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spk07: Good afternoon and welcome to the Latham Group First Quarter 2024 earnings conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing the star key followed by zero. After today's remarks, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your touchtone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Casey Cotery, Investor Relations Representative. Please go ahead.
spk06: Thank you. This afternoon we issued our first quarter 2024 earnings press release which is available on the Investor Relations portion of our website where you can also find the slide presentation that accompanies our prepared remarks. On today's call are Latham's President and CEO Scott Rogeski and CFO Oliver Glow. Following their remarks, we will open the call to questions. During this call, the company may make certain statements that constitute forward-looking statements which reflect the company's views with respect to future events and financial performance as of today or the date specified. Actual events and results may differ materially from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements due to risks and other factors that are set forth in the company's annual report on Form 10K and subsequent reports filed or furnished with the SEC as well as today's earnings release. The company expressly disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required by applicable law. In addition, during today's call the company will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliation of the directly comparable GAAP measures to these non-GAAP measures can be found in the slide presentation that accompanies our prepared remarks which can be found on our Investor Relations website. I'll now turn the call over to Scott Rogeski.
spk09: Thank you, Casey. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you all for joining today's call to review our first quarter 2024 results and discuss our latest business trends. In terms of key takeaways, first, we were pleased with our first quarter results. They represented a solid start to the year and exceeded the guidance we provided at the time of our fourth quarter conference call in March. Second, our performance demonstrated our ability to execute effectively during periods of uneven order flows and reflects the benefits of our reduced cost structure and actions we have taken to accelerate our value engineering efforts and lean manufacturing initiatives. These actions continue to drive ongoing production efficiencies and incremental capacity in our plants providing us with more flexibility to serve customers with our industry-leading lead times. And third, we continue to maintain a substantial cash position even after the usual seasonal outlay for working capital and an 18.8 million debt repayment. This cash provides Latham the significant resilience to manage through soft business conditions for the pool industry and the resources to take advantage of opportunities to drive future growth. Taking a closer look at Q1, after a slow start to the quarter, we saw a significant pickup in order starting in mid-March. Our operations team was able to do a great job on execution, achieving lead times of three to five days. Fiberglass pool sales, while down year on year, showed relative strength and continued to represent the majority of our ingrown pool sales. On our last 13th conference call, we cited Latham's priorities for 2024. The first was to continue to drive the adoption and awareness of both fiberglass and automatic safety covers, and in the first quarter, we made considerable progress in the areas of and refreshed product introductions as well as new dealer wins. During the quarter, we launched the Enchantment Plunge Pool Series for our California plant, which serves the important California, Arizona, and Nevada markets. Plunge pools are becoming increasingly popular as they provide the homeowner with space saving, lower cost options that are ideal for aquatic exercises and rehabilitation. In the first quarter, we also relaunched the Providence and Tuscany Series in North America, which is a very trendy rectangular pool with an attractive side entry feature. Additionally, we put the finishing touches on a new fiberglass pool model that has a broad array of features, including swim up seating and a built-in spa that is currently available to our largest dealers. We are also in the early stages of rolling out a line of plunge pools in our vinyl liner ingrown pool category. More on that in the coming months. With respect to automatic safety covers, which are another key priority for us, we continue to work with our pool cover distribution network as well as many of our competitors' dealers, including concrete pool builders, to advance awareness and adoption of these products. In addition to providing unparalleled protection, these auto covers offer significant resource savings resulting in up to a 70% reduction in both pool heating costs and chemical usage. We are continuing to drive operational improvements in our auto cover plants to reduce lead times and gain incremental capacity. Our operations team is also working on changes to our product lineup that will expand price points and capabilities. And we're making it a key focus to ensure that all of our newly launched pool models in our ingrown category are auto cover ready. We also continue this successful rollout of Measure by Latham, the first tool of its kind to simplify the pool measurement and quoting process for liner and cover installers. This easy to use, AI powered device provides dealers with high performance measuring accuracy with precise specifications for swimming pool covers and vinyl liners, all within minutes and all integrated with our project management portal, which enables dealers to quickly and easily receive quotes and submit and track orders. As you can imagine, this tool has been met with a very positive response from our dealers and contractors. We will continue its rollout to make sure all of our dealers have it and all the functionalities in place ahead of the 2025 pool building season. Latham's extensive and appealing product lineup, together with our industry leading service levels and best in class lead times, are strengthening our ability to attract new dealers. In the first quarter, we were able to convert several new dealers in the US and Canada that we believe will enable us to continue to drive penetration and growth in several key markets. For some of these dealers, while they are established pool builders, this will be their first experience with