Brunswick Q2 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Quartr
Provided by Quartr
July 25, 2024

There are 12 speakers on the call.

Operator

Good morning, and welcome to Brunswick Corporation Second Quarter 20 24 Earnings Conference Call. All participants will be in a listen only mode until the question and answer period. Today's meeting will be recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. I would now like to introduce Neha Clark, Senior Vice President, Enterprise Finance, Brunswick Corporation.

Operator

Please go ahead.

Speaker 1

Good morning, and thank you for joining us. With me on the call this morning are Dave Foulkes, Brunswick's CEO and Ryan Guilliam, CFO. Before we begin with our prepared remarks, I would like to remind everyone that during this call, our comments will include certain forward looking statements about future results. Please keep in mind that our results could differ materially from these expectations. For details on these factors to consider, please refer to our recent SEC filings and today's press release.

Speaker 1

All of these documents are available on our website atbrunswick.com. During our presentation, we will be referring to certain non GAAP financial information. Reconciliations of GAAP to non GAAP financial measures are prepared in the appendix to this presentation and the reconciliation sections of the unaudited consolidated financial statements accompanying today's results. I will now turn the call over to Dave.

Speaker 2

Thanks, Neha, and good morning, everyone. With high interest rates continuing to pressure consumer budgets and suppress discretionary spending, the introduction of new Model Year products at the beginning of the important month of June did not catalyze bulk purchases as we had anticipated. And our 2nd quarter results were slightly below expectations. Without strong peak season momentum, the continued slower retail sales combined with higher levels of discounting and carrying costs have increased pressure on dealer and channel partner profit margins, resulting in ongoing conservative wholesale ordering patterns even for new model year products. In turn, this is causing OEMs to maintain lower boat production rates through the main selling season with impacts to propulsion and Navigo Group OEM orders.

Speaker 2

With slower new boat retail sales in the peak sales month, we now expect full year unit retail sales to be down approximately 10% versus our original forecast of flat. As a result of heightened demand stimulation efforts focused on clearing more aged field inventory, our remaining field inventory is very fresh with approximately 85% of units being current. And our focus continues on leveraging our new products and adjusting production levels to maintain or gain share in key categories, while diligently managing field inventory levels to end the year with weeks on hand at appropriate levels and units below prior year. Despite sales and earnings below guidance, the resiliency of our portfolio is being demonstrated with our recurring revenue businesses and channels, including our engine P and A business, propulsion's repower business, Freedom Boklo and Navigo Group's aftermarket sales, contributing more than 50% of our Q2 adjusted operating earnings. In addition, our businesses delivered strong cash flow, enabling $170,000,000 to be deployed for share repurchases year to date and further solidifying our focus on returning value to shareholders.

Speaker 2

Turning to some highlights from our segments in the quarter. Despite our propulsion business delivering lower sales and operating earnings outboard engines with more than 48% overall share of the U. S. Output market. In addition, propulsion's controls, rigging and propeller product categories had a strong quarter with operating margins ahead of the same period in 2023.

Speaker 2

Our Flight eFoil business also had its strongest ever sales month in June. With boating participation continuing to be very solid in our major global markets, our engine, parts and accessories business had a strong quarter with sales and operating earnings up versus the Q2 of 2023 and we completed the full transition of engine P and A distribution to our new state of the art facility in Brownsburg, Indiana. As anticipated, Navigold Group had lower sales and operating earnings versus the Q2 of 2023 due to reduced marine OEM order rates and persistently slow RV orders, but continued to show stability with sequential improvement in aftermarket sales and overall sales at earnings consistent with Q1 results. Finally, our Boat business had a solid performance given market conditions, with sales and operating earnings below the prior year quarter, consistent with lower planned production levels. Freedom Book Club continued to deliver steady membership sales growth, while adding 2 more flagship locations in Denmark and the U.

Speaker 2

K. And recording an impressive 200,000 member trips in the quarter. Expanding on the external environment, with the majority of the retail selling season behind us, it is evident that the 2024 U. S. Marine retail market is underperforming versus our initial expectations due to the continuing high interest rate environment and while it is now a higher probability of interest rate relief beginning in September, This will be after the main selling season and will likely have a minor impact on 2024 and be more of a potential tailwind for 2025.

Speaker 2

Dealer sentiment is sequentially improving. However, the slower pacing of wholesale orders continues as the weaker retail environment drives a desire for more conservative inventory levels. Discounting and promotion levels remain elevated, particularly on prior model year products that stimulate retail movements. Our investments in digital platforms continues to drive benefits across our brands with close to 40% of boats and Freedom Boat Club membership sales in Q2 being digitally assisted. OEMs and channel partners continue to moderate production levels to adjust to the environment.

