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spk00: Fourth quarter 2023 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 presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. 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 Paul Manske, Investor Relations and Corporate Development of Benchmark. Please go ahead.
spk05: Thank you, Andrea, and thanks to everyone for joining us today for Benchmark's fourth quarter fiscal year 2023 earnings call. Joining me this afternoon are Jeff Bank, CEO and President, and Rupal Akarajar, CFO. After the market closed today, we issued an earnings release pertaining to our financial performance for the fourth quarter of 2023. and we have prepared a presentation that we will reference on this call. Both are available online under the investor relations section of our website at bench.com. This call is being webcast live and a replay will be available online following the call. The company has provided a reconciliation of our GAAP to non-GAAP measures in the earnings release as well as in the appendix to the presentation. Please take a moment to review the forward-looking statements disclosure on slide two in the presentation. During our call, we will discuss forward-looking information. As a reminder, any of today's remarks, which are not statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements, which involve risks and uncertainties as described in our press releases and SEC filings. Actual results may differ materially from these statements. Pinchmark undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. For today's call, Jeff will begin by providing a summary of our fourth quarter. Rup will then discuss our detailed financial results and our first quarter guidance. Jeff will then return to provide more insight into demand trends by sector, business wins, and then closing remarks. If you will please turn to slide three, I'll turn the call over to our CEO, Jeff Banks.
spk04: Thank you, Paul. Good afternoon, and thanks to everyone for joining our call today. The fourth quarter was another period of solid execution for the company. Despite some revenue softening, which impacted our top line, we met or exceeded all other objectives for the quarter. This directly reflects the company's focus on operational execution. Let me step through a few highlights in the quarter. Total revenue of $691 million was down high single digits year over year and mid-single digits sequentially. I will point out that supply chain premiums, or SCP, have normalized, ending the fourth quarter at slightly below $8 million, versus 46 million in the same period last year. Excluding SEP, fourth quarter revenue was down low single digits versus last year. Despite this challenge, our non-GAAP gross margin exceeded 10 percent, growing both sequentially and year-over-year. Coupled with a 9 percent year-on-year reduction in non-GAAP operating expense in the quarter, we drove operating margin to greater than 5 percent. As a reminder, This margin includes approximately 50 basis points of stock compensation. I want to congratulate the entire team for delivering such a strong set of results, which allowed us to report 58 cents in non-GAAP earnings per share, above the midpoint of our guidance. Finally, as we've highlighted over the last few quarters, we've implemented a number of actions to drive free cash flow. I'm pleased to report that we generated $126 million in Q4 and $97 million for the full year, well ahead of our objective of $70 to $80 million. This was enabled in a large part by our reduction in inventory. Considering all the end market obstacles facing us and others, I'm proud of the team's execution in the quarter and throughout 2023. Now, let me pass it over to Rup to share more details on the December quarter and our fiscal year 2023, and guidance for Q1 2024.