fiberglass products. They are motivated by the much shorter installation time, which of course, very attractive to their end consumers, as well as the ease of installation and the aesthetics of the product, both of which often result in additional leads for them from neighboring homeowners. In working with Latham, even the most experienced new dealers go through our boot camp to be trained in fiberglass installation to maximize their success. The second priority for 2024 that we mentioned on our last earnings call is our programs to continue to gain additional operating efficiencies through value engineering and lean manufacturing initiatives. These structural cost benefits will have a long-term positive impact on Latham's margin profile and will be an important factor for us in 2025 when we expect improved market conditions to drive increased volumes. For example, the initial benefits from these programs and our largest liner and cover manufacturing plant include an 8% improvement in labor efficiency, a 20% increase in throughput, and an overall improvement in employee health and safety. All of this contributed to our first quarter margin performance. Lastly, we prioritize maintaining a strong balance sheet to both retain our resilience in today's soft market environment and retain the resources to support future growth. Oliver will provide details on that in a moment, but I can say that we have been very disciplined in our spending and have the operational and financial flexibility to flex up and down in response to market conditions, as well as take advantage of opportunities to drive future growth. With that, I will turn over the call to our CFO, Oliver Glow, for a first quarter financial review. Oliver?
spk04: Thank you, Scott, and good afternoon, everyone. Please note that all comparisons that I will discuss today are on a -over-year basis compared to the first quarter of fiscal 2023, unless otherwise noted. Our first quarter results exceeded our expectations, reflecting strong execution, cost savings, and our lean and value engineering initiatives. As we anticipated, first quarter comparisons reflect the challenging macroeconomic conditions that have reduced pool starts. Net sales were 110.6 million compared to 137.7 million in Q1 of 2023, down 27.1 million on 19.7%. The .9% decline in in-ground pool sales was primarily due to lower package pool demand, while fiberglass pool products continue to show relative strength and continue to account for the large majority of lasems in-ground pool sales. Linus remained more resilient, declining .2% due to the replacement cycle of these products and covers were down 17.9%. We were pleased to see our gross margin increase 350 basis points to .7% despite lower sales. This increase was driven by carryover benefits from the cost reduction actions we took in 2023, as well as low raw material costs and lean manufacturing initiatives. -on-year comparisons also benefited from two meaningful headwinds impacting Q1 2023, consuming the remainder of our high-cost inventory and our inventory reduction programs, which resulted in underabsorption at our plants. These factors more than offset the impact of lower utilization from lower volumes and wage increases. SG&A expenses decreased to $26.3 million, down $6.8 million primarily due to our ongoing cost reduction efforts and a $5.1 million decrease in non-cash stock-based compensation expense. For 2024, non-cash stock-based compensation is expected to amount to approximately $8 million. Net loss was $7.9 million or $0.07 per share compared to a net loss of $14.4 million or $0.13 per share for the prior year's first quarter. Adjusted EBITDA of $12.3 million was up from the prior year period by 1.3 million or .4% compared to $11 million in Q1 2023. This strong performance is the result of solid execution in a difficult market primarily due to cost savings and progress made with our lean and value engineering initiatives. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 11.1%, a considerable improvement compared to 8% in the prior year period. As you know, our full year 2024 guidance implies decremental EBITDA margins for the remainder of 2024, primarily reflecting our planned investments in future growth. Notably, this involves continued investments in sales and marketing, engineering and R&D to accelerate conversion to fiberglass pool products, ongoing digital transformation programs, and normalized performance-based compensation. Turning to our balance sheet, we continue to maintain a strong financial position with cash of $43.8 million at the end of the quarter after the repayment of $18.8 million in debt in Q1. Net cash used in operating activities was $34.5 million, reflecting a seasonal increase in networking capital of $41 million as the company enters peak pool selling season. Total debt for the period was $282.8 million with a net debt leverage ratio of $2.7 million, and our capital expenditures were $5.3 million for the first quarter in 2024, considerably lower than the $9.9 million in the prior year. We expect a comparable run rate in quarterly capex throughout 2024. Our cash position and capital expenditures are in line with our expectations and reflect seasonality as well as our conservative capital allocation strategy given the uncertain economic outlook. That said, we will continue to deploy our capital opportunistically to best positioners for accelerated profitable growth as market conditions improve. First quarter results, together with our current visibility, underpin the guidance metrics we provided at the time of our fourth quarter 2023 earnings release. With that, I will turn the call back to Scott for his closing remarks. Thank
spk09: you, Oliver. While the first quarter represents a small percentage of our annual revenues in adjusted EBITDA, we are very pleased with how well our teams executed amid a choppy start to the season. Latham's strong execution, cost savings, and lean and value engineering initiatives all contributed to quarterly performance that exceeded our guidance and demonstrated our ability to execute efficiently. We appreciate the commitment and engagement of Latham's team members throughout our organization who made this possible. We also want to thank all of our customers and suppliers who continue to be strong supporters of Latham. Our first quarter results support our full year guidance expectations for 2024 and underpin our confidence in Latham's ability to effectively navigate the current market environment and emerge as an even stronger company. Operator, I would like to open the call to questions.
