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Earnings Call: Q1 2022

Jun 10, 2021

Speaker 1

Good day, and welcome to AstroNova's First Quarter Fiscal 2022 Financial Results Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded. I would like to now turn the conference over to David Kjell, who is the host of the company's Investor Relations firm, Sharon Merrill Associates. Please go ahead.

Speaker 2

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for joining us. Hosting this morning's call are Greg Woods, AstroNova's President and CEO And David Smith, the company's Chief Financial Officer. Greg will discuss the company's operating results. David will comment on the financials.

Greg will make concluding comments By now, you should have received a copy of the earnings release that was issued today. If you do not have a copy, Please go to the Investors page of the AstroNova website, www.astronovainc.com. Please note that statements made during today's call that are not statements of historical fact are considered forward looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1934. These forward looking statements are based on a number of assumptions that could involve risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, actual results could differ materially except as required by law.

Any forward looking statements speak only as of today, June 10, 2021. The company undertakes no obligation to update these forward looking statements. For further information regarding the forward looking statements and the factors that may cause differences, Please see the risk factors in AstroNova's Annual Report on Form 10 ks and the other filings the company makes with the Securities and Exchange Commission. On today's call, management will be referring to non GAAP financial measures, adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization Results and also can help investors who wish to make comparisons between AstroNova and other companies on both GAAP and non GAAP basis. A reconciliation of this non GAAP measure to its most directly comparable GAAP measure is available in today's earnings release.

And with that, I'll turn the call over to Greg.

Speaker 3

Thank you, David. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. For the Q1 of fiscal 2022, Revenue came in at $29,100,000 down 6% from the prior year as top line growth in our Product Identification segment Hardly offset continued softness in the Aerospace portion of our Test and Measurement segment due to the effects of the pandemic And the slow recovery in 7/37 MAX shipments. Although the global economy is still challenged, we are beginning to see signs of recovery in certain areas As economies begin to open up and air travel increases, our product identification segment posted record bookings for the quarter And bookings for the Aerospace portion of our Test and Measurement segment were up 45% sequentially, delivering the first Aerospace positive book to bill quarter since fiscal 2020. On the cost side of our Our team members have done an excellent job over the past year in bringing down our expenses as reflected in our higher margins and increased profitability in the quarter.

Operating expenses were essentially flat from the prior year's Q1 and operating profit was up nearly 11%. Turning to our Q1 performance by segment. Product Identification revenue was up 3% to 23,100,000 With solid contributions across the product line, the T3 OPX, our wide format, durable, direct to package printing system Products many benefits in terms of greater efficiency and a high return on investment. As a result, the T3 OPX continues to attract new customers From a geographic standpoint, the recent enhancements to our EMEA sales organization Case a nice uptick in international revenue in Q1. The international channel accounted for nearly 43% of total revenue, Up from 36% in the Q1 of fiscal 2021.

Domestic sales accounted for 57% of total revenue in the quarter versus 64% in Q1 last year. On our year end call, I talked About our recent expansion in China with the addition of a new office in the southern port city of Guangzhou. Since then, We have staffed up by hiring experienced sales and support team members for that location. With sales locations now in both Shanghai and Guangzhou, We're in a much stronger position to grow our business in the Asia Pacific region. We are reinforcing our APAC investment With a stronger trade show presence, having recently participated in 4 regional shows in niche industries, including food and cosmetics.

Looking ahead to the fall, we will have a booth this year at the PAC Expo Exposition in Las Vegas where we'll be demonstrating our latest product lineup. And of course, we continue to invest in our digital marketing initiatives, expanding our ebooks, case studies, support videos and other tools to attract new customers and help our existing customers optimize our technology. Looking at our Test and Measurement segment, 1st quarter revenue was down 30% from the same period in fiscal 2021 as the effects of the pandemic and the 7 37 MAX slow restart Continue to be felt across the commercial aerospace industry. I talked a moment ago about the positive indicators we are seeing. And while those may be improving a bit in certain areas.

