MarineMax, Inc. (NYSE:HZO) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Brett McGill : Hey, James, we’re talking — this is Brett. We’re talking to our manufacturers kind of every day, I would say, just to kind of try to keep them informed of what we’re seeing with retail. And we still don’t have a magic number other than we want it to be less than we’ve historically operated at. But we’ve got to kind of coordinate that with acquisitions and the growth. And candidly we have a lot of new brands in stores that we didn’t carry in 2019. So that has to factor in as well.

Mike McLamb: It’s a focus on really inventory turns more than just a dollar level. And I would say, as we’ve said on past calls all of our manufacturing partners and us and I think most in the industry have the same desire, which is to get to a healthier point. And the discussions that we’re having are all very, very positive and very constructive with our manufacturing partners. And so we’re all headed in the right place. It’s — obviously, it’s a little tougher to get there, but we’re all working on it together.

James Hardiman : Sure. Is there a way to think about inventory turns versus 2019 then?

Mike McLamb: I think, it’s premature now. I think, we’ll keep working on the overall goal with our manufacturing partners and work to obviously improve our inventory turns.

James Hardiman : Got it. Good stuff. Thanks guys and good luck.

Brett McGill: Thank you, James.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Fred Wightman with Wolfe Research. Please proceed with your question.

Fred Wightman: Hey, guys. Thanks for the question. I just wanted to sort of maybe put the current industry thoughts or outlook in the context with what you guys talked about last quarter. So I think if I remember you were talking about some softer back half trends in calendar 2022, but you didn’t really expect 2023 to change a whole heck of a lot from there. Can you maybe just explain or expand upon what has sort of changed from an industry perspective today versus October?

Mike McLamb: Yes. I can make a comment and then Brett €“ I think our comments in October, we just let 2022 €“ the month of October registration data was not out yet. We had commented we were having a very good October, which we did. On that call we said, we expected the industry to be down, I think we said mid-single digit €“ low- to mid-single digits something like that. Looking at the data for October, November and December, the registration data and you got to recognize that there’s inventory out there now for sure of pontoon product and some other product. And you’re seeing the registration data, which to us was less than we were expecting. And others in the industry may have different opinions. But to us, it’s less than we were expecting and it is difficult to break apart what seasonality and what’s economic-related.

But now we’re one quarter into it. So we’re just reflecting back that the industry overall is probably going to be further down than we had originally thought. And I think we’re saying high single-digit now. So the big difference is just three months of registration data that we have now Fred.