Speaker 2

And in the absence of external stimulus, we do not now foresee this pattern changing significantly through the remainder of the season. Despite these challenging conditions, we continue to see strong voting participation, supporting our resilient recurring revenue businesses. We continue to invest in and launch many exciting new products and technologies across all our businesses and product lines with the intent to position us for market share gains and to ensure we have the freshest portfolio when the market returns to growth. Finally, the previously proposed North Atlantic Right Whale Vessel Speed Restriction Rule was delayed to November 2024 on the administration's most current regulatory agenda. Moving now to U.

Speaker 2

S. Retail performance, we saw a weaker Q2 U. S. Retail market than anticipated with U. S.

Speaker 2

Industry new boat unit sales in the quarter declining significantly versus the Q2 of 2023, driven particularly by a weaker June. U. S. Outboard engine industry retail units declined 6% in the Q2 versus prior year. As mentioned, Mercury Marine U.

Speaker 2

S. Overall year to date outboard market share is holding at around 48%, up slightly from 2023. And our share of 3 50 horsepower and above engines exceeds 70%. As customer OEMs modulate production, which in some cases requires extended manufacturing shutdown periods, we expect market share data across engine and boat brands may

Speaker 3

be more noisy than normal for the remainder of

Speaker 2

the year, although we anticipate gaining additional share in some areas. During the quarter, we continued to diligently monitor pipeline levels, and we ended the quarter with 33 weeks on hand and 11,500 units in the U. S. Pipeline, slightly above prior year. In order to manage year end pipelines on a full year basis, we currently plan to wholesale around 1500 fewer units than internal retail unit sales, which represents approximately a 7% reduction in ending inventory versus prior year.

Speaker 2

Before I turn it over to Ryan, I wanted to quickly walk through the components of our updated adjusted EPS guidance of between $5 $5.50 per share. As you can see, just about all of the anticipated decline from our view in April is related to the softer market conditions that have persisted through the main retail selling season and the resulting channel dynamics we believe we will experience for the remainder of 2024. The most significant change since April is the combined impact of the weaker market and resulting lower wholesale sales in an environment where we anticipate pipeline inventories to be flat to down across all our businesses. We plan to wholesale several 1,000 fewer boats this year than originally planned. And despite continuing to take market share, Mercury will correspondingly ship fewer engines to OEM partners, who have also lowered production to be consistent with demand.

Speaker 2

The next two factors are directly related to the slower market conditions. First, all our businesses are experiencing lower absorption and slightly higher manufacturing costs due to the lower production levels. 2nd, we've continued to use promotions and discounting to drive retail sales and to keep our inventory as fresh as possible. Offsetting these factors is our combined focus on driving down controllable operating expenses. We anticipate ending the year with OpEx down almost 10% from initially planned levels, while still protecting spending on key growth initiatives and projects to advance our strategic objectives.

Speaker 2

Despite this year not unfolding as we'd hoped and anticipated, we continue to make prudent decisions and expect to finish 2024 in a strong balanced position, while preparing to fully capture the upside when the market returns to growth. I'll now turn the call over to Ryan to provide additional comments on our financial performance and outlook.

Speaker 4

Thanks, Dave, and good morning, everyone. Budrick's 2nd quarter results were slightly below expectations, but remained resilient despite a challenging macroeconomic environment and much softer U. S. Retail marine market than anticipated. Versus the Q2 of 2023, net sales in the quarter were down 15% with adjusted operating margins of 12.5%, resulting in an adjusted EPS of $1.80 Gross margins continue to remain resilient, adjusted operating expenses were down $32,000,000 versus Q2 of 2023 and free cash flow performed better than anticipated with free cash flow conversion of approximately 140%.

Speaker 4

2nd quarter sales were below prior year as the impact of continued lower wholesale ordering by dealers and OEMs, coupled with higher discounts in certain business segments, was only partially offset by annual price increases and benefits from well received new products. Adjusted operating earnings were down versus prior year as a result of the impact of lower net sales and higher manufacturing costs, primarily related to absorption from lower production, partially offset by significant cost control measures throughout the enterprise. On a year to date basis, sales are down 19%, resulting in an adjusted diluted EPS of $3.14 down 36%. The entire enterprise remains focused on reducing operating expenses, which are down $43,000,000 versus first half of twenty twenty three levels. Finally, year to date operating deleverage of 27% remains slightly higher than the midpoint of our assumptions in our downside scenarios, but has been negatively impacted by unique factors including increased discounting, elevated depreciation expense, primarily related to recent capacity projects in propulsion and lower absorption across the enterprise due to lower production volumes.

