Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Boyd Group Services Inc. fourth quarter 2022 results conference call. Listeners are reminded that certain matters discussed in today's conference call or answers that may be given to questions asked could constitute forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties related to Boyd's future financial or business performance. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements. The risk factors that may affect results are detailed in Boyd's annual information form and other periodic filings and registration statements. You can access these documents at SEDAR's database found at sedar.com. I'd like to remind everyone this conference is being recorded today, Wednesday, March 22, 2023. I would now like to introduce Mr. Tim O'Day, President and Chief Executive Officer of Boyd Group Services Inc. Please go ahead, Mr. O'Day.
Thank you, operator. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us for today's call. On the call with me today is Jeff Murray, our Vice President of Finance and Interim Chief Financial Officer. At the end of 2022, Pat Pathipati retired from the role of Executive Vice President and CFO. As the search to succeed him continues, we've appointed Jeff Murray as Interim CFO effective January 1, 2023. We believe Jeff's long tenure, skills, and experience will serve us well during this search period and enable us to carry out our goals and achieve our long-term goals. We released our 2022 fourth quarter and year-end results before markets opened today. You can access our news release as well as our complete financial statements and Management Discussion and Analysis on our website at boydgroup.com.
Our news release, financial statements, and MD&A have also been filed on SEDAR this morning. On today's call, we will discuss the financial results for the three-month period ended December thirty-first, 2022, provide a general business update, and discuss our long-term growth strategy. We will then open the call for questions. In 2022, Boyd was able to achieve record sales and demonstrate resilience in the face of many challenges, including supply chain disruption and an extremely tight labor market with the accompanying wage pressure. We are pleased with the progress we made in 2022, and in particular, the level of same-store sales growth and the improved adjusted EBITDA delivered consistently during the last three quarters of the year. We remain focused on our key challenges of building capacity through increased staffing and negotiating sufficient price increases to recover lost margin from wage pressure.
For the year ended December 31, 2022, we reported sales of $2.4 billion, an increase of 29.9% over the prior year, driven by same-store sales increases of 19.8% and contributions from 136 new locations that had not been in operation for the full comparative period. Gross margin decreased to 44.7% of sales, compared to 44.8% in the comparative period. The prior period included the recognition of Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy, or CEWS, of approximately $4.0 million. The gross margin percentage was negatively impacted by reduced labor and part margins, as well as a higher mix of part sales in relation to labor. During 2022, Boyd faced supply chain disruptions, which resulted in a negative impact on margins.
While pricing increased and improvements were made throughout the year, labor margins were negatively impacted by the extraordinarily tight labor market, which continued to result in increased wage costs to both retain and recruit staff. The shortage of labor and increasing vehicle complexity also resulted in a higher mix of parts sales in relation to labor. These negative impacts were partially offset by performance-based credit relief to address the constraints caused by current market conditions and increased scanning and calibration services. Operating expenses increased to $194.1 million when compared to the same period the prior year, primarily as a result of increased sales based on same-store sales as well as location growth. The prior period included the recognition of CEWS of approximately $5.8 million.
Operating expenses were negatively impacted by the extraordinarily tight labor market, which resulted in increased wage and benefit costs to both retain and recruit staff. Also impacting the year ended December 31, 2022, were increased support costs related to recruitment and training, including costs associated with the Technician Development Program, as well as support costs related to the expansion of the WOW Operating Way practices to corporate business processes. adjusted EBITDA for the year ended December 31, 2022, was $273.5 million, compared to $219.5 million in the same period of the prior year. The $54 million increase was primarily the result of improved sales levels. adjusted EBITDA for the year was constrained by technician capacity and was also negatively impacted by wage inflation and supply chain disruption.
