Gibraltar Industries, Inc. (NASDAQ:ROCK) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Julio Romero: Got it. That’s helpful. And you talked about that new 1P tracker that’s making up a larger portion of your Renewables backlog. Can you maybe give us some flavor as to the margin profile of that? And is the backlog you called out for manufactured orders or also installation of the tracker?

Bill Bosway: Both. The backlog reflects both. We’re in the ramp up phase, so we’re going to have a margin mix. The challenge initially, as you always do when you ramp up something, but we expect the margin profile based on the cost reduction efforts that are going in ramping up our supply chain that’ll land. We’re happy with the margin profile that we expect. The good news here is the uptake of this product came quicker than we originally thought. So we thought it would be more of a 2024 and where it start building momentum in the second half of the year. We had 30 or so developers that down in Florida at our main location there and showed them a lot of this technology last year and I just think it’s resonated and the uptake has been quicker than we had thought.

So, we’ve had to move quite quickly to get our supply chain ramped up sooner. That’s caused Tim mentioned, hey, we’re going to be off. We’ll be a little slower in the first quarter. That’s nothing more than lead times are a little bit longer because of the ramp that we’re going through as we speak, but it’ll catch up as we start building the base.

Julio Romero: Understood. And then just last one for me would be just on the guidance. Would it be fair to say that the puts and takes of the $50 million sales range of the guidance is kind of largely dependent on what Renewables does this year.

Bill Bosway: Well, I think it’s a combination of all four, but our plan going into this year, obviously, with Renewables and Agtech, where they landed, they have to be positive. Right. They have to show growth this year. So, I’d say both need to contribute more than they did last year, and we expect that to happen based on a backlog that we’re seeing in the businesses and all the design work we’re doing on projects. So, we feel pretty confident in those two segments driving more in the top-line than they did last year.

Julio Romero: Very helpful. I’ll pass it on. And congratulations again to Tim.

Tim Murphy: Thank you, Julio.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Walt Liptak with Seaport Global Securities. Please proceed with your question.

Walt Liptak: Hi. Thanks. Good morning, guys, and congratulations to Tim. Tim, wanted to ask first about the Renewables backlog up 21%. Is it up because of delays in shipping in the fourth quarter? Or is it up because the orders are starting to come in a little bit better?

Bill Bosway: We were up in the fourth quarter on sales. Our orders have increased. So that’s what’s driving the backlog.

Walt Liptak: Okay, can you give us an idea of the magnitude? How much were orders up for Renewables in the fourth quarter?

Bill Bosway: I don’t have, off the top of my head.

Tim Murphy: I’m guessing. Well, without having it in front of me, they had to be directionally similar to the backlog growth because revenue was up. Right.

Bill Bosway: So it’s got to be in that range double digit. We’ll come – circle back with a number for you, but it has to be because, like I said, like Tim said, revenue is up.

Walt Liptak: Okay. All right. That sounds good.

Bill Bosway: Double digit.

Walt Liptak: Okay. All right. Fair enough. And then just wanted to check in on a couple of the charges in the quarter. So the renewables charge goes back to 2022. It sounds like that’s one timing. Was that just one customer, one project? How should we think about this happening again?

Bill Bosway: Yes, so Tim talked about this, but effectively, when you have all this disruption in the end market, the timing of how projects flow and all that, we’ve effectively delivered material to a customer, to a site per schedule. In that particular case, other things happen, permitting, et cetera, for that customer, there was rust that formed on the material that we put out there, which can happen if it’s out there, exposed. And in the way our contracts historically have been written, that was on us. And so going forward, we’ve made those changes in our T’s and C’s a year ago and or so because that contract was actually from 2021 and so that will be eliminated going forward. And we have a much better process working with our customers to ensure that when we deliver, it’s when they’re ready to roll, so we don’t have collectively materials sitting out on site. That’s why it’s a onetime kind of situation.