Eastern Company (The)

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Eastern Company fourth quarter fiscal year 2021 earnings call. At this time, all participants have been placed on a listen-only mode, and the floor will be open for questions and comments after the presentation. If you have any questions or comments, you can submit them through the webcast by typing them into the Ask Question box. If you wish to ask a question via telephone, please press star 1 on your phone at any time to join the queue. If you wish to leave the queue, press star 2. We do ask that if you are listening on a speakerphone to please pick up your handset for optimum sound quality. It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, Chris Moulton, Head of Corporate Development. Sir, the floor is yours.

Good morning, and thank you, everyone, for joining us. Speaking today will be Eastern's President and CEO, Gus Black, and our CFO, John Sullivan. After that, we'll open the call for questions. Please note that some of the information we'll hear during our discussion today will consist of forward-looking statements about the company's future financial performance and business prospects, including without limitation statements regarding revenue, gross margin, operating expenses, other income and expense, taxes, and business outlook. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or trends to differ significantly from those projected in these forward-looking statements. For more information regarding these risks and uncertainties, please refer to risk factors discussed in our Form 10-K filed yesterday. In addition, during today's call, we'll discuss non-GAAP financial measures that we believe are useful as supplemental measures of Easter's performance. These non-GAAP measures should be considered in addition to and not as a substitute for or in isolation from GAAP results. With that, I'll turn the call over to Gus for opening remarks. Thanks, Chris. And good morning to those of you who've joined over the phone and those participating via the web. We released Eastern's fourth quarter and full year 2021 numbers on our form 10K yesterday afternoon. Before John Sullivan reviews the detailed results with you, I'd like to take a few minutes to reflect on the year. Let me start by saying that 2021 was truly a transformative year for Eastern. We're very proud of how we executed our plan to create long-term shareholder value in a dynamic environment. We focused on doing everything we could to keep our teams safe and our supply chains moving, wrapping up production to address the strong demand for our products and helping our communities recover. At the same time, our focus on performance and innovation remain unwavering. I want to once again thank our high performing teams around the world for their continued commitment to Eastern. I'm truly grateful for their efforts every day to ensure our success going forward. In 2021, we successfully executed several strategic moves to strengthen and transform our business portfolio into a faster-growing and more profitable franchise. We announced our intention to divest three non-core businesses and reported them as discontinued operations on our Form 10-Q for the second quarter of 2021. We subsequently divested both Fraser & Jones and Green World Industries in November of last year, which follows the sale of Canadian Commercial Vehicles and Sesame Mexicana in 2020 for a total of four divestitures in two years. These divestitures allowed us to reduce our outstanding debt by $17.3 million and repurchase approximately 15,000 shares in 2021. Last year, we also completed the integration of our Eberhard and Eleanor Locke businesses. We combined these two organizations to build scale improve innovation, and capture operating synergies. As part of the integration, we closed our manufacturing and warehousing facilities in Tilsonburg, Canada and in Wheeling, Illinois, and we moved operations to our current location in Strongsville, Ohio and Reynosa, Mexico. In 2022, we plan to further consolidate manufacturing into Reynosa, Mexico, including moving some production from Asia. We believe that our expansion into Mexico will build shorter supply chains, more robust supply chains, and improve logistics to better serve our core customers. Further, in 2021, we capitalized on the extraordinarily robust demand rebound in our customer demand fueled by macro trends, including the surge in outdoor recreational activity and commercial transportation, which in turn fueled demand for truck accessories and distribution products. We also experienced a meaningful pickup in demand from our transfer packaging customers as new automotive and commercial vehicle model launches accelerated. Last year, I remember describing 2020 as unprecedented turmoil. Yet, the environment in 2021 proved equally dynamic. As I mentioned before in these calls, we saw unparalleled growth in raw material costs. To give you an example, the price of hot-roll steel increased from $500 per ton in August of 2020, right at the time we were pricing some of our 2021 sales, to a peak of $1,945 per ton in August of 2021, as we were buying some of the steel to produce some of those sales. And we buy more than 5,000 tons of hot roll steel per year. And we were able to pass on most of the increases in raw material and shipping costs, as you can see in our gross margin of 23% for the year. But many of our price increases lagged the growth in material costs. And in some instances, we were not able to raise prices. As a result, the impact on our earnings was material. Raw material costs are more stable now than they were last year, and even with the war in Ukraine. For example, hot-rolled steel is at approximately $14.50 per ton today, which is close to where it was a year ago. It's important to add that we navigated a rapidly evolving operating environment and prioritized meeting the strong demand from our customers by increasing our safety stocks and adding new suppliers. As a result of those decisions, free cash flow was temporarily impacted as we strategically built the inventory required to serve our customers and navigate the stretched global supply chains and support the current backlog, which is up 28% at the end of 2021 over the end of 2020. As you can see, we had a truly transformative year. I'll share some thoughts on 2022 at the end of the call. So for now, I'll turn the call over to John to go over the details of the financial results. Thank you, Gus.