In total, adjusted EBITDA for the year ended December 31, 2022 or 2021 benefited from the CEWS payment of approximately $9.8 million. We reported net earnings of $41 million, compared to $23.5 million in the same period of the prior year. Adjusted net earnings per share increased from $1.30 to $1.97. The increase in adjusted net earnings per share is primarily attributable to increased sales, partially offset by the lower gross margin percentage and the higher levels of operating expenses. Moving on to Q4 results. During the fourth quarter, we recorded sales of $637.1 million, a 23.4% increase when compared to the same period of 2021. Our same-store sales, excluding foreign exchange, increased by 20.7% in the fourth quarter.
Same-store sales benefited from pricing increases and high levels of demand for services, as well as an increase in production capacity related to technician hiring and the growth in the Technician Development Program. Although ongoing staffing constraints and supply chain disruption continued to impact the sales levels that could be achieved during the fourth quarter of 2022. Sales also increased based on higher repair costs due to increasing vehicle complexity, increased scanning and calibration services, as well as general market inflation. Same-store sales in Canada continued to recover, but this recovery continued to be impacted by supply chain disruption as well as labor capacity constraints in the fourth quarter of 2022. Gross margin was 44.3% in the fourth quarter of 2022 compared to 43.5% achieved in the same period of 2021.
Gross margin percentage benefited from pricing increases, including performance-based credit relief to address the constraints caused by the conditions, market conditions, and increased scanning and calibration services. These benefits were partially offset by a higher mix of parts sales in relation to labor. Increasing vehicle complexity resulted in a higher mix of parts sales in relation to labor. The lower gross margin percentage in the fourth quarter of 2022 relative to the third quarter of 2022 is primarily the result of variability in parts sourcing and pricing, which is resulting in slightly greater part margin variability quarter to quarter. The margin for the year ended December 31, 2022, is within the normal range.
Adjusted EBITDA or EBITDA, adjusted for fair value adjustments to financial instruments and costs related to acquisitions and transactions, was $74.7 million, an increase of 30.4% over the same period of 2021. The increase was primarily the result of improved sales levels. In total, adjusted EBITDA for the three months ended December 31, 2021, benefited from the CEWS in the amount of $2.3 million. Net earnings for the fourth quarter of 2022 was $14.2 million, compared to $4.9 million in the same period of 2021.
Excluding fair value adjustments and acquisition and transaction costs, adjusted net earnings for the fourth quarter of 2022 were $14.6 million or $0.68 per share, compared to adjusted net earnings of $5.9 million or $0.28 per share in the same period of the prior year. Adjusted net earnings for the period was positively impacted by higher levels of sales and higher gross margin percentage, partially offset by higher levels of operating expenses. At the end of the year, we had total debt net of cash of $963 million, compared to $940.8 million at September 30, 2022, $957 million at the end of 2021.
Debt net of cash increased when compared to December 31, 2021, primarily as a result of an increase in lease liabilities driven by lease renewal activity. During the year ended December 31, 2022, the company completed the sale leaseback transactions for proceeds of $55.1 million. The increase in start-up locations resulted in a buildup of real estate assets. The company's strategy has been to not hold real estate. The sale leaseback transactions allow the company to replenish capital while continuing to use these properties. Based on the confidence we have in our business, we announced an increase to our dividends by 2.1% to CAD 0.588 per share on an annualized basis in Canadian dollars beginning in the fourth quarter of 2022. This is the 15th consecutive year that we've increased dividends to shareholders.
During 2023, we plan to make cash capital expenditures, excluding those related to acquisition and development of new locations, within the range of 1.6%-1.8% of sales. In addition to these capital expenditures, we plan to invest in network technology upgrades to further strengthen our technology and security infrastructure and prepare for advanced technology needs in the future. This investment is expected in 2023 to be in the range of $5 million-$8 million, with similar investments expected in 2024 and 2025. These investments align with our ESG sustainability roadmap to responsibly address data privacy and cybersecurity.
In November of 2020, we announced our new five-year growth strategy in which Boyd intends to again double the size of the business over a five-year period from 2021 to 2025, based on 2019 constant currency revenues, implying a compound annual growth rate of 15%. Given the high level of location growth in 2021 and the strong same-store sales growth in 2022, we remain confident that we were on track to achieve our long-term growth goals. Our intake location strategy is intended to drive same-store sales growth at times when capacity is not constrained. In late 2022 and early 2023, we decided to close many intake locations in the U.S. based on the reality of our current capacity constraints. We plan to increase production location growth during 2023 in relation to 2022.
