MasterCraft Boat Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:MCFT) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

George Steinbarger: I think from a unit perspective at MasterCraft, Drew, we have gone back to a more level-loaded production schedule throughout the year. That’s a big part of the efficiencies that we get in manufacturing. So I think some of the year-over-year comparisons are challenging, especially when you compare to last year and some of our production was more dictated by supply chain and product availability than what we would consider more of a normal manufacturing cadence. So this year reflects a more level-loaded production versus what we expect to ship throughout the year and that’s going to influence the year-over-year comparisons but nothing we would note there from a negative perspective, nothing from a retail perspective that’s driving that more so than just manufacturing efficiencies. And then the second part of your question.

Fred Brightbill: I’ll take that. Aviara is on track. This year, we expect them to at least breakeven and that’s a significant improvement from the past year and a stair step toward where we see that brand in the future. So there may be variation month-to-month but certainly quarter-to-quarter and overall for the year, we see steady opportunity to continue to improve the margin and profitability.

Tim Oxley: And a significant improvement over the prior year.

Drew Crum: Got it. Okay. Very helpful. And then maybe 1 for Tim. Tim, you talked about some record cash flow metrics. Any notable call-outs in the quarter? And what should we expect in the second half of the year for cash flow?

Tim Oxley: I think you’re going to continue to see some improvements in the working capital partly its a result of supply chain, greater supply chain reliability, if you will but stock going to be as much as you saw in Q2. But it’s just to be a continuing theme for us. So we generate strong cash flow and that’s going to continue in the second half.

Operator: Our next question comes from Eric Wold of B. Riley Securities.

Eric Wold: A couple of questions kind of follow-up on what’s been asked so far. I guess, you made the comment that you’re kind of watching inventories and kind of expect to be a little more efficient with inventory and possibly lower inventory levels. I think you said you’re about 20% below inventories where you were in ’19. Is this the right level here? Or what do you think the right kind of percentage decline or lower level from ’19 is the right level going forward to be efficient in dealerships?

Fred Brightbill: Can I maybe respond to your question slightly differently but hopefully tells you how we think about it, how we look at it. We estimate what we think retail demand is going to be, we back into what we think is an appropriate level of inventory based on turnover and based on model-by-model mix. And that’s the way we drive what we think is the right level. Now we certainly can compare to ’19 or ’20 or any other period but that’s not the way we set our goals. We set our goals based on looking forward and our expectation of retail sales and overall industry trends and segment trends. So in that regard, we’re getting very close to where we want to be at MasterCraft and probably in a very good shape in the Crest brand.

So I — the other thing I think that’s important to consider is we’ve expanded distribution significantly in those additional points of distribution, take additional inventory to support across the brands. So when you merge that all together, the key is that we expect to turn inventory at our dealers at a much higher rate than we have in the past.