For the fourth quarter of 2021, net sales increased 18% to $59.6 million from $50.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2020. Sales increased primarily due to higher demand for truck accessories, distribution products, and automotive returnable packaging, as well as improved pricing. Sales volume of existing products increased 6%, and price and new products contributed 12% in the quarter. New products included various truck mirrors, latches, and accessories. For the full year 2021, net sales increased 25% to $246.5 million from $197.6 million in 2020. Gross margin as a percent of net sales for the fourth quarter of 2021 was 20 percent compared to 23 percent in the prior year fourth quarter. The decrease reflects the combination of higher material and freight costs. Gross margin for the year as a percentage of sales was 23 percent in 2021 compared to 24 percent in 2020. Product development expenses in the fourth quarter of 2021 of $1 million was up 192 percent when compared to the fourth quarter of 2020 As a percentage of net sales, product development expenses was 1.7% compared to 0.7% in the fourth quarter of 2020. The increase is primarily related to our investment in new products at Eberhard and Veldeck. Selling and administrative expenses in the fourth quarter of 2021 increased 8% compared to the fourth quarter of 2020. The increase was primarily the result of increased payroll-related expenses, increased travel and other expenses as business returned to more normal operations in 2021. Net income for the fourth quarter of 2021 increased 24% to 3.9 million or 62 cents per diluted share from 3.2 million or 50 cents per diluted share in 2020. In the fourth quarter of 2020, net income was negatively impacted by non-cash goodwill impairment charge of 0.7 million net of tax, and non-recurrent restructuring, factory relocation, and transaction costs of 0.9 million net of tax. For the full year 2021, net income increased by 40% to $16.2 million, or $2.58 per diluted share, from $11 million, or $1.76 per diluted share in 2020, Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations for the fourth quarter was approximately $5.7 million compared to approximately $7.3 million for the fourth quarter of 2020. Adjusted EBITDA from continuing operations for the full year of 2021 increased approximately 8% to $26.7 million from $24.7 million in 2020. Now for a quick summary on the cash flow and the balance sheet highlights. On a full year basis, net cash used for operating activities was $7.8 million in 2021, compared to $14.6 million net cash provided by operating activities in 2020. In 2021, we contributed $2.3 million to our defined benefit retirement plans. During 2021, cash used to support additional working capital requirements was $22.9 million. which was primarily due to management's focus on ensuring availability of inventory to meet customer demands during the current supply chain constraints. By way of comparison, in 2020, cash used to support additional working capital was $5.6 million. Total capital expenditures for 2021 was $3.7 million. However, we expect capital expenditures in fiscal year 2022 to be approximately In 2021, the company made total debt payments of $17.3 million, of which $11 million was on an accelerated principal payment. As of January 1, 2022, we had cash and cash accruals of $6.2 million. Our net leverage ratio stood at 2.46 and our fixed coverage ratio at 2.2, both of which are well within our bank covenants of four and a quarter and one and a quarter respective. With that, I'll turn the call over to Chris for questions.

Thanks, John. Operator, would you like to open the line for questions?

Certainly. Ladies and gentlemen, once again, if you have any questions or comments, you may type them into the Ask Question box via the webcast or press star 1 on your phone at this time. Please hold a moment while we poll for questions.

