Good morning, and welcome to the Worthington Industries fourth quarter fiscal 2022 earnings conference call. All participants will be able to listen only until the question-and-answer session of the call. This conference is being recorded at the request of Worthington Industries. If anyone objects, you may disconnect at this time. I'd now like to introduce Marcus Rogier, Treasurer and Investor Relations Officer. Mr. Rogier, you may begin.
Thank you, Chris. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Worthington Industries fourth quarter fiscal 2022 earnings call. On our call today, we have Andy Rose, Worthington's President and Chief Executive Officer, and Joe Hayek, Worthington's Chief Financial Officer. Before we get started, I'd like to remind everyone that certain statements made today are forward-looking within the meaning of the 1995 Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. These statements are subject to risk and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from those suggested. We issued our earnings release yesterday after the market closed. Please refer to it for more detail on those factors that could cause actual results to differ materially. Today's call is being recorded and a replay will be made available later on our worthingtonindustries.com website. At this point, I will turn the call over to Joe for a discussion of the financial results.
Thank you, Marcus, and good morning, everyone. We finished our fiscal year with a very strong quarter, reporting Q4 earnings of $1.61 a share versus $2.15 in the prior year. Excluding a small one-time restructuring gain, we generated $1.58 per share in the current quarter compared to $2.33 in Q4 of last year after adjusting for restructuring and a small gain on our investment in Eagle. In Q4, we had inventory holding losses estimated to be $42 million or $0.64 per share compared to inventory holding gains of $51 million or $0.71 per share in the prior year, an unfavorable swing of $93 million, which is $1.35 per share.
Consolidated net sales in the quarter of $1.5 billion were up significantly compared to $978 million in Q4 of last year. Increase in sales is primarily due to higher steel prices, the inclusion of our most recent acquisitions, and higher average selling prices in both Consumer and Building Products . Gross profit for the quarter decreased to $168 million from $226 million in the prior year. Gross margin was 11% versus 23%, primarily due to the swing from inventory holding gains to losses, which were partially offset by margin increases in both Consumer and Building Products . Adjusted EBITDA in Q4 was $139 million, down from $186 million in Q4 of last year, and our adjusted EBITDA for fiscal 2022 was a record $615 million.
Now I'll spend a few minutes on each of the businesses. In Steel Processing , net sales of $1.1 billion were up 71% from $655 million in Q4 last year, primarily due to higher average selling prices and the inclusion of both Tempel Steel and Shiloh's BlankLight business in our results. Total shipped tons were down 5% compared to last year's fourth quarter, despite those recent acquisitions, which contributed 97,000 tons during the quarter. Excluding the impact of the acquisitions, total shipped tons were down 14% year-over-year, driven primarily by lower tolling volumes with mills. Direct tons in Q4 were actually up slightly year-over-year, excluding acquisitions and the facility we closed in Decatur, Alabama, and were 56% of mix compared to 48% in the prior year quarter.
With the exception of the lower tolling volumes in our JVs, demand in the quarter was solid. We saw year-over-year increases in key end markets, including automotive, construction, and agriculture. While automotive volumes increased from the prior year quarter, it remains below seasonal norms due to production constraints at the OEMs, and it continues to be difficult to predict when this dynamic will improve. Overall, demand across our end markets is steady, and our teams are doing a very good job winning new business as they manage through volatile steel pricing markets and challenging supply chains. In Q4, steel generated adjusted EBIT of $17 million compared to $98 million in the quarter last year.
Large year-over-year decrease was driven by the inventory holding losses I mentioned earlier, estimated to be $42 million in this quarter compared to gains of $51 million last year, an unfavorable swing of $93 million. Steel prices continued to be volatile and were rising at the beginning of the quarter, but then resumed falling later in the quarter. Based on current steel pricing, we do believe that we will see modest inventory holding gains in Q1. In Consumer Products , net sales in Q4 were $186 million, up 18% from $157 million in the prior year quarter. Increase was driven by higher average selling prices, partially offset by an unfavorable shift in product mix.
