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spk09: Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for participating in today's conference call to discuss the CLARS Corporation's final results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2021. Joining us today are CLARS Corporation President John Walbrecht, Executive Vice President and CFO Aaron Cuney, and the company's External Director of Investor Relations, Cody Slaw. Following their remarks, we'll open the call for your questions. Before we go further, I would like to turn the call over to Mr. Slaw as he reads the company's safe harbor statement within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that provides important cautions regarding forward-looking statements. Cody, please go ahead.
spk07: Thanks, Buena. Please note that during this call, the company may use words such as appears, anticipates, believes, plans, expects, intends, future, and similar expressions which constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are made based on the company's expectations and beliefs concerning future events impacting the company and therefore involve a number of risks and uncertainties. The company cautions you that forwarding statements are not guaranteed and that actual results could differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. Potential risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results of operations or financial condition of the company to differ materially from those expressed or implied by forward-looking statements used in this call include but are not limited to the overall level of consumer demand on the company's products, General economic conditions and other factors affecting consumer confidence, preferences, and behavior. Disruption and volatility in the global currency, capital, and credit markets. The financial strength of the company's customers. The company's ability to implement its business strategy. The ability of the company to execute and integrate acquisitions. The impact of the global economy. climate change trends may have on a company and its suppliers and customers, a company's exposure to product liability or product warranty claims and other loss contingencies, disruptions and other impacts to the company's business as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and government actions and restrictive measures implemented in response, stability of the company's manufacturing facilities and suppliers as well as consumer demand, for our products in light of disease, epidemics, and health-related concerns such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Changes in governmental regulation, legislation, or public opinion relating to the manufacture and sale of bolts and ammunition by our CRS segment, the possession and use of firearms and ammunition by our customers, the company's ability to protect patents, trademarks, and other intellectual property rights, The ability of our information technology systems or information security systems to operate effectively, including as a result of security breaches, viruses, hackers, malware, natural disasters, vendor business interruptions, or other causes. Our ability to properly maintain, protect, repair, or upgrade our information technology systems or information security systems or problems with our transitioning to upgrade or replacement systems. the impact of adverse publicity about the company and or its brands, including without limitation through social media or connection with brand damaging events and or public perception, fluctuations in the price, availability, and quality of raw materials and contracted products, as well as foreign currency fluctuations, companies' ability to utilize its net operating loss carry forwards, changes in tax laws and liabilities, tariffs, legal, regulatory, political, and economic risks, and the company's ability to maintain a quarterly dividend. Any material differences in the actual financial results of the Rhino Rack acquisition is compared with expectations, including the impact of the acquisition on the company's future earnings per share. More information on potential factors that could cause the company's financial results is included from time to time in the company's public reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the company's annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and current reports on Form 8-K. All forward-looking statements included in this call are based upon information available to the company as of the date of this call and speak only as of the date hereof. The company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this call. I'd like to remind everyone this call will be available for replay through August 16th starting at 8 p.m. Eastern tonight. A webcast replay will also be available via the link provided in today's press release as well as on the company's website at clariscorp.com. Any redistribution, retransmission, or rebroadcast of this call in any way without the express written consent of Claris Corporation is strictly prohibited. Now I'd like to turn the call over to Claris' president, John Wabrecht. John?
spk08: Thank you, Cody, and good afternoon, everyone. It is great to be addressing you all today. We are very proud of about another outstanding quarter driven by continued growth across our portfolio of superfan brands, as well as the favorable trends in the outdoor industry overall. We reported sales of approximately $73 million of 144% versus last year and an adjusted EBITDA of $11.7 million compared to a loss of $1.3 million in Q2 of 2020. Both metrics were a record for any second quarter in our history. We also saw continued increases in gross margin, reporting a 280 basis point year-over-year improvement to 38.2%. These results are a testament to the value of the brands, continued operational excellence, and strong supplier partnerships. On the supplier front, we have leveraged our superfan brand recognition to strengthen our relationship with our key retail partners and our global suppliers. We continue to see evidence that suppliers prioritize the formation of long-lasting and productive partners with brands that are best poised for long-term performance, and we believe our brands fit this mold. To give you an example, in our Black Diamond business, We prioritize product availability in seven of our core products during the quarter. This allowed us to isolate the needs of our supply chain on the components that really move the needle, which allowed us to increase sales and satisfy our retail partners and ultimately our consumers. It's creative, nimble, and deliberate actions like these that have allowed us to stay ahead of our supply chain challenges our peers and the broader industry are facing. I want to thank our entire team for the hard work. Without them, these results and our performance over the past few quarters surely would not be possible. In addition to our strong results during the second quarter, we entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Rhino Rack, a premier aftermarket automotive roof rack and accessory superfan brand. Rhino Rack will continue to operate on a standalone basis as a wholly owned subsidiary of Claris and will constitute a third reporting segment. Headquartered in Sydney, Australia, and founded in 1992, Rhino Rack is an iconic brand that embodies Claris' superfan ethos. Rhino Rack has leading market share for its core products in Australia and New Zealand, with growing presence globally, particularly in the U.S., and is best known for its