Shoals Technologies Group, Inc. (SHLS)
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Earnings Call: Q3 2021

Nov 9, 2021

Operator

is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference call over to Mehgan Peetz, Chief Legal Officer. Ma'am, please go ahead.

Mehgan Peetz
Chief Legal Officer, Shoals Technologies Group

Thank you, operator, and thank you everyone for joining us today. Hosting the call with me are CEO Jason Whitaker, CFO Philip Garton, and SVP of EV Solutions, Jeff Tolnar. On this call, management will be making projections or other forward-looking statements based on current expectations and assumptions, which are subject to risks and uncertainties. As you listen and consider these comments, you should understand that these statements, including the guidance regarding the fourth quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022, are not guarantees of performance or results. Actual results could differ materially from our forward-looking statements if any of our assumptions are incorrect or because of other factors.

These factors include, among other things, the risk factors described in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as economic and market circumstances, industry conditions, company performance and financial results, the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain disruptions, availability and price of our components and materials, project cancellations, decreased demand for our products, and our policy and regulatory changes. Although we may indicate and believe that the assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements are reasonable, any of the assumptions could prove inaccurate or incorrect, and therefore, there can be no assurance that the results contemplated in the forward-looking statements will be realized. We caution that any forward-looking statement included in this discussion is made as of the date of this discussion and do not undertake any duty to update any forward-looking statements. Today's presentation also includes references to non-GAAP financial measures.

You should refer to the information contained in the company's third quarter press release for definitional information and reconciliations of historical non-GAAP measures to the comparable financial measures. With that, let me turn the call over to Jason.

Jason Whitaker
CEO, Shoals Technologies Group

Thank you very much, Mehgan, and good afternoon, everyone. I'll start off with some highlights from the quarter, provide an overview of our acquisition of ConnectPV, and I'll wrap up with a progress report on our new EV business. Bill will then provide the financial details for the quarter, and then turn it back over to me for an update on our outlook for the fourth and first quarters of 2022. During the third quarter, we continued to successfully convert customers to BLA. We now have four times as many customers using our system as we did at the time of our IPO earlier this year, and we don't see our market share gains slowing down. As of the end of the third quarter, we had 12 additional customers transitioning to our system.

I couldn't be more pleased with customer conversion and the number of new customer prospects coming into our sales funnel. We have a lot more growth ahead of us. We also made good progress during the quarter outside of our BLA with new products for solar. As of the end of the quarter, we were sold out of our new wire management solution, and we're currently manufacturing our first large order of our new IV curve benchmarking product. Both of these products have gross margins at or above our overall system solution margins, so we're very excited about their growth. The gains we are seeing in BLA, as well as the ramp of our new products for solar, was reflected in our record backlog and awarded orders of $270.7 million at the end of September.

To put that number in perspective, we now have over 30% more backlog and awarded orders than we generated in revenues over the past 12 months. During the third quarter, we also completed our first acquisition, ConnectPV. ConnectPV is a California-based provider of solar and storage EBOS products. The acquisition accomplishes several things for Shoals. First, ConnectPV is a leader in EBOS for utility-scale battery energy storage systems, and their product line and expertise significantly strengthens our offerings for this rapidly growing market segment. ConnectPV was one of the first companies to introduce specialized EBOS for battery storage, and their products have been specified for some of the largest standalone storage projects in the U.S. We're very excited about what we can do with their products, leveraging our customer relationships and manufacturing cost structure.

I should also mention that ConnectPV has a very strong expertise in AC solutions, which is another area we see an opportunity to introduce new products. Second, ConnectPV sells solar EBOS offerings to customers that we did not historically have relationships with. Making ConnectPV part of Shoals will allow us to convert these customers to our system more rapidly and accelerate our market share gains. Third, ConnectPV has excellent engineering talent that will help support our growth. The company's historical business model was to focus on more challenging projects where a significant amount of customization was required. They are very skilled at designing and specifying product. Having their engineers on the West Coast with our engineering team in Tennessee adds to our capability with two teams across time zones. We have more hours in the day to work with customers.