spk07: Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then one, on your touchtone phone. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two. In the interest of time, please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. At this time, we'll pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Our first question comes from Jonathan Bettenhausen from Truist. Please go ahead.
spk01: Hey, I'm on for key tease this evening. Thanks for taking my question. So on the 2024 cost savings realization, I think last quarter you indicated targeting maybe about $4 million in incremental savings. How's that progressing? Looks like maybe most of that has already been realized here in one queue. Am I looking at that right?
spk04: Yeah, you're absolutely right. So we had about a $4 million spillover from our cost savings initiatives. All the initiatives are fully implemented. Of that $4 million, about $2.7 million is in our queue one with the remainder being left for Q2.
spk01: Okay, got it. And were there any surprises in sales momentum heading into it? The second quarter was the demand ramp kind of about what you expected in March.
spk09: Yeah, so I think if you look at how Q1 played out for us, and I think we've heard this from others, you know, a little bit slower start from January and February, you know, right around the time we were on our Q4 earnings call. And then I think we saw a really nice pickup in the seasonality, you know, maybe a few weeks jumpstart there as the season took off, as we moved through the back part of March. You know, I think, you know, as we look kind of moving through April here as well, I'd say the season is kind of ramping, you know, as expected on track with the guidance that we've reconfirmed out there today.
spk10: Okay, got it. Appreciate it.
spk07: Yep. The next question comes from Tim Wojas from Baird. Please go ahead.
spk08: Hey, everybody. Good afternoon. Maybe just, you know, first question, Scott, just, you know, in the prepare remarks you talked about, seeing some incremental traction on dealer ads. And I'm just kind of, I guess, wondering if the investments that you've made and then just with the slower kind of pool environment, if you are seeing kind of an incremental propensity from dealers to kind of consider fiberglass and then also kind of consider being part of, excuse me, the Latham network.
spk10: Yeah, look, I think, Tim, you know, as we've talked over
spk09: the years, right, part of what we've always done is constantly, you know, recruit and attract new dealers to Latham on all aspects of all product lines, you know, really a big focus fiberglass. I think when you come back and just look at the value proposition of fiberglass, right, the speed of the install and then the lower cost compared to, let's say, concrete pools, and I think that continues to resonate at both the dealer and homeowner level, giving them a lower cost option, especially as we've seen, you know, the cost of the pool, you know, drastically increased at the consumer level. Then you combine that with, you know, cost of financing. You know, I think it's just giving them an opportunity to, you know, quote, unquote, jump in and establish themselves as a dealer, get trained up, right, it's all in nice incremental volume for those dealers. And again, I think we show them, you know, look, this is a long-term play for us, right, when the market rebounds, you know, they'll be well positioned, they'll be trained, they'll have gone through their boot camps, and they'll be ready to kind of, you know, rapidly increase their productivity and efficiency for fiberglass pools.
spk08: Okay. So you'd say it's kind of more of a, you know, kind of what you see over time, it's not that, hey, there's a slower environment and there's any sort of, you know, kind of, you know, increased kind of view at, you know, for fiberglass, it's just kind of the constant share that you're kind of seeing.