spk06: Thank you, Jeff, and good afternoon. Please turn to slide six for our revenue by market sector. As Jeff mentioned, our total revenue was $691 million in Q4. The reconciliation of this and our sector-level performance that excludes the effect of SEP can be found in the appendix section of the presentation materials. Turning to slide seven, as we look at our sector performance, Our discussion will exclude the effect of FCP. Medical revenue for the fourth quarter was down 7% versus the prior year. The decline was due to general softness across the industry driven by inventory rebalancing and demand normalization post-pandemic. Semi-cap revenue decreased 5% year-over-year in line with our expectations. K&D revenue was up 15% year-over-year due to commercial aerospace remaining strong and the defense sector benefiting from the ramp. of existing programs and broadening of new wins within our customer base. Industrials revenue for the fourth quarter increased 8% year-over-year, driven by strength with existing customers providing energy efficiency solutions. Advanced computing increased 3% year-over-year, aided by our build of subsystems for a new large high-performance computing program that started in Q4 and is expected to continue into first half 2024. In the next generation communication sector, revenue was down 31 percent year-over-year. Our year-over-year performance was impacted by general softness across the sector due to reductions in capital spending. We expect this dynamic may persist throughout 2024. Please turn to slide eight. Our GAAP earnings per share for the quarter was 49 cents. For Q4, our non-GAAP gross margin was 10.3 percent, a 70 basis point increase sequentially and year-over-year. Gross margin benefited from our mix of revenue and improved operational execution, including the previously announced cost actions taken in the first half due to demand softness. SG&A expense was $35.6 million flat sequentially and down 10% versus the prior year due to cost actions taken coupled with lower variable compensation. Non-GAAP operating margin was 5.1%, up 40 basis points sequentially and 80 basis points year-over-year, benefiting from both improved gross margin and operating expense discipline. In Q4 2023, our non-GAAP effective tax rate was 20.6%. For Q4, non-GAAP EPS of 58 cents, above the midpoint of our guidance. Non-GAAP ROIC in the fourth quarter was 9.3%. Please turn to slide nine for our revenue comparison by market sector for the full year 2023 versus 2022. Total benchmark revenue for 2023 was $2.8 billion. Turning to slide 10, excluding the effect of SEP, revenue was up 6% year-over-year. Medical revenues increased 9% from growth with existing customers and new program ramps. Semi-cap revenues decreased 9% in line with our expectations and reflecting better than market performance. The A&D sector increased by 6 percent due to continued strength in commercial aerospace, defense programs that continue to ramp, and improved supply availability, enabling us to address more of our previously unmet demand. Industrials revenues were up 17 percent, primarily from the continued ramp of our prior wins, notably in energy control systems and building infrastructure programs. Advanced computing was up 10% on the year, given the timing of our next-generation high-performance computing program deliveries. Next-gen communications revenues were up 16% given first-half strength in broadband infrastructure programs. Please turn to slide 11. Our GAAP earnings per share for fiscal year 2023 was $1.79. Our GAAP results included restructuring and other one-time costs, totaling $9.3 million related to the completion of the Moorpark, California closure, rightsizing of certain manufacturing sites, and a net gain of $4.6 million from legal settlements. Both GAAP and non-GAAP gross margin of 9.5% increased 70 basis points due to lower SEP. Without SEP, our gross margin was 9.8%. The gross margin expansion was driven by improved operational efficiencies and the proactive cost reduction actions taken by our manufacturing sites. Our SGMA was $147 million, down 2% year-over-year, driven by the cost actions taken coupled with lower variable compensation. Non-GAAP operating margin was 4.4%, an increase of 80 basis points driven by the gross margin expansion. Non-GAAP effective tax rate was 20.1% for the year, and our non-GAAP EPS was $2.04. Please turn to slide 12 for discussion of the effects of SDP on a trended basis. In Q4, SCP declined to 8 million versus 16 million in Q3 2023 and 46 million in Q4 2022. On a year-over-year basis, SCP declined by 209 million to 59 million in 2023. Looking into 2024, we expect SCP to be immaterial. As such, beginning in Q1 2024, we will just continue references to performance excluding SCP. Please turn to slide 13 for a discussion of our cash conversion cycle performance. Our cash conversion cycle days were 98 in the fourth quarter compared to 105 days in Q3. Our inventory decreased sequentially by 42 million. Cash conversion cycle improved by seven days due to improved working capital efficiency and an increase in advance payments from customers. Please turn to slide 14 for an update on liquidity. Free cash flow generation is a critical focus area. To that end, in 2023, we reduced