NASDAQ:TILE Interface Q1 2023 Earnings Report $19.61 +0.46 (+2.40%) Closing price 05/6/2025 04:00 PM EasternExtended Trading$19.77 +0.16 (+0.82%) As of 04:04 AM Eastern Extended trading is trading that happens on electronic markets outside of regular trading hours. This is a fair market value extended hours price provided by Polygon.io. Learn more. Earnings HistoryForecast Interface EPS ResultsActual EPS$0.07Consensus EPS $0.11Beat/MissMissed by -$0.04One Year Ago EPS$0.28Interface Revenue ResultsActual Revenue$295.80 millionExpected Revenue$297.35 millionBeat/MissMissed by -$1.55 millionYoY Revenue Growth+2.70%Interface Announcement DetailsQuarterQ1 2023Date5/5/2023TimeBefore Market OpensConference Call DateFriday, May 5, 2023Conference Call Time8:00AM ETConference Call ResourcesConference Call AudioConference Call TranscriptSlide DeckPress Release (8-K)Quarterly Report (10-Q)Earnings HistoryCompany ProfileSlide DeckFull Screen Slide DeckPowered by Interface Q1 2023 Earnings Call TranscriptProvided by QuartrMay 5, 2023 ShareLink copied to clipboard.There are 8 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:01Thank you for standing by. My name is Bhavesh, and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Q1 2023 Interface Incorporated Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer Please press the star followed by the one again. Operator00:00:30Thank you. I will now hand the call over to Christine Needles of Corporate Communications. You may begin your conference. Speaker 100:00:37Good morning, and welcome to Interface's conference call regarding Q1 2023 results hosted by Laurel Hurd, CEO and Bruce Hausmann, CFO. During today's conference call, any management comments regarding Interface's business, which are not historical information, are forward looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws. Forward looking statements include statements regarding the intent, belief or current expectations of our management team as well as the assumptions on which such statements are based. Any forward looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from any such statements, including risks and uncertainties described in our most recent annual report on Form 10 ks filed with the SEC. The company assumes no responsibility to update forward looking statements. Speaker 100:01:32Management's remarks during this call also refer to certain non GAAP measures. Reconciliations of the non GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measures and explanations for their use are contained in the company's earnings release and Form 8 ks furnished with the SEC today. Lastly, this call is being recorded and broadcasted for Interface. It contains copyrighted material and may not be re recorded or rebroadcasted without Interface's express permission. Your participation on the call confirms your consent to the company's taping and testing of it. Speaker 100:02:05After our prepared remarks, we will open up the call for questions. Now, I will turn the call over to Laurel Hurd, CEO. Speaker 200:02:13Thank you, Christine, and good morning, everyone. Before I move into the quarter's results, I want to update you on our progress with 1 Interface. As a reminder, we announced this multi year strategy after a deep dive into the business with a focus on increasing value for our shareholders. We plan to emerge from this process with more consistent growth in our core business, expanded and sustainably higher gross margins and a far more globally leverageable business. To do that, we will prioritize investment in our largest most profitable markets, accelerate our leadership in design and innovation and better leverage our selling system by delivering strong global products and innovation. Speaker 200:02:53We will continue to be committed to our mission to be the most sustainable company in the world across environmental, design, social and economic aspects. This is our foundation. On our path to get there, our 1 interface strategy is focused on 3 main objectives. 1st, we are working to reduce the complexity of our business model by transitioning from regional to global portfolio management that will drive more global product collections and simplify the operations required to support them. We've already begun this work. Speaker 200:03:23In the near term, we are looking at investments in automation and other areas with quick payback. Over the medium term, we are analyzing and optimizing our supply chain and global footprint to identify synergies and cost savings. As we told you, we are recruiting a Global Chief Supply Chain Officer to lead these efforts. 2nd, we are continuously working to improve our pricing and mix management. We are enhancing our efforts in the fastest growing most profitable categories in flooring today, LVT, the Floor Rug Business and Nora Rubber, which are all accretive to our core carpet tile business. Speaker 200:03:58In the resilient category, we have the best LVT on the market and continue to gain share. LVT remains one of the fastest growing categories in floor care, commonly used in both corporate, office and education. Our Floor rugs are the perfect complement to LVT Floor Plate and we are seeing double digit growth of the floor brand in our commercial channel. Nora is the leading rubber flooring brand in the world and we will continue to bring design into what has historically been a technical category. We believe the end markets of healthcare, life science and education have tremendous durability and and expanding our focus on these markets remains a key priority. Speaker 200:04:35Percatel remains a core category and a critical component to our success. We're the leading premium player in this category and we continue to deliver product and design innovation, staying ahead of our customer demand. While the carpet tile category doesn't have the tailwinds it once did, Interface will continue to gain share with new premium designs across our carbon neutral and carbon negative products, as well as efficiently designed collections at compelling price points. An example of the latter is our Open Air collection, which we further expanded in the U. S. Speaker 200:05:06This quarter. It has a compelling price point and we have designed it to run efficiently in our plant to meet our margin requirements. To date, this collection is our fastest growing in is growing in history in terms of volumes sold and we are building on the success here. 3rd, we are globalizing our core functions to support our world Class Local Selling team. Our recently appointed Vice President of Global Marketing is uniting the local, regional and corporate marketing teams into 1 global team versus separate teams across the globe. Speaker 200:05:37We're doing the same with R and D, design and innovation, as well as our back office functions. This will drive efficiency, eliminate redundancy and enable the teams to deliver our best work. We're moving quickly on this front that we recognize it's transformation that will take time. My new leadership team is in place and they are now working to build out their global team. For the first time in several years, we are bringing design leaders together for a Global Design Summit to accelerate the transition from regional to global design platform and quickly identify the designs in our pipeline with the biggest opportunities to drive global growth. Speaker 200:06:13We will be launching our first global collection in several years in the back half of this year and are excited about the impact this will have on our business. Similarly, our supply chain leaders came together to collaborate on our global productivity funnel and improvements in our manufacturing operations to enhance our margin performance. It's early days, but these are a few examples of the progress we're making to globalize the company. We believe the One Interface strategy will support our growth ambitions and ultimately create shareholder value by bringing the best of Interface to bear. Now let's talk about the results for the Q1. Speaker 200:06:45Interface delivered currency neutral net sales, up 5% year over year, driven by strength in the Americas, EMEA and Australia, partially offset by weakness in Asia. We are investing in customer facing activities and innovation to drive our short and long term growth, while managing all other costs and focusing on productivity to improve our margins. The team executed well despite a challenging operating environment, including persistent input cost inflation and currency headwinds. I continue to be impressed