The purchase price for ConnectPV was a combination of cash and stock and was not material to our financials. We expect the transaction to be accretive to our 2022 earnings per share. Now turning to our EV business. During the third quarter, we deployed our full EV solution set, skidded charging stations, Quad Charger, Raceways, and EV BLA at a demonstration site outside of our headquarters. We are using the site to showcase our products for prospective customers. We've begun taking orders from customers, and to date, have received orders from a charging network operator, a large investor-owned utility, and an EPC for one or more of our EV charging products. We expect to begin shipping products to our customers during the fourth quarter.

The first public charging station to use our solution will be installed at the end of this year, and we expect that if it performs well, it could become the basis for the rollout of hundreds of more stations using our equipment. We remain very focused on the EV charging opportunity and are excited about the prospect of creating a significant business in EV to complement our core solar business. I'll now turn it over to Phil, who'll discuss our third quarter financial results.

Philip Garton
CFO, Shoals Technologies Group

Thank you, Jason. For the third quarter, revenues increased 14% versus the prior year period to $59.8 million, driven by an increase in revenue from solar components, as well as an increase in demand for solar EBOS generally, and our combine-as-you-go system solutions specifically. The strength in components revenue during the quarter was consistent with the expected change in mix, driven by the addition of a significant number of new customers who typically start with component purchases. Sales of system solutions represented 65% of total revenue versus 70% in the prior year period. The acquisition of ConnectPV closed on August twenty-sixth, and its contribution during the quarter was immaterial. Prices across our product lines during the third quarter were comparable to the prior year.

Gross margin in the third quarter was 36.4% compared to 39.3% in the prior year period due to a higher mix of component sales, which have lower margin than system solutions, as well as the impact of ConnectPV during the quarter. Gross margins on components and system solution products were in line with prior periods. ConnectPV's historical gross margins are lower than Shoals' historical gross margins, primarily due to the higher prices they pay for components used in their products. This results from the smaller size relative to Shoals. Excluding the impact of ConnectPV, gross margins would have been higher in the quarter. We expect to bring ConnectPV's margins in line with Shoals' average gross margins as we migrate them to our suppliers.

Third quarter general and administrative expenses were $10 million compared to $3.5 million in the prior year period. This increase was primarily a result of higher stock-based compensation, acquisition-related expenses for ConnectPV, planned increased payroll expense due to higher headcount to support our growth and product initiatives, new public company costs, and non-recurring public offering expenses. Adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter was $16.9 million compared to $19.9 million in the prior year period. Adjusted net income was $11.6 million in the third quarter compared to $15.4 million in the prior year period. Please see the adjusted EBITDA and adjusted net income reconciliation tables in our third quarter press release for our GAAP results.

As of September 30, 2021, we had backlog and awarded orders of $270.7 million, an increase of 101% year-over-year, and 35% versus June 30, 2021. The increase in backlog and awarded orders reflects continued robust demand for Shoals products from our customers.

Jason Whitaker
CEO, Shoals Technologies Group

Thanks, Phil. Now I'll provide an update on the current market environment in solar and how it is impacting our near-term results. The key challenge to our growth is the current supply chain environment. Our business model has effectively insulated us from most of the margin pressure that many of our peers are experiencing as a result of rising commodity prices, and the form factor of our products has limited the impact of shipping and logistics shortages on our business. Unfortunately, our customers still have to contend with these issues as they progress their projects. The result is very fluid delivery schedules with customers making frequent changes, both to product specifications and when they want the product on-site. Recently, some of our projects have been delayed to accommodate design updates as a result of panel changes or because other materials or components needed are not available.

In both cases, the impact to us is the delay when we can produce and ship product, which will have the effect of shifting revenues that we expected to recognize in the fourth quarter of this year into the first quarter of next. While it is not our practice to provide quarterly guidance, we felt it was important to quantify for our shareholders the impact on our results of the changes that our customers have made, which is why we're providing our outlook for the next two quarters. Phil will take you through the numbers, but before I turn to him, I'd like to make three final points. First, this is truly a timing issue. We have not had a single order cancel. Candidly, our primary focus right now is making sure we have the capacity to deliver on the tremendous demand that we're seeing across our business.

Second, we're not seeing any pressure on our margins. Our lower gross profit margin in Q3 is solely related to mix. We expected it and talked about it on our last call. I feel very good about our ability to continue to expand our margins based upon the order book we have in hand today. Third, this is a temporary situation. We have seen an extraordinary amount of disruption in the global supply chains, but it is clear to us that the market is slowly beginning to normalize. Suppliers are adapting, customers are adapting, logistics providers are adapting. This won't last forever. Now I'll turn it back to Phil to talk about the specifics of what we see for Q4 and Q1.