EBIT for the consumer business was a record $29 million, and EBIT margin was 15.8% in Q4 compared to $19 million and 12.1% last year. Our consumer team continues to do a great job responding to increased demand and has invested in both people and equipment to increase production capacity to better serve our customers. In addition, we remain focused on growing the business through innovation, new product development, and acquisitions. Earlier this month, we announced the acquisition of Level5 Tools, a market leader offering a complete lineup of drywall tools for both pros and do-it-yourselfers. We welcome the Level5 team to Worthington.
We're very excited about this acquisition as it expands our existing portfolio of specialty tools and provides us entry into attractive new end markets. Building Products generated net sales of $173 million in Q4, up 40% from $124 million in the prior year. Increase was driven by higher average selling prices and improved product mix. Building Products delivered record EBIT for the quarter of $64 million, and EBIT margin was 36.8%, up from $41 million and 33.3% in Q4 last year. Our wholly owned Building Products business continued to show solid growth, more than doubling their EBIT from the prior year and on a sequential basis due to continued strong demand and favorable mix, combined with higher average selling prices. At our JVs, ClarkDietrich's results improved by $15 million year-over-year, while WAVE was down $4 million year-over-year.
WAVE's customers have been impacted by construction delays caused by labor availability and stretched supply chains for HVAC and other equipment, but there are early indications that those issues are improving. ClarkDietrich and WAVE contributed equity earnings of $23 million and $21 million, respectively. Building Products team continues to do an excellent job serving their customers in the near term as they invest in new product development and production capacity. The business has a healthy order book, and we are optimistic about demand going forward. In Sustainable Energy Solutions, net sales in Q4 of $41 million were in line with the prior year despite significantly lower volumes due to the divestiture at the end of Q4 last year of our LPG Auto Gas business in Poland. Excluding the divestiture, net sales were up 20% in Q4 versus last year.
The business reported an EBIT loss of $2 million in the quarter compared to a profit of $4 million in the prior year quarter, roughly $800,000 of which was attributable to the divested business, as higher average selling prices were more than offset by mix and the impact of significantly increased input costs. Given the war in Ukraine and its impact on the European economy, input costs, and freight costs, Sustainable Energy Solutions is likely to remain challenged in the near term. We are very excited about the long-term growth prospects for this business as we develop and optimize solutions that serve the rapidly expanding global hydrogen ecosystem and adjacent sustainable energy. With respect to cash flows and our balance sheet, cash flow from operations was $165 million in the quarter, and free cash flow was $142 million.
We had a strong release of cash from operating working capital, primarily due to lower steel prices and reduced inventories, which added $77 million to cash flow. For the full fiscal year, cash flow from operations was $70 million, and free cash flow was an outflow of $24 million, as operating working capital increased by $258 million during the year, primarily a result of higher steel prices. We expect a substantial portion of that working capital build in fiscal 2022 will return to us in the form of cash flow in the coming quarters, assuming steel prices do not increase. During the quarter, we received $23 million in dividends from our unconsolidated JVs, invested $23 million on capital projects, paid $14 million in dividends, and spent $52 million to repurchase 1 million shares of our common stock.
Following the Q4 purchases, we have slightly over 6 million shares remaining under our share repurchase authorization. Looking at our balance sheet and liquidity position, funded debt at year-end, $745 million, decreased $68 million sequentially. Interest expense of $8 million was up slightly due to higher average debt levels. During the quarter, we established an accounts receivable securitization facility that allows us to borrow up to $175 million at favorable short-term rates, further bolstering the company's already strong liquidity position. We ended Q4 with $34 million in cash and $632 million in availability under our revolving credit facilities. We believe we are well-positioned heading into the new fiscal year.
