Hello, everyone, welcome to the Johnson Outdoors Q4 2022 earnings conference call. Today's call will be led by Helen Johnson-Leipold, Johnson Outdoors Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Also on the call today is David Johnson, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Prior to the question and answer session, all participants will be placed in a listen-only mode. After the prepared remarks, the question and answer session will begin. If you'd like to ask a question during that time, please press star one one on your telephone keypad. This call is being recorded. Your participation implies consent to our recording this call. If you do not disagree with these terms, simply drop off the line. I would now like to turn the call over to Pat Penman from Johnson Outdoors. Please go ahead, Ms. Penman.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us for our discussion of Johnson Outdoors results for the 2022 fiscal Q4. If you need a copy of today's news release, it is available on our website at johnsonoutdoors.com under Investor Relations. I also need to remind you that this conference call may contain forward-looking statements. These statements are made on the basis of our current views and assumptions and are not guarantees of future performance. Actual events may differ materially from those statements due to a number of factors, many beyond Johnson Outdoors' control. These risks and uncertainties include those listed in our press release and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. If you have additional questions following the call, please contact Dave Johnson or myself. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Helen Johnson-Leopold.
Thanks, Pat. Good morning. I'll begin with an overview on the fiscal year results. Then I'll share perspective on the performance and outlook for our business. Dave will review financial highlights. Then we'll take your questions. In fiscal 2022, total company sales declined 1% to $743.4 million compared to the prior record-setting fiscal year. Net income for the year was $44.5 million, or $4.37 per diluted share, a 47% decline from the prior fiscal year. Operating profit decreased 40% to $66.3 million versus $111.3 million in prior fiscal year, with the challenging supply chain situation primarily in our fishing business significantly impacting our profitability.
Managing the challenging supply chain environment remains a key priority, and we will continue to evaluate all avenues to mitigate cost pressures into the next fiscal year. In fishing, while supply chain challenges persisted throughout the first part of the fiscal year, we saw supply availability start to improve during the fiscal Q4. Sustaining innovation leadership in fishing is also our focus, and we are always looking for new ways that Humminbird and Minn Kota products can connect and work together to deliver new benefits to anglers. Our recent innovation in Humminbird, the award-winning MEGA Live Imaging TargetLock, used in conjunction with our Minn Kota Ultrex trolling motor, makes it easier for anglers to stay on point and catch more fish.
During fiscal 2022, MEGA Live Imaging TargetLock received the best in category for electronics honors at this year's ICAST, marking our 11th award in this category in the past 12 years. Moving on to our watercraft recreation business. The success of our Old Town Sportsman line gave us momentum in a moderating market. Part of this innovative line of boats is the award-winning, wildly versatile, lightweight Sportsman Discovery Solo 119, a solo canoe that paddles like a kayak and is great for fishing, waterfowl hunting, and enjoying lakes and rivers. The Sportsman line offers a watercraft for everyone looking to enjoy a great day on the water. Our camping business saw double-digit growth even as the market started to moderate compared to the unprecedented high demand of last fiscal year.
Participation in the activity remains high and demand for our Eureka! consumer tents and stoves is strong. The Jetboil consumers remain excited about the innovative SuperLight Stash stove that continues to grow since launch. Finally, our diving business continues on a growth trajectory as dive markets continued to experience recovery as several regions around the world reopened and tourism resumed. Sustaining innovation is critical to our growth, and divers are loving the award-winning powerful Seawing Supernova fins that SCUBAPRO recently launched. The Supernova is the go-to fin for avid recreational and professional divers seeking maximum speed, power, and kicking control in all diving conditions. Our continued innovation efforts will ensure SCUBAPRO's position as the most trusted dive brand in the world.
In summary, it's good news that we are seeing some relief with supply chain issues, and we continue to look at all options to mitigate challenges in our overall profitability. Orders for our products remain strong, and we continue to work hard to replenish inventory levels with our loyal customers. While it's unclear the extent to which economic conditions and inflation may affect consumer buying behavior in the future, as always, our team takes the long-term view, working hard to position our brands and businesses for growth well beyond next quarter or next year. Now I'll turn the call over to David Johnson for a review of the financial highlights.
Thank you, Helen. Good morning, everyone. I want to highlight a few items from the Q4 and the year. As Helen mentioned, supply availability started to improve in the fiscal Q4, and as a result, total company Q4 sales were up 18% compared to the prior year's Q4. While fishing and diving saw strong revenue growth in the Q4, camping and watercraft recreation declined versus the previous Q4. For fiscal 2022, gross margin of 36.5% is down 8 points from last fiscal year due to significant increases in material costs. We saw some relative improvement in our costs in the Q4, but we expect margins to continue to be impacted by inflationary pricing conditions. Operating expenses for fiscal 2022 decreased $17.8 million versus the prior year.