Okay, we do have some questions that have come in via the webcast, so we can begin with them. We have one question. Bear with me. I'm going to read it out. It's regarding the Big Three returnable packaging business. Obviously a big year for that segment as OEMs get their supply chains ready for the introduction of new vehicle models. Do you expect that the recent growth in this segment will continue through 22 and 23 as these models are introduced? Or rather, do OEMs essentially pre-order Big Three's products such that the growth one would expect to take place as a result of the model introduction during 2022-2023 already took place this year? I think we can answer that question. Yeah, so the OEMs order somewhere in the 18 to 24 months prior to product launch is when they start working with us on the design of returnable transport packaging. For Tier 1s, that's probably a little bit later. So that's all driven by new product launches. And based on the latest data that we have, which gets aggregated by Bank of America, the forecast for new vehicle launches remains strong through 2025. So Bank of America estimates approximately 55 new product launches in 2022. and that remains at 60 or above through 2025. That compares to an average of 35 to 40 launches over the last three years. So we're expecting demand here to remain strong for the foreseeable future. We have another question. Can you comment on your current level of working capital and where we see it headed in coming quarters? Sure. So obviously our working capital is above our historical level. And there's really three main factors that are driving this. I mentioned our investments in safety stocks. I think I mentioned a long time that product sits in transit. And the third reason our working capital is above where we would expect it to be is that we do have a higher level of past due as we're not able to complete all orders while we're waiting on certain components to finish those products, all of which is driving our hard-working capital. Now we can see this declining, but it's gonna take a few quarters to do this. It doesn't happen right away, but we don't have any concern about inventory spoilage based on the quality of what we've got. Now of course, as that happens, we will generate cash, which will further drive down our net leverage ratio. We have another question around gross margins. We're currently at about 20% of the quarter. Do we think that we can get back to the previous highs that we experienced back in 2019? I'm not sure. John, do you have any?

Well, actually, yes. I think we will see that go forward and increase and improve as we can get our prices normalized with the material costs. As Gus had said earlier, many of the material was rising so fast that we couldn't keep up with the pricing, and we had to negotiate a lot of the price recoveries with our customers, which took time, so we lagged. As the price of material starts coming down and our prices are holding, we should see a marked improvement in the gross margin.

We have another question on SG&A. is notably below other quarters in the year. Do we feel this is an appropriate run rate going forward?

I think it's appropriate. It really is where we actually should be running for. I know that we do monitor our selling administrative expenses, and we do put a lot of controls on them. But I know also as business starts improving, we will be bringing on some additional people and additional sales staff, which might increase a bit, but it should be relative to sales.

Okay, it appears as though we have no further webcast questions. Operator, do we have anyone on the line that would like to ask a question?

Yes, our first question from the line today is coming from Miles Jennings, a private investor. Your line is live. You may begin.

Good morning, and thanks for the good report. I just had a few questions and I suspect that maybe you'll answer one of them at least. I see that your pension fund has about 219,000 shares of Eastern Common Stock. That's 6.8% of your plan assets and about 3.5% of your shares outstanding. I just wondered, have you considered buying back those shares from the plan? You know, it seems as though employees have sort of a double jeopardy by owning shares of stock as well as having the funds available for various expenses and everything. And I'm sure the cash and the pension plan is easier to handle than the volatility of shares.

Well, actually, we do look at that every quarter when we have our board meeting and we review our pension investments. However, we feel that we've been acquiring the shares at a fairly low price relative to where we know the market was going to go, and we expect it to actually be a benefit into the overall funding. We are capped, though. We cannot include into the pension plan any more than 10% cost, so that would be the limitating factor. But at this point in time, we don't see a reason to try to divest that out of there.

Thanks. You know, this is along the lines of what you're planning to do this year as far as further consolidation of facilities and businesses, which I commend you for. I see that at year end, you owned 376,000 square feet of industrial space at year end. I just looked at Globestreet.com, which is a service for valuing commercial real estate, industrial real estate. And they say that the average price based on, you know, large data set is about $145 a square foot. That's just the value of about $54 million versus your carrying value of $17 million. And that excess works out to just about $6 per share. I just wondered, Do you have plans to reduce your square footage and facilities? I think I saw on the 10K that you sold a building in Wheeling, Illinois, which was tied to Illinois Lock Company. But it seems like a very heavy facilities resource that you're carrying.

