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spk01: Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Franklin Electric Reports second quarter 2021 sales and earnings conference call. At this time, all the participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we'll conduct a question and answer session, and instructions will follow at that time. If anyone should require assistance during the conference, please press star, then zero on your touchtone telephone. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would like to hand the conference over to your host, Jeff Taylor, Chief Financial Officer.
spk05: Thank you, Whitney, and welcome everyone to Franklin Electric's second quarter 2021 earnings conference call. I'm excited to be joining you on my first call as Franklin Electric's Chief Financial Officer. With me today is Greg Singstack, our chairperson and CEO, and John Haynes, our former Chief Financial Officer. On today's call, Greg will review our second quarter business highlights, and I will review our second quarter financial results in more detail. When we're through, we'll have some time for questions and answers. Before we begin, let me remind you that as we conduct this call, we'll be making forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties. many of which could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements. A discussion of these factors may be found in the company's annual report on Form 10-K and in today's earnings release. All forward-looking statements made during the call are based on information currently available, and if accepted as required by law, the company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. With that, I will now turn the call over to our chairperson and CEO, Greg Sengstad.
spk04: Thank you, Jeff, and thank you all for joining us. We are very pleased with our robust performance in the second quarter. From a financial perspective, we delivered record sales, operating income, and EPS for any quarter in the history of Franco Electric, driven by strong organic sales growth across all of our segments. We continue to benefit from the sustained momentum that has delivered record earnings for the last four quarters thanks to a strong demand environment. At the end of the second quarter, we had record open-order balances. We continue to capitalize on inorganic opportunities as well. In the second quarter, we completed acquisitions of two water treatment companies, Chironix and NuAqua, growing our water treatment position in the U.S. and Canada. We now believe that this platform has reached critical mass, worth of $150 million in annualized revenues, establishing a meaningful foothold in the growing North American water treatment market. As the water treatment market continues to consolidate, our focus on our key factors will help us to stand out among the pack as we continue to build upon our position and have a runway to do so, leveraging our expertise to manufacture and distribute complete water systems from the well to the faucet. Despite supply chain and COVID-related headwinds facing much of the globe, we have reached new records and delivered value for our shareholders, customers, and other valued stakeholders. We are confident that our current strategy will take us far, as we continue to grow as a global provider of water and fuel systems through geographic expansion and product line extensions by leveraging our global platform and competency in system design. Our water systems business had record revenue for any quarter, generating overall revenue growth of 39% and organic revenue growth of 23%. In the U.S., strong housing and agricultural demand combined with continued dry weather drove a 16% increase in groundwater pumping systems revenue in the quarter. Overall, organic growth in U.S. water systems was 17%. Demand continues to be strong across the globe as well, thanks to a recovery in global commodity prices and robust demand in developing regions. Outside U.S., organic water systems growth was 30%, led by our businesses in Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East, all of which continue to see pandemic recovery demand. Despite our record revenues, our water system segment had an unprecedented amount of open orders at the end of the second quarter, in total over $130 million. This compares to about $40 million at the end of the second quarter of 2020 and about $25 million at this time in both 2019 and 2018. Our U.S. distribution business also delivered record performance for any quarter of Franklin's history, producing overall revenue growth of 57% and organic revenue growth of 41% underscoring this segment's role as a catalyst for future growth for our company. Headwater operating income reached $16 million in the second quarter. Quarter after quarter, throughout the pandemic, Headwater's top line has grown and profitability improved. When faced with the same supply chain constraints facing much of the global economy, we leveraged our expertise in the space to build a stronghold that will translate current success into further opportunity over the long term. Our fueling systems business saw increased momentum in the second quarter as well, producing overall revenue growth of 29% and organic revenue growth of 27%. This growth was led by strong performance in the U.S. and Canada, with revenue up 