with our hard work and dedication to our customers. During the quarter, Education and Corporate Office were market segment growth leaders. Speaker 200:07:24We also saw growth across all product categories as customers leaned into our diversified product portfolio using a mix of flooring to meet their unique design needs. Our LVT category was up double digits in the quarter, driven by our differentiated offerings with superior acoustic properties, enhanced durability and the most recycled content in the industry. Interface continues to win in the marketplace and take share in this growing category. Our gross margins this quarter are not where we need them to be. And while we have been successful in capturing price to partially offset inflation, We're still working through expensive inventory on our balance sheet and inflation for raw materials remained a headwind in the Q1. Speaker 200:08:05We are starting to see signs of lower inflation and potentially some deflation in the future, but there will be a lag before these benefits flow into the P and L. In addition, production rates in Q1 last year were elevated as our plants were catching up to meet the post COVID pent up demand. The good news about where we stand right now is our supply chain has stabilized in terms of raw material and labor availability, and we are meeting customer lead time is back to normalized levels. However, production levels were down year over year compared to last year's catch up environment, which adversely impacted fixed cost absorption in Q1 and is incorporated into our Q2 guide. Looking at orders, consolidated currency neutral orders were down 2.2% compared to the prior year, which included Russia, a geography we have since exited. Speaker 200:08:53Excluding Russia, consolidated orders were up 1.2%. Currency neutral orders in the Americas and Australia were up 6% 19%, respectively. And EMEA was up 3%, excluding Russia, reflecting continued steady demand that was fairly broad based, with the exception of Asia, which was down 50% on slow and soft post COVID recovery. We continue to see steady order flow. However, we are mindful of the tightening macro environment and we have a challenging Q2 comps as net sales were up 18% year over year in Q2 2022. Speaker 200:09:30We experienced increased traffic at big trade events across Europe and we're looking forward to NeoCon in 2020. At NeoCon, we will launch several exciting new carpet tile and LVT offerings and we look forward to sharing these new product launches with our customers and partners. We have launched several exciting new products across our portfolio in Q1. In carpet tile, we launched our new 3rd space collection to help our customers design for the 3rd space trend, alternative places where people work, collaborate and reenergize. This collection combines classic office design with a plush residential feel and a cozier color palette. Speaker 200:10:06We also expanded our very successful Open Air collection and launched Connected e post featuring biophilic design, more recycled yarn content and low embodied carbon. On the resilient side, we unveiled our new Northern Grain LVT and we also launched NoraPlan Convia, which features a streamlined design at an attainable price point. That withstands heavy foot traffic, hides messes and absorbs sound making it ideal across our target segments. We have much more in the pipeline over the course of the year, including as I said earlier, a global collection launch planned for the second half. Our differentiated product offering, best in class sustainability story and strong financial position continue to set us apart from others in the industry and set us up well for long term growth. Speaker 200:10:50And with that, I'll turn it over to Bruce. Speaker 300:10:53Thank you, Laurel, and good morning, everyone. 1st quarter net sales totaled 295,800,000 an increase of 2.7% versus last year's Q1. FX neutral net sales growth year over year was up 5.2%. 1st quarter FX neutral net sales growth in the Americas was up 9% and EAAA was up 1% year over year. We had strong FX neutral year over year growth in EMEA and Australia, which was offset by Asia due to a soft post COVID recovery in China. Speaker 300:11:291st quarter adjusted gross profit margin was 33.3%, a decrease of 4 66 basis points from the prior year period due to lower fixed cost absorption and higher raw material costs, partially offset by higher pricing. Adjusted SG and A expenses were $83,200,000 or 28.1 percent of net sales in the 1st quarter compared to $78,600,000 or 27.3 percent of net sales in the Q1 last year. The increase was due to higher selling costs and inflation. 1st quarter adjusted operating income was $15,200,000 down 50% versus adjusted operating income of $30,600,000 in the Q1 last year. The decrease was primarily due to lower gross profit margins, on lower fixed cost absorption and inflationary raw material costs, partially offset by higher pricing. Speaker 300:12:26In the Q1 of this year, raw material inflation was up 9% year over year and that was coming off of a 27% year over year increase in raw material costs in Q1 last year. Year over year net sales growth came from price as carpet and rubber volumes were slightly down year over year and NLBT volumes were modestly up. 1st quarter adjusted EPS was 0 point 0 $7 versus 0 point 2 $8 in the Q1 last year. Adjusted EBITDA was $26,300,000 this year versus $42,900,000 in the Q1 last year. We generated $29,600,000 of cash from operations. Speaker 300:13:08Liquidity at quarter end totaled $390,000,000 consisting of $101,000,000 of cash and $289,000,000 of revolver capacity. We repaid $19,000,000 of debt in the quarter, resulting in net debt or total debt minus cash on hand of $399,800,000 at the end of the first quarter. The last 12 months of adjusted EBITDA was $159,500,000 and our net leverage ratio was 2.5 times calculated as net debt divided by adjusted EBITDA. Our required principal and interest payments on all outstanding debt approximately $9,800,000 per quarter. And with our strong balance sheet and strong cash generation, we plan to continue paying down debt as our top capital allocation priority. Speaker 300:13:57Capital expenditure for $5,700,000 in the Q1 of 2023 compared to $4,800,000 in 2022. Moving to our outlook, Interface is well positioned to navigate through continued macroeconomic certainty in 2023 and has successfully managed through challenging periods in the past. We remain cautious given continued pressures from ongoing inflation and rising interest rates. And as a result, we have updated our full year 2023 guidance and now anticipate the following. For the Q2 of 2023, net sales of $325,000,000 to 345,000,000 As a reminder, we have challenging comps in Q2 as net sales were up 18% year over year in Q2 last year. Speaker 300:14:47Comps get easier in the back half of twenty twenty three as net sales were up 2% year over year in the back half of twenty twenty two. We are also anticipating adjusted gross profit margin of approximately 33%, adjusted G and A expenses of $85,000,000 to $86,000,000 adjusted interest and other expenses of approximately 10,000,000 and fully diluted weighted average share count of approximately 58,200,000 shares. For the full fiscal year of 2023, We are anticipating year over year net sales growth of 0% to 3%, adjusted gross profit margin of 33% to 34%, adjusted SG and A expenses that are 25% to 25.5 percent of net sales, adjusted interest and other expenses of approximately $36,000,000 and adjusted effective tax rate for the full year of approximately 30% and capital expenditures of approximately $32,000,000 We are confident in our growth strategy, our market leadership position and our ability to enhance value for our shareholders. And with that, I'll turn the call back to Laurel for concluding remarks. Speaker 200:16:02Thank you, Bruce. I want to thank our team for their continued efforts and our customers for their ongoing support. I look forward to building on our momentum and executing on our strategy physician interface for sustainable growth and enhanced value for our shareholders. Thank you. Operator00:16:36Our first question comes from the line of Kathryn Thompson from Thompson Research Group. Please go ahead with your question. Speaker 100:16:44Hi, thank you for taking my questions today. Speaker 400:16:46I appreciate the color you gave in the prepared commentary on the outlook. And just a follow-up On the adjustment and guidance, to what extent and the factors are play with just the quarter And what happened in Q1 