Delta Apparel, Inc. (AMEX:DLA) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Dana Telsey: Got it. And then just lastly on the balance sheet, given the current results and the loss, any adjustments to the balance sheet or how you are thinking on the puts and takes of the balance sheet side?

Robert Humphreys: Well, a couple of things. One is we have dramatically reduced our capital expenditure budget for this year compared to the prior several years, so, that keeps obviously more cash in the house and we are committed to reducing our inventories over time. So those are the two drivers that will allow us to have a lower debt level by the time we get to fiscal year end.

Dana Telsey: Thank you. I will pass that on.

Operator: Thanks. The next question is coming from Jamie Wilen from Wilen Management. Your line is live.

James Wilen: Hi fellows. Did you happen to mention the sales for DTG2Go for the quarter the specific number?

Robert Humphreys: We did.

Nancy Bubanich: 24 million.

James Wilen: 24 million. Okay. Obviously, a record sales quarter. You talked about expecting to achieve your target expense ratios by the fourth quarter in that business. What are you doing to achieve and what has to happen to get there?

Robert Humphreys: Well, I would say, we have got to continue to make productivity gains to run this equipment to the levels that we were expecting when we purchased it. And so, while we have made tremendous strides over the last 15-months, you got to remember 15-months ago we started up with a beta test site equipment in our facility and started managing how we would develop this. And then ultimately, the Fanatics business came in and wanted to work with us to develop that. And what we have found since then is this equipment is really was not ready to run in our type of production environment of seven-days a week 18-hours a day, and run at the productivity levels that we need to process it. Good strides have been made, the equipment manufacturers have had people in all of our facilities learning and debugging and helping us build those productivity gains, but we are not yet where we need to be.

So that is one of the things that we will continue to work through and believe we have line of sight to be – not completely where we would like to be, but where we are starting to achieve the financial performance that we expect in our fourth quarter. We will be transitioning to more Delta Apparel made blanks over the course of the next several quarters. So, Fanatics had a base of inventory than they needed us to process, and we have taken more time to do that than any of us expect it. So obviously that hurts the profitability when we are processing that inventory that they have purchased from someone else. And then shipping costs to us, and those types of inefficiencies that we work hard to avoid in our business. Training our operators to be more efficient, quality and quality defects need to come back down, but we are seeing good progress on that.

So we have made some key hires over the last 120-days that have extensive experience in operating multiple facilities of digital printing, not necessarily on apparel, but digital printing and we are seeing encouraging progress on that.

James Wilen: So the internalization rate, I assume in the first quarter was lower than it is going to be moving forward, as Fanatics was using their old inventory there. What was your internalization rate and how much will – as that increases have an impact on reducing your inventories to a greater extent?