Overall, industry analysts say it will still take many months for commercial aerospace to return to the 2019 levels. And correspondingly, for us to see substantial benefits from that recovery since our products are designed to nearly the full range of commercial and business jet aircraft We recently entered into a Tier 1 supply agreement with Airbus to ship AstroNova manufacturer printers For the A320 family of passenger aircraft, the Tier 1 designation enables us to supply flight deck printers directly to Airbus rather than through a 3rd party intermediary. A 3rd party supply agreement has been in place since 2017 We acquired an exclusive worldwide license from Honeywell International to manufacture the PTA-forty five B narrow format cockpit printer This direct supplier status means that we have achieved all of Airbus's rigorous qualification standards Across the areas of quality, engineering, manufacturing and global aftermarket support as well as program management. We are honored to be part of the Airbus direct supplier network and look forward to expanding our relationship further in the future. Now let me turn the call over to David for the financial review.

Speaker 4

Thanks, Greg, and good morning, everybody. In the Q1, we continued to manage our costs well while continuing to prudently invest in growing the business. Greg gave a comprehensive segment review, so I'll just mention a few more items from the P and L and balance sheet. I'll also note that our $7,600,000 in the fiscal 2022 Q1 compared to $8,900,000 in the prior year period, Reflecting the decline in the Test and Measurement segment, supplies revenue was $21,400,000 up from $2,900,000 a year ago. The year over year variance in supplies revenue reflected in part Weaker aerospace industry demand in the Q1 of this fiscal 2022 associated with COVID-nineteen as compared to last year as well as what we now think was some early pandemic supply stocking orders from some product identification customers in the fiscal 2021 Q1.

Let's turn to the supply chain. Throughout the pandemic, we've experienced some challenges in obtaining raw materials and components for our products and this continues. So far, we've not really had shortages and have managed this with some additional costs for things like Expedited shipping and express shipping fees, and we don't think that these challenges have materially affected Our financial results are relationships with our customers. And our current view is that these issues will remain manageable, but it probably will take We've been addressing potential supply shortages proactively throughout With long range planning and supplementing inventories as needed, to some extent, these strategies have resulted in us carrying more inventory than we normally would. And it's a reason that inventories at quarter end were down only modestly from the year end period.

And for the time being, we plan to continue to on this side of caution. Bookings for the Q1 were up 5% year over year and 12% sequentially to 32,800,000 Beginning in the fiscal 2021 Q4, we began reporting adjusted EBITDA, Which is EBITDA further adjusted just for share based compensation. And in Q1, adjusted EBITDA was $2,500,000 or 8.6 percent of revenue compared to $2,600,000 Or 8.3 percent in the Q1 of fiscal 2021. Turning to the balance sheet, cash and equivalents at the end of the quarter stood at $11,400,000 unchanged from year end. But debt at the end of the quarter was $9,600,000 Down from $12,400,000 at the end of the fiscal year, reflecting the reductions in debt we made when we closed the amended credit agreement This quarter that we talked about on our last call.

This excludes the PPP loan of $4,400,000 While our application for PPP loan forgiveness has been in for a while, we just don't know when the government will process it. Before I turn the call back to Greg, I just want to let you know that next week we'll be participating in the virtual East Coast Our presentation is scheduled to be available on the Investors segment of our website beginning at 8 am, Wednesday, June 16. And with all that, I'll now turn the call back to Greg for closing comments.

Speaker 3

Thanks, David. We continue to focus on our core strategic tenants, investing in innovation, expanding our global geographic footprint and delivering world class products that enable our customers to achieve greater efficiencies and profitability. In test and measurement, While the lingering effects of the pandemic continue to create uncertainty for the commercial aerospace industry, domestically, the market seems to be gradually turning a corner. Over the pace of recovery remains slow. In product identification, our strategy of addressing adjacent market segments With unique solutions like the T3 OPX is paying off.