Speaker 4

Now, we'll look at each reporting segment, starting with our propulsion business. Sales in our propulsion segment were down 21%, with lower production rates at OEM Boat Manufacturers resulting in fewer engine orders in the quarter, while repower shipments were slightly up versus Q2 2023. The high margin controls, rigings and props business had slightly lower sales, but higher adjusted operating margins than prior quarter, led by a strong aftermarket performance. Adjusted operating margins were below prior year, primarily due to the impact of lower net sales and higher manufacturing costs, including absorption for lower production, partly offset by the lapping of prior year unfavorable capitalized inventory variances and accelerated cost control measures. Our aftermarket led engine parts and accessories business had a strong quarter with sales, margins and operating earnings up versus Q2 of 2023.

Speaker 4

With the transition to the Brownsburg, Indiana distribution facility now complete, this business was able to service product to customers around the globe, leading to year over year sales increases in both the U. S. And international markets. Navico Group reported a sales decrease of 8%, driven primarily by reduced sales to marine OEMs as they balance production levels to match retail ordering patterns, partially offset by strong new product momentum and while slow, some improvement in RV sales trends. Segment adjusted operating earnings decreased as the impact from lower sales and increased discount activity was only partially offset by lower operating expenses.

Speaker 4

Finally, our boat business delivered steady results despite planned softer wholesale orders as its channel partners continue to order cautiously, partially offset by the favorable impact of modest model year pricing and share gains. The segment delivered adjusted operating margins within expectations as the impact of the net sales declines and lower absorption from the reduced production was partially offset by pricing and continued cost control. Freedom Boat Club, which is included in business acceleration, had another solid quarter contributing approximately 10% of the boat segment's revenue during the quarter, while seeing very steady membership growth despite the macroeconomic uncertainty. We thought we would take a moment to remind investors how our shaping of the portfolio over the last 15 years has resulted in strikingly different financial performance despite a very similar retail boat market. 2010 was the last time when approximately 140,000 boat units were retailed in the United States.

Speaker 4

That year, Brunswick had $3,400,000,000 of sales and lost more than $0.50 a share. Since that year, Brunswick has more than tripled the size of its aftermarket P and A business, divested non core businesses and gained more than 1,000 basis points of share in outboard engines. Our boat business is much healthier and leaner today than it was in 2010, as evidenced by this business being strongly profitable this year versus losing significant earnings in 2010 on similar global wholesale orders. Finally, we are keenly aware that our current guidance is slightly below the $6 downside case we laid out several years ago. Although we'd argue that we're still well within a reasonable margin of error for this type of exercise, the main components impacting the guidance are the reset of our P and A businesses after the post COVID and more cautious wholesale ordering patterns in all of our businesses despite elevated discount and promotional activity, which more than offset the better deleverage in our boat business, larger market share gains by Mercury and benefits from cost efforts and higher share repurchases during the period.

Speaker 4

With the majority of the retail selling season behind us, it is evident that the 2024 U. S. Marine retail market is underperforming in peak season versus our initial expectations and is likely to end the year at unit levels similar to 2010. The macroeconomic environment remains uncertain and while there is now a higher probability of interest rate relief beginning in September, this would occur after the main selling season and will likely have an immaterial impact on our 2024 results, but potentially provide a tailwind for 2025. In this environment, our OEM customers and channel partners continue to order cautiously and we do not foresee this pattern changing significantly through the remainder of this season.

Speaker 4

In these challenging conditions, our resilient recurring revenue businesses and channels, including our engine parts and accessories, Freedom Boat Club and the aftermarket repower sales of Propulsion and Navico Group are fully demonstrating their earnings and cash flow power. Through the balance of the year, we will continue to launch many exciting new products to support future share gains, while focusing on delivering year end inventory levels in line with historical norms, executing our strategic plan, investing in our long term growth initiatives and expect to deliver resilient EPS and cash flow. The result is the following updated guidance to match these market realities, including net sales of between $5,200,000,000 $5,400,000,000 and adjusted diluted EPS in the range of $5 to $5.50 while keeping free cash flow guidance in excess of $350,000,000 Please see the appendix for additional guidance regarding anticipated segment metrics. I will wrap up the financial update by sharing certain updated P and L, cash flow and other capital strategy assumptions for the full year with only 2 items that have materially changed since our April call. First, we continue to moderate our capital expenditure spending for the year and now anticipate $175,000,000 of CapEx spending for the year.

Speaker 4

This amount remains far in excess of maintenance levels and still allows our businesses to continue with their key growth initiatives. 2nd, furthering our balanced and flexible approach to our capital strategy, we have revised our plan to repurchase between $200,000,000 $220,000,000 of shares in 2024, consistent with our initial assumptions for the year and have completed $170,000,000 through the Q2. We plan to spend around $20,000,000 each quarter going forward on share repurchases, balancing repurchases and debt reduction to gradually achieve our desired net leverage targets. I will now pass the call back over to Dave for concluding remarks.