versus any change in opinion you've had for the remainder Q3 that may be different than what you outlined in Q4. Speaker 200:17:13Hey, Catherine. I'll take that. So I think we started off the year really bullish from an order perspective. In January February, our orders were really strong. They've remained steady in March April, but have softened a bit. Speaker 200:17:29We're still seeing really continued demand. We've got a tough Q2 comp And certainly the market dynamics have gotten a bit more challenging since we last spoke. So we've just moderated our guidance in the back half. We do have growth planned for the back half and that's partially because our comps get much softer. If we look at March April to be fair, they were our highest order intake weeks last year throughout the month of March April. Speaker 200:17:56So they are our toughest order comps as well And we're continuing to navigate through that. We're continuing, I would also say, to see strong demand in health care and education. And we're also seeing continued trends for Class A office space, so that continues to be strong. And also the regional migration in the U. S, as you know, is continuing. Speaker 200:18:22I was in Dallas a couple of weeks ago and the activity there is just really exciting. Speaker 400:18:27And if you were to look at some of just the moderating and pace that you described, Are there any end markets or geographies or even a product type that you're seeing that would change us in trend for moderation Speaker 200:18:46purposes. Yes. I think the one challenge that we spoke to in the prepared remarks is China. We are seeing a lot of project delays in China. We've got a pretty good pipeline, but that certainly has been challenging for us. Speaker 200:19:01The Australia remains really strong, so that continues. We see continued growth there. And I would say, again, our LVT business, our Nora Rubber business Very, very strong. Our floor, carpet tile business is strong and we've had really good success with our Open Air platform as we mentioned, Which is at still at a very premium price point, but a bit more moderate, which has been taken off like crazy. Speaker 400:19:26Okay. And it can be a hot button to push or I'll acknowledge that in advance. But A conversation we've had with many types of companies broadly in the construction industrial value chain that have a global footprint. We have run across some that are just deciding not to do business in China just because it's not become It's less predictable, it's not profitable in a variety of factors, but public and private companies. What are your thoughts in terms of more specifically, your footprint and long term view on in China? Speaker 200:20:08Yes. It's a great question, Catherine. And certainly, it's something that we continue to look at Our business we've been in that market for a long time and our business there has been steady for a long time right now. It looks like a lot of project delays versus a significant trend change, but I'd say everything's on the table. So we're continuing to consider all those alternatives. Speaker 500:20:33Catherine, this is Bruce. I agree with what Laurel mentioned. I would just add, we have a really strong government business in China, Which serves us extremely well with particularly with the Nora business. And so that's Something that we have a strong foothold in, which is great for us. It's profitable business. Speaker 500:20:55It also helps us with our fixed cost absorption in our plant. And it's just that there are longer selling cycles, to be fair. And some of those, When Oren mentioned about project delays, that's where we're really seeing it in these really large government projects. So for the long haul, we view that as a really good business. And the other area where China is strategic for us is with our strategic accounts. Speaker 500:21:21That is an area where our customers look to. They want us to have a presence in order to serve them with the same products they're able to get in our low in the U. S. Market. Speaker 100:21:32Okay, great. Thank you very much. Operator00:21:38Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Mr. David MacGregor from Longbow Research. Please go ahead with your question. Speaker 600:21:46Yes, good morning. Thanks for taking the questions. I would like to maybe start by just Getting your assessment of how disruptive is one interface to results right now? I realize you're shaping the organization up. This is A big chore to consolidate on a global basis like this, but it also can be a distraction, obviously. Speaker 600:22:10And so I'm Just trying to sort of pair that thought with sort of the published results and get an assessment from you of how disruptive that might ultimately be and how long that would last. Speaker 200:22:24Yes, David, that's a great question. I would say certainly we're making changes, right? And we believe that's the right thing to do for the long term health of the company. The company has been wired historically as very regional organizations. So it will take some time. Speaker 200:22:42It's not just a flip of the leadership team. We're changing how we innovate, how we build our brands around the world, really to Better leverage our global scale and drive efficiencies for the long term. So there is it's a fair point, there's a lot of change right now. What we're not touching are really our local selling team. So the folks on the street in the market, they're out there every day driving for results. Speaker 200:23:10So I'd say in the heart of the business right now, there's not a lot of disruption, But we're making some change that we believe long term will really bring the best of Interface to life. Speaker 600:23:21Do you have a means of just assessing quantitatively the impact, in other words, incremental expense or Incremental revenue impact from your various initiatives. Speaker 200:23:39From a long term perspective, we think it will help us to drive obviously accelerated growth, sustainable growth. From a cost standpoint, there's some short term hits on that. In year, cost savings is only about $5,000,000 So it's not a massive number this year and truly will come from as we continue to to globalize the business over time. And it's not just a cost cutting exercise. We really do believe we can bring more products, Better designs, more consistent marketing that will drive more growth long term. Speaker 600:24:18Yes, go ahead. I was Speaker 500:24:20just going to add to Laurel. Part of what 1 Interface is all about is about operational efficiencies And that's what we're driving here in nimbleness and quicker decision making, which ultimately serves the customer better. So while there are some as Laurel mentioned, there are some nominal cost opportunities inside of 1 interface, It really is also about serving the customer better and serving the customer in a standardized and way around the globe so that we can meet their needs and we can serve them where they are. Speaker 600:24:55Right. Just wanted to ask you about China. 50% drop in orders is obviously a big number. How much of that is sort of the environment as you referenced? And how much of that might just be sort of follow on from some of the changes that you're making in that part of the world. Speaker 200:25:15Yes. I think it's about half our business there is, as Bruce had Stated is our Nora Rubber business, which is really project delays, government funded things like airports, high speed braille that we believe will be consistent, but are delayed. And the other half is our corporate office business, which a lot of that, as Bruce said, is our global customers. And we've seen delays from them as well in some of the work that they've been doing to in their office environment. Speaker 600:25:45Okay. And then finally for me on the guidance revision around gross margins, is there any way to talk at least qualitatively about U. S. Versus rest of world and other factoring into that revision. Speaker 500:25:59Yes, David. We're really seeing the dynamics that are going on with gross margins are pretty broad based globally. And And to overly simplify a fairly complicated topic, there really is 2 things. It's persistent inflation And then it is lower volumes, which are driving less fixed cost absorption in our plants, which is I know you know this, but it's not unique to us. It's that is an industry wide phenomenon. Speaker 500:26:30We think that we're faring better than the rest of the industry. In our volumes, we're only down mid single digits, which and so all of