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spk01: Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Park Lawn Corporation first quarter 2022 earnings call. At this time, all participants have been placed on a listen-only mode, and we will open up the floor for questions and comments after the presentation. It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, Jennifer Hay, General Counsel at Park Lawn. Ma'am, the floor is yours.
spk02: Thank you, Holly, and good morning, everybody. Thank you for joining us on today's first quarter 2022 earnings call. Today's call is being recorded and a replay will be available after the call. Please be aware that certain information discussed today is forward-looking in nature. Any such information is subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially. Please see our public filings for more information regarding forward-looking statements. During the call, we will reference non-IFRS financial measures. Although we believe these measures provide useful supplemental information about our financial performance, they are not recognized measures and do not have standardized meanings under IFRS. Please see our public filing for additional information regarding our non-IFRS financial measures, including for reconciliations to the nearest IFRS measures. Finally, as a reminder, and as we previously announced, beginning with this first quarter in 2022, we have changed our reporting currency to U.S. dollars. Therefore, all figures referred to in today's call will be in U.S. dollars. I will now hand the call over to Parkland CEO Brad Green to open our discussion today.
spk08: Thank you, Jennifer, and good morning, everyone. In addition to Jennifer, with me on the call today is our CFO, Dan Millett. We had another solid quarter that was in line with our expectations shared with you during our last earnings call in March. We are proud to have exhibited a strong operating performance, yielding positive results to begin 2022 in spite of a difficult year-over-year comparison to the first quarter of 2021 where COVID-related deaths had a more pronounced impact. For the quarter, we experienced revenue growth of approximately 17.5% to $83.2 million, and revenue growth from our comparable businesses was essentially flat relative to Q1 2021. Also for the quarter, Park Lawn achieved an 11% increase year-over-year in adjusted EBITDA to $21.4 million at an approximate 25.7% margin. We continue to believe that we are returning to a more normalized operating environment and saw same-store call volumes decrease by 2% relative to the COVID-impacted Q1 2021. However, unlike the first quarter of 2021, we demonstrated strong revenue averages as same-store average revenue per call increased approximately 7% year over year. This increase can likely be attributed to less jurisdictional restrictions, as well as the continued strong desire of our families to celebrate and memorialize the life of their loved ones. Also, we implemented some pricing changes during the quarter in some of our businesses to help offset the impact of inflation. From the cemetery perspective, property sales have continued to grow. However, post-sale supply chain delays have begun to impact merchandise and service revenue as items that would have historically taken six to eight weeks to deliver and install are now taking six to eight months to receive and install. As a result, the recognition of the revenue associated with the delivery and installation of this merchandise is being delayed, but we expect that this revenue will grow relative to Q1 as the year progresses. On the acquisition front, subsequent to the quarter's end, we announced the completion of the Chancellor acquisition in Mississippi, which added one standalone funeral home and one combination funeral home and cemetery. And just last week, we announced that we have entered into a definitive agreement to purchase the Hudson business, a standalone funeral home in Durham, North Carolina, which we expect to close following regulatory approval in early June. Both of these acquisitions consist of premier businesses and high-growth markets that fit well within our existing operating footprint. As we look towards the rest of 2022, our acquisition pipeline remains robust, and we continue to strategically evaluate opportunities to partner with select premier businesses in both Canada and the U.S. In addition to our growth through acquisition, we also continue to deploy resources to support our internal growth. For example, in the quarter, we continue to place a heavy emphasis on the improvement of our technology. We have continued to roll out and integrate FACTS into our cemetery businesses and still expect that by the end of the year, all of our businesses will be operating with the support of FACTS. In addition, we partnered with a full suite digital marketing agency to support our businesses with things such as search engine optimization, web design, graphic design, and general social media and marketing support. On the inventory side, during the quarter, we completed the construction of and delivery of a mausoleum in one of our Michigan cemetery businesses. And finally, construction of our onsite funeral home in Waco, Texas has begun, and we continue to explore new strategic opportunities for the placement of similar onsites. I'd now like to turn the call over to Dan, who will review our Q1 financial results in more detail.