40%, along with sustained strength in Armenia and Latin American markets. We have a strong business in developing regions and have positioned ourselves to capitalize upon the post-COVID recovery as it occurs in those regions. At the end of the quarter, open orders increased to about $45 million from less than $10 million at the end of the last three second quarters. Looking forward, joint systems and grid solutions will continue to play a vital role in many regions across the globe over the coming years thanks to growing energy demand and the build-out of the electrical grid globally. Throughout the quarter, we generated strong free cash flow that will allow us to capitalize on many opportunities that will emerge while continuing to maintain our strong balance sheet. enabling us to reinvest capital in our business. To that end, we see organic and inorganic opportunities across every one of our segments. We look forward to continually growing our presence and updating you on future development. I am extremely proud of our global team for this outstanding performance, especially considering the significant headwinds and challenges we've faced. The global supply chain is still recovering from the post-COVID demand surge. Availability of raw materials and other components is a critical issue for us, and it appears it will remain so through the balance of the year. Additionally, we continue to see rapidly increasing input costs, both for materials and components, and also for freight, which has skyrocketed in the current environment. Jeff will address these issues more in a moment, but our water systems business, in particular, was not able to fully offset the inflation we experienced with price in the quarter. This, in part, explains our water systems operating income margin decline. In response, we have announced additional price increases to be effective in the second half of the year. For some of our business units, this is the third increase in price so far in 2021. Despite the robust demand environment, we are maintaining our current year earnings guidance of earnings per share before restructuring in the $2.85 to $3.05 range, given the rapid increases in cost and supply chain uncertainties. Looking forward, we are excited about the strong foundation we have built by staying rooted in Franklin's five key factors for success, quality, availability, service, innovation, and cost. We continue to see customers return due to the elevated experience and superior products we deliver. We are also excited to position ourselves for success over the long term, providing innovative products for customers and bringing more sustainable practices to the industry. We believe that our ESG initiatives, outlined in our recently updated sustainability report, are integral to our future success. We look forward to continually involving our stakeholders in our sustainability journey and providing further updates on our progress over the long term. Before I turn to Paul and Jeff, I want to go a little bit off script here and just recognize John Haynes. John has been noted as retiring from the company. John started with Franklin Electric in 2008, right before the financial crisis. He steered us through that as our CFO through a number of acquisitions. the creation of our headwater distribution segment, the stand-up of a new water treatment business, and a number of other acquisitions as well across our segments. And most recently, John has navigated us through the global pandemic. And so I just want to take a moment to say thank you to John. A number of you on this call have been following us with John over the years, so I think I'm saying thanks for you all as well. And so I just wanted to do that before I turn the call over to Jeff. So thank you again, John. Thank you, Greg. Jeff.
spk05: Very good. Thank you, Greg. Our fully diluted earnings per share were a record for any quarter in the company's history at 83 cents for the second quarter of 2021 versus 52 cents for the second quarter of 2020. Second quarter EPS before the impact of restructuring expenses was also 83 cents. compared to the 2020 second quarter EPS before restructuring of 54 cents. Restructuring expenses in the second quarter of 2021 were 0.2 million and were related to various manufacturing realignment activities in the water segment and had no impact on earnings per share. Restructuring expenses in the second quarter of 2020 were 0.9 million, were primarily related to various manufacturing realignment activities in the water segment and resulted in a 2 cent impact on earnings per share in the second quarter of 2020. Second quarter 2021 sales were $437.3 million compared to the 2020 second quarter sales of $308.3 million. The sales increase from acquisition-related sales was $38.9 million. Sales revenue increased by 6.1 million, or about 2%, in the second quarter of 2021 due to foreign currency translation. Water system sales in the U.S. and Canada were up about 42% compared to the second quarter of 2020 due to acquisition-related sales, volume, and price. In the second quarter of 2021, sales from businesses acquired since the second quarter of 2020 were 23.8 million. Water systems organic sales in the U.S. and Canada were up 17% in the second quarter. Sales of groundwater pumping equipment increased by about 16%. Sales of dewatering equipment were up about 