Delta Apparel, Inc. (AMEX:DLA) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Robert Humphreys: So, we used about 50% Delta produced garments during our first quarter. I think at our peak use, we have been in the mid 70%. There will be some products that Fanatics wants to market that we either can’t or don’t want to make, so we will never produce a 100% of that. But both sides for a lot of different reasons want Delta to make all the garments that they can. It is just a better economic model and a simpler transaction there.

James Wilen: Should that start to flow through in this quarter, or when will that actually start to happen?

Robert Humphreys: A little bit, but it is not going to move the needle this quarter, but by our third quarter and fourth quarter, it will start to move the needle.

James Wilen: Okay. Then how do you get to where next year you can actually not have demand exceed capacity in, in the business?

Robert Humphreys: Well, I don’t think you can. And we are not seeing that happen so far in digital print over holiday. I mean, you think about it, you are trying to basically quadruple your output for about four weeks. And so you just think how daunting it is to have trained operators to come in and do that and make first quality product. It just doesn’t work particularly in today’s labor market. Now the good news is our business is getting less seasonal for our digital print operations being driven by a lot of different factors, and one of them being by the type of customers that we are going after that have a more year-round business. So obviously the more that we can get, the easier it is for us to have operators that can ramp up during holidays.

James Wilen: Okay. So you should see double-digit growth and subsequent quarters as well in this business.

Justin Grow: Yes.

James Wilen: Okay. Moving over to Salt Life, one of the things you mentioned you had significant new wholesale customers. Could you expand on that a little bit?

Robert Humphreys: Well, I think it is more, uh, probably doors than necessarily customers. I mean, we continue to open up more local two or three chain or two or three store operations, but we are still seeing our major accounts add more doors to their portfolio that carry Salt Life.

James Wilen: Okay. Your sales per store are very impressive. How many of your stores are doing more than a million dollars a year right now and could you talk about your top stores, what type of numbers they are doing and what type of operating margins they might have at those peak numbers?

Robert Humphreys: Well, I would love to tell you our best stores is (Ph), so – but Destin, Florida is right up there with it. We probably have about seven stores that are over a million dollars in annual revenue and just about all of our stores are still growing. The first quarter was choppy on same-store-sales growth and some of the weather patterns that we have seen recently. But then we see weeks with outstanding same-store-sales growth as well. And so if you look at it at about $900,000 in revenue, it is about a 10% operating margin. But then once you get up to about 1,000,003 or million four, it is about a 30% operating margin. And so obviously, those things are powerful producers of cash flow and recordable earnings when they get to that level.

James Wilen: Great. On inventory and production, you took three-weeks of downturn. How much does it cost you per week to take things down and what.