The Toro Company (NYSE:TTC) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

So it just looks like tremendously positive runway from what we can see at this point from the market demand, and we see the steady market demand at this point. So as we’re able to increase our output within our footprint today and adding where we need to, where there are constraints, that’s going to allow us to get a bigger piece of that as we go forward. And yes, so that’s just one of the areas, but everything from the energy build-out to addressing the utility issues that we have worldwide, ultimately addressing the power issues with putting more power underground. I mean it’s an incredibly exciting time to be part of this market and this business. And we’re really pleased that we’re in a position to be able to be a part of that.

Timothy Wojs: Okay. Okay. Good. And then just the last one on pro landscape. Is there any way to kind of frame where kind of the utilization is, unlike a trailing 12-month basis in that business versus kind of where it normally is?

Richard Olson: Utilization in terms of …

Timothy Wojs: No, in terms of like the manufacturing utilization. I’m just trying to understand kind of what the — kind of — I’m just trying to kind of figure out what the absorption hit is on just trying to think through pulling back on pro landscape production.

Richard Olson: We do — we probably don’t have those specific numbers here, but just anecdotally, obviously, we’ve got lower utilization within those plants. The positive thing is that we’ve been able to flex the capacity there. So for example, even with Intimidator, we talked about, I think, at the last earnings call, we have lower production, obviously, of those products that go into the landscape contractor market. The positive thing is they have terrific operations there and a terrific workforce. We’ve been able to flex other products from our construction business and be able to produce product that would be difficult for us to do in the past.

Angela Drake: Yes. I’d say we just — we’ve included our best estimates in our guidance, based on what we see there.

Operator: Moment for our next question, please. Its from the line of David MacGregor with Longbow Research.

David MacGregor: I wonder if you could just help us — I mean there’s a lot going on in your — or your low single-digit top line growth guidance for this year. I mean you’ve got, as best as I can count at least 7 or 8 different variables that are in there. I wonder if you can help us just sort of bridging that or at a minimum, just address maybe the capacity investments you’re making and what that might be contributing? And then maybe just building off of Sam’s question on the backlog. Last quarter, Rick, you shared a number with us, the $300 million reduction in the backlog year-over-year in 4Q, is there any chance you can kind of update that number for us today? And then I’ve got a couple of follow-ups.

Richard Olson: Yes. Maybe Angie can address that last part. But with regard to capacity and you talked about as many as 7 different factors, we certainly understand those. I mean the good news is the foundation of that confidence in the year really comes from the businesses, where we have open orders at this point. So golf grounds, underground and construction, and that’s going to be driven by improved outlook within our plans. And we have — we’re seeing steady improvements in that direction. We’ll continue to see that benefit throughout the year. We have on the residential side, it’s clear that we’re going through an adjustment there. But on the positive side, we have the new business with Lowe’s and not just Lowe’s, but really working with all of our channel partners to create — first of all, great product, great support and a unique value proposition for each of their customers.

So that’s on the positive side. And, so we have a lot of variables but also a lot of drivers that can help us get to where we need to go. And with regard to capacity, we’ve been completely consistent with our strategy, where we’re adding structural capacity, where we believe there’s a longer-term different growth rate than it’s been in the past, and we’ve been careful not to do that to use our flex capacity to alleviate back orders or open positions, where we think it’s going to return to a more normalized growth rate. So that’s — we’ve been consistent with that and that’s — we believe that’s the right approach right now.

Angela Drake: And on your question on backlog, we don’t typically break that out every quarter. So we’re just trying to give a little color here. But we did have — we weren’t down and from F ’23, as we reported at the end of Q4 last year. But we are just seeing that tick up slightly, just like we said earlier, seasonally based on what we’re seeing in open orders coming in, in this first quarter of the year, which is very important us.

David MacGregor: Right. Got it. Maybe I can follow up with you guys offline on the bridge. Just a couple of other things just quickly. The AMP investment or the AMP program, as you’re rolling out of, is there investment in the quarter that maybe upfront expense that we should take into consideration?

Angela Drake: Yes. As Rick said in his prepared remarks, AMP is off to a great start, we got our transformation office in place, and we did have some expenses in the quarter, which we will list — we had in our earnings release, it’s $3.9 million, which is in our reported SG&A numbers, and it will be adjusted out.

David MacGregor: Got it. And then finally for me, just — it seems like with these backlogs in golf and specialty construction, your Parts and Accessories business must be elevated or you must be maybe running at a level above what you would typically be. Is there any way of quantifying just what that might have contributed to the quarter? What you might be seeing in terms of parts and accessories benefit right now, both in terms of revenues, but also in terms of profit.