90%. And sales of surface pumping equipment increased by about 13% versus the second quarter of 2020, all due to strong in-market demand and in part resulting from lower sales last year due to the pandemic. Water system sales in markets outside the U.S. and Canada increased by 34% overall. Foreign currency translation increased sales by 4%. Outside the U.S. and Canada, water systems organic sales increased by 30%, driven primarily by higher sales in Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East and Africa markets. Water systems operating income was $34.6 million in the second quarter of 2021. compared to $28.7 million in the second quarter of 2020. Operating income margin for the second quarter of 2021 was 14%, compared to the prior year quarter operating income margin of 16.1%. Operating income margin decreased in water systems primarily due to two items. First, about $3 million of higher shipping and freight costs, which have not been fully offset by price increases, mostly in North America. Contributing to these freight costs are multiple product delivery issues across all points of the supply chain that also resulted in more frequent shipment expediting, along with many suppliers instituting surcharges to cover their increased costs for drivers, insurance, and fuel. As a result, the Water Systems Unit in the U.S. and Canada has initiated its third price increase of 2021, effective August 1st. And second, general and administrative costs of about $2 million for transaction, legal, and other charges incurred in the second quarter. These two items combined resulted in a lower water systems operating income margin of about 200 basis points in the second quarter. Distribution sales were a record at $144.8 million in the second quarter of 2021 versus second quarter of 2020 sales of 92.1 million. Sales from businesses acquired since the second quarter of 2020 were 15.1 million. The distribution segment organic sales increased 41% compared to the second quarter of 2020, and revenue growth was driven by broad-based demand in all regions and product categories. The distribution segment operating income was a record at 16.0 million compared to the second quarter of 2020 operating income of 6.8 million. Operating income margin increased to 11% in distribution, primarily due to revenue growth and operating leverage. Fueling system sales were $72.2 million in the second quarter of 2021 and increased 29% versus the second quarter of 2020. Fueling systems grew sales organically by 27% in the second quarter. Fueling system sales in the US and Canada increased by about 40% compared to the second quarter of 2020. The increase was due to higher demand for piping, pumping, and fuel management systems. Outside the US and Canada, fueling systems revenue increased by about 1%, driven primarily by higher sales in Latin America, Europe, Middle East, and Africa, offset by lower sales in China. Fueling Systems operating income in the second quarter was $18.5 million compared to $13.5 million in the second quarter 2020, driven by higher sales. The company's consolidated gross profit was $152.2 million for the second quarter of 2021, an increase from the second quarter of 2020 gross profit of $107.1 million. The gross profit as a percentage of net sales was 34.8% in the second quarter 2021, versus 34.7% in the second quarter of 2020, and was essentially flat in most part due to price increases being offset by shipping and freight cost increases. Selling general and administrative or SG&A expenses were $100.5 million in the second quarter of 2021 compared to $72.3 million in the second quarter of 2020. SG&A expenses from acquired businesses were about $10 million. Excluding acquisitions, SG&A expenses were higher by $18.3 million, about $11 million of which is variable compensation expense and commissions on higher sales. In addition, transaction, legal, and other administrative costs were about $2 million. SG&A costs as a percent of net sales were slightly below the second quarter of 2020. The effective tax rate for the second quarter of 2021 was about 19% compared to 21% in the second quarter last year. The decrease in the effective tax rate was primarily a result of net favorable discrete events. The tax rate as a percentage of pre-tax earnings for the balance of 2021 is projected to be about 20% before discrete adjustments. As Greg mentioned, the company is reaffirming its guidance for the full year earnings per share before restructuring expenses of $2.85 to $3.05. The company ended the second quarter of 2021 with a cash balance of about $82 million and generated $35.5 million of net cash flow from operations during the first half of 2021 versus $47.0 million in the same period of 2020. The decrease was primarily due to higher working capital requirements in support of higher revenues. Yesterday, the company announced a quarterly cash dividend of 17.5 cents per share that will be paid August 19th to shareholders on record on August 5th. The company purchased about 79,000 shares of its common stock in the open market for about $6.2 million during the second quarter of 2021. At the end of the second quarter, the total remaining authorized shares that may be repurchased is about 840,000. This concludes our prepared remarks. We'd now like to turn the call over to Whitney to lead the question and answer session.