superior, award-winning north-south roof rack designs with best-in-class solutions that make space for adventure. Customers rely on Rhino Rack to transform their vehicles for work, play, and overland adventuring. Rhino Rack has well-established opportunities to market through a combination of long-standing distributors, retailer relationships, OEM partners, third-party e-commerce sites, and a growing direct-to-consumer presence. Rhino-Rack is truly a unique brand and one that we view as perfectly aligned with our superfan brand acquisition strategy. Since its founding, Rhino-Rack has built a durable business with leading brand and market positioning, a customer-centric focus, and affinity for protecting and funding an important cause related to the rhinoceros conservation. While we continue to prioritize with the first half of 2021 after a great start, we believe that Claris is certainly a more resilient and profitable business than we have ever been. We are excited about the second half of the year and the momentum our brands carry as we enter the fall and winter seasons. As such, We are raising our full-year outlook and look forward to continuing to drive shareholder value. Aaron will cover our second quarter financial results and the outlook in more detail shortly. But first, I want to review the key drivers that supported our outstanding Q2 results. At Black Diamond, favorable consumer trends in the outdoor market, particularly compared to the depth of the pandemic we experienced in Q2 last year, and inventory normalization at retail, drove 122% year-over-year increases in sales for that quarter. In fact, inventory normalization created the ability for us to accelerate market share gains, particularly within our national accounts such as REI and MEC. By category, Mountain was up 182%, Climb was up 90%, and Ski was up 111%. Hard goods growth of 120% was driven by double-digit and triple-digit growth across the product portfolio, in particular, lighting, climbing shoes, harnesses, T-poles, and gloves. Our footwear and apparel businesses, which are included in the business categories just discussed, were up 252% and 132% respectively. While we continue to prioritize inventory allocations to our wholesale partners, to seek to ensure their ability to have a strong finish to the spring and summer season, a direct-to-consumer channel accelerated from Q1. We defined our direct-to-consumer channel as both our e-commerce business as well as our growing retail brand community centers. After relaunching the brand Black Diamond website in January, we continued to refine our activation efforts within e-commerce, focusing on paid digital campaigns centered around social media versus pure search and building the top funnel of entrance. If we can tell our brand story simultaneously across various mediums, like digital as well as brick and mortar, we find the connection with our consumers elevated and elongated. As inventory imbalances normalize, and as we develop more refined data-driven tools along with expanding our retail footprints, We believe our direct-to-consumer channel will become the most brand-creative touchpoint for our superfans. Our new Boulder location has already proven this. We opened a new Black Diamond retail store in Boulder, Colorado last month, bringing our total retail footprint to seven. In just one week, our Boulder location is on track to be one of our top retail locations. Our retail store has allowed us to amplify our community-centric approach to the consumer engagement. This includes brand awareness and product education in mega mountain towns across the world, many of which will house our community center retail locations. We have found that this level of engagement has another key driver to our strong sales growth and increasing brand awareness, particularly in key product categories where we have chosen to maximize product availability. Now moving to our Sierra segment. We continue to experience unprecedented demand for both our Sierra and Barnes brands as we generated sales of approximately $28 million, up 190% from the prior year quarter. This performance reflects broad day sales growth across both bullets and ammunition. The continuation of external demand drivers, such as social and civil uncertainties, as well as increased participation in outdoor hunting and indoor shooting ranges, has continued to drive this strong demand for both bullets and ammunition domestically. In addition to the underlying market tailwinds, we are experiencing success by treating each business as its own discrete and stand-alone brand. This allows for rapid alignment with our retail partners, promotes an ease of doing business with mentality that is driving our market share gains, and enables an agile go-to-market strategy focused on the innovate and accelerate mindset. We have also used our strong balance sheet to take more control over our supply chain, which has allowed us to have less constraints on product availability, particularly in our core categories. With this backdrop in mind, we have also kicked off a three-year planning cycle for each of our businesses. Within Black Diamond, we are taking a community-centric approach in ensuring that we implore a customer-backed innovation mindset, focusing on resourcing on the brand, defining product categories with large addressable markets, while solidifying and optimizing the core. We are also focused on going deeper within our existing distribution, further entrenching our partnership mentality. We believe this will enable us to accelerate our direct-to-consumer business without creating unnecessary channel conflict as we focus on building community centers within these outdoor meccas, similar to what I recently opened the Boulder location and soon to open locations in Jackson Hole, Bend, and Burlington, Vermont. For Sierra and Barnes, our go-forward focus is on employing our Innovate and Accelerate playbook as we look to commercialize nearly two years of R&D innovations that we have paused during this heightened demand environment. This will be accompanied by further capacity enhancement activities in support of our ammunition initiative. We believe this approach will further reinforce our position in the marketplace as the leading provider of specialty premium bullets and ammunition. At Rhino Rack, We intend to expand Rhino-Ratch product penetration in North America, which we believe can become the largest geographic region over time, organically grow in its core Australia and New Zealand markets, and seek to capitalize on our existing network of key distributors and dealers to develop sales in the rest of the world. After owning the business for just over one month, we are even more compelled by these opportunities than we are now getting to work as one unified team. Rhino RAC also presents a valuable beachhead strategy to scale further in the overlanding and vehicle accessory category. Before passing it on to Aaron, I'd like to state that we continue to remain cognizant of health recommendations, especially as it relates to conditions within retail and supply chain environments that we operate in. Challenges remain, but we believe that we are well equipped to provide sustained long-term growth to our shareholders as we have a great portfolio of superfan brands and a disciplined team and strategy leading to continued success. With that, I'll now turn the call over to Aaron Cooney, our Chief Financial Officer, who will provide additional commentary on our performance in the second quarter and details on our increased 2021 outlook.