spk07: Thank you, Brad, and good morning, everyone. You'll find a detailed breakdown of our first quarter results in our financial statements and MD&A, which are available on our website and on CDAR. As a reminder, beginning in Q1 2022, we transition to a U.S. dollar presentation currency, and my remarks will reference U.S. dollars. My comments this morning will focus on the operating results from the first quarter 2022 relative to Q1 2021. As Brad mentioned, Q1 of 2021 was anticipated to be and was a tough comparable for Q1 of this year, as the dynamics of the COVID pandemic have changed significantly since early 2021. Despite this, total net revenue growth year over year was approximately 17.5%, growing from $70.8 million to $83.2 million. Revenue growth from our comparable businesses grew by 0.6%, which was supported by strong call volumes and averages, as well as the delivery of a mausoleum in Michigan. During the quarter, the company's operating expenses, including general and administrative, advertising and selling, and maintenance expenses, increased by approximately $8.3 million for the three-month period ended March 31, 2022, over the same period in 2021. This increase is primarily the result of acquired operations with other cost increases resulting from corporate costs. These cost increases were offset due to decreases in advertising and selling costs, specifically at our cemetery businesses where sales incentives were restructured during the second half of 2021 and where recognized revenue and associated commissions from comparable operations was down year over year due in part to the recognition challenges mentioned mentioned by Brad. As a result of another quarter of exceptional sales and a commitment to operations, our net earnings attributable to PLC shareholders for Q1 2022 was approximately $8.79 million, or $0.25 per share, compared to $7.7 million, or $0.256 per share, for Q1 2021. Suggested net earnings attributable to PLC shareholders for the first quarter of this year was approximately $11.2 million, or $0.32.1 per share, compared to $9.5 million, or $0.31.6 per share, in Q1 2021. The net earnings and adjusted net earnings on a per-share basis were impacted by the equity raise completed in September of 2021, as approximately 4.7 million more shares were outstanding on a diluted basis year over year. Our plan continues to deploy its liquidity into accretive acquisitions. We expect to see further growth in our per share metrics. Turning to the balance sheet, we ended the quarter with approximately $87 million drawn on our revolving credit facility, other debt of approximately $11.7 million, finance leases of approximately $5.7 million, cash on hand of approximately $30.7 million. Excluding our debentures, our net debt was approximately $73.7 million at March 31, 2022. At the end of March, our leverage ratio was approximately 0.87 times based on the terms of our credit facility and approximately 1.69 times including our outstanding debentures. As previously indicated, as we move through the upcoming quarters and continue to expand our businesses through acquisition activity and organic growth opportunities, we expect the leverage ratio to gradually increase. We estimate our current liquidity is in excess of $160 million after taking into account the acquisitions announced subsequent to the quarter's end, which is readily available to be deployed in ongoing future organic and acquisition growth initiatives. I'll now turn the call back to Brad for some closing comments.
spk08: Thanks, Dan. As we continue to move towards a more normalized environment, it is important to recognize the value and performance of our teams who not only exhibited exceptional performance under volatile circumstances over the last two years, but who also continue to excel in their performance and service to our communities and client families. This dedication has yielded extraordinary results for our shareholders over time and is the same positive momentum that has already allowed us to announce that we anticipate exceeding our 2022 aspirational growth targets. Irrespective of the expected decline in call volume and impact from COVID over the near term, we have strengthened the core of our organization from within and our expertise in operating businesses as opposed to simply consolidating businesses will allow us to remain resilient and focused on translating our operations to shareholder value and achieving our new aspirational goals by the end of 2026. That concludes our prepared remarks, and I will now turn it over to Holly for any questions.