Speaker 2

I'm excited to close our prepared remarks by highlighting some recently launched new products and other exciting developments. Lite continues to expand its product line with the introduction of the Ultra L2E foil, a lightweight and slim board designed for high maneuverability. During the quarter, we opened the order book for the award winning Avator 75E and 110E electric outboards. The most powerful engines in the AVATORE family are well suited for powering a variety of vessels, including pontoons, runabouts and rigid inflatables. Among 80 new or updated Brunswick Boat models launched so far in 2024, the all new Sirae SPX 190 and SPX 190 outboard models featuring the new Sirae design language and many class leading features were introduced.

Speaker 2

Navaco Group attended the world's largest fishing show, Icast, and showcased several exciting new products from the Simrad and Lowrance brands, including the innovative new Recon electric steer trolling motor, which has been developed for both freshwater and saltwater anglers and features a unique joystick remote. In addition, the Lowrance brand also launched Eagle Eye, a highly accessible all in one live sonar solution, combining Chirp and DownScan in 1 transducer, along with detailed C MAP charting. In the quarter, Brunswick Brands won 11 top product awards from Boating Industry Magazine for the 2nd consecutive year. And not to be outdone, Freedom Boat Club continued to expand geographically with the recently announced additional flagship locations in Copenhagen and near London. That's the end of our prepared remarks.

Speaker 2

We'll now open the line for questions.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now be conducting a question and answer session. Our first question comes from the line of Fred Wightman with Wolfe Research. Please go ahead.

Speaker 5

Hey, guys. Thanks for the question. I'm wondering if you could just give us maybe a high level update on how you're getting to that 10% retail number now. I know that there's been some disconnect between what you've seen with your internal registrations and what we've seen from SSI. But just given sort of the state of the macro and what you've seen from the past month or 2, what gives you confidence in the updated target?

Speaker 3

Yes. Hi, Fred. It's Dave here. Here. So, yes, as normal over time, I think our internal retail projections and SSI will align, but as you know, it normally takes a few months to do that.

Speaker 3

Through Q1, we were kind of our internal retail was about flat, slightly ahead of the market. And then through Q2, we saw a weaker May. It was down about 8% something maybe 8% to 10%, which we expected because of the model year changeover that was happening in June. What we hoped and anticipated was that the new models in June would catalyze some increase in retail, but that didn't happen. And our June is down about 20%, essentially in line with SSI.

Speaker 3

The difference with SSI is, some of the states that report late are some of the states that we have the highest market share and particularly in the Midwest for our freshwater products. So we're pretty aligned with what's going on with SSI at the moment with those caveats. So could the market really be down high singles? Yes, it could be. But given our uncertainty level at the moment, I think 10% is high singles to 10% is probably reasonable.

Speaker 3

July is better than June, still down, maybe kind of mid to high singles at the moment, but that would still give us something in the high singles to 10 at the end of the year. But by the time we get through July, we're through 75% of retail. So the ability to shift that endpoint much is diminished after the end of July.

Speaker 5

That makes sense. And thinking about the dealer inventory target for year end, you guys talked about a 7% decline. I'm thinking at a high level, if get there and you hit that target and you think about 2025, do you think 2025 is sort of retail and wholesale are in line? Do you think that there's restocking that needs to happen?

Speaker 3

How do you think about the setup? Well, I think we are approaching the year end with a conservative view on imagery. And when I say conservative, I mean we are at the low end of what we think is going to be necessary for 2025. And we could talk about 2025 at some point maybe during the call, but I feel as though on a across our various segments, with that level of inventory, we will have derisked any scenario any reasonable scenario 2025. If you look across inventory levels across the various segments, they're very balanced everywhere.

Speaker 3

So by the end of the year, a lot of our value products in aluminum will be kind of relatively down. Premium fiberglass will be up a bit versus the end of last year, but really that's necessary because we were under inventory and those segments are performing relatively better. So that's better to be a bit conservative at this point in time, I think.

Speaker 5

Fair enough. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Mike Schwartz with Truist Securities. Please go ahead.

Speaker 6

Hey guys, good morning. Maybe just to start and at high level broad brushstrokes, is there any way to think about what maybe the initial dealer volume commitments for your model year 25 product looks like at this time this year versus last year? I know there's some differences

Operator

in the timing of the

Speaker 6

model of your changeover and probably when dealers are thinking about accepting more inventory, but just very high level, is there any way to think about what that looks like?

Speaker 3

Yes. Hi, Mike. Yes, at the moment, more than 70% of our planned production for Q3 is accounted for with orders, which is relatively normal for us. So with brands like Boston Whallets 100% accounted for with some of the aluminum brands where we have smaller boats all the way down to a few $1,000 boats, it's pretty normal as well. So I think we're pretty comfortable with the position we're in for orders for the Q3.