spk05: Aaron. Thank you, John, and good afternoon, everyone. For the second quarter of 2021, total sales increased 144% to $73.3 million. By segment, Black Diamond sales improved 122% to $44.9 million, and sales in the Sierra segment increased 190% to $28.4 million. Excluding Barnes, which we acquired in early October 2020, our second quarter sales in Sierra alone were up 71% organically. In connection with our recent acquisition of Rhino-RAC on July 1st, I want to note that Rhino-RAC will concentrate a third reporting segment. We will report the new segment sales on future earnings calls. Given the comparative year-ago period reflects the depth of the COVID-19 pandemic, I would also like to share how our second quarter sales compared to the same quarter in 2019. Black diamond sales in Q2 2021 were up 19% and Sierra's sales excluding Barnes were up 83% versus Q2 2019. Not only does this exercise provide a more normalized growth rate, but we believe it demonstrates the staying power and longer-term demand trends of both of these great businesses. The Q2 2021 performance within Black Diamond was driven by growth across all geographies, sales channels, and categories, given the continued recovery within the outdoor space. As John mentioned, inventory rationalization at our national accounts drove a substantial increase in our year-over-year Q2 performance with these partners, and our specialty business also experienced healthy growth. We continue to believe this is being driven by the fact that we were the best position to fulfill inventory in the current volatile supply chain environment, with a core brand that has maintained on price. The $7 million, or 71% year-over-year increase in the Sierra brand, was due to continued robust domestic demand for Greenbox, OEM, and our AMBA initiative. Roughly $5.2 million of this increase was driven by growth in Sierra's ammunition business. Originally, we set a goal of achieving 10% of Sierra's sales through ammunition. we are currently tracking around 30% for the quarter. Barnes continues to exceed our expectations, contributing $11.7 million of sales in the second quarter, with domestic black box, OEM, and ammo-leading pro-forma sales growth of 93%. This growth was also driven by our ability to fulfill more orders as we increase output levels through new and improved processes. This is our third quarter reporting Barnes revenues, and it's also the third quarter of consecutive revenue growth. We believe that Barnes is a great example of how we acquired a SuperPAM brand and took a disciplined approach in deploying our innovate and accelerate strategy, in turn generating sustained revenues and earnings. Consolidated gross margin in the second quarter improved 280 basis points to 38.2% compared to 35.4% in the year-ago quarter. Improvements in channel and product mix, as well as foreign exchange benefits, more than offset unfavorable impacts on our supply chain and logistics due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During the quarter, we experienced 100 basis point margin tailwind from foreign exchange. As a reminder, with approximately 30% of our global sales being denominated in foreign currencies, we attempt to manage our foreign currency risk on a continuous basis, through natural hedges and foreign currency hedge contracts. Additionally, we actively manage our costs with our vendor partners because we understand the impact that commodity costs, such as copper and lead, have on our business, specifically on gross margins. Through active and deliberate management, we expect to be able to mitigate risk for a period of six to nine months out. Selling, general, and administrative expenses in the second quarter were $20.7 million, compared to $14.5 million in the same year-ago quarter, primarily due to the significant increase in sales, the inclusion of Barnes, which contributed $1.5 million, and an increase in stock-based compensation of $1.2 million due to the increase in the company's share price. We remain extremely pleased with our expense management within both segments. Net income in the second quarter increased to $1.8 million, or six cents per diluted share, compared to a net loss of $2.7 million, or a loss of 9 cents per diluted share in the year-ago quarter. The improvement is largely attributed to our profitable sales growth. Adjusted net income in the second quarter increased to $6.8 million, or 20 cents per diluted share, compared to an adjusted net loss of $1.2 million, or a loss of 4 cents per diluted share in the second quarter of 2020. Adjusted EBITDA in the second quarter increased to a record $11.7 million compared to a loss of $1.3 million in the same year-ago quarter. Now I'll shift to our asset efficiency and liquidity. Inventory levels were at $82.7 million, up 18% from where we ended last quarter and roughly 21% higher than our last year end. We continue to work with our supply chain partners to dynamically manage our inventory levels to seek to meet demand. As John mentioned, we are using our strong balance sheet to increase product availability in order to help keep pace with the elevated demand. For context, we are carrying an additional $10 million of inventory at Black Diamond in an effort to offset the current elongated process of moving inventory from our supply chain partners to our warehouses. Although it has resulted in higher levels of working capital, we are confident that our strategy of increasing the size of our pipeline will better position us to satisfy demand with higher levels of fulfillment in a timelier manner. The results we reported today are a testament to the execution of this strategy. Within Sierra and Barnes, we have purposely increased our baseline inventory levels by an additional $6 million focusing on raw material and component availability. This has enabled us to protect our supply chains and corresponding production of core items while opportunistically hedging the cost of rising commodities. Such benefits are partially reflected in our reported gross margins. At June 30th, 2021, cash and cash equivalents were $6.8 million compared to $17.8 million as of December 31, 2020. During the second quarter, we generated free cash flow defined as net cash utilized or provided by operating activities less capex of $1 million compared