We are pleased to have opened or acquired 17 locations thus far in the quarter, all of which have been single locations, and the pipeline to add new locations and to expand into new markets is robust. We remain focused on our key challenges of building our capacity through increased staffing and negotiating sufficient price increases to recover lost margin from wage pressure. We continue to experience high volumes of work, and we are benefiting from increased scanning and calibration revenue. However, there's also been a continued shift of higher mix in parts in relation to labor, driven by increasing repair complexity. Thus far in the first quarter of 2023, same-store sales results have been consistent with the growth experienced over the past few quarters. The balance of 2023 will have higher comparative periods for which same-store sales will be measured against.
Workforce initiatives such as the Technician Development Program are having a positive impact on capacity and ongoing investments in technology, equipment, and training position us well for continued operational execution. We remain committed to addressing the labor market challenges so that we can service additional demand through initiatives such as the Technician Development Program. Price increases for labor continue to work their way through the system, market by market and client by client. This has resulted in gradual improvement in labor margins. The timeline for when this issue resolves is difficult to predict, but the impact is expected to be less and less as wage increases stabilize and pricing matures. As communicated previously, performance-based pricing programs may cause margin to vary on a quarter-by-quarter basis.
Throughout 2022, we made progress on the priority areas in each of environmental, social, and governance pillars outlined in our first ESG report published in March of 2022. We recognize that we have the potential to deliver significant positive impacts to society and the environment. We look forward to publishing our second ESG report in the coming months. In summary and in closing, I continue to be incredibly proud of our team, who have adjusted to the new environment and are working hard to position us well for the future. With that, I would like to open the call for questions. Operator?
Thank you. To our phone audience joining today, if you would like to ask a question, simply press star and one on your telephone keypad. Pressing star and one will place your line into a queue, and we ask that if you're joining today on a speakerphone, please return to your handset prior to pressing star and one to be certain that your signal does reach our equipment. Once again, ladies and gentlemen, that is star and one if you'd like to ask a question. We'll hear first from Chris Murray at ATB Capital Markets.
Good morning.
Yeah, good morning. A couple quick questions for you folks. Just thinking about kind of the mix of work as we go into 2023. It sounds like, you know, pricing is continuing to improve. I'm just sort of curious about what you folks are seeing in terms of kind of part and labor dynamics. I was wondering if you could maybe make some comments on, you know, what you're seeing around scanning and calibration and, you know, how that you think will play in through the margin profile as we get to call it more normalized operations or pricing maybe later in 2023 and into 2024.
Yeah, there are a few different questions in there, Chris. I think on the first one as it relates to parts, I think we're seeing two things impact our revenue mix and skewing more toward parts. One is a trend that I think will continue, and that's just increasing vehicle complexity and higher part content. When we look at the mix of vehicles, newer vehicles have a higher number of parts and a higher average cost of part when going through a repair than older vehicles. As, you know, as we begin to grow newer vehicles as part of our mix, we'll likely see that shift. The second issue really relates to capacity constraints.
You know, when a non-drive vehicle comes to one of our facilities, we really have to address it, which means we may be scheduling out lighter hit drivable vehicles, and those lighter hit drivable vehicles would tend to have a better, you know, labor-to-parts mix than the non-drive vehicles.
Maybe, Tim, just to, just add as well, the fact that we've got some supply chain challenges still and a big backlog does mean that sometimes we have to choose the least optimal choice in terms of, in terms of the part selection.
Yes. For the year, we've had a richer mix of OE parts than what we've historically had because of limited availability or less availability of aftermarket, although we have seen some improvement in the availability of aftermarket, particularly in the fourth quarter.
That should smooth out over time.
