Garry Ridge
Analyst · Wunderlich. Please proceed with your question
Thanks, Wendy. Good day and good afternoon from, believe it or not, a wet and rainy day in San Diego. Today, we reported net sales of $94.6 million for the second quarter of fiscal year 2016, which was a decrease of 3% from Q2 of last fiscal year. Net income for the second quarter was $13.7 million compared to $11.3 million in Q2 last fiscal year, an increase of 21% year-over-year. Diluted earnings per share for the second quarter were $0.94 compared to $0.76 for the same period last fiscal year. As we review our results for the second quarter, we will be doing so under the umbrella of our 55/30/25 rule and our strategic initiatives. While global sales continue to be negatively impacted by changing foreign currency exchange rates, our gross margin has increased to over 55% in the second quarter, which has contributed to the record net earnings and diluted earnings per share. Before we dive into the sales results, let’s take a moment to review our strategic initiatives as well as our long-term targets. Strategic initiative number one is to grow WD-40 Multi-Use Product. Our most important strategic initiative is to take the blue and yellow can with the little red top to more places for more people. It will find more uses more frequently. We believe we can grow WD-40 Multi-Use Product to approximately $600 million revenue over the next 10 years. Although global sales of Multi-Use Product were down 4% in this quarter compared to last year, we saw growth of the Multi-Use Product sales in the Americas. The declines we saw in our other trade blocks were primarily due to the unfavorable impacts of foreign currency exchange rates, unstable market conditions in Russia and the timing of customer orders in the company’s Asian distributor markets. Additionally, our new EZ-REACH product continues to exceed our original assumptions and end user feedback thus far has been positive. Strategic initiative number two is to grow the WD-40 Specialist product line. Our goal under this initiative is to leverage the power of the shield to develop new products and categories within defined geographies and platforms. We believe we can grow WD-40 Specialist to approximately $125 million in revenue over the next 10 years. In the second quarter, sales of WD-40 Specialist were $5.4 million, which represents a 20% increase over the second quarter of last year. We are optimistic about the long-term opportunities for the WD-40 Specialist product line. However, there will be some volatility in sales along the way due to the timing of promotional programs, the launch of new product offerings and the building of new distribution. Strategic initiative number three is to broaden product and revenue base. Our goal under this initiative is to leverage the recognized strengths of WD-40 Company to derive revenue from new sources and brands. A great example of how we have executed against this strategic initiative is the small acquisition we made in 2004 of GT85. GT85 is a multipurpose maintenance product sold mainly in the United Kingdom in the bike trade channels. In the last 18 months, we have successfully integrated the brand into our line of products in the United Kingdom. It has been given a refreshed tray dress to appeal to bike enthusiasts and we have expanded the GT85 product line to include a wet loop, a dry loop, a degreaser, a cleaner, a silicon shine and a bike wash. GT85 has become the poster child for what a great acquisition looks like for us. Strategic initiative four is to attract, develop and retain outstanding tribe members. Our long-term target under this initiative is to grow employee engagement to greater than 95%. At the end of the second quarter, we had a total of 437 tribe members globally. We took our biannual employee engagement survey earlier this year and I am happy to report that our overall global employee engagement score remains the envy of many organizations at 94%. A question I get a lot is how do we maintain our culture in a growing organization? In the last 2 years, we have grown our headcount by over 10% and many of these tribe members are spread out all over the world. We cultivate high-employee engagement by creating a culture based on care, candor, accountability and responsibility guided by our values and nourished by learning. Our employee engagement score is a reflection of the way of life at WD-40. It’s truly about the people at WD-40 Company. Strategic initiative number five is operational excellence. Our goal under this initiative is best summarized by one of our core values here at WD-40 Company, make it better than it is today. We are continuously focused on optimizing resources, systems and processes, as well as applying rigorous commitment to quality assurance, regulatory compliance and intellectual property protection. We measure ourselves against this operational excellence initiative by executing against our 50/30/25 business model and by making improvements to the processes and systems, while safeguarding the blue and yellow can with the little red top. We continue to make progress on several initiatives, including transitioning all of the 50 U.S. states to the lower VOC formula we launched in California in fiscal year 2014, focusing on credit category leadership all around the globe and continuing to implement the upgrade of our ERP system in EMEA. That now completes the update on our strategic initiatives. So, let’s move on to the more details of our second quarter results starting with sales. Consolidated net sales were $94.6 million in the second quarter, down $2.7 million versus last year. In the second quarter, we generated approximately 40% of sales in currencies other than the U.S. dollar. Therefore, changing foreign currency exchange rates continue to be a significant headwind for us. If you were to remove all of the foreign currency exchange impacts, our consolidated revenue would have been $98 million, up slightly over the second quarter of last year. Consolidated net sales were reduced by