James Hardie Industries plc (NYSE:JHX) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Daniel Kang: Good morning, everyone. Just in terms of, Aaron, you mentioned about Prattville expansion. There’s also further new capacity coming through in the industry. How do you see this being digested in the current slowing market?

Aaron Erter: The further capacity being introduced?

Daniel Kang: Yes.

Aaron Erter: Yes, look, I mean, obviously, as you have a market slowdown and you have more capacity, you’re going to have, if you have equal product, you’re going to have a lot of fight over new business, right? I think what we look at is focusing on what we can control, right. And so what we can control is the value proposition that we offer to our customers, right. I mentioned a lot of our focus, or what we talked about here internally is really to be homeowner focused customer and contractor driven. That really means along that supply chain, with the homeowner, with the customer and the contractor, we have to provide an outstanding product, which we do, an outstanding service. So if you’re asking, are we going to go out and fight on price? The answer is going to be no. We are going to continue to provide that value proposition that customers all along that supply chain are going to be willing to pay for.

Daniel Kang: Thanks, Aaron. And I guess you put a chart in terms of mix of volume for North America in the past. Has that chart necessarily change given the slowdown in market?

Aaron Erter: No, it shouldn’t, it won’t change.

Daniel Kang: Got it. And just one quick follow-up, if I can. You expanded the consumer marketing campaign to three new regions in Minneapolis, Chicago and Washington. Can you talk us through how that launch has been received?

Aaron Erter: Yes, look, it’s early days, what we’re focused on awareness, preference and leads. So those are all things that we’re still trying to quantify. I won’t share the exact numbers here on this call. But needless to say, we’re pleased with what we’re seeing. That’s why we are going to continue to invest in the homeowner focus marketing campaign.

Daniel Kang: Good to hear. Thanks, Aaron.

Aaron Erter: Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. Your next question comes from Anderson Chow with Jarden Group Australia. Please go ahead.

Anderson Chow: Good evening, Aaron and Jason. Thanks for taking my questions. I just have two questions, if I could. I mean, the rapid market slowdown also caught me by surprise, I guess. You mainly talk about new starts slowing down. But isn’t the R&R market rose is rapidly decelerating. I mean, if I look at LIRA index is barely positive and new home sales — I mean, existing home sales is still declining. So how do you think we have place for a potential shrinking of the R&R market, probably going into 2024 as well when new start is already weak?

Aaron Erter: Yes, look, Anderson, we’d like the fundamentals of the R&R market. We certainly see it moderating. As Aaron mentioned earlier, the contractors we partner with are certain — certainly seen their calls flow. But with the conditions of new construction, we do like the fundamentals from the R&R market, and we believe it will remain buoyant. So we think going forward, our focus is right, as we’ve over the past 10, 12 years shifted to be a much more heavily focused R&R, or a lot more of our volume goes into R&R. So we think that plays well or us moving forward. Certainly, consumer confidence is low. We do see R&R moderating. We think it’ll be strong going forward.

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