The decrease was primarily due to lower variable and deferred compensation expense incurred in fiscal 2022. Warranty and bad debt expense were also down versus last year. Profit before income taxes was $58.9 million versus $112.9 million from the prior year. Net income for fiscal year was $44.5 million, down 47% from the prior fiscal year. The effective tax rate is 24.4% compared to last year's rate of 26.2%. As a reminder, we built significantly higher inventory levels for several quarters to help mitigate supply chain disruptions and meet increased demand for our products. Heading into fiscal 2023, we remain focused on monitoring demand and proactively managing higher than normal inventory.
We continue to have no debt on the balance sheet. Our cash position enables us to invest in opportunities to strengthen the business. We remain confident in our ability to deliver long-term value and consistently pay out cash dividends to our shareholders. Now I'll turn the call over to the operator for the Q&A session. Operator?
Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, you'll need to press star one one on your telephone. Please wait for your name to be announced. Please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. One moment for our first question. Our first question comes from Anthony Lebiedzinski with Sidoti. Your line is now open.
and thank you for taking the questions, and certainly a very nice finish to your fiscal year. First, just wanted to get a better sense as far as the commentary about the strong orders. Is that primarily fishing? And also if you could just touch on the backlog of unfulfilled orders. If you could just give us some color on that would be great
You know, we've got continuing, you know, back orders. We're continuing to work those down in fishing. You know, as we get into building inventory for the next season, and we get some pre-orders in, so they're all getting kind of mixed together. We have solid orders in fishing and, you know, getting back to the normal kind of order placement that we have seen historically in the other businesses. We feel good about the position. We haven't seen cancellations, so, it's a positive sign.
Got it. Okay. Thanks for that. Can you give us a sense as to what you're hearing from your retail partners as far as current demand levels and what's your sense as far as the, you know, inventory levels at retail?
Well, we are still building inventory at retail. You know, our supply situation eased up a little bit in this past quarter, so that's given us an opportunity to, you know, ship to customers and have them start building. We're still not to the levels that we wanna be, but, you know, I think demand, you know, the holiday season has been better than I think we expected. Jury's out on what happens going forward. Obviously we had a very strong Q4, that was a very good sign.
Okay. Gotcha. Then, you know, historically, the company's gross margin have been in the mid 40% range. Do you expect, over time, of course, you know, do you expect to get back to those types of gross margins? Or do you think there's been a structural change to the business where those types of margins are not achievable?
Well, those were very, you know, different times. Obviously, we will keep that as a goal to get back there. I think, you know, right now we're dealing with significant cost increases on raw materials. We're assuming those will come down. We don't know how much they will come down, but, you know, we're gonna work hard on getting our margin back up. Whether it goes all the way up is, you know, yet to be seen.
Okay. gotcha. Okay. As far as there's a comment also about the focusing on and evaluating options to address increased costs and the efficiency of your supply chain. You know, can you share with us, you know, more details as to what you're doing there to bring, you know, also inventories back in line to more normal levels?
I mean, yeah, the cost structure and the margin question, I mean, we're looking at everything to improve that. You know, we've taken price increases in the past. We'll continue to look at our pricing structure and look to see what makes sense versus our demand and our margin profile. We're also trying to find ways to decrease our cost coming in, and part of that is gonna be marketplace-driven, but part of it's looking at sourcing, design, how we design products, et cetera. We're looking at everything there. Then, you know, on the inventory question, yeah, our inventory is higher than where we'd like it to be. We're really working hard on managing that and making sure that we can get that more balanced. It'll probably be end of the season we get that done.
Okay. Gotcha. Okay. Then, you know, your balance sheet still remains strong, certainly even though you, to your point, you do have higher than normal inventories. Can you just talk about your cash flow priorities and also, CapEx looks like it was higher than normal this year. Any sort of ballpark estimate, Dave, as to where you think fiscal 2023 CapEx will be?
I mean, the CapEx spending we expect that to go down in fiscal 2023, maybe, you know, 15%-20% versus where we ended 2022. We had some, you know, facility work that we did in 2022 that is not gonna be repeatable, not repeated in 2023. I would expect a 15%-20% decline in CapEx.
Okay. Okay. otherwise, your cash flow priorities, I know you talked about the, you know, the dividend. Any, you know, are you guys still looking at potential acquisitions or maybe looking at buying shares?
We're always, you know, looking for good acquisitions and, you know, they have to fit, they have to be strategic, and that's always on our radar screen. From that perspective, again, always looking. Dave, you can talk about the dividend.
Yeah, I mean, beyond that, you know, we like to see a good, healthy dividend, and I think we've achieved that, so we'll continue to look at our a regular dividend and make sure that's meaningful for the shareholders. You know, as we've talked before, I mean, we look at all other options on how to utilize the cash beyond, you know, growth for the company, and that's an ongoing discussion about, you know, other options that we could utilize the cash.
Understood. Okay. Well, thank you and best of luck.
Thank you.
Great. Thank you.
As a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, that's star one one to ask your question. I'm currently showing no further questions at this time. I'd like to hand the conference back over to Ms. Helen Johnson-Leipold for closing remarks.
Thank you, everyone, and, I hope you have a wonderful holiday season. Thank you.
Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect. Everyone, have a wonderful day.