Timothy J. FitzGerald
Analyst · Roth Capital Partners
Okay. Thank you, and good morning, everybody. I have some initial comments about the quarter and then I'll open up the call for questions for Selim and myself. Net sales in 2013 first quarter of $327.5 million increased 43.1% from $228.8 million in the first quarter of 2012. The first quarter sales reflect the impact of the acquisitions completed in the past 12 months, including Viking, Nieco, Stewart Systems and Baker Thermal Solutions. These acquisitions are not fully reflected in the prior-year comparative results and accounted for $74 million in sales or 32.3% of sales growth in the quarter. Excluding the impact of these acquisitions, sales increased 10.8% over the prior-year quarter. This increase reflects organic sales increase of 8.6% in sales at our Commercial Foodservice Group, and an 18.4% increase in sales at our Food Processing Group. At the Commercial Foodservice Group, we continue to realize growth driven by increased sales to restaurant chains looking to upgrade equipment and adopt new technologies to improve efficiency of store operations. Sales in emerging markets also remain strong, with growth in excess of 20% in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. Sales in Europe continued to decline due to challenging market conditions. However, the rate of decline lessened from prior quarters, as sales in this region were down approximately 5%, which adversely impacted the Commercial Foodservice growth rate by approximately 1% in the quarter. Sales at the Food Processing Group continue to realize double-digit growth, both domestically and internationally, reflecting demand by Food Processing customers looking to modernize existing production operations and new customers developing operations in international markets. While we anticipate continued strength in sales at this segment, we anticipate growth rates, which were particularly strong in the second half of the year, will moderate as in the second half of 2013. Sales at Viking amounted to $58.7 million during the first quarter and reflected general improvement in industry conditions. We anticipate that sales in the second and third quarters will be impacted by integration initiatives, including the disposition of non-core revenue streams, the discontinuance of low volume and low margin SKUs as we simplify the business operations and temporary disruption in distribution channels as we restructure and improve efficiencies in our sales and distribution processes. This will result in lower second quarter sales that we estimate will be closer to $50 million in the upcoming quarter, with the second half of the year reflecting the initial benefits of the ongoing sales and product initiatives. Gross profit for the quarter increased to $121.3 million from $87.5 million in the prior year, and the gross margin rate was 37% as compared to 38.2% in the prior-year quarter. The gross margin rate reflects the impact of the recently -- the recent Viking acquisition, which carried a 28.5% gross margin in the quarter, adversely impacting the overall gross margin rate by 1.9%. The lower margin of this business will continue to dilute the overall gross margins for the balance of the year by 1% to 2%. However, we anticipate the Viking gross margin will improve in the second half, reflecting the benefit of purchasing savings, SKU simplification actions, gains in production efficiencies and other ongoing initiatives benefiting the gross margin rate. Selling and distribution expenses during the quarter increased $11 million to $36.2 million. Selling expenses in the quarter included approximately $12.1 million of additional expense from acquisitions not included in the prior-year results. Excluding the incremental expense from acquisitions, selling costs were slightly less than the prior year due to lower costs associated with the timing of various trade shows and marketing programs. General and administrative expenses increased by $17.3 million to $42.9 million. G&A expenses for the quarter included $5.6 million of additional intangible amortization related to Viking and other recent acquisitions. Other ongoing operating expense increases related to Viking and other recent acquisitions, which added to G&A expenses during the quarter, amounting to $4.2 million. Additionally, in the quarter, G&A expenses included $6.8 million of nonrecurring expenses associated with the integration initiatives of Viking. These costs are largely comprised of severance costs, non-core asset disposition and facility closure costs and other related reorganization cost. We anticipate there may be additional expense to occur in the second quarter as we complete our integration activities related to Viking. The tax provision in the first quarter amounted to $12.6 million at a 32.8% effective rate, as compared to the prior year provision of $11.2 million at a 33.7% effective rate. The first quarter provision reflects a favorable benefit of increased income in lower tax rate state in foreign jurisdictions, as well as increased benefit related to certain U.S. tax credits and incentives. We anticipate that the effective rate will be somewhat higher for the balance of the year, with an effective rate closer to 35%. Cash flows for operating activities amounted to $13.5 million in the quarter as compared to $10.8 million in the prior-year quarter. Noncash expenses added back in calculating operating cash flows amounted to $17 million in the quarter, including $9.8 million of intangible amortization, $4.2 million of depreciation and $3 million of noncash stock-based compensation. During the quarter, the company utilized $377.8 million to fund the acquisition of Viking and other acquisition-related activities and made capital investments of $3.9 million related to production equipment and facility enhancements. Total debt at the end of the quarter amounted to $638.4 million, as compared to $260.1 million at the end of the prior quarter, reflecting an increase to fund the Viking acquisition. The majority of the company's borrowings are under its 5-year $1 billion credit facility, which was established in August of 2012, and borrowings under this facility are assessed at interest rate at LIBOR plus the margin of 1.75%. As it relates to the Viking acquisition, we are very pleased with the progress we made during the first quarter to reduce product and operating costs, enhance focus on product quality and customer service and realize synergistic opportunities with our Commercial Foodservice business. The Viking acquisition, including the first quarter nonrecurring charges, diluted earnings by approximately $0.30 per share, and we anticipate will continue to dilute earnings in the second quarter. However, we continue to expect this acquisition will be accretive to earnings in the second half, as we realize the benefit of profitability improvements. We anticipate that the EBITDA margins, which were approximately 12% in the first quarter will improve throughout the year, with a slight improvement in the second quarter and reaching 15% or better in the second half of the year. And we remain confident in our initially stated expectation that we will achieve EBITDA margins in excess of 20% for this business and are targeting to reach this run rate in 2014, ahead of our initially stated 3-year expectation. So that's all for our prepared commentary. So if the call could be opened for questions now, that would be great.