Clarus Corporation (NASDAQ:CLAR) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Matt Koranda: Okay. All right. Helpful, Mike. Thank you for the detail. And then, one more, if I could just sneak one in. Just on the sale of Precision, I mean, I know you said there’s no updates there, but what I’m curious about is just sort of how long is that process supposed to take, I guess, at the outset of the indication from Kanders? The assumption I think at least broadly among investors was that it was probably going to be about a 40, 45 day process. We’re kind of outside that window now. What — is there anything you can highlight as to like why we need more time? Just anything around the mechanics. I know you can’t really probably share a lot around the specifics, but the timeline and an update of thinking around that.

Michael Yates: Sure. I don’t have a specific update on the timing. I will say there’s several interested parties in the process and we’re going to run the process to its conclusion. And if that extends beyond the 45 days, which — we probably passed that here last week. We’re going to run this process to conclusion to under the guidance of the Special Committee, the Board to make sure that they evaluate all opportunities to create the most shareholder value possible.

Matt Koranda: Okay. Helpful. I’ll leave it there. Thank you.

Michael Yates: Okay.

Operator: One moment for the next question. And your next question comes from the line of Jim Duffy with Stifel. Your line is now open.

Jim Duffy: Thank you. Hi, Mike.

Michael Yates: Hey, Jim.

Jim Duffy: Mike, I’ve got three lines of questioning. I’ll keep it direct and quick. First on the Precision Sports business, I’m curious the extent to which the pressure your experiencing on that revenue run rate is reflective of your exposure to certain calibers or your allocation of capital, or excuse me, capacity to certain calibers versus just the general environment. Like is there a tactical approach that could have yielded better results for you?

Michael Yates: I don’t believe so. I think it’s the general market. We — I mentioned we’ve built inventory, especially at Barnes and finished goods. That inventory consists of what we’ve referred to our seven or eight critical center fire rifle hunting ammos, that we would’ve expected to sell here for the fall hunt season. Like I mentioned that they just — there’s too much inventory at all levels, so none of that’s moving at this point. And we elected not to be promotional and discount and give that away because that’s a premium solution that we’re we opted to hold onto and we’ll sell in coming quarters once the markets kind of hit some type of equilibrium.

Jim Duffy: Understood. And on the Adventure segment, a positive there, particularly enthused about the progress that you’ve made with gross margins, is that gross margin rate sustainable on a go forward basis? And are there approaches to improving the gross margin in the Adventure segment that can be applied to your other division?

Michael Yates: No, I think it’s sustainable. There may be blips up and down, but I think in Warren’s comment he mentioned P 6, the Pioneer six platform has a 1200 basis point better margin. There’s other products we’re looking at to take cost out of. So over the coming quarters, I think that definitely is opportunity to continue to maintain or even expand that level of margin at Adventure at the gross margin level.

Jim Duffy: Okay. And then lastly, I just wanted to ask, looking around the quarter into 2024, 2023 has been a reset year in many respects. What are the objectives for the business in 2024 and how do you think about that in the context of the uncertain environment? I’m just trying to get a view into kind of the philosophy of your strategic planning for the business into 2024.

Michael Yates: Right. Without getting into any financial metrics about 2024, because we’ll talk about that in the coming weeks. But from a strategic standpoint, it’s about getting the right leadership in place, building the teams out, introducing new products across the portfolio, developing new relations with new partners, whether it’s distributors or wholesale or retail partners. It’s about rightsizing inventory and one of the things we’ve said is to make sure we’re just easy to do business, right? And all those things are the focus of Neil’s team at Outdoor, Matt’s team at Adventure. And the same with the team at Precision Sports under my leadership.