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USANA Health Sciences, Inc. (USNA)

Q1 2014 Earnings Call· Wed, Apr 30, 2014

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to USANA Health Sciences' First Quarter 2014 Earnings Conference Call on the 30th of April 2014. [Operator Instructions] I will now hand the conference over to Patrique Richards. Please go ahead, sir.

Patrique Richards

Analyst

Good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us this morning to review our first quarter results. Today's conference call is being broadcast live via webcast and can be accessed directly from our website at www.usanahealthsciences.com. Shortly following the call, a replay will be available on our website. As a reminder, during the course of this conference call, management will make forward-looking statements regarding future events or the future financial performance of our company. Those statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ perhaps materially from results projected in such forward-looking statements. Examples of these statements include those regarding our strategies and outlook for 2014. We caution you that these statements should be considered in conjunction with disclosures, including specific risk factors and financial data contained in our most recent filings with the SEC. I'm joined this morning by Dave Wentz, our Chief Executive Officers; and Paul Jones, our Chief Financial Officer. Dave will begin with a review of our operational progress during the first quarter and our strategies for 2014. Paul will then follow with a more detailed look at our first quarter financial results and outlook for 2014. I'll now turn the call over to Dave.

David A. Wentz

Analyst

Thanks, Pat, and good morning, everyone. First quarter was another solid quarter for USANA and we've made progress in several key areas. As we indicated in our release yesterday, net sales for the quarter increased 7.9% year-over-year to $182.4 million. This increase was driven by overall customer growth of more than 16%. During the quarter, we saw Associate and Preferred Customer growth in every region and nearly every market. This type of growth has always been a key focus for USANA, and it has been encouraging to see this metric accelerate as a result of the improvements we've made to our business in 2013. These improvements have not only had a positive impact on our customer accounts but also on other key areas of our business that we have discussed with you over the last few quarters. These areas include worldwide unit volume, Auto Order sales, the number of check earners and rank advancements. During the first quarter, worldwide unit volume increased 15% year-over-year. Our Auto Order increased to 45% of unit sales compared to 30% a year ago. The number of Associates who received a commission check from USANA in the first quarter increased 51% year-over-year and includes many who received their first check with USANA. Finally, we continue to see an increase in the Associate rank advancements. These metrics show how are our business has accelerated operationally as a result of the changes we've made in 2013. As we anticipated, however, our financial results are trailing our operational results right now as a result of these enhancements to our business. In particular, our first quarter sales were impacted by the price discounts that we introduced at our August convention last year. An unfavorable shift in currency exchange rates year-over-year also reduced sales by $5 million. Finally, in addition…

Paul A. Jones

Analyst

Thanks, Dave, and good morning, everyone. I'll start by taking you through our regional results, and we'll then turn to the income statement. As Dave mentioned, net sales of the fourth quarter increased 7.9% to $182.4 million. This growth was led by our Asia Pacific region, where net sales increased by 13% to $118.6 million for the quarter. Sales growth in all 3 areas contributed to the growth in Asia Pacific. As expected, sales in Hong Kong were down significantly compared to previous year as we continue to focus on growth in Mainland China. Greater China as a whole generated nearly 12.5% sales growth on a year-over-year basis and Associate counts increased 26.4%. On a sequential basis, however, top line results decreased modestly as a result of the Chinese New Year and the challenging environment in China. The 14.6% sales increase in our Southeast Asia Pacific region was driven by sales and customer growth in Singapore and the Philippines. Notably, sales in this region were negatively impacted by changes in currency, which reduced net sales by $3.6 million. We are particularly pleased with our results from the Philippines, where the operating environment had been challenging over the past year. We are also encouraged by our results in Australia and New Zealand, where we have achieved double-digit local currency sales growth, notwithstanding 2 price decreases. We believe that both the pricing initiatives we announced in early 2013 and the initiatives launched at our International Convention have contributed to customer growth in the Southeast Asia region, where Active Associates increased 14.3%. In our North Asia region, South Korea led the way having another solid quarter with 14.3% sales growth and a 16.7% increase in active customers. Turning now to the Americas and Europe. Sales for the first quarter were essentially flat due…

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Scott Van Winkle from Canaccord Genuity.

Scott Van Winkle - Canaccord Genuity, Research Division

Analyst

So a few questions. I think at the beginning, Dave, did you give a unit growth number? I'm wondering if you have a unit volume growth number to kind of compare to the revenue in dollars, so we can see the impact of pricing, like company-wide.

David A. Wentz

Analyst

We're looking at about 15%.

Scott Van Winkle - Canaccord Genuity, Research Division

Analyst

Okay. So you're up 15% in units going out the door, only impacted by the sales, the dollar impact on the pricing. Okay. And then Paul, the guidance, does that include any buyback? I don't know if you said that at the end.

