Earnings Labs

Unifi, Inc. (UFI)

Q1 2015 Earnings Call· Thu, Oct 23, 2014

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Unifi First Quarter Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session, and instructions will follow at that time. (Operator instructions) As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to James Otterberg. Sir, you may begin.

James Otterberg

Management

Thank you, operator, and good morning everyone. Joining me for the call today is Bill Jasper, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Roger Berrier, our President and Chief Operating Officer. During this call, we will be referencing a webcast presentation that can be found at unifi.com. The presentation can be accessed by clicking the first quarter conference call link found on our homepage. Before we begin, I need to first advise you that certain statements included on today’s call will be forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws. Management cautions that these statements are based on current expectations, estimates and/or projections about the markets in which the company operates. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve certain risks that are difficult to predict. Actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed, forecasted or implied by these statements. I direct you to the disclosures filed with the SEC in our Form 10-Qs and Form 10-Ks regarding various factors that may impact these results. Also please be advised that certain non-GAAP financial measures, such as adjusted EBITDA, will be discussed on this call and a non-GAAP reconciliation can be found in the schedule to the webcast presentation. Before we get to the financial details for the quarter, I’d like to turn the call over to Roger, who will provide you with an overview of the company’s markets, raw material trends and other business updates.

Roger Berrier

President

Thanks, James and good morning, everyone. I’ll start this morning with a few brief comments regarding our outlook for our key retail market segments. Earlier this month the National Retail Federation said that it expect sales in November and December to increase 4.1% which is a full percentage point ahead of last year’s again and above the ten year average annual increase of 2.9%. This is very encouraging sign for the brands and retailers that we work with and should help maintain momentum for Unifi as we progress through our fiscal year. We also expect to see incremental growth on the CAFTA region as retailers and brands maintain regional sourcing as part of their overall sourcing plan. Apparel production continues to grow in the NAFTA and CAFTA regions and the share of apparel production for these regions as a percentage of U.S. retail has stabilized at approximately 18%. In addition to these positive indicators we have also completed during the quarter an updated long-term yarn supply agreement with Hanes brands which will be in effect through June 30, 2018. The automotive segment will continue to present opportunities for the company, particularly as we make in-roads with our pre-recycle yarn which is being used for seeding fabrics. Low interest rates moderating fuel prices and new fuel efficient models are helping to increase U.S. auto sales which are on a 16.4 million unit base compared to 15.6 million last year. We are pleased with the year-over-year improvement on our net sales revenue which is attributable to improve volume in the company’s Nylon and International segments combined with mix enrichment related improvements in our domestic polyester segment. Prices for polyester raw materials increased by 4.4% in the September 2014 quarter compared to the June 2014 quarter. However prices for polyester raw materials are…

James Otterberg

Management

Thank you, Roger. I will begin the review of our preliminary financial results for the September quarter on page 3 of the presentation, with net sales and gross profit highlights by segment. Net sales increased $5.5 million or 3.3% to $174 million for the September 2014 quarter compared to net sales of $169 million for the prior year quarter. The year-over-year improvement in net sales is attributable to improved volume in the company’s nylon and international segments along with mix enrichment improvements in the company’s polyester segment. Consolidated sales volumes is essentially unchanged from the prior year quarter as volume increases in our nylon and the international segments were offset by a decline in the polyester segment. The 4.2% decline in sales volume for our polyester segment was primarily due to lower chip sales and the lower average tenure. International segment sales volume is 4.7% higher than the prior year quarter due to higher volumes in China as a result of improved market conditions in several sales programs beginning to start up more volumes in Brazil remained relatively flat. Increases in pricing in the polyester and nylon segments are attributable to PVA and mix enrichment efforts while the change in pricing for the international segment versus the prior year quarter reflects the difficult market conditions in Brazil. When reviewing our current quarter gross profit results against the year ago quarter, the company is reporting higher consolidated gross profits as well as higher gross profits for each of our three reportable segments. For Q1 of this fiscal year, gross profit improved to $20.9 million and 12.0% of net sales. Turning to slide number four. I will now review our income statement highlights for the first quarter. For the three months ended September 28, 2014, the company is reporting preliminary pretax income…