Yeah. As it relates to the calibration and the scanning and calibration has continued to gradually become a richer part of our mix of sales. While we don't go into the specific details on that, it's a trend that I would expect to continue. Newer vehicles require more calibration operations. We, you know, our business practice is to really scan everything that comes in to identify, you know, any potential damage to ADAS components, and then obviously repair those that require repair as a part of the repair. I'd say that's a favorable tailwind and, you know, the.
While the margins on that are somewhat less attractive because much of it is sublet, our strategy is to bring more of it in-house over time, which should be a positive for us as we accomplish that.
Okay. That's, that's helpful. One other question just on acquisitions. I think in your, in your prepared remarks and the MD&A, you talked about, you know, completing 40 acquisitions in 2022, and then talking about, you know, growing stores this year. Should we think about that as growing above, like adding more than 40? You know, you've done 17 so far year-to-date. Like how should we think about scaling that in terms of the acceleration then? As you also noted, you know, most of the store growth so far has been single store. Any thoughts around multi-store and how that might be shaping up as we go further into the year?
You know, to answer your first question, I think in our MD&A, we did specifically say that we expected to grow at a faster rate from a unit standpoint in 2023 than we did in 2022. I think the fact that we've opened 17 partway through the first quarter is a good indication of that. Those were all single shops. You know, as most people know, the single shops have a higher return on capital than multi-shop operations, and we believe we can accomplish our double 25 goal without significant multi-shop investment. That doesn't mean that we won't acquire multi-shop operators. If there's one that's attractive that makes sense, we're willing to make those investments, but we're also pretty focused on single shop acquisitions and greenfield, brownfield development.
Okay, fair enough. Thanks, folks.
Thanks, Chris.
Our next question today comes from Steve Hansen with Raymond James. Please go ahead.
Morning to you.
Yeah. Good morning, guys. Tim, how should we think about the intake center closures and that strategy shift from a revenue standpoint? Are they-- You know, I understand the concept that, you know, the capacity is already constrained, so there's no real need to have those shops or those intake centers referring volume over. Do you expect any actual material impact on the top line from those closures?
Not at all. No, we're trading off work. The reason that we closed a number of intake centers is that we didn't have capacity to service the incremental business, and it didn't make sense to bear the expense. Well, the expense, you know, wasn't material. It just didn't make sense to continue that. We do have a very successful model. We know how to deploy it. I think, you know, when at whatever point the market returns to, you know, demand, where we're really looking to identify more demand, I'm confident in our ability to pull the intake center strategy back in. We know how to execute it and it does work well, just isn't necessary in the current environment.
Okay. No, that's very helpful. Then just on the margin front, it sounds like you're pretty confident in labor margins improving incrementally as you get additional price and perhaps some additional throughput. I just wanted to be a little bit more clear on the idea around complexity and/or severity. Is there a difference between that severity and new car impact that you're describing? I'm just trying to parse out some of the differences there. I think as you described in earlier, in Chris' comment, there's the new car issue, but there's also a drivable versus a non-drivable. Can you just maybe help us understand that issue a little bit better as it relates to margins?
I think the anytime you shift mix toward parts and away from labor in terms of the total mix, your, you know, overall gross margin is going to be impacted because part margins, while it's not exact, part margins are about half of what labor margins are. That shift will impact the overall gross margin. You know, the cause of the higher mix of parts right now, one is a systematic or not systematic, it's a trend that will continue, which is vehicle complexity. The other trend is high used car values, which are causing insurers to repair cars that, you know, in a normal environment would have been totaled out. Those cars tend to have more damage because they're, you know, high-value repairs.
That I would expect to normalize as used car values normalize and total loss rates normalize.
Perfect. Very helpful. Then just lastly on, as we think about that growth profile, and you referred to this earlier. Are the single shop, you know, the decision to accelerate the single shop acquisitions is clearly notable thus far in the quarter? Is the pace that we're seeing today thus far in Q1 a pace that you expect you can continue or accelerate through the year? Thanks.