to generating $10.2 million in the same year-ago quarter. The lower comparative free cash flow despite strong net income was partially driven by our continued investments in key inventory items to seek to insulate ourselves from commodity pressures, scarcity concerns, and to satisfy strong consumer demands. At June 30, 2021, total debt was $27.1 million and we had remaining access to roughly $49.9 million on our revolving line of credit. Please note, our balance sheet as of June 30th does not reflect the purchase price of the Rhino Rack acquisition for approximately $145 million and approximately 2.3 million shares of common stock for a total cost of approximately $205 million. We closed the acquisition a day after close on July 1st. In connection with the Rhino Rack acquisition, on July 1st, we upsized our credit facility to provide us with increased flexibility and capacity to close on the acquisition. Under the terms of the upsized credit agreement, we have access to an increased revolving credit facility of $100 million and an increased $125 million term loan. The facility also includes an uncommitted accordion feature of $50 million for a total borrowing capacity of up to $275 million. The facility bears interest at either an adjusted LIBOR rate or an alternative base rate plus an applicable margin ranging from 150 basis points to 262 five basis points per annum and matures on May 3, 2024. Beyond the immediate use for the purchase of Rhino-Rack, which will leave us at pro forma leverage of around three times, we believe that this facility has us well positioned to further deploy our innovate and accelerate strategy to maximize the brand's growth potential, as well as build upon the sustained momentum that we have seen this year across our other brands. Overall, the strength we have built across our brand portfolio is being supported by a strategic and disciplined capital allocation policy, and we are extremely pleased with the direction of our businesses, which inherently provides us with additional growth opportunities for us to evaluate, both organically and through M&A. We are comfortable servicing our debt requirements, and based on our current projections, we expect to be well within our leverage and fixed charge coverage ratio requirements and in full compliance with our current debt covenants for the remainder of the year. With our recent acquisition of Rhin-O-Rac and our strong second quarter results, we are pleased to announce that we are raising our full-year financial outlook. We are now expecting consolidated 2021 to grow 56% to $350 million compared to 2020. This is an increase from the guidance we shared last quarter of $295 million. While it is not our intention to provide segment-level guidance each quarter moving forward, we felt it was important to provide this context as we layer and run as we layer in the Rhino Rack business and expected near-term growth trajectory. By segment, we now expect 2021 Black Diamond cells to increase 26% to $215 million, up from $205 million in our prior outlook, and Sierra cells, which includes barns, to increase 80% to $95 million, up from $90 million prior, compared to 2020. We expect sales from Rhino-REC to contribute approximately $40 million to the second half of 2021. On a consolidated basis, we now expect adjusted EBITDA in 2021 to grow approximately 132% to $52 million compared to 2020. We previously guided to $38 million. We expect Rhino-REC to contribute approximately $6 million to our consolidated adjusted EBITDA outlook. In addition, we expect capital expenditures of approximately $8.5 million. Lastly, while we have previously shared an outlook on free cash flow, the current situation around inventory availability is creating a more dynamic environment in our business. As I noted previously, we have and will continue to use our strong balance sheet to proactively manage our supply chain and, most importantly, be better positioned to deliver product for our retail partners and consumers. We believe having the option to be flexible in how we manage our balance sheet and cash flows for the remainder of the years is most prudent in continued value creation. As a reminder, each of our businesses are self-sustaining, profitable, and cash flow positive. We do not expect this to change. We are committed to managing this responsibly and will maintain compliance with our covenants. Across our organization, we remain grateful for our team's focus and dedication to executing on our strategic priorities and generating the highest possible returns on invested capital. We remain proud of our strong operational and financial foundation that we have built over the years. We have proven again that our innovate and accelerate playbook and our commitment to super fed brands is important to our success, and allows us to prosper no matter the external market environment. Operator, we are now ready for Q&A.
spk09: Thank you, sir. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone. To withdraw a question, press the pan key. And please stand by while we compile the Q&A roster. And our first question will come from Anna Gleskin of Jefferies. Please proceed.
spk02: Hi. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. First, I mean, clearly demand has outstripped supply over the past few quarters. Could you maybe provide some perspective on where channel inventories stand today and how long we should expect this tailwind from replenishment to continue?
spk08: Yeah. Thanks, Anna. I think the logistics issues combined with the COVID issues in other parts of the world will still play havoc well past you know, 2021. I'm anticipating that it will at least impact the first quarter or two of 2022 and may go longer as back to school and holiday all kicks into 2022. We believe we'll continue to gain market share. We'll be very aggressive about our supply chain and our management. Logistics is the biggest challenge. You know, whether it's port closures or just movement and the rates of getting things around the world. Our goal ultimately is on-time delivery, 100% fulfillment, and ease to do business with. The demand continues to surge, which only complicates the ability of logistics and supply chains to keep up. I think that we're probably hoping to see some normalization by spring of 2023.
