Mohawk Industries, Inc. (NYSE:MHK) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Phil Ng: Okay. That’s helpful. And then a few more questions on LVT. With the investment you are making in extruding side and with Mexicali coming online early next year, how does your product stack up from a cost and quality standpoint versus imports coming out of Asia? And does your LVT manufacturing business now at this point, early next year stack up from a margin standpoint versus North American Flooring, is it accretive, neutral, still a headwind? How should we think about all those things?

Chris Wellborn: Let me see. We — first of all, we think the new products that we are coming out with in the LVT are going, especially the high-end, we are going to be definitely competitive with imports.

Jeff Lorberbaum: The pricing has declined substantially to import prices with both lower freight, as well as lower material costs. Our U.S. manufacturing costs are also coming down with it. We still have other things going on like service disruptions from China, given the U.S. in different pieces and so next year our margins should expand and we expect the profitability of the business to improve.

Chris Wellborn: And we also introduced a new resilient polymer core that’s environmentally-friendly with superior scratch resistant, that’s doing really well.

Phil Ng: Okay. And some of the friction, you mentioned in terms of imports coming in from Asia, how does that position Mohawk, especially as you ramp up some of those domestic capacity. Is it a good guy or just broadly your cost goes up, because at the end of day, you are still importing from Asia, maybe not directly from China.

Jeff Lorberbaum: The combination of both, as you would suspect, the lower cost we are getting through with the imports that we do. We are also getting lower cost here is the material costs fall, energy prices here fall also. On the other hand, competition is increased with the lower volumes and pricing’s come down.

Phil Ng: Okay. I appreciate all the great color. Thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from Michael Rehaut from JPMorgan. Please go ahead with your question.

Andrew Harvey: Hi, guys. This is Andrew Harvey on for Mike. Thanks for taking my question. I appreciate you guys show yourself in your press release. I just wanted to ask maybe from a pricing standpoint, any markets in particular that you have concerns for that prices will fall more significantly or maybe even vice-versa.

Jeff Lorberbaum: Most of the markets, as a matter of fact, all the markets we are in, the pricing has declined. You have a combination of the cost of the material is coming down, the energy price is coming down and there is unabsorbed overhead that we have talked about the industry. So the pricing has come down. The question is, is it at the bottom today and/or will it go down or not. We think it may be at the bottom as we speak, and as things improve going forward, we think that there will be pressure must-see once the industry improves to increase the material prices from our supply base and we will react to that when it occurs, but that’s usually after the industry does. At the same time, you have the world events with oil and gas and how that affects everything, that one is anybody’s guess, we just have to react to it.

Andrew Harvey: Thanks, Jeff. I guess in terms of lower input costs and energy costs, are you seeing any further sequential declines into next quarter and maybe any thoughts on next year and how quickly pricing has been aligning with energy crisis?

James Brunk: Well, again, from a total material and energy costs, in the fourth quarter versus the prior year, we should continue to see the positive impact of the flow through to the P&L offsetting the lower price mix. That’s from a year-over-year perspective.

Andrew Harvey: Thanks. I appreciate it.

Operator: Our next question comes from Adam Baumgarten from Zelman. Please go ahead with your question.

Adam Baumgarten: Hey, guys. Just one from me. Good morning. Just wondering if the recent [inaudible] carpet payment terms and the removal of some of the discounts you guys have historically had as an industry will have a positive impact on the Flooring North American segment going forward?

Jeff Lorberbaum: The industry has changed some of the terms within it. Depending upon where you are, it has helped the margins a little bit. We are staying aligned with our customers in many cases and we have — we didn’t try to push through an increase like some of the other guys did. So we are trying to use it to improve our position within the customers.

Adam Baumgarten: Okay. Got it. Thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from Kathryn Thompson from Thompson Research Group. Please go ahead with your question.

Kathryn Thompson: Hi. Thank you for taking my question today. Just focusing on the commercial end-markets, we looked at some resi focused stocks traded better on less bad news this year, early this year and then you have past for this week you had more commercial focused sewing manufacturer also trade up on less bad news in the commercial space, relatively less bad news. What are you seeing in terms of your pipeline of your business in North America with commercial end-market and what have you done to shift your business and focus towards certain end-markets that are performing relatively better than the traditional office and retail? Thank you.

Jeff Lorberbaum: Commercial business is holding up better than the residential business. We are seeing softening in the marketplace in different categories. The ABI Index which predicts the new parts coming online is showing declines. So as in other recessions, typically a year-to-year and a half later, the commercial start softening as the commercial projects finish up. So we are starting to see that. On the other hand, in commercial you have a much more differentiated product offering. So the pricing is more resilient than it is in the residential business and different categories, government, senior care, hospitality, restaurants are all doing better and we are emphasizing our participation in those.