Jay Rembolt
Analyst · Liam Burke from Wunderlich. Please proceed with your question
Thank you, Garry. In addition to the information presented on this call I suggest that you review our press release which is issued earlier today as well as our 10-K report for the fiscal year 2015 which we'll expect to file on October 22nd. Let's start with a discussion about how we performed against our most recent fiscal year guidance. We projected our fiscal year net sales results to be in the range of 383 million to 390 million which meant flat to growth of 2%. Today we reported fiscal year revenue of 378.2 million reflecting a decline in sales of about 1%. As Garry discussed in detail the stronger than anticipated impact of foreign currency exchange rates as well as the economic and political challenges in some of our European markets made it difficult for us to forecast topline sales results. We project gross margin to be better than 52%. And today, we reported gross margin of 52.9%. We expected our global advertising and promotion investment to be in the range of 6% to 7% of net sales. And today, we reported our A&P investment of 6% of sales. We expected net income to be between $44.5 million and $45.4 million, which would have achieved diluted earnings per share of between $3.03 and $3.09, assuming $14.7 million weighted average shares outstanding. Today, we reported net income of $44.8 million and diluted earnings per share of $3.04, based on $14.6 million weighted average shares outstanding. Now, on to our 50/30/20 Rule. For many years, we’ve run our business by what we call our 50/30/20 Rule. We used this rule to guide and measure the performance of our business. Under the 50/30/20 Rule, 50 represents gross margin, which we target to be above 50% of net sales. 30 represents our cost of doing business, which is our operating expenses, excluding depreciation and amortization. Our target is to be at 30% of net sales. And finally 20 represents EBITDA. If our gross margin is above 50%, then our cost of doing business is 30%, we’ll generate EBITDA above 20%. The descriptions and reconciliations of these non-GAAP measures are available on our SEC filings and in our investor presentation which is available on our investor relations Web site. Beginning this year, in fiscal 2016, we are changing to a new 55/30/25 Rule. This means we’ll be targeting gross margin of 55%, cost of doing business at 30% and EBITDA of 25%. By aligning the organizations behind these stretch targets, we will continue to improve the financial performance of our business. Now let’s take a look at our fiscal 2015 results. So the last time under our 50/30/20 Rule; first, gross margin. In the fourth quarter, our gross margin was 54.3% compared to the 52.7% last year, driven primarily by the net favorable impact of 230 basis points from major input cost. This is primarily due to decreases in the cost of crude oil, one of the primary feedstocks of our petroleum based specialty chemicals. These improvements in gross margin were partially offset by changing foreign currency exchange rates. In the fourth quarter, foreign currency exchange rates adversely affected our gross margin by 70 basis points. This is because the [EMEA] (ph), our cost of goods are sourced almost entirely in pound sterling, or approximately 45% of our revenues are generated in euros, 30% in pound sterling and the remaining 25% in U.S. dollars. The euro deterioration against the pound more than offset any benefit from the strengthening U.S. dollar. As a result, revenues in total were less than pound sterling thus decreasing our gross margin. Although there were several other items that impacted gross margin, they were individually insignificant. The themes that we just discussed for the fourth quarter for gross margin, also apply to the full fiscal year. Gross margin was 52.9% compared to the 51.9% in the prior year. Major input costs had a less favorable impact of 160 basis points. Foreign currency exchange rates adversely impacted gross margin by 50 basis points in the fourth quarter. All other items combined had an unfavorable impact on gross margin of 10 basis points. If the cost of crude oil goes up significantly in the future, we will surely see some impact to our gross margin. But the new gross margin goal of 55% that we are targeting is not continuous on oil staying at any particular price point. We cannot control the global market dynamics, such as the price of crude, but we will continue to be focused and deliberate in managing the rest of our business for continued growth in our gross margin towards that target of 55%. Now, I’ll address our cost of doing business. In the fourth quarter, our cost of doing business was 35% compared to the 34% last year. For the full fiscal year, our cost of doing business was 34%, flat to last year. The revenue decline for the fiscal