AAON, Inc.

Hello. Welcome to the Aon, Inc. Fourth Quarter 2021 Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all lines are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. At that time, if you have a question, you will be asked to press the star 1 on your touch-tone phone. If you are listening to the live event via the web and would like to ask a question on the telephone, please dial in using the instructions provided to you and then press star 1. As a reminder, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the event over to our host, Mr. Joseph Mondillo, Director of Investor Relations. Mr. Mondillo, please go ahead.

Thank you, Andrea. Good afternoon, everyone. The press release announcing our fourth quarter financial results was issued after the market closed today and can be found on our corporate website, aeon.com. On the call with me today are Gary Fields, President and CEO of and Rebecca Thompson, CFO and Treasurer. Just kind of begin with our customary forward-looking disclaimer. To that extent, to the extent any statement presented herein deals with information that is not historical, including the outlook for the remainder of the year, such statement is necessarily forward-looking and made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Security Litigation Reform Act of 1995. the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, each as amended. As such, it is subject to the occurrence of many events outside AON's control that could cause AON's results to differ material from those anticipated. Please see the risk factors contained in our most recent SEC filings, including the annual report on Form 10-K and the quarterly report on Form 10-Q. With that, I'll turn over the call to Rebecca.

Thank you, Joe. I'd like to begin by discussing the comparative results of the three months ended December 31st, 2021 versus December 31st, 2020. Net sales were up 16.8% to $136.3 million from $116.7 million. Net sales for the quarter were primarily due to price increases The acquisition of Basic Solutions, which closed on December 10th, contributed about 3%. Our gross profit decreased 21.7% to $26.5 million from $33.9 million. As a percentage of sales, gross profit was 19.5% in the quarter just ended compared to 29.1% in 2020. The decline in gross profit was mainly related to supply chain issues that resulted in production constraints and operational inefficiencies. Another contributing factor was material costs and wages rising quicker than our price increases could counteract. Selling, general, and administrative expenses increased 44.4% to $21.1 million from $14.6 million in 2020. Including 4.4 million of acquisition-related transaction fees, SG&A expenses increased year-over-year 14.4%. As a percent of sales, SG&A excluding these fees decreased to 12.3% of total sales compared to 12.5% in the same period in 2020. SG&A as a percent of sales decreased mainly due to lower profit-sharing expenses which was a result of our lower pre-tax earnings compared to the year-ago period. We had an income tax benefit of 0.8 million due to our lower earnings in the quarter and our excess tax benefit from stock awards of 1.6 million. Adjusted net income, which is a non-GAAP measure, decreased 35.5% to 9.5 million or 7% of sales compared to 14.8 million or 12.7% of sales in the prior year period. Adjusted diluted earnings per share, which is a non-GAAP measure, decreased 35.7% to 18 cents per share from 28 cents per share. Now for the comparative results of the year ended December 31st, 2021 versus December 31st, 2020. Net sales in 2021 were up 3.9% to $534.5 million from $514.6 million in 2020. Net sales were up primarily due to price increases, which contributed approximately 5% for the year. Volumes were down due to our plant shutdown in January for planned maintenance, weather-related shutdown in February, and various supply chain issues in the later half of the year. The acquisition of basic solutions contributed about 1%. Our gross profit decreased 11.6% to $137.8 million from $155.8 million. As a percentage of sales, gross profit was 25.8 in the year just ended compared to 30.3% in 2020. Gross profit was down because of a handful of factors. Production constraints due to supply chain issues, and material inflation being the primary two. Selling general and administrative expenses increased 13.4% to $68.6 million from $60.5 million in 2020. Excluding $4.4 million of acquisition-related transaction fees, SG&A expenses increased year-over-year 6.1%. As a percentage of sales, SG&A excluding these fees increased to 12% of total sales compared to 11.8 in 2020. Our effective tax rate decreased to 15.1% from 22.5%. The decrease is the result of a lower income tax rate in Oklahoma along with increased excess tax benefits on stock awards compared to 2020. Adjusted net income in 2021 decreased 17.1% to 62.1 million or 11.6% of sales compared to $74.9 million or 14.6% of sales in 2020. Adjusted diluted earnings per share decreased by 17.7% to $1.16 per share from $1.41 per share. Now looking at the balance sheet, you'll see that we had a working capital balance of $131.3 million versus $161.2 million at December 31, 2020. Unrestricted cash totaled $2.9 million at December 31, 2021, and total debt was $40 million. During the quarter, we used $103.4 million of cash to finance the acquisition of Basic Solutions, and we drew down $40 million on our revolving line of credit to finance working capital needs. In the first quarter, we will be closing on the real estate related to the Basics deal, which will cost us $22 million. Early in the year, working capital will also be a use of cash before reversing in the second half of the year. I anticipate net debt will climb a little more at the end of the first quarter before beginning to come back down. Our current ratio is approximately 2.5 to 1. Capital expenditures in 2021 were $55.4 million, down 18.3% from a year ago. Capital investments were down and were less than we expected at the beginning of the year due primarily to delayed projects which were a result of supply chain issues and other economic factors. We have not slowed our growth-related investments at all. In fact, we continue to be aggressive with our investment planning to help facilitate the real best organic growth we anticipate over the next several years. In 2022, we expect capital expenditures to be $100.4 million. The company has stock repurchases of $22.5 million during the year ended December 31, 2021. Shareholders' equity per diluted share is $8.68 at December 31, 2021, compared to $6.61 at December 31, 2020. I'd now like to turn the call over to our CEO and President, Gary Fields.