Paul A. Jones

Analyst

That does not include any buyback. That's modeled without buyback.

Scott Van Winkle - Canaccord Genuity, Research Division

Analyst

Okay, great. And then on China, a few questions. I think Paul said Hong Kong was down significantly again. Obviously, you posted growth in the broader Greater China. So Mainland had to be up triple-digits again. Is that right? Or can you give a number?

Paul A. Jones

Analyst

Yes. We were up -- let me get that real quick. But Mainland was up in the triple-digits year-over-year, significant and we anticipate that again it will be another strong year, even with the headwinds we're experiencing.

Scott Van Winkle - Canaccord Genuity, Research Division

Analyst

Was the growth consistent? I think, last quarter, you were -- I think it was over 200% you were talking last quarter. Is it kind of in the same range?

Paul A. Jones

Analyst

Same range, yes.

Scott Van Winkle - Canaccord Genuity, Research Division

Analyst

Okay. And then the publicity. Herbalife reported a couple of days ago, had very strong growth in Mainland China. It didn't really call out any impact from the publicity. Was there anything specific to BabyCare or USANA? Or was this all because of that paper's exposé on Nu Skin?

David A. Wentz

Analyst

No. There was nothing specific to USANA. I think we're all just being conservative to -- we wanted to see what happens to Nu Skin, and we're very relieved to see the way things went there and made us more optimistic and excited about the future there.

Scott Van Winkle - Canaccord Genuity, Research Division

Analyst

Yes. I mean, you're talking about your meetings kind of returning to normal in April. That kind of flips with Nu Skin kind of restarting its meetings at the end of April. Did you just pull back a little bit on the meetings? Or was it more distributor-led, saying that they'll pull back on meetings?

David A. Wentz

Analyst

It was a combination of both, where we all just kind of eased off and we wanted to -- and we, of course, invested even more time and effort in training and making sure that everyone understood all the policies. So it was a great time. It was a great opportunity for us to go back to all those leaders and train them a second or a third or a fourth time because of the attention made them even more attentive and even great attendance at training meetings. And it was a fantastic opportunity to make sure that everyone understands the policies and they're doing things correctly. And so I think that, that took some time and effort, of course, spending all that time making sure we did extra training and that can take away from sales meeting time. So I think it was a good opportunity. It was a good chance for us to remind and emphasize. And I think it was normal for most companies across the board that there were a few less sales meetings and a few more training meetings to make sure that we are doing things correctly.

Scott Van Winkle - Canaccord Genuity, Research Division

Analyst

Got you. And then why -- can you expand on the comment about distributors not going to the Asia Pac Convention in Hong Kong? Was there any particular reason behind that?

David A. Wentz

Analyst

I mean, we just had in Nanjing, I believe that's where I was last, can't keep track, close to 8,000 people. Fantastic event that when I was there, it felt like a convention, it didn't feel like a national meeting. And I'm sure the meetings in China are going to be larger and larger. And so they are basically conventions. And why travel to a convention outside of your country when you can go to a convention in your country?

Scott Van Winkle - Canaccord Genuity, Research Division

Analyst

Got you. And then last one on China, one of the call-outs in that article about Nu Skin that started all this was the sale of products that haven't been improved in Mainland China. Have you made any changes in that regard? I know you put that policy in last year. You can't buy a product from another market if it's available in your existing market, I believe, is how it's put out. But have you made any number [ph] of changes about buying products outside of the market for personal consumption?

David A. Wentz

Analyst

As you mention, yes, we put those policies in and had a great impact. And we continue to monitor and police it as long as we can so that we hopefully don't have to make more changes. But we'll continue to make changes as necessary until that we're positive that there are no concerns there.

Scott Van Winkle - Canaccord Genuity, Research Division

Analyst

Got you. And then Paul, the -- if -- the China compensation plan, so when you pay commission on a sale, that's going into your commission line, your volume incentive line. And when you pay a salary, is that going into SG&A? Is that why the SG&A didn't show the same type of leverage this quarter that it did in Q4? Was it the bigger mix of China?

Paul A. Jones

Analyst

No, really the SG&A -- we have, as we talked about, the AP convention. We didn't cover some of the costs that are associated with that because of the last-minute decline in the number of people that came there. That was part of it. And we also had some ongoing initiatives for worldwide business, build into that SG&A that we continue to move forward with, even though the sales were slightly softer than we anticipated. So that's what's creating the deleveraging.

Scott Van Winkle - Canaccord Genuity, Research Division

Analyst

Got you. And is that what assumed going forward? I mean, is this -- I mean, what should we think about -- obviously, your volume incentives are going to say a little elevated. They actually weren't as high as I thought they were going to be this quarter. Is SG&A going to stay kind of elevated on a year-over-year basis, maybe up as a percentage of sales?

