Franklin Electric Co., Inc. (NASDAQ:FELE) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

But the business is still solid. The end market is healthy. The major marketers are continuing to invest. They’re going to continue to grow. And we really think that we do a great job in terms of, supplying them, bringing them the, great safety in the industry, the lowest total cost of ownership, and deliver a great product to them that we support after the sale. So, that’s, that’s high level where we see 2024 for fueling.

Unidentified Analyst: No, that’s super helpful color and very robust answer. I appreciate it. Maybe on the margin side of fueling, obviously, an impressive margin despite the volume levels. Maybe thinking about margins in, in 2024, is there any, any, puts and takes that we should consider kind of as the demand normalizes? Is there any mix considerations we need to be mindful of? Or, do we feel like we can – do we feel like we can maybe increment at relatively normal levels from here?

JeffTaylor: Yes. I mean, we’ve historically said this business is 25% to 27% operating income margin. We’ve been way past that for several quarters now. And so, certainly as our grid solutions and our critical asset monitoring products, as they increase in the mix, that certainly helps our, helps our business from a margin perspective. I would say, as, some of the core fueling products, can I come back and that mix starts to shift down? It’s going to keep us in the margin range. That is going to be at the high end of that range, if not higher. I expect that – I’m not predicting we’re going to go back to 30% – , 32% operating margins, but we’ll be in the high-20s and possibly touch over 30%, depending on how things play out.

Unidentified Analyst: Super helpful. Thank you. I’ll pass it on.

Operator: Thank you. I will now hand the call back over to Chairperson and CEO, Gregg Sengstack, for any closing remarks.

Gregg Sengstack: Well, thank you all for joining us this morning for this call. Please have a safe week, and we’ll look forward to speaking to you after the first quarter and with our first quarter results.

Operator: Thank you, and thank you for participating. This does conclude today’s program, and you may now disconnect.