Good afternoon. Well, in the fourth quarter, there were three major positive achievements in the quarter. The backlog continued to grow at a significant rate, reaching a new record level. We closed on the acquisition of Basic Solutions, which was the company's first acquisition of substantial size in 20 years. And in October, we hosted our first sales event in several years with our independent sales channel, where we introduced a package of new products that we think are going to be game-changers. Obviously, the fourth quarter financial results were disappointing. Sales, gross margin, operating margin, earnings were all weaker than we were even thinking when we last spoke to you in November. However, I believe we are going to emerge from this a much stronger company, which is going to help facilitate a robust growth trajectory. Speaking of the growth trajectory, we believe our long-term outlook remains intact. For those who have listened to us recently, we have aspirational goals, which include growing revenue organically in the double digits per year over the next several years. Nothing has happened over the last nine months leading us to believe that these goals are unachievable. In fact, we're as optimistic on the outlook as we've ever been. The backlog reflects that, and we're beginning to pull out of a lot of the issues that we're constraining our ability to produce. So let's take a little deeper dive look into the quarter, and then we'll talk about the outlook. The environment our industry's been facing over the last 12 months is one of the most challenging ever, if not the most challenging in the last 30 years. Inflation's rampant, supply chain issues make managing operations extremely tough. This is all while trying to manage through the challenges of the pandemic. Inflation pressures continued through fourth quarter. We've been very disciplined with our pricing and are still confident we'll fully recoup gross margins at the 30% plus We need to work faster through the lower margin backlog. Start producing products priced at our most recent price increases. Unfortunately, supply chain issues have prevented this from happening in the fourth quarter. The fourth quarter was the most challenging quarter of the year when it came to supply chain. October and November were particularly tough months. The supply chain issues led to less than optimal production rates, causing operational inefficiencies, unabsorbed fixed costs, and an unfavorable mix of products that were priced at lower pricing than our recent price increases. So the supply chain issues were a huge constraint to production, but also exacerbated deflationary effects. Now there were some positives in the quarter when we're looking forward. First, at this point in time, we believe October and November were the worst we'll see regarding supply chain issues. December showed improvement, January, and now February were even better. Margin profile of our backlog is quickly improving. Lastly, I said earlier we're going to emerge from this a stronger company. These supply chain issues have forced us to significantly increase the number of multisource components. I also mentioned earlier that this has been one of the most challenging environments our industry has faced in 30 plus years. Facing challenges like this almost always leads to a stronger operation and a more capable management team if you have the right people. I'm very confident we have the right people managing this company. So we feel we have gone through, what we have gone through is going to make us a much stronger company, help us execute our growth strategy more effectively. And let's look back on some of those achievements a little deeper. The backlog. At the end of 21, total backlog was up 250% from a year ago and up 43% from the end of 3Q. Excluding basics backlog, organic backlog was up 201% year-over-year and 23% quarter-over-quarter. Organic bookings in the quarter were up year-over-year 67%. The growth rate is consistent to what we saw in the previous two quarters. The strong demand continued through the end of the year. Border trends remain strong through the first two months of 22, including both legacy Aon and basics. This performance is remarkable, especially when compared to the industry, which is not growing nearly as fast. It tells us we have the right strategy and we're executing. Strategy includes focusing on customized, high-performance, energy-efficient HVAC equipment to take advantage of secular trends like decarbonization and indoor air quality. This has been the foundation of Aon for 30 years. While much of our market is just starting to talk about manufacturing more capable equipment to meet these new demands, we've mastered it over decades. Lower cost of ownership, selling a high-quality product at a minimal price premium that has the longest useful age on the market, most energy efficient, easiest to service and maintain. Continuous improvement of productivity. Our manufacturing operations are highly automated. We've always had a culture of maximizing productivity. We still see many areas of improvement, though, and we'll continue to focus on this. We've been strengthening our sales channel even more. We have the strongest sales channel in the industry, and we're assisting