Legacy Housing Corporation (NASDAQ:LEGH) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Min Cho: Great. Thank you for the follow up. Real quick, I noticed that the ASP per home section was up in the fourth quarter during the third quarter. I just wanted to know if this is a function of mix or if you could explain that difference? And just any thoughts on ASP going forward? I’m assuming for 2023, kind of flat to down, but any details would be great.

Duncan Bates: Sure. We’ve had seven price – or I’m sorry, I think, 17 price increases through COVID. And – but we have not raised prices since kind of midyear 2022. I think that that’s a function of the price increases being fully implemented. Certainly, we’d like to hold prices. There’s other manufacturers that we’re seeing that have decreased prices. And so look, we’d love to continue at this level, but we’ll see ultimately what happens over the next couple of quarters from a demand standpoint.

Min Cho: Right. And then just also in terms of your automation opportunities, can you talk to how much of your plant is currently automated, if any, and what your opportunities are if this is something that you’re going to focus on going forward?

Duncan Bates: Sure. It’s something that we talk about regularly. And I know if you look overseas, where there’s, I’d say, expanded code – we manufacture to a very strict code. There’s overseas operations in countries where they have a, I’d say, more broad code, and they are highly automated. Our product is very manual right now, and there’s really not much automation. And part of that is we don’t have plants that are dedicated to building the same product over and over and over again, we’ll build – we’ll stack production with orders as they come in. And so I think there probably are some automation opportunities. There’s also, I think, opportunities to get down into regions that have a cheaper labor rates and there – I thought the Solitaire deal with Cavco is pretty interesting, where that’s the only HUD-code manufacturer in Mexico.

That’s certainly something that we had our eye on. But I would see us going in that direction before we build a really state-of-the-art like highly automated manufacturing plant.

Min Cho: Understood. All right, thank you.

Duncan Bates: Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. And our next question coming from the line of Brian Glenn with Olcott Partners. Your line is open.

Brian Glenn: Hi. Welcome, Max. A – Max Africk Thank you.

Brian Glenn: Hey, Duncan. Nice job guys. Nice job, Ron Yes, it’s great to see you guys working hard and getting some results. I had a quick question about in the K, there was a contingent repurchase agreement noted. And it looks like that number has gone up from – it was like $100,000 and $4 million and $8 million. I know it’s noted as immaterial, it’s still immaterial. Is that – it looks like – is that strategic on your side to try to get more floor space? I know it’s related to floor plan financing by a third party? Or is that just the way the market has gone, where you have to put that agreement in place?

Duncan Bates: Yes. So the way that agreement works is, say, we have an independent dealer that we sell homes to that uses, say, 21st for their floor planning. Since we are the manufacturer, we’ll have an agreement with say, 21st to repurchase homes and certain circumstances. I need to look at the movement in that as well. I can follow up. But I think a big component of it is – there are two components of it. One, dealers do have a lot of inventory right now, and it’s not moving as quickly as I think they would like. And the second is just home prices are up pretty significantly. And so both of those are driving that number. Now why it went from a few hundred thousand to several million, I can follow up with you on. It may be that we have seen other companies that finance get really aggressive on terms and since we hold everything on our balance sheet, we’re pretty conservative about what we will finance and what we won’t finance.