Unifi, Inc. (NYSE:UFI) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

A.J. Eaker: Sure, Anthony, it’s A.J. Volume’s definitely our biggest piece here that will get us back to profitability. You’re aware of the Evo installations that we’ve completed over the last couple of years, and they’re very much a path to profitability as well. When you think about the long term, we still very much believe that the underlying drivers that we’ve spoken of over the last few years will contribute to further growth recovery from where we are as well as much of the other lean initiatives and efficiencies that we found in both the manufacturing space across our facilities as well as our SG&A structure. So we do feel confident that, that path to profitability does still rely on the underlying drivers that we’ve talked about over the last couple of years.

Al Carey: Anthony, this is Al. I just wanted to add to that. As the Beyond Apparel categories become a bigger part of our mix, then that helps as well.

Anthony Lebiedzinski : Got it. Okay. And then as far as your debt, obviously, you refinanced that last year, which was terrific. Now I assume that your’s well in compliance with your debt covenants. I just wanted to make sure that, that’s not an issue that you see anytime soon?

A.J. Eaker: Yes, Anthony, it’s A.J. again. Absolutely still in compliance from a debt perspective. As you mentioned, very favorable that we were able to refinance the facility just under a year ago, providing us great runway both in this constrained environment as well as positioning us for growth as we head into the next couple of years. On top of that, we still have a significant balance of global cash that we can help assist with that liquidity. And we haven’t had to institute any extreme measures at this point. So still feeling quite comfortable from both a compliance perspective and the remaining liquidity.

Anthony Lebiedzinski : Got it. Okay. And then just to quickly follow up. I know the vast majority of your cash is outside the U.S. If needed, can you easily repatriate that? Or like how should we think about that?

A.J. Eaker: Sure, Anthony. You’ll note in fiscal ’23, we did repatriate almost $20 million from our operations in Asia. Part of that was connected with the refinance that we completed. We still believe those processes, those procedures to repatriate cash are still applicable and relevant. As we move forward, we still believe that everything would be just fine in terms of repatriating, as needed, from those subsidiaries.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Your next question comes from the line of Chris Reynolds from Neuberger Berman.

Chris Reynolds : A question for you — a question on sort of reshoring of apparel production, that’s been a long-term trend that’s benefited you. Are you still seeing that as a positive? And perhaps maybe just an update on how your company is integrated with the CAFTA treaty for your apparel cut customers that produce in the Caribbean area.

Eddie Ingle: Yes. The 2 major pieces of legislation that benefit us in our location, really CAFTA, as you mentioned, also what was NAFTA and now USMCA, all was very interesting for us before this destocking occurred. Our volumes in Central America were growing significantly. We have great and operation in El Salvador, who was really benefiting from that. It seems like the biggest — the most forceful destocking part of the whole process of these retailers has impacted Central America more than other regions. But I think what we’re still seeing from these brands or retailers that they’re very interested in sporting — sorting out of Central America, but we’re getting an entry increased conversations around how can we get product made in Mexico, which also has that compliant yarn agreement and benefit to us. So bottom line, it’s not gone away. Reshoring is still happening. You just can’t see it because of this destocking phenomenon.