William Jasper

Management

Thanks James. Good morning everyone. I’d like to begin by saying that I am pleased with the start of our 2015 fiscal year especially as it relates to our sale volume. The 174 million in net sales was our highest first quarter revenues since September 2010 quarter. We are particularly encouraged by the year over year increase in sales volumes in China and Brazil which reflects the positive effects of our mix enrichment strategy and the pickup of some programs that have been in development for quite some time especially in China. Although local conditions in Brazil and China remain challenging we are confident that we will see continued success with our differentiated products and that sales and profitability will continue to improve in these markets. Our apparel production continues to grow in the NAFTA CAFTA region and increases in US retail spending as well as reissuing of synthetic apparel programs are fueling increases in a consumption [synthetic] within the CAFTA region. Our sales volume in unit convergent margin improvement in Central America in a September 2014 quarter compared to a year ago quarter and our plans to increase our texturing capacity in Yadkinville, Madison and El Salvador will help us meet the growing supply needs and better service the needs of our customers sourcing from the region. In terms of trade legislation and progress on the trends specific partnership remains stalled primarily due to issues with Japan that are focused on agriculture and autos while there have been constructive working levels discussions recently between the US and Japan, both sides have been unable to make further progress on key outstanding issues. The National Council of Textile Organizations and Association representing the entire spectrum of the technical – textile sector has been engaged with both Congress and the USTR to…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. (Operator Instructions). And the first question is from Chris McGinnis of Sidoti & Company. Your line is open. Chris McGinnis – Sidoti & Company: Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions.

William Jasper

Management

Good morning Chris. Chris McGinnis – Sidoti & Company: Just on the size of the CapEx do you mind walking through some of the maybe just the which initiatives and maybe how much they are or what are the bigger initiatives in the price points around that just a little more detail on that if you don’t mind.

William Jasper

Management

Chris just to give you a rough breakdown. First of all about 10 of the 50 is going to be regular maintenance and that’s really a little more than we have spent or we have spent in the past because we delayed some maintenance programs but I would say 10 to 12 of that would be for just maintaining our equipment keeping and good running order. I think in addition to that roughly 10 to 15 of it will be repreve recycle center related and whether that be further expansion into recycle center at least laying the ground work for that or backward integration into bottle washing should we chose to do that. And really the rest are going to be primarily PBA related programs like flexibility and spinning adding to our air jet texturing in our texturing facility other projects to provide additional capacity or flexibility to grow our PBA products and then of course we’ve got the solar farm and in the warehousing Roger mentioned which make up the rasp but again we have several programs that are in the pipeline right now, we are vetting them well and it would be probably wouldn’t want to go into more detail on that until we have more information but certainly on succeeding calls we will be discussing these projects as we begin to initiate that. Chris McGinnis – Sidoti & Company: Sure. One point on Roger I may have missed it, the repreve you expect in calendar 2015 that the repreve I guess the new capacity you’ll be fully utilized and that’s when the expansion would happen, I was little unclear what Roger said so if you just walk me through that if you don’t mind.

Roger Berrier Jr.

Analyst · Sidoti & Company

Let me sort of go through that again. We talked about as Bill mentioned in the projects that we’re vetting out and for this fiscal year 2015. We just recently expanded other repreve recycling center and we expanded the capacity up to 72 million pounds. We also get the question when do we expect the fully utilized that capacity based on the growth projections that we have. We have enough capacity in the current repreve recycling to carry us through this fiscal year but we do anticipate by the end of next calendar year, so by the end of calendar year 2015 we will have to start expanding that again, so when we look out and we start projecting out a three year forecast for CapEx. We do see more CapEx coming in the following fiscal year around expanding that repreve recycling center. Chris McGinnis – Sidoti & Company: Great. Thank you for that. Appreciate that. The strengthening margin profile in the international, it’s nice to see that comeback. What’s changed if the market remains somewhat difficult, is it, it’s also surprising to see volume growth in there. Can you maybe just walk me through what regions play the best, the most support I thought Brazil was heavily weighted there and it seems that’s still difficult so can you maybe just walk me through the profit profile change and then also the volume pick up in the international market.

