Genuine Parts Company (NYSE:GPC) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Paul Donahue: Yes. So inflation, just to kind of talk about it trend-wise, our view is that it moderated in the fourth quarter. It ticked down slightly from Q3, and that monetary policy in the U.S. is working. It’s having an effect around the world, but it does take some time all about the flow through supply chain and through the businesses. So as you said, Q4 and FY ’22 inflation levels overall were mid-single digits. High single digits in auto and low single digits in industrial. And as we look to ’23, we expect for it to continue to moderate for the full year. We think monetary policy works and will work. We were at a peak of 9.1% in June. We had 7 straight months of easing. And when we look at that, the way we kind of thought about our forecast for the full year is that the full year would be at a low single-digit all up, remaining at low single digits for industrial and low single digit for auto.

That obviously ticks down across the course of the year. So we step down Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4 as monetary policy continues to have an impact. Again, it’s a little bit of a wildcard, and we have to make an assumption when we give our guide, which is what we’ve done. So we’ll still be watching the effect of monetary policy and other actions, but that’s our assumption based. Q1, just to be specific, we’ll tick down from where we are to mid-single digit, I think, for auto. Industrial stays at low single digit and all up mid-single digits in Q1.

Greg Melich: That’s perfect. And then last, just DIY and do-it-for-me. Do-it-for-me still outpacing DIY by about 1,000 basis points. Is that the trend you’re expecting this year to continue? Or are we seen enough recovery in fleet and other that maybe those start to narrow?

Will Stengel: I think they start to narrow, and so we would expect the DIY business. We’re seeing some good strength in our DIY business, in particular, our accessories, which is a small part of the business, but it continues to grow really nicely even on tougher comps. So we would expect the gap to narrow as we go through 2023.

Greg Melich: Congrats guys on a good year. And good luck.

Operator: The next question is from Scot Ciccarelli from Truist. Please go ahead.

Scot Ciccarelli: Scot Ciccarelli. First question is, you have made a couple of comments on the gross margin benefits you’ve been able to accrue from pricing. Is that both in auto and industrial? And then if at least some of it is in auto, could some of those price increases create some competitive challenges down the road since some of your other major competitors have made selective price investments over the last 1.5 years to 2 years?

Will Stengel: Yes, Scot, it’s Will. I’ll take a cut at this. We’re seeing great pricing work happening on both sides of the business, and in particular, in U.S. automotive. I would say, they’re one of the most dynamic teams in terms of the things that they’re doing around pricing. We’ve been at this now for 12 to 18 months in a pretty robust way, both in terms of the technology that we’re using, the data, working with a third party, et cetera. And we are actively thinking through the right way to execute pricing strategies relative to the market. That’s really at the core of the work that we’re doing. So we feel good about what we’re doing. We study it daily. It’s at the SKU level. We go into different markets, and we’ve got really nice visibility to react accordingly with dashboards and weekly updates as a team to make sure that what we’re doing is beneficial for our customers and our business. So it’s definitely something that we’re hyper focused on.