Yesterday, the board declared a dividend of $0.31 per share for the quarter, which is an 11% increase over last quarter and is payable in September of 2022. This marks the 12th consecutive year we have increased our dividend, and we are very pleased to be able to continue rewarding our shareholders as we deliver strong results. At this point, I will turn it over to Andy.
Thank you, Joe, and good morning, everyone. What an amazing year it has been for our company and our employees. Record earnings per share of $7.30. Record EBITDA of $615 million. General Motors Supplier of the Year. John Deere Supplier Hall of Fame for the second time. Best Places to Work in Central Ohio 10 years running. All of this in the face of a very tough operating environment filled with supply chain challenges, steel price volatility, and labor availability from lingering COVID challenges. I cannot say enough good things about how our employees have gone above and beyond to take care of each other and deliver for our customers, all while staying focused on implementing our value drivers of transformation, acquisitions, and innovation.
We added several new companies to our mix in fiscal 2022 with the acquisitions of Shiloh Industries' BlankLight business and Tempel Steel. With these, we have successfully positioned our Steel Processing segment to capitalize on the rapid growth expected from electric vehicles and the build-out of the electrical grid. We can now offer our broad customer base a full complement of laser welding, lightweighting applications, and electrical steel laminations for electric vehicle motors and transformers. It is not often that you see products in the steel market that are expected to grow at double-digit rates for the foreseeable future. Our Consumer Products business introduced a number of new products this past year and added the innovative drywall tool brand Level5 to its growing portfolio of tools.
Today, we have 10 unique brands in the tools, outdoor living, and celebration categories, and our pipeline of innovative new products continues to expand. In Building Products , we are benefiting from our focus on providing solutions that save time and labor for the new construction and renovation markets. In Sustainable Energy Solutions, many of our products already offer cleaner fuel alternatives that can bridge us to a future dominated by wind, solar, hydrogen, and hydroelectric. Overall, we are making strategic investments in propane, hydrogen, electric, and related areas to increase our exposure to markets where our products will play key roles in the energy transition. Our goal is to create sustainable products and business practices that are accretive to margins and free cash flow as these markets accelerate their growth.
End market demand remains strong across most of our products and markets, but operating challenges remain, including labor availability in some cities, continued intermittent supply chain disruptions, transportation shortages, and steel price volatility. Our commercial operations purchasing and supply chain teams have done an excellent job working together this year, overcoming constant curveballs, and deserve much credit for our record success. We continue to be bullish on the future of all of our business segments as we refine and execute more dynamic growth strategies that will continue to leverage innovation, transformation, and M&A. In the near term, higher producer prices and consumer prices, combined with higher interest rates, present some risk to what otherwise would be a solid economic backdrop to start fiscal 2023.
I am in my fourteenth year at Worthington Industries, and fiscal 2022 is, without question, the most impressive performance I have been fortunate enough to be a part of. In the face of numerous challenges, our people went above and beyond to deliver for our customers while achieving record financial results. Every business unit is working hard, smart, and performing at very high levels. To all of our stakeholders, congratulations, and thank you for your loyalty. We'll now take questions.
At this time, if you would like to ask a question, please press star then one on your telephone keypad, and we'll pause for just a moment to compile the Q&A roster. Our first question today is from Martin Englert with Seaport Research Partners. Your line is open.
Hi. Good morning, everyone.
Morning, Martin.
Across the cylinder segments, ASPs improved sequentially and higher pricing was called out in the prepared remarks as well as the release. To the extent that this was pricing versus mix, can you discuss the typical duration that you price the products? I guess, how often does it typically change here?
Yeah. Martin, it's not, you know, cylinders anymore, obviously. It's Building Products and Consumer Products . In both of those businesses, we mentioned during Q2 and Q3 conversations that the ability and the pricing contracts in those things sometimes lag, you know, when you see inflation. We were able to in late Q2 in a couple cases, but largely in Q3, you know, we were able to kind of catch up, if you will, to where our costs were and finally be able to reset some of those contracts. In Building Products , a lot of those are sort of renew and go forward on a more short-term basis, but some of them are also annual. Yeah, again, we don't really think about it as higher pricing carrying the day.