spk01: Ladies and gentlemen, the floor is now open for questions. If you have any questions or comments, please press star 1 on your phone at this time. We ask while posing your question, you please pick up your handset if listening on speakerphone to provide optimum sound quality. Please hold while we poll for questions. Your first question for today is coming from George Domet. Please announce your affiliation, then pose your question.
spk06: Good morning, guys. Morning. Your prior commentary has been that you expected organic growth to be flattish in 22. Q1 is the toughest comp of the year, and we're flat. So just wondering maybe how much conservatism you have in that goalpost.
spk08: You know, we're going to stick with that same thing we've been saying now for, I guess, two quarters. There's nothing that we are seeing that would make us change that recommendation this time. I think we've been more right than others. I mean, obviously, we would have had a much bigger quarter, and people would be saying that we had exceeded expectations had we said that we were expecting a 15% decrease. in same store volume, like was mentioned by one of our larger competitors, but we stuck with the fact that we thought that it would be consistent throughout the year. And there's nothing we're seeing, George, right now that would make us think that's not the case.
spk06: Okay. And can we talk a little bit more about the decrease in merchandise and service sales is pretty pronounced. I'm just wondering what gives you confidence that that could be probably the worst of it and, you know, that that situation should resolve itself in the next couple of orders?
spk08: Yeah, it's not a decrease in sales and that's an important thing to remember here. It's a decrease in recognition of sales that have already occurred, which is actually a very positive thing. So we can't recognize the revenue on certain merchandise and services in the cemetery segment of our business until we actually deliver those. And so now to take it down into the weeds a little bit, we're talking receiving a monument, and going and placing that monument in the cemetery and charging for putting the monument there and the service charges that are related to that. So what we're effectively doing is we've already sold it, but we can't recognize that revenue until the monument shows up. Well, due to supply chain issues that are going on, where we used to could sell that monument and recognize that revenue within six to eight weeks of the sale, now we're looking at six months before the monuments are showing up. So the sales are there. it's just a recognition problem. And to me, that would be a big distinction that I would want to make to you guys.
spk06: No, it's understood. But I guess, are you seeing maybe green shoots that supply chain is probably getting a little bit better at all?
spk08: Yeah, I can't really say that I've seen it. But if you think about when this started to occur, for us at least, it started to occur about six to eight months ago. And that's important because we started seeing the delivery slow down. Well, now the ones that normally take six to eight weeks, we're now six to eight months. So we actually think in this quarter, we're going to start seeing the recognition of that again. So it's not that we're seeing improvements in the supply chain, but merely because of time, we're going to start seeing the recognition of those that have been six to eight months out now. And we think that's going to certainly help how that looks for the next couple of quarters.
spk06: Okay, great. Thanks for that clarification. And one last one, if I may, Brad, I know we've always been a very acquisitive company, but is there a point where it's probably more creative to buy back our own stock?
spk08: That is an interesting question, and you know that we are very transparent. One of our board members that actually, I would say, is probably instrumental in my development as a CEO and That is a full-time job, trust me, as Steve's got, and he has mentioned that in the past up to and including yesterday's board meeting. So it's something that we've discussed, but I'm not saying it's anything that we're going to do right now. Our acquisition pipeline is quite robust. We still have people that are knocking on our door. Many of the acquisitions we make are still not brokered, or if they are, they're just coming to us. Uh, and I just, I, well, I don't believe our stock price is anywhere near where it should be. And it kind of boggles the mind of the reason it is where it is right now. I still believe the best use of our capital is acquisitions, but that's not my decision to make alone. And so I guess I would shorten that answer by saying there are a lot of smart people that are talking about just that.
spk04: Okay. Thanks for your comment.
spk01: Your next question for today is coming from Eileen Natel. Please announce your affiliation, then pose your question.
spk03: Thanks, and good morning, gentlemen, RBC Capital Markets. Just continuing on the subject of M&A, it's been a bit of a slow start to the year. Are you still confident that you'll sort of come out at that 75 to 125 million range you articulated?
