Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

David Lowe: Yes. And like if you look at Q4, if currency were neutral, we would have been above 50%. So I think that — let’s hope that it stays neutral that our price cost gets in better shape, that the actual input costs come down at some point. We may see some of that starting to creep in. And then I have — nothing is broken here, so we should get back up to those rates that you were talking about.

Saree Boroditsky: Great. And then obviously, you’ve seen positive on the outlook for industrial next year. Can you just talk about what drove the strength in the quarter? And how do you think about those markets going into the year?

Mark Sheahan: Yes. I mean, I would just say that all in all, it was a great year for that team. I would point to the things I said before. I think our adhesive dispensing business, our sealant business is on solid footing across multiple industries, including general industry, aviation, solar. They have automation projects going on both in that business, as well as on the paint circulation side. They’ve got really good channel initiatives for expanding their channel. We’ve got engineering teams now located in the regions that are doing special projects for customers that lead to a more robust product plan. So overall, I think we feel like things are in good shape there. And then you throw in like e-mobility, battery production.

We’re trying to build our business in the packaging space and a really good powder equipment business, which has performed extremely well over the last couple of years, and they’ve got nice backlogs heading into €˜23. All of that really makes us feel pretty positive about what’s going on in our industrial segment.

Saree Boroditsky: Great. Thanks for taking my questions.

Mark Sheahan: Yes.

Operator: Thank you. One moment for your next question. Your next question comes from the line of Matt Summerville from D.A. Davidson.

Will Jellison: Good morning. This is Will Jellison on for Matt Summerville today. I wanted to ask you — in addition to the facility expansion plans, you’ve laid out for investing organically in the business. I was curious as to how you’re thinking about investing inorganically in the business? And whether or not you have a pipeline that you believe is actionable at the moment? And what kind of businesses you would be interested in adding to the Graco portfolio as part of that process?

Mark Sheahan: Yes, it’s a good question. Thanks for asking it. I mean, for sure, we’re trying to put every penny back into this business that we possibly can. In good times and bad, we’re going to keep investing in product development, upgrading our facilities, making capital investments that have good returns on investment associated with them. And everybody that follows the company knows that notwithstanding that, we still generate enough cash to be able to look at things like acquisitions. I would say that the teams over the last year have done a pretty good job of working with the corporate team in developing pipelines and looking at various applications, both with their existing markets, as well as adjacencies where we think we can drive some value.