spk09: Yeah, yeah, I think maybe one clarification there, Tim, is a good point, you know, we've become a little bit more aggressive out there, so you could say that the number of dealers and the quality of dealers we've been adding is much better than, you know, maybe in the last two, three, four years during the difficult supply chain challenge issues. You know, I think why they're choosing like this, look, if you look at our footprint one, right, we've got a great footprint throughout the entire country, so we bring a lower cost to serve for all dealers throughout the country. And, you know, if you look at the quality of our pools and then where we stand from a lead time and service standpoint, you know, we're in a really good position, and that's kind of back to, it was Jonathan's question, you know, right out of the gate here, you know, as we came through 1Q, our ability to quickly respond to incremental demand signals in March is really what enabled us to kind of post up some really good results in 1Q there. Okay, okay, good.
spk08: And then I guess from a seasonality perspective, I mean, should, from a sequencing perspective, I mean, should, you know, revenue kind of be the highest in Q2 and then, you know, kind of lower a little bit in Q3 and then, you know, kind of see a drop off in Q4? And would that kind of be how profitability would also kind of phase through the year, just trying to think about how to think about the seasonality impact, just we haven't seen what I guess normal seasonality is in three or four years.
spk09: Yeah, so Tim, fair question. You know, when I was driving in this morning, I was thinking about, you know, I've been in the business for 14 years. I don't think I've seen a normal season in 14 years. So, you know, almost not really sure what a normal season is anymore with everything out there. But I say we're kind of returning to what is returning to what has been more typical of the seasonality we've seen. You know, we've talked over the years, you know, you could probably argue, think a 50-50 split, right? You know, 1Q came in just a little over 20%. You know, clearly 2Q and 3Q is the bulk of the season. So I think, you know, we just said, you know, around %-ish in 2Q and 3Q ballpark, give or take a few rounds. You know, then the balance coming in 4Q. And then, you know, I'll let Oliver address it, but you could probably argue, you know, the EBITDA profile would be a little similar to that. You know, but again, you know, we had the decremental conversation on the last call. She's got to watch that as we move through the rest of the year. But, you know, again, we're kind of happy with how the season is ramping. I think it's lining up really nice to our guidance and overall market expectations. I'll go ahead and talk to you about the profitability
spk04: profile as it flows through. Yeah, from an EBITDA came, if you take our midpoint guidance sitting right now at 65 million, deduct our first quarter contribution to that from that, you know, you're left with about 52.7 million, right? Now, think of that, you know, being by majority contributed by Q2, Q3, these are by far our most, most, you know, those quarters with most sales activity and therefore EBITDA contribution with a small, with a small share in Q4. OK,
spk08: OK,
spk04: that's helpful. Thanks, everybody.
spk08: You're
spk07: welcome. The next question comes from Andrew Carter from Stiefel. Please go ahead.
spk11: Hey, thanks. Just wanted to ask, kind of late in the quarter, it led to the outperformance and you said shipments picked up. I know you hate to talk about it, but pool court called out weather, obviously hit the south, hit the northeast where you're strong. In addition, again, I know something you hate to talk about, but kind of the channel inventory, did you see anything like difference between your shipments and what you think went out of the channel, particularly, I guess, for the package pools as well as the covers? Thanks.
spk09: Yeah, so hey, Andrew, you know, good question there. I think as we looked at it, you know, in-ground liners, right, was really a key point for us in Q1, that season started the ramp in the south, slowly moving up through the north. And again, if we kind of the regional differences, you're right, you know, the northeast is a little bit tougher, wetter, a little bit colder start to the season. But in the warmer climates where it really started to take off for us, we're sitting, you know, in some cases, in a few of the plants with, you know, one, two day lead times for liners, you know, as those orders started to flow, we were able to convert those in a two or three day cycle and really take advantage of the push we saw there. And I think the other really strong point for us was fiberglass, right? Fiberglass performed extremely well. You know, we have inventory on the ground and the common models in a lot of the territories, you know, as those orders were rolling in. And let's say where the weather was more favorable, we were able to get pools pushed out to dealers, get them in the ground. So good execution across the board by, you know, both the operations team and our customers there, you know, fiberglass still making up the majority of the chunk of the in-ground category. You know, I think that that part is continuing a little bit slow for us. You know, we've really not seen the restocking or pull through orders, you know, from the distribution branches, whether it's Pool Corp or any of our other big distribution partners, Heritage, etc., out there. And I think that's what we'll start to see as we move through 2Q and product really starts to move off the shelf as we hit the peak pool building season here in May, June, and July.