our growth, as we mentioned in our prepared remarks, came through price. But even with price being basically at parity with inflation, we still We had some margin erosion as a result of inflation and then the rest of the erosion came from fixed cost absorption And it wasn't unique in any particular area. It was something that we saw basically in all of our locations. Speaker 600:27:07Got it. Thanks very much. Good luck. Operator00:27:16Thank you. Our final question of the day comes from the line of Keith Hughes from Trust Securities. Please go ahead with your question. Speaker 700:27:23Thank you. In the Q2 guidance, what kind of influence do you expect from currency and then what influence from price? Speaker 500:27:33So Keith, on the top line, hang on one second. That's what Speaker 700:27:39I'm referring to. Top line is what I'm referring to. Speaker 500:27:42Okay. Yes. On the top line, year over year, we don't from a translation standpoint, we don't think that currency is going to have a large effect In Q2, it did in Q1. On the top, it the translation costs about $7,000,000 on the top And it costs us about $1,000,000 on the bottom. But that if currency stay where they are today and don't move, Then that sort of normalizes in Q2, where it's about flat on the top and flat on the bottom from a currency standpoint. Speaker 500:28:16And then if currencies again stay where they are today, it actually would be a helper in the back half. It would help us on the top and it would help us on the bottom year over year. Speaker 700:28:27Okay. What about price in the second quarter? Speaker 500:28:31Are you asking what if we're going to Increase prices or decrease prices? I just want to make sure I understand the question. Speaker 700:28:37Yes, sure. Just on the guide, how much pricing gain do you expect? Speaker 500:28:43Yes. Most of our growth that we're forecasting in Q2 is coming from price. Speaker 700:28:51Okay. The midpoint would have you down a couple of points. So I guess that would mean you're expecting a pretty weak unit number in the Q2. Is that am I reading that correctly? Speaker 500:29:01We are expecting volume to be down year over year in Q2 like we saw in Q1 at similar levels. Speaker 300:29:11Okay. Speaker 700:29:12And then you kind of forecasting growth with the guidance in the second half of the year. Is that again more price or do you expect units to turn positive? Speaker 500:29:26It will be a lot of the growth will come from price. We're thinking that units will be slightly down in the back half. The biggest difference between the first half And the back half is the comps. The back half, we're comping a 2% growth rate versus the first half where we're comping a double digit increase year over year last year. Speaker 700:29:53But what were your units last year? I mean, there was just a lot of price coming in last year. I think you started off with some pretty strong units Q1, I'm not sure what they did the rest of the year in 'twenty two. Speaker 300:30:05Our units Sorry, can you Speaker 500:30:07ask that question again? I'm not sure if I understood it. Speaker 700:30:09So what kind of unit growth did you see in 'twenty two? Speaker 500:30:14In 2022, units were relatively flat year over year. There well, it changed. In the first half, they were up. In the back half, they were relatively flat. And so and of course, what we're seeing now is we're seeing units being slightly down mid single digits. Speaker 600:30:32Okay. And I guess also, you had talked about Speaker 700:30:36weaker orders in May April March April, I know you got a tough comp as you had said. What kind of order rate on that tough comp, What kind of order percentages are you seeing year over year? Speaker 500:30:51So if you look at where we landed At the end of Q1, I'm going to give you a bunch of different numbers to help you get some context on this. So if you look at total company, our FX neutral orders were down 2.2%. And if you look at remember that includes the Russia business that we exited. But Speaker 600:31:18if you Speaker 500:31:19We exclude Russia, our orders were up 1.2% FX neutral total company. Now you double click down on that and there's a lot of different pieces. Actually, our Americas orders were up nicely, up about 6%. Our EMEA orders were up nicely around 3%, excluding Russia. The biggest challenge that we have is our orders were down in Asia and they were down about 50%. Speaker 500:31:48So we think that What we saw in Q1 around delayed projects in Asia, principally in China, is going to continue through Q2 based on the best information that we have. And that's all built into our guide. Speaker 700:32:01Okay. And I assume that the numbers you just gave me, March April, the numbers were below that In terms of order rates and geographies, is that correct? Speaker 500:32:13April, okay, so I wanted the dollars that are flowing in are fairly steady, but the year over year growth rates are not as Our more challenged because we had such strong order growth rates in March April. So we have really tough comps from an order standpoint in March April. But to be but I want to be I want to make sure I'm communicating effectively. The order flow is steady from a dollar standpoint. It's just really tough comp. Speaker 700:32:40Okay. All right. That's it for me. Thank you very much. Operator00:32:42Thank you. I apologize. We have a follow-up question from David MacGregor from Longbow Research. Please go ahead with your question. Speaker 600:33:01Just one more for me. Thanks for taking the follow-up. Could you help us with your expectations around working capital for the year? I'm just trying to Round out the cash flow model here. You've given us a CapEx number, but I guess we can sort of imply an EBITDA number, but how are we thinking about the balance sheet? Speaker 500:33:20Yes. That's a Speaker 300:33:22thank you for asking Speaker 500:33:23because we're very focused on working capital. We think that I think you saw some nice Just you saw some nice progress around inventory in Q1. Year over year, it was down 2%, While our revenue was up, FX neutral 5%. So that was a good outcome. And we're going to continue to be Managing our inventory and making certain that our inventories stay at the right level. Speaker 500:33:49And You also probably saw that we generated a lot of cash around accounts receivable. We're very focused on making certain that we collect the cash. So I think that this will be a good year For us, from a working capital standpoint, certainly Q1 was very strong. I don't I think the rest of the year will be as strong as Q1, but I think but we believe that working capital, we're focused on increasing our turns, making sure that our inventory stays in line with our growth rates and making sure that our accounts receivables managed effectively. So again, I think it will be a good cash flow year. Speaker 600:34:27Do you have a conversion rate in mind? Is there a number that you can share? Speaker 500:34:32Not something that we necessarily publish, David. I think we but I think it'll be in line With as you know, last year was not where we wanted it to be from a cash flow standpoint. But I think if you look back in the Prior to that, I think it should be similar, if not a little bit better, given the focus that we have on it. Speaker 600:34:54Thanks, Chris. Operator00:35:00There are no further questions at this time. I I'll now turn the call back over to Laurel Hurd for closing remarks. Speaker 200:35:06Great. Thank you, everyone. Appreciate the questions. Appreciate you listening today. And I just want to thank Operator00:35:18Thank you. That does conclude the conference call today. You may now disconnect your lines.Read morePowered by Conference Call Audio Live Call not available Earnings Conference CallInterface Q1 202300:00 / 00:00Speed:1x1.25x1.5x2x Earnings DocumentsSlide DeckPress Release(8-K)Quarterly report(10-Q) Interface Earnings HeadlinesDecoding Interface Inc (TILE): A Strategic SWOT InsightMay 7 at 12:15 AM | gurufocus.comUS$31.33 - That's What Analysts Think Interface, Inc. (NASDAQ:TILE) Is Worth After These ResultsMay 5 at 11:25 AM | finance.yahoo.comHere’s How to Claim Your Stake in Elon’s Private Company, xAIEven though xAI is a private company, tech legend and angel investor Jeff Brown found a way for everyday folks like you… To partner with Elon on what he believes will be the biggest AI project of the century… Starting with as little as $500.May 7, 2025 | Brownstone Research (Ad)Interface (NASDAQ:TILE) Shares Gap Up After Earnings BeatMay 4 at 1:23 