We honestly think about it as, you know, the products that we have, which we were able to price more appropriately given our input costs, after we got into kind of calendar 2023. Andy mentioned it. You know, these are products that save people time, right? Our foam and adhesive products, when you're putting up a roof or putting down a floor, rather than nailing things into the ground or into different studs, you save a ton of time. You know, our SmartLid technology and Building Products really saves time for propane distributors and everything else.
In this market where labor is at a premium, both in availability and in cost, you know, we really think about it as the ROI for those products becomes even more visible for our customers and then the end user customers, and that's driving a lot of what we're seeing.
Thank you for that. That's helpful. Within Steel Processing , you know, holding losses were $42 million for the quarter. I guess, you alluded to, I think, a modest positive gain near term. I guess, how would you define modest?
I mean, significantly less than the losses we had this quarter.
Well, I guess I interpreted it as you would expect a gain on the current quarter. Did I misinterpret that?
No. Sorry. Yes. Yeah, the size of the gain in this quarter will be, you know, a lower number obviously than the size of the loss. Yeah, you're right. It'll be a modest gain for the quarter. That's really all the visibility we typically have. At the same time, you know, the bias for steel pricing generally has returned, you know, to being that curve sloping downward as you know.
Okay. I guess pulling out the inventory holding gains and losses and looking at Steel Processing EBITDA per ton, I think was about $73 in the current quarter, which was comparable to first quarter, I believe, ex gains and losses. But it's elevated. I guess I kind of think of the through cycle of around $50 a ton. I know your mix changed a bit with direct versus tolling, but I'm curious that, you know, $73 per ton underlying, is that something that sustains near term, or was this just a near term, you know, mix or pricing or something that dissipates?
I think it's a great question, and there's, as you know, a lot of puts and takes in there. I think the business excluding FIFO, you know, ran at about a 6% EBITDA margin for 2022, and that's, I would say, historically normal.
Okay. More so you're thinking on it on the percentage basis, kind of when you're looking at things through cycle. Got it.
Yeah. I mean, we go ahead.
Sorry. No, go ahead.
I was just saying we have growth on material, we have other things that are happening, and there clearly is gonna be some noise if steel prices are very, very volatile. But I think that's the way that we think about it in a normalized environment.
I guess coming back to the dollars per ton, I'm not wrong in thinking, I mean, you're thinking about it on a percentage basis, but I'm not necessarily wrong in thinking about it, that it kind of mean reverts to the through cycle over time, right?
You know, Martin, this is Andy. I would say it's unclear. We've been through kind of an interesting couple of years here with respect to steel availability, steel price volatility. A lot of what's happened in the marketplace is I think, you know, people like us and our competitors have tried to recapture some of the costs, increased freight costs, increased labor costs, and I think that's reflected in the higher margins today. Whether that reverts back, I think is a little bit unclear at this point. In many markets, that's the case. But there's also been a lot of consolidation in the mill space. I think that is helping support higher prices and higher margins as well.
You know, the backdrop right now is solid and, you know, we'll see where it goes from here.
Thanks. That's helpful. If I could one last one here. Could you just provide an update on the Tempel integration, how that's progressing? Then maybe a brief update on Sustainable Energy Solutions. I know you've commented that there's been some headwinds in the year for market, and that's probably gonna remain challenged. I guess when we think about, you know, what's the time horizon potentially look like before that would turn positive.
First question, Tempel. The integration has been going very well. We are actually wrapping up kind of a revisit of kind of the strategy for that business, not because they didn't have a good strategy, they did, but I would tell you that one of the things that they faced prior to us owning them was, you know, capital constraints. We don't obviously have that. That market is growing rapidly. It's growing globally. The question that we're trying to answer is. Where are we gonna invest to get the, you know, the highest rates of return and be able to serve our customers on a global basis? I would say we're probably as excited or more excited than we were when we acquired the business. The team is fantastic there. They continue to be very engaged.
