ACCO Brands Corporation (NYSE:ACCO) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Tom Tedford: Yes. So we’ve talked a little bit about the future of work and the changing needs of professionals as they work in a more hybrid environment. They’re not simply working at a desk anymore. They’re working sometimes out of their car, at a coffee shop, at home, right? So there’s opportunities that we think are across many of our categories, just in supporting end users where they work. We’re excited about some of the product categories that we’re introducing. We’ve gotten some recent awards on new products that have been introduced. But we’re also leaning in on a wellness trend that we think is something that is going to continue to grow. So ergonomics is an area that we have been in, in the past. We’re probably underinvested in it.

But when we think about the opportunities to improve the wellness of end users, regardless of where they work, we think that’s a really big and intriguing opportunity moving forward. But we don’t typically get into a ton of insights into our pipeline until after the products are released. But I can tell you that it’s a robust pipeline, and it’s growing, and we’re excited about the future revenue opportunities from the work that we’re doing today.

William Reuter: Got it. That makes sense. And then just lastly for me. I think I heard correctly that gaming accessories returned to growth in the Americas. Was that — I guess, was it up in the U.S.? And what is driving the increase there? I had felt like in general, that’s been a little bit of a kind of soft industry of late.

Tom Tedford: Yes. So we did return to growth globally. We were up 14% in our PowerA business. We also grew in the U.S. Part of that growth is being driven by our expansion internationally. We’ve talked a bit about that in our prepared remarks. And part of it is a return to stock for some products that we were out of stock in, in Q1 of last year. Our brand PowerA performed well in the marketplace. It took market share, which we were excited to see and excited about. And the return to growth we believe is a positive development. However, we see the same things that you’re seeing, and we think that the market remains a bit uncertain, and we think sales will be choppy for the rest of the year, but we’re excited that Q1 is off to a good start for PowerA.

William Reuter: Got it. That’s all for me. Thank you.

Tom Tedford: Okay. Thank you.

Operator: This concludes our Q&A. I’ll now hand back to Tom Tedford for closing remarks.

Tom Tedford: Thank you for your interest in ACCO Brands. We look forward to talking to you in a couple of months to report on our second quarter results.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, today’s call has now concluded. We’d like to thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect your lines.