Reuben Garner: So Stephen mentioned the word restock, and you guys talked about kind of the destocking impact this year. Just curious, you know, inventory in the channel. I know some of your products aren’t really inventory, but I know we’re talking about just part of your business. But what is the inventory like relative to maybe more historically normal periods? And you know, we’ve seen rates dropped quite a bit here recently and some maybe excitement about what that could mean for housing kind of heading into ’23. Is there the potential that your first half is sort of – your first half outlook is maybe, you know, a little conservative just given the potential for restock if there is a better consumer and housing environment in the early part of next year?
George Wilson: Yes. So the first part of the question in terms of our inventory levels, I think we’re in a very good position right now. As you know, I think we manage our working capital very well and effectively we’re just in time supplier. So what has changed and what we’ve done a very good job over the last year and a half to two years is with some of the supply chain challenges that we had that extended lead times and did different things that forced our customers into stocking whatever they could. I think we’ve done a very, very good job of improving our supply chain, finding alternate sources, we’ve really improved the robustness of that entire chain, which has allowed us to drive our inventory levels down. And as such give our customers confidence to drive their inventory levels down, that’s what we do.
So I feel very comfortable going into this year whether the markets go up or down, that we are absolutely prepared to react and react accordingly to that. As it relates to, you know – are we being conservative in the first quarter? You know, I think traditionally, we are a more conservative forecasting company. And you know, I think what we’ve shown over the – again over the course of the last, really three or four years is that our cost model reacts very well to wrap that ups and downs. So I feel very good of where we’re positioned in either scenario. And if the – if interest rates come down or demand spikes as a result of that, I think we’re very, very prepared to capitalize on that. But you know, we are taking a very conservative view as it relates to the first quarter and really our first half.
Reuben Garner: Great. That actually helped answer my second question. So I’m going to ask another. There has been some increasing concern about Europe, and I know your business is predominantly in the U.K. I’ve heard that come up of late, your business has actually been, you know, pretty resilient in the face of that uncertainty. Can you just kind of talk about your outlook there for this year, you know, maybe just kind of dig into some of the reasons why maybe your business is more resilient than some others might be seeing in the same kind of geographies?
George Wilson: So when you look at both of our businesses, I think it’s been resilient because our product lines are designed to perform at a higher thermal performance level. And as codes and standards continue to be elevated to higher levels in Europe, it’s pretty known that Europe is far ahead of U.S. and other markets in terms of the expectations for environmentally positive products within the home and our products fulfill those expectations. So we have a product line that is relatively robust even in down areas. So that has helped. I think that there is still so many unknowns in Europe which has – are impacting customer confidence that I think the macro fundamentals that exist are very, very similar in terms of the U.S. in terms of it being underbuilt and everything of that nature, but you’ve got this this overlay of what’s going on in the Ukraine, and now in Gaza that has a fairly dark cloud on, you know, the consumer confidence and these unknowns hangover, you know, what will the impact of energy costs be on a consumer.
And I think that that’s a little – it’s added a different type of weight to demand in our markets that we serve in Europe versus the U.S. The other thing that’s helped both – helped us though in that region, and this is specifically with our spacer product line is that, you know, we’ve invested pretty large in terms of our international spacer business, which is primarily served out of our Germany facility. So as we continue to gain new sales in other markets such as the Middle East or India, China in different areas for some of our high-end space or product lines that has helped offset some of the volume drops in the traditional European market. So I think we’ve positioned ourselves well there.
Reuben Garner: Great. Thanks for the detail, guys. Congrats on the year. And Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you both.
Scott Zuehlke: Thanks. You too.
George Wilson: Thanks. You too.
Operator: And thank you. And one moment for our next question. And our next question comes from Julio Romero from Sidoti and Company. Your line is now open.
Julio Romero: Thanks. Hi, good morning George and Scott.
Scott Zuehlke: Good morning.
George Wilson: Good morning.