our channel partners more now than ever through various ways to help improve their success. We believe that what we're doing to support our channel partners is leading the market share gains. Innovation and new products. I'll touch on that a little more here in a minute. But leading in innovation is Corda Aon. We focused on parts and service. Parts sales were a record for us in 21, growing 26.3%. As a total of revenue, parts made up 8%, which was the highest percent of total sales in company history. So overall, the growth and backlog reassures us that we have the right strategy in place. Also, we measure the size of our total addressable market being $30 billion, which is about 50 times the size of our company. So we think there's a lot more potential going forward. So in our end markets, our strength is broad-based, but data center, warehouse related to e-commerce, growth facilities, education, manufacturing, healthcare, and retail were all strong points for us. Hotels are weaker. Replacement drove a lot of demand in 21, but new construction markets beginning to pick up. Leading indicators continue to point to recovery in construction following the slow 21. ABI, Dodge Index, non-residential construction stocks, all of these indicators are pointing positively. So the big positive of the quarter was the backlog in the orders. Now let's talk about basic solutions acquisition for us. That was our second big achievement. First acquisition of substantial size in 20 years. Historically, Aon has not been acquisitive at all. This is a real special deal for us. We think it will generate accelerated growth for Aon and very attractive returns for our shareholders. The two and a half months that we've owned Basics have been extremely pleasing. You know, you always, through all the negotiations, there were many metrics that Basics had projections on, some of which looked pretty aspirational. I'm here to tell you they hit every one of them right on the bull's eye of the target. I couldn't be more pleased. The collaboration with the Basics group, bringing some opportunities for Aon, expanded opportunities that we always knew were possible if we had that kind of a partner. They're materializing very quickly. Myself and Dave Benson made a trip recently up into the Upper Midwest to visit with some sales channel partners and some of their end user clients and came away from there with some outstanding opportunities that hopefully when we talk to you next time, we'll be able to tell you a little about capitalizing on those opportunities. In October, we hosted a sales meeting in Dallas. We had around 600 sales channel partners there. One of the things we did was we introduced a new state-of-the-art showroom trailer. Now, other manufacturers have some showroom trailers, but none of them have anything at all like this. This thing is just outrageously wonderful. It's a Class 8 truck, which is great big. Kenworth Truck put on a 53-foot trailer, but it expands on both sides to make a 1,000-square-foot showroom when it's parked. It does this all with hydraulics, and it's very easy to do. It has a touchscreen that's in three segments. The total length of it, I believe, is about 26 feet. You can show three different films at the same time or one film across the whole thing. I mean, it's just wonderful. We've got virtual reality in there where we – put the headsets on people and show them how to build a unit, fly them through the laboratory, fly them through the manufacturing plant and the process. I mean, just so many things that are just wonderful for people to see. We've got quite a bit of equipment in there. We've got controls that we build in our Parkville facility there. And it's booked up very nicely. It's been traveling across the country since October when we took possession of it and continues to do that. and the reviews on it from a marketing standpoint are just wonderful. Some game-changing products that we introduced were we had told you earlier about proper configuration water source heat pumps. So we had a water source heat pump that the model name of it is EcoFit because it is very, very efficient. The new model is called Probe. because it fits in a professional manner exactly replacing the majority of units that are out there. So it's very backwardly compatible. Reception from the sales channel partners has been great. Then we talked a lot about decarbonization. So currently about 64% of all rooftop units manufactured in the world have gas heat. We believe that that trend will begin to reverse itself and that these units will become electric heat. Most efficient way to do that in a package rooftop unit in a common application is air source heat pump. And we've manufactured these for a very long time, but what we didn't have the capability of until recently was low ambient or cold climate capable units. We were kind of limited to around 25 or 30 degrees Fahrenheit being the low end of where the unit was affected. We've moved that down beyond zero and have very nice efficiencies at zero degree Fahrenheit. We're working towards lower than that even. So let's talk about our marketing efforts, what we're doing. So historically, Aon has not been all that focused on the marketing aspects. They've relied on the sales channel partners