Operator
Operator
Welcome to the third quarter 2008 Universal Forest Products Incorporated earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to turn the call over to your host for today's call, Lynn Afendoulis.
UFP Industries, Inc. (UFPI)
Q3 2008 Earnings Call· Thu, Oct 16, 2008
$93.35
-2.51%
Same-Day
+3.04%
1 Week
-2.90%
1 Month
-12.03%
vs S&P
-3.18%
Operator
Operator
Welcome to the third quarter 2008 Universal Forest Products Incorporated earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to turn the call over to your host for today's call, Lynn Afendoulis.
Lynn Afendoulis
Management
Welcome to Universal Forest Products third quarter 2008 conference call. On the call today are Executive Chairman William C. Currie, CEO and President, Michael B. Glenn and CFO Michael Cole. Please be aware that statements included in this call that are not historical are forward looking statements within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of the 1934, as amended. Such forward looking statements are based on the belief of the company's management as well as on assumptions made by and information currently available to the company at the time such statements were made. The company does not undertake to update forward looking statements to reflect circumstances, assumptions or events that occur after the date the forward looking statements are made. Actual results could differ materially from those included in such forward looking statements. Investors are cautioned that all forward looking statements involve risk and uncertainty. Among the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially are the following: [Inaudible] lumber markets, competitive activity, negative economic trends, Government regulations and weather. These risk factors and additional information are included in the company’s reports on Forms 10-K and 10-Q on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. This file is the property of Universal Forest Products any redistribution retransmission rebroadcast of this file in any form without the expressed written consent of Universal is strictly prohibited. At this point I would like to turn the call over to Bill Currie.
William Currie
Management
Thanks for joining us on this exciting conference call. This is not the kind of quarter that we like, or that we’re proud of, or that we’re used to. But if you take a look at our performance against the competitive landscape, Universal has outperformed its peers in spades. We’ve got a very solid balance sheet; we’re continuing to generate good positive cash flow. We’re growing our market share; we’re taking care of our key people and our customers. And we’re focused on all the right things that will get us through these turbulent times and will get us to new prosperity when the markets and economy start to heal. We missed our targets. The targets are no longer reliable when everything is crashing around you. There’s no way to provide accurate forecasts. We can only keep our nose to the grindstone and focus on the things that count. On our inventory, our receivables, our operating costs, our selling prices and other things that we can control, manage and impact. And that’s what Mike Glenn and his team have been doing. They’re doing all the right things to bring us through these tough times and to get us the strong operating profits and growth again in the future. Mike Glenn will run us through the business, but first I’ll ask Mike Cole to take us through the numbers, Mike.
Michael Cole
CFO
I’ll get things started by reviewing our income statement for the quarter. As you noticed in the press release our total net sales for the quarter decreased by 10%. We estimate this was comprised of an 8% decrease in unit sales and a 2% decline in overall selling prices. Reviewing by market, our sales to DIY market decreased 6% compared to last year. Due to a 4% decline in unit sales as a result of the effect of the housing market on our customers whose business is closely correlated with single family starts, and a decline in consumer spending impacting our big box customers. Our sales to the manufactured housing market decreased 23% for the quarter, primarily due to a decrease in unit sales. HUD-code shipments were off 17% in July and August and Modular production was off 34%. Our sales to the site-built construction market decreased 24% this quarter due to an estimated 18% decrease in unit sales and a 6% decrease in average selling prices due to continued pricing pressure. By comparison single family housing starts were up approximately 39% for the period versus last year. In previous quarters we’ve been able to mitigate some of the challenges of the single family market on our volume by pursuing multi-family and light commercial business. Finally our sales to the industrial market increased by 5% for the quarter, primarily due to a 3% increase in unit sales and a 2% increase in average selling prices. Unit sales growth this quarter was a result of acquisitions and continuing to gain market share and add new customers including concrete forming. These increases are presently offset by unit sales decreases to existing customers due to weak economic conditions. Moving down the income statement our third quarter gross margin decreased to 10.7% from 12.1%…
William Currie
Management
I’ll turn it over to Mike Glenn for a business review and an outlook, Mikey.
