LSI Industries Inc. (NASDAQ:LYTS) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Jim Clark: Yes. I mean, I think the thing on margins is that we’ve been pretty consistent in underlining that we think we have opportunities to continue to improve margins just incrementally quarter-after-quarter, and we don’t see a shortage of runway for us to do that. It’s really about efficiency. And it covers everything. All the way, it starts with the initial order process, setting customer expectations relative to delivery, working closer with the customers. It goes right into our supply chain and procurement and supply chain management. It follows right through in manufacturing and all the way out the door and even the shipping partners we’re choosing. So, every one of those levers as an opportunity to be pulled, it’s really getting in a rhythm where we’re pulling them all at the right time and that our customer — that our suppliers and all our partners that are part of that are executing on their commitments.

I’ve talked already about there’s still a lot of lumpiness just kind of globally and domestically in supply chain. There’s unevenness where one supplier is rock solid. The other one still has a lot of ups and downs. Those are what we call — what we refer to as kind of unnatural inefficiencies that exist in the supply chain right now. We are not going to bend over backwards trying to fix those. We will let the natural course of things fix themselves, but we will do things to mitigate that, buying additional inventory, having multiple suppliers, that type of thing. And that causes extra work and inefficiency. So, when those things continue to stabilize and get back to the level or get to the level we want them to be at, there’ll be even more opportunity for margin improvement.

So, it’s really kind of a mix of a lot of ingredients that create that margin efficiency. But we’re looking to pull all those levers consistently. And there are headwinds the way we look at them, and we’re prepared to fight against those headwinds. And when they turn into tailwinds, we’ll benefit even more.

Aaron Spychalla: Understood. Thanks for taking the questions. I’ll turn it over.

Operator: Thank you. Next question comes from the line of Amit Dayal with H.C. Wainwright. Please go ahead.

Amit Dayal: Thank you. Good morning, everyone. And thank you for taking my question. Jim, on the Display side, revenues were lower year-over-year, but margins improved quite a bit. So, going forward, sort of ex-grocery, is that helping margins potentially continuing to remain elevated while revenues for the Display segment may slow down a little bit?

Jim Clark: No, I wouldn’t characterize it as that. I mean, I think that the margin improvement you’re seeing is through management and team initiatives, we would much rather have those sales that are just kind of deferred right now, if you will, in Grocery. We would rather have those in there. And I think that if we had those in there, you would even see a greater improvement. Remember, for us, probably the thing that causes the most drag is our fixed cost and fixed investments and utilization is key for us. So, the more we’re able to utilize all those resources we have, the more efficient we can be. So, I think what you’re seeing there or I know what you’re seeing there is really the work of a broad team to make sure we’re executing well.

Amit Dayal: Understood. Thank you for that.

Jim Galeese: And Amit, Jim Galeese here. It really starts also with our value proposition itself. It’s a key part of our vertical market strategy, obviously, and the level of innovation, the things we’ve done in the last few years, and we referenced those things like the REDiMount, the Archer and the Forward Throw and so forth, that value is recognized by the customers. So, it’s part of our pricing program and the fact that that’s recognized allows us then to get the appropriate price. Jim mentioned we have an effective product cost. So, all in all, positions us well for margin generation. And with the appropriate volume, yes, we feel we can absolutely sustain and grow our margin expansion and our margin development.