

Matthew J. Missad

Analyst

Yes, I'm not going to tie into the individual business areas. But yes, those issues are behind us. I mean, we'll always face challenges in the future. But those types of challenges, we don't need to see again. Robert J. Kelly - Sidoti & Company, LLC: Okay. And then just as far as the inventory position, lumber began to kind of creep up towards the end of the quarter. I don't know if you said this during your prepared remarks. Where are you -- where's your inventory position relative to the market price?

Matthew J. Missad

Analyst

I think we're in good shape with our inventories. We're in line with market. And so we should be well positioned.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Steve Chercover, D.A. Davidson. Steven Chercover - D.A. Davidson & Co., Research Division: First of all, can you tell us how you outgrew the residential market almost by a factor of 2x? Is it the geographic locations that you're operating in or just your excellence?

Matthew J. Missad

Analyst

Well, thank you for that. I don't think we'll take credit for the excellence. But I do you think the markets that we're in are very strong markets. And again, we're seeing the benefit of increased utilization of our facilities in those areas. That's really helped us. Steven Chercover - D.A. Davidson & Co., Research Division: Yes. That would actually lead into one of my other questions, so I'll go out of order. But what do you think your sustainable growth -- gross margins are? Do you have a target for that? Would it be in the low teens?

Matthew J. Missad

Analyst

Yes, I think what we try to focus on, Steve, is the operating margin line, and that's what we're looking at. And we believe we can get to our historical norms, and that's our target. Steven Chercover - D.A. Davidson & Co., Research Division: And you did put up some 13% and 14s in the better year -- better years? So...

Matthew J. Missad

Analyst

And that's the gross margin line. Steven Chercover - D.A. Davidson & Co., Research Division: Okay.

Matthew J. Missad

Analyst

Yes. Steven Chercover - D.A. Davidson & Co., Research Division: And if I recall, I think you had some kind of military barracks or something you were working on, that might have even been in the Boston area. Am I utterly wrong? Because I guess I was wondering if there was -- I thought there was some sort of governmental work. And I also want to know if the shutdown had had any implications or it might in the current quarter.

Matthew J. Missad

Analyst

I don't know how far back you're going with that, Steve, but the -- in terms of current projects like that, I don't think we have any that are significant in scope. So I do think I know what you're talking about, which was a couple of years ago. That project's completed. Steven Chercover - D.A. Davidson & Co., Research Division: Okay, fine. And finally, the antidumping charge. Was that associated with the softwood lumber dispute? Or was it some Asian product?

Matthew J. Missad

Analyst

Yes, the antidumping is related to imported product, to metals product. And then there's probably been a little bit of confusion, I will say, with respect to whether certain items were subject to duty or not. So that was the cause of the charge. Steven Chercover - D.A. Davidson & Co., Research Division: And will that persist or is that behind us?

Matthew J. Missad

Analyst

No, we think that's behind us.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Jay McCanless from Sterne Agee. James McCanless - Sterne Agee & Leach Inc., Research Division: So first question. When I look at the unit growth in the 4 business lines you disclosed, it looks like all of those were below the average for the company. So am I correct to think that commercial and concrete forming had a fairly strong performance this quarter, above average performance? Is that the best way to look at it?

Michael R. Cole

Analyst

Yes, that's right. But I didn't give that one, Steve. It -- they grew their unit sales 42%, so they had an outstanding quarter. James McCanless - Sterne Agee & Leach Inc., Research Division: Okay, great. I guess, and to follow on the last question about the government shutdown. Just tactically, for the fourth quarter, what are you hearing from the field? Are you seeing any delays in business? Anybody pulling back? Or is everyone looking through the shutdown?

Matthew J. Missad

Analyst

Yes, we haven't seen a lot of change in anybody's perception at this point. It's our normal seasonal slower quarter, but we don't see anything different than typical, at least at this point. James McCanless - Sterne Agee & Leach Inc., Research Division: Okay. No, it's good to hear. And then I wanted to ask you a question. I know you all gave the customer sign-ups on the industrial business. But what about in residential construction? Are you seeing that private builder customer get financing and coming in to perhaps fill out a credit app? What's happening there?

Matthew J. Missad

Analyst

I think the portion of our business that's more the custom homebuilder, which as I say -- what I think you're referring to, they're still doing very well. And we have a nice niche with them with complex products, and that's what we try to focus on with them. To date, at least for them, the financing hasn't been a big issue or an impediment to what they're trying to accomplish. They're not doing a lot of spec building still, so they usually have these things presold. James McCanless - Sterne Agee & Leach Inc., Research Division: Okay, okay. And then if you could, just some commentary about the MH market and how you all are evaluating that market for '14.

Matthew J. Missad

Analyst

Yes, I think in talking with our customers there, they're predicting a kind of a steady, not a big increase, maybe a 5% to some -- to 10%. But we're probably more comfortable with the lower end of that range in terms of their growth.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. You have no other questions at this time, so I'd now like to turn the call over to Matt Missad for closing remarks.

Matthew J. Missad

Analyst

Again, thank you. I'd like to thank all of you for your time this morning. I'd also like to do a special thank you to all the members of the UFP family of companies for their hard work and for all the shareholders for your investment in our company. We see lots of opportunities on the horizon, and we continue to devote our efforts to improve returns and to grow the company's profitability. It's really an exciting time to be a part of the UFP family. And as a closing note, with all due respect to our good friends in Boston, we'd like to wish the Detroit Tigers well. The people of Detroit need something positive to cheer about, so let's hope for a championship for the Tigers. Have a great day.

Operator

Operator

Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This completes today's presentation. You may now disconnect. Have a good day.