Speaker 3

We know less about Q4 at the moment.

Speaker 5

Okay.

Speaker 6

And then just on the cost reduction program, I guess I'm trying to understand it seems like it equates to something in the $70,000,000 to $80,000,000 range. Just trying to understand is that an annualized number? It sounds like that's just for 2024. And then how much of that is actually variable, meaning how much of that would come back if and when production comes back?

Speaker 4

Yes, Mike, I'll take this. Good morning. As you know, by the end of the year, OpEx is going to be down pretty close to $100,000,000 right, or somewhere $90,000,000 to $100,000,000 which is about 10%. Of that, a chunk of that is compensation expense, which will obviously be pretty low this year given where we are versus our targets. That portion would expect to come back obviously and we'd reset that at 100% to start 2025.

Speaker 4

And then there's pieces that obviously are being delayed spending in 2024 that we would also want to come back to 2025 given a better market environment. But it's fair to say that about a third of that, we would say is complete takeout that we would keep out for the very certainly near term and would not be added back until or if at all when market conditions improved and we were able to spend a little bit more for growth.

Speaker 3

I think the 3rd is really for 2024 as well. So the impact of that 3rd on 2025 on a run rate basis would be higher.

Speaker 5

Yes.

Speaker 6

Okay, great. Thanks a lot.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Matthew Boss with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Speaker 7

Great, thanks. So Dave, maybe could you elaborate on more recent trends that you're seeing in the marketplace, if you broke it down across premium versus the value channel? And just larger picture, how best to anticipate the progression into 2025 if you looked back prior cycle?

Speaker 3

Yes, certainly. So I guess what we're seeing, a premium is still somewhat stronger than value. But I would say the other thing that we're seeing is that, generally fishing related products all the way from Boston Whaler saltwater fishing at the high end through to some of our aluminum fishing at the more value and kind of core part of our market are all relatively strong. And the more general purpose kind of general recreational products seem to be performing somewhat weaker. So that would be things like value, fiberglass, runabouts, pontoons are definitely down more than the market at the moment.

Speaker 3

So those are a couple of ways to kind of break it down at the moment. I think we are fortunate in being strongly indexed to fishing, probably about 2 thirds of our products are fishing related products. So I think the strength of that

Speaker 5

part of the market continues

Speaker 3

to favor us going forward. So yes, it's those people who are committed to boating, not just for boating, but for other activities like fishing seem to be prioritizing their spending this year versus others who may be more inclined to trade off one activity a bit more versus another.

Speaker 7

Great. And then, Ryan, just as we think about industry recovery over time, what's the best EBIT flow through rates or incremental margins to consider for 2025, just given reductions that you've made on the operating expense side?

Speaker 4

Yes, it's a good question. And maybe I'm going to I'll go ahead and just tackle 25, our views on 25, given your question. But the short answer there is, we always believe that we can lever up incrementals at 20% or more. And frankly, we've delevered this year at about that same pace if you normalize for absorption and discounting that 27% year to date number would look just about right at 20%, maybe even a little bit below. But the way to think about 25 for us, first, it starts with the consumer.

Speaker 4

We are obviously assuming slightly, hopefully, healthier economic conditions, a rate environment that has begun to come down, but still employment being low, GDP still being relatively resolute. Obviously, November is going to throw some uncertainty into the ring, but we'll get through that as we always do. The result there would probably be some stability in the marine market. Just as an aside, we are likely to finish the year, main powerboat segment at about 140,000 units. That is 5% above where we were coming out of the GFC, which was a much tougher macroeconomic environment.

Speaker 4

I think it's reasonable to assume a market then obviously not making a call from the 'twenty five market yet, But I think it's reasonable to assume that a flat market to this year is kind of a floor with some upside into low or even mid single digits, which would get back half of the market loss this year and would also represent a retail level that is approximately 50% of what we would consider replacement level for the U. S. Market. So from that, you go to the wholesale retail dynamics, which Dave touched on earlier, but in a flat market and wholesale matching retail, you'd get about 1500 boat units back together with the accompanying engine units, of not only in our boats, but all across the OEM landscape, which by the way, we keep gaining share at Mercury. We understand that the market is a little softer, but one thing that you can always count on is continued market share gains.

Speaker 4

If you then want to assume that retail next year is slightly up, then you can get to a world where wholesale engine side too. Then if you look at the Brunswick specific dynamics, again, Mercury continues to take share with new products coming, continued stability and growth in engine P and A. I know it's been a bit of a sore subject for a couple of quarters, 6 ish quarters, but that Engine P and A aftermarket recurring business is now showing exactly why we built it up to what it is today and is growing in a market that new sales are down. So we've continued stability there in Engine P and A. I would say Navico is really where you're going to start to see some improvement both on the margin and sales side.