Philip Garton
CFO, Shoals Technologies Group

Based on what we are seeing in the market and feedback from our customers, we currently expect fourth quarter revenues to be in the range of $40 million-$50 million. We expect Adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $11 million-$15 million and Adjusted net income to be in the range of $3 million-$7 million. As for the first quarter of 2022, we expect revenues to be in the range of $71 million-$76 million. We expect Adjusted EBITDA to be in the range of $22 million-$24 million and Adjusted net income to be in the range of $14 million-$17 million.

While the mix of component sales is expected to remain high in the fourth quarter, which will reduce our gross margin in the quarter, we expect that to reverse in the first quarter of 2022, consistent with our outlook for Adjusted EBITDA. Jason, back to you.

Jason Whitaker
CEO, Shoals Technologies Group

I'd like to close by thanking all of our customers for their commitment to Shoals, our employees for their contributions to our company's success, and our shareholders for their continuous support. With that, thank you, everyone, and I appreciate your time today. I'd like to ask the operator to open the line for questions.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we'll begin the question-and-answer session. To ask a question, you may press star and then 1 using a touch-tone telephone. If you are using a speakerphone, we do ask that you please pick up the handset before pressing the keys to ensure the best sound quality. To withdraw your question, you may press star and 2. Once again, that is star and then 1 to ask a question. We'll pause momentarily to assemble the roster. Our first question today comes from Brian Lee from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead with your question.

Brian Lee
Chief Risk Officer, Goldman Sachs

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking the question, and appreciate, you know, the additional guidance here. I guess, you know, one of the questions I had was more around the gross margins. I know you had telegraphed that 3Q, the margins would have a mix impact. Can you kinda talk to what you're seeing on the cost side and supply chain side of things outside of mix, and whether or not any of that is impacting, you know, the view for gross margins in 4Q and into 1Q? I had a follow-up.

Jason Whitaker
CEO, Shoals Technologies Group

Hey, Brian, this is Jason speaking.

Philip Garton
CFO, Shoals Technologies Group

Hello, Brian.

Jason Whitaker
CEO, Shoals Technologies Group

Good to talk to you again. I'll take that question. When you look at the margin profile, first and foremost, it is strictly a function of the mix shift in product. You know, as we talked about before, you know, especially when you look at the success that our sales team has had and, you know, converting over customers to our full system BLA, when those customers are in the process of converting, going from prospects to in transition, it's not uncommon for those initial product offerings to ultimately fall into that component category while we're working with them to transition them over.

Brian Lee
Chief Risk Officer, Goldman Sachs

Okay, fair enough. It's all mix related. I think you mentioned ConnectPV. It's immaterial here in the near term, but it did impact margins in the quarter. Your margins would have been higher if you had not made that acquisition. Any sense of what that magnitude of impact was on a basis point basis? Is there gonna be some ConnectPV margin headwind in the next couple of quarters? When do we start to see that maybe become more in line with the corporate average as you're targeting?

Philip Garton
CFO, Shoals Technologies Group

Hey, Brian, this is Philip.

Jason Whitaker
CEO, Shoals Technologies Group

Sorry, Brian.

Philip Garton
CFO, Shoals Technologies Group

I can answer that. Oh.

Jason Whitaker
CEO, Shoals Technologies Group

Go ahead, Phil, please.

Philip Garton
CFO, Shoals Technologies Group

Okay. Brian, it was approximately 100 basis points. We're working through their suppliers are much higher cost, but we are transitioning those to our own suppliers. The impact, of course, there'll be a little bit. There'll be some impact in Q4 and rolling into Q1. Once again, their overall sales are immaterial, and we're integrating them into the Shoals manufacturing process quickly now. It'll be mitigated, hopefully, completely as we get through the first quarter.

Brian Lee
Chief Risk Officer, Goldman Sachs

Okay, fair enough. Maybe last one for me, and I'll pass it on. Just on the timing here of the revenue. I know you're saying, Jason and Phil, that you haven't seen any orders be canceled. I know that the Q1 guidance is supposed to give us some sense of, you know, what's slipping from the end of this year into the early part of next year. It would seem that there's still maybe, you know, $10 million or $15 million of revenue that isn't getting captured across the two quarters that maybe, you know, we had been anticipating. Is all of the Q4 pushout being captured in Q1, or are we gonna see some of that slip into the quarters following it?

