Sonic Automotive, Inc.

Good morning and welcome to the Sonic Automotive fourth quarter 2020 earnings conference call. This conference call is being recorded today, Wednesday, February 17th, 2021. Presentation materials, which are company management's discussion on the conference call, can be accessed at the company's website at ir.sonicautomotive.com. At this time, I would like to refer to the Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities and Litigation Reform Act of 1995. During this conference call, management may discuss financial projections, information, or expectations about the company's products or market, or otherwise make statements about the future. Such statements are forward-looking and subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially from the statements made. Those risks and uncertainties are detailed in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, management may discuss non-GAAP financial measures as defined by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Please refer to the non-GAAP reconciliation report on Form 8K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier today. I would now like to introduce Mr. Jeff Dyke, president of Sonic Automotive. Mr. Dyke, you may begin your conference.

Thank you. And special note, everybody, I was caught in Texas in this unprecedented snow and ice storm and temperature storm. We're low on electricity. So if for some reason I cut out, Heath Bird will take over my speaking notes. With that, good morning, everyone, and welcome to Sonic Automotive's fourth quarter and full year 2020 earnings call. i'm jeff dyke the company's president joining me on the call today is our cfo mr heath bird our executive vice president of operations mr tim keen our vice president of investor relations mr danny wyland and our chief digital retail officer mr steve whitman who recently joined our team to drive the expansion of our omni channel digital retail platform earlier today we reported the highest quarterly revenues and earnings in our company's history with record fourth quarter revenues of $2.8 billion and an adjusted EPS of $1.50, up 54.6% from the fourth quarter of 2019. In addition, the full year 2020 was our second consecutive year of all-time record adjusted earnings, with adjusted EPS of $3.85, up 45.3% from $2.65 in 2019. These record results reflect the strength of our diversified business model, the dedication of our teammates, and the support of our manufacturer and vendor partners in the face of unprecedented challenges we face together this year. During 2020, we took targeted measures to improve operating efficiencies and manage expense throughout our entire organization, fundamentally improving our cost structure. As a result, we achieved all-time record adjusted SG&A expenses as a percentage of gross profit, of 68.1% for the fourth quarter of 2020, down 560 basis points from 73.7% in the fourth quarter of 2019. Four-year 2020 adjusted SG&A expenses as a percentage of gross profit were 72.9%, 400 basis points better than 2019. For 2021, we expect to continue to see a benefit of our permanent SG&A reductions. However, the rapid rate of expansion at Echo Park may drive an increase in SG&A as a percentage of gross profit while still being accretive to the bottom line overall. Turning to our core franchise dealership segment, fourth quarter revenues were $2.4 billion, down 1.2% from the prior year and up 11.5% sequentially from the third quarter of 2020. Franchise dealership segment income increased 37.1 million, or 68.2%, compared to the fourth quarter of last year, driven by strong new vehicle and F&I gross profit per unit and a $30.3 million reduction in adjusted SG&A expenses. Franchise dealership segment adjusted SG&A as a percentage gross profit was 65.2%, down 810 basis points from the fourth quarter of 2019. Looking at Echo Park for the fourth quarter, revenues were an all-time record of $386.9 million, up 25.4% from the prior year quarter. This growth was driven by a 17.1% increase in used vehicle unit sales volume to 14,841 units. For the full year 2020, Echo Park revenues were $1.4 billion, a 22.1% increase compared to 2019, with retail sales volume of 57,161 units, up 15.4% from 2019. For the first quarter of 2021, we expect to retail between 18 and 19,000 units at Echo Park, earn a way to delivering between 100 and 105,000 units for the full year of 2021. As part of our Echo Park expansion strategy, we recently completed the acquisition of two pre-owned businesses in Maryland and New York, expanding our geographic footprint into the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. These include Car Biz, serving the greater Baltimore-Washington metro area, and News Car King, a Syracuse-based pre-owned group serving car buyers throughout New York State. Each of these businesses already embraces the same culture and values that define Echo Park, with a highly qualified team focused on providing an exceptional experience and incredible value to their guests. We're in the process of transitioning these acquisitions into our Echo Park model and expect them to generate total annual revenues in excess of $350 million at maturity before any revenues from future delivery and buy centers that these markets will support. By way of update, our delivery and buy center concept, our first market in Greenville, South Carolina, retailed 166 units and was profitable in January in its sixth full month of operation. Our second delivery and buy center in Knoxville, Tennessee, opened in late December and retailed 55 units in its first full month, nearly mirroring what we saw in Greenville in month one. For comparison, before entering these markets with the delivery and buy center model, we sold an average of 10 to 12 units per month in Greenville and two to three units per month in Knoxville from our nearest hubs, demonstrating that these truly are incremental sales into the adjacent markets. The opening of four new Echo Park locations in the fourth quarter and seven for the full year of 2020 brings our total at year end to 16. These plus the two acquisitions completed to date, the opening of our Phoenix, Arizona store next week, and the additional openings in 2021 will give us over 40 points in place by the end of 2021. As you can see, we're well underway in establishing our 140-plus point Echo Park Nationwide Distribution Network, which is expected to retail over a half a million pre-owned vehicles annually and drive $14 billion in annual Echo Park revenues by 2025. In the meantime, we're focused on addressing the tremendous growth opportunity and untapped value in Echo Park's unique pre-owned vehicle sales concept. Car buyers nationwide continue to discover the exceptional pricing, inventory selection, purchase experience that Echo Park offers. The guest-centric in-store experience combined with our omni-channel tools and delivery center model offers Echo Park shoppers a full range of buying options to meet their needs. Our consumer studies, including a Harris Insights poll commissioned in September of 2020, continue to reaffirm our belief in an omnichannel approach matches the ideal purchase experience for the vast majority of car buyers. When we launch our new digital retail platform in the fourth quarter of this year, we expect to provide our guests with an online experience that sets a new standard of excellence in this industry. Before we turn the call over for your questions, I'd like to talk about the market conditions and trends we're seeing throughout the first month and a half of 2021. The new vehicle sales momentum and elevated margins from the fourth quarter had carried into 2021, and the industry slowdown in used vehicle demand in November and December has steadily improved in January and February to date. While the pressure on used vehicle margins at Echo Park persisted longer than we expected in the fourth quarter, january total gross per unit was back in line with our model and our expectations for 2021. our franchise dealerships parts and service business continues to recover more slowly than we'd like but is showing signs of improvement adjusted for calendar differences year over year our fixed operations gross was down roughly four percent in january compared to nearly six percent for the fourth quarter We believe as the vaccine rollout continues to gain momentum and Americans feel more comfortable resuming daily activities as the year progresses, our parts and service business will bounce back. F&I continues to be a highlight of our business as we eclipsed 2,000 per unit for the first time in the fourth quarter and continue to expect growth in this area in 2021. In closing, 2020 was a challenging year in many ways. However, our fourth quarter and full year results show the strength and resiliency of our franchise and Echo Park models. We are much leaner, we're more efficient, and we're a stronger company than we were prior to 2020, and we believe each of our business segments is well positioned for both near-term and long-term success. The stage is set for an exciting 2021 for Sonic Automotive, with 25 new Echo Park locations to open and roll out, and the rollout of our new omni-channel digital retail platform by the end of the year. As always, we look forward to keeping you updated on our progress throughout the year. And this concludes my opening remarks. And now I'm going to turn the call over to Heath Bird for a few opening remarks of his. Thank you.

