Garry Ridge
Analyst · B. Riley FBR. Please go ahead
Thanks, Wendy. Good day everyone and thanks for joining us for today’s conference call. Today, we reported net sales of 107 million for the third quarter of fiscal 2018 compared to 98.2 million in the third period last year. This reflects an increase of 9% year-over-year. Foreign currency exchange rates favorably impacted our sales in the third quarter. On a constant currency basis, we grew net sales by 5% year-over-year. Net income for the third quarter was 16.1 million compared to 14.4 million in the third quarter of last fiscal year, an increase of 12% period-over-period, and diluted earnings per share for the third quarter were $1.15 compared to $1.02 for the same period last fiscal year. Now let’s start our discussions about our strategic initiatives. As most of you will recall, our long-term revenue target is to drive consolidated net sales to approximately 700 million in revenue by the end of fiscal year 2025 and to do so while following our 55/30/25 business model. We’d like to remind investors that those long-term targets are guideposts, not guidance. We acknowledge that our anticipated 2025 targets are aspirational, but we continue to believe if we keep our focus in the right places we can be successful in moving towards these targets. Our strategic driver number one is to grow WD-40 Multi-Use Product. Our most important strategic driver is to take the blue and yellow can with a little red top to more places for more people who will find more uses more frequently. In order to achieve our target of 530 million of Multi-Purpose Product revenue, we need to continue our steady building of the Multi-Purpose Product across all markets through both geographic expansion as well as through innovation. In the third quarter, global sales of WD-40 Multi-Use Product were 82.5 million reflecting an increase of 10% compared to the third quarter of last year. Year-to-date, net sales of WD-40 Multi-Use Product were up 8% compared to last year. In our developed markets, we continue to drive revenue growth through innovation of our flagship product which includes premiumization. As part of our premiumization strategy, we continue to successfully convert WD-40 Multi-Use Product end users to our more innovative Smart Straw and EZ-REACH delivery systems. In developing and emerging markets, we continued to build brand awareness among end users through product sampling, specifically targeted end user groups in countries identified as key growth opportunities. As we’ve shared with investors before, we’re investing an additional 1 million in brand building this fiscal year to support initiatives like these. Our strategic driver number two is to grow the WD-40 Specialist product line. Our target under this initiative is to grow the WD-40 Specialist product line through continued geographic expansion as well as by developing new products and product categories. Our focus is on building market awareness and distribution of WD-40 Specialist in order to achieve our stated goal of 100 million in revenue by the end of 2025. In the third quarter, global sales of WD-40 Specialist were 8.5 million, up 16% compared to the third quarter of last year. Year-to-date, net sales of Specialist were 23.4 million, up 26% compared to last year. We are optimistic about the long-term opportunities for WD-40 Specialist. However, there may be some volatility in sales levels along the way due to the timing of promotional programs as we build out distribution and various other factors that come with building out a new product line. Strategic initiative number three is to broaden our product and revenue base. Our goal under this initiative is to leverage the recognized strengths of WD-40 Company, to derive revenue from existing brands as well as from new sources and products. Strategic initiative number three includes maintenance products of 3-IN-ONE, WD-40 Bike and GT85, but also includes homecare and cleaning product brands like Spot Shot, Lava in the Americas; 1001 in EMEA; and No Vac and Solvol in Asia Pacific. We believe we will continue to nurture and grow the products included under this initiative and expect their combined revenue to reach approximately 70 million by the end of fiscal year 2025. In the third quarter, global sales of products included under this initiative were 12.1 million reflecting an increase of 11% compared to the third quarter of last year. Year-to-date, net sales of products included under this initiative were up 6% compared to last year. WD-40 BIKE had a particularly strong third quarter with solid sales growth across all three trading blocks. Much of the success we’ve seen with BIKE has been achieved through our growing digital presence. As I mentioned a few moments ago, we’re investing an additional $1 million in brand building this fiscal year and a sizable portion of that investment is being used to support and enhance our global digital presence where products like WD-40 BIKE and other Specialist products thrive. Strategic driver number four is to attract, develop, and retain outstanding tribe members. Our goal under this initiative is to attract, develop, and retain talented tribe members to grow our tribe member engagement to greater than 95%. At the end of the third quarter, we had 467 tribe members around the globe. To support our tribe’s culture, we launched our Leadership Lab program back in 2011 to develop our tribe, sharpen skills, and ultimately build our company’s bench strength. Today, our Leadership Lab is present in all three trading blocks and over 920 attendees have engaged in more than 21,000 hours of learning under this program. We recently announced our next generation approach to Leadership Lab, a learning laboratory that is a global program for people development. These learning tools delivered by our tribe for our tribe are excellent examples of our continued commitment to our thriving global workforce. Additionally, I’m happy to share with you that we continue to make progress on our plans for renovating a new building to house our UK-based tribe members and we expect to move the tribe to this new building in the second half of fiscal 2019. Finally, our fifth strategic initiative is operational excellence. Our goal under this initiative is best summarized by one of our core values here at WD-40 Company, making it better than it is today. We measure ourselves against the operational excellence initiative by executing against our 55/30/25 business model and by making improvements to processes and systems while safeguarding our brands. Volatile commodity prices, particularly those for