spk08: Absolutely. There's no reason to believe that that won't be the case, Irene, and I know it probably looks like it's been a slow start to the year just because we've only announced two deals up to this point in time. I would only point back and say to you that our fourth quarter was very active and we actually closed two deals that we probably would have put into the first quarter, but for reasons that were seller-based, we did it in the fourth quarter. As you know, we pride ourselves around here about being focused on our operations. So making sure that we can integrate those businesses before we move on to the next is very important. And I'd also point out that those other companies that are publicly traded in our sector, I don't think any of those folks made any acquisitions in the first quarter, and I think at least one of them pointed to the same reasoning. So be a little bit patient with me. You'll see the acquisitions hopefully speed up through the end of the year. But the only other caveat I would add to that is last quarter I said, You guys may see some years that it's $50 million and the next one could be $200 million. So that's 75 to 125. I mean, those are bumpers, right? But we're very comfortable that at least with what I'm seeing through the end of this year, that that is not going to be a problem.
spk03: That's great. Thank you. And then just coming back to the supply chain issue, is it mostly monuments or are you also seeing slowing in other merchandise categories? almost exclusively monuments um because of where those a lot of those come from they're not all of them are not domestic uh but most of the other things we're getting our hands on uh pretty easily that's great and then just the final one you you would be very disappointed if i didn't ask ask it on uh on fact um as you're rolling it out through the cemeteries sort of you know how is that rollout i'm sorry through the pugil homes how is that rollout going Um, how is, you know, what's the early data collection looking like? Um, and you know, that kind of thing.
spk08: I would say that the rollout, as far as the data collection is exceeding our expectations in that we're starting to see information that we thought we would see that will help us operate this company more efficiently and more effectively. Uh, so I'm pretty tough grader and that team knows it. And I would give them a solid a right now for where we are in that process. And, you know, that's not the only thing that IT team does. I mean, there's plenty of things that go on in a company this size. I mean, we had a pretty significant attempt at a ransomware attack at us in the middle of the quarter, and our IT team did exactly what they're supposed to do and stopped that in its tracks, along with other things that they do all the time. But FACTS is exactly where I wanted to be. I knew you would ask the question. Thanks for doing that. And as we get closer towards the end of the year, think we're going to start being able to share with everyone what we actually want expect to see out of that and then start pointing to numbers that we can disclose that are as a result of having facts in place if not by the end of this year certainly through next year that would be outstanding thank you thank you your next question for today is coming from
spk01: Scott Frumsom, please announce your affiliation, then pose your question.
spk05: Hi, CIBC. Good morning. Just a question. I don't mean to be morbid, but are you seeing any pull forward or any increased mortalities from kind of ancillary effects of the pandemic? And I'm talking things like drug abuse, substance abuse, you know, suicides, disease. I'm just trying to get a sense of the longer-term death rate.
spk08: Yeah, so there are two things that I would say that you would see that we have been talking about, I think, maybe earlier than most. And I'll attribute both of these to J. Dodds. The first thing we talked about was that pre-need would be a triggering event. And the other thing that we talked about early on was that the deaths that we were seeing, we started referring to them as COVID-related deaths. And that's because we didn't know what else to... to call them and this may have to go back and look, but we're talking, we started seeing this like three and four quarters ago. So when you talk about the elevated death rate in the US, I think most people starting this quarter in the last few months have started to recognize that it's some combination of events that we can't put our fingers on. Right. It's not, I mean, people aren't necessarily dying of COVID anymore. But it's not healthy for people to not go to the doctor for a year. It's not healthy for humans to be secluded from other humans and their family members. It's not healthy for people to be sitting in their apartment, you know, going through a fifth of whiskey every three days or whatever it is that people are doing. And I think that's what you're seeing, that along with some combination of the baby boomers and just demographics and things of that nature. I can't tell you what it is. But what we try to do, and I'm literally beginning to wonder whether or not it's a benefit or not, what we try to do is tell you exactly what we're seeing and what we think we're going to see. And I think we're going to see kind of this leveling off of the death rate, but it's still going to be elevated. It's why we're not pointing to our same store sales necessarily going up or down. But we're also not going to forecast some major decline. you know, pull forward and pull that number down. I mean, we just kind of see it staying where it is. Now, we could be completely wrong because no one knows the answer to this question, so I don't think it's morbid, but I would just summarize by saying we're seeing what we think are COVID-related deaths, and there's no way to know how long that's going to continue to occur.