spk02: Great, thanks. And now turning to Rhino-Rack, congrats on the recently announced partnership with Polaris. How should we be thinking about the potential for this partnership and partnerships like this to accelerate the brand's penetration in North America, which, as you touched on, historically it hasn't had or been as distributed?
spk08: Yeah, I mean, obviously we love this brand. It checked all the boxes of a super fan brand. leading market share in its home market, its history of innovation, and just not a lot of brand awareness of go-to-market, and that was the real opportunity here. The great thing about the Rhino Rack business is that we're able to focus on multiple tiers of distribution, one being that of OEMs and partnering with players like Polaris or Ford or Toyota or Jeep or whomever to develop rack systems specifically for their new launch products. Then there is the aftermarket automotive business, which is where Rhino Racks has really played in the United States over the last few years. And then we see a huge opportunity in this outdoor segment that is growing, which is a combination of micro-adventures meets overlanding. And we think that that, you know, over the next three to four years is the fastest growing category of the rack business. And if you've seen what others have posted, The demand, similar to that of BD or even with Sierra and Barnes, the demand by the consumer far exceeds the supply right now, and so we're still chasing on that. But, yes, we definitely think that the Polaris partnership, alongside our retail partnerships, will allow us to accelerate this business.
spk02: Great. Thanks.
spk09: Your next question is from Matt Caronda of Frost Capital. Please proceed.
spk01: Hey, guys. Thanks for taking the questions. I wanted to start out with BD, and it looks like just the implied back half guidance for revenue there sees a slight pickup, even seasonally relative to prior years. I wanted to see if you could maybe discuss some of the implications for margins there. And then also, if you could thread in, it'd be interesting to see. I know you guys have a pretty strong strategy going and building inventory so that you have availability for your customers. But did you build in any headwind to revenue in the back half of the year, given the supply chain is relatively tight and it's still difficult to get certain components?
spk05: Yeah, Matt, this is Aaron. Great to speak with you. Answering the last part of the question first, Naturally, and consistent with how we've guided this entire year, we continue to be fairly conservative in terms of how we guide or forecast the year considering the different dynamics that exist. And so the answer is yes, we continue to be, you know, cautious in terms of how we think about the rest of the year based off of what's taking place within the various supply chains and the logistical elongations that are taking place. We do feel confident about where we're positioned currently. For the back half, we have a strong order booking for the Black Diamond business in particular. As John mentioned during the script, outdoorism continues to be a favorable tailwind for us and something that we're very well positioned to be able to take advantage of, and it really comes down to the product availability. But based off of the different initiatives that we put into place earlier this year, we do feel like we're continue to better position ourselves each and every day to be able to satisfy demand, recognizing that it is taking a little bit longer than what we had originally anticipated. As it relates to the margin profile of BD, we do expect it to continue to progress and improve. As mentioned before, we do feel that we have a clear path to being able to scale this business appropriately, both from an increase in gross margin, but also the adjusted EBITDA levels. Naturally, because of what's taking place within the The logistic side of things, we do see some leakage there, and we're very focused on mitigating and eliminating that leakage. We do have a few levers that we'll be looking at and imploring, especially as we head into spring 2022. And so, you know, the guide that we've also provided from an EBITDA perspective also reflects, you know, some of the noise that could exist in the back half associated with bringing that inventory to the various warehouses.
spk01: Okay, that's helpful. And then just turning to Sierra Barnes, I noticed just if I look at the implied back half revenue guidance, it does imply a bit of a step down relative to the first half, but the understanding that obviously the first half has been sort of at record highs for ammunition and bullets in the industry. But I wanted to get your thoughts on sort of why the step down, just given that it seems like channel inventory is still pretty light, and demand hasn't really let up all that much. So any color there would be helpful as well.
spk05: Yeah, so consistent with what we just discussed related to BD, one of the things that we've wanted to also do on the Sierra Barn side is because that, albeit domestic, that continues to experience some of the similar supply challenges that we just discussed, but also that we've highlighted previously. And so consistent with past practices, We've also been a little bit tempered in terms of how we think about that business coming together and being able to materialize the demand that's out there. To your point, we have not seen the slowdown in the overall marketplace for the demand, especially for our two businesses. I think the team has done an extremely great job of positioning that brand and extremely proactive in reaching out to the different retail partners and establishing ourselves as one of the premier providers of ammunition and specialty bullets. but it comes back down to how quickly can we satisfy it, but also how reliable will the supply chains be, and the guide once again reflects that tempered view on that ability.
spk08: I think we would all know that there's more than enough demand in centerfire, rifle, bullets, and ammunition, specifically going into hunt season, but obviously one of the biggest constraints in the industry so far has been that of brass in the centerfire category, and so we will be as scrappy and as aggressive as we can, but we also, you know, we've always had a mentality of meeting or exceeding expectations.
spk01: Fair enough. And if I could just quickly complete the trifecta in terms of segments, I guess, on Rhino Rack. I was a little surprised, I guess, given that, you know, it looks like the run rate on Rhino Rack should be, I mean, I don't have any real idea for seasonality, but if you just kind of dumbly take the $90 million in trailing 12-month revenue and quarterize it, you get to sort of a $22 to $23 million run rate. But I wanted to see if you could maybe just speak to seasonality in Rhino Rack in the second half and just sort of what the constraints may be to revenue on that front, given the $40 million in revenue guidance for the back half of the year here.