AM | americanbankingnews.comInterface, Inc. (NASDAQ:TILE) Q1 2025 Earnings Call TranscriptMay 3, 2025 | insidermonkey.comInterface projects $355M-$365M Q2 2025 revenue with strong backlog momentumMay 3, 2025 | msn.comSee More Interface Headlines Get Earnings Announcements in your inboxWant to stay updated on the latest earnings announcements and upcoming reports for companies like Interface? Sign up for Earnings360's daily newsletter to receive timely earnings updates on Interface and other key companies, straight to your email. Email Address About InterfaceInterface (NASDAQ:TILE) designs, produces, and sells modular carpet products primarily worldwide. The company operates in two segments, Americas (AMS), and Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia (EAAA). The company offers modular carpets under the Interface and FLOR brand names; luxury vinyl tiles; carpet tiles under the CQuestGB name for use in commercial interiors, include offices, healthcare facilities, airports, educational and other institutions, hospitality spaces, and retail facilities, as well as residential interiors; and modular resilient flooring products. It also provides carpet replacement, installation, and maintenance services; and rubber flooring under the norament and noraplan brand names; as well as produces and sells an adapted version of its carpet tile for the healthcare facilities market. In addition, the company sells a proprietary antimicrobial chemical compound under the Intersept name; sells TacTiles, a carpet tile installation system, as well as various adhesives and products; and provides turnkey project management services for global accounts and other customers through its InterfaceSERVICES business. The company sells its products directly to end-users, as well as indirectly through independent contractors, installers, or distributors. 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There are 8 speakers on the call. Operator00:00:01Thank you for standing by. My name is Bhavesh, and I'll be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Q1 2023 Interface Incorporated Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question and answer Please press the star followed by the one again. Operator00:00:30Thank you. I will now hand the call over to Christine Needles of Corporate Communications. You may begin your conference. Speaker 100:00:37Good morning, and welcome to Interface's conference call regarding Q1 2023 results hosted by Laurel Hurd, CEO and Bruce Hausmann, CFO. During today's conference call, any management comments regarding Interface's business, which are not historical information, are forward looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws. Forward looking statements include statements regarding the intent, belief or current expectations of our management team as well as the assumptions on which such statements are based. Any forward looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from any such statements, including risks and uncertainties described in our most recent annual report on Form 10 ks filed with the SEC. The company assumes no responsibility to update forward looking statements. Speaker 100:01:32Management's remarks during this call also refer to certain non GAAP measures. Reconciliations of the non GAAP measures to the most comparable GAAP measures and explanations for their use are contained in the company's earnings release and Form 8 ks furnished with the SEC today. Lastly, this call is being recorded and broadcasted for Interface. It contains copyrighted material and may not be re recorded or rebroadcasted without Interface's express permission. Your participation on the call confirms your consent to the company's taping and testing of it. Speaker 100:02:05After our prepared remarks, we will open up the call for questions. Now, I will turn the call over to Laurel Hurd, CEO. Speaker 200:02:13Thank you, Christine, and good morning, everyone. Before I move into the quarter's results, I want to update you on our progress with 1 Interface. As a reminder, we announced this multi year strategy after a deep dive into the business with a focus on increasing value for our shareholders. We plan to emerge from this process with more consistent growth in our core business, expanded and sustainably higher gross margins and a far more globally leverageable business. To do that, we will prioritize investment in our largest most profitable markets, accelerate our leadership in design and innovation and better leverage our selling system by delivering strong global products and innovation. Speaker 200:02:53We will continue to be committed to our mission to be the most sustainable company in the world across environmental, design, social and economic aspects. This is our foundation. On our path to get there, our 1 interface strategy is focused on 3 main objectives. 1st, we are working to reduce the complexity of our business model by transitioning from regional to global portfolio management that will drive more global product collections and simplify the operations required to support them. We've already begun this work. Speaker 200:03:23In the near term, we are looking at investments in automation and other areas with quick payback. Over the medium term, we are analyzing and optimizing our supply chain and global footprint to identify synergies and cost savings. As we told you, we are recruiting a Global Chief Supply Chain Officer to lead these efforts. 2nd, we are continuously working to improve our pricing and mix management. We are enhancing our efforts in the fastest growing most profitable categories in flooring today, LVT, the Floor Rug Business and Nora Rubber, which are all accretive to our core carpet tile business. Speaker 200:03:58In the resilient category, we have the best LVT on the market and continue to gain share. LVT remains one of the fastest growing categories in floor care, commonly used in both corporate, office and education. Our Floor rugs are the perfect complement to LVT Floor Plate and we are seeing double digit growth of the floor brand in our commercial channel. Nora is the leading rubber flooring brand in the world and we will continue to bring design into what has historically been a technical category. We believe the end markets of healthcare, life science and education have tremendous durability and and expanding our focus on these markets remains a key priority. Speaker 200:04:35Percatel remains a core category and a critical component to our success. We're the leading premium player in this category and we continue to deliver product and design innovation, staying ahead of our customer demand. While the carpet tile category doesn't have the tailwinds it once did, Interface will continue to gain share with new premium designs across our carbon neutral and carbon negative products, as well as efficiently designed collections at compelling price points. An example of the latter is our Open Air collection, which we further expanded in the U. S. Speaker 200:05:06This quarter. It has a compelling price point and we have designed it to run efficiently in our plant to meet our margin requirements. To date, this collection is our fastest growing in is growing in history in terms of volumes sold and we are building on the success here. 3rd, we are globalizing our core functions to support our world Class Local Selling team. Our recently appointed Vice President of Global Marketing is uniting the local, regional and corporate marketing teams into 1 global team versus separate teams across the globe. Speaker 200:05:37We're doing the same with R and D, design and innovation, as well as our back office functions. This will drive efficiency, eliminate redundancy and enable the teams to deliver our best work. We're moving quickly on this front that we recognize it's transformation that will take time. My new leadership team is in place and they are now working to build out their global team. For the first time in several years, we are bringing design leaders together for a Global Design Summit to accelerate the transition from regional to global design platform and quickly identify the designs in our pipeline with the biggest opportunities to drive global growth. Speaker 200:06:13We will be launching our first global collection in several years in the back half of this year and are excited about the impact this will have on our business. Similarly, our supply chain leaders came together to collaborate on our global productivity funnel and improvements in our manufacturing operations to enhance our