Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. (NYSE:VSH) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Matt Sheerin: Okay. Thank you.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our next question will come from the line of Joshua Buchalter with TD Cowen.

Joshua Buchalter: Hey, guys. Thank you for taking my question. I wanted to ask a sort of a bit of a bigger picture one. So as you are — you have been very clear about that you are trying to rebuild the channel. It’s coming at a time when the channel big picture is trying to get its inventory levels down. I guess, has that dynamic of you leaning in as the channel wants needs to get things rightsized made your transition go faster or slower I guess? Is that an opportunity as your peers start to lean out of the channel to move more quickly or does sort of their — the business activity and changes sort of seize up because of the correction? Thank you.

Joel Smejkal: I would say it’s a little slower is the pace, because when you look at — when we have a discussion with the distributor, they speak about their total umbrella of inventory. They are umbrella of inventories all suppliers. They understand where Vishay wants to go. They are investing in these SKUs. They are conscious of their requirements every quarter to their shareholders and as they report their earnings. But we are making progress, as we have shown with the number of part numbers we are adding and the feedback that we get from customers that they are finding the product. We continue this. It’s an important element of our initiative. We would like it to move faster. We really point to 2024 as a POS year, which requires Vishay to be out front with the distributor at the customer to make sure we are realizing a greater rate of POS growth, which then facilitates the continued addition and replenishment of this inventory.

Joshua Buchalter: I appreciate all the color there. And then in the prepared remarks, you mentioned the low single-digit ASP declines, but also confidence in your ability to offset them with cost improvements. Maybe you could spend some time talking about the near-term steps that you are undergoing with your manufacturing footprint, and how much of this is also, I guess, inflationary pressures and input costs easing as a tailwind, or again, is it mainly the self-help levers that you have been outlining for a year plus now? Thank you.

Joel Smejkal: Okay. Cost reduction initiatives are required and important with each of the divisions as we go into each calendar year. So efficiencies, cost reductions of materials landing in lower cost manufacturing sites like Mexico, those additions that we spoke about. Having some of our commodity products being supported by subcontractors also provides us some cost benefits here. We have a number of levers we pull. The inflationary items, the inflationary items for the most part, seem to be leveling other than wage inflation, but materials, logistics, those items are fairly flat. Logistics has declined somewhat. So I think it’s the initiatives of our Vishay operations team with efficiencies, material reductions, improvements in the processes, which is going to help us offset this, as well as those low-cost sites.

Joshua Buchalter: Thanks, Joel.

Joel Smejkal: All right. Thanks, Josh.

Operator: That concludes today’s question-and-answer session. I’d like to turn the call back to Joel Smejkal for closing remarks.

Joel Smejkal: All right. Thank you again everyone for joining us today for the review of our fourth quarter results. As a reminder, we are holding an Investor Day, our first ever, on April 2nd at the New York Stock Exchange. We look forward to seeing you there. Thank you very much. Have a good day.

Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

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