spk05: Yeah, similar to the way that we handled this also with the acquisition of Barnes last fall, One of the things that we're very focused on is ensuring that we integrate, that we go through the integration side of things extremely well and that we position ourselves for long-term success. One of the things that has recently come up as well, though, is that of COVID, especially in the Australian marketplace, we're seeing extremely strong progression within the U.S. and also New Zealand markets where its core business currently exists, but there is a little bit of conservatism baked into the into the guide to factor in what we're currently seeing within the core market of Australia. But coming back to, once again, it's right in line with how we think about how we bring on these businesses. We want to give ourselves a little bit of headroom as we work through the integration topic. As John mentioned as well, we are very well positioned to be able to accelerate this business, especially here domestically in the U.S., but similar to what we've discussed as well, We need to make sure we get those supply chains in place in the right way, that we get the inventory where it needs to be, so that we can, with confidence and credibility, go out and look to accelerate this business with the different retail partners that we have.
spk08: I think it's really important, no matter how aggressive we are on these plans, the one thing we can't control right now is the impacts of COVID, a la Australia, which was a little bit of a surprise in the lockdowns there. some of the impacts of COVID that have impacted markets like Vietnam or Indonesia recently. And then, obviously, as asked in the earlier questions by Anna Jeffries, it's, you know, when do we think this noise in the logistics channels are going to clear? I'll be honest, guys, not soon. Now, it doesn't mean we can't find ways to win and put points on the board, but hopefully You have to be aggressive. You have to be smart. You will get some headwinds in this space that you're not aware of. Nobody expected a port to close, you know. And so we're just always the view is, look, recognize every single headwind that we could face. What is the plan we know we can hit? Then fight like hell to overcome every headwind. And if we achieve... Three or four of them, fantastic. If we have a quarter like Q2 and we achieve 60% to 70% of them, even better.
spk01: Great. Fair enough, guys. Nice job, and I'll leave it there. Appreciate it.
spk09: Your next question is from Laurent Vasilescu of Exxon BNP Paribas. Please proceed.
spk04: Hey, everyone. This is actually Aubrey for Laurent. Do you guys hear me okay? Yep, we can.
spk08: Thank you.
spk04: Great. Thanks for taking our questions. I wanted to start first on Rhino Rack. Can you talk about what the revenue growth trajectory has been there and long-term, how big of a business do you think it can be over time? And along those lines, are there adjacencies that you think you can go into in terms of product extensions?
spk08: Yeah, so you obviously understand our playbook. Typically, Rhino Rack has typically been a high, single, low, double-digit type of growth model. Obviously, with outdoorism growing in the last window of COVID, there's been some surge. We definitely think that this has got a long-term opportunity. Rhino today is, let's call it, ballpark $100 million business. The competition in the space you know, is 700 to a billion in sales for the two big market share leaders. Somewhere between 100 million and 700 million is probably the right number. You know, to your point, I think what's really different about Rhino Racks versus our competition is that ours is not based off a horizontal bar structure, but more of this north-south pioneer rack. And what that really opens up, as you caught on to, is all the potential accessories and adjacencies that align with Rhino racks once you have this rack system. The rack system in and of itself is just the start of the Legos. And what can you put on that rack system from obviously what the market sees today is everything simply from ski racks to cargo boxes to bike racks, but really more beyond that, rooftop tents, boxes, Coolers, lights, speakers, stereo, you name it, it goes on. What can you do with the top of a vehicle but didn't even think wider than that? More than a vehicle, what about on a trailer? What about in a trail hitch? What in the back of a vehicle? Where are all the ways that you can wrap something and create making space for adventure, the theme of it, really open up? That's where we see the biggest opportunities. A, the North American market and its competition, and then just the ability to look at wider opportunities of Legoism, as we're calling it, relative to these racks.
spk04: Got it. Thank you. And then going back to the topic of the integration of RhinoRack, just given that, you know, it's going to operate as a standalone, how extensive or lengthy is that integration process? Obviously, COVID notwithstanding, but... typically how should we think about how long or involved of an integration we should expect?
spk05: Yeah, because it was standalone, we don't anticipate seeing a lot of system-type topics, but more it's around the planning and the go-to-market process. And so the way that we've been thinking about it is working towards a six-month integration cycle. You know, we're hoping to be able to accelerate that up, but at the same time we want to make sure that we're extremely thoughtful and well-positioned to really, accelerate the go-to-market activities or cycle supported by the basic formula that we've really been following over the last several years, not only as an innovate and accelerate playbook, but it's really about being easy to do business with on-time deliveries, high levels of fulfillment, you know, new product introductions or product adjacencies, and then accelerating it also through expanded or enhanced brand awareness and through the various marketing activities. And so that's something that we're currently working through with the team on and something that we expect to have finalized within the next six months.
spk08: I think the other side that's different here, the other side that helps on this is that though it's a standalone business, they do a phenomenal job in the Australian and New Zealand markets, right? And so obviously our goal is to go over there and try and change that model. They've proved that model out well over the last few years. Our hope is to take what is the Rhino Rec brand and assimilate it into the North American market, you know, closer at home. And I think that's where we really want to make sure we do this right before we accelerate this.