William Jasper

Management

Chris again I think as we did mention in China we’ve been working on some programs for quite some time and we spoke on earlier calls that we’ve been a little disappointed and I guess the rate of these programs coming online in China but during the last quarter these programs have finally become reality and we’re starting to see the volume return to China that we have anticipated and we see that trend continuing as these programs do further come online. So as we’ve talked before we’re really encouraged about the future of China and how much contribution China can make to Unifi from a PBA standpoint. When we look at Brazil the volume in Brazil is relatively flat speaking but we’ve really focused in Brazil mix enrichment efforts and we’re starting to see some of these mix enrichment efforts payoff in Brazil. So it’s a combination of those factors that we’re able to report a little improved profitability in our international segment. Chris McGinnis – Sidoti & Company: Great. James this is probably for you but just on the SG&A level was there something special in that and you may have commented but I may have missed it just a big increase in the prior year, just wondering if you could dig into that a little bit.

James Otterberg

Management

It’s primarily three things it’s just timing associated with marketing expenses tied into to the initiatives that Roger outlined. Other timing for professional fees and then as the stock prices has risen over the last 12 months, the charges for non-cash compensation equity awards is higher in the current year than the prior year, so those are the three big items. Chris McGinnis – Sidoti & Company: Great. And just quickly one last question how much is left on the current authorization?

James Otterberg

Management

Approximately $40 million. Chris McGinnis – Sidoti & Company: I’ll jump back in the queue. Thank you guys. William Jasper; Yes Chris.

Operator

Operator

Thank you and the next question is from Eric Pissarro of Regency Group. Your line is open.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · Regency Group. Your line is open

Good morning gentlemen. You mentioned the Parkdale America results we affected significantly by EAP rebate program could you please explain that point for other specifically weather is it timing difference or it’s a permanent impact? James Otterberg. This is James. I’ll answer that one for you. The cash receipts that Parkdale America and other – receive is it happens every day at approximately $0.03 a pound for every pound that’s opened. The income statement and the our share of the earnings that we’ve referenced is impacted by the timing of when the CapEx that is put in place that is a condition to that – agreement so in the prior year period – was had received more cash than the share and equipment they had put in place or capitalize so there was a large catch up or timing event in the prior year period. At current year period is a normal amount and is unimpacted by timing so the prior year comp is unusually high.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst · Regency Group. Your line is open

That’s great. Thank you.

James Otterberg

Management

Welcome.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. (Operator Instructions). We have a follow up question from Chris McGinnis of Sidoti and Company. Your line is open. Chris McGinnis – Sidoti & Company: Thanks. Just to follow up on that. James could you say that the distribution. Can you just walk through what you expect for the distribution this year on a dollar amount? I guess to UFI itself.

James Otterberg

Management

Thanks Chris this is good question. The as we talked about Parkdale is also going through some current capital projects and due to the timing associated with those our expectation is to receive the routine quarterly tax distribution and the amount of the routine in quarterly tax distribution is has historically been about $4 million to $5 million a year with the remainder that we’ve seen been special distributions from excess cash flow. Chris McGinnis – Sidoti & Company: So no special distribution this year you don’t believe that.

James Otterberg

Management

We don’t believe that’s a fact. Chris McGinnis – Sidoti & Company: Alright and your balance sheet still very solid and –.

James Otterberg

Management

Yeah tremendous therefore business is great. Their balance sheet is pristine those theme certainly continue. Chris McGinnis – Sidoti & Company: Great alright. Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. There are no further questions in queue at this time. I’ll turn the call back over for closing remarks.

William Jasper

Management

Okay. This is Bill. Just the few closing remarks, first and foremost I want to tell you just how excited and optimistic we are about our markets and our business right now. I think just as importantly is we’ve got the cash to execute on some growth opportunities and the fact we have these growth opportunities obviously makes us very excited. So we do believe that our results are going to continue to improve. I think on one down I do want to just mention that night before a last Duke Kimbrell who is the Chairman of Parkdale mill is passed away and he was really one of the true giants of the industry and one of the finest men I ever known. He’s going to be missed by me and by the entire industry. All of us at Unifi sent our heartfelt condolences to Andy and Pam and the entire Parkdale family. And with that we’ll sign off. Thanks.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen this concludes today’s conference. You may now disconnect. Good day.