inventory and improved working capital efficiency. This supported a full-year free cash flow generation of $97 million, which exceeded our annual goal of $70 to $80 million per year. In 2024, we again expect to generate $70 to $80 million. Our cash balance on December 31st was $283 million, a sequential increase of $22 million. As of December 31st, we had $127 million outstanding on our term loan, turned $5 million outstanding borrowings against our revolver, and $341 million available to borrow under our revolver. Overall debt, net of cash, improved sequentially by $124 million because of the strong free cash flow in Q4 2023. Please turn to slide 15 for discussion of our capital allocation activity. We invested approximately $78 million in capital spending in 2023, including $11 million in Q4, both primarily in support of continued growth in our Mexico facilities and enhanced capabilities in our precision technologies business unit. We expect our CapEx spending in Q1 2024 to be between $10 and $15 million. On a full-year basis, we anticipate 2024 CapEx to be in the range of $55 to $65 million. In Q4, we paid cash dividends of $5.9 million and totaling $23 million for the full year 2023. Since 2018, we have paid cash dividends totaling $136 million. We did not repurchase any outstanding shares in 2023. As of December 31st, we had approximately $155 million remaining in our existing share repurchase authorization. Starting in Q1, we expect to repurchase shares opportunistically while considering market conditions. Turning to slide 16, for the first quarter 2024, we expect revenue to range from $625 million to $665 million. Our non-GAAP gross margin is expected to be between 9.8% and 10.2%. We expect SG&A expense will range between $34 and $36 million. Our non-GAAP operating margin range is forecasted to be 4.5% to 4.7%. As a reminder, this includes approximately 50 basis points of stock-based compensation. Our non-GAAP guidance excludes the impact of $1.2 million in amortization of intangible assets and $3.1 to $3.5 million of estimated restructuring and other expenses to support incremental steps necessary to proactively manage our cost structure given current market conditions. Our non-GAAP diluted earnings per share is expected to be in the range of $0.42 to $0.48. Other expenses net are expected to be approximately $8.5 million. Interest expenses expected to decline sequentially given the reduction in revolver debt. However, over the near term, this will be partially offset by increased foreign exchange headwinds due to the weakening U.S. dollar. We have historically managed our exchange risk through a proactive hedge program, and we will continue to do so. We expect NQ1, our non-GAAP effective tax rate, will be 24%. the weighted average share count of $36 million. Our effective tax rate will be higher in 2024 because of our China tax holiday, which expired as of December 31, 2023. We are applying for another tax holiday, which we hope to receive in 2024, retroactive to the beginning of 2024. Also in 2024, some of our foreign jurisdictions will be adopting Pillar 2, the global minimum tax regulations, on a fiscal year basis. We believe the average 2024 effective tax rate should be approximately 23 percent. And with that, I'll turn the call back over to you, Jeff.
spk04: Jeff Johnson Thanks, Rupert. Please turn to slide 18. Again, all commentary related to demand trends by sector are excluding SCP. Within SEMICAP, our fourth quarter performance was up modestly, sequentially, and in line with our expectations. On a full year basis, revenue performance was down high single digits. This compared favorably to the overall industry revenue trend, which we believe was down approximately 20%. As mentioned in prior calls, we believe our Semicap sector likely bottomed in the March quarter of 2023. However, based on public commentary from many Semicap OEMs, we don't expect improved demand at the industry level to return over the next few quarters. This may change in late 2024, but it's too early to make that call. Looking forward into 2025 and beyond, we continue to believe in the strong secular drivers propelling global semi-demand. Adding to this, our government subsidies design and accelerate the reshoring of wafer production to North America and Europe. Although we won't see the downstream effects for some time, this is just another example of the long-term drivers that serve as the basis of our strong commitment to the sector. In support of all these demand drivers and our confidence in our ability to benefit we have been investing heavily in our capabilities and winning new programs, which we believe positions us well to continue to outperform the market. We had a number of new wins in the quarter, including an important next-generation wafer fab equipment program with one of our existing customers. In medical, this past quarter we did a good job meeting demand as the supply chain continues to improve. Offsetting this was some incremental demand softening later in the quarter, both as a function of end markets and customer focus on inventory levels. As such, while we had expected performance to be down in the quarter, it was down more than anticipated. For the full year, medical delivered high single-digit