to have technical expertise to make the sale. And this is not changing in that regard, but we're giving them more support tools. That trailer I talked about is considerable. We're building a new customer experience center that's are going to be completed by the end of the year that will have a lot of dynamic features to it to show people why our fan system is better than most of our peers' fan systems, a lot of the energy efficiency things. And this new customer experience center will be connected to and coupled to the Norman Asbjornson Innovation Center, otherwise known as our laboratory. So we're going to invest more in marketing so that we can – really get the story of what we're doing out there on a broader base. We're not the niche player we used to be. We are moving more mainstream. The order book supports that. And I think it's time for us to get our marketing in accordance with that. So capital investments, we continue to invest in the company. Rebecca stated we've got a budget of $100.4 million. almost double what we spent in 21. We intended to spend around 70-something million, but there was supply chain constraints. I mean, some of the machinery we buy comes from Europe and didn't get here in time. It's coming in now, but it just didn't make it on the 2021 side of the calendar ledger. So we do have some carryover from last year. But we continue to invest considerably. Maintenance capex is around $35 million, so the majority of it's growth-related. We'll continue to target organic sales growth in the double digits for the next several years, and we'll continue to invest in capacity to help service those bookings. So as you can tell, we're very optimistic on the long term. Unfortunately, there's still some uncertainties in the near term. Supply chain issues have eased some, but we're still not back to normal. Visibility with this is still quite unclear. This is something we're constantly monitoring on a day-to-day basis. Inflation continues to be a challenge. Starting to see a little softer prices of steel, but most everything else is up substantially, including components, raw materials, wages, freight. We initiated four price increases since the beginning of 2021, including the latest on January 1st. We also announced another price increase earlier today that will be effective on March 31st. We'll continue to be disciplined with price and expect our margins to fully recover. This is something we're constantly monitoring. As you know, we don't provide earnings guidance, but I want to provide you with some information on how we're thinking about 22. The following info will pertain to the legacy Aon business. From January 21 to January 22, we initiated four price increases across the board for a cumulative 21%. In 2021, we only recognized about 5% of that. The rest of it's in the backlog. So it wasn't realized in 21, but it is being realized now. So that will have us at double digits in 22. The price increase that we announced today will be a small benefit to 22. It really catches toward the end of the year. Mostly, it'll be a 2023 factor. Unit volumes were down 2% in 21, including 6% reduction in our core rooftop units. So, depending on construction constraints, which is a question mark, we should have a reasonably easy comp as far as volumes. The backlog is up big, so we should see recovery in volume, particularly in the second half of the year. There's no structural change in our gross margins. We're confident our gross margins will recover to our target of 30% plus. The question is timing. At this point in time, we estimate this will be sometime in the second half of the year. SG&A will be up this year. With earnings expected up, our profit-sharing expense will be up. Higher headcount wages will be the biggest driver, but also things like depreciation and investments in technology will be driving this. Most years, we'd expect little leverage on SG&A, but in this environment, we'd expect SG&A will be up similar to revenue growth. So for all the info pertaining to the legacy Aon business, as far as basics goes, in 2021, the business generated $80.7 million of revenue and $10.1 million of EBITDA. Basics is on somewhat similar footing as legacy Aon in that backlog and orders are up significantly, but supply chain issues have led to production constraints. Overall, though, they're doing a great job at working through the issues. For 2022, we estimate basics will generate $95 to $100 million of revenue, and EBITDA margins will be up year over year. Based on the backlog, though, we expect profits will be weighted towards the second half of the year. So overall, we have some macro issues we're dealing with in the near term, but the long-term outlook is very positive. Before I take any questions, I'd like to thank all of our employees. 2021 was a difficult period with all the challenges we faced. including the issues related to the pandemic. I'd also like to thank our channel partners. We value your business tremendously and will continue to support you. Lastly, I just want to mention we'll be attending the J.P. Morgan Industrial Conference in New York City on March 17th and the Sidoti Virtual Conference on March 23rd and 24th. I hope to see some of you at those events. But now, I'll open it up to questions.

