Columbus McKinnon Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCO) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Patrick Baumann: Okay. Understood. And on the orders, dynamics, I think you said 6% growth in January, which I think you said is sequential versus maybe the third quarter?

David Wilson: That’s right. Sequential versus the third quarter up about 6% on a period to date basis through Friday of last week.

Patrick Baumann: Got it? Yes. So you’d kind of be up — into kind of close to 230. Maybe if that continued, through the quarter from the 215 number. My question is, assuming your supply chain eases so you can work down the backlog to more normal levels. What absolute level of orders do you think you needed to support in outlook for low to mid single-digit growth in revenue in 2024?

Greg Rustowicz: Yes, we’re forecasting that we see demand continue at current levels that were — we are seeing a relatively stable base of activity through the period. And we can support the level of outcome that we talked about with a stable base of demand. And so it’s not, overly aggressive or ambitious as it relates to increasing water activity, nor is it assuming any material declines in demand. And we’re obviously working on initiatives that will help us to grow and to gain access to more opportunities. And so if things do improve, we’ll certainly be seeking to capitalize on them. But we think that with a basic, stable, continuous performance that we’d like — we’ve been having we can we can execute to those levels.

Patrick Baumann: What is kind of, I think you’ve said this in the past, what’s the normal backlog level? Like what’s kind of a more normalized level than the 330, you’re at right now?

David Wilson: Yes. So if you look at the legacy business, we have about $125 million more backlog than historical levels. And so that means we’re roughly at — we used to run, say, roughly $160 million of backlog. So that will take you to 285. And the difference between 329 and 285 is the conveyance backlog for Garvey and Dorner.

Patrick Baumann: Got it. Okay, that’s helpful. And just one quick one on the Irish G&A side. The commentary around, in the slides and I think on the intro around, working to find more cost reductions, like what’s — can you give some color around, the actions you’re taking there. And that may be actions you’ve already taken as well. How we should think about the run rate of our SG&A into next year.

Patrick Baumann: Okay, yes. So. Pat, we were not satisfied with our SG&A’s percentage of sales. And as we plan for next year, and we think about the volume that we have in the business, given the moderate growth that we were talking about, we think that there’s, a need for us to be more proactive as it relates to the cost base. Clearly, what we’ve said in previous discussions is that we are going to get benefit from scale. And that’s very true. And as we execute on our strategy and grow the business, there are opportunities for us to get good scale on the investments that we have in place, but we’re also taking a proactive approach to the new structure that we put in place that enables us to unlock we think some more value as it relates to that cost structure. And so we’re taking a hard look at that in the period. We’re not giving a specific guide at this point. But, you know, we’ll probably be more prepared to talk about that as we enter Q1 and finish up this year.