growth, driven by our ramping program wins and our improved ability to meet demand. Despite this success, we expect the demand environment will challenge our ability to deliver growth in this sector in the first half of 2024. Looking forward, our new wind momentum, driven in part by the continued trend toward nearshoring, bodes well for our future growth. We continue to secure new winds during this past quarter. Importantly, not only are we seeing new program winds with existing EMS customers, we continue to benefit from the advantage of our end-to-end offerings. converting engineering engagements into EMS wins. As these wins begin ramping later in 2024 and into 2025, we expect to see growth return to this sector. Turning to complex industrials, we continue to extend our footprint in key growth markets, including electrification, automation, and energy management solutions. One example in Q4 is a program win to manufacture control subsystems going into electric vehicles used primarily in the construction industry. Another key win was for an automated guided vehicle system specifically designed to address the needs in the hospitality and medical sectors. This win, again, demonstrates the benefit of our broad capabilities as we transition the design engagement into a manufacturing win. Within energy management, We are pleased to win new manufacturing business in Guadalajara with an existing customer, which is part of their nearshoring strategy. Industrial sector revenue performed slightly better than expected in the fourth quarter, up 8% year-on-year versus our flat guidance. However, as with medical, the quarter saw some second-half softening due to weakening end demand. The near-term corrections notwithstanding, We are continuing to invest in our industrial sector team, given the large opportunity in front of us and how well we were positioned to grow with this customer set. Now, turning to A&D. We had another strong quarter of revenue performance and new wins in Q4, continuing our momentum in the sector. Commercial aerospace has remained strong for us since early in 2023, which we believe will continue based on our order load. Meanwhile, within defense, although some component lead times are not yet back to historical levels, they continue to improve. This has allowed us to more fully meet the continuing increase in demand we're seeing from our customers. At the same time, we continued to secure new wins in the past quarter, notably one for ground vehicle communications and another for imaging systems used at military training sites. This balance of end demand strength, design wind momentum, and gradually improving supply chain has us positioned for continued growth in 2024. Within advanced computing, revenues were consistent with the guidance provided last quarter, up low single digits year on year, albeit up considerably on a sequential basis. As previously shared, after a pause in Q3, Last quarter, we began delivering upon a new HPC program for a large OEM supporting a national lab, which will likely be completed in the first half of 2024. We are working new HPC opportunities to drive future growth, but given the timing of these projects, coupled with our growth in the first half last year, we currently expect advanced computing revenue to be down for the first half of 2024. Finally, in next-generation communications, we've been highlighting anticipated challenges at the industry level for a few quarters now. The communications sector is seeing broad pressure in capital spending while at the same time more aggressively managing through their own inventory positions. This has resulted in continued end-demand weakening, which we believe will persist for several more quarters. As such, we expect sector revenue to be down materially in the first half and likely for the full year. In summary, please turn to slide 19. I couldn't be more pleased by our performance in 2023. Despite the challenging market dynamics, we continue to invest in future growth, building on our business with both new logos and expansion wins from existing customers. We did this while growing non-GAAP growths and operating margins year on year. Despite our pace of investment, particularly in support of SEMICAP, we exceeded our free cash flow target range for the year. This was aided by a material reduction in total inventory. Meanwhile, as compared to 2022, we reduced net debt by almost 60% to less than $48 million. We continue to make progress, but we are not complacent with our success. There is much more for us to do. We made great headway in 2023 towards our target model, of full-year gross margins of 10% and greater than 5% non-GAAP operating margin. In fact, we achieved these levels in fourth quarter. Our job now is to sustain this gross margin while closely managing our costs during the softening demand environment. Second, we will continue our efforts on inventory reductions in support of delivering free cash flow. And then finally, we plan to further reduce our debt and interest expense while returning capital by continuing our dividend program and resuming share repurchases. We look forward to updating you on our progress as we move through the year. With that, I'll now turn the call over to the operator to conduct our Q&A session.