So there's two parts to your question. One has to do with the optimization of our manufacturing footprint. And do we believe that we've got more square footage than we need to support our current production levels? And the second part of your question is, I think if I understand it correctly, is more to do with whether we should own or lease the manufacturing sites that we currently own I would say both we are continuously evaluating and each year when we put our plans together we look at you know what what kind of manufacturing capacity we need I know that today with the goals that we have we're in fact looking at some ways to add that I would say on the margin some space so we can support our production levels. But we're not expecting a wholesale change in terms of our overall square footage. At the same time, when we look for any acquisitions, our ability to optimize the footprint with an acquisition is what I think we look at very closely because there's potentially quite a bit of benefit to be gained from that.

Yeah.

For your second question, we have looked and continue to look, I would say, certainly at least once a month at offers that come in for, say, leasebacks. And we evaluate those based on the, you know, the impact that it has to each shareholders. And so, I would say until now, the cap rates have been at a level where we don't think it benefits us. If we compare the cap rates with the general rates on debt out there, we don't think the offers that we've gotten so far benefit us. That could change. The market for commercial real estate is pretty dynamic, and if that changes, then certainly we would come to a different conclusion.

Excellent. Just one further thing. I saw that you disclosed that you sold the business of Greenwald for $8 million, I think. And on Frazier and Jones, you noted some gain on the sale of equipment sales. I just wondered, can you give us the total net proceeds on the sale of these two businesses?

$16 million. 15 million?

16. Oh, good. Thank you. And that's retaining the building of Greenwald for just investment purposes, I assume. That is correct. Thanks very much. And I think your acquisitions have been working out very nicely. And it sounds like you're in the right spot in the economy. Thanks again.

Thank you. Operator, do we have any other questions on the line?

We have no further questions in the queue at this time.

Okay, thank you. With that, I'll turn the call to Gus for closing remarks. Thank you, and thank you for those questions.

As I reflect on 2022,

I believe that there are many reasons to be optimistic about the year, with strong demand in our core markets for covering the supply chains and a higher level of confidence that raw material price volatility will subside. While the war in Ukraine, as I mentioned, is once again driving up some of the costs of raw materials, we're not seeing the kind of increases that we saw in 2021. In 2022, we should also begin to see the impact of the increase in new vehicle launches, the synergies from our consolidation of Everhart and Illinois Lock, as well as the accelerated growth from the launch of six new truck mirror programs in 2021. As noted earlier, Big Three Precision, our returnable transport packaging business, has seen a material pickup in demand for its products and services throughout 2021, a lot of which was reflected in the year-end backlog, and we expect demand to continue to strengthen in 2022 due to return of new model launches. We're excited about many of the launches that we're working on with our OEM and Tier 1 customers. These include the upcoming Ford Mustang, Jeep Grand Cherokee, the Ford F-250 and 350 Super Duty passenger trucks. We're also working with our customers on numerous near-term electric vehicle model launches, including, among others, the Ford F-150 Lightning passenger truck, the Mercedes EQS SUV and GM EQS SUV. At the same time, we've made significant headway in the heavy duty truck industry and are excited to report that we are now a primary packaging supplier to one of the leading heavy duty truck OEMs. And we're building business with the others as well. Our success in this market is in part based on our ability to leverage Abraharts and Velvax strong relationships with these various commercial vehicle OEMs. Beyond 2022, we believe that our focus on our three core businesses Big Three Precision, Eberhard, and Velvac will deliver innovation-led organic growth, capitalizing on several industry trends, including electrification, digitization, and automation. Eberhard, for example, recently launched a full line of electromechanical solutions, capitalizing on the electrification and digitization across many of our core markets, including commercial transportation and retail. And we anticipate that our innovative products will translate into significant sales, earnings, and cash flow growth in 2022 and beyond.

We're very active in our pursuit of bolt-on acquisitions for 2022, 2023, and beyond that.

and we're looking at businesses that expand our access to markets, build our capabilities, and offer synergies for each of our core businesses. As a result, we remain confident in our goal to become a $100 million EBITDA company through the combination of organic growth and bolt-on acquisitions. Last but not least, as you might have seen in our press release, we're excited that Peter O'Hara will join our senior leadership team as CFO. Most recently, Peter was Vice President of Finance at Navistar. Peter will replace John Sullivan, who's retiring on May 15th of this year. John has had an incredible 46-year career at Eastern, and we are deeply grateful for his leadership and commitment. With that, I'll turn the call back to Chris. Thank you, Gus. And with that, I'll turn the call back to the operator.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's event. You may disconnect at this time and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation.