Hamilton Beach Brands Holding Company (NYSE:HBB) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Gregory Trepp: Sure. Sally, you want to take that one?

Sally Cunningham: Sure. Absolutely. So yes, as the units are placed into service, they’ll be capitalized in the fixed assets and then the amortization will show up in the cost of sales number. It was more of a lease accounting type of approach is what you would expect to see.

Adam Bradley: Okay. That makes sense. So finally, on this, you mentioned there will be a loss in ’24 as you kind of build the business. Are you going to break that out so investors can separate that from the rest of the business?

Gregory Trepp: Sally, do you want to take that one, too?

Sally Cunningham: Sure. At this point, we don’t plan to. It’s not a significant portion of the business. But certainly, as the business would grow, then I would to be more meaningful, and we will be breaking out Hamilton Beach Health as a whole.

Operator: [Operator Instructions]. Another question from Adam Brady with AJB Capital. Your line is open.

Adam Bradley: Yes. So, moving down the P&L to the SG&A line, this is — this number from — just from a financial reporting standpoint has been pretty predictable in that $100 million to $105 million range over the last couple of years that has grown COVID volatility aside. $108 million for that line this year, should we expect that to be the baseline for ’24? And how much of the $108 million was maybe performance-based comp that’s more variable? Just help me understand that number a little better.

Gregory Trepp: Sure. Yes, I’ll give you a little bit of color and Sally jump in as well. But I think we have some normal variability as you said. So there one year might be a little more incentive comp than the other, depending on our goals at the beginning of the year. We’re investing — we went through a phase of some heavier investing in parts of our business. And as we go forward now, I think we expect really, I think, a modest growth in SG&A. We are considered things like putting more money into [indiscernible] dependent on customer support. So, I think this is a pretty good line where it could float up a little bit or flow down a bit based on the level of advertising based on incentive comp results or some other investments. But I don’t predict — I don’t believe it’s changed dramatically up or down from that level. Hopefully, I said it okay, Sally.

Sally Cunningham: Yes, yes. Absolutely, absolutely. I mean I do think that when we talked about the growth drivers, there certainly was some personnel costs and incentive comp. We also had M&A costs in this year that we haven’t had in the past. And then we also — with our growth drivers, I would expect for us to see additional kind of advertising costs. So, for this year, maybe think of it as maybe these are going to be round numbers, like maybe 30%, 30%, 30%, like 30% comp, 30% M&A and then advertising. And then from a baseline perspective, I think as we look at M&A, you could expect that number to go up in the future. And as we look to continue our strategic investments, that could go up. But I continue to believe that, that 108 to 110, 115 level is probably the right place for us right now.

Adam Bradley: Okay. And kind of looking more broadly at your strategic initiatives and your capital allocation plan is very, very helpful. You guys have been consent in your reporting on it. I think what would help is if we — if you could help us dive a little deeper into it to understand it. They’re stated each quarter and do you — could you help us understand the specific financial performance of each plan? When you restate them, I think like for today, could you just kind of give us a little bit of a better understanding of the specifics of each initiative, which one has a greater impact on the P&L? I think we understand core, I think we understand some of the premium, but just diving a little bit more to the health market and what the opportunities there are.