Helios Technologies, Inc. (NYSE:HLIO) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Sean Bagan: Yeah. And the only thing I’d add Jeff too is just sequentially, we continue to see an increase here in the third quarter in that distributor channel. And so directionally, where the inventory levels are at and the experience that we saw of our sales in the third quarter gives us some confidence that there could be some opportunities to start replenishing that channel.

Jeff Hammond: Okay. Can you just talk about the linearity through the quarter? I think you said, July was okay and then it tailed off and then maybe just comment on October. We’ve heard from some companies where they saw August, September softness and then maybe lifted its head in October. I’m not sure if you’re seeing that.

Josef Matosevic: Yeah. So we communicated in Q2, Jeff, it actually was not a still a quarter, but it was still pretty decent for us. And then we got into August and start seeing the marine segment pulling back and then there was a sharp decline at the beginning of September, and then pretty much fell off the cliff up to 40%, 37%, 40 percentile. So between the marine recreational and health and wellness still not recovering. There was the compounding effect that we saw and a direct result of the margin impact that we experienced here, but other than that and following that was some ag decline in Europe that was not substantial though. The largest piece was in the marine recreational and health and wellness.

Jeff Hammond: Okay. And then just Sean, I think you talked about controlling decrementals and I’m just wondering, how you’re thinking about balancing cost control and managing the decrementals on the downside versus some of these investments and capacity adds that you need to move forward with or you want to move forward with?

Sean Bagan: Yeah. Thanks for the question, Jeff. I think for me as I look at the capacity, it was important that we get that capacity in place as we’re continuing to try and secure some of these larger OEM system sales and we need to demonstrate that we have that. When we look at the cost control side of things, we did a nice job in the third quarter reacting swiftly when we saw some of the volume coming down. We’re not going to get the full effect. You won’t see that in the third quarter. But as we get into the fourth quarter, you’ll see the full effect of those very targeted savings. Now I would tell you we did not cut into R&D, because that’s the lifeblood of this company. But when you look at our run rate of our operating expenses despite some acquisitions that we’ve done this year will be relatively flat relative to the fourth quarter last year, which that was the highest quarter of OpEx last year.

Jeff Hammond: Okay. Appreciate it.

Tania Almond: Thanks, Jeff.

Operator: Our next question comes from Mig Dobre with Baird. Please proceed with your question.

Mig Dobre: Yes. Thank you. I want to put a finer point on the discussion here and maybe focus on things at segment level. So if we’re looking at your Hydraulics segment, obviously, we don’t have big health and wellness and marine and all of that exposure there. The ag softness, I don’t know that that’s terribly surprising given what the OEMs are going through right now. So that — at least to me that part makes sense. I’m just, sort of, curious on mobile and industrial, because you talked about emerging softness there as well. And related to this, I’m curious as to how you think about your Americas portion of the Hydraulics business specifically, because organically this business has declined now for two quarters in a row. And I’m curious as to what’s embedded in the guidance for the fourth quarter specifically?

Josef Matosevic: Good morning, Mig, in particular to the North American piece and to answer your question specifically above and beyond some of the market softness, we also had an internal path here too and this in relates to standing up the center of excellence in North America. Again it supports and will support the new incoming business and as we transfer products from [Indiscernible] into Indiana in terms demand from $25 million, $30 million in just shy of $200 million business. We had a couple of little tumbles here. As you can imagine when you move so much product and then you rely on a lot of outside contract does we put a brand new building up. So we probably missed around $7 million to $10 million in revenue which is now in our backlog.

Playing this forward where we’re sitting now that fumble has been recovered. We are at a run rate now actually a little bit better than the sound run rate used to be and we should be truing up the backlog here between now and the next couple of three months, but there was another contributor that you saw specific to Helios here and our demand.

Mig Dobre: But in terms of your comment for mobile and for industrial end market softening. I’m trying to understand your perspective there because at least from what I’ve heard thus far this earnings season on the construction side there doesn’t seem to be any production cuts unless I’m mistaken, please correct me. And maybe the same thing with industrial as well. That I can see but it’s the other part that I find surprising. So can you comment at all on that?

Josef Matosevic: Yes. Look Mig, I mean looking at the chart now and all the numbers too and at least in the markets we are participating in — I mean you know well enough that we are a pure-play hydraulic and electronics. We don’t commingle in anything else. So they communicated it’s exactly what is going on. I mean is a temporary pullback here after orders been canceled? No but the market has slightly pulled back. Sean, do you want to add to this.

Sean Bagan: Yes. Mig, it’s Sean I would just highlight specific to the Hydraulics segment when we look at it I mean certainly it’s that construction piece of the mobile so the lighter construction type vehicles. And then in the industrial side or the industrial machinery that we saw the most severe year-over-year decline. So that’s where the pressure points are at. But there are pockets that were up as well. I mean oil and gas renewable energy kind of what you hear more of the macro theme. So it was certainly mix but there was more to the downside throughout the third quarter.

Mig Dobre: Okay. In Electronics, I guess, you talked about the health and wellness and the marine portion of the business seen some pressure. When I’m kind of looking at your implied guidance for the fourth quarter it’s got revenues maybe stepping down sequentially down to call it like $55 million. Is this the sort of run rate that you think carries into 2024? Because that would be I mean this run rate would basically be consistent with the prior year when you were experiencing pretty significant destocking in your health and wellness business.

Sean Bagan: So Mig, can you clarify did you say $55 million sequential reduction?