about $3 million due to the impact of the strengthening of the U.S. dollar against the functional currencies of our subsidiaries. This is what we refer to as translation related exposure or constant currency. And it impacts reported results in Canada, Australia, China and the EMEA segment. In addition, consolidated net sales were reduced by about $400,000, primarily due to the weakening euro against the pound sterling. This is what we refer to as transaction-related exposure and it only impacts reported results in our EMEA segment. Now let’s take a closer look at what is happening in the individual segments. Our second quarter results are really a true reflection of the diversity of our business across geographies, trade channels and economies. We will start with the Americas. Consolidated net sales in the Americas, which includes the United States, Latin America and Canada increased to $45.5 million in the second quarter, up about 2% from last year. On a constant currency basis, sales in the Americas for the second quarter would have increased to $45.9 million, up 3% compared to prior year. Sales of maintenance products increased about 3% in the Americas, primarily due to higher sales of Multi-Use product in Latin America as a result of higher levels of promotional activities and increased sales of WD-40 Specialist in the U.S. driven primarily by new product introductions. In the U.S. alone, maintenance product sales increased by about 3% driven primarily by the added distribution of WD-40 EZ-REACH and promotional activities. Maintenance products sales in Latin America were up 23% in the quarter due to the timing of customer orders and the success of certain promotional activities, particularly those in Mexico and Chile. As a reminder, we sell our products in U.S. dollars in Latin America, so currency does not report our – impact our reported results in this region. The increases were partially offset by declines in maintenance products sales in Canada, which were down 32% during the quarter. These declines were primarily due to the changes in foreign currency exchange rates, as well as lower sales associated with unstable market and economic conditions in Western Canada as a result of suppressed activity in the oil industry. Our maintenance products exclude our homecare and cleaning products. We continue to consider our homecare and cleaning products, particularly those in the U.S., as harvest brands that continue to generate meaningful contributions and cash flows, but are generally expected to become a smaller part of the business over time. Sales of our homecare and cleaning products in the Americas during the second quarter decreased about 4% from last year. Let’s jump across the pond now and take a look at EMEA. Consolidated net sales in EMEA, which includes Europe, the Middle East, Africa and India decreased to $35.6 million in the second quarter, down about 8% from last year, primarily due to the negative impacts of foreign currency exchange headwinds, as well as continued unstable market conditions in Russia. On a constant currency basis, sales in EMEA would have decreased by $1.2 million or 3% when compared to the prior year period. We sell into EMEA through a combination of direct operations, as well as through marketing distributors. Reported consolidated sales in the EMEA direct markets, which accounted for 67% of the regional sales, increased 1% during the quarter to $23.8 million. It’s also helpful to look at our results in local currencies, in which we conduct sales transactions in our direct markets. In pound sterling based direct markets, sales decreased by 5% in the quarter, primarily due to decreased distribution in the retail channel in the UK. In euro based direct markets, sales increased by 17% in the quarter, primarily due to increased sales of the WD-40 Multi-Use product and WD-40 Specialist. Now let’s turn to our EMEA distributor markets, which accounted for 33% of EMEA sales during the second quarter. Distributor market sales decreased 22% in the second quarter to $11.9 million due primarily to a 34% decrease in sales in Russia as a result of unstable market conditions in the region. Although market conditions have begun to stabilize, we experienced significant declines in the second quarter of this year compared to the second quarter of last year. Now let’s look at Asia-Pac. Consolidated net sales in Asia-Pacific, which includes Australia, China and other countries in the Asian region, decreased to $13.4 million in the second quarter, down 4% from last year. Changes in foreign currency exchange rates had an unfavorable impact on sales. On a constant currency basis, sales in Asia-Pacific would have been $14.1 million, an increase of 1% compared to last year. In Australia, net sales in U.S. dollars were $3.9 million in the second quarter, down 7% compared to last year. In its functional currency, the Australian dollar, sales were actually up 7% in the quarter. This growth was due to increased distribution and the continued growth of our maintenance products business. In China, net sales remain relatively constant compared to last year at $2.9 million. In its functional currency, the Chinese RMB, sales were up 1% for the quarter. This growth was due to an increased distribution, particularly in southern China and higher levels of sales resulting from promotional activities. We are optimistic about the long-term opportunity in this region, although we expect a lot of volatility along the way due to the timing of promotional programs, the building of distribution, shifting economic patterns and a varying amount of industrial activity. In our Asian distributor markets, sales were $6.5 million in the quarter, down 2% to last year. This decline in sales was driven primarily by the timing of customer orders. Our Asian distributor markets are not impacted by currency translation since we sell our products in U.S. dollars in that region. So I am going to take a break and I am going to hand it over to Jay who will continue the review of the financials. Thanks Jay.