The Shyft Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:SHYF) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Ray Guiso: Okay. Good to hear. Thanks for taking my question. Have a good rest of the day.

Operator: The next question is from Mike Shlisky of D.A. Davidson. Please go ahead.

Mike Shlisky: Hi. Good morning, and thanks for taking my question. The weakness that you’ve been talking about in the e-commerce world, is that a sector-wide thing? Or is it maybe just one or possibly 2 customers that are causing that right now?

Jon Douyard: I missed the first part of your question, but I think the — look at each — I mean, there’s only a handful of large parcel customers that are out there. I would say there’s specific dynamics with each of them. But I think the themes are consistent across — I mean, the certainly elevated dealer inventories. I think, Pat, if you look at any of the parcel companies right now, the reporting year-over-year package declines — and certainly, specific reorganizations and those types of things are attributable both to one company. But I think all of that sort of adds up to a point of pause from a purchase perspective, and that’s really what we’re seeing from out in the environment. I think Daryl made the comment earlier in his remarks, we continue to have positive discussions with our customers, right?

They continue to tell us that there’s a need for vehicles. It’s just balancing sort of CapEx expectations in the short term with how they’re managing their fleets over the long term. And so — we expect those — from a demand perspective, we expect that to come together at some point, but it’s probably pushed out a little bit and could there be some activity later in the year potentially? But we think that, again, we want to be somewhat cautious here over the next couple of quarters.

Mike Shlisky: Okay. Can you comment on the fleet age for some of your larger final mile customers? Are they still going to outside third-party white van providers to should they have just a net trust to just meet every day and every day delivery demand? Or is that — has the edge caught up to prior levels?

Daryl Adams: Yes, Mike, this is Daryl. I’m not sure we can give you an exact number on fleet age, but — to your question about the white trucks, I think we’ve mentioned on previous calls, we have a parcel delivery company, Depot right next to our office here closer office. They had a lot of those light trucks and now those white trucks are now gone. So I think to John’s point in my commentary, right, the package volumes going down post COVID — and those vans were needed because they couldn’t get the vehicles. They got their vehicles, hoses gone. So it’s — it’s a dynamic environment, trying to figure out exactly what’s the right formula. The customers are trying to figure that out. And we’re right with them and having conversations.

So to the point is that’s going to keep coming. The point is the fleet age and the replacement cycle. And what we’re making sure is that our FBS division is ready to take on those orders and flex back up once the volume comes, and that’s what we’re doing right now, right? Any good manufacturing company will take this opportunity and put some different processes in place to make sure when it comes back that they’re ready to be more efficient at the time and that’s what we’re doing.

Mike Shlisky: Okay. Great. Maybe one last one. Is your 2024 outlook for Blue Arc still appear to be in line? And I guess relatedly, this year kind of — you had mentioned a certain run rate you hit in 2025 in BlueArc — does that also appear to still be in line — just a little more detail on people who have been testing the vehicles, what they’ve been saying, et cetera, would be really appreciated.