Hamilton Beach Brands Holding Company (NYSE:HBB) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Greg Trepp: I think really, our view is that that’s probably a full year 2023 where we’ll end up for the full year. As I mentioned, in the first quarter we’re working through balancing retailers’ demand here earlier in the year, sort of uncertain how things are going. So we expect a more challenging first quarter. As second quarter goes on the back half of the year, we think that’s where the chance is going to be to balance out our full year performance. I think right now, as we’ve — as costs have come down and we pass along price decreases and we also monitor our promotional cadence, we’re starting with how do we protect our margins and stay competitive. And right now, we feel we can do both those things. The big challenge will be just if demand softens further then do we have to promote some more.

If demand is like we think it’s going to be then we really can have our traditional level of promotional support and make sure our margins are doing well. So I think all in all I think the first quarter and first half will probably be a little softer. It will be a little bit stronger in the back half and the full year should come in our normal range.

Zachary Beeck: Last one from us on SG&A. You expect this to grow moderately in 2023. Is that off of last year’s GAAP number, which includes that $10 million insurance recovery, or should we expect dollars to grow off of the adjusted base, excluding that recovery?

Greg Trepp: Everything is excluding the comments or excluding the $10 million recovery. We’ve got a little bit of inflation on comp in this environment. We’re finding ways to save money elsewhere to offset some of that. We’re investing a little more in some of our programs. So we do think putting aside the $10 million recovery that we’ll see a little bit of SG&A increase but nothing that’s too out of the ordinary. So thank you, Jack, for those questions.

Operator: And it appears that we have no further questions. I’ll turn it over to Mr. Trepp for any closing comments.

Greg Trepp: Thank you. While the macro environment in 2023 remains uncertain as consumers continue to invest spending patterns due to inflationary pressures, we’ve always said our company is focused on long term value creation. I’m very proud of our team. They have no doubt our employees will continue to be agile and resilient and demonstrate good thinking every day in all aspects of our business. I am confident that we are stronger than ever and well positioned to build on the successes we have achieved, our investments in infrastructure, combined with our asset light model as well as our net working capital returning to historical ranges. And continued progress with our strategic initiatives should enable us to resume generating strong cash flow and higher returns on total capital employed in the coming years. That concludes our report for today. Thank you again for joining our call.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

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