I think the only guidance we've really provided on that, Steve, is that we're confident in our ability to double the size of the business and we expect new units to be above what we had in 2023. You know, the challenge with providing specifics on that is that, you know, deals sometimes don't go through. We're pretty confident. We've got a good pipeline of accretive opportunities, and we've got a great team in place to execute on those.
Okay. Thank you, Tim.
Our next question will come from the line of Bret Jordan at Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Good morning, guys. You know, on that growth question, as you sort of look around the environment and clearly some others, consolidating the collision space as well, do you see any change, or have others taken a step back just given the pressures on internal costs and capacity? Do you see yourself, I guess, in a, you know, a changed competitive situation, either better or worse than you were two years ago in M&A?
You know, we're pretty focused on single shops right now and greenfield, brownfield development. On that front, I'm not sure we've seen much of a change even over the past several years. I'm not sure that we get asked this question in every quarter, and it I usually answer it by saying, "I think it's too early to tell." I think what we have to look at is do, you know, do some of the growing private equity-backed competitors continue to, you know, buy multi-shop operations? They don't disclose their values, but do they continue to be aggressive with those acquisitions? I think I'm not sure what the answer to that is yet.
What I am sure of is that we have a single shop in greenfields, brownfield strategy that we're confident, combined with same-store sales growth, can allow us to achieve our growth goals.
Okay. Great. On the mix shift, obviously more parts than labor. Could you sort of maybe bucket how much of that has also been in the parts mix? I think you called out more OE parts because of aftermarket supply. Could you guys sort of give us perspective where we were in the quarter maybe versus a pre-pandemic, you know, percentage alternative part versus OE and then percentage parts versus labor?
you know, we don't disclose that specifically, Bret. I think the parts has been growing over the past couple of years. We have seen an improvement in the availability of alternative parts. I know LKQ also reported that they had much better fill rates and availability. We've seen that, and that's good because it helps us keep repair costs down. As many people know, we generally have better margins on aftermarket parts than we would on OE. That's really all I can give you on it.
Okay. One quick last question. You said there's no real top line impact from shutting intake centers. Is there any cost associated in the short term with shutting intake centers?
There is some cost. It's not material. you know, it's intake centers are staffed with one individual, and typically not much other expense associated with it.
Okay, great. Thank you.
Thanks, Bret.
Once more, ladies and gentlemen, that is star and one if you would like to ask a question today. Our next question will come from the line of Michael Doumet at Scotiabank.
Morning, Michael.
Hey. Good morning, guys. Hey, Tim. Hey, Jeff. You know, first question is actually a clarification. In your commentary, you talked about Q1 to date same-store sales growth being consistent with the growth of the last few quarters. I mean, is that sort of to mean to us at least it's gonna be roughly 20% year-on-year in line with the last, I guess, three, four quarters?
Yeah. We're really just referring to what we've seen thus far in the quarter. You know, I think we're clearly signaling that we're gonna have, you know, pretty respectable same-store sales growth this quarter. We expect that. That, beginning in Q2, we saw significant same-store sales growth last year at this time. I think Q2 was over 14%, Q2 was over 22%, and Q3 was in the 20% range. You know, we're moving up against pretty significant comp periods. That was really what we were trying to bring clarity to.
Yeah. No, that makes sense to me. I guess just if I'm running the math, you know, with 20% same-store sales growth Q1, you know, revenue per location so far, again, so far through Q1, it looks like it's gonna increase 5%-7% quarter on quarter. Again, just I was wondering if you could comment on, you know, if that math is right, plus, you know, what the sequential improvement is a reflection of, and I'm wondering if that's price or volume and if that shouldn't necessarily flow down to the bottom line?
I think it's a, it's a combination of price and volume. We're certainly benefiting from, you know, price increases. We're benefiting from some increased vehicle complexity, although that does use labor capacity because the, you know, the average repair today has both more parts and more labor hours on it, and the labor is really our constraint. I don't know if you have anything you wanna add, Jeff.
I guess productive capacity is we've seen some improvement with that. Our Technician Development Program, we're really impressed with how it's developed over the course of the year, and so, that's making a difference too.
