Clarus Corporation (NASDAQ:CLAR) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Aaron Kuehne: Yes. The outdoor side on the international piece is really driven by Europe. That was the region that has been performing extremely well despite the geopolitical risk and concerns but also the economic headwinds that the entire globe is facing. And they were really outperforming on a relative basis but also sequentially for an extended period of time. And in Q2, it’s just finally caught up to us. The order book stayed pretty stable, but what we really saw is that the ASAP or replenishment side of things just was not there. And part of that was driven that we were able to have a high level of fulfillment as related to preseason orders, so that really took place in February and March. But as we headed into May and June, which are really driven by ASP and replenishment rates, the orders just weren’t there, and so in discussion with the team but also with retail accounts in that region.

They’re just — they’re experiencing a lot of what the U.S. started to see four quarters ago and something that they’re working through. The nice thing is that a lot of that is just transitory as we transition to the fall/winter season. The bookings are stable, and feedback is that they’ll continue to take them. And so for us, it’s really just matching up our order book with inventory supply because if we miss the delivery of those open order windows, that could start to bring you the question our ability to realize the full potential that we have in front of us based off of the order book. And so it really just comes down to execution and our ease of doing business with our retail partners.

Mark Smith: Okay. And then back to Precision for one more question. Just it sounds like you guys feel better about where kind of you’re locked in on components and some contracts there. Can you talk at all about pricing? Margins were squeezed here this quarter. How much of that’s really coming from component costs? And as you sound like feel better, what kind of price increases are you looking at on components going forward?

Aaron Kuehne: So a lot of what we saw from a gross margin perspective was driven by the promotional environment and what Mike highlighted in the prepared remarks associated with the ammo that we moved. This is the ammo that we built in anticipation of being able to sell through it over the last four quarters, and it just got to a point where we wanted to be able to move it. The bulk of that was either nine mil or 223. And that’s been a consistent story for us now for the last three quarters. There has been some margin pressure as it relates to input costs, in particular, related to that of components, shell cases being a primary driver, as well as labor. We have been able to plan for that, though, over the last couple of quarters as it relates to the different price increases that we activated, in particular in 2022, that have carried over into 2023.

And the team has also been very focused on continuous improvement initiatives. They have done a great job in increasing capacity, becoming more efficient, more productive and finding ways to lower the overall overhead structure of both of the businesses. What we’re also focused on is just the mix and making sure that we have a good balance of changeovers versus high runners, but also really focusing on the channels and the calibers or the types of products that we’re known for but also actually come with higher levels of gross margin as well. And so that is where we have deemphasized some of our focus on some of the more commodity-based ammunition initiatives, in particular, within Sierra, but also really focusing on our OEM and on our component bullet businesses as well.

Mark Smith: Okay. Great. Thank you.

Operator: One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from Jim Duffy with Stifel. Your line is open.

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