spk11: And then a second question, looking kind of at your SG&A, and granted, who knows, my math could be wrong, but it looks like, so for the final nine months of the year, I've got SG&A up 31 to 33 million. That's excluding charges, also excluding SBC. You were flat. Could you dimensionalize that kind of increase over the final nines? I know there's some incentive comp restoration in there that you can't avoid. There's not really any cost savings in there, but there is some also variable investment, as you say, get ready when starts accelerate. And how much is that truly variable? And could you quickly pull that back? And when would you know whether you wanted to pull that back or not? At what point in the season? Thanks.
spk09: Yeah, I'll hit the first, the last part, Andrew, first, when would you be able to pull back anything on the variable portion of the spend there? Look, we typically kind of wait until we get into late May or mid-June, which will really give us a read for how the season is playing out in terms of pool starts, is that in line with our expectations or anything. So, you know, we're in that waiting game of peak build where we don't want to start doing anything too drastic too early. But we've also talked about we have made incremental investments. We are trying to retain folks. We are trying to push leads out there to dealers with our sales and marketing efforts. So we don't want to pull the trigger too quickly. But again, there's a piece that's variable in there that, you know, if we had to toggle, if the market worsened more than what our expectations were. And I think that's the key point, right? Our outlook for the market was probably further down than others in the industry. And we think we're tracking to that, you know, roughly 15% down in new pool starts versus last year's number. So, you know, we've got many levers we can play and pull there. And, Oliver, I'm going to address the first part of the question.
spk04: Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, two drivers that increase SG&A year over year. We talked about the snapback of performance-based compensation, that is about 7 to 8 million. And then Scott just mentioned the investments into future growth to over-proportionately participate once the market comes back. So those are really the two drivers there for SG&A.
spk11: Thanks. I'll pass it on.
spk07: Thank you. Thanks, Andrew. The next question comes from Sean Cowan from Bank of America. Please go ahead.
spk02: Hey, guys. Thank you for taking my question. Just given the sales beat in the quarter and talking about the pickup as we kind of went through the quarter and through March, is there any reason you guys chose not to raise the guidance? I'm just curious if there was maybe a pull forward in demand or you're starting… It doesn't sound like it, but if you were starting to see orders slow in April versus your original expectations?
spk09: Yeah, I think you could chalk it up, Sean, probably partly just timing how we had the quarters profiled out. We had an expectation of what total market was going to do. I think as we try to work back through the… What does the normal season look like? We probably took a little bit more of a conservative approach in Q1, assumed a little bit of a slower start. Again, we had the luxury at that point in time of seeing how January and February was playing out when we did the quarter. Look, we did see a nice ramp up of orders in March. I don't believe any of it was pulled forward demand. I think it was just whether it was good in some markets that helped us. We were in a good position from a lead time ability to quickly turn those short cycle orders. I think when we look out there and talk to dealers and others in the industry, I still believe our view of market being down 15% overall still feels about right. We've only completed roughly a little over 20% of the year for us. We really had to move through this big quarter here at 2Q, see how the season ramps, fight through the weather. As I mentioned up top, five weeks into the quarter so far, I'd say things are tracking extremely well, tracking towards what our guide and projections are. We've got to get through 2Q here. August, that's when I think we'll be able to take a full assessment of what do we think the full year is going to look like.
spk02: Okay, got it. Then do you have any early metrics on the measure tool in terms of adoption by dealers or revenue at this point?
spk09: Yeah, it's just rolling out there for covers. If you think about it, the cover season really kicks in for us in the fall. It's a mass push of getting all the units out there deployed into the field with the dealers, with the view as they're out there opening pools for the season. They're evaluating the covers on the pools or encouraging them to measure the covers, inspect them, do they need a replacement? Take those measurements now while they're out there. Get trained up, get geared up. And look, this is a big deploy for us in terms of units out there and the training. We're still in the beta testing of what we're doing to liners. Again, early good success on that. So we're also teaching them how they can be measuring for liners as we get ready to do that launch in the fall for the early 2025 season. But we're not at a point where it's of any significance that we want to be talking about metrics units, number of units in dealers' hands, number of units we're processing. We are taking orders. We are processing orders through our plants, shipping them back out to dealers. And I think the key thing here is response rate acceptance has been phenomenal. And I think we'll eventually be able to talk about market share gains we're going to be able to achieve again by attracting dealers who may have been buying from other manufacturers out there coming to Latham because this is a huge productivity and time-saving device for them and also ensuring the accuracy of those measurements that they're taking, almost foolproofing the quality of the liner and cover they're going to get because they will know the measurements are dead on based on the AI and Intel and the device as it moves through the system. So we're really excited about it. I think this will be game-breaking for us. And as we move through the next couple quarters, we'll start disclosing more information on units deployed, number of dealers and volumes and stuff processing through. Just a little too early to get out there with that data yet.