Demand for direct to package printing is growing across the industry And as a global player, we are well positioned to capitalize on that momentum in that segment. Now, David, I'd be happy to take your questions.

Speaker 1

Our first question comes from Dick Ryan with Colliers.

Speaker 5

Thank you. So Greg, you talked about the Tier 1 status with Airbus. Does that now mean you're not required to pay Honeywell anymore fees for their participation? And how about on the Boeing side?

Speaker 3

Yes, the Boeing was that's easier because, yes, there are no fees with respect to Boeing because we already were a Tier 1 supplier for Boeing. With Airbus, yes, with the completion of this agreement, we can now work to finalize that. There's Still some negotiations going on in terms of the exact timing of wrapping up everything with Honeywell. There's kind of 3 people in that agreement there. It's us, Honeywell and Airbus.

So we got the Airbus piece, which was the most difficult locked up and now we just need to wind down the Honeywell transition service agreement piece of that, Which we're working on right now. Okay.

Speaker 5

And as the 737 Backlog starts to flow. What are you seeing there? It looks like obviously the booking strength, was it Pretty much related to the 737 or was it across the spectrum?

Speaker 3

No, it was across the spectrum and it's still a very small It's coming from the MAX, but we are seeing that just start to ramp up now. It's still small numbers compared to where we were In 2019, but we are seeing that tick up quarter by quarter. The latest The information we have from Boeing is in line with what they have said in the past is that they should be getting up to kind of the low Levels are at now to the 30, 31 kind of level as we get into very beginning of 2022. So that's good to hear they're on track with that. And as of course, as they do that, they'll need more and more printers to support that ramp up in their manufacturing.

Speaker 5

What is that what does their inventory of printers look like? Can you get a sense of how much inventory they're sitting with?

Speaker 3

Yes. They typically don't keep a lot. They keep it because again with the 737, the airlines actually purchased directly from us and we drop To bawling in time for the production. So they do keep a buffer obviously, they don't want to slow it down in case an airline is slow on their delivery, but that's Typically, you're in kind of the low tens kind of numbers that they keep on hand there in Seattle.

Speaker 5

Okay. On the Product ID side, you mentioned increased staffing in China. What The percent of revenues is APAC now and what's the opportunity? Where can that grow? Yes.

Speaker 3

We don't break out specific percentage, but it is a very large economy in China and they've Bounced back a lot quicker than most with the pandemic and they're kind of back to normal from what we can see in January. So we have a lot of business, but in business potential, but in the South, we weren't very well represented because it's hard to get there from Shanghai. So we expect that we don't publish the actual numbers, but we'd expect our China business to double year over year Kind of from this point to looking at next year as we ramp up that office, yes. Because the business in that area is nearly equal to The business we already have and the potential we have in the northern part of the country.

Speaker 5

Okay. I know you don't give Specific guidance, but can you give us a sense of how you see fiscal 2022 kind of flowing from 1st quarter as a base?

Speaker 3

Yes. We don't give that. But what I Say is, maybe I'll just highlight the things that we already have said, which is we're seeing a nice pickup in orders on our project identification side. And While the orders are still behind where they were, obviously, in the pre pandemic level in the Aerospace and Test and Measurement Portions of our Test and Measurement segment, we're seeing that ramp up too. So we see that as a positive indication.

And the macro drivers of the Vaccines in the country is recovering and open up, that's great for us. In the aerospace business, As more and more planes are flying, we're seeing increases in our MRO portion of our business. But all these things are driven by the International is still it depends who you talk to, but it's kind of down I saw this morning down 80% from April of last year to April this So we need that to bounce back too, but there's positive signs there.

Speaker 5

Okay. Okay, great. Thank you.

Speaker 1

There are no additional questions at this time. I'd like to now turn it back to Mr. Woods for closing remarks.

Speaker 3

Great. Well, thanks everyone for joining us this morning. We look forward to keeping you updated on our progress and we'll talk to you next quarter. Bye now.

Speaker 1

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's presentation. You may now disconnect.

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