spk00: We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, you may press star, then 1 on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then 2. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble the roster. And our first question will come from Jim Rashidi of Needham & Co. Please go ahead.
spk03: Hi, thanks. Good afternoon. Jeff, I wanted to just focus on two of the sectors, medical and industrial, because I think you're kind of clear on some of the other ones, what you're seeing. I'm not entirely clear on where you see medical and industrials going. Softened, I guess, midway or so through Q4. Do you see that recovering or is this something that maybe persists through the first half of the year?
spk04: Yeah, I think for both of those, we kind of in the chart 18, we kind of give you some first half guidance. We didn't go out through the full year just given the dynamic environment. But just looking at the first half, we see both of those, you know, being down from like looking at sequentially where we ended the second half of last year. In medical, while supply constraints, you know, eased and allowed us to fulfill, you know, the demand we saw, we did see – Forecasts come down in the fourth quarter. That continued in one queue. We certainly believe people are paying a lot of attention to inventory. Some of it probably related to that softness. I will say there's still a lot of outsourcing activity and nearshoring continues. We're excited about a number of new wins in Mexico for us as medical OEMs look to get closer to point of consumption. Um, on the industrial side, uh, again, you know, I would say similar kind of broader, um, it depends a little bit by OEM, but certainly saw broader softness that, that looks to persist in, into the first half. Um, that's an area where, you know, we had done pretty good with wins. We, you know, we had put a resource on that a few years ago and we still believe we're really well positioned there, uh, with some of the activity we're seeing in, in, uh, you know, energy management and automation and test and measurement. But in the meantime, again, you know, sort of the softness coupled with people being, you know, looking at their own inventory and the channel inventory is putting some headwinds in front of us for the industrial sector.
spk03: But the softness through the first half in these areas, it's both a combination. They're both related, but it's not just, you know, OEMs, some of your OEMs, destocking. There's just a weaker environment in both these areas.
spk04: Yeah, I think that's a fair assessment. You know, as demand softens, then you say, hey, we've got inventory in the channel. So they're kind of interrelated, although I will say there's just a general sense of I'm not going to carry as much inventory now that we're through the pandemic. The lead times have come down on components. You know, I can deliver faster, so I'm going to look carefully at that. But, yeah, that's some of what we're seeing in both sectors.
spk03: Got it. Just two quick follow-ups, and I'll jump back in the queue. You know, nice progress on gross margins. Can you continue to deliver on these kind of gross margins in this kind of a soft environment? You alluded to it in your presentation, just trying to get a sense of your confidence as to whether you can maintain these kind of margins with this pullback.
spk06: Hey, Jim, it's Rup. So maybe I'll start with this. I think for us, obviously a focus for us has been on getting to that 10% and sustaining that 10%. As we've also said historically, we'll see kind of that bounce around a little bit quarter to quarter. But based on kind of where we're at and kind of the mix of revenue, the proactive cost actions we've taken, that kind of 10% is where we'd like to be throughout the year. I think depending upon how demand continues to profile and, as you know, where the demand comes in within our factories and these sort of things start to come into play. So I think there's an opportunity to do so definitely at that 10%. We've got work to do to sustain that on a longer-term basis.
spk03: Got it. And nice progress on inventories. How do we think about that going forward? Should we see that continue to come down over the next couple of quarters?
spk04: Yeah, I mean, it's clearly – this is Jeff again – it's clearly a priority for us. You know, we've kind of demonstrated that a lot of things culminated – in fourth quarter to, you know, drive a lot of free cash flow and inventory was certainly really, you know, a lead there. But it's something we're putting a lot of attention on, as you can imagine, and particularly in a softer environment, you know, we're really looking at that and spending a lot of energy. We do believe, you know, we'll continue to drive this down as we go through 24 and certainly see, you know, reduction even in the first quarter. So this wasn't like a one-time event. But the last few quarters, we started coming down off of what was peaking, I think, first quarter of last year. So anyways, yeah, to your point, it's important.
