Ferguson plc (NYSE:FERG) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

And so it’s always in our mind as to what that next customer group might look like. But today, we’re fairly well focused on that bolt-on strategy and how that can complement our business from an organic perspective. So thank you very much for the question, Sam.

Sam Darkatsh: Yes. Fair enough. And if I allow us a follow-up, Kevin. You mentioned the normalization in inventory and supply chains at this point. Are you seeing any increase in pressure from the independents and regional competitors now that at least relative inventory availability is not as much a lever point in the business? And where within your business verticals might that occur if it would?

Kevin Murphy : We’ve seen normalization of supply chains for the — with maybe 1 or 2 small exceptions. We have a normalized supply chain across our business and across our customer groups. We were very fortunate during the period of supply chain chaos to use the strengths that we have and the vendor relationships and the size and scale that we have to out gain from a share perspective, what our traditional 300 basis points to 400 basis points were. That’s normalized and we expected that to normalize. Do we see any further pressure both from a pricing perspective as well as from a market perspective, now that supply chains have normalized? No, we don’t. In fact, the majority of the deflationary activity, as we discussed, as we talked about earlier, really came from commodity-based input as opposed to what’s happening in the overall market. So we don’t see any abnormal pressure that we wouldn’t normally see inside of these markets.

Operator: We currently have no further questions. So I’d like to hand the call back to Kevin Murphy for closing remarks. Please go ahead.

Kevin Murphy : Yes. Thank you, operator, and thank you all for your time today to take part in the call. We really appreciate that time. And as I close, really close as we began, and that is things are really playing out as we expected, and we’re extremely pleased with the execution of our teams and taking care of our customers and making their projects more simple, successful and sustainable. We’re confident in the medium and long term of these markets, both residentially and non-residentially and some of the structural tailwinds that we’re seeing develop. The strength of our business model will continue on, and we’ve got great confidence in it. So thank you very much. Please take care, and we’ll talk soon. Thank you.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today’s call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.