Aterian, Inc. (NASDAQ:ATER) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Brian Kinstlinger: Okay. And so are there any in the first in the fourth quarter and expected in the first quarter? Or are they all in process right now?

Yaniv Sarig: So if there were any in the fourth quarter, there would have been product products that would be what we call variations means we kind of like to think of them as another version of an existing product. That’s where we would have felt more comfortable. I don’t — it’s not as material as when we typically do the launches that you’re thinking about. And so again, I think that the answer is that with the efforts that we’re putting on now, we’ll be able to do it at least in the next few months, give a little more clarity on the time line that we’re seeing around those launches happening.

Brian Kinstlinger: And then as I’ve read more so in the private market, I think some — there’s some undercapitalized fulfilled by Amazon companies that are struggling. Are you beginning to see any fire sales and how aggressive and you when do you expect to be this year in 2023 on M&A?

Yaniv Sarig: Yes, it’s a great question and you’re absolutely right there. There’s a lot of companies out there that are struggling and going through a lot of the challenges we went through in the last 1.5 years, let say, right? And again, some of them are really in a very difficult situation. So we’re very active talking to a lot of these competitors, exploring different opportunities, spending a lot of time with this. And as I mentioned in my remarks, we can’t guarantee any outcome but with the amount of effort that we’re putting out there and the things we’re seeing, we were overall quite optimistic that we’ll be able to find some opportunities with distressed assets that are actually quite good, right? I mean I think a lot of the things we’re seeing, obviously, it goes through the spectrum, right?

But there’s a lot of really good assets out there that we’re basically dealing with the same situation where the demand of COVID and on the other side, the pressure of supply chain is the perfect 1 that would these great assets in a challenging position. And so we’re as I mentioned, quite active talking to all these companies, they’re looking for these opportunities. We’re hoping to have an exciting thing to share with everyone but it’s still work in progress at this point.

Brian Kinstlinger: Last question I’ve got is when you first went public, there was a very pronounced seasonality to your business. Help us understand today how we should think about seasonality for the year in the different quarters.

Yaniv Sarig: Yes. So I think the big difference from when we first IPO-ed and today, right, was at the time, I think Q2 and Q3 were kind of like the 2 strongest quarters and Q1 and Q4 were quite like behind. I think given the profile of the acquisitions we’ve done and some changes to our portfolio, Q4 now is becoming a much stronger quarter, right and I think has the potential in a more normalized environment to see us even doing better over time. Q1 still is the one lag behind but it’s really it’s really, again, just the composition of the portfolio that we have. And so you’re still in a position where Q2 and Q3 are the strongest Q4 right behind there and then Q1 is still behind the 3 of them right when you compare it to back when we IPOed.

Operator: Our next question will come from Marvin Fong with BTIG.

Marvin Fong: I guess my first question, just on the first quarter revenue outlook down maybe something like 20% year-over-year. Just wondering if you could help us understand, I mean, how much of that is the consumer demand softness that you alluded to? Or is any of it just that you’re entering the quarter with a little bit less inventory than you were in the same quarter last year. I just wanted to understand that dynamic a little bit better.

Yaniv Sarig: Yes. Maybe I’ll start and see if Arty wants to add anything. But just in general, Marvin, 1 of the, I think, maybe benefits of how we run our business and the different brands that we have across different categories, is that as opposed to probably other companies who are maybe just active in one category, we have a little bit more wider visibility on demand. And the answer is, as you kind of mentioned yourself, right, is really mainly driven by consumer demand being soft, right? I think that’s no surprise given the overall economic outlook around us. But again, what’s really good that we’re seeing so far when it comes to our businesses, we’re always kind of looking at that demand in the context of the entire category and we have good visibility to the fact that it’s not that we’re losing market share but more of that just a soft demand across the board, right?

Arty, I don’t know if you want to add anything but that’s kind of like overall how we are looking at this.

Arturo Rodriguez: Yes. No, that’s right, Yaniv. I think that’s what we’re seeing that. I still think we still feel very confident on the year. I think we pointed in the past about being overall kind of flattish on the revenue side. So I just think a little bit — we’re seeing some of the consumer demand softness early in the year and then it should pick up back to where we believe will be Q3 and Q4 revenues for us. I think the other side of that Marvin is even at that lower amount, you could see the adjusted EBITDA guidance improvement, right? It’s a good testament of how we’ve really focused on clearing out the inventory that really set us up for a good 2023. And I think that’s the other part of it, even though the revenue is low, you sort of see already the improvement based on the guide of the adjusted EBITDA on the profitability of the quarter.