Johnson Controls International plc (NYSE:JCI) Q2 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

And so that is what gives us confidence that with the backlog we are building. It is going to — as it converts here third and fourth quarter and then the revenue that really we get back to on a positive basis by the end of the year. We are very bullish on the business. It’s — we’ve got a great product. We’ve got a great facility there. And it’s just making sure that as we reset with the inventory build that we had last year that were reset to where the market is going to be and ultimately how we capitalize on more than our share.

Operator: Thank you. And our next question today comes from Joe Ritchie with Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Joseph Ritchie: Hi good morning guys. So I have a couple of quick clarifying questions. Just the $33 million product liability charge that you took this quarter, I’m just a — product quality charge you took this quarter, like what portion of your product portfolio is that actually touching? Just again, I just want to get some comfort around ring-fencing that number. And then also on the factoring program, what — how should we be thinking about the impact from factoring through the remainder of the year?

George R. Oliver: On the product, Joe that’s in our fire detection business. It is a sensor that ultimately, as Marc said, firmware in a sensor that’s a legacy product, as far as when we look at all the product that’s being produced today, it’s totally compliant. So it is making sure based on what we’ve seen with a couple of failures, making sure that we are addressing that in the legacy product. And as Marc talked about, that is how we kind of estimated what that potential could be. And we are going to be disciplined in how we actually go about remediating that.

Marc Vandiepenbeeck: On the factoring and the finance charges. Yes, the unwind of the factoring will provide some benefit in the balance of the year. What’s offsetting part of that is the PFAS settlement. As you know, we are going to settle $750 million, as well as slightly higher interest rate environment than we had originally anticipated. But I think the factoring and the cost benefit that it provides gives us confidence that our guidance is at the right level.

Joseph Ritchie: Got it. Okay. That’s both helpful clarification. Thank you. And then my other question was really just around the — what’s happening with Global Products mix going forward because it seems like the guidance is baking in a pretty good improvement in Global Products margins. And I’m just curious, like is global products expected to turn mix positive in the second half? I know it was a headwind this quarter. Just any color on that would be helpful.

George R. Oliver: When you look at Global Products historically, when you are in a more stable environment year-on-year, I mean last year we had a tough year because as we were really working down backlog and have built up with all of the supply chain disruption. And then when lead times went back to normal, obviously we were a shortfall of orders and orders coming in through the year. As Marc said, we are back to normal flow of orders to fulfillment. We have got our lead times down back to where they were. And so we are seeing good flow, right from market demand, orders, building backlog and then converting. On the margin side, you can imagine when we were disrupted, there was significant cost with that disruption. And so we have been significantly improving the productivity as we’ve recovered now with normal flow and stability, we’re getting significant conversion cost productivity.

And then with the continued volume increase on the conversion in the second half, that will lever really nicely in the second half from a margin standpoint. And then what we have done across the company as we went through this cycle, we have taken out significant G&A. And so as we’ve addressed that across the board and gone to one operating system, we are going to start to see much better leverage on our G&A structure.

Marc Vandiepenbeeck: And then I would add on mix. What you saw in the quarter, that negative mix of $80 million global product really came from the volume challenge we saw in APAC, that really led to an under absorption global product. Outside of that — the general mix of the product is neutral to the margin global product. What you get is really the lift, George just talked about.

Operator: Thank you. And our next question today comes from Jeff Sprague of Vertical Research. Please go ahead.

Jeffrey Sprague: Hi, thank you good morning everyone. A couple of questions, obviously, on the Q4 guide. And I know there is kind of some squiggles around the growth rates and everything. But it does seem to me that if Q3 is a low single-digit organic growth and Q4 is high-single digit, 8% or 9% in the year is closer to 3%. So maybe just to address that. Is that kind of what you are thinking you’re kind of progressing towards the very low bound of what we might call mid-single digit for the year.

Marc Vandiepenbeeck: I mean, I would think of Q4 in the teens, 10% of the growth. And I think, you are right, there’s a step function change between Q3 and Q4 from a growth standpoint. But I don’t think, it’s that challenge if you see the momentum we see in orders.

Jeffrey Sprague: Okay. So just to clarify that, as — somebody asked you if it was low-double digits, and then you said high-single digits, but now you’re saying low double digits.

Marc Vandiepenbeeck: High single digit to attain the midpoint of where we are guiding to get to the high-end, you would need that 10% growth rate in Q4.

Jeffrey Sprague: I see. Okay. And what was the nature of the goodwill charge in the quarter?