Natuzzi S.p.A. (NYSE:NTZ) Q3 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Antonio Achille: So Jason, please, can you put mute. We are receiving a notif for all of the message or whatever you’re getting from. So I think if we just look at the third quarter, also to compensate a slowdown in the revenue, we’re looking at, I would say, a material potential impact, so in the order of EUR3 million, EUR4 million for a quarter, which doesn’t mean that we’ll increase the EBIT, but it means that we’ll also allow us to counterbalance the negative effect of the loss of revenue momentum. So I believe this is a company which has sustained, we know that. We’ve always been mentioning the opportunity around restructuring. This is a company which has an opportunity to manage in a more tight ways business and the opportunity per se of that can be quite substantial, quite substantial on the early days. It can be quite substantial.

David Kanen: Okay. And then in the press release, you referred to the impairment of a trade receivable, which increased SG&A. What was the dollar amount of that?

Antonio Achille: I will pass over to Piero for that. If opening that he has the answer.

Piero Direnzo: Impairment of trade receivables, it is written in the table.

Antonio Achille: Okay. Can you provide us that, Piero?

Piero Direnzo: Yes, it was EUR0.1 million for the third quarter.

David Kanen: Okay. And then a quick question for Jason. In North American DOS like-for-like, how did we do?

Jason Camp: So we’re spending a lot of time looking at both kind of how we’re comparing to €˜21 and to €˜19. And so when you look at year-to-date, we’re trending down eight to 21 and plus 50 to 2019 year-to-date.

David Kanen: Okay. Thank you.

Jason Camp: Like-for-like.

David Kanen: Okay, and then final question. Antonio, you’ve referred in the past to your Factory 4.0 sequential rollout. Can you give us an update on that? In the past, you referred to a mid to high single-digit improvement in gross margin once that’s implemented. Where are we? And when do you expect that to be fully rolled out?

Antonio Achille: So I confirm that is the range of the potential , which means that if the factory are quietly saturated, they operate with the right level of saturation that in our business means 80% plus the application of that approach of working, which more than technology as a way of — having a lean manufacturing way of organizing the floor can produce the, kind of, result. The plan is to roll out that most — most of our factory — Italian factory by next year and as we’re also considering a potential relocation of the factory in China to make sure the new plant can be fitting this new approach of working. And then the next wave will be Romania and our Brazil operation, so that can be the benefit. I need to be, again, candid here because before modeling the benefit in the margin, we need to acknowledge that the reduction in volume is also translating in reduction of factory utilization, which being a fixed cost business, of course, has a direct impact on the cost per minute.

So we are even working harder on the Factory 4.0, because we see it not only in the long term something we believe — deeply believe on there’s an opportunity to enhance margin, but also as an opportunity short term to counter fight the potential negative impact on cost per minute deriving for — from a lower-capacity utilization of our factories.

David Kanen: Okay. Well, thank you. I appreciate the commentary. Good luck and you guys have a nice holiday.

Antonio Achille: Well, we’re definitely going to talk to before holiday. For us, holiday — we will do holiday after the plan is completed. In 2027, we do holidays.

Operator: Thank you. If there are no further questions at this time, I’ll turn the floor back over for any further or closing comments.