spk01: Ladies and gentlemen, if you have a question at this time, please press the star and then the number one key on your touchtone telephone. If your question has been answered or you wish to remove yourself from the queue, please press the pound key. Your first question is from the line of Walter Liptack with Seaport.
spk08: Hi, thanks. Good morning, everyone. Good morning, Walter. Good morning, Walter. Hey. Yeah, thanks, John. It's been a pleasure working with you, and all the best of luck, and hello to Jeff as well. My question is about the distribution. Profit margins look very good, and so I wondered if... you know, that was just a, you know, the 16 million of profit, if that was a covering of a fixed cost, and if that is sustainable at this revenue level, or is there some, it sounds like demand was strong in all kind of categories, but was there any kind of mix going on, or the pricing that may have helped that profitability, and maybe some thoughts about what the back half profitability could look like. Are we at a new level in the double digits for distribution?
spk04: Yeah, well, let me take a stab at that and Jeff Wayne. First, the business performed very well. We get great operating leverage. This business is seasonal, as we discussed in the past. So Q2 and Q3 are the stronger quarters. But then the margin average is out. As you know, Q4 and Q1 are the softer quarters and While we're now in the black on those quarters for Q4 of 2020 and Q1 of 2021, there are lower margins to kind of factor that in. But certainly during the season, we've had a solid execution. It's a good pricing environment. Distribution is able to act a little bit quicker than we can in manufacturing in that respect. But overall, just great execution by the team and getting good operating leverage off a fixed cost base.
spk08: Okay, great. Yeah, that's right, the seasonality. You know, I wanted to ask too about, you know, about some of the, you know, the dewatering and the growth that you saw there. How much of that growth was from price and how much of it was from volume when we talked about the organic growth?
spk04: On dewatering, I don't have a specific price volume on the dewatering product line, but overall we've had pricing actions in the low single digits earlier this year, and then really most of it would be a volume pickup.
spk06: Yeah, it's more volume, Walt, for sure, than price. You'll recall last year in the second quarter, that business was impacted meaningfully by COVID. that product line was impacted. I think the other thing of note is that we are seeing some international lift in that product in southern hemisphere markets like Australia, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa. So the bulk of it is volume, but there's certainly some price in there as well.
spk08: Okay. And is that the same for the groundwater too? that most of that growth is volume-related?
spk06: Yeah, the volume is, you know, we look at this more by – we look at it more, well, by geography than we do by individual product line. But the volume change in water, you know, call it – You know, call it four times the price change. Okay. Yeah. Okay, great. And that generally will hold true across product lines.
spk08: Okay. And then just a quick one. I'll let someone else have a shot at questions. But the legal expense of $2 million, what was that related to? And is that a recurring charge or was that a one-time expense?
spk06: Yeah, it was a combination of things. We viewed it as one-time while it was transaction-related as well. So, as you know, we did these water treatment transactions in the second quarter. There were added costs for that, banker fees. There were also legal fees for that. And then there were just other legal matters that we are dealing with in the normal course around the globe that they kind of had a surge in the second quarter as well. So in total, that was about $2 million of SG&A, and we would generally characterize that as one time, yes.
spk08: Okay, great. Okay, thanks, guys.
spk01: Your next question is from the line of Mike Halloran with Baird.
spk02: Hey, good morning, everyone. So just some thoughts on price, cost, inflation. How are you guys thinking about the pricing environment, efficacy of what you're pushing through? When do you think parity can come back into the system? Obviously, inflation pressures have been rampant. And at some point, they'll likely bounce out. Just some thoughts on when you think they bounce out. Is it this year? Is it next year? Any kind of commentary around those things would be great.