spk05: You operate in some, you know, you call traditional markets, basically rural, social, southeast or south Texas, where I would think that they've seen a lot of substance issues even before the pandemic. Are you able to track kind of on a regional basis what you're tracking versus national or state averages, or is that even a relevant question?
spk08: Yeah, that's not something that we track. I will say that the – Drug-related deaths are definitely starting to come onto our radar, but that's not a percentage that you're going to see that would probably move the needle. We don't own enough of the market. But you're starting to see that, and you're starting to hear anecdotal stories of that. And some of the – I don't think it has anything to do with Texas. It could be as much as anywhere in the U.S., But, you know, you read the newspapers just like I do. There's a lot of fentanyl that's coming over the southern border, and that's not going to help us at all. So we're starting to see anecdotal evidence of that in some of our markets, no doubt. But it's not something we track, and God forbid it becomes something that's that big of a deal. But, no, I don't think that will move the needle for us.
spk05: Thanks, Brad, and I didn't mean to mess with Texas. I'll turn it over.
spk08: Did you get that subtleness there? You know, I'm proud to be Canadian, but I'm still a born and raised Texan, so be careful there. Noted.
spk01: Your next question for today is coming from Zachary Evershed. Please announce your affiliation, then pose your question.
spk00: National Bank Financial. Morning, everyone. Congrats on the quarter. Thanks, Zach. Good morning. Are there any markets you're seeing performing much better or much worse than you anticipated?
spk08: No, I would, you know, knock on wood, I would say this is the most in-line quarter with what we expected to see going into it since I've been the CEO, but I've started out in the CEO role at the When I say it's normal or normalized, we saw exactly what we expected to see and what is meeting our internal projections that we discussed at the board level at the end of last year. I think our markets are performing as they should be. We haven't had a bad quarter yet, Zach, where I get on the phone and tell you guys it's the funeral industry and we don't look at it quarter to quarter. You have to look at it over a year. But as far as this particular quarter is concerned, I haven't seen any market perform better or worse than another one.
spk00: Gotcha. And the new digital marketing push, do you consider that more of a defensive maneuver to protect market share, or do you expect it to translate to new wins with a good ROI?
spk08: I'd say it's more the latter, and let me tell you why. So we've got a very strong internal IT team. I mean, our chief technical officer has worked with this executive team for a couple decades, and we pulled him over for a reason. He's really good at what he does, and he brought his people with him. So we've got a strong team. We've really had them focusing on facts and other things that are necessary. I mentioned the security and things like that. Rather than internally build information, more into that IT infrastructure, we found a good business partner that's a full suite digital marketing agency inside of the death care profession, and we like them. And we just made the decision that it would be less expensive and more effective just to use their expertise. So it's not a defensive measure. We're just improving on the business while our folks continue on getting facts out the door. And if you were sitting in my chair, you'd have made the same decisions.
spk00: Great color, thanks. Then one last one. What's the latest on labor availability and wage pressure?
spk08: So both of those, I know this is contrary to what you're probably hearing and reading, but both of those are beginning to relax for us everywhere except for where the corporate offices are. So I think our folks at the field location and business location level are doing a very good job with both of those issues. I think we're starting to see even more candidates come across in what's normally a very competitive funeral director world. I mean, we're sitting in Houston with the majority of our corporate employees are right in the middle of oil and gas land. And so with a price of oil at $120 a barrel, we have a lot of people wanting our accountants and HR people and IT people. And most of them are going to stay here, but we're going to lose some. So we see some pressure there when people are making ridiculous offers. But most folks know that that's short-term, and they've got a family here. So I would say less pressure than we've seen in the past. And I know that's not what you're probably hearing at other companies, but that's what we're seeing on the ground. And if it changes next quarter and you ask me, I'll change the answer. But right now I'm feeling pretty good about it.