Speaker 4

The benefits from the cost takeout actions, significant new products and possibly it has to happen someday in an improved RV market, which remember Navigo touches about 10%. And then you have the positive impact from OpEx as we talked about earlier and just an overall drive of cash resulting in capital strategy gains, share repurchases and a likely lower interest expense with some debt work we're going to do. So the way to look at we'll see where 25 lands here as we get close at the end of the year, but it sure seems like there's a lot more tailwinds than headwinds both for the market, but certainly on the items that Brunswick can control.

Speaker 7

It's great color. Best of luck.

Operator

Our next question is from James Hardiman with Citi. Please go ahead.

Speaker 8

Hey, good morning, guys. Thanks for taking my call. I was kind of in and out in the early part of Q and A. If you already answered this, I apologize. But that the bridge on Slide 9, that 220 in market and pipeline correction, do you get any of that back in a, let's say, for the sake of argument, a flat market with 1 to 1 wholesale to retail?

Speaker 8

Do you get any of that 2 20 back? You talked about the 85, but I'm curious about that other big negative.

Speaker 4

We do, James. And in a flat market, you could assume we get 1500 plus back and then the associated engine benefit too. And again, if wholesale matches retail, we get the benefit with our boats, but also putting our engines on 48 plus percent of the boats in the U. S, even more with multiple engines. And then if you can assume retail slightly up, then yes, you're in a world where wholesale can exceed wholesale this year by 10% plus.

Speaker 4

So yes, you're getting you could definitely get a big a chunk of that back.

Speaker 8

Got it. And then, I mean, you touched on this, Brian, the notion that we're basically back at GFC levels of retail, and we still haven't seen a recession yet. I guess I could put a bullish or a bearish spin on that. The bearish spin would be that this is a market that's in big time secular decline, right? That even in a relatively healthy macro environment, obviously not for your industry, we've seen massive declines.

Speaker 8

I guess the bearish view on that would be this is the work of the Fed and interest rates and everybody sort of underestimated just how interest sensitive reflate. I'm curious your thoughts on big picture, just obviously this retail has missed everybody's expectations by a good amount over the last couple of years.

Operator

Thoughts on

Speaker 8

what you think this means going forward?

Speaker 3

Yes, James. So a good question, I think. I think the broadly, any studies you look at on demographics through to 2,030 and we've mentioned this before suggests that the wealthy are going to get wealthier. And generally that's supportive of us just like it is for a range of other discretionary items. I do think what we're seeing is a couple of things here.

Speaker 3

One is, of course, as you mentioned, the interest rate environment. And you mentioned that these purchases are interest rate sensitive. And of course, they are. But I do think that there are a couple of other kind of layers of impact of interest rates, particularly for some of our core consumers. It's not just about the fact that financing the purchase is more expensive.

Speaker 3

It's overall that budgets are pressured more by cumulative inflation and interest rates on other finance purchases. Not to mention the fact there's a confidence issue there. So I think there are various dimensions that are influencing discretionary purchases at the moment beyond simply the increased financing costs. I think over time, what we've seen with the cumulative impact of inflation is going to kind of wait kind of average out over time. Last couple of years, we've had relatively small increases and certainly we would anticipate that next year.

Speaker 3

So I think there are a number of factors that are in play here, cumulative inflation, the secondary and tertiary impacts of interest rates that are larger barriers or inhibitors than we had anticipated. But I do think that there's no reason to believe that there's a secular negative trend here. We always also plan to outperform the market and generally we've continued to do that, particularly, obviously, on the engine side, but with some of our boat brands, which have gained share year to date like Boston Whaler and Sea Ray that support that kind of wealth accumulation trend.

Speaker 4

I would also add, James, one stat that we look at pretty carefully is participation across the industry and registered both continue to be north of 10,000,000 just in the U. S. Alone. And then you have on top of that all the growth in the shared models, which we're leading the way there in freedom. So I would caution taking new boat sales as the main metric on a calling something secular when people are out there boating as much if not more than they have been in past years.

Speaker 4

And I would say new product sales are softened for all the reasons Dave said, but participation remains strong. We don't see any cracks in that participation trend. Got it.

Speaker 9

Thanks guys. Thanks James.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Megan Alexander with Morgan Stanley Investment Managers. Please go ahead.

Speaker 10

Hi. Thanks so much for taking our question. I want to spend a little bit of time on the propulsion segment in particular. So maybe the first question on the top line and then I'll ask a follow-up on the margin. So it does seem like the bulk of the reduction on the top line to the guide this year is coming from propulsion.