We've had improvement in technician staffing generally.
Yeah.
You know, those are really the drivers.
Okay. Yeah. No. That looks good for Q1. I guess second question, you know, maybe to dig into the operating expenses a little bit. You know, for the year up 31% versus 2021.
By comparison, you know, the average store count, I think increased about 7%, so presumably a lot of that is inflationary pressures. There's a balance that's associated with the corporate initiatives, and I'm assuming it's mainly the TDP. Given, you know, some of these project-based investments, like how should we think about OpEx growth into 2023? Like should we think of that as slowing down as some of these investments mature?
We're certainly looking to drive more sales growth to absorb operating costs. We're very conscious of the fact that, you know, our operating cost ratio is above historical levels. You know, we're looking carefully at that and expect to absorb operating costs with sales growth over time.
There are inflationary pressures-
Yeah.
-that we're still seeing that we have to deal with.
We're benefiting from some inflationary pricing on the other side too.
Right.
We do lag, and we've talked about this before, but, you know, we see, you know, things like wage increases or other, you know, utility cost increases and things that we don't have much control over that have gone up, but our pricing comes in more slowly. We're gonna continue to focus on pricing, on managing our business more effectively, to recover our margins back to our historical levels.
Got it. Okay. Before I pass the line, just one technicality, if you can clarify it. Just wondering if the salary of an unproductive technician, so, you know, somebody in the TDP in the first or second phase of the training, if that moves from SG&A to cost of sales when they do become productive. Just trying to think about the two lines there.
It moves once they're beginning to become productive, it moves to cost of sales. Prior to that, it is an SG&A.
Perfect. All right. Thanks a lot, guys.
Okay. Thanks. Thanks, Michael.
We'll hear next from Daryl Young at TD Cowen.
Hey, good morning, Daryl.
Just one quick one for me, following up on the parts mix and the impact on margins. Some of those complexities of repair are being structural. Does that prevent you from getting back to historic margin levels, or is the number of parts and the operating leverage that's driven by the greater number of parts and same store sales growth offsetting such that you can get back to your historic, overall margin level?
Well the parts is a headwind, although it does increase total revenue. You know, one of the, one of the other trends that's going the other way relates to calibration, scanning and calibration services, which are also growing as we address more vehicles with ADAS equipment. I think there are some offsetting factors that over time, we expect to help us leverage our margin back up.
Okay. On a net-net.
In addition to, you know, continuing to seek out improved pricing to recover labor margins.
Got it. Okay. That's all from me. Thanks.
Thanks, Daryl.
Zachary Evershed with National Bank Financial, please go ahead. Your line is open.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone.
Good morning, Zachary.
We saw a slight downtrend in the number of DRP relationships in 2022 for national MSOs, and we did note that your top five concentration ticked up a bit. How are you thinking about your DRPs in the current environment, and do you think you're adjusting your competitive positioning?
I'm not sure quite what you're getting at. I mean, the, you know, DRPs is our primary source of revenue, obviously. We have grown with our larger partners. I'm not sure I completely understand, Zachary, what you're trying to get to.
I guess what I'd be driving at is, do you see yourself increasing your business with DRP partners who have moved more quickly on wage increases?
I see. Yeah. Well, we've talked about this over the last several quarters, and we've been patient. We do have very limited capacity. At some point, I think we have to make sure that we're serving the clients who allow us to get the returns that we need and to attract and retain the staff that's necessary to build our business. We don't take those decisions lightly, so we want to be really cautious and fairly patient about it. We've made a lot of progress with our clients and have seen, you know, greater parity in pricing, but there are still gaps. I do think at some point we're going to have to remove capacity where we can't be as profitable as we need to be.
We're just, you know, fairly cautious about what, how, and when we do that.
Understood. If we think about those steps of creating capacity by raising wages to attract talent, which relies on the carriers raising rates, which relies on passing premiums to customers, where are we now for each of those three dynamics, versus where we need to be for a balanced picture?