Mike Glenn
Management
Before I talk about the quarter, I want to say how excited I am about the announcement we made this morning. Since becoming CEO I have been weighing our opportunities for president of the company and Pat Webster has been the clear choice. Pat has been with Universal for 24 years. He’s done it all here and he’s done it well. From sales to purchasing to operations he’s had a great career of success. He’s a strong leader, and a consensus builder. A good communicator and is and he has the respect everyone in the industry and the company. And I’m pleased that he will be our new Chief Operating Officer. And when I called Dick Frazier the best lumberman in the company, I’m not saying what I believe I’m saying what everyone thinks. There is no one who commands more respect than Dick. Dick is one of the most successful leaders in our company’s history. And he knows how to make money and he does it wherever he goes. So I’m excited, both of these guys will be taking reporting new positions at Universal and be critical players for our future. Our business isn’t quite as exciting. Call it what you want the devastating global economy the financial market in ruins, a credit mess. I wasn’t even alive in 1928 but I can imagine what it was like. And these are unprecedented times and they are creating unprecedented challenges for American business including us at Universal. You saw our numbers, they’re nothing to be happy about and they’re nothing like the numbers we're used to. They don't get our people the bonuses they worked so hard for and they don’t move the needle on the growth monitor. But they do give us reasons to be proud of what we’ve…
William Currie
Management
Mike and his team are doing a very good job leading and managing this company through the toughest times imaginable. They’re making the tough decisions that are critical in the current climate and for the future of Universal and we’re very proud, even the meager results we have we’re very proud of them considering where everybody else is in this business. So now I’ll open up the conference call for questions.
Operator
Operator
Your first question comes from Steve Chercover – D. A. Davidson & Co. Steve Chercover – D. A. Davidson & Co.: My first question did the impairments that you took in the quarter include much in the way of severance and if so how much will you save on the run rate going forward?
William Currie
Management
Of the $6.2 million charge $5.6 million was asset impairment $600,000 was severance. In terms of savings going forward I’d say about $1 million to $1.5 million a month. Steve Chercover – D. A. Davidson & Co.: $1 million to $1.5 million per month?
William Currie
Management
Correct. Steve Chercover – D. A. Davidson & Co.: And can you discuss trends in October as compared to September or third quarter?
William Currie
Management
It’s pretty early to say, Steve, just too soon to -- Steve, I think it’s the one thing we can tell you is that we are holding from a sales standpoint but the encouraging thing is that about six weeks ago, we really, really put a push on margins. And we are seeing in the last three weeks that our margins have moved up to a level that is starting to become acceptable. Steve Chercover – D. A. Davidson & Co.: And you said you’re establishing your first ever facility in Seattle did I understand that correctly?
William G. Currie
Analyst
Well what we said was there are some markets where we know we need to go, one we believe is Seattle and another one is in the Plain States. We haven’t broke ground we’re starting to do some research. Steve Chercover – D.A. Davidson & Co.: And final question, you indicated that you had the balance sheet, and we always know that you have the desire to grow. Is it best at this stage to go green field or, I mean, certainly I can’t imagine being aggressively picking off competitors, but maybe just having the presence there and picking at the carcasses or, you know, having customers come to you when their pre-existing suppliers go away. How do you think of it?
William Currie
Management
Steve, there will be a time to do exactly what you said, to pick at the carcasses, but we’re not there yet. This is, there’s going to be some opportunities over the, you know, over the next year or two, to make substantial moves with people that are in serious financial trouble. We’ve seen, well you’ve seen some of the big ones too, you follow them all. I mean they’re a mess and they haven’t watched their balance sheets and they’re not operating with positive cash flow. And they’re going to be very easy to acquire but the time isn’t right now, it’s too uncertain.
Operator
Operator
Your next question comes from Jay McCanless – FTN Midwest Securities Corp Jay McCanless – FTN Midwest Securities Corp.: I want to talk a little bit more about the balance sheet specifically on the credit facility. I wanted to make sure the covenants we still need to watch for are 60% leverage, 2.5 times interest coverage. And also just wanted to find out on the net worth test I believe it’s $265 million and is that a tangible net worth test?
William Currie
Management
It’s a GAAP net worth test. Jay McCanless – FTN Midwest Securities Corp.: Okay but the other covenant?
Michael Cole
CFO
That is correct you have all those figures correct. The third covenant though is the, those are all the bank covenants, the note holders have an additional covenant which is a fixed charge coverage which is EBIT R the R is rent divided by interest and rent and that is set at 1.75 comps. Jay McCanless – FTN Midwest Securities Corp.: And as —
Michael Cole
CFO
Now one thing I think I should probably add to that is trying to, it would be difficult for you to calculate that from the consolidated financial statements, because some of our subsidiaries who I will refer to as unrestricted subsidiaries under the documents. And are excluded from those calculations. So some of the unrestricted subsidiaries are lost subsidiaries and won’t be in the, aren’t in the covenant calculation. Jay McCanless – FTN Midwest Securities Corp.: Okay at the third quarter how did you stand relative to these covenants?
Michael Cole
CFO
We are in compliance with all of our covenants. Jay McCanless – FTN Midwest Securities Corp.: The next question I have is on the goodwill, I believe the goodwill balance is somewhere around $150 million, do you expect further asset impairments going forward, how much of that balance do you believe you might have to write down?
Michael Cole
CFO
We haven’t impaired any goodwill or, to date. The impairments we’ve taken have generally been on real estate and mostly actually equipment for, Site-build equipment that we provide for our facilities. We will be evaluating our, we haven’t had a triggering event to require an analysis of goodwill yet. So we will go through our fourth quarter detailed calculation and future cash flow analysis and we’ll do announcements at that time and see how that shapes out in the fourth quarter. Jay McCanless – FTN Securities Corp.: And then my last question.