How would you kind of characterize your ability to capture the risk of additional project slippage as we move through the next several quarters, not just into the early part of 2022? Thanks, guys.

Jason Whitaker
CEO, Shoals Technologies Group

Yeah, no problem, Brian. So, you know, I'll take that. So looking at where we are, first of all, I'd like to point out that, you know, customer demand is very strong. You know, when you go back and look at our prepared remarks, quoting activity and average project size were up over 140% and 170% respectively. When you consider our backlog and award orders up over 100% and 70% related to year-end 2020, you know, there's a lot of opportunity ahead. When you look at, you know, Q4 and rolling into Q1, you know, we have a uniquely high level of demand booked for Q1, even aside, you know, from the Q4 pushouts.

We're extremely comfortable with our particular forecast, and we've actually included potential for incremental industry headwinds in those particular numbers.

Brian Lee
Chief Risk Officer, Goldman Sachs

Okay. Thanks, guys. I'll pass it on.

Jason Whitaker
CEO, Shoals Technologies Group

Thanks, Brian.

Operator

Our next question comes from Colin Rusch from Oppenheimer. Please go ahead with your question.

Colin Rusch
Managing Director, Senior Research Analyst, and Head of Sustainable Growth and Resource Optimization franchise, Oppenheimer

Thanks so much, guys. You know, with wage inflation at the labor level on these projects and your own inflation, have you guys looked at, you know, where your relative value is in terms of labor savings and your pricing strategy here? Is there an opportunity for you to start increasing some prices as you displace more high-cost labor?

Jason Whitaker
CEO, Shoals Technologies Group

Yeah, that's a great question, Colin. You know, especially when you consider our full system solution offering abroad, you know, one of the key aspects is, you know, being able to provide real value with our offering in the form of savings in labor, not only the classification of labor but the amount of labor. We're, you know, we're constantly evaluating that. Keep in mind, you know, when you look at where we are at this point in time, we're really focusing on growth. You know, from a, a project perspective, you know, we're keeping our pricing in line, from that particular standpoint.

Colin Rusch
Managing Director, Senior Research Analyst, and Head of Sustainable Growth and Resource Optimization franchise, Oppenheimer

All right. Then, you know, just in terms of some of the smaller elements of the design that you guys have, you know, can you talk a little bit about the potential to diversify suppliers with some of these coatings around the wires or some of the clip systems? You know, certainly we're seeing shortages of basic materials, not just in metals, but all over the supply chain. Just wanna understand, you know, how diverse and resilient you get your full supply chain to serve a global customer base.

Jason Whitaker
CEO, Shoals Technologies Group

Yeah, Colin, great question. You know, we have a vast AVL approved vendor list that we operate from. You know, one of the things that we're constantly doing is constantly adding to that particular list itself to be able to make sure that if something were to happen with one particular supplier, we could immediately pivot over to another. That is something that we've been working on since day one many, many, many years ago, and we continue to build that over time.

Colin Rusch
Managing Director, Senior Research Analyst, and Head of Sustainable Growth and Resource Optimization franchise, Oppenheimer

Okay. I'll take the rest offline. Thanks, guys.

Jason Whitaker
CEO, Shoals Technologies Group

Thanks, Colin.

Operator

Our next question comes from Kashy Harrison from Piper Sandler. Please go ahead with your question.

Kashy Harrison
Senior Research Analyst, Piper Sandler

Good afternoon, guys, and thank you for taking the questions. Jason, you indicated that you expect delivery schedules to eventually normalize. In your prepared remarks, you said you're actually already seeing supply chains beginning to adjust. Can you go into, you know, maybe a little bit more detail on what you mean by that? Where are you seeing improvements in the supply chain? When do you expect things to, you know, maybe get a little bit closer back to normal?

Jason Whitaker
CEO, Shoals Technologies Group

Oh, that's a great question. You know, it's definitely hard to predict the exact timing. But when you take a look at the raw material inputs that come into our facilities, you know, we are starting to see those normalize. You know, based upon, again, you know, the AVLs that we've actually built up, we're actually utilizing and going out and supporting more of those particular AVLs with additional orders to be able to de-risk the supply chain itself. But I think that the key thing is working closely with your vendors themselves to make sure they understand what the actual expectations are, so that they can make their changes based upon any of the inputs from a logistics perspective.