spk03: Got it. Thank you. Thanks. Sure.
spk00: The next question comes from Stephen Fox of Fox Advisors. Please go ahead.
spk01: Hi. Good afternoon. A couple questions from me. First, on the SemiCap slide on slide 18, where you're talking about sort of flattest trends, you guys outperformed last year pretty dramatically versus the overall market. But are you still seeing the market down, or are you trying to be conservative in terms of talking about first half, or is there certain programs where you're seeing down versus up, et cetera? It just doesn't seem to compute fully with how the market might be flattening out, and you guys have been outperforming.
spk04: What I would say is, you know, sequentially, I think, you know, on that chart 18, we kind of said it's kind of flattish at that level we've been at, which is clearly up off the bottom that we saw a year ago in the first quarter. But we're just not seeing a dramatic recovery, you know, in some of the segments that were legacy that we've been really strong in, certainly not tools that were near end of life. So the way for fab equipment, you know, I think capital spending is still being, managed pretty close, and we just aren't seeing that broad semi-recovery. I think where we've outperformed, what's helped us is we've won incremental new tools. We have a ton of NPI activity going on where we're building new tools, and that's helping us certainly outperform. And, you know, I look to get more constructive here. I won't say that we're being, you know, conservative because we literally have heard a lot of the the major OEMs where we play in most of those, if not all of those, at some level, you know, they've all kind of said, yeah, it's kind of flatter now. I think we have the potential. I don't know why we wouldn't continue to do better than the market. It's just that with the China restrictions and some of the, even some of the chips act, you know, we're really not going to see the benefit of that until 25. There's just moving parts that has us sort of looking at it saying, you know, What do we see in front of us for first half? And it's kind of continuing at the level we've been.
spk01: That's really helpful. And then just broadly on the other end markets where you're seeing pressure, where do you have sort of the most confidence level or evidence that things could be bottoming out cyclically in like medical, industrials, comms? I know advanced computing is sort of episodic, but like in the other three where you have strong signs of that or something.
spk04: you know, upcoming signs, just any, I mean, we kind of, I guess we've done some indication on medical that there may be some, again, it's early, but say, Hey, there may be returned to normal, normal pace, uh, with inventory looking at second half. Like we might see some, um, some reflection there where maybe there's like, you know, we saw it in semi where the first quarter was like, we're taking it down and you have that big reaction, uh, So, you know, maybe we start seeing that in the fourth quarter with medical. Industrial, I still think it's so broad, so many different companies, you know, it's a little harder to look at, you know, where the bottom is. And then A&D has been strong and continues strong, and I guess we said that in the thing. I know you didn't ask about that, but, you know, certainly that's been a bright spot and we expect that to continue.
spk06: Do you want to add anything? Yeah. Hey, Steve, this is Rupal. I'll just add one thing. I think maybe, you know, building off of Jeff's comments, if you think about industrial next-gen comms, that's CapEx related. And CapEx considerations, I think, are weighing on customers' minds and just market in general. I think medical has an opportunity to that point for that reason to come back a little bit faster, just as Jeff indicated, which is another point to just keep in mind.
spk04: Yeah, and one thing with medical, you know, just to, you know, maybe an example, We build defibrillators, right, and components and subsystems for defibrillator. And you think about, like, during the pandemic, no one was going to stadiums, airports, and that's where, you know, we saw a huge surge back, right, when things opened up. You start seeing demand there, and then people got on the run rate, and they said, wow, this is great, and this is the new normal. And I just think you've seen that modulate a little bit as you kind of caught up with that and people saying, okay, still care for it, still important, not going to go away. but just not, you know, maybe as crazy, you know, upside as there had been.
