Belden Inc. (NYSE:BDC) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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And I think we’ve been certainly gaining share because of that on the industrial side because we do data orchestration and management. And now I think on the enterprise side, Precision will certainly help us with that. And you’re right. I think when we look at how the broader market is thinking about that, and I know you have maybe companies in your coverage universe that focus on those markets, we feel very positive about that growth momentum.

David Williams: Okay. Fantastic. And then do you anticipate this to be more of a captive solution with internal consumption? Or will it be used to have an opportunity to sell outside those components to maybe your existing customer base?

Ashish Chand: It’s going to be far less captive actually. We, at this point, it’s still going to be more part of a broader product bundle approach, right? But we will build more captive solutions over time. But I think for the foreseeable future, it would be more — it would be less captive. And I think that’s the right approach in this market right now because this is going to be part of a broader solution on the broadband side, where a number of kind of providers come together to serve these MSOs and telcos. So we are happy to be part of that. But yes, especially for data centers and for certain other applications, think about interoperability or resilience, we will certainly start building this into our captive solutions.

David Williams: Fantastic. And just one more, if I may. Can you speak to the magnitude of the destocking that you’re expecting? And maybe any colors around areas that have improved or maybe deteriorated? And apologies if I missed that earlier, I joined a bit late. Thank you.

Jeremy Parks: Yes. David, this is Jeremy. So with respect to the magnitude of the destocking, I think one of the elements that’s made it difficult to quantify as a discrete item is the fact that we are seeing destocking not just at distribution but at end users and OEMs. So it’s the — our distributor’s customers in some respects are taking down inventory, and we don’t have great visibility. I think from our perspective, if you look at the drop-off from first half to second half last year, and then obviously, we’re still behind first half last year, I think a significant portion of that is related to destocking in all markets, in industrial and broadband and in smart buildings. So I think from our perspective, it’s obviously a key storyline and the number one Pareto item, the number one driver behind the reduction. But I can’t give you — I can’t quantify a discrete number for you.

David Williams: Thanks guys for the time. I appreciate the help

Jeremy Parks: Thank you.

Operator: And that does conclude the question-and-answer session. I’ll now turn the conference back over to you for any additional or closing remarks.

Aaron Reddington: Yes. Thank you, operator, and thank you, everyone, for joining today’s call. If you have any questions, please contact the IR team here at Belden. Our e-mail address is investor.relations@belden.com. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. That does conclude today’s conference. We do thank you for your participation. Have an excellent day.

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