They've integrated very well into Worthington where it makes sense. You know, we're not, you know, trying to smother them, but we're trying to give them access to our resources where that makes sense, and they've taken advantage of that. So far it's been a, you know, a great partnership, and integration process. You know, and we look forward to kinda where it goes from here. On Sustainable Energy Solutions, you are correct. You know, that business is European-centric right now. We have made some investments to expand our capabilities in and around, you know, the hydrogen space there. But the core of that business is being impacted by the European economy, the war in Ukraine. Short term, it's faced some headwinds. You know, we still are very optimistic about the long-term prospects of that business.
You know, we don't like businesses that don't make money, so we're working hard to try and get it back to profitability, you know, sooner rather than later. You know, time will tell exactly how long it is before demand comes back there.
Yeah. I know that we have people in Europe and we feel for them because the situation is what it is. It's hard to underestimate how disrupted, you know, the European economy and European freight and European supply chains and the availability and coordination as you're trying to ship things from various places to and from Europe have been and how, you know, disrupted they are. Some of that will depend on the geopolitical situation. Andy's right. You know, it's
Longer term, it's going to face some headwinds certainly for the next couple quarters.
Yeah. The one thing I'll say that, you know, is a positive for, you know, the products that they make is what's happening with energy in Europe has obviously made them rethink, you know, their supply sources, and they're looking for alternatives and transitioning away from, you know, dependence on Russian oil and natural gas. That is actually driving a lot of activity in that business, but it doesn't necessarily mean it shows up, you know, in a quarter.
Yeah. That's more of a longer, medium, longer term shift, but it's good to see it pivoting the other direction here. Thank you for all your time. Congratulations on the results, not only for the quarter but for the year and navigating a challenging environment.
Thank you, Martin Englert.
The next question is from Phil Gibbs with KeyBanc Capital Markets. Your line is open.
Hey, good morning.
Morning, Phil.
When does the inventory gains and holding losses cease, I guess, abate? You had a big loss here. You got a modest gain next quarter. The trend has rolled down the tracks, down $500 on hot roll in the last two months. Does that show up in Q2? Does that persist into Q3? Where do we need to level out, I guess, for this to ease? 'Cause you're, you know, massive swings within swings and, you know, I think you can join me in saying that you've never seen this before. We haven't either. We're trying to figure this out.
Well, I think I mean, it's certainly a good question. I don't have a great answer with a lot of specificity in it. I mean, what you're seeing this quarter is actually what we talked about on a giant swing. The gains next quarter are more kind of an echo, right, from when steel prices post Russia's invasion of Ukraine bounced back up to $1,500. But you know, then they've kind of resumed their downward bias. If you kind of look out into the future, once we get through the curve ultimately flattening, there's always a lag effect for our inventory holding gains or losses. The market would appear right now to be relatively flat if you're just looking at the forward curve.
You're just kind of starting in on August, September into next year. Whether that holds or not remains to be seen. We're clearly doing everything that we can to kind of optimize our inventory positions at all times. You know, to a certain extent, the forward curve is going to do what it does without kind of regard for what we think or want.
Just generally on the macro side on non-residential construction, you've obviously got some leading indicators or some thoughts on orders at Dietrich and WAVE, and that's a mix between new and MRO. You've got some visibility in some of your cylinders portfolio. What's the latest in terms of the mosaic on the non-residential construction side with the, you know, rising rate and softening housing price environment?
Yeah. I mean, it's a little unclear. I think there are obviously some flashing yellow lights there just in terms of construction costs generally, as well as rising interest rates, which will change the economics of some of those projects. I will tell you know, we don't have an economics department here at Worthington that sort of does deep dives, but one of our JV partners does, Armstrong, and you know, their outlook right now is kind of just slightly up year-over-year. Obviously, that's subject to change as additional economic data points come in. You know, there's a lot of puts and takes in commercial construction. It's not just office buildings.