Thank you. The floor is now open for questions and answers. If you would like to ask a question and have already dialed in, simply press star 1 on your telephone keypad. If you are only listening to the live event via the web and would like to ask a question on the telephone, please dial in using the instructions provided and then press star 1. And our first question is from Brent Fieldman of Dean A. Davidson. Brent, go ahead when you're ready.

Thank you. Good afternoon. Yeah. Yeah, maybe first, it sounds like you've transitioned here into a period sort of December through February that hasn't seen the level of disruption you'd seen before. Maybe you could just help us out with what's improved in particular in the supply chain that's allowed you to pick up production rates and what confidence you're getting from suppliers they can kind of meet the requirements you need here in the short run.

Yeah, good question, Brett. So while we didn't have absenteeism of any magnitude on our plant floors in Q4 due to coronavirus, some of our suppliers did, and some of it was in late Q3 when they were manufacturing components and things for us. So we really saw a huge choke point in October It began to improve a little bit in November, and we were able to get some additional suppliers in place for some of these items. Those were fully in place and helped December a good bit. January, almost uninterrupted at all. February, to this point, well, today's the last day of the month, uninterrupted. We do see some electronic components coming up, but they're We're managing real well around those. We got some equipment in place that helps them select alternative electronic components to put on those boards. And so they've been very nimble and very responsive. So like I say, things have improved a lot. I don't know what this situation in Ukraine is going to do. I was reading earlier today that NEON and and Palladium, both of which are used in chip manufacturing. Ukraine's a huge supplier of those. And so just the way this article talked, the electronic situation could get a little more challenging going forward. But right now, I think we've seen a lot of improvements. We're in a much, much better place.

Okay. And would you expect to be able to run – I mean, provided all that holds – able to run off kind of all the remaining lower price backlog here in the first quarter? Is there going to be some carryover in the second quarter as well?

So in December, well, let's just kind of dissect October, November, and December. October was built completely on backlog that was booked prior to the September 1st price increase of $21 million. November was the same way. December, we began to see a little bit of that trickle onto the plant floor. In January, 76% of what we built had the September 1st price increase, which was 5%. So we had a 4%, if you do that math, that'd be 4% better margin profile related to the price increase. February, of course, we're just finishing up today, but the expectation was it would be built almost 100% on that 5% higher price backlog. So I think starting the year, like I say, we just nearly got to all better quality backlog. And then the 8% that went into effect January 1st with the way things are flowing, I don't expect to reach that until... probably the end of next quarter. So we will have at least 4% to 5% better margin profile capability related to that price increase from September 1st. And most of the pricing we've got in place for this quarter and beginning next quarter was already captured. So I look for good margin improvement related to that higher priced Backlog we're using now. But in addition to that, we're producing at a rate that's the highest rates that we've ever produced at in both the factory and the Texas factory. I get a daily report on that, and it's the highest numbers on a daily average that we've ever achieved. And this is before we factor in the higher price. So it's volume improvements. We're getting materials out there. We're getting units built, so we're going to perform a good bit better Q1. I think you're going to be very pleased. What I'm seeing so far in Q1, unless something drastic happens related to this Ukraine situation next month, I think we're good. Going forward, we're not seeing anything significant, just little nicks here and there, but we're poised to do quite well. Basics is kind of dealing with the same situations. Most of their things are flowing much better now, but there's just not clarity on what all is going to happen to us longer term.

Yep, understood. Maybe last one for me, and the organic bookings, obviously, super strong. I know one of the things you've talked about is You've had more advantageous lead times perhaps versus some of your competition. I don't know if that still stands. Whether this is a good function of just better confidence, Gary, maybe among customers and the marketing efforts. Maybe if you could just dissect some of those things that are driving such a substantial gain here. Sure.

While our lead times went out just a little bit, we still have an advantageous position with that. But I think the improvements we've made in the sales channel, the support we've given them, the tools that we've given them are helping them become more effective. When I started here nearly six years ago now running this place, we had regions that were very strong, but they were only a couple of them. We had multiple regions that were very weak relative to what the market capability was. Now, The regions are fairly uniform in what they're doing in meeting our expectations. You know, very significantly the southeast, which should have always been a top performing region for Aon because it fit our equipment profile so well. It was a horrible performing region prior to me taking over. And some of the sales channel adjustments I made there with different sales channel partners have really shown merit They performed just outstanding in 21 and beginning in 22. So we have improved the sales channel. That's brought more business. Our lead times are certainly advantageous. The utilization of indoor air quality measures that have always been a hallmark for Aon. are now more widely recognized throughout the market. So it's not just a specialty vertical that's looking to have that like it was at one point in time. Now it's more commonplace for people to ask for these things.