You know, if it takes, let's just say, you know, five days longer to get somewhere, you know, be able to make those changes accordingly, so that you can, you know, counteract that and actually receive the material when you need it, so that ultimately we can make our commitments to our customers.

Kashy Harrison
Senior Research Analyst, Piper Sandler

What about from your customers' perspective? Are you seeing them, you know, are they now able to get more components than before? Are they starting to readjust, or was that statement more in reference to, you know, inputs into your manufacturing capabilities?

Jason Whitaker
CEO, Shoals Technologies Group

Yeah. It's really hard to speak, you know, to all the exact, you know, items from a customer perspective. We were mainly just speaking more to, you know, our particular inputs in general.

Kashy Harrison
Senior Research Analyst, Piper Sandler

Got it. Makes sense. My next question. You know, the backlog, you know, increased 35%, quarter over quarter, and the implied bookings and growth, it, you know, the implied growth in bookings was quite pronounced. Is the increase just coming from, you know, these customers that you've been able to add, or is there something else going on that's driving such a meaningful increase quarter over quarter in bookings and backlog? How should we think about converting that, you know, backlog into revenue over the next, you know, several quarters or in the next, you know, several years? Thank you.

Jason Whitaker
CEO, Shoals Technologies Group

That's a great question. When you take a look at the, you know, the contribution to backlog, it's really a function of several different things, one of which you pointed out, obviously, new customers that are coming on board, you know, as well as, you know, supporting customers that we've been working with, but also as we begin to win more of that particular pipeline from those customers, that also is very accretive, you know, to our backlog and award orders. When you look at the, you know, the timing of our particular backlog and award orders, it's very similar to what we've talked about in the past. You know, you're looking at roughly give or take, you know, about a 12-month, you know, window of 9-12 months that we actually cover from that perspective.

Some, you know, some particular projects may, you know, may actually span, you know, further than that, but that's a good, you know, rough average on what backlog looks like.

Kashy Harrison
Senior Research Analyst, Piper Sandler

Helpful. Thank you.

Operator

Our next question comes from Mark Strouse from JPMorgan. Please go ahead with your question.

Mark Strouse
Executive Director and Equity Research Analyst, JPMorgan

Yeah, good afternoon. Thanks for taking our questions. Jason, can you just comment about how kind of widely distributed the project timing issues are? Are these just a handful of larger projects that are causing kind of this near-term air bubble, or is it a broader issue?

Jason Whitaker
CEO, Shoals Technologies Group

There's actually several projects, you know, larger projects that are out there. I think a good example here, Mark, is when you take a look at a particular panel manufacturer, and let's say that one of our customers shifts from panel manufacturer A to panel manufacturer B, so it's the same form factor, same power levels. Just a simple shift like that could ultimately put us into a redesign that could cause project delays if for no other reason than the connector type itself, because we have to actually follow the connectors that are included with the panels themselves.

You know, a large portion of what we're seeing, you know, it's a group of several projects that are out there, and a few of them are fairly large projects.

Mark Strouse
Executive Director and Equity Research Analyst, JPMorgan

Okay. Can you remind me at least what kind of contract language is as far as who's responsible for those, the expenses associated with those change orders? I mean, if you've already produced product and it's ready to go out the door, and then you get a last-minute change, is the customer bearing that cost?

Jason Whitaker
CEO, Shoals Technologies Group

Yeah, that's correct. You know, when you look at, you know, a couple different things to point out, whenever there is a change on a particular project, a change order is associated with that, and the customer is responsible for that. One other thing I also wanna point out, you know, based upon a margin perspective, if, for example, that change itself requires additional, you know, raw material inputs like copper itself, that change order will also be reflected based upon the current, you know, COMEX price, not the COMEX price that was actually utilized at the initial receipt of PO.

Mark Strouse
Executive Director and Equity Research Analyst, JPMorgan

Okay. Got it. Thank you.

Operator

Our next question comes from Philip Shen from Roth Capital Partners. Please go ahead with your question.