I think there is demand for other types of buildings, particularly around medical, the healthcare field that is offsetting what, you know, you might expect would be some of the declines. You know, we're cautiously optimistic that things hold up.
On the CapEx side, you've got Tempel. I think you're talking about putting in more processing capability there to augment their portfolio. What are you thinking about in terms of fiscal 2023 CapEx. I know it's a little early, but well, I guess it isn't early anymore.
You know, we were right. We were at $94-ish million for the year. We think it'll be up modestly, you know, 10%-20%, you know, year-over-year. We do have the inclusion of Tempel. We honestly probably would have spent more in 2022, but for supply chain and other delays in being able to complete projects. Our level of spend, not to a large degree, but on the margins, is going to be kind of subject to, you know, availability of products and us being able to get that money deployed in the way and on the timeline that we want. We've got some really cool growth-oriented projects that we're excited about.
A continuation of the theme, you know, it's not really the cylinders business anymore, right? It's Consumer Products and Building Products. In both of those businesses, trends that you saw beginning with COVID are inherent to any recession that you go into in that you're not spending money on airplanes or on a cruise ship. You're gonna do more at home. You might go camping, you're gonna work around your house. On the building product side, a lot of those products are ultimately labor savings oriented and driven.
You know, to Andy's point, we are cautiously optimistic, but we feel like if there was a, you know, consumer-led recession or something like that, we won't be immune to that, but a lot of the places that we play are gonna be a bit more insulated than some of the others that are out there.
Well, that makes sense totally. Last one for me is just on the auto side. The semi constraints have been a big talking point for the last several months and counting. What are your customers telling you now in terms of any of that, dawn breaking, you know, perhaps as the year progresses, or 2023? Thanks.
It's probably more a 2023 phenomenon at this point. You look at inventory on dealer lots, days, all of those metrics are at historic lows. You can still drive past a car dealership and, you know, the parking lot's fairly empty. Things are steady, but things, you know, have not begun to hockey stick back. When all of this happens, depending on the economic environment, they'll clearly have some catch up to kind of fill those channels. It's very difficult to predict when that will start and how rapid it will be.
Thank you.
Sure.
The next question is from John Tumazos with John Tumazos Very Independent Research. Your line is open.
Could you tell us a little bit about the Level5 Tools acquisition, the EBITDA multiple you paid, the synergies it might have? Presumably this goes in the construction segment.
Sure, John. Level5 actually goes into construction segment, but it's embedded in our Consumer Products business. Very excited about that business. Grown from the ground up by the founder CEO. Real reputation for innovation, for cutting edge improvements in tools. You know, I don't know how much you know about the drywall business, but there are varying types and steps you go through in drywall, and it requires for optimal production and productivity, different types of flex points, different angles, and different types of tools. Those guys really cracked the code, have been able to take share everywhere they've gone. You know, we paid a little north of 10x on the EBITDA side.
We are 100% excited about it because of the breadth of our consumer offerings into, you know, big box retailers and into the stores where they are. They also sell a bunch direct to consumer, so there's gonna be learning both ways for us. You know, their CEO and team is staying and committed to the business. We really feel like as kind of a part of our GTI platform in Consumer Products , we're gonna be able to do great things for them from an access perspective. As more people either do-it-yourselfers or pros see and understand what those products do, we think they'll be able to take share.
It also gives us entrée into an entirely new subsegment in that specialty tools business, and we're excited about what's possible there too. John, just, you know, this is one of the most exciting things going on at Worthington right now, in our consumer product space. We have developed a very strong capability of taking either undermanaged brands and reinvigorating them and then driving them into our broad network of customers, or in this case, you know, taking an emerging brand which has a lot more penetration before it becomes mature and really helping take the business to the next level. As we, you know, go forward, you're gonna see a lot more hopefully of these types of either new products introduced from within Worthington or new products that we acquire and really help accelerate their growth. That's a big strategy for us.
