La-Z-Boy Incorporated (NYSE:LZB) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Bobby Griffin: Okay. That’s helpful. And then maybe more near-term wise, there’s been a lot of talk and throughout the furniture industry, we’re starting to see transportation costs obviously come down. We’ve started to see some pricing reductions. Just can you maybe talk about what you’re seeing competitively in terms of pricing, is industry holding on to some of the pricing that we’ve put through over the last 18 to 24 months?

Bob Lucian: The industry continues to hold on to, I would say, the bulk of that pricing. There have been reductions that we’ve seen across a number of customers and a number of channels and a little bit more on the case goods side of the business, which was impacted more by those really high ocean freights. The overland freights in the US is not getting any better. The trucking business is still a little bit firm from a pricing perspective. We have taken — and we’ve mentioned this before in previous calls, we’ve taken some pricing on some of our opening price points products to make sure that we remain competitive in those areas and that we’re protecting our floor space. But broadly speaking, things are still — the major — I would say the majority of that pricing has stuck.

Bobby Griffin: Okay. That’s helpful. I appreciate it. I’ll jump back in the queue. But best of luck here on the next quarter.

Bob Lucian: Thank you.

Melinda Whittington: Thanks, Bobby.

Operator: Your next question is coming from Brad Thomas with KeyBanc Capital.

Brad Thomas: Hey, good morning, everybody. Thanks for taking my question and congrats on a nice quarter and some nice order growth here.

Melinda Whittington: Thank you.

Brad Thomas: Melinda, I guess the demand side of things is I was hoping to maybe first ask about certainly some encouraging written trends that you’re seeing. I believe, Bob, you mentioned the lower unit volume and a better mix. Melinda, I was hoping you could just talk a little bit more about that composition of what you’re seeing in terms of sales. Any nuances in terms of the kind of customers’ demographics that you’re seeing because I do think it does stand out versus what we’re seeing across the industry? And then maybe, Melinda, if you could also add on a little bit more about what you’re hearing from your independent retail partners in terms of demand trends and inventory levels that they have in their stores and in their systems.

Melinda Whittington: Certainly. So a couple of things. As we all know here, delivered numbers are going to look unusual this year because of the $300 million of backlog we were still delivering last year. It was all from all the pandemic disruption, right? So to your point, we’re really focusing on those trends of what we’re writing. The consumer around across the market, across the furniture industry is certainly appearing to be challenged. I think — we are very pleased across all of our furniture galleries with the demand that we’re seeing and that we are writing positive on a base that is significantly bigger than where we were pre-pandemic. And so exactly to that point, we’re up 2% even versus a year ago for our company-owned retail.

Importantly, our entire Furniture Galleries network is also up 2%. And so I think that speaks to the strength of the brand and the strength of the execution. Our consumer is a more upper middle-class consumer. So perhaps maybe a little less impacted by some of the economic challenges that are out there, and that may be part of what’s playing there. But I think, again, we are unique and that we have the power of a brand, and we should see that even strengthen more with our new ad campaign and continuing to really invest in our brand and our product over time. To your one other question there, that 2% growth for our company retail, there was a little bit of benefit there from — I’ll call it pricing, but it’s really mix because there’s been no significant pricing actions across our overall portfolio.