Steelcase Inc. (NYSE:SCS) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Sara Armbruster: Yes. I would say that as I talk to other CEOs and business leaders, I mean, pretty consistently for some time, I would say the vast majority have expressed a strong desire to have their employees working together physically in the office. And I think you’re right. I think, we’ve seen at least anecdotally more companies and more of those business leaders, I think, of late either express the intent or actually announce things that maybe turn up the intensity of that effort to get people back to the office even more. So that certainly isn’t true at all companies, but I think pretty consistently for a number of quarters, we’ve heard business leaders speak to their belief in the value of the office, the need to have people together, the positive impact that has on all sorts of things, whether it’s being able to advance business objective more effectively and efficiently or things like their corporate culture.

And I certainly hear that tone continuing from the people I speak to.

Reuben Garner: And I’ve heard from some investors lately about concern about commercial real estate and offices just — the occupancy rates are lower than pre-COVID levels and the debt surrounding it. How do you guys feel that that could impact the furniture industry, if at all, over the next few years, as leases expire?

Dave Sylvester: Well, it’s hard to tell, because we haven’t really encountered anything like this in the past. What is — what you’re aware of is historically when vacancy rates have gone up, it generally drives landlord incentives higher, which creates churn in the — in kind of work or office settings, meaning companies choose different locations, sometimes they downsize, sometimes they move to a better — a higher quality part of town, but often in all of that move activity, they don’t take their furniture with them. So it’s generally been a positive for the industry when vacancy rates go up and landlords incentivize some churn, but it remains to be seen to what degree vacancy rates might go up from the — what you’re reading in the media.

Reuben Garner: Perfect. And then, Sara, in the earnings release, you referenced your strong win rates. Any color on what you think might be driving that?

Sara Armbruster: Well, I would say, one thing, certainly, anecdotally, we heard last week at NeoCon and we’ve heard from many of our clients is that I think part of what lies behind that is fact that we chose quite deliberately early in the pandemic to stay invested in innovation and solutions to support the workplace. So, you can imagine there were conversations about whether the pandemic would be caused to dramatically pivot our strategy in some different direction or whether we felt like staying invested in the future of the office and the future of the workplaces was a valid path forward. And that’s — as we’ve communicated, that’s one of the paths that we need stay invested. So I think our innovation, our solutions for hybrid collaboration, the investments we’ve made, the acquisitions we’ve made to support privacy in the workplace, things that we’ve done to support partnerships around integrated technologies, I think all of those solutions in that innovation is perhaps resonating now with organizations that know they need to update their offices and evolve their spaces to move their businesses forward.

Reuben Garner: Great. I’m going to sneak one more if I can. You mentioned the ease of assembly of that chair and knowing that you guys are trying to attack some different markets that — whether it’s a small business or healthcare or consumer, what other changes do you think you need to address to kind of further penetrate those spaces?