We've got an excellent team that is really developing a great capability there. We're excited about the prospects of this business.
As we look, this is in the consumer segment, then these revenues and EBITDA.
Yes.
As we look to the current year 2023, over $300 million went into working capital last year. Is any of that money gonna come out? Or should we expect the working capital dollars excluding cash and debt to be about the same as the year-end?
Yeah, John Tumazos, $258 million went into working capital during 2022. We do expect a fair amount of that to come back to us in the form of cash flow, you know, unless steel prices go up again.
Of course, the cash balances fell, and you've got a little bit of short-term debt. Does that mean there's gonna be a pause in acquisitions? The dollars were very big last year, $384 million, $130 million in 2021. I guess 2018 was $285 million, but 2017, there weren't any acquisitions. 2019, it was $10 million. 2020 is $31 million. I'm just
Yeah, John, I would.
wondering whether we're borrowing or not.
Well, obviously, if you look at our leverage level based on, you know, trailing EBITDA, we're pretty low leverage. I don't know what the exact math is, but 1.2 or 3 times EBITDA. We have a lot of available credit. You know, as you were just talking with Joe, I would say we have, you know, a stash of cash in working capital that we expect to get back. You know, short of steel prices reversing course and starting to go back up.
The other thing I would tell you is, I'm not rooting for a recession by any means, but when you see, you know, slowdowns in certain markets, you've already seen obviously a big blowup in terms of a lot of the new economy stocks, but you're starting to see valuations come down, I think in other markets, too, and that's when we start to lick our chops a little bit and get excited about, you know, potentially being even more active. I mean, you gotta find the right companies. You gotta strike the right balance of, you know, price, and you need a willing seller. I think for us, we're continuing to be active and look. You know, the last couple of years it's been tough 'cause valuations got really high for, you know, even basic companies.
Not only were valuations high, but particularly in some of the markets that we're in, you know, these companies had tripled earnings over three years. When you combine high multiples with earnings that have tripled over three years, you get pretty nervous in a hurry. Some of that's reversing course, and hopefully there'll be, you know, more good businesses out there for us to buy at reasonable prices. You know, we paid 10x for Level 5, so we're not afraid to start paying up for really good businesses.
In two years, you've spent about $570 million in acquisitions. Is there a nervousness that that's a lot of organizational change, and it's businesses you've gotta manage, and sometimes you learn more after you own them than before? Is there a little bit of caution given how much you've spent how quickly?
I don't know if it's so much the dollars, John Tumazos. It's more, you know, how many businesses have we bought and how much integration is there. One of the things that has changed for us over the past several years is the way we're integrating businesses. The short answer is, in a lot of cases. You know, we used to pursue full integration, which, you know, pick a function, we were integrating it fully into Worthington. We're not doing that necessarily as much anymore, and that's a very conscious decision on our part, partly because we want these businesses to preserve their own growth strategies and, you know, we don't wanna meddle, if you will, in terms of their path to success because they're already good businesses and doing well.
I think also that, you know, sometimes when you do full integration, it's, you know, you necessarily aren't accomplishing what you're trying to accomplish with the business. I think it's not quite a concern at this point, but, you know, at some point, if you do too many acquisitions, it can become a burden to people managing them, but we're very cognizant of that. I think that's a lesson learned from kind of our past wave of M&A, that we did do too much, too fast in too many places, and it got away from us. Now I think we're much more focused and our process is much tighter.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star then one on your telephone keypad. It appears that we have no further questions. I'll turn it over to the presenters for any closing remarks.
All right. Well, congratulations again to all of our stakeholders, and a special thanks to our employees for a fantastic year. Everybody have a great summer, and we'll look forward to talking to you in September.
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.