Interface, Inc. (NASDAQ:TILE) Q3 2023 Earnings Conference Call
November 3, 2023 8:00 AM ET
Company Participants:
Christine Needles – Corporate Communications
Laurel Hurd – President and Chief Executive Officer
Bruce Hausmann – Chief Financial Officer
Conference Call Participants:
Brian Biros – TRG
David McGregor – Longbow Research
Keith Hughes – Truist
Operator:
Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Q3 2023 Interface, Inc. Earnings Conference Call. I would now like to welcome Christine Needles, Corporate Communications, to begin the call. Christine, over to you.
Christine Needles:
Good morning, and welcome to Interface’s conference call regarding third quarter 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-K filed with the SEC. The company assumes no responsibility to update forward-looking statements. Management’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-K furnished with the SEC today. Lastly, this call is being recorded and broadcasted for Interface. It contains copyrighted material and may not be rerecorded or rebroadcasted without Interface’s express permission. Your participation on the call confirms your consent to the company’s taping and broadcasting of it. After our prepared remarks, we will open up the call for questions. Now I will turn the call over to Laurel Hurd, CEO.
Laurel Hurd:
Thank you, Christine, and good morning, everyone. I want to start by thanking the Interface team for their hard work in a dynamic environment. Our results in the quarter reflect the resiliency of our global diversification strategy and effective execution in a relatively sluggish market. Despite lower volumes in the quarter, we expanded our operating margin and delivered strong cash generation.
There were two primary factors that impacted our revenue growth in the third quarter, but we also expect to continue in the fourth quarter. First, the retail sector, which had an outsized impact on our third quarter sales for a good portion of our year-over-year decline. We don’t often talk about the retail segment as it’s about 4% of our year-to-date annual sales. However, this sector has been pressured, as you know, and we have seen significant unplanned deferrals of store remodel projects due to the macroeconomic uncertainty these retailers are facing. They’re being cautious in their capital budget, pushing out projects and in some cases, closing locations and we’re feeling the impact of that.
Second, while we have seen broad-based resilience in a dynamic market, including several bright spots and our order rates have held up fairly well. We have started to see industry-wide sluggishness begin to develop across the commercial market.
Turning to our segments in more detail. We saw notable strength in health care with billings up 13% in the quarter globally and up 21% in the Americas. As the health care industry continues to evolve, architects and designers are recognizing our right to win in this growing segment. I recently spent time in the Midwest and visited three major health care systems. They’re making impressive investments to build new facilities, as well as renovate their existing facilities. Health care spaces are typically thought of as primarily sterile, clean environment, which is incredibly important, especially in the operating theaters. Our customers are now also increasingly focused on creating environments that prioritize patient and caregiver well-being and serenity. As these health care systems expand across the country and, in some cases, around the globe, other spaces are designed become a representation of their brands. Design matters more and more in this segment in addition to performance, and our brands of nora rubber and interface flooring and the integrated system that we offer is truly resonating.
We also continue to see strong activity in education, both from K-12 and higher education. On a year-to-date basis, education is up across most of our major markets and up 5% for the total company. I also met with two of our important higher ed customers while in the Midwest. Sustainability matters to these customers. Often, we’ll meet not only with the head of facilities or head of design, but also their head of sustainability. Many universities have made carbon commitments and are drawn to Interface because we have the lowest embodied carbon in the industry, and their students care and hold them accountable to deliver on their commitments. Often Interface is used as a case study in their university curriculum for our advancements in sustainability. So of course, they use our products in their floors. It also struck me how dynamic these higher ed customer’s needs are across classrooms, storms and student unions, where they expect our LVT and carpet to their labs and health centers where nora rubber is the solution. Again, is our integrated system of flooring solutions that our customers truly appreciate.
Corporate office remains relatively steady, where we see continued renovations with more and more companies modifying their spaces as they bring people back to the office. Americas corporate office billings are up 3.5% year-to-date. Australia is up 2.4% with Europe fairly close to last year levels and continued softness in Asia.
Moving to orders. Orders were stable in the third quarter with consolidated currency neutral net orders roughly flat year-over-year. Currency-neutral orders in the Americas were down 4.2%, driven by softness in the retail sector, while EAAA was up 4.5%. Strong order growth in EMEA more than offset softness in Asia, and our backlog remained solid, declining slightly in the third quarter, but up 8% since the beginning of the year.
Despite lower volumes in the quarter, adjusted gross profit margins increased 217 basis points year-over-year. Our team did an excellent job maintaining price and driving favorable mix, enabling us to capture the benefit of raw material price relief despite lower fixed cost absorption. We remain focused on SG&A control, investing in customer-facing activity, design and innovation to drive long-term growth coming out of this more challenging cycle, while driving efficiencies in all other areas of our business. We also effectively managed our working capital and use our strong cash flow to reduce debt ahead of our expectations. Our balance sheet is in great shape.
Before I turn the call over to Bruce to go through the financial results, I want to take a moment to talk about One Interface and the progress we are making. On October 10, we launched our Past Forward carpet tile collection which is the first time we launched a global collection at the same time around the world. Past Forward draws on decades of iconic design. It brings a vintage deal and retro charm to modern design thinking and celebrate our 50th anniversary. It’s also a great example of the power of One Interface and demonstrates how we’re operationalizing our new strategy across our global business. I am confident we will continue to harness our talent across the globe to bring new products and designs to market faster and amplify our brand messaging consistently.
Overall, we continue to navigate the challenges in this dynamic market. We feel good about the way our brand and products continue to resonate with customers. We’ve come a long way as an organization over the last 50-years. As we look ahead, we will continue to honor our guiding principles by pushing the limits on design, innovation and sustainability while leveraging the power of our global organization. We believe we are uniquely positioned to capitalize on growth opportunities as they arise and as market conditions improve, which will help deliver profitable growth and return value to our shareholders.
With that, I will turn it over to Bruce to go through the financials.
Bruce Hausmann:
Thank you, Laurel, and good morning, everyone. Third quarter net sales totaled $311 million, a decrease of 5.1% versus…
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