spk04: Thank you very much. I'll turn it over.
spk01: Your next question for today is coming from Daryl Young. Please announce your affiliation, then pose your question.
spk09: TD Securities. Hey, good morning, guys. Morning, Daryl. Just two quick ones for me. An apology if I missed it at the opening, but on the 7% average revenue per call growth, could you maybe just highlight how much in there is expanded service offering, or is it effectively entirely priced?
spk08: No, it is definitely not entirely price. That would be a significant price increase. You know, it's interesting. Jay and I were debating that yesterday afternoon and again this morning because, you know, that's kind of a soft-touching answer. And what we basically, I think, come to is people were told they couldn't do something or they couldn't actually memorialize their loved ones the way they wanted to during COVID and they couldn't, you know, necessarily get together as groups as they have in the past. That's part of it. The other part of it is, you know, death and dying has become forefront of people's minds through this pandemic, and it's less of a taboo topic now. And so we're seeing that even in the contracts, our preemie contract averages are even higher than we've seen in the past. So I think it's two things, both of which are being just driven by our consumer. And that is, you know, parts of the country were told they couldn't do something and they don't like that. And then Parts of our countries, they put a different value on it now and value on life. And that's where we come out on that. Other people may have a different opinion. They'd be wrong. We're right. So that's where I would end that answer.
spk09: Okay, terrific. And then when we think about the acquisitions you're doing and the portfolio you're amassing, Is there a significant opportunity to, I'll call it upsell, the offering those acquired targets are providing or are they relatively full service today?
spk08: You know, we have the ability and so far have been able to improve all of the businesses that have joined Parklawn since we've been here. We already buy good and outstanding businesses, right? So we're really taking a good business and over time taking a little bit of time and tweaking them and making them better. I laughed at John Horan. We were doing a trip the other day, and he was helping me out with an acquisition, and he actually told the acquisition candidate that it frustrated him because he knows he ran one of the best businesses in the country, and he said it frustrated him that we made it a little bit better. And I took that literally as a badge of honor. So we can take these really good businesses and make them a little bit better, but that is directly accretive and drops to the bottom line. So that makes a big difference if we can make them a little bit better. We're really not in the business of buying poorly run businesses and trying to turn them around. It takes too long, and there are plenty of other companies that bluntly that's what they like to swim around in, and we just don't have to. So, yes, we think we can increase even the good businesses a little bit, but if they're already good – It just helps. It's immediately creative. And the two acquisitions we did this quarter so far, or this year so far, those are perfect examples of that.
spk09: Got it. And then one last one, just around the cemetery sales. Did you disclose what the sales would be year over year, excluding the monument and supply chain issues?
spk07: Hey, Gerald. It's Dan. You know, as we kind of referenced, you know, the merchandise and service income was down about 13%, which, you know, translates to about $2 million year over year. I think that answers your question.
spk04: Got it. Okay. Thanks, guys. I'll turn it over.
spk01: Once again, if there are any questions or comments, please press star 1 on your phone at this time. There are no further questions in queue. I would like to turn the floor over to the management team for any closing remarks.
spk08: I really appreciate everyone for joining us today. I hope you have a great weekend. I'm going to have a better one because I'm about to get on a plane and go see my daughter graduate with her MBA, which is my first kiddo to graduate college. So while you cannot have as good of a weekend as I'm going to, I hope you have an awesome one. Thank you very much.
spk01: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This does conclude today's conference call. You may disconnect your phone lines at this time and have a wonderful day. Thank you for your participation.
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