Well, I probably can't speak fully to where the carriers are. I mean, but I read the same reports that others do, and carriers have been, you know, aggressively seeking rate increases so that they can make their auto books profitable. Most of the carriers are not there yet and expect to have some continued increases. I don't know that we're fully dependent on carriers getting the increase before we get it. We've been very successful to date getting increases from really all of our partners. Y ou know, I would say that there isn't a complete dependency. But we've seen, you know, good improvements from our clients over the last several quarters. It really hasn't slowed down.
I think we're certainly not done. We've got more work to do, but there seems to be a willingness on the part of our partners to adjust rate to make sure that, you know, we can continue to build our capacity.
Thank you for that. The trainees, where are they mostly coming from? Any industry in particular?
Well, actually, a lot of them come internally. They start in an entry-level position in our company. Could be somebody that's a detailer, car washer, and demonstrate their commitment to the company, their ability to, you know, show up to work every day, be on time, have the right attitude. Those are probably our preferred path for bringing them into TDP. We also have been using the TDP program to drive our inclusion and diversity initiatives. We've recruited from trade schools, and we've tried to identify some of our trade schools in areas that will help us increase our diversity. We do have a number of women in the TDP program now. We're very proud of the progress that we've made there.
I think we're gonna focus as much as we can on internal promotions in the TDP, because it's somebody that we know is, you know, committed and, you know, prepared to work hard to learn.
Referrals.
Yeah, we do that.
Referrals has been another channel that's been effective.
We also do recruit from trade schools. I mean, it's a multifaceted approach, and we've been very successful with recruiting and building our TDP.
Great. Okay, thanks. Just one last one. Given the pipeline for acquisitions and new locations this year, how do you feel about your balance sheet funding that?
I feel really good about our balance sheet. We've got, you know. We're in a great position. Our debt is conservative. We're generating, you know, good positive cash flow. And the, you know, the focus that we have on single shop growth, and I'm not saying that we're not gonna look at multi-shop growth, but the focus on single shop growth is not terribly burdensome from a total investment standpoint. I feel really good about our balance sheet.
Yeah, we've made a lot of progress on our leverage ratio over the last year, and so that's been a big important factor of getting our balance sheet where it needs to be.
I appreciate that. Thanks. I'll turn it over.
Our next question will come from Gary Ho at Desjardins. Go ahead, please.
Go ahead, Gary.
Thanks. Good morning. Good morning. I guess on the intakes, going back to the intake locations, the decision to close them down, I think you mentioned, this is more permanent than temporary. You know, are some of these intake stores at a specific dealership location? If so, you know, does that jeopardize that relationship? Just lastly, are you know, done with the intake location closures? Just noticed there's still a bunch in the Canada and a smaller number in the U.S.
Yeah, that's right. There are several in Canada and still a few in the U.S. It doesn't affect our dealer relationships. You know, we have a relationship that goes beyond the intake center with those dealers. It ties into OE certifications. It ties into parts purchases. No, we don't expect it to have any impact on dealer relationships.
Are you mostly done with the closures there?
Yes, we're mostly done with the closures.
Great. My second question, just going back to the technicians. Just remind me, what's the average technician per single repair shop? Just wondering, you know, the magnitude of the TDP program as it relates to kinda, you know, the number of technicians per shop.
Yeah, we don't actually disclose the number of technicians per shop, but the TDP program overall is a fairly meaningful part of our overall technician headcount. Obviously it's not, it's not equal to it or even close to that, but it's pretty meaningful. As the program is maturing, we're seeing, you know, a regular cadence of graduates moving out of TDP and then into our, you know, formal full-time experienced technician workforce. We're successfully replenishing those graduates with new trainees.
Okay, great. Thanks for the color. That's it for me.
Thanks, Gary.
Krista Friesen at CIBC, you have our next question.
Hi, Krista.
Great. Thank you. Hi, everyone. Good morning. I was just wondering on the TDP, do you have the opportunity to increase the capacity of it if you have enough interest?
