Avnet, Inc. (NASDAQ:AVT) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Matt Sheerin: Okay. In EC, okay, but not for the company, though. Got it. Okay. And just lastly, on the interest expense, what you said in the presentation, obviously, that’s been a big EPS headwind. Is that a priority in terms of your free cash used to bring down those borrowings, particularly if you see margin pressure on mix and continued your correction here as a headwind to operating margin to offset that?

Ken Jacobson: Yeah, I’d say, Matt, I mean, definitely, we will look to deploy some of our cash to pay down some debt, especially just to make sure sales start to go down. We want to make sure we’re keeping the balance sheet strong, but then we’ll look at other capital allocation priorities as well, right? So we do see the cash flow starting to come in. So feel good about that. And now we’ve got to make sure we put it to the work in the best way as possible. But clearly, paying down some interest is top of mind just because it’s getting so expensive, but we also see great value in the shares right now, as well as continuing to trade below book value.

Matt Sheerin: Right. Okay, thank you very much.

Phil Gallagher: Thanks, Matt.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question is from Melissa Fairbanks with Raymond James. Please proceed with your question.

Melissa Fairbanks: Hi, guys. Thanks very much. Most of my questions have been asked and answered. But so I just had one for you. It’s great to hear both Europe and the Americas margins were up really nicely year-on-year. I think Europe is still your highest-margin market. Just wondering if you could give us an update on closing that gap between those markets. And then maybe highlight any opportunities if you have any opportunities to drive margin in Asia closer to the Western market?

Phil Gallagher: Yeah. Hi, Melissa, thanks. Yeah, we’re really pleased with the Americas from where we were three, four or five years ago and what we’re working doing, we’re still at 80% there, probably back to the issues we had with the ERP, which is well behind us. So we’re about 80% where we think we need to be. Closing it to Europe, Europe’s — well, always strong message. But really the last 10, 15 years, it’s been a higher-margin operating business for us. We tend to get higher gross margins in Europe as well. And so I don’t know that we’ll close the gap with Europe — I’m certainly challenging the Americas team to do that. But I want Americas to — I want to Americas to catch Europe, not Europe catch Americas. But — that’s really it on that. So we’re pleased with the progress overall. And Melissa, what was the second part of your question?

Melissa Fairbanks: Just if there’s any opportunities, yeah.

Phil Gallagher: Yeah. Asia, a lot of that mix, it’s just volume. I mean we’re pleased with the returns in Asia. So we measure Asia, both on operating margin as well as return on working capital. So they’ll have a higher returns model. So the returns in Asia have come up nicely. We’ve had particular success as well in Japan, which has been really terrific, and that’s getting closer to some of the models in the West. But overall, Asia, I think we’re in about the right spot in Asia, based on the volume that that drives for us and the drop-through we get with that. We could shrink Asia and grow the operating margins, right? But that always isn’t the most strategic thing to do.