Thank you, Jeff. Before you open up for questions, I just wanted to provide a little bit more color on what we're seeing in our 2021 outlook. As Jeff mentioned, these numbers and this outlook is in line with what we're seeing in January and February. Also keep in mind, as Jeff mentioned, he's in the middle of the storm. Some of these numbers, the first quarter, we're going to have some impact from the storms. This impacts Texas, which you guys know is one of our largest franchise markets. It is our largest eco-park market. It's also going to affect Birmingham, Nashville. And so hopefully it cleans up quickly, but obviously there'll be some impact. Those stores right now are closed. It's also important to note that the outlook I'm going to go over real quickly is The majority of the growth is weighted to the second half of the year. Obviously, we believe that things will pick up dramatically as vaccines are rolling out and we get back to normal. So on the franchise side, on new, we expect the growth rate to be up double digits on volume. GPU, we think it will continue to be elevated. We're all aware of the shortage of inventory through the first half and start to normalize in the second half of the year. Franchise used, we're expecting and looking to a low double-digit growth in volume. The GPUs, as Jeff mentioned, are normalizing, and we expect those to normalize at approximately $1,300 for the full year. Fixed, we are forecasting full year to be up high single digits. This is definitely way into the second half of the year. We still have, as you all know, large portfolio is related to California, and we still see some closing there. So we think that will ramp up more in the second half of the year. F&I growths, low double digit growth. We continue to see opportunity to increase our GPU and continue to surpass the $2,000 per unit. On the Echo Park segments, as Jeff mentioned, we had 16 stores at the end of the year. We actually opened up four in the fourth quarter. That will grow to 40 locations by the end of 2021. That's two and a half times our current footprint. So very busy with new stores. Units, we expect growth of 75% to 85% in units year over year. As a percent of the total revenue, Echo Park was about 15% of total revenue in 2020. We expect that to grow to 20% to 25% in 2021 as it continues to be a higher percentage of the business here at Sonic. Echo Park EBITDA was approximately $11 million in 2020. That includes the drag of $6.6 million from the new stores. We expect that to be approximately double that in 2021. And that includes a drag of about $12 to $14 million of EBITDA related to the new stores that are opening in 2021. And that even-out growth is definitely weighted to the second half of the year as we open up new stores and they start maturing. From a CapEx perspective on Echo Park, we have budgeted $75 million in CapEx for that growth. You can see putting all those or developing all those locations at such a low capex spend. This is a capital light strategy. And this allows us to take that free cash flow that is being generated on the franchise side and increase our liquidity and also increase our opportunities for growth on the franchise side. So you can see very low capex to get to that 40 new stores at Echo Park. So from a consolidated standpoint, a couple of things to keep in mind. I think it's very important we talk about this each year. The profit cadence at Sonic, because of our portfolio mix, about 15% to 20% of our profitability will come in the first quarter, 25% in the second, 25% in the third, and about 30% to 35% in the fourth quarter. Again, that's that luxury brand mix that has such a big fourth quarter impact. SG&A perspective on a consolidated basis, 2020 was 72.9%. We expect that to be flat to slightly up in 2021. The franchise SG&A will continue to lever. We've mentioned the $84 million that we continue to see in reduced expenses, but that will be offset. That lowering of SG&A on the franchise side will be offset due to the new stores that were opening at Echo Park. Another thing to keep in mind if you're looking at Q1, typically because of seasonality cadence, our SG&A as a percent of growth is typically 700 to 900 basis points worse when you relate it to Q4. EBITDA, we expect that to be low double-digit growth in EBITDA. Tax rate in shares, we are modeling an expected tax rate of approximately 26 to 28%. Share count will maintain approximately $44 million. We will do share repurchase to ensure there's no dilution from the investments that will happen in 2021. And with that, I will turn the call over for questions.