spk06: Well, I would say, Mike, that, you know, we talked about price versus inflation. And generally, I would characterize what is happening in distribution and viewing as, you know, we're advanced. We're seeing greater price than we are inflation. It's really in water systems. And more specifically, it's more in the U.S., Canada. And then even more specifically, it's the freight costs that I think were a bit surprising to us in the second quarter. When we looked at our freight volume adjusted year over year, in the first quarter in water systems, it was actually positive. where we were actually experiencing lower freight costs. And then sequentially, that flipped in a meaningful way to negative in the second quarter. It did in fueling systems as well. So as Jeff mentioned in his comments, the idea that we're having trouble with the supply chain with our suppliers getting inbound material and components And then also because of that, we're falling behind in some cases on fulfilling and meeting the requirements of our customers. So we're expediting shipping activity on the outbound side. All of that is contributing to a very significant unfavorable freight variance from the prior year. So to your question, You know, I think that there's some signs of that starting to calm down. You know, I think our supply chain guys have talked about maybe the ports being a little bit better shaped, Long Beach, Los Angeles. But then there's more constraints in other parts of the country, for example, in shipping in the Midwest and through Chicago, I'm sure you've seen in red. That part of it is a little bit harder for us to gauge. As we also mentioned, we have more price coming. We announced a third price increase in our U.S. water business, effective August 1st, which is, you know, we think going to go a long way in the back half and the second half of the year of helping us offset some of this inflation. So that's more about Mike, what's really kind of driving the biggest concern, and quite frankly, driving where the water OI margins went in the quarter.
spk02: And you mentioned the headwater margins, very impressive. Maybe just some thoughts on sustainability there. Obviously, you're going to have seasonal upticks based on the revenue levels, but at a high level, how are you thinking about the sustainability?
spk06: Yeah, you know, the first half margins in and headwater about 7.5%. Last year's second half margins in headwater Mike were about 3.9%. So just at the very low end of our expected range. So we expect that to be meaningfully better in the second half this year. I think something in the high end of our expected range, 4% to 6% for the second half. So, yeah, volume adjusted, we're going to lose some leverage as we go into lower volume periods here, but the business has done a nice job on price. They've done a really nice job, as Greg said, on managing their costs. So, we definitely see margin expansion second half to second half, but I don't think that getting back to that first half margin of 7.5%, I think we'll be just short of that.
spk02: And then on the water side, obviously really strong momentum. It seems like basically pretty broad-based there. Anything that you're worried about, inflation impacting demand or some sort of air pocket developing. It seems like the momentum's pretty consistent here, and you feel pretty good about the trajectory on a forward basis, but just curious if there's anything out there that worries you, yeah.
spk04: Yeah, again, we're a short-cycle business, so we learn about it later than most people, but to your point, I mean, we've got almost 45 days of incremental open orders than what we normally see in the past, so we've got plenty to work our way through. As the supply chain settles down, we're going to continue to kind of catch up through the back half of the year. Certainly, it's well-documented in the U.S. market that strong housing, strong commodity prices, it's been dry, very dry in the West. Actually, kind of average in the East, a little bit wetter than that in the East of the Mississippi, but certainly dry in the West. We're seeing good demand in Latin America. We're seeing good demand in Europe, Middle East, Africa. We had a little bit of timing issue on some Asian shipments, so we still see the Asian market as strong. So we're really not seeing anything out there in our businesses that – in the way of an air pocket. And with, you know, commodities strong and with, you know, metal prices coming up, you know, as much as it's impacted our margins, it's also a good demand for, you know, our larger watering pumps as well, be it that, you know, that's a smaller piece of our overall business. We're really seeing the demand kind of across all product lines and all geographies.
spk02: Well, great. I appreciate that. And one last thing, John, I just want to say best of luck. It's been a pleasure working with you for, what, over a decade now, and I hope everything goes great for you in the future. Really appreciate all the help over the years. Best of luck. Thanks, Mike.