margin performance. It's early days, but these are a few examples of the progress we're making to globalize the company. We believe the One Interface strategy will support our growth ambitions and ultimately create shareholder value by bringing the best of Interface to bear. Now let's talk about the results for the Q1. Speaker 200:06:45Interface delivered currency neutral net sales, up 5% year over year, driven by strength in the Americas, EMEA and Australia, partially offset by weakness in Asia. We are investing in customer facing activities and innovation to drive our short and long term growth, while managing all other costs and focusing on productivity to improve our margins. The team executed well despite a challenging operating environment, including persistent input cost inflation and currency headwinds. I continue to be impressed with our hard work and dedication to our customers. During the quarter, Education and Corporate Office were market segment growth leaders. Speaker 200:07:24We also saw growth across all product categories as customers leaned into our diversified product portfolio using a mix of flooring to meet their unique design needs. Our LVT category was up double digits in the quarter, driven by our differentiated offerings with superior acoustic properties, enhanced durability and the most recycled content in the industry. Interface continues to win in the marketplace and take share in this growing category. Our gross margins this quarter are not where we need them to be. And while we have been successful in capturing price to partially offset inflation, We're still working through expensive inventory on our balance sheet and inflation for raw materials remained a headwind in the Q1. Speaker 200:08:05We are starting to see signs of lower inflation and potentially some deflation in the future, but there will be a lag before these benefits flow into the P and L. In addition, production rates in Q1 last year were elevated as our plants were catching up to meet the post COVID pent up demand. The good news about where we stand right now is our supply chain has stabilized in terms of raw material and labor availability, and we are meeting customer lead time is back to normalized levels. However, production levels were down year over year compared to last year's catch up environment, which adversely impacted fixed cost absorption in Q1 and is incorporated into our Q2 guide. Looking at orders, consolidated currency neutral orders were down 2.2% compared to the prior year, which included Russia, a geography we have since exited. Speaker 200:08:53Excluding Russia, consolidated orders were up 1.2%. Currency neutral orders in the Americas and Australia were up 6% 19%, respectively. And EMEA was up 3%, excluding Russia, reflecting continued steady demand that was fairly broad based, with the exception of Asia, which was down 50% on slow and soft post COVID recovery. We continue to see steady order flow. However, we are mindful of the tightening macro environment and we have a challenging Q2 comps as net sales were up 18% year over year in Q2 2022. Speaker 200:09:30We experienced increased traffic at big trade events across Europe and we're looking forward to NeoCon in 2020. At NeoCon, we will launch several exciting new carpet tile and LVT offerings and we look forward to sharing these new product launches with our customers and partners. We have launched several exciting new products across our portfolio in Q1. In carpet tile, we launched our new 3rd space collection to help our customers design for the 3rd space trend, alternative places where people work, collaborate and reenergize. This collection combines classic office design with a plush residential feel and a cozier color palette. Speaker 200:10:06We also expanded our very successful Open Air collection and launched Connected e post featuring biophilic design, more recycled yarn content and low embodied carbon. On the resilient side, we unveiled our new Northern Grain LVT and we also launched NoraPlan Convia, which features a streamlined design at an attainable price point. That withstands heavy foot traffic, hides messes and absorbs sound making it ideal across our target segments. We have much more in the pipeline over the course of the year, including as I said earlier, a global collection launch planned for the second half. Our differentiated product offering, best in class sustainability story and strong financial position continue to set us apart from others in the industry and set us up well for long term growth. Speaker 200:10:50And with that, I'll turn it over to Bruce. Speaker 300:10:53Thank you, Laurel, and good morning, everyone. 1st quarter net sales totaled 295,800,000 an increase of 2.7% versus last year's Q1. FX neutral net sales growth year over year was up 5.2%. 1st quarter FX neutral net sales growth in the Americas was up 9% and EAAA was up 1% year over year. We had strong FX neutral year over year growth in EMEA and Australia, which was offset by Asia due to a soft post COVID recovery in China. Speaker 300:11:291st quarter adjusted gross profit margin was 33.3%, a decrease of 4 66 basis points from the prior year period due to lower fixed cost absorption and higher raw material costs, partially offset by higher pricing. Adjusted SG and A expenses were $83,200,000 or 28.1 percent of net sales in the 1st quarter compared to $78,600,000 or 27.3 percent of net sales in the Q1 last year. The increase was due to higher selling costs and inflation. 1st quarter adjusted operating income was $15,200,000 down 50% versus adjusted operating income of $30,600,000 in the Q1 last year. The decrease was primarily due to lower gross profit margins, on lower fixed cost absorption and inflationary raw material costs, partially offset by higher pricing. Speaker 300:12:26In the Q1 of this year, raw material inflation was up 9% year over year and that was coming off of a 27% year over year increase in raw material costs in Q1 last year. Year over year net sales growth came from price as carpet and rubber volumes were slightly down year over year and NLBT volumes were modestly up. 1st quarter adjusted EPS was 0 point 0 $7 versus 0 point 2 $8 in the Q1 last year. Adjusted EBITDA was $26,300,000 this year versus $42,900,000 in the Q1 last year. We generated $29,600,000 of cash from operations. Speaker 300:13:08Liquidity at quarter end totaled $390,000,000 consisting of $101,000,000 of cash and $289,000,000 of revolver capacity. We repaid $19,000,000 of debt in the quarter, resulting in net debt or total debt minus cash on hand of $399,800,000 at the end of the first quarter. The last 12 months of adjusted EBITDA was $159,500,000 and our net leverage ratio was 2.5 times calculated as net debt divided by adjusted EBITDA. Our required principal and interest payments on all outstanding debt approximately $9,800,000 per quarter. And with our strong balance sheet and strong cash generation, we plan to continue paying down debt as our top capital allocation priority. Speaker 300:13:57Capital expenditure for $5,700,000 in the Q1 of 2023 compared to $4,800,000 in 2022. Moving to our outlook, Interface is well positioned to navigate through continued macroeconomic certainty in 2023 and has successfully managed through challenging periods in the past. We remain cautious given continued pressures from ongoing inflation and rising interest rates. And as a result, we have updated our full year 2023 guidance and now anticipate the following. For the Q2 of 2023, net sales of $325,000,000 to 345,000,000 As a reminder, we have challenging comps in Q2 as net sales were up 18% year over year in Q2 last year. Speaker 300:14:47Comps get easier in the back half of twenty twenty three as net sales were up 2% year over year in the back half of twenty twenty two. We are also anticipating adjusted gross profit margin of approximately 33%, adjusted G and A expenses of $85,000,000 to $86,000,000 adjusted interest and other expenses of approximately 10,000,000 and fully diluted weighted average share count of approximately 58,200,000 shares. For the full fiscal year of 2023, We are anticipating year over year net sales growth of 0% to 3%, adjusted gross profit margin of 33% to 34%, adjusted SG and A expenses that are 25% to 25.5 percent of net sales, adjusted interest and other expenses of approximately $36,000,000 and adjusted effective tax rate for the full year of approximately 30% and capital expenditures of approximately $32,000,000 We are confident in our growth strategy, our market leadership position and our ability