Alpha Teknova, Inc. (NASDAQ:TKNO) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

And I do think that the biotech funding has, seems to have stabilized, right? And so, and that is typically for us, three, four quarter leading indicator as we’ve looked through the data. So, starting to feel good about, those are all positive signs. And then with the conversations are also pretty positive. It’s just, it’s really a question of seeing the timing of those orders and whether or not there’ll be additional pushes out as we get into next year and how fast that ramps.

Matt Larew: Okay, and then, sorry, just one more. I’m just trying to wrap my head around the gross margin. So, having been out to the facilities, I certainly can appreciate that there’s more dollars and sophistication built into the new facility relative to the legacy ones. Matt, is there anything different about any of the depreciation schedules or any of the accounting with respect to the new facility compared to the last facility? Just, we’d need to be aware of as we’re thinking about building out depreciation going forward.

Matthew Lowell: Yes, that’s a good question. I would say that generally speaking, we have pretty long lives associated with these assets maybe on average compared to our legacy facilities because of the quality of the equipment and other improvements that we’ve made in this versus our other facilities. So, the depreciation is spread out a bit longer on average than the others. And of course on the others, those have been depreciating for a while in some cases. So, some of that’s rolled off or will be rolling off. So, if I had to make any high level observations, those would be it. But I would also just say that we have been absorbing this depreciation into gross margins. And I think as we ramp up production with sellable products and making inventory out of that facility, we’ll be able to absorb some of that more into inventory as well.

But right now it’s been kind of directly hitting our margins. So, we’re getting the worst of it right now in terms of impact. But as I mentioned earlier, it’s going to be the revenue growth coming back where we get that absorption that’s really going to see those come back higher and where they used to be.

Matt Larew: All right, thank you.

Operator: Thank you. Please stand by for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Anna Snookowski with KeyBanc. Your line is open.

Anna Snookowski: Hi, this is Anna on for Paul Knight. My question is about revenue per customer. Do you still see a 1.4 increase in revenue in 2024? And if so, what would be the reason for that increase? Is it just customers moving towards commercialization or what are you seeing with that?

Matthew Lowell: Maybe just to make sure we clarify the question. You’re asking if we are expecting to see average revenue per customer climb next year? Is that, or did I misunderstand?

Anna Snookowski: No, yes, that is my question. Thank you.

Matthew Lowell: Okay. Well, I would just say this. I mean, it’s a little bit different for our lab essentials versus our clinical solutions, right? So as we ramp up the more, the smaller part of our business, the clinical solutions business, there’s going to be actually revenue per customer may stay flat or go down. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. It just means that we’re bringing on more customers that are younger in their cycle, maybe haven’t gone through that clinical pipeline or just ramping up with us for whatever reason. So I wouldn’t expect necessarily to see higher revenue per customer on the clinical solution side. On the lab essential side, we have been seeing strong trends there in terms of average revenue per customer going upwards.