Speaker 10

I think if I'm doing the math right, looking for declines in the back half kind of similar to what you saw in the first half. I was curious, I think you said in the prepared remarks, retail, engine retail for the industry was down 6% in 2Q. I was wondering if you could let us know how Mercury compared to that? And then just maybe parse out in the updated guide from a top line perspective, how should we think about kind of the impacts of lower retail than you expected and perhaps taking some units out of the channel in that segment?

Speaker 3

We could do together. Yes. So I think the impacts that you're seeing on propulsion are a couple of things. In terms of how much down is Mercury versus others, well, our share is up year to date, so we're obviously less down than the market. And we would anticipate that through this year we will continue to gain share in mercury.

Speaker 3

No reason to believe that we won't. I think the good news in propulsion at the moment is that obviously we've had to adjust production down to support market conditions, which are lower than we anticipated, but we've taken pretty prompt action on that. The other thing that you're seeing though is a significant destocking trend at OEM customers. And now we look at retail and wholesale across every segment of output production and they are back in balance. So, I think that's a good trend for us.

Speaker 3

It means that any increase or growth in retail is going to flow pretty directly back to Mercury. But we are in a situation in which OEMs are just not wanting to take any product that they don't think is going to go on the back of a boat in 2024. They know we have production available, which is not always the case in the past. So as in many other areas that they are ordering kind of smaller quantities more frequently and making sure that they match what their use patterns are going to be. Did you want to follow-up?

Speaker 4

Yes, I'll just wholesale units for engines is going to be down about 20% this year, which is roughly close to what boats would be, which is down kind of 24%. But you're going to see a lot more of that in the back half just because of production schedules. We're still pretty good in the first half. We have enough inventory, as Dave said. OEM orders did slow quicker than we thought.

Speaker 4

And again, not because of their choosing other engine providers, but just because production at our OEM partners slowed quickly through the 1st couple of quarters. So the back half, all you're seeing is the same dynamic that you're seeing in boats just a little bit later in the year. Boat started taking wholesale out really in the middle of last year and you're just seeing it happen quicker in propulsion. But I would say engine pipeline, which again we can't track, we don't track as closely, but we do know that engine pipeline will be down from the start of the year because we will be under shipping retail, again, to start us off in a really nice position in 2025.

Speaker 10

Okay, got it. That's super helpful. Thank you. And then just a follow-up on the margin line, what you're guiding for from a propulsion perspective, I think is decently or solidly below 2019 levels, yet sales are still well ahead and understand the impact that production has on that. But can you just maybe provide some more color around the margin guidance?

Speaker 10

I think it does imply some pretty steep decrementals in the back half just relative to what you've talked about. And then just tie it with, I know a lot has changed in the year, but last 9 months ago, you talked about kind of a 20% margin for this segment. So is that still realistic to think about in a more normal environment or have things kind of changed too much?

Speaker 4

Yes. It's a fair question and a good one. I would tell you, let me answer in reverse, yes. There's no reason that at normal production volume and normal market conditions that the propulsion business can't be back at or above 20% operating margins. It is simply a volume game for the full year that's driving that margin down.

Speaker 4

The absorption impact on the lower production is pretty significant, call it north of $30,000,000 Currency is a little bit of a bad guy that most of it is the first half, but that's really hurting. And just overall, it's not something there's not the OpEx you can take out quick enough to overcome the absorption and hit there. And then also remember the depreciation is larger there this year because of all the capacity projects and capital we put in there. So they're getting that impact of a hit without the company sales, which we will get eventually. So you're kind of getting a mismatch there.

Speaker 4

So we agree. It's certainly worse than we anticipated. But if you normalize, take out absorption and kind of the one timers, you're still in the mid to upper teens at a normalized volume. You get a little bit more volume back to a retail market that looks just a little bit better and you're getting back close to that 20%.

Speaker 10

Awesome. That's super helpful. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Shiong Hsu with BNP Paribas Management. Please go ahead. Hi, guys. Thanks for the question.

Speaker 11

I was just curious about your inventory target of reductions for 7%. Like, do you think that's enough relative to retail down 10%? I don't think it implies much of weeks on hand reduction. Yes,

Speaker 3

Ian. Thanks for the question. I think, I mean, obviously, we have a number of considerations when we're trying to kind of target retail. We think about weeks on hand. We also think about units in the field.

Speaker 3

And we think about units per dealer, which we've talked about a lot. There is an issue that if we go down too low, we just can't carry a representative segment of our product line across the bulk of our dealers. So we're trying to balance a number of factors here. I think if we consider one factor, you might get one slightly different answer to another factor. But the fact is that we are going to significantly undership retail this year, and I believe still end up with a decent number of units at each dealer.

Speaker 3

Really, the area where we are going to have or going to increase inventory slightly versus last year is in the premium end of our product lines, particularly Boston Whaler and Sea Ray. And we were still working our way out of a hole on those products through the last several years because we couldn't catch up after the supply chain crisis. So thinking about it in those different ways, I think we feel it is a good balanced position to be in and derisks 2025.