Very good. I'll get back in line. Thank you for taking the question.

Yeah, thank you.

Okay, so just a reminder, if you would like to ask a question and have already dialed in, simply press star one on your telephone keypad. If you are only listening to the live event via the web and would like to ask a question on the telephone, please dial in using the invited and then press star one. I'll now open up our next question from Julio Romero from Sidonian Company, LLC. Julio, when you're ready, go ahead.

Great, thanks. Good afternoon, Gary and Rebecca. Just staying on the order trends, the organic orders, you know, still very strong above historical trends, but I think it's down a bit sequentially. I have 177 million by my math, so slightly down sequentially from the last two quarters. Can you just talk about how orders are trending, and do you see organic order trends accelerating, decelerating, or steady going forward?

Well, first off, since that price increase was January 1st, we always expect that there was some pull forward. And so we expect somewhere around 40 to 50 days thereafter to be a bit softer. I've been very pleasantly surprised. It is just outstanding what's going on with bookings, just outstanding. So I would have to say that it's ever been as strong as it's been. We really began this strength late first quarter, a year ago. And one of the things that I'm looking at is trailing 12 months booking. And the trailing 12 months booking continues to grow, continues to grow. So that's why I say it's, you know, here, I'm trying to pull it up right now. Yeah, so when I look at trailing 12 months, I'm just really... I'm pleased with what I'm seeing. It continues to go up.

Got it. Makes sense. And on that point about the price increases, do you want to announce today effective March 31st? Yes. Can you talk about how much of a price increase that was and is it across the board for your products?

Seven percent across the board.

Got it. That's helpful. Just switching gears to labor, you talked about increased wages, new hiring initiatives. Maybe just touch on how headcount at Tulsa and Longview are compared to last quarter.

Yeah, let me see if I can find it. Every Tuesday, I get headcount. So let's see here. Let me go back a few days. I'll get an updated headcount tomorrow. But in general, I'd say versus last quarter, we're up slightly in Longview and up a little bit more in. Here it is right here. Let me look here. All right. So we are up. Well, they give me a prior 12 months change. So Oklahoma is up 11 percent and Texas is up 17 percent over a year ago. Now let me go back here. That's on 2-22. So let me look at those head counts real quick. All right, I got those. And let me go back here to December 30th. Yeah, we were up 7% and 19% at that point in time versus a year before then. But in absolute head count, let's see here, 1955 versus... We're up about 25 people in Oklahoma over last quarter. And we are up 30 people in Longview. So both of them have grown headcount. Our turnover ratio in Oklahoma has gone down to just a wonderful, wonderful number. And so a lot of the things that our HR department with our new leadership put in place working with some of the individuals in plant management. Those were all proven concepts. Well, that director of manufacturing that was in Oklahoma that helped put all that together, January 1st, he became the executive vice president in Longview. So he carried some of those things down there where we had been using them a little bit, but not quite as thoroughly. So he's taken those down there. Also, some of our HR team from Oklahoma decided they wanted to live in Texas. And so they've gone down there. So we have a very uniform approach. So that's the results of it. We're growing both headcounts. And right now, headcount is not our constraining factor. It remains materials. And that's gotten better as well. So like I say, we're just doing a lot better now.

Got it. Appreciate the color. Good to hear about the retention rate improving. Just quick clarification on the gross margin commentary. Gary, did you say you expect gross margin challenges in the first half but should see a recovery to 30% in the second half?

Yeah, I'm not going to call them challenges so much, but 30% is dead center bullseye. We give a 28% to 32% range. I think we're going to be within the range the entire year. So far what I've seen, every quarter is going to be in the range. But it's going to be strengthening throughout the year. So that on year end, I expect to be 30% plus on the total year. But quarter by quarter, I look for it to strengthen each quarter. And a lot of this is due to price increase coming on board. offsetting more ably the pricing pressures. So the price-cost ratios are going to be better. But in addition to that, we've really got the production side of the business streamlined very well, very competent management that's now quite veteran at this. And I just see improving production each day that goes by. Production seems to grow just a bit more, so I'm very pleased with how we'll be absorbing fixed costs better.

Great. Thanks very much for taking the questions, and best of luck in 22.

Thank you, Julio.

All right, so that appears to be all the questions we have for today. Presenters, did you have any final remarks?

I think we're all set, Andrea. Thank you.

Perfect. Well, thank you so much. This concludes today's event. You may now disconnect. Have a great day.

All right. Thank you. See y'all at