CONMED Corporation (NYSE:CNMD) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Matt O’Brien: Excellent. So I don’t want to focus on this too much, but Curt or Todd, the top line number did come down $10 million from what you guys talked about couple months ago and I know you got better information now. Is that specific to something in General Surgery, something in Orthopedics? That you’re a little less bullish about now? And then can you just talk about the share recapture specifically? I mean, $65 million in one quarter is a ton of revenue obviously, what are you seeing as far as getting that revenue back and your confidence in the visibility of getting that kind of share back going forward? And then I do have one follow-up. Thanks.

Todd Garner: Sure. Thanks, Matt. And good question. Let’s make sure we’re clear. So $65 million was the miss in Q4 to our estimate. $30 million is the backlog at the end of the quarter, right? So we had $30 million in orders that if we could have got it out the door, we would have sold $30 million more, right? Inclusive part of that was we shut the warehouse down for the last three days of the year to do a physical inventory to make sure that our books and records were clean and this thing didn’t cause any issues on that side of the fence. So yes, $65 million was the miss, but $30 million was the back order. So that $30 million basically moves into 2023, right? So it helps 2023, but of course, you’ve got to go get that business back.

Now some of that business, we got back before the quarter ended. Some of those customers, we were able to start serving again and we got them back in Q4. Some of them we’ve already gotten back in January. And we’re going to continue to focus on taking care of our prior and existing customers. And then, of course, as you know, there’s a ton of room to go get new customers. And so the biggest issue, so the $10 million — we gave you a $60 million range back in November, you are correct that we took $10 million off the top end of that range. But we didn’t take the entire range down $10 million. We took — we went from a $60 million range, which is wider than we would normally give for the coming year. Back to a $50 million range and we did take that $10 million off of the top end of the range simply, because as Curt explained, by the sales force being on defense longer than we anticipated when we talked in November, you’ve got it — that’s going to bleed a little more into 2023 than we anticipated.

Now the backlog is also bigger, so you get some benefit that carries into the year as well. But so we feel good about the revenue projections we’ve put forward. And let’s see, did I miss any part of your question?

Matt O’Brien: No, that’s it. The $10 million, I mean, was there any area where they’re a little more defensive, I don’t know if it’s general surgery or ortho?

Todd Garner: It was about — like we said, it was — the impact from the $65 million was slightly more on the general surgery side, but it affected the whole portfolio. Except for it, it did not affect the new acquisitions.

Matt O’Brien: Got it. Got it. Appreciate that. And then the follow-up is on gross margins. Todd, I mean, it’s something that we thought would get a lot better going forward. I mean, getting to 60%, I’m assuming you mean like at some point in 2025 versus the full-year number being 60%, correct me if I’m wrong, but where does that level of improvement come from? What’s assumed as far as inflationary benefits over the next several years or some of the mix benefits as well, because that’s quite a bit better than we expected. Again, knowing that you have been doing better, even offsetting some of these pressures over the last several years on the inflationary side?