OneWater Marine Inc. (NASDAQ:ONEW) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Jack Ezzell: Yeah. I think there’s a lot of unknowns at this point with the year as we look towards recent boat shows and most recently with Fort Lauderdale, we’re certainly encouraged, but I think it’s just a little too early in the year to tell. I think as we get through the winter boat shows, often kind of that boat show season from November, Lauderdale to Miami type timeframe typically gives you a good sentiment for what the rest of the year is going to look like and what the season is going to look like. And so, we’re cautiously optimistic. The low to mid-single-digit guide is, like I said this earlier, I was assuming basically a flat unit type environment. So, we’re being cautious. But there’s — like I said, there’s just a lot of unknowns with the macro that could be headwinds against us.

Unidentified Analyst: Got it. Thank you very much.

Operator: Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Griffin Bryan with D.A. Davidson. Your line is now open.

Griffin Bryan: Yeah, thanks. This is Griffin on for Brandon. Can you talk about any recent category trends you’ve seen over the last 45 to 60 days, anything to call out there as we head into the show season?

Austin Singleton: Well, I mean, I don’t think anything over the last 45 to 60 days has changed, there’s been any significant change. I mean, obviously, we’ve had a good — coming out of the good Fort Lauderdale Boat Show, that’s a bigger boat mix. So, that’s — it’s not a fair evaluation of the last 45 to 60 days. I think that it’s really been the consumer — if there’s any trend that we’re seeing is the consumer is shopping a little bit harder, and it’s pretty broad across all brands, makes, model, segments. I think when you look at the SSI data, it kind of speaks probably to the best generalization of the industry, we have certain segments that are doing better than others. But when you look at us, Anthony, if I’m wrong, let me know, but it just seems like everything is kind of toe in the line.

It’s just — it’s a hard-fought battle out there, but I don’t have — we don’t have any shining stars or anything that we’re like, “Oh my gosh, you got to get rid of these things.”

Anthony Aisquith: No, not at all. There’s nothing, but we still have several of our manufacturers that continue to be very innovative that make people want to buy the boat. So, there’s new boats that continue to come out that are doing very well.

Griffin Bryan: Okay. Great. And then, can you just give any color on OEM promotions you’ve seen as of late? And how those promotions may compare versus previous years?

Anthony Aisquith: We didn’t have them in the previous year. And yes, they are plentiful now. The manufacturers are standing behind the dealers and making sure we’re moving through inventory.

Austin Singleton: Yeah. I think the manufacturers going into that — the month of June, I think they were, “We’re not going to have to do this. We’re not going to do this.” And I think it was just — that last couple of weeks of June was a reckoning for us all. And I think they understand that dealers are nervous about inventories building. They’re not ordering as many 2024s, and so they came out and got pretty aggressive into the summer. And I think they’re continuing that knowing that we’ve got to get the inventory in the field, right? I mean — and we’re actually today, I’m much more positive about the industry than I was at the end of last quarter. Having a lot of conversations with Wells Fargo and how their book of business on the floor plan looks, it’s looking a lot better.

And if we can continue that momentum and that trend through the end of the year — Lauderdale was a good sign. Everybody was feeling really good coming out of there. If that continues through the end of the year, we can go into next selling season with a very healthy industry compared to what we thought 90 days ago. So, that could be a little shining star or a bright light that we just kind of got to wait and see what happens over — through the end of the year through January.

Griffin Bryan: Great. That’s all from me. Thanks.

Operator: Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Noah Zatzkin with KeyBanc Capital Markets. Your line is now open.

Noah Zatzkin: Hi. Thanks for taking my questions. Maybe just one on the same-store sales strength during the quarter. How much of that would you attribute to your customer relative to the broader industry consumer versus inventory versus operating differently than maybe the broader industry dealer base? Just any thoughts around the strength relative to the industry would be helpful. Thanks.

Austin Singleton: Well, I mean, of course, we want to jump in there and talk about how our CRM system, we feel, gives us a leg up over our competition, our processes and the things that we do or why we’re able to continue to take market share and grow. I mean — but I think a little bit of it is the consumer is still active. I’m still going to beat on the drum that — it appears that a lot of people are still moving on or near water. And when people move on or near water, they want a boat. And then, so that’s still happening. And then you’ve got the churn of the what I would call the professional boater that owns several boats that kind of was out of the market during COVID because they didn’t want to wait that long. They didn’t want — they knew the pricing weren’t going to be there forever.