Paul A. Jones

Analyst

Yes, slightly. And that really is a function of the top line. The Associate incentives, we still anticipate to be around the 43 -- 43.3 percentile right in there. And then the SG&A will be a little bit higher as a function, really, more of the top line being a little bit lower.

Scott Van Winkle - Canaccord Genuity, Research Division

Analyst

Okay. And then last question, I apologize if I you answer this in your prepared remarks. I didn't catch it. When you talked about the U.S. market being the market where you didn't see growth in units and volume to offset pricing, anything specific behind why the U.S. didn't kind of follow track with the rest of the markets?

Paul A. Jones

Analyst

Well, there are a couple of issues. And one of them is that the U.S. really started this initiative, had the highest percentage of Auto Orders already in place. And so the impact of the movement on that wasn't as great here. And so there's some work there. And then the other issue would really be in the issue of just getting some excitement built in again into the U.S. And I think we have, as we've talked about, some of the initiatives that are built into our SG&A will help us to create and generate some excitement and some user-friendliness of USANA. So we believe that we have some good things coming there.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Rommel Dionisio from Wedbush Securities.

Rommel T. Dionisio - Wedbush Securities Inc., Research Division

Analyst

On the upcoming manufacturing center in Beijing, I wonder if you could just give us a little more granularity or detail on that. Will it still have the functionality that the U.S. production has with regards to MyHealthPak and its ability to sort and package those products?

David A. Wentz

Analyst

The facility in Beijing will be similar to, if not better than, Salt Lake. But the MyHealthPak is not a product that we will have in China. The MyHealthPak would be too challenging with regulatory. With all the multiple combinations of ingredients, you'd have to register every single pill combination with their current rules and regulation. So of course, with the 3- to 5-year wait time for every product, that would be impossible and economically not make sense. So everything but the MyHealthPak, it would be new equipment, newer equipment than we have in Salt Lake, the same protocols and procedures we follow, but MyHealthPak, as you specifically mentioned, will not be a part of it.

Operator

Operator

The next question comes from Frank Camma from Sidoti. Frank A. Camma - Sidoti & Company, LLC: Just a couple of quick questions. Not to beat up on China, but the growth was still obviously pretty strong in China despite the difficulties you called out. And you're basically back online in April. So can you just -- why are you kind of focused on that as a negative? I mean, it seems like you're essentially back in the market.

Paul A. Jones

Analyst

Yes. We hope to see that continuing and we believe that we'll see that uptrend. But there's still -- anytime you have that kind of noise in the industry, it does create some headwind for the Associates and the sales team, and so we would anticipate that a little bit. I believe we'll overcome it quickly and be able to get back on target. Our growth rate has slowed down a little bit as a run rate. But, again, we anticipate that will pick back up. The other point on that is that's a fairly large -- as you see from the results, that's 38% of our sales, that Greater China area, and so making sure we're conservative and yet as realistic as possible, we wanted to make sure we're representing that. Frank A. Camma - Sidoti & Company, LLC: Okay. And can you just go on to a little more detail on the -- I think you called out a couple of things, but I may have missed some. The decrease in the gross margins, is that -- should we kind of think of that as something that's going to affect the next a couple of quarters as well? I mean, you haven't seen -- you historically have been doing a little bit better than that over the last several quarters, 1.5 years or so. Just can you give us a little more detail on that?

David A. Wentz

Analyst

Yes. That should continue on through the year. We do our price increases every January for all our products around the world. And that's when we'll see larger movements in gross margins. Of course, if we find some efficiencies, we'll be applying those. When we get the manufacturing facility in Beijing up and running, we believe that our efficiency and productivity will go up meaningfully. The facility that we're in currently in 4 or 5 floors and the amount of movement of products and things really reduced our efficiency that we'll be able to have in this large region, as we talk about, much more efficiency as we're manufacturing our products. So looking forward to that, but that's, of course, latter 2015.

Paul A. Jones

Analyst

Yes. There's also, in addition to that, the currency impact year-over-year affected those numbers and also the price discounts that were put into place have an impact and will continue to have an impact going forward to probably about the same amount that we're looking at. Frank A. Camma - Sidoti & Company, LLC: Okay. So it wasn't that like the input cost had increased, it was really other factors in that, that...

Paul A. Jones

Analyst

Lowering the prices compressed it.

David A. Wentz

Analyst

Correct.

Operator

Operator

There appear to be no further questions. Please continue.

Patrique Richards

Analyst

Well, thank you for your questions and for your participation on today's conference call. If you have any remaining questions, please feel free to contact Investor Relations at (801) 954-7961.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. This concludes USANA Health Sciences' First Quarter 2014 Earnings Conference Call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.