Symbotic Inc. (NASDAQ:SYM) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Operator: Thank you one moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Matt Summerville from D.A. Davidson, your line is open.

Matt Summerville: Hey thanks. Couple of questions. First, I’m wondering if — some of the things you’re talking about today whether the headwinds related to growth-related expenses, et cetera, has that changed your expectation as far as when you believe Symbotic will achieve free cash and adjusted EBITDA positivity?

Tom Ernst: Thanks for the question, Matt. So as we think about growth, obviously, we’ve given one quarter forward guidance. These initiatives to really accelerate our path with supply chain partners, we think provides us greater profit in the mid and long term in the immediate near term as obviously as is implicit in our fourth quarter and first quarter, we’re investing just a little bit more to get there. So hopefully that gives you a little bit of context.

Matt Summerville: And then as a follow-up, I wanted to talk a little bit more about the management change with Michael exiting, in one point Rick you obviously felt it was better to maybe not have a single-point of leadership? And I guess I’m curious what maybe transpired since you went down that path that led you to decide that impacts the single-point methodology, if you will, is indeed the way to go for Symbotic? And do you feel that that’s true over the long-term? Or is this more of a near-term decision? Thank you.

Richard Cohen: Yeah. So and I’ve been CEO here for 10 years. I really didn’t — I didn’t anticipate everything that was going to happen over the last six months and I would say the messaging from both suppliers and customers is, a single-point is better. And so, it was a pretty straightforward decision. It — the ability to separate out at the very top, my desire for product development and my desire to be with customers, I thought we could separate that from the scaling and the manufacturing. And the reality is, at this point they’re just two intertwined. So I think at some point it will happen but this was just not the right time and I don’t think it wasn’t fair to Michael and it wasn’t the right thing to do at this point to do that. So it was an agreeable change and that’s what we did.

Matt Summerville: Thanks, Rick. Appreciate the color. That’s it from me.

Richard Cohen: Yeah.

Operator: One moment for next question. Our next question comes from the line of Mark Delaney from Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.

Mark Delaney: Yes, good afternoon. Thank you very much for taking the question. First is on the increased capacity that you’re taking with the help of manufacturing partners. Maybe you can elaborate a little bit more in terms of how much added capacity Symbotic now has in terms of number of shipments that you can — you have in a quarter or a year? And where do you think that can go over the intermediate to longer-term?