Alpha Teknova, Inc. (NASDAQ:TKNO) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Matt Larew of William Blair. Your line is open, Matt.

Matt Larew: Could you give us a sense for maybe what you would be seeing for Lab Essentials growth excluding the customer shifting? And then with that outlook, are there any sort of first half or second half dynamics? You referenced sort of conservative customers is that embedded in your outlook because it seems to be a bit lighter than both, obviously, historicals, but even what others in the space have characterized.

Matt Lowell: And you’re referring specifically to the Lab Essentials piece, Matt?

Matt Larew: That’s right, Matt. Yes.

Matt Lowell: Yes. Good. Yes. Thanks for the question. Yes, this — I think with respect to what the growth rate would look like for the Lab Essentials without that customer, we’re not giving exact numbers related to that specific customer, obviously. But I think you would see a more normalized growth rate in the Lab Essentials with that. Of course, I would just say, in general, in 2023, we are having some more tough comparisons compared to 2022 given the level of activity that we saw in particular in the first half of the year. So I think on a kind of adjusted basis for that difficult comp, the Lab Essentials would look fairly in line with historical norms on that basis.

Stephen Gunstream: And just to add a little color here, Matt. Many of those customers, they migrate from catalog to custom clinical. And so some of those custom lumpiness is in that historical number.

Matt Larew: Okay. And then just thinking about you referenced the OpEx, obviously, I mean, flat year-over-year. On the gross margin side, I think sort of competing factors given increased weighting towards clinical solutions, which should help. But obviously, you’re now moving capacity and volume into the new facility that you brought online. So fourth quarter, I think was like we would have thought it would be. So can you just maybe give us some sense for how you expect gross margin to evolve throughout the year?

Matt Lowell: Yes, sure. I’ll be happy to take that one. For sure, as you mentioned, Matt, gross margin is going to be significantly impacted by the result of opening the new facility now. As a reminder, we spent close to $40 million on that facility over the last two years, and we are starting to roll those costs out through depreciation into the P&L. Some of those costs started in the fourth quarter of last year. Others will be coming on during the course of this year. So based on that fact and the updated outlook that we’re providing here today for 2023 revenue, I would say — I would expect our gross margins to be in the low 30s for the year, in that kind of range. And as you might expect, seeing improvement in the second half of the year versus the first half of the year and particularly as the revenue picture improves in the second part of the year.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Jacob Johnson of Stephens. Your question please, Jacob.

Hannah Hefley: This is Hannah on for Jacob. Could you just talk about how you’ll balance taking costs out of the business and with continuing to invest in growth in the business?

Stephen Gunstream: Yes, sure, Hannah. Obviously, as we look at this, we managed our costs to make sure that we have our path that we need forward to drive the growth long term. And so everything here is a balance. And so what we’ve done is we’ve reduced our costs to make sure that we manage our capital, but at the same time, we’re not sacrificing any of the long-term growth aspects. And you can see through what we did in 2022 and what our strategy is for 2023 to scale the business, we’re not cutting back in those areas to make sure we put ourselves in a position for high growth going forward.