spk04: Excellent. And then if I could just ask one more on the rest of the business. Were there any revenue shifts between the second and third quarter in either direction? I know last quarter you called out that Potentially, there could be some shifting on the BD side, maybe from 2Q into 3Q, and just in general, we've been seeing a lot of noise given supply chain disruptions. Is there anything that you'd call out there? Thank you.
spk05: Yeah. Yeah, so on the Black Diamond side, we saw a shift in revenue from Q2 to Q3 of at least $6 to $8 million. Great.
spk00: Thank you.
spk08: And obviously, on the CRM side, it didn't shift. it's just almost unachievable, right? The order book is so strong, and you do everything you can to maximize not only bullet production but ammo loading at our max capacity and our efficiency, but the order book far exceeds our ability to keep up.
spk09: Your next question is from Ryan, son of William Blair. Please proceed.
spk06: Hey, thanks for taking my question and congrats on the quarter, guys. Aaron, I think you said, Tierra, 30% of the sales were ammo this quarter. Clearly, that's well ahead of the 10% goal. Was there anything specific about this quarter, maybe just given the lack of inventory on the shelf by competition, that that helped accelerate that number? And then does that make you kind of rethink that 10% target? Could that be higher as you move forward?
spk08: This is Walbrook. I'll try and answer it. We missed a little bit of it. I'll try and answer it, and then you may want to rephrase the question with us so we can do the best on it. Do we continue to chase inventory in the market 100% Were we able to fulfill everything that people wanted? No. Were our inventory levels at the end of Q2 at the store levels ready for fall 21? No. Are we outperforming our competition as best we can? Yes. Do we continue to face headwinds relative to logistics costs in order to accelerate and meet that fulfillment? Yes. And so that obviously has an impact in our business short term. And short term is probably going to play into the market for the next at least six or 12 months. But our long-term view, and we've often said this, is that rising tides rise all ships. But these challenging times that we're in now, we actually gain market share even faster. And so our goal is to continue to be the best partner we can for our retailers, gain more market share, and we believe that long-term this will continue to create scale in growth, scale in margins, and therefore flow through. Did I answer that?
spk06: Yeah, John, I guess just specifically for Sierra and the ammunition initiative there, I think the target was, you know, roughly 10%. Oh, I'm sorry. I missed you. No, no. But, yeah.
spk08: We started with a goal of 10% for Sierra straight out, and that was are we seeing a lot faster than that, 100%? It's now running at about 30%. Do we think it could be even higher than that if we could make it? Yes. We're not vertically integrated yet. At Sierra, obviously, part of the strategy with Sierra or what we have acquiring Barnes was to partially do that. However, Barnes could sell everything they could load right now. So we will continue to work with our very best partners to try and load as much of this ammo as we possibly can. The demand is significant, and I think what we've proved out and what will become the leader of this side is that the value chain portion of the loaded ammunition starts first and foremost with the premium bullets, and that's, you know, especially as you go into certain of these growing categories like hunt, we become even more valuable, and so chasing, loading ammo in hunt for Sierra or even in pistol has really stretched us, and it has exceeded our expectations. Do we think it's going away? No. Has it changed our strategy to think there's more opportunity for ammo within these brands? 100%. But I believe that, frankly, if we didn't make ammo right now, could we sell every single bullet we made to OEM? Yes. So it just gives us more opportunity, and we'll continue to increase our production while expanding our loading.
spk06: Got it. Yeah, that's perfect. Great to hear that mix is bigger than you thought. John, I feel like you've kind of stressed the community-centric approach to consumer engagement a little bit more this quarter. I feel like also your stores are kind of coming online now, or at least have been open maybe for a year or so. Do you feel like you're hitting an inflection there in terms of that direct involvement with the consumer and what that means for either the brand or development going forward?
spk08: I think what we saw in 2020 and 2021 was this massive outdoorism. and people really starting, you know, even more tailwind into the sports of climbing, backcountry skiing, trail running, hiking, you name it. We are an equipment-driven house, and therefore we believe that in these communities that we not only have an opportunity, but really we have a responsibility to be, one, a leader in the voice of access to the outdoors where all these sports take place, but also to really be a leader builder of the community from an educational and experience perspective and the lead on that. Specifically, as we watched heavily, and this is where this came from, as we watched what took place during the winter and this onus and responsibility to make sure that we coach, train, and educate people on backcountry safety and specifically around alpine snow safety. We think that that's These mountain towns are going to continue to become the meccas for outdoors. They're going to continue to grow. They're popping up in towns. You know, towns are seeing growth that, you know, people never heard of. And we think that, you know, opens up more and more activation with our super fans.
spk06: That's great to hear. Thanks for the questions.
spk09: Your next question is from Linda Boltenweiser of BA Davidson. Please proceed.
spk10: Hi, thank you. So I believe that you had taken some price increases in May. Can you kind of update us on that, the magnitude of those increases and how they're being received by customers? And did the price increases have a positive effect on second quarter results?