crude oil, have negatively impacted our gross margins recently but over the long term, our 55/30/25 business model guides our business decisions. Accordingly, we have recently made some proactive price increases to ensure our gross margin will remain within our target ranges over the long term. Although some of these price rises were in effect prior to the end of the third quarter, in the Americas the price increases just went into effect in June. As a result, we expect we will begin to see the effect of these price increases reflected in our gross margin in the fourth quarter. That completes our update on the strategic initiatives. So let’s move on to in a little more details around our third quarter results starting with sales. As I mentioned earlier, consolidated net sales were 107 million in the third quarter, up 9% versus the third quarter last year. Translation of our foreign subsidiary results from their functional currencies to the U.S. dollar had a favorable impact on sales. On a constant currency basis, total net sales would have been 102.6 million, an increase of 5% compared to last year. This is what we refer to as translation-related impacts and it affects reported results from Canada, Australia, China, and the EMEA segment. In addition, we experienced about 330,000 unfavorable transaction-related impacts in EMEA which slightly offset the impacts of translation. So in total, changes in foreign currency exchange rates increased our net sales by about 4.1 million in the third quarter. Now we’ll take a closer look at the individual segments and we’ll start with the Americas. Net sales in the Americas, which include the United States, Latin America and Canada, increased to 53 million in the third quarter, up about 8% from last year. Year-to-date, sales in the Americas were up 5% compared to last year. Sales of maintenance products increased 12% or 5 million in the Americas, largely due to higher sales of maintenance products in the U.S., Latin America and Canada. Maintenance products sales in the United States increased 6% in the third quarter, primarily due to the timing of customers’ orders as well as a 12% increase in the sales of WD-40 EZ-REACH. In addition, maintenance products sales were up 34% in Latin America and 39% in Canada mostly due to the timing of customers’ orders and the successful promotional programs that continue in both regions. We estimate that sales of maintenance products in the Americas were up approximately 2 million in the current quarter due to certain customers buying extra product in advance of the price increase which went into effect in June. As a reminder, our maintenance products exclude our homecare and cleaning products. Sales of our homecare and cleaning products in the Americas decreased 18% in the third quarter compared to the prior year largely due to lower sales of 2000 Flushes, Spot Shot and Carpet Fresh. Now we’ll move over to EMEA. Net sales in EMEA, which includes Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and India, increased to 39.6 million in the third quarter, up 15% from last year. Year-to-date, net sales in EMEA are up 13% compared to last year. EMEA reported results in the third quarter were positively impacted by foreign currency exchange rates. On a constant currency basis, sales in the EMEA increased by 4% compared to last year. As you know, we sell into EMEA through a combination of direct operations as well as through marketing distributors. Net sales in EMEA direct markets, which accounted for 66% of the region’s sales, increased 19% during the quarter to US$26.1 million. This increase was a result of increased sales of maintenance products in the region and due to foreign currency exchange rates, new distribution and higher levels of promotional activity. Net sales in EMEA distributor markets, which accounted for 34% of the region’s sales, increased 9% during the quarter to US$13.5 million. This increase is primarily due to the timing of customer orders of WD-40 Multi-Use Products in Northern Europe. Partially offset, these increases was a 7% decline in sales in Russia due to the continued instability in the region. Russian sales during the quarter were also impacted due to restrictions that were placed on shipments of certain products into Russia during the World Cup. These continued challenges in Russia are preventing the distributor market from realizing even higher levels of growth year-over-year. Now we’ll go down to Asia-Pacific. Consolidated net sales in Asia-Pacific, which includes Australia, China, and other countries in the region, decreased to 14.4 million in the third quarter, down 2% from last year. Year-to-date, net sales in Asia-Pacific were up 3% compared to last year. Asia-Pacific’s reported results in the third quarter were positively impacted by foreign currency exchange rates. On a constant currency basis, sales in Asia-Pacific decreased by 5% compared to last year. In Australia, net sales in U.S. dollars were 4.7 million in the third quarter, up 5% compared to last year. Changes in foreign currency exchange rates did not have a significant impact on sales for Australia in the period. This increase in sales was driven primarily by successful promotional activities and the expanded distribution of WD-40 Specialist product line in Australia. In our Asia distributor markets, net sales were 5.5 million in the quarter, down 17% compared to last year. Our marketing distributor business in Asia-Pacific has been negatively impacted due to the transitioning of three major marketing distributor partners in the region. This transition has caused the disruption in the region but we believe that we are through the worst part of that transition and that the region will return to growth in the fourth quarter. Our Asian distributor markets are not impacted by currency since we sell our products in U.S. dollars in the region. In China, net sales in U.S. dollars were 4.2 million in the third quarter, up 17% compared to last year. Changes in foreign currency exchange rates had a positive impact on these sales. On a constant currency basis, sales would have increased 8% period-to-period. The increase in sales was primarily due to successful promotional programs that are ongoing and conducted during the third quarter of this year. We remain optimistic about our long-term opportunities in China, although we do expect volatility along the way due to the timing of promotional programs, the building of distribution, shifting economic patterns and varying industrial activities. Now that's it for me. I'm going to pass over to Jay who will continue the review of the financials.