spk02: Great. Thank you.
spk07: Welcome, Sean. Again, if you have a question, please press star, then one. The next question comes from Matthew Bully from Barclays. Please go ahead.
spk05: Good evening. You have Anika Delakia on for Matt. Thanks for taking my questions. So the first question is on kind of your customer base. So, you know, we've seen some industry peers have spoken to more challenge demand for their lower end pools. And I'm just curious if you're seeing similar mix effects and maybe how you think this could trend into the second half given the current macro backdrop. Thanks.
spk09: Yeah, no, so similar views. And again, there's two sides to this coin that, you know, one that really, you know, I think two that really help us and one that's a little bit of a drag. But again, this was all contemplating in the guide we issued in the reconfirm, right? For fiberglass, we're seeing really good performance because it's a lower cost option versus concrete pools. So as consumers are trading down from the concrete price points, they're stepping into fiberglass pools, which are working really well for us in a 75 to 100k, you know, consumer price point. The package pool or the other piece of the in-ground vinyl business, again, is doing okay, but that's kind of more of the middle America. That's where a lot of the pool financing occurs. It's out there. You know, I think we're trending to the numbers we had expected in our guide overall. You know, but what's happening is we're seeing good traction with our radiant panels and pools because that's a lower price in-ground vinyl liner option for those consumers. I hate to say step down to because the radiant panel and pool is a really, really nice pool compared to other options out there at that, let's say maybe a little bit more entry level or, you know, second level pool you'd be stepping into versus your typical, you know, on-ground or above-ground pool you would see. So a little bit of a mixed bag, but, you know, when we look at the fiberglass, that's what we like to see. We like to see the traction we're getting with the radiant pool out there and the acceptance as well.
spk05: That's really helpful. Thanks. And then second, just curious, you know, how are you guys thinking about current capacity levels today? Should we assume that there's going to be additional capacity investment in the near term or maybe, you know, given your Kingston investment, some other cost initiatives maybe are holding off on that? Thanks.
spk09: Yeah, so on the capacity side, we really like where we sit with capacity today from all the investments getting Kingston brought online, you know, and just thinking about Kingston, right, it gives us the opportunity to attract new dealers to those locations, right? They now have capacity in their backyard with fiberglass, much more capacity than we had before. You know, they're looking at Latham as a manufacturer of choice. It gives them a lower cost model to pass on to their consumers to get more demand. So we had a really, really nice customer win and pick up up there. I think we might have briefly touched on that in the last call. Similar in other areas of the market, you know, we've got good capacity and that leads to great service levels and lead times. Where we will continue to invest is in product launches, product lineup, new models, you know, new feature-rich fiberglass pools. We've talked a lot about plunge pool series and, you know, some of the new models we're getting out there where consumers are looking for particular features, whether it's a side entry, bigger tanning ledges, or some of these smaller cocktails slash plunge pools. So I think it's those types of investments. But look, the operations team continues to drive a lot of really, really good value engineering and lean events in the facilities, which is actually creating more capacity. And, not to sound like a broken record, but you go back to the big cost reduction initiatives we were able to do last year, taking five facilities and locations offline. It's because of all those efforts of the operations team freeing up capacity. So we're in a good position. As of right now, it's not like we need to go do chunky type of capacity. It's tweaks in each of the small facilities to make sure we're positioned, looking out to the, you know, 25, 26, 27 market and where new tool starts will be.
spk05: Great. Thank you guys. Good luck.
spk07: Welcome. Thank you. The next question comes from Susan McClurry from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
spk03: Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. My first question is, you know, thinking just a little bit about the input cost environment, how that came together through the quarter, any changes that you're seeing as you think about the balance of the year, you know, perhaps any chemicals that are coming up or those types of things. And then, you know, just any thoughts on price cost, how that trended through the quarter and the outlook there?