year negatively impacted our cost of doing business percentage. We expect to move closer to our target of 30%, over time as revenues grow. While our target is to have our cost of doing business at 30% of net sales, and we plan to continue the investments we make in research and development, brand protection as well as regulatory and quality assurance. For the full fiscal year, 76% of the cost of doing business came from three areas; our people costs or the investments we make in our tribe; our marketing investments; and the cost to get our product to our customers for the fourth quarter SG&A expense decreased to 27.4 million down from 28.3 million last year. The decrease was primarily due to lower earned incentive compensation, lower professional service costs and changes in foreign currency exchange rates. These decreases were partially offset by higher costs associated with new product development. For the full fiscal year our SG&A expense increased slightly to a $108.9 million up from a $108.6 million last year. We continued our investment in innovation and renovation and invested $3.5 million during the fourth quarter and a record $9 million for the full fiscal year. This investment is associated with our maintenance products and directly supports our strategic initiatives. Our innovation team engages in consumer research, product development, product improvement, and a variety of testing activities. Today our organization has more resources in places to manage product innovation, product renovation, product quality, regulatory and consumer safety than ever before in the company's history. Advertising and sales promotion expense increased by 2% to $6 million in the fourth quarter. The increase in advertising and sales promotion expense was primarily due to higher level of activities and programs in the Americas. For the full fiscal year, our A&P expense decreased by 4% to $22.9 million. As a percentage our A&P investment decreased from 6.2% to 6% for the full year. The decrease for the full year was primarily due to lower level of promotional programs and marketing support in EMEA. And that bring us to EBITDA, the last of 50/30/20 measures. EBITDA was 19% of net sales for both the fourth quarter and the full fiscal year. Looking at amortization, the amortization in tangibles remained constant at approximately $700,000 in the fourth quarter as compared to the prior year quarter. For the full year such expense increased by $400,000 from $2.6 million to $3 million primarily due to the intangibles acquired in the GT-85 acquisition completed at the beginning of the fiscal year. Total operating income in the fourth quarter was $15.8 million versus $16.6 million in the same period last year. Operating income in the fiscal year was 65.4 million compared to 63.7 million in the prior year. And net income for the fourth quarter was 11.7 million versus 11.5 million in the prior year quarter. Changes in foreign currency exchange rates had an unfavorable impact of $800,000 on the translation of our consolidated results for the quarter. Our diluted earnings per common share were $0.80 in the quarter compared to $0.77 in the prior year period. Diluted weighted average shares outstanding decreased to 14.5 million shares from 14.9 million shares in last year's quarter. And now net income for the full year at 44.8 million versus 43.7 million in the prior year. Changes in foreign currency exchange rates impacted our results $1.7 million for the full fiscal year. Now diluted earnings per common share were $3.04 for the fiscal year compared to $2.87 in the prior year. And our diluted weighted average shares outstanding decreased to 14.6 million shares from 15.1 million shares last year. A word about our capital allocation. We continue to return capital to shareholders through regular dividends and share repurchases. On October 2nd, the board of directors declared a regular quarterly cash dividend of $0.38 a share payable October 30th, 2015 to shareholders of record at the close of business tomorrow. Based on today's closing share price of $93.39 the annualized dividend yield is 1.6%. During the fourth quarter we repurchased 50,000 shares of our stock at a total cost of $4.4 million under our share repurchase plan and during the full fiscal year we repurchased 386,000 shares at a total cost of $30 million. Our latest share repurchase plan became effective March 1st, 2015. And it provides the authorization to acquire up to $75 million of the company's outstanding shares through the plan's expiration date in August of 2016. In addition to growing our earnings our solid balance sheet and strong cash flow we also focus on another metric - return on invested capital. For the fiscal year 2015 our return on invested capital was an exceptional 27.2%, and that provides our financial overview. Now, I’ll turn it back to Garry.