Michael Happe
Analyst · Baird. Your line is open
Thank you, Steve, and good morning to everyone on today's call. We especially realize during these challenging times that your attention is being appropriately diverted in many directions, and we sincerely appreciate your interest in Winnebago Industries and spending that valuable time with us this morning. Before we get into details of the quarter, and what I am sure will be an engaging question-and-answer session about the future, I want to recognize the hard work, flexibility, and steadfast commitment of our approximately 5,500 employees to our vision of making Winnebago Industries a premier outdoor lifestyle company a reality. All employees within our Winnebago, Grand Design, Newmar, and Chris-Craft businesses as well as in our enterprise functional teams have been critical to the progress of these brands and our overall company. Every individual has contributed in a meaningful way to the results you are about to hear, and every one of these individuals is rightly concerned about what the future will hold for our company, themselves, and their families. We recognize that uncertainty is real, and as a leadership team we will do everything we can to provide them transparency to that future and fairness as we navigate forward. But most importantly, we will continue to hold their health and safety a top priority while they work within our organization. Thanks again to the entire Winnebago Industries team. I would like to start our discussion this morning by providing a brief overview of what Winnebago Industries has done and is doing relative to the coronavirus pandemic. I will then provide an overview of our second quarter results and our perspective on the unpredictable balance of fiscal year 2020. Following that, I will turn the call over to our Chief Financial Officer, Bryan Hughes, who will provide more detail on Q2 financials and the current strength of our balance sheet. I will then return to offer some closing comments before concluding the call with a Q&A session. Now turning to our response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We, at Winnebago Industries, much like every other small or big company and industry around the world have been keenly focused on this rapidly evolving situation. Almost two months ago, as the virus was impacting the Asia-Pacific region, we began to seriously monitor a possible impact on our supply chain network. That initial risk mitigation activity eventually led to a comprehensive crisis management process being set up in our company many weeks ago. There is a command center team, which includes me and at least five major working groups reporting to it, led by senior leaders from around the company. These work streams have been and are focused on employee health and wellness, supply chain delivery, operational stability, market demand, and financial strength. This defined process has allowed a cross-functional team to work across the enterprise and ensure that information flows positively and that best practices are shared quickly. We have regular electronic communication forms accessible to broader groups of employees around this crisis management process. We have also been providing our Board of Directors regular updates, including special calls outside of formal board meetings. We believe this crisis management process has put us in the best possible position to have minimized significant disruption throughout our second fiscal quarter, but also now be as prepared as possible for the difficult journey ahead in Q3 and Q4. I am extremely proud of the task force teams engaged on the front lines of this Black Swan risk item. They have made a real difference. Unfortunately, as of this past Monday, March 23, we made the tough, but necessary decision to temporarily suspend most production activities across all campuses. This will be a phased process throughout this week and we expect full suspension of manufacturing to begin formally next week, which we project to last through April 12. This includes our Winnebago, Grand Design, Newmar, and Chris-Craft operations. This decision was rooted in a combination of drivers: first, the health of our employees and their families; and second, the significant and quick change in demand for our products from dealers and end customers over the past several weeks. We felt both reasons together necessitated the pause in production so that we can continue to assess appropriate next steps. However, our company will remain open and perform as allowed by any state-mandated stay-at-home or shelter-in-place directives, essential activities for our dealers and end customers, including remote retail support for the channel along with technical care, warranty administration, and parts fulfillment. We will also continue to support the employees affected by this temporary production suspension by providing base pay and benefits for the next two weeks. Our leadership teams are also in close contact with our dealers to monitor and assess how the coronavirus pandemic continues to impact their business. Most RV and marine dealers are open at a minimum for essential activities, such as RV or boat service repair, but some continue to engage in consumers and drive whatever retail business is available in their area. Finally, we will continue to be disciplined in our financial management of the company as we closely follow the market to stay ahead of any significant disruptions. As the impact of COVID-19 continues to evolve, we are confident in the strength of our business and our balance sheet, and remain committed to keeping our team safe as we support our dealer partners and consumers. Prior to this evolving situation, the trends we have seen indicate that the RV industry conditions have been showing signs of improvement. We are realizing the benefits of having a diverse portfolio and relentless focus on improving operational efficiency across the organization. While the near term may be uncertain for everyone going forward, we believe Winnebago Industries is in a great position to extend its recent track record of outperforming whatever the broader RV market is over the longer term. Now, turning to the results of Q2. Overall, we are pleased with our strong results during the first half of fiscal 2020. Our team has worked hard to build on our momentum from the first quarter and we have made tremendous progress towards our goal of enhancing our position as the leader in outdoor lifestyle solutions. Company revenues were up approximately 45% for the