MarineMax, Inc. (NYSE:HZO) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Brett McGill: Yes. Joe, god morning. Yes, I’d say that our trends in the stores as far as closing deals, financing deals, all of that is holding up really well. The banks €“ we have a pretty resilient wealthy client we’re lending to. So everything seems to be on track on par, I would say, wouldn’t this? Agree Mike?

Mike McLamb: Yes. Actually the retail lenders love the marine retail paper. They always hold it. As I’ve said before there’s never been a securitization of marine retail loans. They like it. The banks want it. I mean obviously rates have gone up. That’s — but in terms of how they underwrite, there’s been really no changes. There’s no increase in delinquencies or increases in losses. And on the wholesale floor plan side, I think the banks are finally glad. They got a little bit of inventory to get some interest on. So they’re probably a little happier today than they were the last couple of years. But no, the relationship and the way they view the industry is very positive.

Joe Altobello: Okay. That’s helpful. And maybe in terms of your same-store sales outlook this year, I guess you said down modestly. If you look at Q1, obviously, some weak unit numbers offset by much higher ASPs. Maybe help us understand how you’re thinking about ASPs this year and when or if do you expect to see some level of promotional activity back in the market.

Mike McLamb: Yes. I’ll comment. We generally see ASPs increasing every year. And I think this year will be no exception. We’ll have an increase in ASP given the mix of our business, given cost increasing to a degree, although costs are definitely stabilizing and pretty reasonable on a go-forward basis. What was your second…

Brett McGill: And I think on discounting I think some of the shows that we’ve seen, there’s been some discounting out there. Again it depends on the products. Smaller, little cheaper product, maybe is under a little more pressure, because there’s inventory, all that’s well known out there. But so — yes, I think there’ll be some pressure on some models and products to give a little discounting, but the premium stuff is holding up very well.

Joe Altobello: And if I could squeeze one more in and I get this question a lot. Any anecdotal evidence that both usage is coming down? Are you still seeing people — boat owners still using their boats pretty regularly?

Brett McGill: Good question. Thanks for asking that. We watch it really close, right? We look at our marinas and we look at fuel sales, our getaways and events and attendance, and they’re all sold out. People are boating here and there. You have a given weekend or something that’s off compared to the other. But it’s overall, I mean I’d tell you that’s where we look. We look at website traffic to make sure people are out there looking on our website and it helps us understand seasonality a little, if they’re still actively on our website. And then we look at activity in the marinas and boating and all of those are really good.

Joe Altobello: Got it. Thanks guys.

Brett McGill: Thanks.

Mike McLamb: Thanks, Joe.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Mike Swartz with Truist Securities. Please proceed with your question.

Mike Swartz: Hey, guys. Good morning. I think you had mentioned that the boat margins really haven’t changed to a great degree, maybe a little bit of compression, but maybe if you could drill down into that a little more. Are you seeing any softness in pre-owned margins relative to new? Maybe give us a little more color there.

Mike McLamb: Yes, I’ll comment. I commented that if you remove IGY from our business, our margins were basically flat to last year. And so that would tell you that new margins are holding up pretty well in the quarter and used margins. So, I don’t think we’re seeing a whole lot of change in used margins in our business.

Brett McGill: Yeah.