Sarah Nielson
Analyst · R.W. Baird. Your line is open
Thanks, Randy. To start, I'd like to provide some color on how we grew consolidated net revenues by 7.6% in the fiscal 2015 third quarter. In large part, the increase was due to an increase in motorized unit shipments and the structure of a significant rental transaction. Approximately, $11 million of the revenue increase is attributable to a greater level of units recognized as revenue from the Apollo rental program. The 2015 program does not have a repurchase obligation whereas the fiscal 2014 program recognized a majority of the Apollo units as an operating lease due to the repurchase option. Our towables group also contributed to the overall increase in sales with unit and ASP growth resulting in a 15.9% increase in revenues. Specifically, looking at our third quarter ASPs year-over-year, here are the key changes. Class A gas ASP was $96,306, down just over 1%. Class A diesel ASP was $198,940, down nearly 4%. Class C ASP was $70,015, just up over 6%, a result of increased sales of our View and Navion product, which are built on the Mercedes-Benz chassis and include higher-end features. The increased ASP was also achieved notwithstanding shipments of a greater level of rental units. Class B ASP was $77,241, up nearly 10% as a result of increased sales of our higher priced Era models. Finally, total motorized ASPs were $91,007, just over 3% lower primarily the result of mix. Moving over to our towable product. Travel trailer ASP was $21,395, up nearly 6%. And our fifth wheel ASP was $49,807, an increase of nearly 21%. Thus, towable ASP in aggregate was $26,909, up over 12%. In the third quarter, our motorhome dealer inventory increased 19% compared to last year and stood at 4,501 units as of the end of the quarter. However, on a sequential basis, motorized dealer inventory declined 6% when compared to the end of the second quarter, which reflects the strong spring retail selling season that we have seen. On a year-over-year basis, dealer inventory of our Class B and C motorhomes has increased significantly due to the strong retail demand of these products. Our retail market share for Class B and C products is up nearly 56% and 17% respectively on a trailing 12-month basis. Given the solid consumer demand for these products, we anticipate that they will continue to generate increased retail demand. Also, as we have mentioned before, higher year-over-year dealer inventory levels are attributable to our strategy to ensure that all of our product offerings are well represented across our dealer network. Given our efforts on this initiative, over the past 12 months, we have expanded our physical dealer locations by 10%. As Randy mentioned earlier, our gross margins have improved on a sequential quarter basis as we have begun to resolve some of the manufacturing related inefficiencies. While we did face approximately 45 basis points of pressure to gross margins from these inefficiencies, they were partially offset by improved margins up from the towable business. Compared to last year, operating expenses increased in fiscal 2015 third quarter, primarily as a result of $800,000 of incremental costs associated with ERP and our Strategic Sourcing project. As Randy noted, these two strategic initiatives are progressing well. Starting with the ERP project, we continue to estimate that total costs will be $12 million to $16 million over a three-year time frame and estimate that approximately 40% of the total immediately expensed over the life of the project. Thus far, in fiscal 2015, we have invested $2.7 million into ERP, of which $1.1 million was incremental operating expense related to external implementation assistance. We anticipate our ERP investment to significantly accelerate in the fourth quarter of 2015 to over $4 million, as we approach key milestone go-live dates this fall. Now that we have six months under our belt on this project, one of the key benefits that we see with our new technology platform is that we will have better visibility on a more frequent basis to manage our operations more effectively going forward. Notably, in light of a limited labor pool in Northern Iowa, the capability to better utilize the available labor resources will be very beneficial to us. As it relates to our Strategic Sourcing project, we are also making great progress. So far this year, we have invested $1.3 million, of which $375,000 was incurred during the third quarter. We expect to incur a similar amount in the fourth quarter. As we have previously noted, when fully implemented, we anticipate this investment will provide gross margin expansion of 30 to 50 basis points. The overall effective income tax rate for the third quarter of fiscal 2015 was 170 basis points lower compared to last year. The decrease is primarily a result of the change in terms of the 2015 Apollo transaction, which increased the level of applicable tax credits available to us this year. For the year, we still expect a tax rate in the 31% to 32% range. Our operating cash flow was strong during the third quarter as we generated nearly $53 million as a result of both profitability and reductions in inventory and receivables. We are pleased with this performance and with the help of our balance sheet which has no debt and $49.2 million in cash. This strong cash generation facilitated $9 million of capital expenditures during the third quarter, largely attributable to the purchase of facilities that Randy highlighted. For the full year of fiscal 2015, we continue to estimate $15 million to $20 million in capital expenditures in aggregate. While we are still in the planning phases for fiscal 2016, we do anticipate capital expenditures to be in excess of our fiscal 2015 level. In closing, we are pleased with the quarter, which included many positives. As we finish the fiscal year, we look to the future with enthusiasm as we believe ample opportunity exists to grow both revenues and profitability. With that, please open the line for questions.