Philip Shen
Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst, Roth Capital Partners

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my questions. The first one is on 2022. I know you haven't provided official guidance, but think back to your view of 2022 revenue and EBITDA from your IPO, and then think about it now. You know, what we've seen since then is, you know, an accelerating of growth, offset in part by these project delays and change orders. As you think about the delta between what you saw, you know, a year and a half ago versus what you see now, are you incrementally more positive on your 2022 outlook or incrementally more concerned?

Jason Whitaker
CEO, Shoals Technologies Group

Yeah, that's a great question, Phil. You know, I can't specifically, you know, talk about, you know, 2022 outlook in general. You know, we're only, offering up, you know, information for Q4 and Q1, as you know. One thing that I can tell you is I have never been more excited in what we've been able to accomplish specifically in solar as well as other areas as I have been to date. You can see that as a direct reflection when you look at the number of customers that we've converted over, the number of prospects that we've added in, and obviously the demand that we're getting, as you can see reflected in our backlog and award orders and the number of projects that we're quoting.

Philip Shen
Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst, Roth Capital Partners

Okay, great. Thank you, Jason. As it relates to the upcoming reconciliation bill, you know, there's the prevailing wage requirements to hit the 30% ITC. When you think about the change potentially in the labor pool for your customers, what I've heard is that you guys might be able to help reduce the labor. Because you've reduced the labor in the field, there actually might be more demand for your products and so forth. But wanted to understand if you can share your view on how that new potential requirement in the ITC for 30% may impact your business.

Jason Whitaker
CEO, Shoals Technologies Group

Yeah, Phil. You know, when you look at the prevailing wage requirement, based upon the extension or the current ITC, it definitely helps, right? Because when you look at labor itself, you know, and the cost profile of labor, you know, whether it is general labor or licensed electrician in a prevailing wage or non-prevailing wage, anything that we can do to change that classification down significantly provides value to our customers themselves. I think in that particular case, it'll provide even more additional value.

Philip Shen
Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst, Roth Capital Partners

Okay, great. Thanks. Then one last one, if I may. As it relates to ConnectPV, just in the past hour or so, I've done a few checks on the company, and it seems like they may also offer traditional EBOS. That their offering might be, you know, more labor-intensive than your offering. I was wondering if you might be able to give us a little bit more color on the rationale, beyond just energy storage, and then, you know, is part of it, for example, to acquire a customer base or, you know, something along those lines? Or is there something that, you know, we might be missing, that might be useful to understand? Thanks.

Jason Whitaker
CEO, Shoals Technologies Group

No, that's a good question. Really, when you look at the overlap, Phil, you know, that traditional EBOS offering that we manufacture, that they also manufacture, there is overlap there. That's definitely not where the value was between the company. The value really comes in a lot of other synergies when you look at, you know, the teams they've assimilated. You know, they have a lot of respect or you know, in the actual industry that we serve. They have, you know, phenomenal products from an energy storage perspective. As we talked about in our prepared remarks, you know, there's also you know, customers that they serve that we don't.

Being able to, you know, merge the teams together to be able to, you know, continue to support, you know, the industry both from a PV and a storage perspective with the combined product offerings that we have, you know, will definitely provide incremental value for our organization.

Philip Shen
Managing Director and Senior Research Analyst, Roth Capital Partners

Great. Thanks for the color, Jason.

Operator

Our next question comes from Joseph Osha from JMP Securities. Please go ahead with your question.

Joseph Osha
Senior Managing Director for Equity Research, Guggenheim

Hi, thanks. Just for the record, I'm with Guggenheim now. Hello, everybody.

Jason Whitaker
CEO, Shoals Technologies Group

How's it going, Joseph? Hello?

Joseph Osha
Senior Managing Director for Equity Research, Guggenheim

Just fine. Thanks. Couple questions. First, I know you said that the run rate on ConnectPV was de minimis, but are you able to give us some sense as to how much the Q1 outlook reflects their contribution from that company, or should we not be thinking that way?

Jason Whitaker
CEO, Shoals Technologies Group

Well, you know, I think, you know, first of all, you know, great question. I wanna further reiterate, you know, just like we've talked about, I'm very excited about, you know, the combined forces of ConnectPV and Shoals. But when you look at that forward outlook, you know, we've already begun integrating our operations together, so that we can leverage our, you know, collective capacity, you know, with existing orders that we have. If you take a look at, you know, the contribution, you know, to guidance, it was definitely immaterial.