spk04: Yeah, let me take that, Susan. So let me start with our annual guides and then, you know, I'll go back and take that back to Q1. So we guided on price, flattish and on deflation, you know, we added some modest deflation to our guide. And in Q1, we've seen deflation in several parts of our baskets, primarily resins, PVC film, aluminum, quite in line with our guide and our expectation, maybe a little bit better, more favorable. But we're also seeing some increases, more recently driven by styrene and benzene. So I would say, you know, overall, our guidance being a modest deflation for the year is quite intact and confirmed by our Q1 performance. I'll give you a similar comment on the pricing side. We generally see prices sticking. You know, last earnings call, we said, you know, that, you know, some of our product categories took down a little bit, some we took up a little bit, but overall, we guide towards a flattish price. And, you know, that, again, the same is true for Q1. We saw flattish pricing in Q1.
spk03: Okay, all right, that's helpful. And then, you know, when we kind of look across our coverage, I think there's some companies that have talked about seeing, you know, perhaps a moderation in activity as rates have moved higher in the last couple of weeks or so. It doesn't sound like you are seeing that as we get into the kind of core of the pool season. But I guess, Scott, can you just talk a bit to what you are hearing on the ground from some of your dealers? Has there been any response to the moving rates? And, you know, just how are you thinking about that as we do get into the spring and the summer?
spk09: Yeah, so Susan, you know, again, if we go back to kind of our guide for the year, right, we were expecting pool starts to be down further than others and probably the rest of the entire industry. I think some of the commentary we've seen out there is, you know, I think people are experiencing closer to our number of, you know, around 15% down for new pool starts. You know, there's really not a lot of finance and activity out there right now. So as rates continue to, you know, trend up, trend down, bounce where they are at this point, you know, I don't really think that's impacting our dealers, our consumer base. You know, we typically have the higher end of the market, more of the cash buyers. You know, we're actually seeing the, you know, 7500, 100 plus thousand type pool backyards holding up extremely well as those individuals, you know, have the capital that they can deploy to make the pool purchase. So I think all helpful to us as we go forward here, you know, you know, so I think we're in a good position there, Susan, and look, we're all looking forward to, you know, when the Fed starts to, you know, see the rates go down. So I think that will really start to allow others to come back into the market. You know, we got some new intel from one of our third party financing companies, you know, and I think, you know, they've just, they've tightened up the credit limits, and I think what they're doing now is they're getting a little bit creative. One of our partners has now introduced the 20-year loan again. They have pulled that back over the last year or two. So the fact that now you can go out there and finance a pool project for 20 years helps lower the overall, you know, monthly payment for a consumer, which is keeping, you know, keeping folks out there. And I think dealers are also getting very creative of scaling back the overall dream of the homeowner for the backyard, right? Homeowners are coming in. They've got, you know, their pool, their huge patio, their outdoor kitchen, the fire pit, the pavilion, all the lighting, the landscaping. And I think dealers are saying, hey, look, we'll quote out the full backyard and project for you. We'll, but we're going to do it in segments. If you can only afford X, let's get the pool in and let's get your three feet of concrete in, and we can fit you into your budget and payment that way. And then we will come back in a year or so and finish up your dream of what you want your whole backyard to look like with, you know, a bigger patio, getting that fire put in there and, you know, the outdoor kitchen. So I think it's, you know, people being creative. In some cases, dealers, you know, have had to lower their price to the consumer as they readjust their pricing model in a lower demand and lower new pool start environment. So, you know, it's really, you know, I'd say, you know, accumulation of several different factors they're working on out there, Susan, to try to keep, you know, business flowing, keep their employees engaged out there. Well, like, we're, you know, Gates say, you know, we're looking forward to getting into 25. You know, we still think 24 will be the trough, you know, new pool starts, you know, you know, I don't see how they could be any worse next year than they are this year. They should go up, you know, barring any unforeseen incident. But, you know, that's where we want to be conservative in our actions as a company here, you know, making sure we've got the capacity, we've got the investments in plants and personnel, we keep investing in new model and new product launches, you know, because we're looking forward to 25 and 26 when the market rebounds.
spk03: Okay, that's very helpful, Caller Scott. Thanks for that and good luck with everything.
spk07: Thanks, Susan, you're welcome. There are no more questions in the queue. This concludes our question and answer session. I'd like to turn the conference back over to Scott Rogeski for any closing remarks. Yeah, look,
spk09: you know, thanks everyone for participating in this
spk10: afternoon's
spk09: call. You know, look forward to seeing you all at upcoming conferences and meetings. You know, hope everyone has a good evening and, you know, everyone, you know, have a safe summer until the next time we talk. Take care.
spk07: Conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.
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