Astronics Corporation (NASDAQ:ATRO) Q3 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Operator: Our next question comes from the line again from Jonathan Tanwanteng with CJS Securities. Please proceed with your question.

Jonathan Tanwanteng: Hi, Pete. Thanks for taking my follow-up. Just wondering within the guidance that you have laid out for next year over those brackets, how much on FLRAA and Army radio business have you included in there? And if you haven’t, how quickly could those start becoming a tailwind for you, assuming that you win FLRAA, of course?

Peter Gundermann: There — Jon, I couldn’t hear your question specifically. Was it how much FLRAA is in there for next year or FLRAA and 4549, is that what you’re asking?

Jonathan Tanwanteng: Yeah. I assume that you have some 45 — I’m sorry, the Army radio, I don’t remember the number, but — if it’s not yet?

Peter Gundermann: Yeah. We have — it’s a risk reduced number. I would say between the two of them, it’s somewhere in the $20 million, $25 million range for next year.

Jonathan Tanwanteng: Okay. Got it. And then

Peter Gundermann: So, we think there’s pretty significant upside potential there, especially on the 4549/T, depending on how the Army chooses to execute the program.

Jonathan Tanwanteng: Okay. Understood. And just a question on pricing. You said — you mentioned that there are some of these programs out there that are one to two years away from having your contracts reset. Is there no chance of going back to your customers and repricing of those just based on the level of inflation that you’ve been seeing. I have to assume that you’re basically taking a negative margin on these projects at this point, which doesn’t sound very sustainable?

Peter Gundermann: Well, no, I wouldn’t say that that’s a — the long-term contract nature of our business in general isn’t that big a concern with repricing. There obviously are some products that are better priced than others, and we are working to address that. But a fair amount of our product portfolio is turns relatively quickly. So, like one year, a year and a half, something like that. And those — in some cases, we’re being quite successful repricing them. And we have a situation where we can make a delivery. But in order to do so, we got to pay a big premium for a certain component. We, in many cases, are going out to customers and asking them to cover that and they’re doing so. And in other cases, we’re choosing to bite the bullet and do it ourselves or in the interest of keeping customer relationships cordial.

But it’s going to take time for all of that to work itself out and we’re definitely not ahead of the cost increases. We’re responding to them like most companies. So, it’s downward pressure, but we are doing what we can, where we think we can to kind of get out in front of it and respond to it.

Jonathan Tanwanteng: Got it. Thank you.

Operator: And our next question comes from the line of Michael Ciarmoli with Truist. Please proceed with your question.

Michael Ciarmoli: Hey, thanks Pete. Just to stay on the pricing, what are you seeing with the current bookings on the aftermarket side of the business? I mean, do you have picked an airline customer, do you have some flexibility to increase the price on whether it’s break-fix type work or if they are doing some retrofits. I mean, are you getting some reasonable pricing there?