spk01: That's helpful. And then just if I could squeeze one last one in. One of your peers seems to be walking towards providing EPS excluding SBC. And so, I mean, you guys make it lonely with your own EPS approach. I was curious if any chance of you guys changing how you report your EPS approach.
spk04: Yeah, we did notice that the only peer that was kind of aligned with us on including the stock price comp in their non-GAAP results sort of indicated there was a shift there. So, you know, to that end, we've got to assess our current approach, and we'll provide an update when we conclude that, and, you know, we'll look to get back on that. But obviously peer comparisons are important to us, but we've got to decide what's right for us and And we did pick up on that, so thanks for bringing it up. Great. We'll keep doing it, Mayo. Thanks.
spk00: The next question comes from Jason Schmidt of Lake Street. Please go ahead.
spk02: Hey, guys, thanks for taking my questions. I know it's going to vary by segment, but just curious at a high level, if more of the issue is demand for current programs that you've already won, you noted sort of customers not wanting to hold a lot of inventory anymore, or is the bigger issue new programs that you thought would currently be ramping just getting pushed to the right?
spk04: You know, I think it's some of both. I mean, I've certainly seen You know, people are watching expense closely, and I think we've seen some ramps move to the right. But really, when you consider the bulk of our revenues, you know, with existing programs, and these are multi-year programs, I think we've just seen that overall demand modulate. And, you know, I don't know that we've actually measured both. I'm just giving you a little Mike Gut feel from what we're seeing, that it's probably, I would probably lean more to our towards the base business. And then some of the new stuff coming in, some of that's in flight but not fully ramped yet. And it's not always the best environment to launch new stuff, but I don't think that stops. I just think that we're seeing that folks are being careful about their development expense, and so that has an impact sometimes on timelines.
spk02: Okay, that's helpful. And then are you seeing any change in attach rates for your design and engineering services just given the changing macro?
spk04: You know, we're almost at 80%, not quite to what the target we had set. So that attach rate's been pretty good. I'm pretty happy with that. Obviously, we had a couple wins. We referenced even one where we'd done the engineering on an AGV product and And now it's moving into manufacturing. So, you know, we love that, the whole product realization and how do we help customers get to market faster with their OEM designs or design that we might help develop or develop the whole thing. And we've got a couple great proof points there. So still an important metric for us and really hasn't shifted materially from how we did last quarter. And I don't really see that being a trend or anything.
spk02: Gotcha. And then just the last one for me. I know it's mix-dependent or program-dependent, but can you remind us what capacity is for the Mexico facility and then what current utilization is today?
spk06: Hey, Jason, I can give you a general. We don't give specific utilization and these sort of things. With that said, what I would reinforce is our continued investment in Mexico. As you would imagine, there's been quite a bit of reshoring and with existing OEMs who want to expand new programs in Mexico. And so we've seen the benefit of that. So we've been aggressively investing over the last couple of years in our capacity and availability there, and we're seeing that capacity get used up as we've gone over the last few periods and into 24 and into 25.
spk04: Yeah, it's funny. We've seen growth in Mexico, but We've also added – we'll continue to add capacity, and it's been an investment area. So, you know, we're not – it's not like we're seeing – you know, the fact that we've invested as a lot is to sort of stay in front of that. So we're not, like, at capacity by any means.
spk02: Okay. Perfect. Thanks a lot, guys.
spk07: Thanks, Jason. No worries.
spk00: This concludes our question and answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Paul Manske for any closing remarks.
spk05: Thank you, Andrea. And thank you, everyone, for participating in Benchmark's fourth quarter 2023 earnings call. Before we go, I'd like to remind listeners we'll be attending the Sedoti Small Cap Virtual Conference on March 13th. Please remember to check the events section of the IR website at bench.com slash investors for updates to the schedule. With that, thank you again for your support, and we look forward to speaking with you soon.
spk00: The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation, and you may now disconnect.
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