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

Eric Wold: Got it. That’s helpful. I guess just last question. You mentioned some of the pressure on margins is mix as you’ve introduced some lower-priced NXT models based on where you’re seeing demand. Maybe talk a little bit about what other kind of demand drivers you’re seeing in terms of where consumers are shifting their purchasing? Are they going towards lower models kind of overall? Are they going to less options? I guess maybe kind of get a sense of is that the only indication of where you’re seeing maybe some pressure on spending. Or are there others as well?

Fred Brightbill: Go ahead, George.

George Steinbarger: Yes. What I would say, we’re not seeing a real change in the consumer habits in terms of options and whatnot. I think part of it is in our NXT portfolio, we’ve previously had 3 models in within the last 12 months, we’ve added 2 incremental models. So part of it is just as we level load our production and try to make sure that we’re getting those new models into the marketplace into the consumers that are demanding that new product that is partly driving the mix towards some of the higher percentage of NXT production relative to prior years. But we’re seeing pretty good — very strong ordering patterns throughout the portfolio, both at our premium X line all the way through our midline and NXT models. So — and the consumers continue to option up the boats and put different features on.

That being said, we are seeing a higher percentage of stock boats. The dealers are ordering more boats that are going into stock inventory versus the last couple of years, we had a high percentage of retail sold boats being ordered where the customers were ordering the boats, stocking them out to their particular needs. And when you have a higher percentage of retail sold boats you tend to see more options, more higher-margin type of option selected versus the stock boat. So it’s really less about what we’re seeing from the consumer and more about just the mix of retail sold to a consumer retail orders which is consistent with kind of past seasonal type of patterns.

Fred Brightbill: sometimes you have a segment mix going on with Crest versus MasterCraft that can impact margins as well as — again, just a reminder, in the model mix and we refreshed the NXT and the XT product offering. And so those have been doing very — refreshed and expanded. So those have been doing very well. And then in some other cases too, in the COVID era, we were able to constrain, if you will, the mix of models based on our ability to managed throughput. And now we’re much more responding to true retail demand. So there’s some reversion there in some models there that we’ve constrained in the past that there’s pent-up demand for.

Operator: And our next question comes from Michael Swartz of Truist.

Michael Swartz: Just maybe a quick question on — I think you mentioned that NXT is kind of margin dilutive in the back half of the year. But I think if we go back a couple of years, the commentary was there was no real difference between kind of the premium MasterCraft and the NXT sub-brand, if you want to call it that. So I guess has something changed in that margin relationship between the 2? Or is this totally a commentary just around kind of content or attachment rates?

Tim Oxley: It’s really content. The NXT models don’t have the same level of options available to them. So when those are ordered because we have very healthy margins on the options they tend to have on a base-boat basis, it’s comparable. But when you add the options in, that’s when the margin erosion comes about. It’s not terrible but it’s less.

Fred Brightbill: And Mike, I would just comment, we have competitors that are being very aggressive in terms of pricing. And so it’s very important for us to make sure we content these models so they can compete with that pressure.