to enhance value for our shareholders. And with that, I'll turn the call back to Laurel for concluding remarks. Speaker 200:16:02Thank you, Bruce. I want to thank our team for their continued efforts and our customers for their ongoing support. I look forward to building on our momentum and executing on our strategy physician interface for sustainable growth and enhanced value for our shareholders. Thank you. Operator00:16:36Our first question comes from the line of Kathryn Thompson from Thompson Research Group. Please go ahead with your question. Speaker 100:16:44Hi, thank you for taking my questions today. Speaker 400:16:46I appreciate the color you gave in the prepared commentary on the outlook. And just a follow-up On the adjustment and guidance, to what extent and the factors are play with just the quarter And what happened in Q1 versus any change in opinion you've had for the remainder Q3 that may be different than what you outlined in Q4. Speaker 200:17:13Hey, Catherine. I'll take that. So I think we started off the year really bullish from an order perspective. In January February, our orders were really strong. They've remained steady in March April, but have softened a bit. Speaker 200:17:29We're still seeing really continued demand. We've got a tough Q2 comp And certainly the market dynamics have gotten a bit more challenging since we last spoke. So we've just moderated our guidance in the back half. We do have growth planned for the back half and that's partially because our comps get much softer. If we look at March April to be fair, they were our highest order intake weeks last year throughout the month of March April. Speaker 200:17:56So they are our toughest order comps as well And we're continuing to navigate through that. We're continuing, I would also say, to see strong demand in health care and education. And we're also seeing continued trends for Class A office space, so that continues to be strong. And also the regional migration in the U. S, as you know, is continuing. Speaker 200:18:22I was in Dallas a couple of weeks ago and the activity there is just really exciting. Speaker 400:18:27And if you were to look at some of just the moderating and pace that you described, Are there any end markets or geographies or even a product type that you're seeing that would change us in trend for moderation Speaker 200:18:46purposes. Yes. I think the one challenge that we spoke to in the prepared remarks is China. We are seeing a lot of project delays in China. We've got a pretty good pipeline, but that certainly has been challenging for us. Speaker 200:19:01The Australia remains really strong, so that continues. We see continued growth there. And I would say, again, our LVT business, our Nora Rubber business Very, very strong. Our floor, carpet tile business is strong and we've had really good success with our Open Air platform as we mentioned, Which is at still at a very premium price point, but a bit more moderate, which has been taken off like crazy. Speaker 400:19:26Okay. And it can be a hot button to push or I'll acknowledge that in advance. But A conversation we've had with many types of companies broadly in the construction industrial value chain that have a global footprint. We have run across some that are just deciding not to do business in China just because it's not become It's less predictable, it's not profitable in a variety of factors, but public and private companies. What are your thoughts in terms of more specifically, your footprint and long term view on in China? Speaker 200:20:08Yes. It's a great question, Catherine. And certainly, it's something that we continue to look at Our business we've been in that market for a long time and our business there has been steady for a long time right now. It looks like a lot of project delays versus a significant trend change, but I'd say everything's on the table. So we're continuing to consider all those alternatives. Speaker 500:20:33Catherine, this is Bruce. I agree with what Laurel mentioned. I would just add, we have a really strong government business in China, Which serves us extremely well with particularly with the Nora business. And so that's Something that we have a strong foothold in, which is great for us. It's profitable business. Speaker 500:20:55It also helps us with our fixed cost absorption in our plant. And it's just that there are longer selling cycles, to be fair. And some of those, When Oren mentioned about project delays, that's where we're really seeing it in these really large government projects. So for the long haul, we view that as a really good business. And the other area where China is strategic for us is with our strategic accounts. Speaker 500:21:21That is an area where our customers look to. They want us to have a presence in order to serve them with the same products they're able to get in our low in the U. S. Market. Speaker 100:21:32Okay, great. Thank you very much. Operator00:21:38Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Mr. David MacGregor from Longbow Research. Please go ahead with your question. Speaker 600:21:46Yes, good morning. Thanks for taking the questions. I would like to maybe start by just Getting your assessment of how disruptive is one interface to results right now? I realize you're shaping the organization up. This is A big chore to consolidate on a global basis like this, but it also can be a distraction, obviously. Speaker 600:22:10And so I'm Just trying to sort of pair that thought with sort of the published results and get an assessment from you of how disruptive that might ultimately be and how long that would last. Speaker 200:22:24Yes, David, that's a great question. I would say certainly we're making changes, right? And we believe that's the right thing to do for the long term health of the company. The company has been wired historically as very regional organizations. So it will take some time. Speaker 200:22:42It's not just a flip of the leadership team. We're changing how we innovate, how we build our brands around the world, really to Better leverage our global scale and drive efficiencies for the long term. So there is it's a fair point, there's a lot of change right now. What we're not touching are really our local selling team. So the folks on the street in the market, they're out there every day driving for results. Speaker 200:23:10So I'd say in the heart of the business right now, there's not a lot of disruption, But we're making some change that we believe long term will really bring the best of Interface to life. Speaker 600:23:21Do you have a means of just assessing quantitatively the impact, in other words, incremental expense or Incremental revenue impact from your various initiatives. Speaker 200:23:39From a long term perspective, we think it will help us to drive obviously accelerated growth, sustainable growth. From a cost standpoint, there's some short term hits on that. In year, cost savings is only about $5,000,000 So it's not a massive number this year and truly will come from as we continue to to globalize the business over time. And it's not just a cost cutting exercise. We really do believe we can bring more products, Better designs, more consistent marketing that will drive more growth long term. Speaker 600:24:18Yes, go ahead. I was Speaker 500:24:20just going to add to Laurel. Part of what 1 Interface is all about is about operational efficiencies And that's what we're driving here in nimbleness and quicker decision making, which ultimately serves the customer better. So while there are some as Laurel mentioned, there are some nominal cost opportunities inside of 1 interface, It really is also about serving the customer better and serving the customer in a standardized and way around the globe so that we can meet their needs and we can serve them where they are. Speaker 600:24:55Right. Just wanted to ask you about China. 