Joseph Osha
Senior Managing Director for Equity Research, Guggenheim

Okay. Great. Thanks. Secondly, your comment about people respeccing things is really interesting. I've kind of got two sub-questions. The first I would think, and Colin kind of alluded to this, if you're looking to take costs out, are you seeing people come back to you and say, "Hey, we wanna do a you know complete BLA or you know as opposed to just a component sale in an effort to get some of that maybe get some of the labor costs out?" The second question is, you know, on the panel front, if people are doing that, I would think that would tend to be the thing that ends up you know having to push projects.

As you know, when you're seeing people talk about subbing panel suppliers out, I assume that also is pushing the project by a quarter or two.

Jason Whitaker
CEO, Shoals Technologies Group

Yeah. You know, great questions. Maybe I'll take these in reverse order. When you talk about, you know, the panel supply itself, you know, when you look at timing, you know, obviously the timing that, you know, when there is a potential delay, you know, it really varies depending upon what that delay looks like. If a customer is actually making a module change and they're going from one technology to another, you know, that delay could be further out. There are some instances where, you know, a panel change itself is made and doesn't have any delay because, you know, the product offering just, rolls right in. There, there's really a combination, and it would be very hard to quantify, you know, the exact delay depending upon, you know, the changes that are made.

When you look specifically at BLA itself, I mean, you're spot on. I mean, that is the exact proposition, you know, that BLA brings when you look at the amount of savings that we get. Kind of pointing back to something we've talked about, you know, in prior conversations is, you know, you're looking at, you know, just customers reported an average of 40% savings on labor, you know, which is a remarkable amount when you look at the product itself.

Joseph Osha
Senior Managing Director for Equity Research, Guggenheim

Makes sense. Thanks. Thanks very much.

Jason Whitaker
CEO, Shoals Technologies Group

Thank you, Joseph.

Operator

Our next question comes from Moses Sutton from Barclays. Please go ahead with your question.

Moses Sutton
Director of Equity Research, Barclays

Hi. Thanks for taking my question. Just going back to ConnectPV and the margins, if I heard correctly, there was about 100 basis points impact on this quarter's margin from ConnectPV, but also immaterial sales. Is there something in there that affected COGS from ConnectPV? Are they at negative margins? How do we sort of bridge those two points?

Philip Garton
CFO, Shoals Technologies Group

Yeah, this is Philip. No, they are not at negative margins. They contribute positively to the bottom line, though minimally. Their cost structure is just different than ours. A lot of their work is subcontracted out or previously was, and we're working to bring that in-house. There were minimal margins, but we are quickly going to be transitioning them to our much better cost structure. We expect their products to be contributing approximately our margins or the Shoals margins going forward in their products. It'll be accretive to the business.

Moses Sutton
Director of Equity Research, Barclays

Got it. Thanks. I think it was mentioned that some stock was issued. How much stock was issued to ConnectPV?

Philip Garton
CFO, Shoals Technologies Group

It was 209,437 shares.

Moses Sutton
Director of Equity Research, Barclays

Perfect. Perfect. Just one last one for me. The mix shift to components from systems affecting 3Q and 4Q, anything that was specifically discrete in there? Other than the effect of some of EPC transitions and some of the mix that's bought initially, is there perhaps one big contract in there just thinking, you know, it extended for more than a quarter? Just trying to get a sense of, you know, how that sort of happened and then how we shift back to a greater percentage from systems.

Jason Whitaker
CEO, Shoals Technologies Group

No, that's a great question. Again, kind of pointing out, you know, the mix shift in Q3 was something, you know, that we saw, we talked about on our last call. And obviously, you know, we see that mix shift, you know, continuing into Q4. You know, and kind of as we talked about before, you know, it's not necessarily just a contribution from one particular project. You know, there were, you know, a small handful of projects that actually did shift out, you know, that actually took, you know, that higher margin contribution with it from a BOM perspective.

Moses Sutton
Director of Equity Research, Barclays

Got it. Thank you.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, that will conclude today's question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the conference call back over to Shoals CEO, Jason Whitaker, for closing remarks.

Jason Whitaker
CEO, Shoals Technologies Group

I appreciate everybody's time today and look forward to having future conversations. Thank you very much.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude today's conference call and presentation. We thank you very much for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.

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