spk01: Okay, our next question is from the line of Matt Somerville with D.A. Davidson.
spk03: Thanks. A couple questions. And, yes, John, congratulations. It's been great working with you over the last 13 years or so. With respect to your comment, Greg, around this open order number, I don't remember you guys historically sharing that. So can you put a little more context around that? You mentioned 45 days of, for lack of a better word, uneasy work. So 45 days of sort of backlog, if you will. What is a more normal kind of number if you go back and look at that for Franklin over a much longer term period?
spk04: Yeah, Matt, to your point, it isn't something that we normally talk about because we're normally a short cycle business. We're selling and filling orders on a pretty rapid basis. So typically at the end of the second quarter, if you look back 2018, 2019, if the company, our manufacturing business, it'd be about $35 million. And at the end of the second quarter this year, I think it's closer to like 175. So in that incremental $130, $140 million, if you look at our manufacturing business as being a billion dollar run rate or a billion, two run rates, 100 million a month, it kind of gets to that number. So It was significant enough that we wanted to call it out that we have this unfilled order, this backlog, as we say, that is much higher than what we've seen in the past and what we're working on catching up.
spk03: And then, you know, to that point, do you get the sense that that type of number in the incoming order rates you're seeing, is that significant? truly indicative of demand or do you get the sense that your end customers are concerned about their ability to get product given what's going on from a supply chain standpoint and instead of ordering the three they would typically order, maybe they're ordering four or five. Do you get what I'm saying? I'm trying to get a sense as to whether you feel like this is truly indicative about the door demand or whether you feel like the channel may be trying to stock up for their own fears of supply.
spk04: Well, I'm sure that there are some of the latter, but one of the things we have, again, it's an indicator for one of our product lines in the U.S. market is our distribution business itself. The sell-through of Franklin at Headwater is greater than the purchase rate that Headwater is buying, so you're clearly drawing down inventory as are others. So on one level, you're going to see customers across the globe buying trying to refill back up to, you know, what they can sort of be, you know, normal inventory levels on a go-forward basis, it was a pretty robust demand requirement now, demand environment now. You know, what, to your point, what may also be going on is some anxiety, and so over-ordering or ordering from multiple suppliers, you might see some cancellations, but here at Boer, I mean, as we look at our distribution business in the United States, which gives us some outlook of, to me, a broader view or lens on the world, There's just not a lot of inventory in the system and demand remains strong. And you can see it on the fueling side of the business is that, you know, when we looked at our fueling numbers last year in the United States, for example, we were down 10% on revenue. Now, we had always looked at, for example, that we thought the EMV initiative in the U.S. market was one that was maybe neutral to our fueling business. You know, I've learned now that the fueling distribution companies, you know, the ones we sell to in fueling, actually had a record revenue year last year, you know, back on the back of EMV. Well, that's now coming to an end in the first quarter. And so, we're now seeing, I think, because of that, you know, a strong surge in fueling. So, the fueling business is now up, you know, it was up 43% in the quarter. And we're seeing strong end market demand in the U.S. as marketers are, you know, spending their capital dollars now on things other than EMV. So, that's good for us as well. We're just seeing really strong demand, and we're not getting a sense that there's a lot of inventory in the channel, so it is rebuilding inventory over time. And, yeah, I'm sure there's a risk out there of people trying to over-order so that they get their fair share.
spk03: And then I want to follow up on price, if we can maybe just do a recap of, the pricing you've already put in place and the magnitude, the magnitude is what I'm talking about, a pricing you already had in place and what this next wave set for August 1st contemplates in terms of magnitude.