second quarter of fiscal 2020. Excluding a full quarter of contribution from Newmar, consolidated revenues grew approximately 13% over the prior year well ahead of the broader industry performance. Consistent with the results we posted last quarter, consolidated revenues grew organically at a healthy pace in the second quarter, such that our North American RV market share is now 13.2% on a trailing three-month basis through January, including an increase of 1.8 organic percentage points over the same period last year. We are pleased with our ability to outperform the RV market and expect we will continue to do so in the coming quarters. Our ability to deliver a strong consistent topline results continues to result in strong operating cash flow. Year-to-date operating cash flow was $119.2 million, up 129.4% allowing us to invest in our businesses, care for our employees, and maintain adequate liquidity and what is now a very challenging environment with the impact from the coronavirus. Now let's turn to the segments in more detail. In the Towable segment, revenues for the quarter were up 13.1% over the prior year period, primarily driven by overall strength of the Grand Design brand and popularity of several recently redesigned flagship products, including the Reflection, Imagine and Transcend models. The robust consumer demand we are seeing for Grand Design products has allowed us to again outpace the industry in terms of both Towable unit shipments and retail growth. Adjusted EBITDA margins decreased by 110 basis points, largely reflecting startup costs for increased capacity at both the Grand Design and Winnebago Towables campuses, and a shift in product mix towards travel trailers. Towable backlog for the quarter increased 22.3%, in units versus the prior year reflecting more retail demand for travel trailers. Our multi-branded Towables portfolio has proven to be resilient and capable of gaining share regardless of market conditions. While the global pandemic creates uncertainty regarding near-term industry and consumer dynamics, we are confident in our ability to grow the business and gain share over the long-term. Importantly, the growth we are seeing this year is impressive as it has been balanced by Winnebago Towables new product launches, and especially the ongoing momentum of the core Grand Design RV model lineup, underscoring the strong combined appeal of both brands with consumers. We have been busy introducing Grand Design's Reflection and Imagine model refreshes along with Winnebago Towables new products, the Hike Travel Trailer and the Voyage Fifth Wheel. The excitement around all of those products was evident during this year's retail show season. While some events across the country have been canceled recently, the bulk of our retail show season is largely behind us, which is a positive considering the recent onset of the coronavirus and the implications on large gatherings such as these shows. Collectively, all of our businesses around Winnebago Industries have attended over 150 shows in 2020, and the overwhelmingly positive reception of our products by dealers and consumers gives us further confidence in our long-term outlook. Our consolidated retail show performance for the entire company was up multiple double digits this spring. Turning now to the Motorhome segment. We have made reestablishing a premium leadership position for this business a top priority. We have refreshed our lineup of high-quality motorized RVs with innovative enhancements and designs that are resonating well with consumers. And the addition of Newmar's ultra-premium brand to our portfolio is now allowing us to more effectively compete in the high-end Motorhome market. The acquisition of Newmar has galvanized our Motorhome segment by adding a highly respected premium brand. The integration process is well underway and progressing as planned. As part of our approach to the integration, we are working to ensure the Newmar team retains committed autonomy to operate the business while still being able to benefit from the support and synergies that comes with being a part of the broader Winnebago Industries organization. Second quarter Motorhome segment revenues were up 97.7% over the prior year period, driven by a full quarter of contribution from Newmar and strong Winnebago-branded Class B sales. Excluding Newmar, organic revenue growth in the segment was 13.6% over last year. Adjusted EBITDA margins increased 190 basis points to 4.6% in the quarter, largely due to a strong quarter from the Winnebago-branded business and a full quarter contribution from Newmar. Our Motorhome backlog increased 51.8% in units from the prior year due to the addition of Newmar and the continued strength in Winnebago-branded Class B retail demand. We've made material strides towards improving the financial strength of our motorized business and before the coronavirus outbreak, we are eager to build on this momentum throughout fiscal year 2020, including leveraging best practices and experience from our talented colleagues at Newmar. Finally, I'll touch on our Marine business. Second quarter results for Chris-Craft were solid and in line with our expectations as one of the four iconic brands in our portfolio, the Chris-Craft business remains an important platform for Winnebago Industries. They continue to expand the vitality of their product line, especially with the continued extended launch of the GT series. They are making great progress on strengthening and the quality and relationships of their dealer network as well. Chris-Craft represents the type of premium manufacturer we aspire to be and we continue to learn through the Chris-Craft team about the marine market and the opportunities it holds in the future for our company. One note specific to Chris-Craft. In previous calls, we had outlined our intent to initiate a capacity expansion project within this business that would provide them the room necessary to continue to build out their exciting multigenerational product development plan. We have made the decision at this time to pause this capacity expansion plan due to obvious reasons concerning the uncertainty of the demand within our end markets. We will continue to monitor the health of the marine market and the confidence of our channel partners within Chris-Craft when deciding in the future to reignite this project. With that overview, I will now turn the call over to our Chief Financial Officer, Bryan Hughes, to review our fiscal 2020 second quarter financials in more detail. Bryan?