Albany International Corp. (NYSE:AIN) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Bill Higgins: Yes. We don’t think about that particularly as a lead time, but from an ability to ramp the business and the processes, as you may recall, we have the capacity, we have the equipment in place, and it’s about training people. Maybe that’s a few months to bring somebody new on and train them. But we’d be ready to go. So I don’t think we €“ I don’t think it would take us too long.

Stephen Nolan: Yes. Some of €“ if you think about as the rate increases as Safran gets that, when do they have to switch us on, it does vary based on how much finished goods inventory Safran has at that time and how much of that kind of safety stock, if you like, they’re willing to absorb in anticipation. So it does vary. But if you think probably something like six months might be a reasonable thing if you both step up, when would we step up? But as I say, it does vary depending on how much Safran is willing to do with its existing finished good.

Bill Higgins: And we would know well ahead of time. It’s not the kind of thing what happened the last minute.

Michael Ciarmoli: Okay. Okay. And then Bill, you just mentioned training people, new employees. I mean, are there any other choke points out there in the supply chain? I mean, as you look at your current staff and think about where you might need to be. I mean, is there going to be a significant demand for new employees or how are you thinking about additional staff here?

Bill Higgins: Yes. The labor markets been really tight in general, if we look back over the last year or so, and they’ve gotten a little bit better. I won’t say they’re wide open, but we’ve been able to get the people we need and focus on training new folks and bringing them up to speed and doing a lot of training with existing employees. So we’re feeling more comfortable. Things have gotten a little bit better on the logistics side as well. So I don’t see anything that that’s a major bottleneck at this point.

Michael Ciarmoli: Okay. Okay. And then Steve, just one for clarity, the engineered EBITDA margins in the quarter down year-over-year down sequentially. Was that just due to mix? Was that just the higher revenues from the CH-53K or anything that that happened in the quarter to push those margins down?

Stephen Nolan: No. Look, let me touch on, CH-53K is certainly not a low margin program. It’s a good solid program. I think it’s a combination and I mentioned this briefly in my remarks. One of our newer programs had some startup challenges. And one of the challenges on new programs is as we think about the process we go through, the terms of this long-term program accounting where we spread the pain or gain, either bad news or good news over the life of a program and adjust the booking rate. On the new program, we typically have an order for just a very short period. So that gain all gets kind of recognized almost like a period expense rather than doing long-term program accounting. So there’s significant hit in the quarter related to that.

Michael Ciarmoli: Got it. Okay. Helpful. Perfect. Thanks guys.

Operator: Thank you. And at this time there are no further questions in queue. Please continue.

Bill Higgins: All right. Thank you everyone for joining us on the call today. We appreciate your continued interest in Albany International. Thank you and have a good day.

Operator: Thank you. And ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for your participation and for using AT&T TeleConference. You may now disconnect.

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