We have plenty of interest. We do have the ability to increase the capacity of it if we chose to do that. You know, it does come with an expense burden. We have a fairly sizable team that supports and manages the program. There's additional compensation to the mentors for the work that they do to help us develop the apprentice. There's a considerable amount of training expense, both the, you know, mentor training as well as third party training. Generally, it's I-CAR training, which is the organization that develops and helps to deliver training to the industry. The program is very scalable. You know, obviously, we built it from 200 the beginning of last year to 400 when we reported in November. It's got tremendous support from the operational teams.
We have enough mentors in the organization that we could grow the program further based on, you know, mentor interest. It's, it's definitely scalable. You know, we're trying to balance the expense associated with that versus just recruiting and focusing on experienced technicians as well.
We had a big step up last year. I mean, that was a big step up, and I think it's just time to monitor it for a period of time,-
Yeah.
-and assess it.
We remain really pleased with the program and excited with what it's delivering to our business.
Okay, that's great. I was wondering if you could speak to, even if it's just qualitatively, the retention that you're seeing at Boyd and if the wage increases you've implemented have been enough to at least retain the talent you do have. Maybe it's not enough to attract enough talent, but just the retention that you're seeing.
Yeah. We don't give specifics on retention, but, you know, we've put a number of programs in place to improve retention, and I think we've seen some positive results from that. We are consistently reviewing our benefits. We're reviewing the rates that we pay technicians to make sure that we're competitive. We're proactive on that. We have leadership training initiatives in place to improve the ability of our frontline leaders to engage with their team members. We have put some other resources in place to help make sure that we're listening and responsive to our team members' needs. Y ou know, we've had some good success. We've got more work to do, and we have plans to do that.
Overall, I'm pleased with our progress and expect us to continue to make further progress.
Okay, great. I was just wondering, as you, as you look at acquisitions, do you also, do you have a separate bucket where you consider kind of the mobile scanning and calibration business similar to the one you acquired in 2021, I believe?
Yeah. I think that's a fair way to look at it. We look at that for both our calibration business and our auto glass business. We think we have acquisition opportunities there as well. The majority of the acquisitions are still gonna be collision related. We've been pretty successful at organically growing our auto glass and calibration business. We're open to acquisitions in those segments as well.
Okay, perfect. I'll jump back in the queue. Thanks, guys.
Thanks, Krista.
Our next question today will come from Jonathan Lamers at Laurentian Bank. Please go ahead.
Thank you.
Jonathan.
Morning. Just on the calibration business. Tim, you mentioned the opportunity there from internalizing the skill set. Do you see that as more of a 2023 opportunity or more of a 2024 opportunity based on your training plans?
I would say both. You know, we expect to grow that in 2023, but we won't get to the end state in 2023. It's, you know, it's another skilled labor position that is not, you know, there's not a plentiful supply. We are growing our own and recruiting. We've got, you know, plans in place to continue to grow market by market our, offering in that area.
Thanks. Just to circle up on the sequential improvement in the sales and the labor capacity comments. You mentioned that you did see some price increases from Q4 to Q1 or benefits from price increases, that you saw some improvement in labor capacity. You know, is it fair to say that you are getting further labor rate increases that are enabling more technician recruitment and retention? Is there any color you can provide us from your recent insurance partner discussions, and how that relates to the labor situation?
I think the fact that we're seeing such good same-store sales growth, you know, confirms that we're having success at growing our capacity. It's not all price. Yeah, I think it's gonna be a continuing, it's gonna be a continuing effort, both to raise wages in the industry for the industry to attract from other, you know, other segments. You know, we're certainly not done, but we're pleased with our progress.
Thanks for your comments.
Thanks, Jonathan.
That was our final question in the queue from our audience this morning. Mr. O'Day, rather, I will turn it back to you, sir, for any closing remarks that you have, sir.
Well, thank you, operator, and thank you everyone for joining our call, and we look forward to reporting our first quarter results with you in May. Thanks and have a great day.
This does conclude today's teleconference, and we thank you all for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines, and we hope that you enjoy the rest of your day.