spk06: Yeah, so all of our water businesses, Matt, all of our businesses have made at least one, many have made two, and now three price increases. In the case of what we're talking about in the United States, where I think this spread is the tightest and actually went negative in the second quarter, there was a 3% price increase, a 5% price increase, and then this one coming in August is a 5% price increase again. That's the makeup of the three. When you look at the businesses around the world, they're kind of different everywhere. But that's basically the order of magnitude that we're kind of getting to. You know, ask, you know, price, list price increases of, you know, somewhere in that 7 to 12 range, 8 to 12 range. Got it.
spk03: Thank you. I'll leave it there and get back to you, Keith.
spk01: Okay. Our next question is from the line of Chris McGinnis with Sidoti.
spk07: Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. And, John, congratulations on the retirement, and thanks for the help as well. Can you just maybe just talk a little bit about the Pure Onyx and Aqua acquisitions and how they're being integrated and can you, are they going through headwater as well already or is that the plan going forward? Thanks.
spk04: Yeah, sure, Chris. So, you know, we're integrating the four companies that we've acquired water treatment over the last couple of years, three in the last, you know, eight months. And we'll have them, of course, on a common platform. But, you know, the, you know, Headwater is a customer, but one of the reasons for the AquaSystems acquisition is AquaSystems is deep in water quality dealers. So that's effectively a new channel for us, both AquaSystems and Charonix, pretty deep in that area. Whereas the first sales to Lesterby Water, maybe more to the plumbing wholesale or the groundwater dealers, So really, you know, so headwater will be a natural outlet for those stores that are those headwater locations that aqua and pyrotics at all can earn the business. We will have a, you know, a branded product, Franklin Electric branded Franklin water treatment branded product that will go through that groundwater channel. But the other channels are very important as well, particularly, again, it's the water quality dealer channel is a very large segment and is one that, Aqua has done well, and Empironics has done well in the U.S., and Waterway has done well in Canada. So that's the large area of focus for the company.
spk07: And can you just maybe just talk a little bit about the M&A opportunities that are out there? And, you know, are you holding off at this point, just given the recent acquisitions, or still a lot of opportunity? Thanks.
spk04: Yeah, we've always looked at acquisitions and John would use the word opportunistically. We look at acquisitions across our segments and standing up new businesses. So we're certainly engaged and we have identified a number of properties that if they were available, we would like to pursue. I'm also, those of you who know me, we're pretty methodical about what we do and an ability to capacity. You think about with Headwater, when we did the initial and of the headwater business back in 2017. D. Davis and his team had a lot at their hands getting effectively four businesses stood up on one platform. One of those businesses, another pump line was their primary pump line in Franklin, and we were cut off. We had to deal with that. So there was a lot going on, and our profitability suffered in that initial couple years. But now, Headwater, for example, completed the GEICON acquisition at the end of last year and is integrating it very quickly. And the sales of GEICON are actually increased, whereas when we did Western Hydro, which had a competitor's product line in there, we actually saw sales decline. That first year, we're actually seeing sales increase. So our ability and capacity to do deals and to bring them online, now that we have a common platform and ERP platform, both for our manufacturing and one for our distribution, serves us well. And we see in fueling, we continue to look at opportunities and adjacencies. Our grid business we're looking, which is a subset of fueling, we're looking at opportunities. And, of course, in our water segment as well. So we have to get water treatment, you know, these platforms up and integrated. Don Penny, who is the president of our water business, you know, he came over from fueling. He's done a lot of integration work and with a leadership team of Aqua Systems leading the charge. I'm confident we're going to get these businesses integrated, and we'll continue to look at other opportunities. So I really don't see us taking a formal pause, but we've got some things to adjust.
spk07: Great. Thanks for taking my questions, and good luck in Q3.
spk04: Great. Thanks, Russ.
spk01: I am showing no further questions at this time. I will now turn the call back to Greg Singstack.
spk04: Thank you very much for joining us for this call today, and we look forward to speaking to you after we have our third quarter results. Everyone have a good week.
spk01: Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference. Thank you for your participation, and have a wonderful day. You may all disconnect. After saving with customized car insurance from Liberty Mutual, I customized everything.
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