Michael Cole
CFO
As a reminder though, Jay, is that a future cash flow analysis too. So, you know, you’re going through, you know, a period of earnings, you know, when you do that calculation you’re looking at into the future.
Jay McCanless - FTN Securities Corp.
Analyst
My last question with the, I don’t know if you can call it price war but with Depot and Lowe's both lowering prices on certain starter items which I think overlap very well with what Universal Forest Product sells them. What has been the status of price negotiations with them lately are they pushing harder for lower prices, can you just give a sense of how things are going in DIY?
William Currie
Management
Jay, most of our pricing that we do, that we do with those companies is a fixed pricing based on the market. So they may drop their prices on a retail level but our prices to them have been set for a period of time. They have not come back to us and asked us to drop our prices. Jay McCanless – FTN Securities Corp.: And when do those negotiations restart I’m assuming it’s an annual or six months?
William Currie
Management
Yes there are different times for each different category we’re in but we are just starting the negotiations on our pressure treated and fencing and probably half our business we’re starting negotiations right now. In fact after this call I’m leaving for Atlanta. Jay McCanless – FTN Securities Corp.: And I did have one other I wanted to ask. The notes that are due in December I believe you said you’re going to pay those with a combination of cash flow on hand and then also the revolver. Can you state again how much is left on the revolver or how much is open on the revolver right now?
Mike Cole
Analyst
The revolver currently has a balance of about $6 million and we have about $30 I think in amounts reserved for letters to credit and it’s a $300 million revolver. Jay McCanless – FTN Securities Corp.: So about $250.
Mike Cole
Analyst
$250, $260 million.
Operator
Operator
Your next question comes from Keith Johnson – Morgan Keegan Keith Johnson – Morgan Keegan: Just a couple of questions I guess kind of starting off with just trends in the quarter. As you kind of came through the third quarter did they get markedly more difficult or were they fairly stable or what did you guys see?
Mike Glenn
Management
I think the biggest thing we face in the quarter was margin erosion and a decline in sales. The one thing that was really disappointing was the Site-build continued to drop, even at a rate faster than we anticipated and a market that we thought couldn’t go any further which was manufactured housing, had double digit decreases again. And those were the ones that really were impactful in the market. Keith Johnson – Morgan Keegan: On the Site-build side was that more the single family erosion there or was it multi family, light commercial beginning to slow?
Mike Glenn
Management
Yes most of it was single family, we had some multi-family that projects were committed that they ran into you know what, they had a problem getting financing. Keith Johnson – Morgan Keegan: How about on the light commercial side in that channel?
Mike Glenn
Management
We didn’t have a major problem in the quarter with light commercial. Keith Johnson – Morgan Keegan: When you made the comment a little bit earlier that you’re beginning to see improvement over the last several weeks in your margins, with the, I guess the increased focus there. All we can see of course is the average margin, I guess gross margin for the quarter which is around 10.7%. So I was just trying to gauge, kind of, how much of a margin improvement, are we seeing numbers back above that 10.7% or did it get a lot worse than that and now it’s starting to get back up?
Mike Glenn
Management
We’re seeing the margins north of 10.7%. Keith Johnson – Morgan Keegan: I understand there’s a lot of uncertainty, particularly with the financial situations etcetera in the market, but, you know, last year in the fourth quarter it was very challenging market conditions. If you were to look at this year’s fourth quarter, how would you, kind of, characterize the change in market conditions year over year?
Mike Glenn
Management
Well ,we made some major moves last quarter and we feel that this fourth quarter that we’re going to we think we’ll beat last year’s fourth quarter. Keith Johnson – Morgan Keegan: And I understand there’s a lot of uncertainty around that. And I guess this one quick final question. You did make a comment about how much of an impact the closed business is, I guess have had, you know, on the bottom line, is there a way, I mean, could you give me an idea of where those business were and maybe the high point and how well they were performing versus where they are now? I have it in my notes.
Michael Glenn
Analyst
You talking about the operations before close this year, the incremental operating loss is about $6 million. Where were they at their peak? Keith Johnson – Morgan Keegan: Yes where, how much of an impact have you had, you know, just kind of, from where those businesses would have been operating to where they are today?
Michael Glenn
Analyst
That’s a tough one to answer.
Michael Cole
CFO
I don’t have that in front of me, Keith, sorry.
Operator
Operator
At this time there are no further questions in the queue. I would now like to turn the call back over to Mr. Bill Currie for closing remarks.
William Currie
Management
Well thank you all once again for taking time to listen to our story in these very uncertain times. You know we’re, you know we’re on it. And every single important key indicator in our business is being analyzed daily by our management team. And we promise you that we’ll inform our peers and we will end up being as we always have been a good solid investment for you. So thank you for your time and we got to get back to work.