spk08: You know, we don't really publish on that on a wide spectrum of what we did. Typically, the price increases that we did were in standard with the industry and really around the commodity pricing discussions that were taking place in the industry. We've maintained our prices now for the third and fourth quarter in those markets. And, you know, I don't... What drives our results in Q2 is really the overarching demand for the products, both in bullets and ammo. Pricing was literally just an even-steven with what's taking place in commodities.
spk10: Okay, thanks. And then you talked about... you know, the impact, there was a negative impact on growth margin, even though your growth margin was up strongly due to logistics and component inflation and things like that. Is there any way you can quantify the impact and break it down? Like, was it more the freight and shipping and logistics, or was it more like the materials and components that were the bigger impact on the margins?
spk05: It was more related to the logistics and supply chain side of things, and that did have a negative impact of about 50 basis points on consolidated margins.
spk08: And obviously, more on the black diamond side than on the domestic productions of CRM arms.
spk10: Okay. And then, can I just ask you... in terms of rhino rack i mean obviously i would expect you to move as quickly as you can after integration to expand distribution in the u.s um but australia new zealand will remain really important markets um how confident are you that they have plans in place to continue to grow organically in the near term pretty strongly in the whole market of australia and new zealand yeah so
spk08: Obviously, you know, when we pick superfans, and this is really critical to the criteria, one, leading market share, where as we have stated, you know, they're the dominant brand in Australia and New Zealand. Two, a history of innovation, which they have proved out many times, including of their recent Red Dot Design Awards. But, you know, we really look at that as what's a pipeline look like for new innovations, and there's a very strong pipeline there. Next is go-to-market, and we believe that they've done a phenomenal job partnering on certain aspects, the OEM and the aftermarket. But like they've looked at other markets, I think there's some outdoorism opportunity within Australia, New Zealand, and the market is still obviously growing there. And I think between accelerating the pipeline they have, helping them with the go-to-market ideology in there, and then just the growing demand that this trend has, and it's not slowing down, We feel confident on Australia and New Zealand, albeit realizing that there is a ceiling at some point because they are the dominant market share brand. So we don't expect the same, though we expect growth and anticipate that it will continue to gain market share, we don't anticipate that it will be faster growth than we will find in other parts of the world. And then obviously the other opportunity which we will bring to them is you know, as part of this is what are the extensions and expansions and accessories or other opportunities, addressable markets that are adjacent to the RACs that we can help them expand into.
spk10: Okay, great. That's it for me. Thank you.
spk09: Your next question is from Mark Smith of Lake Speed Capital Markets. Please proceed.
spk03: Hi, guys. First one to hit the Sierra Barnes ammo bullet business. Can you quantify it all or talk about the backlog, maybe the magnitude and how large that is in the timeframe specifically in that business to refill channel inventory?
spk08: All I can tell you is that there's months, right? If we look at this today, I would tell you that I don't think this market is going to see a slowdown for the next at least 12 months, if not longer. And by that, my reality is that we're still dealing with not enough hunt ammo or bullets for fall 21. And we will hope maybe to get to that ceiling in fall hunt season 22.
spk03: Okay. And then looking broadly, you know, throughout the outdoor industry, you know, retail consumer demand, have you seen any slowing at all in,
spk08: um you know or is there continue to be some acceleration and if you can speak domestically as well as internationally um we have not seen any slowing at all um not at the specialty level or at the multi-door level accounts um we you know it's the season shift we actually anticipate that we'll see you know surge number two come winter this year and, you know, we will be chasing the fall activities as well as the winter sports. I think Europe, as it comes, you know, more rationalized out of COVID will continue to accelerate, and we're actually seeing positive momentum now, you know, coming out of the IGD market, which we haven't seen for 12 months.
spk03: Perfect. And then just the last one from me. you know, can you quantify it all e-commerce or your direct-to-consumer channels and then just, you know, longer term as you look at the profitability and growth and, you know, D2C and your retail stores, how you manage, you know, growing those businesses while also managing your relationship with current retail partners?
spk08: Yeah. So, obviously, first and foremost, and we've always stated this, it's on-time delivery, good fulfillment, easy to do business with. You're not, you can't have low fulfillment and difficulty to do business with because you prioritize your D2C model. So it's really important that we prioritize our specialty and our wholesale market before D2C. Now, we believe that D2C will continue to grow with time because the consumer continues to go to this either community-centric to the flagship stores where they want to be educated on the product themselves rather than just buy them. or through D2C as you create more and more opportunities for them to have exposure to the product. I believe at BD we have a long runway of continuing to grow our wholesale distribution business while also growing our D2C. Part of that is product itself, and part of that is just the awareness of the brands. You know, we still struggle with the Black Diamond versus BD syndrome. You've either never heard of Black Diamond or BD is your favorite brand in the whole world. And that will come with time on this. The flagship stores have proved to be really strong because they've become a mecca both for the super fan but also the consumer who has never seen our brand. And we see both of those as we expand our retail distribution. And I think it's a awareness issue on both fronts.
spk03: Excellent. Thank you, guys.
spk09: At this time, this concludes our question and answer session. I would now like to turn the call back to Mr. Walbrecht for closing remarks.
spk08: Thank you, everyone. We appreciate you participating today. We look forward to... speaking with you again when we conclude our third quarter results and come back at that time. All the best.
spk09: Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's conference. You may now disconnect. Thank you for your participation.
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