50% drop in orders is obviously a big number. How much of that is sort of the environment as you referenced? And how much of that might just be sort of follow on from some of the changes that you're making in that part of the world. Speaker 200:25:15Yes. I think it's about half our business there is, as Bruce had Stated is our Nora Rubber business, which is really project delays, government funded things like airports, high speed braille that we believe will be consistent, but are delayed. And the other half is our corporate office business, which a lot of that, as Bruce said, is our global customers. And we've seen delays from them as well in some of the work that they've been doing to in their office environment. Speaker 600:25:45Okay. And then finally for me on the guidance revision around gross margins, is there any way to talk at least qualitatively about U. S. Versus rest of world and other factoring into that revision. Speaker 500:25:59Yes, David. We're really seeing the dynamics that are going on with gross margins are pretty broad based globally. And And to overly simplify a fairly complicated topic, there really is 2 things. It's persistent inflation And then it is lower volumes, which are driving less fixed cost absorption in our plants, which is I know you know this, but it's not unique to us. It's that is an industry wide phenomenon. Speaker 500:26:30We think that we're faring better than the rest of the industry. In our volumes, we're only down mid single digits, which and so all of our growth, as we mentioned in our prepared remarks, came through price. But even with price being basically at parity with inflation, we still We had some margin erosion as a result of inflation and then the rest of the erosion came from fixed cost absorption And it wasn't unique in any particular area. It was something that we saw basically in all of our locations. Speaker 600:27:07Got it. Thanks very much. Good luck. Operator00:27:16Thank you. Our final question of the day comes from the line of Keith Hughes from Trust Securities. Please go ahead with your question. Speaker 700:27:23Thank you. In the Q2 guidance, what kind of influence do you expect from currency and then what influence from price? Speaker 500:27:33So Keith, on the top line, hang on one second. That's what Speaker 700:27:39I'm referring to. Top line is what I'm referring to. Speaker 500:27:42Okay. Yes. On the top line, year over year, we don't from a translation standpoint, we don't think that currency is going to have a large effect In Q2, it did in Q1. On the top, it the translation costs about $7,000,000 on the top And it costs us about $1,000,000 on the bottom. But that if currency stay where they are today and don't move, Then that sort of normalizes in Q2, where it's about flat on the top and flat on the bottom from a currency standpoint. Speaker 500:28:16And then if currencies again stay where they are today, it actually would be a helper in the back half. It would help us on the top and it would help us on the bottom year over year. Speaker 700:28:27Okay. What about price in the second quarter? Speaker 500:28:31Are you asking what if we're going to Increase prices or decrease prices? I just want to make sure I understand the question. Speaker 700:28:37Yes, sure. Just on the guide, how much pricing gain do you expect? Speaker 500:28:43Yes. Most of our growth that we're forecasting in Q2 is coming from price. Speaker 700:28:51Okay. The midpoint would have you down a couple of points. So I guess that would mean you're expecting a pretty weak unit number in the Q2. Is that am I reading that correctly? Speaker 500:29:01We are expecting volume to be down year over year in Q2 like we saw in Q1 at similar levels. Speaker 300:29:11Okay. Speaker 700:29:12And then you kind of forecasting growth with the guidance in the second half of the year. Is that again more price or do you expect units to turn positive? Speaker 500:29:26It will be a lot of the growth will come from price. We're thinking that units will be slightly down in the back half. The biggest difference between the first half And the back half is the comps. The back half, we're comping a 2% growth rate versus the first half where we're comping a double digit increase year over year last year. Speaker 700:29:53But what were your units last year? I mean, there was just a lot of price coming in last year. I think you started off with some pretty strong units Q1, I'm not sure what they did the rest of the year in 'twenty two. Speaker 300:30:05Our units Sorry, can you Speaker 500:30:07ask that question again? I'm not sure if I understood it. Speaker 700:30:09So what kind of unit growth did you see in 'twenty two? Speaker 500:30:14In 2022, units were relatively flat year over year. There well, it changed. In the first half, they were up. In the back half, they were relatively flat. And so and of course, what we're seeing now is we're seeing units being slightly down mid single digits. Speaker 600:30:32Okay. And I guess also, you had talked about Speaker 700:30:36weaker orders in May April March April, I know you got a tough comp as you had said. What kind of order rate on that tough comp, What kind of order percentages are you seeing year over year? Speaker 500:30:51So if you look at where we landed At the end of Q1, I'm going to give you a bunch of different numbers to help you get some context on this. So if you look at total company, our FX neutral orders were down 2.2%. And if you look at remember that includes the Russia business that we exited. But Speaker 600:31:18if you Speaker 500:31:19We exclude Russia, our orders were up 1.2% FX neutral total company. Now you double click down on that and there's a lot of different pieces. Actually, our Americas orders were up nicely, up about 6%. Our EMEA orders were up nicely around 3%, excluding Russia. The biggest challenge that we have is our orders were down in Asia and they were down about 50%. Speaker 500:31:48So we think that What we saw in Q1 around delayed projects in Asia, principally in China, is going to continue through Q2 based on the best information that we have. And that's all built into our guide. Speaker 700:32:01Okay. And I assume that the numbers you just gave me, March April, the numbers were below that In terms of order rates and geographies, is that correct? Speaker 500:32:13April, okay, so I wanted the dollars that are flowing in are fairly steady, but the year over year growth rates are not as Our more challenged because we had such strong order growth rates in March April. So we have really tough comps from an order standpoint in March April. But to be but I want to be I want to make sure I'm communicating effectively. The order flow is steady from a dollar standpoint. It's just really tough comp. Speaker 700:32:40Okay. All right. That's it for me. Thank you very much. Operator00:32:42Thank you. I apologize. We have a follow-up question from David MacGregor from Longbow Research. Please go ahead with your question. Speaker 600:33:01Just one more for me. Thanks for taking the follow-up. Could you help us with your expectations around working capital for the year? I'm just trying to Round out the cash flow model here. You've given us a CapEx number, but I guess we can sort of imply an EBITDA number, but how are we thinking about the balance sheet? Speaker 500:33:20Yes. That's a Speaker 300:33:22thank you for asking Speaker 500:33:23because we're very focused on working capital. We think that I think you saw some nice Just you saw some nice progress around inventory in Q1. Year over year, it was down 2%, While our revenue was up, FX neutral 5%. So that was a good outcome. And we're going to continue to be Managing our inventory and making certain that our inventories stay at the right level. Speaker 500:33:49And You also probably saw that we generated a lot of cash around accounts receivable. We're very focused on making certain that we collect the cash. So I think that this will be a good year For us, from a working capital standpoint, certainly Q1 was very strong. I don't I think the rest of the year will be as strong as Q1, but I think but we believe that working capital, we're focused on increasing our turns, making sure that our inventory stays in line with our growth rates and making sure that our accounts receivables managed effectively. So again, I think it will be a good cash flow year. Speaker 600:34:27Do you have a conversion rate in mind? Is there a number that you can share? Speaker 500:34:32Not something that we necessarily publish, David. I think we but I think it'll be in line With as you know, last year was not where we wanted it to be from a cash flow standpoint. But I think if you look back in the Prior to that, I think it should be similar, if not a little bit better, given the focus that we have on it. Speaker 600:34:54Thanks, Chris. Operator00:35:00There are no further questions at this time. I I'll now turn the call back over to Laurel Hurd for closing remarks. Speaker 200:35:06Great. Thank you, everyone. Appreciate the questions. Appreciate you listening today. And I just want to thank Operator00:35:18Thank you. That does conclude the conference call today. You may now disconnect your lines.Read morePowered by