Speaker 11

Okay, got it. Really helpful. And then maybe on propulsion, to your point, the wholesale volume declines are down kind of in line with new boat sales. Do you think the segment is becoming more correlated to new boat sales? Or are there kind of like the structural tailwind still intact?

Speaker 11

And then also kind of pricing has been or price mix has been a big benefit. Is that under pressure at all or are you able to hold that and it's just volume that's coming down?

Speaker 4

Yes. No, Zian, I'd say it's just volume. In fact, repower sales continue to be pretty strong throughout the first half of the year. We still think that that's about 15% of the overall units, 15% to 20%. But it's really just the OEM volumes that are sluggish.

Speaker 4

But we're not seeing any issues on the price volume mix. Obviously, 300 horsepower above where our share is extremely robust. It's where we can take the most price because we're the only engine in town for anything kind of 400, 600 and certainly we believe all of our high horsepower products are best in class. So we're still able to get a premium there and don't see that changing.

Operator

Okay, thanks. Thank you. Our next question is from the line of Craig Kennison with Baird. Please go ahead.

Speaker 9

Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions as well. You mentioned floorplan interest costs for dealers. I'm just wondering if there are metrics you can point to that would help us frame that additional expense, whether it's just the rate they face or the percentage of their gross profit today versus prior periods?

Speaker 4

Yes. Craig, that's tough. I mean, obviously, there the you can track the rate they're paying, right? So our with our benefit of having BAC, our dealers are paying kind of a SOFR plus the bank rate, the SOFR plus a percentage. So obviously that's up several points since 2021.

Speaker 4

And you can take the average kind of average floor plan there times that rate. But all in all, I think the dealer network remains extremely healthy. We get reports every couple of weeks on and on amount of boats in the field that are aged and any challenges that our dealers are having paying floor plan or covering their sales. So we're not seeing any concerning trends. In fact, throughout the summer, aged inventory, now Brunswick has been low across the way, but aged inventory around all of BAC's portfolio has gone down.

Speaker 4

And we're seeing really good liquidations on anything more than a year old. So, you can do the math by just taking the sulfur plus the change in rates, but all in all, still a pretty healthy environment.

Speaker 9

And then shifting gears, just a lot of this discussion has been the macro, which of course you don't control, but it seems like there is a self help opportunity at Nabaco. And I'm just wondering where you think what the current expectation is for, I guess, margin the margin profile of that business if we get back to, let's say, 150,000 boats?

Speaker 3

Yes. I think you're right. And obviously, we take that very seriously, Craig, and we're working on it very diligently, including in terms of the footprint, we've closed about 40% of the facilities there. We've significantly reduced headcounts and we're working very diligently on cost of sales. So but the cost of sales work that we're doing is not flowing quite yet because it's because we still have inventory prior to some of those reductions.

Speaker 3

It will start to flow through along with the stream of new products, some of which we highlighted today. So yes, we're doing all the right things on Navigo Group. I wish it had flowed through a bit earlier, but obviously the marine OEM environment and the RV OEM environment is a tough one. However, aftermarket is doing better and making up for that, which is why you see the kind of flat revenue by quarter. And we have some great new products coming through both on the OEM side and the aftermarket side.

Speaker 9

Great. Thanks, Dave and Ryan.

Speaker 3

Thank you. Thanks, Greg.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this

Speaker 3

Thank you very much and thank you all for joining us and for your questions. Although the peak season sales didn't meet our initial expectations, We came pretty close to our Q2 guidance. But it is clear that we are looking at a different back half of the year than we originally anticipated. I am very, very pleased though with the way our market share is holding up, but also particularly with the way that our recurring revenue of businesses are holding up. P and A is performing very well.

Speaker 3

Mercury, RePower, Freedom Boat Club, we didn't even get a question for once this time, but it continues to grow memberships. It's grown about 3% in terms of memberships this year. So a lot of great performance there, which is driving really robust earnings and very strong cash flow. So we're very excited about that part of the business. And we are clearly positioning ourselves very, very well for 2025.

Speaker 3

I do want to end by just saying that we continue to focus on being an employer of choice. We have a great team at Brunswick that's driving everything that you hear about. And we recently were ranked number 1 in the Engineering and Manufacturing category in Times Best Midsize Companies, which I think is a testament to how we run the business from a financial perspective, from a personnel perspective and from a corporate responsibility perspective. So I'm delighted with that. I wanted to thank all of our employees.

Speaker 3

Thank you all very much.

Operator

Thank you. The conference of Brunswick Corporation has now concluded. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines.

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Earnings Conference Call
Brunswick Q2 2024
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